Ars Perfecta: A Capella Music of the Renaissance
The works on this mini-concert come from the late Renaissance (the latter part of the 1500s); they were written by master composers discussed in the Todd text: Josquin, Palestrina, Tallis, and Byrd. Their music sets sacred liturgical texts and if you're not used to the style, it can take some aural adjustment. This music is not dramatic nor reliant on stark contrasts or foot-tapping rhythms; instead, you'll hear a subtle ebb and flow of sound. Perhaps the key to listening to this music is to realize that it was conceived "two dimensionally." That is, the composers often write beautiful melodies, yet have the voices sing them in staggered imitation. Yet they designed these imitative sections, called "points" of imitation, so that they almost always produced lush, triadic harmonies of the type that the textbook discusses in the section on the Renaissance. Occasionally, the music is written in simpler block homophony (e.g., the opening of the 2nd piece, Tallis's "If ye love me").
If you listen for both dimensions, the melodic lines, and the lovely harmonies they create, and let the subtle changes in levels of musical tension register, the music can take on a timeless quality. No wonder that the late Renaissance thought of their music as an "Ars Perfecta"--an art perfected!
|
Absalon, fili mi, quis det ut moriar pro te, Absalon. Non vivam ultra, sed descendam in infernum plorans. |
Absalon my son, if only I had died instead of you, Absalon! I shall live no more, but go down to hell, weeping. |
Thomas Tallis: "If ye love me"
|
If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may 'bide with you forever, e'en the spirit of truth. |
William Byrd: "Ne irascaris Domine"
|
Ne irascaris Domine satis, et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae. Ecce respice populus tuus omnes nos. |
Be not angry, O Lord, and remember our iniquity no more. Behold, we are all your people. |
Giovanni Pierluigi Palestraina: "Magnificat in the First Mode"
Note that this work has even more dimensions: it's for two choirs that sometimes sing separately, sometimes overlap, and sometimes join together. The technical name for works like this, employing more than one choir is "polychoral."