Organum
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Organum
History
Early organum
This section possibly contains original research. (December 2013) |
The first document to describe organum specifically, and give rules for its performance, was the
The earliest European sources of information concerning organum regard it as a well-known practice.[4] Organum is also known to have been performed in several different rites, but the main wells of information concerning its history come from Gregorian chant. Considering that the trained singers had imbibed an oral tradition that was several centuries old, singing a small part of the chant repertory in straightforward heterophony of parallel harmony or other ways of "singing by the ear" would come naturally.[citation needed] It is made clear in the Musica enchiriadis that octave doubling (magadization) was acceptable, since such doubling was inevitable when men and boys sang together. The 9th-century treatise Scolica enchiriadis treats the subject in greater detail. For parallel singing, the original chant would be the upper voice, vox principalis; the vox organalis was at a parallel perfect interval below, usually a fourth. Thus the melody would be heard as the principal voice, the vox organalis as an accompaniment or harmonic reinforcement. This kind of organum is sometimes called parallel organum, although terms such as sinfonia or diaphonia were used in early treatises.[citation needed]
The history of organum would not be complete without two of its greatest innovators,
Notre-Dame school
This section possibly contains original research. (December 2013) |
Cultural and intellectual life flourished in Paris during the 12th century with the
In Léonin's Organa de Gradali et Antiphonario two forms of organum technique are evident: organum purum and discantus. Benedicamus Domino is a good example of the principles used. "Benedicamus" is usually mixed syllabic—
The relevant contemporary authors who write about the organum of the Notre-Dame school,
- beginning of text set to organum: organaliter:
- organum purum >> copula >>
- discantus >> copula >>
- organum purum >> copula >>
- discantus >> copula >>
- closing lines of text choraliter
In the Notre-Dame repertory the Alleluia itself is only composed organaliter in the opening section, before the Jubilus, the protracted vocalization of the last syllable, which is to be sung choraliter, and as such is absent from all extant original manuscripts. The above stated general principles have been used freely, as in Alleluia V. Dies sanctificatus, where "dies" starts off with a little melisma which is judiciously set as a large non-modal florid section over all the notes of the tenor on "di(-es)", reserving discantus for "nò(-bis)" instead of having a short section in discantus right away at the beginning.
Pérotin "is the best composer of discantus", according to Anonymous IV, an English student, writing ca.1275, who has provided at least a few morsels of factual information on Paris Organum and its composers. Pérotin further developed discantus in three part Organum (Organum Triplum) where both organal voices are in discantus. Note that organum purum is not possible in three-part organa, all three parts are modal and need to be organized according to the rhythmic modes. Pérotin even went as far as composing two four-part organa (quadrupla), "Viderunt omnes" and "Sederunt principes" which were performed in Notre-Dame in 1198 on New Year's Day and in 1199 on the feast of St Stephen (a decree of
The organa that were created in Paris were disseminated throughout Europe. The three main sources are W1, St. Andrews, Wolfenbüttel 677, olim Helmstedt 628; the large and illuminated copy made in Florence, owned by Piero de Medici, the Pluteo 29.1 of the Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurenziana (F), which is by far the most extensive copy of the repertory. Finally W2, Wolfenbüttel 1206, olim Helmstedt 1099, which was compiled the latest (and contains the greatest number of motets).
There are arguments that support a relative freedom of rhythm in organa dupla but others who say that the interpretation of the music should always be according to modal or Franconian principles. Willi Apel and William G. Waite insisted upon a rigorously modal interpretation.[8][7] Though Waite in his dissertation, notably in chapter 4: The notation of organum duplum' acknowledged that in organum duplum and monophonic conducts relative freedom may have been taken, he transcribed a selection of the Magnus Liber Organi of Léonin into strict modal rhythm. Apel argued that the long values for dissonances (in violation of the basic principle of consonance) produced by modal rhythms in Notre-Dame organa, can be reconciled by a statement made by several medieval theorists that "the tenor pauses, if a dissonance appears".[9] Debates on interpretation are ongoing. However, Waite was working in the 1950s,[7] and his point of view has been supplanted by newer research: "...but [Waite's] view that the entire corpus [of the Magnus Liber Organi] should be transcribed according to the rhythmic modes is no longer accepted" (Peter Jeffery in the Notation Course Medieval Music 1100–1450, Princeton).[full citation needed]
In the range of forms of compositions found in the later two manuscripts that contain the Notre-Dame repertory (F and W2) one class of distinction can be made: that which is (strictly) modal and that which is not. Organum duplum in its organum purum sections of syllabic setting, the cum littera sections in two-part conductus, copulae in general and monophonic conductus would be that part of the repertory which is not strictly modal. In monophonic song, be it chant or a conductus simplex by Perotin, there is no need to vary from the classical standards for declamation that were a rooted tradition at the time, going back to St. Augustine's De Musica. It has been firmly established by extensive research in chant traditions (Gregorian Semiology) that there is a fluency and variability in the rhythm of declamatory speech that should also govern chant performance. These principles extend to the not strictly modal sections or compositions, as a contrasting quality with musica mensurabilis.
