Rhetorical Aspects of The Renaissance Modes PDF
Rhetorical Aspects of The Renaissance Modes PDF
Rhetorical Aspects of The Renaissance Modes PDF
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MEIER
MODES
OFTHERENAISSANCE
RHETORICAL
ASPECTS
183
184
BERNHARD
MEIER
words of the text. In his second setting, however, Josquin apparently proceeds (as Perissone does later, in the above-mentioned madrigal) according to the principle by which the ending dictates the character of the
whole, 'a fine denominatur res'. The closing clause of the psalm 'De profundis' is coloured by hope: 'And he [the Lord] shall redeem Israel from
all its sins' ('Et ipse redimet Israel ex omnibus iniquitatibus eius'); and,
in accordance with this clause, Josquin chooses mode 8 for his second setting; though it is not unrestrainedly joyful, it is also not mournful. (It is,
so to speak, self-evident that the words 'De profundis' should in this setting also be underlined in musical terms.)
The question of 'mode and affective character' might also be approached with reference to specific genres - even to genres of limited
literary value. Connections of this type, between largely stereotyped text
content and mode, seem, as far as I have been able to discover, to exist in
the French Renaissance chanson: the 'mournful' modes mentioned above
are used for lovers' laments; mode 1 seems to predominate in settings of
anecdotal texts; and mode 8 seems principally to have been regarded as
appropriate for texts whose scope is a pledge of loyalty.
In all the considerations so far advanced, we have attempted to show
that the assertions of sixteenth-century music theorists concerning the affective character of the modes may in no way be relegated wholesale to
the realm of fable. We have, however, also recognized that in particular
instances a single solution is not the only possibility. And the relationships
are even more complicated than this: the facts must be taken into account, first, that it is not always the affection of the text that determines
the choice of mode; secondly, that the choice of mode does not always depend on the composer's choice; and finally, that the affective character,
peculiar to a mode 'by its nature', may be altered by various compositional procedures.
Affective qualities do not determine the tonality of those works whose
text contains a particular cardinal number in a prominent position,
which then provides a pretext for the composer to choose the mode of
that number. This type of connection between text and mode may seem
purely superficial to us; in the sixteenth century, however, this procedure
was adopted even by the greatest masters. Examples are offered by
Lassus's motet Unus dominus, unafides, unum baptisma, set in mode 1,
and Willaert's setting of Octo beatitudines in mode 8 (the mode is attested by Zacconi). Since mode 8 was the last mode in the traditional
modal system, Leonhard Lechner was able to use it as the basis for his
motet Annusfinit iter (the mode is attested by Maternqs Beringer).5 Even
so 'modern' a composer as Monteverdi still acts according to this convention, not only in setting the motet Duo seraphim clamabant from the
Vespers as a duet (as far as the text comprises the paean of these angels),
but, for the sake of the numeral with which the text begins, also in basing
it on the (transposed) second mode.6
5 Maternus Beringer, Musicae ... Erster und Anderer Theil (Nuremberg, 1610; repr. Leipzig,
1974).
in Monteverdis "Marienvesper"',
6 See Bernhard Meier, 'Zur Tonart der Concertato-Motetten
Claudio Monteverdi: Festschrift Reinhold Hammerstein, ed. Ludwig Finscher (Laaber, 1986),
359-67 (p. 365).
185
Proof that the choice of mode was determined not according to the
wishes of composers but according to the taste of their patrons is,
understandably, extremely rare. However, one such case exists, thanks to
the survival of the diaries of the Tiibingen Greek scholar Martin Crusius
(1526-1607).7 This man, a leading scholar and enthusiastic musical
amateur, used to conclude his formal academic addresses with motets,
whose texts were given to musicians from the Stuttgart Hofkapelle to set.
He designates most of these motets as 'quarti toni', and proceeds to comment that he finds this 'tender' mode pleasing, in contrast with 'cantiones, ubi dominatur Ut et Sol' - i.e. compositions in modes 5 and 7.
Whether partiality for, or aversion towards, particular modes was
decisive in other instances is as yet unknown. However, even as early as
John of Afflighem we find the recommendation that the composer of 'new
songs' (i.e. chants) should take account, in his choice of mode, of the personal characteristics (in this instance the age) of his patron.8
In what ways, however, can the composer effect an alteration of the
affective character of a mode? Here, too, sixteenth-century theory offers
answers; a brief account of its assertions must suffice.
The first means of contradicting the affective character which a mode
possesses 'by nature' is the transposition of the mode out of its usual pitch
range. Mode 2, for example, may lose its 'mournful' character by being
transposed in the tenor to d' and in the discantus to d", a procedure
adopted by Orazio Vecchi according to the precedent set in Palestrina's
madrigal Vestiva i colli.9 In the same manner the (traditional) sixth mode
may acquire a markedly 'joyful' affective character by being transposed
up a fifth, with the consequence that this mode, termed mode 12 by
Glarean and (in his early work) Zarlino, is one of the most frequently used
modes in 'joyful' instrumental canzonas. 0 Even the most 'mournful' of all
the modes, the plagal mode on the final 'mi', is capable of losing the affective character normally peculiar to it if it is transposed up an octave, as
is attested by some of the compositions for festivals in the Christmas
season from Palestrina's cycle of offertories. " A precisely opposite effect is
achieved by transposing modes down. An example of this is offered by the
7 On this point see Georg Reichert, 'Martin Crusius und die Musik in Tiibingen um 1590', Archiv
fiir 'Musikwissenschaft, 10 (1953), 185-212 (pp. 202, 205, 208).
