http dmitri tymoczko com HARMONIC EXTROVERSION IN THE

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com HARMONIC EXTROVERSION IN THE POPE MARCELLUS MASS Dmitri Tymoczko Princeton University

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com SUMMARY OF LAST YEAR’S TALK • Argued that functional harmony arises extremely gradually over the years 1500– 1700, and continues to change thereafter. • Around 1500 one starts to find Ionian-mode popular music exhibiting “rudimentary functionality”: – An emphasis on root position I, IV, V behaving functionally (Dalza, Frottola, etc. ) • By the mid-1500 s, one starts to find this music influencing that of the learned tradition.

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com POPE MARCELLUS MASS • Perhaps the most celebrated example of extroverted polyphony. • Many commentators use functional language when discussing it. – invariably hedged with scare quotes or other signs of rhetorical nervousness

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com HARMONIC TENDENCY

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com POPE MARCELLUS MASS • This harmonic character of the piece opens interesting interpretive problems on the local level.

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com THE 6– 5/4– 3 IDIOM Progression occurs 6 times in the Christe eleison section.

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com THE 6– 5/4– 3 IDIOM

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com THE 6– 5/4– 3 IDIOM 6–– formation 4– 3 • The contrapuntal though perfectly sensible linearly, almost never appears in Palestrina’s music. – Once in 7 masses (~12, 000 chords, 0. 01%) – Much more frequent in Josquin. – It is disfavored for harmonic (rather than contrapuntal) reasons. – How do we characterize this? • E. g. Is it that the G-C-E sonority is a tonic?

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com CONCLUSIONS 1 • Sixteenth century music is polystylistic across modes and genres. – Composers had the option to draw upon popular proto-functional harmony. – When they did, we find an abundance of root position I, IV, and V chords behaving functionally. – Suggests an awareness of harmonic style as a compositional parameter. • This is particularly interesting given the legends surrounding the MPM.

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com CONCLUSIONS II • The style we teach in sixteenth-century counterpoint classes is fictional: – Combines the harmonic freedom of Josquin with the contrapuntal systematicity of Palestrina. • Jeppesen: – “The line is undoubtedly the starting-point of Palestrina's style. The exactions arising out of harmonic aspects are really only intended to ensure the sonority of the individual harmonic moments. ‘Harmonic’ does not signify here any independent sphere of interest; chords had not yet reached a stage where they had their own vigorous life, as in Bach's works” (p. 84).

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com PROPOSAL • We should consider replacing the opposition “Renaissance/Baroque” with a tripartite division that recognizes the prototonal period from 1550– 1650 as its own unique era.

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com/palestrina. pdf Thank you!

http: //dmitri. tymoczko. com APPENDIX: WHAT IS HARMONY? • Regularities that cannot be explained by linear factors or dissonance treatment. • Three different classes: – Universal regularities independent of scale degree • E. g. , the 6 -5/4 -3 idiom – Regularities attached to specific triads • C major tends to move to F major regardless of mode. – Regularities relative to scale degree ^ ^