In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). The Well-Tempered Clavier ( Das Wohltemperirte Clavier in the original old German spelling BWV 846–893 is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by In Music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and Rhythm, and interdependent in Harmony Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. In Music, texture is the overall quality of sound of a piece, most often indicated by the number of voices in the music and by the relationship between In Music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing chanting" also tune, voice, or In a polyphonic context the term voice is used to denote a single melodic line or textural layer In Music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of Melody without accompanying Harmony. This article describes musical chords in traditional Western styles In Music, homophony (hoʊˈmɒfəni from Greek "homófonos" where ομοιο = the same and φωνή = a sound tone is a texture in which two or more
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Overview
Within the context of Western music tradition the term is usually used in reference to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600 Baroque forms such as the fugue which might be called polyphonic are usually described instead as contrapuntal. Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. In Music, a fugue (ˈfjuːg is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred In Music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and Rhythm, and interdependent in Harmony Also, as opposed to the species terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" / "point-against-point" or "sustained-pitch" in one part with melismas of varying lengths in another (van der Werf, 1997). Melisma, in music is singing a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession In all cases the conception was likely what Margaret Bent (1999) calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with all parts modified if needed in the end. This point-against-point conception is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the whole so far constructed, which was previously assumed.
Characteristics
Two treatises, both dating from ca. 900, are usually considered the oldest surviving part-music though they are note-against-note, voices move mostly in parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths, and they were not intended to be performed. The 'Winchester Tropers', from c. The Winchester Troper includes perhaps the oldest large collections of two-part music in Europe, along with the Chartres Manuscript which is approximately contemporaneous 1000, are the oldest surviving example of practical rather than pedagogical polyphony, though intervals, pitch levels, and durations are often not indicated. (van der Werf, 1997)
Historical context
European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of the chant. Organum (ˈɔrgənəm though the stress is now sometimes incorrectly put on the second syllable from Ancient Greek ὄργανον - organon "organ instrument Twelfth century composers, such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that was introduced centuries earlier, and also added a third and fourth voice to the now homophonic chant. Léonin (also Leoninus, Leonius, Leo) ( fl 1150s — d ? 1201) is the first known significant Pérotin ( fl c 1200 also called Perotin the Great, was a European Composer, believed to be French, who lived In the thirteenth century, the chant-based tenor was becoming altered, fragmented, and hidden beneath secular tunes, obscuring the sacred texts as composers continued to play with this new invention called polyphony. The lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody. In Music a trope is In Medieval music From the Greek τρόπος ( tropos) "turn" related to the root of
These musical innovations appeared in a greater context of societal change. After the first millennium, European monks decided to start translating the works of Greek philosophers into the vernacular, following in the footsteps of the Muslims who did that 500 years earlier. Western Europeans were aware of Plato, Socrates, and Hippocrates during the Middle Ages. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. Hippocrates of Cos II or Hippokrates of Kos ( ca. 460 BC – ca However they had largely lost touch with the content of their surviving works because the use of Greek as a living language was restricted to the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). The ancient works, as well as Muslim commentaries, started then being translated. A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion Once they were accessible, the philosophies had a great impact on the mind of Western Europe. Faced with new ideas, society was forced to view itself in a different light as secular ideas competed with the doctrine of the Roman church.
This sparked a number of innovations in medicine, science, art, and music.