As Parisian Organum is rooted in Gregorian chant tradition, it is categorized under Ars antiqua which is thus called in contrast to the Ars nova which embarked on new forms that were in every sense original and no longer based on Gregorian chant and as such constituted a break with the musical practice of the ancients.[citation needed]
See also
Notes
- ^ Latin: "an implement, instrument, engine of any kind", of musical instruments, "a pipe", of hydraulic engines, "an organ, water-organ"; "an implement, instrument"; "a musical instrument" from Greek: ὄργανον, [organon] "instrument, implement, tool, for making or doing a thing" "organ of sense or apprehension", "musical instrument", "surgical instrument", "work or product", "instrument of philosophy" "instrument or table of calculations" .[1][2][3]
References
- ^ Lewis and Short 1879.
- ^ Lewis 1890.
- ^ Liddell and Scott 1940.
- ^ Fuller 1990, p. 487.
- ^ Waite 1954, p. 2.
- ^ a b Johannes de Garlandia 1972, 1:[page needed].
- ^ a b c Waite 1954.
- ^ Apel 1949.
- ^ Apel 1949, p. 155.
Sources
- Apel, Willi. 1949. "From St. Martial to Notre Dame". Journal of the American Musicological Society 2, no. 3 (Autumn): 145–58.
- Fuller, Sarah. 1990. "Early Polyphony". In The New Oxford History of Music 2: The Early Middle Ages to 1300, revised edition, edited by Richard Crocker and ISBN 9780193163294
- Johannes de Garlandia. 1972. De mensurabili musica, edited by Erich Reimer, 2 vols. Supplement to the Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 10–11. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
- Lewis, Charlton, T. 1890. "Organum". An Elementary Latin Dictionary. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. American Book Company. Online access at Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Gregory R. Crane, editor-in-chief (Accessed 26 December 2013).
- Lewis, Charlton T., and Charles Short. 1879. "Organum" Freund's Latin Dictionary, revised, enlarged, and in great part rewritten by. Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and., LL.D. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1879. Online access at Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Gregory R. Crane, editor-in-chief (Accessed 26 December 2013).
- Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. 1940. "ὄργανον, τό, (ἔργον, ἔρδω)". A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones, with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Online access at Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Gregory R. Crane, editor-in-chief (Accessed 26 December 2013).
- William G. Waite. The Rhythm of Twelfth Century Polyphony. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954. Second edition 1976. Apart from a selective transcription of the organa dupla by Leonin, this dissertation contains many quotations from the contemporary theorists preceding the transcription. Of particular interest is 'The Notation of Organum Duplum, p. 106–27, from which quotes are taken.
Further reading
- Various articles, including "Organum", "Musica enchiriadis", "Hucbald", "St Martial" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
- "Ad organum faciendum" (ca. 1100) Jay A. Huff, ed. and trans., Ad organum faciendum et Item de organo, Musical Theorists in Translation, vol. 8 Institute of Mediaeval Music, Brooklyn, NY [1963])
- An Old St. Andrews Music Book (W1, the earlier ms. of Notre Dame Polyphony) J. H. Baxter, 1931
- Magnus Liber Organi, (F) Pluteo 29.1, Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Firenze, facsimile by Institute of Medieval Music. Brooklyn: Medieval Manuscripts in Reproduction. Vols. 10 and 11, ed. Luther Dittmer.
- Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1978. ISBN 0-393-09090-6
- Magnus Liber Organi, Parisian Liturgical Polyphony from the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 7 vols., general editor Edward H. Roesner. Monaco: Les Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, 1988–1993.
- Robert Howe. "The Organa of the Winchester Troper". Music 3H dissertation (double module). Tutor: Dr Fitch. N.p.: University College, n.d.. Consonance, rhythm and the origins of organum (good bibliography here too) (Archive from 27 September 2007; accessed 25 December 2013).
- Robert Howe. Appendix to "The Organa of the Winchester Troper": Musical transcriptions. (Archive from 27 September 2007; accessed 25 December 2013).
- Gustave Reese. Music in the Middle Ages. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., ISBN 0-393-09750-1
- Donald J Grout & Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., ISBN 0-393-97527-4
- Oliver Strunk. Source Readings In Music History. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1950. ISBN 0-393-09742-0
- Claude V. Palisca, ed. Musica enchiridas and Scolica enchiridas. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
- Dom Anselm Hughes, ed. The New Oxford History of Music 2: Early Medieval Music to 1300. London, New York, and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1954.
- Richard Crocker and David Hiley, eds. The New Oxford History of Music 2: The Early Middle Ages to 1300. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN 9780193163294