The Anatomy of Chant-Based Polyphony c. 1500: Iberian and European Perspectives

In various ways chant formed the basis for a large part of the sacred choral music written in the Renaissance period: indeed, composing on a pre-existent chant melody can be considered as one of the most important compositional practices of that time. However, neither chant itself from then, nor the ways in which composers used pre-existent chant melodies, is well-understood. Chant melodies were not then stable or fixed, but varied, sometimes drastically, from region to region. Surviving chant sources from the period, though very great in number, are as yet little investigated. This lack of knowledge about Renaissance chant means that fundamental aspects of chant-based Renaissance music remain unknown: to what extent did performative, formal-structural, functional, and symbolic aspects of chants influence polyphonic settings based upon them? How did approaches to treating chant vary across the Renaissance period, from place to place, and according to function? How were chant-setting practices affected by changing views on appropriate liturgical music? This article attempts to offer some answers to these questions with a number of case-studies from around the turn of the sixteenth century that compare Iberian examples with those from composers working elsewhere in Europe. Given the pan-European spread of chant-based composition, the case-studies demonstrate the breadth of chant treatment at the time, and the commonalities of practice between countries. In so doing, they aim to help to reassess the notions of centre and periphery in the relationship between Iberian music and that from other parts of European.

ISBN:978-3-967280-21-0

Jaar van publicatie:2021

Toegankelijkheid:Closed