John of Afflighem, De musica cum tonario, ed. Joseph Smits van Waesberghe, Corpus scriptorum de musica, 1 (American Institute of Musicology, 1950), chap. 18 ('Praecepta de cantu
componendo').
9 See Orazio Vecchi, Mostra delli tuoni della musica (a manuscript dating from 1630), 9.
Palestrina's madrigal is assigned to mode 2 (transposed up an octave) also by Zacconi and Costanzo
Porta, whose four-voice Missa secundi toni is based on the madrigal Vestiva i colli. The examples of
mode 2 constructed per b-durum given by Seth Calvisius (Exercitationes musicae duae, Leipzig,
1600) also correspond to this type, as do the details of the disposition of mode 2 per b-durum in
Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, iii (Wolfenbiittel, 1619; repr. Kassel, 1958), 36, 40. Concerning Palestrina's madrigal in particular see Harold S. Powers, 'The Modality of "Vestiva i colli"',
Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Music in Honor of Arthur Mendel (Kassel and Hackensack, NJ,
1975), 31-46.
"0 A distinctive branch of modal theory, apparently represented mainly by Italian authors,
regards this mode as a variant of mode 7. See Harold S. Powers, 'Tonal Types and Modal Categories
in Renaissance Polyphony', Journal of the American Musicological Society, 34 (1981), 456-9. The
variations in the nomenclature do not affect the question of its affective character.
" See Bernhard
Meier, 'Zu den "in mi" fundierten Werken aus Palestrinas OffertoriumsMotettenzyklus', Die Musikforschung, 37 (1984), 215-20.
186
BERNHARD
MEIER
187
with reference to Table 1, which presents the cadential and modal structure of Lassus's setting of the Octo beatitudines.
I have already noted that Willaert set this text in mode 8, on account of
the numeral eight. Lassus undoubtedly knew Willaert's motet: he makes
use of Willaert's soggetto cavato for the key word (based on its vowels,
giving re-fa-mi) and the leitmotif-like way in which Willaert utilizes it.
However, Lassus chooses mode 2 for the tonality, transposed as usual to
TABLE 1
ORLANDE DE LASSUS, BEA TI PAUPERES SPIRITU, COLLECTED WORKS, NEW SER.,
i, 11lff.
Mode 2, transposed to G
KEY
5 + Cadence
4 - Cadence
Cadenza
fg
sp Clausula
Text
Special
features
Cadential
notes
G
D (5 +)
A-mi (sp)
G, D (4-), G
D-mi (4-), D (4-)
Bb
G
(D-mi, 4-)
D-mi (4-)
F (fg)
G, half-cadence
on D
Beati pacifici,
quoniam filii dei vocabuntur.
Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur
propter justitiam,
quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.
Beati estis,
cumrnmaledixerint vobis homines,
G
A-mi, D (4-)
G
no cadence
C
(A)
commixtio 6.
toni
Gaudete et exultate,
(F)
(A)
F (sp), G
movimenti veloci
Bb
G
G
188
BERNHARD
MEIER
189
After all that has been said so far, we may briefly pass over the interpretation of 'misericordes' and 'misericordiam consequentur' by means of
cadences on D-mi. However, the concluding clause of the prima pars of
this motet, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' ('Beati
mundo corde, quoniam ipsi deum videbunt'), deserves detailed discussion. It may initially seem surprising that the words 'mundo corde' lack
text-expressive treatment, and indeed conclude with a clausula peregrina
on F (admittedly only weakly projected). For the present, we may ignore
this apparent difficulty and consider the second part of this Beatitude,
'for they shall see God'. Again, the texture can scarcely be described as
polyphonic; the most prominent feature is a stepwise descent in the
discantus from d" to d'. The rationale behind this procedure is easy to
discern: in later Baroque terminology, Lassus examined the text according to the loci topici and made use of the so-called locus descriptionis for
the purpose - in other words, he sought out a quality of 'seeing God'
which was 'translatable' into music. He found this in the fact that 'seeing
God' is equivalent to prayer', which is visibly expressed in prostration, and
thus easily expressible in musical terms as a melodic descent. It is obvious
that the affective character intrinsic to mode 2 should be 'brightened' for
such a text, which occurs, moreover, in a prominent position (at the conclusion of the prima pars); equally self-explanatory is the particular stress
laid on the word 'deum' by means of a so-called noema (homophonic
block-chord passage). The introductory word 'quoniam' is included in the
'brightening'; and it is the above-mentioned peregrina cadence on F
which makes this possible. The repetition of the phrase of text (bars 80-3)
is marked by the same 'major' character; both sections conclude with a
strictly regular modal caesura.
The most radical departure from modal norms in this motet, and that
which lasts longest, occurs, however, in the secunda pars, shortly before
the end of the composition, at the closing sentence which follows the eight
Beatitudes
mode 2 transposed
to
190
BERNHARD
MEIER
from being exhausted in this discussion. If time had permitted, one might
have gone on to consider the suppression of cadences important to the
mode; the use of introductory imitative passages which are intentionally
vague from a modal point of view; the use of intentionally 'deceptive' progressions within complete works; and, not least important, the use of endings on degrees of the scale other than the final, a device which is variously
capable of representing 'hope', 'perversity' or 'immortality' - the latter,
for example, at the concluding phrase, 'and would, but cannot die', in
Dowland's ayre Love stood amaz'd.
It can thus be seen that the results of these considerations are very
various. One conclusion is inescapable, however: the full extent of the
rhetorical aspects of Renaissance music can be understood afresh only
when the modal system is taken into consideration as one of the principal
foundations of contemporary compositional practice.
University of Tiibingen
translated by Geoffrey Chew