Cantus firmus
In
The plural of this Latin term is cantus firmi, although the corrupt form canti firmi (resulting from the grammatically incorrect treatment of cantus as a second- rather than a fourth-declension noun) can also be found. The Italian is often used instead: canto fermo (and the plural in Italian is canti fermi).
History
The term first appears in theoretical writings early in the 13th century (e.g., Boncampagno da Signa, Rhetorica novissima, 1235).[2] The earliest polyphonic compositions almost always involved a cantus firmus, typically a Gregorian chant, although by convention the term is not applied to music written before the 14th century.[3] The earliest surviving polyphonic compositions, in the Musica enchiriadis (around 900 AD), 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. 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 or improvised.
Composition using a cantus firmus continued to be the norm through the 13th century: almost all of the music of the
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, but without itself being elaborated significantly. 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.)
The
Probably the most widely set of the secular cantus firmus melodies was "
German composers in the
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.[citation needed] Counterpoint is still taught routinely using a method adapted from Fux, and based on the cantus firmus.[citation needed] Cantus firmi used to teach counterpoint adhere to certain rules of music theory, including beginning and ending on a tonic note, and only containing consonant intervals. [6]
As metaphor
Several writers have used "cantus firmus" as a metaphor. Kate Gross used it for those childhood pursuits that give her happiness and define her - pursuits that she calls the "enduring melody" of her life.[7]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer also uses the metaphor for love for God in his "Letters and Papers from Prison".[8]
References
- ISBN 978-0-8166-0802-7.
- ^ M. Jennifer Bloxam, "Cantus Firmus", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
- ISBN 0-674-61525-5.
- ISBN 978-0-313-29248-4
- ^ Alejandro Enrique Planchart, The Origins and Early History of "L'homme arme", The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 2003), pp. 305–57. Citation on p.[page needed]
- ^ "The Cantus Firmus". rothfarb.faculty.music.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
- ISBN 978-0-00-810345-3.
- ISBN 978-0684838274.
Further reading
- M. Jennifer Bloxam: "Cantus firmus", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed November 7, 2006), (subscription access) Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
- Sparks, E. H. Cantus firmus in Mass and Motet, Berkeley, (1963)