TOWARDS A NEW THEORY OF VOICE-LEADING STRUCTURE IN

SIXTEENTH-CENTURY POLYPHONY
Howard Wilde
Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of PhD at Royal Holloway and Bedford New
College, University of London, October 1994.
1
(ic1')
ABSTRACT OF THESIS
This study arises from a broad dissatisfaction with the two
prevalent strands of contemporary analytical thought on
Renaissance music: on the one hand, the work of the post-
Schenkerian school seeks to explicate large-scale structures
according to an eighteenth-century model of cadential closure
(determined by the Bassbrechung); on the other hand, it is
impossible to formulate normative archetypes of structure
with exclusive reference to contemporaneous concepts of mode,
since these are too diverse and mutually contradictory.
Instead, a set of hypothetical voice-leading archetypes is
proposed; these are derived from the principles of sixteenth-
century (two-part) cadence theory, but their normative status
is analogous to that of the Ursatz in eighteenth-century
tonality. The thesis falls into four sections:
1. A critical appraisal of the chief theoretical issues
in the analysis of early music, with special reference to
sixteenth-century modal theory and to later (Schenkerian)
paradigms of tonal behaviour.
2. The formulation of a preliminary hypothesis derived from
sixteenth-century cadence theory.
3. The testing of this hypothesis on some problematic works,
principally drawn from the output of Palestrina.
4. A variety of analytical case-studies from Josquin to
Gesualdo, in order to demonstrate the wider critical and
historical potential of the proposed archetypes.
2
CONTENTS
Abstract

2
INTRODUCTION

5
CHAPTER 1: RENAISSANCE MUSIC AND VOICE-LEADING THEORY
1.1 Tonality versus atonality

16
1.2 Schenker's conception of background

21
1.3 The concept of background as historical context

25
1.4 Strict counterpoint, diminution and thoroughbass

28
1.5 Goal directed motion and the Chord of Nature

39
1.6 Summary

45
Notes

51
CHAPTER 2 : CONTEMPORARY ThEORY AND PRACTICE
2.1 Modality versus tonality

58
2.2 Sixteenth-century views of mode

65
2.3 Discrepancies in theories of mode

80
2.4 Mode and cadence theory

83
2.5 The cadence as structural background

92
2.6 Conclusions

96
Notes

98
CHAPTER 3: A PRELIMINARY HYPOTHESIS
3.1 Cadences in expanded form 103
3.2 Structural archetypes: an initial hypothesis105
3.3 Towards a hierarchy of cadences114
3.4 Illustrative analysis: Victimae paschali laudes120
Notes
143
CHAPTER 4: TilE CONCEPT OF STRUCTURAL TYPE
4.1 Structural backgrounds and the Chord of Nature

152
4.2 Tonal type and modal type

163
4.3 Structural types

176
Closed type

177
Semi-open type

188
Open type

195
4.4 Conclusions and summary of types

201
Notes

211
3
CHAPTER 5: STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITIES
5.1 Difficulties in analytical applications

217
5.2 Structural connections in cyclic pieces

222
5.3 Case study I: Domine. non secunduin Peccata

229
5.4 Case study II: Vergine bella

235
Notes

258
CHAPTER 6: ThE PHRYGIAN MODE AND THE CLAUStILA IN MI
6.1 The Phrygian mode

263
6.2 Schenkerian treatments of the ii type

268
6.3 Sixteenth-century views of the
j
cadence

276
6.4 Towards a general model

280
6.5 Case study: the Missa Sanctorum meritis

287
6.6 Sectional connections in the Phrygian mode

301
6.7 Conclusions

304
Notes

307
CHAPTER 7: CANTUS FIRMUS AND STRUCTURAL ARCHETYPES
7.1 Problems in the analysis of cantus-firmus pieces 313
7.2 Case study: Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus 329
7.3 Summary
344
Notes
347
CHAPTER 8: MIDDLEGROUND CHROMATICISM AND AFFECT
8.1 The chromatic style