The oldest surviving piece of six-part music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in (ca. A rota is a type of vocal round of the 13th and 14th centuries probably only in England. 1240). (Albright, 2004)
Church
European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism. The Great Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism (also known as the Western Schism) was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417 Avignon, the seat of the antipopes, was a vigorous center of secular music-making, much of which influenced sacred polyphony. Avignon (/aviɲɔ̃/ in French) ( Provençal: Avinhon in classical norm or Avignoun in Mistralian norm is a commune An antipope ( Latin: antipapa) is a person who makes a widely accepted claim to be the lawful Pope, in opposition to the pope recognised by the Roman
It was not merely polyphony that offended the medieval ears, but the notion of secular music merging with the sacred and making its way into the papal court. It gave church music more of a jocular performance quality removing the solemn worship they were accustomed to. The use of and attitude toward polyphony varied widely in the Avignon court from the beginning to the end of its religious importance in the fourteenth century. Harmony was not only considered frivolous, impious, and lascivious, but an obstruction to the audibility of the words. Instruments, as well as certain modes, were actually forbidden in the church because of their association with secular music and pagan rites. Dissonant clashes of notes give a creepy feeling that was labeled as evil, fueling their argument against polyphony as being the devil’s music. After banishing polyphony from the Liturgy in 1322, Pope John XXII spoke in his 1324 Bull Docta Sanctorum Patrum warning against the unbecoming elements of this musical innovation. Pope John (numbering Pope John XXII (1249 &ndash December 4, 1334) born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse) was Pope from 1316 to 1334 Pope Clement VI, however, indulged in it. Pope Clement VI (1291 &ndash December 6, 1352) born Pierre Roger, the fourth of the Avignon Popes, was Pope from May 1342 until his
It was in 1364, during the pontificate of Pope Urban V, that composer and priest Guillaume de Machaut composed the first polyphonic setting of the mass called La Messe de Notre Dame. Blessed Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelled Machault (c 1300 – April 1377 was an important Medieval French Poet and Composer. This was the first time that the Church officially sanctioned polyphony in sacred music. Religious music (also sacred music) is Music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence
Notable works and artists
- Johann Sebastian Bach, List of famous compositions
- Tomas Luis de Victoria
- William Byrd, Mass for Five Voices
- John Dowland, Flow, My Teares, My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home
- Orlandus Lassus, Missa super Bella'Amfitrit'altera
- Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame
- Jacob Obrecht
- Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli
- Josquin des Prez, Missa Pange Lingua
- Thomas Robinson, Grisse His Delight
Other kinds
Incipient polyphony (previously primitive polyphony) includes antiphony and Call and response (music), drones, and parallel intervals. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" There are over 1000 known compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes spelled 'da Vittoria' (1548 &ndash August 20, 1611) was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance. William Byrd (c 1540 &ndash 4 July 1623 was an English Composer of the Renaissance. John Dowland (1563 &ndash buried February 20, 1626) was an English Composer, singer and Lutenist He is best known today for his Orlande de Lassus (also Orlandus Lassus, Orlando di Lasso, Roland de Lassus, or Roland Delattre) (1532 (possibly 1530 &ndash June Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelled Machault (c 1300 – April 1377 was an important Medieval French Poet and Composer. Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady is a polyphonic mass composed before 1365 by the French Poet, Composer and Jacob Obrecht (1457/1458 &ndash late July 1505 was a Dutch composer of the Renaissance. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 - 2 February 1594 was an Italian Composer of the Renaissance. Missa Papae Marcelli, or Pope Marcellus Mass, is a mass by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. 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. The Missa Pange lingua is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass by Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez, probably dating from around This article is about the musical term See Antiphon (person the orator of ancient Greece In Music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different Musicians where the second phrase is heard as a direct In music a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or Accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout much
Iso-polyphony is a form of traditional Albanian polyphonic music. It can be divided into two major stylistic groups as performed by the Ghegs of northern Albania and Tosks and Labs living in the southern part of the country. The term iso is related to the drone, which accompanies the iso-polyphonic singing. The drone is performed in two ways: among the Tosks, it is always continuous and sung on the syllable ‘e’, using staggered breathing; while among the Labs, the drone is sometimes sung as a rhythmic tone, performed to the text of the song. It can be differentiated between two-, three- and four-voice polyphony. The phenomenon of Albanian folk iso-polyphony is proclaimed by UNESCO as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible heritage of Humanity".
See also
Sources
- Hendrik van der Werf (1997). Micropolyphony is a type of 20th century Musical texture involving the use of sustained dissonant chords that shift slowly over time "Early Western polyphony", Companion to Medieval & Renaissance Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816540-4.
- Margaret Bent (1999). "The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis", Tonal Structures of Early Music. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3.
- Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.
External links
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