In music, a cantus firmus ("fixed song") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. In Music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing chanting" also tune, voice, or In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony Musical composition is an original piece of Music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new
The plural of this Latin term is cantus firmi, though one occasionally sees the corrupt form canti firmi. The Italian is often used instead: canto fermo (and the plural in Italian is canti fermi).
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History
The earliest polyphonic compositions almost always involved a cantus firmus, typically a Gregorian chant, although the term itself was not used until the 14th century. History Gregorian chant was organized codified and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries with later additions [1] The earliest surviving polyphonic compositions, in the Musica enchiriadis (around 900 CE), contain the chant in the top voice, and the newly-composed part underneath; however this usage changed around 1100, after which the cantus firmus typically appeared in the lowest-sounding voice. Musica enchiriadis is an anonymous musical Treatise from the 9th century. Later, the cantus firmus appeared in the tenor voice (from the Latin verb 'tenere', to hold), singing notes of longer duration, around which more florid lines, instrumental and/or vocal, were composed.
Composition using a cantus firmus continued to be the norm through the 13th century: almost all of the music of the St. Martial and Notre Dame schools uses a cantus firmus, as well as most 13th century motets. In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions Many of these motets were written in several languages, with the cantus firmus in the lowest voice; the lyrics of love poems might be sung in the vernacular above sacred Latin texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be sung to a familiar secular melody. In Music a trope is In Medieval music From the Greek τρόπος ( tropos) "turn" related to the root of
In the 14th century, the technique continued to be widely used for most sacred vocal music, although considerable elaboration began to appear: while most continental composers used isorhythmic methods, in England other composers experimented with a "migrant" cantus firmus, in which the tune moved from voice to voice, however without itself being elaborated significantly. Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm" is a musical technique that arranges a fixed pattern of pitches with a repeating Rhythmic pattern Elaborations came later, in what was to be known as the paraphrase technique; this compositional method became important in composition of masses by the late 15th century. (See paraphrase mass. A paraphrase mass is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the mass, using as its basis an elaborated version of a Cantus firmus, typically chosen from )
The cyclic mass, which became the standard type of mass composition around the middle of the 15th century, used cantus firmus technique as its commonest organising principle. In Renaissance music, the cyclic mass was a setting of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, in which each of the movements – Kyrie Gloria At first the cantus firmus was almost always drawn from plainchant, but the range of sources gradually widened to include other sacred sources and even sometimes popular songs. For the band see " Plainsong (band " For the song on The Cure's 1989 album see " Disintegration " The cantus firmus was at first restricted to the tenor, but by the end of the century many composers experimented with other ways of using it, such as introducing it into each voice as a contrapuntal subject, or using it with a variety of rhythms. During the 16th century the cantus firmus technique began to be abandoned, replaced with the parody (or imitation) technique, in which multiple voices of a pre-existing source were incorporated into a sacred composition such as a mass. Yet while composers in Italy, France, and the Low Countries used the parody and paraphrase techniques, composers in Spain, Portugal, and Germany continued to use the cantus firmus method in nationally idiosyncratic ways. [2]
Probably the most widely set of the secular cantus firmus melodies was L'homme armé. L'homme armé was a French secular song from the time of the Renaissance. Over 40 settings are known, including two by Josquin Desprez, and six by an anonymous composer or composers in Naples, which were intended as a cycle. Josquin des Prez (c 1450 to 1455 &ndash August 27 1521 often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. Many composers of the middle and late Renaissance wrote at least one mass based on this melody, and the practice lasted into the seventeenth century, with a late setting by Carissimi. Giacomo Carissimi (baptized April 18 1605 &ndash January 12 1674 was an Italian Composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, There are several theories regarding the meaning of the name: one suggests that the "armed man" represents St Michael the Archangel, while another suggests that it refers to the name of a popular tavern (Maison L'Homme Armé) near Dufay's rooms in Cambrai. Guillaume Dufay ( Du Fay, Du Fayt) ( August 5, 1397 ? &ndash November 27, 1474) was a Franco-Flemish composer Being that this music arose shortly after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, it is possible that the text "the armed man should be feared" arose from the fear of the Ottoman Turks, who were expanding militarily towards central Europe. The Fall of Constantinople refers to the capture of the Byzantine Empire's capital by the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453 (Julian Calendar The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish There are numerous other examples of secular cantus firmi used for composition of masses; some of the most famous include 'Fortuna Desperata' (attributed to Antoine Busnois), 'Fors seulement' (Johannes Ockeghem), 'Mille regretz' (Josquin), and 'The western wynde' (anonymous). Fortuna desperata is a secular Italian song possibly originally by Busnois, (but others credit Antoine Brumel) Antoine Busnois (also Busnoys) (c 1430 &ndash November 6, 1492) was a French Composer and Poet of the early Fors seulement is a French chanson popular as a basis for variations and as a a Cantus firmus. Johannes Ockeghem (also Jean de; surname Okeghem, Ogkegum, Okchem, Hocquegam, Ockegham; other variant spellings are also Mille Regretz is a French Chanson which in its 4 part setting is usually credited to Josquin des Prez. The Western Wynde is an early 16th century song whose tune was used as the basis ( Cantus firmus) of masses by English composers John Taverner, Christopher
German composers in the Baroque period in Germany, notably Bach, used chorale melodies as cantus firmi. Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" A chorale was originally a Hymn of the Lutheran church sung by the entire congregation In the opening movement of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, the chorale "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" appears in long notes, sung by a separate choir of boys "in ripieno". The St Matthew Passion (Matthäuspassion (also Matthæus Passion) BWV 244 is a musical composition written by Johann Sebastian Bach for solo voices Many of his chorale preludes include a chorale tune in the pedal part. In music a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a Chorale tune as its basis
As a teaching tool
Using a cantus firmus as a means of teaching species counterpoint was the basis of Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux, although the method was first published by Girolamo Diruta in 1610. In Music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and Rhythm, and interdependent in Harmony In Music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and Rhythm, and interdependent in Harmony Johann Joseph Fux ( pronounced) (1660 &ndash 13 February 1741 was an Austrian composer music theorist and pedagogue of the late Baroque era Girolamo Diruta (c 1554 &ndash after 1610 was an Italian organist music theorist and composer Counterpoint is still taught routinely using a method adapted from Fux, and based on the cantus firmus.
References
- M. Jennifer Bloxam: "Cantus firmus", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed November 7, 2006), (subscription access)
- Sparks, E. H. Cantus firmus in Mass and Motet, Berkeley, (1963)
- The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-674-61525-5
- Blanche Gangwere, Music History During the Renaissance Period, 1520–1550. Westport, Connecticut, Praeger Publishers. 2004.
Notes
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