349
8.2 Some recent views of chromatic structure

351
8.3 Towards a methodology for the analysis of
chromaticism

362
8.4 Three chromatic case studies

364
Type 1. Willaert: quid no ebrietas

365
Type 2. Palestrina: 'Vergine' madrigals 7 & 8

379
Type 3. Gesualdo: Moro lasso

387
8.5 Conclusions: from theory to criticism

401
Notes

409
LIST OF MUSIC EXAMPLES

414
BIBLIOGRAPHY

420
4
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, musicologists specializing in the
sixteenth century have shown an increasing tendency to
embrace structural analysis as a legitimate (and indeed
indispensable) part of their critical or historiographical
enterprise. Despite this very welcome move away from
empiricist source-study towards a more critical appreciation
of musical artworks themselves, there remains a significant
stumbling-block in sixteenth-century analysis: the absence of
a coherent theoretical common ground for musical discourse.
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century specialists have at their
disposal a common theoretical lexicon: they share the
language and terminologies of tonality, of modulation, of
keys, and of formal archetypes, all of which form a common
starting-point for critical discussion. An assertion that the
first movement of, say, Beethoven's Op.57 is 'in F minor' or
'in sonata form' would be unlikely to provoke fierce
controversy among nineteenth-century specialists, since the
terminologies of forms and keys are an established common
currency among analysts, however divergent their critical or
aesthetic positions. Yet an analogous observation about the
form or the tonal behaviour of, say, a Palestrina motet or a
Josquin mass movement, immediately raises issues of both a
5
historiographical and a semantic nature: Palestrina's music
is clearly not atonal in the sense that Webern's is atonal;
nor is it tonal in the sense that Mozart's is tonal. The
common terminology taken for granted by analysts of
eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century music is
stylistically and culturally grounded in the structural norms
and in the common practices of this period; the analyst of
sixteenth-century music, on the other hand, has no such
terminological common ground on which to base his
observations, and must resort either to the anachronistic
terminology of tonality or to the somewhat thorny and
theoretically ill-defined vocabulary of the modal system.
Neither of these vocabularies is particularly
satisfactory. While many would concur with Peter Bergquist's
general remark (1967: 100) that 'most Western music is tonal,
and that the character of tonality, not the fact of tonality,
is the element that fluctuates', the majority of commentators
have been justly sceptical of his applications of an
eighteenth-century paradigm (the tonic/dominant system) to a
much earlier repertory with minimal consideration either of
contemporary theoretical ideas or of those generalized
features which might constitute a genuine theory of common
practice for the period in question. At the other extreme,
the reluctance of some historical musicologists to depart
6
from the vocabulary of contemporaneous theory may come to be
regarded as unduly restrictive (after all, present-day Brahms
specialists do not feel obliged to adhere strictly to the
theoretical constraints of, say, Hauptmann or Riemann).
Concepts of mode were central to the theoretical treatises of
the sixteenth century; yet the theory of modes between 1500
and 1600 was in a condition of such extreme flux that it is
difficult (and may even be seriously misleading, given the
perennial gulf between theory and practice) to base a general
theory on the modal observations of one contemporary theorist
or school of theorists. One might go so far as to suggest
that (paradoxically) even contemporaneous treatises are
liable to anachronism: consider Artusi, whose famous attacks
on Monteverdi (Artusi 1600) were founded on a theory (Zarlino
1558) developed over forty years earlier. Moreover, one
cannot always take for granted a stylistic consistency
between theory and practice even when the theorist and
composer are one and the same: contrast, for instance, Fux's
Gradus ad Parnassum with the style of his own compositions.
Above all, the eighteenth-century specialist has one
crucial theoretical resource at his disposal: the concept of
the structural background as proposed by Heinrich Schenker.
The background is that conceptual level which defines the
parameters of a particular style: the level at which all
7
pieces within that style are structurally identical. The
value of Schenker's system in explicating large-scale tonal
relationships (and motivic replications between structural
levels) is widely accepted among analysts of tonal music.
Less widely recognized, however, is the inherently
comparative nature of the Schenkerian enterprise: by positing
a generalized paradigm of tonal structure, grounded in the
common features of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century style,
Schenker is able to analyse works not simply in vacuo, or on
their own terms, but within the wider context of other works.
One might contend, then, that Schenker's system, popularly
misconceived as a reductive methodology, is in fact
inherently contextual: a Schenkerian perspective allows the
analyst to compare pieces, genres, and even whole
repertories, by comparing backgrounds and middlegrounds. In
this way, the individual characteristics of artworks may be
placed in the wider context of their common cultural and
stylistic heritage.
One must concede that for Schenker, this cultural
heritage was purely that of triadic tonality as espoused by
Germanic composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries; lovers of sixteenth-century polyphony and its rich
complexities are unlikely to sympathize with his dismissive
treatment of Renaissance style as 'primitive'. Yet we need
8
not concur with Schenker's racially-motivated historiography
and dogmatic value judgeinents to appreciate the wider
implications of his concept of background, nor to recognize
the possibility of codifying generalized paradigms of
stylistic consistency in other repertories, styles and
cultures.
Some scholars (such as Leo Treitler) have continued to
argue that Schenker's system, by positing one of three types
of Ursatz as the origin of all tonal music from Bach to
Brahms, serves only to minimize cultural difference and to
demean stylistic individuality (Treitler 1978); one
