Tomàs Luis de Victoria was a Spanish composer-priest of the sixteenth century. One can easily hear in the beauty of the voice leading and harmonic structure why standard "Classical Harmony" has endured and is still being taught today to every beginning music theory student. It is from motets such as these that the traditional rules of music theory developed. This setting of the "Ave Maria" by Jacob Arcadelt has, over the centuries, become almost as familiar as the text itself. ![]() He brings to his editions the precision of a scholar and the pragmatism of a church choir director. Andrea Angelini, the Director of "Alessandro Grandi" Choir of Rimini Cathedral and the Artistic Director of the International Festival "Voci dall'America e Suoni dell'Organo" which takes place each spring in Rimini, Italy. This motet is a testament to Palestrina's compositional skill and will make any choir sounds its best. The voice ranges and level of difficulty are well within the scope of most SATB choirs. This traditional Marian antiphon for Advent and Christmas is set by one of the finest Renaissance composers, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, often called "The Savior of Church Music." We publish a number of motets in our Treasury of Sacred Music series that fall under the second category. When the Church mentions sacred polyphony she most often means the religious works of the masters of the Renaissance like Palestrina, Victoria, Tallis, and others, although the term can certainly be broadened to include such "non-polyphonic" works as Mozart's Ave verum and "non-Renaissance" pieces like Duruflé's Ubi caritas.ĬanticaNOVA Publications is commited to the promotion of both Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony. Were it not for the absolute glories of the music, one might even use the word "exploitive" when describing the multi-choral works of the Renaissance, like the motets of Gabrieli and Tallis that were written for as many as 40 different voice parts! This was practiced, honed and improved through the Medieval and Renaissance periods. The concept of the beauty of various pitches sounding together blossomed, and polyphony ("many sounds") was born. When it became apparent that intersting resting points, or "cadences," could be sprinkled throughout the piece by altering the second melody occasionally, the rudiments of harmony developed. It involved the same melody at two pitch levels, both moving identically, like two snakes on the sand. Music historians note the eventual addition of another part, which at first was simply the same melody sung five pitches higher this was called parallel organum. The ubiquitous linking of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony is quite natural - polyphony developed historically from chant.Ĭhant is a monophonic (meaning "one sound") texture: unison, unaccompanied – a single melody line. Polyphony, in the strict music theory sense, is a composition with two or more independent melodic lines that proceed horizontally to produce an effective implied or literal harmony as well.Ī round or canon is a simple example of polyphony.Ī six-voice, double fugue is a much more complex example, with extensive rules and "rubrics." The nobility and honored position of each within the liturgy of the Roman Rite is undisputed. The local classical radio station, WQED, had a promotional bumper sticker that I thought was very clever.įor many centuries, Church documents, in discussing liturgical music, have linked Gregorian chant with its more recent offspring, "sacred polyphony." ![]() CNP Articles - Polyphony Is Not a Sin (Part 1)
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