commentator has even described Schenker's system as
'fundamentally anti-historical' (Rosen 1971: 34). This
position is, I think, attributable as much to the reductive
zeal of the post-Schenkerian school as to Schenker's own
thought; in particular, it does scant justice to Schenker's
own (albeit ideologically weighted) considerations of
historical evolution (especially Schenker 1930 and 1973) and
to his perceptively detailed observations of the musical
foreground. More tellingly, Schenker's system has recently
been compared (Littlefield and Neuineyer 1992) to early
systems of structural linguistics such as that proposed by
Schenker's contemporary, Ferdinand de Saussure in the Cours
de linguistique generale (1916); a view which carries
9
especial conviction given Schenker's constant use of the
metaphor of music as language. In an extrapolation of this
view, we might assert that musical meaning (in Schenker's
system) is dependent on two conceptual axes: the horizontal
or syntagmatic axis (reading from beginning to end) and the
paradigmatic axis (reading from background to foreground).
Seen in this light, a Schenkerian analysis represents not
only an interpretation of musical events as they unfold
through time, but also an implicit comparison of musical
events themselves with analogous events in other pieces
through the postulation of a generalized, hypothetical model.
The present study proceeds from a simple premise: that
the individual features of all artworks, whether from the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries or from the sixteenth,
acquire their meaning only in the wider cultural context of
stylistic norms. In the epoch of major-minor tonality,
defined broadly as the period ranging from Corelli to Brahms,
these norms are succinctly defined by the paradigm of the
Ursatz: an expanded cadential model which reflects the
normative status of the tonic/dominant axis in the music of
this period. However, no such generalized paradigms have yet
been codified for music that lies outside this cultural
range: non-Western music, twentieth-century music (with the
exception of serialism, which has its own set of pre-
10
determined compositional norms) or, perhaps most puzzlingly,
the music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
This study offers one possible approach to the
formulation of a set of normative paradigms for the sixteenth
century: a stylistic background against which individual
pieces might be evaluated. The models are based on the two
consistent principles of Western style during the period
1500-1600: first, the rules of counterpoint; secondly, the
principle of cadential orientation.
The justifications for a cadentially-oriented approach
are twofold: not only is cadence the most fundamental means
of formal articulation in Western music at least from 1500 to
1900, but the theoretical definitions of cadence remain
virtually consistent throughout the sixteenth century. The
argument will proceed according to inductive principles: a
preliminary hypothesis, loosely based on contemporary
theories of cadential closure, will be proposed and tested on
as wide a variety of sixteenth-century pieces as the scope of
the study permits; finally, the theoretical models will be
applied to some pieces of the latter half of the century, as
a demonstration of their analytical usefulness and broader
critical potential. The wide historical range of this
enterprise may alarm some musicologists, especially in the
current climate of increasingly focused chronological and
11
geographical specialization; however, a broad historical
sweep is an essential prerequisite of any approach that aims
to define a generalized context, or to formulate a truly
normative stylistic archetype. It may also be contended (as
an extension of Rosen's and Treitler's criticisms of
Schenker) that the repertory studied here (ranging from
Josquin motets to the chromatic madrigals of Gesualdo) is so
broad as to minimize the huge stylistic gulf between the
polyphony of 1500 and that of 1600; in fact, the two
stylistic poles are both founded on a basic cadential
orientation, just as the music covered by Schenker in Free
Composition (covering an even wider span from about 1710 to
1890) shares a common origin in the principles of
tonic/dominant polarity. The stylistic disparity between
Josquin and Gesualdo is admittedly vast, as is that between,
say, Bach and Wolf; yet the works from the two extremes share
a common structural origin, and may be said to diverge at
iniddleground levels rather than at the background level.
Similarly, while Josquin and Gesualdo share the same norms of
cadential behaviour and dissonance treatment, the styles are
greatly divergent. The aim of the present approach is not to
minimize these stylistic differences, but to provide a
context in which these differences might be sensitively
evaluated.
12
The boundaries of the historical style covered by this
study are difficult to determine with any precision, since
they are dictated not only by chronology, but by genre and by
regional stylistic differences; indeed, the study is not
intended as an exhaustive history of musical style, but
rather as an attempt to draw, with as broad a brush as
possible, the historical and contextual background that might
serve as a starting-point for such an enterprise. The models
proposed here are expressly designed for the historical range
1500-1600. These limits are perhaps not as arbitrary as they
appear: very roughly, they correspond to the decline of the
cadence with double leading-note (1500) and the rise of
monody and the seconda prattica (1600). The first of these
developments entailed not only the prohibition of consecutive
perfect intervals, but also the development of a consistent
set of contrapuntal procedures that were later to be codified
as the Rules of Counterpoint (from Tinctoris, through Zarlino
and ultimately, via Fux, to Schenker's Counterpoint). The
rise of thoroughbass and the secunda prattica around 1600
constitutes a style-change which, as Schenker intimated
(Schenker 1930), formed the origin of the tonal system as he
understood it. While the cadential archetype (defined by
Zarlino as the contrary motion from a third to a unison or a
sixth to an octave in two voices) is fairly consistent from
13
around 1500, it is only around 1600 that the bass motion V-I
becomes an indispensable, and indeed a defining, feature of
cadential closure. This fundamental change in the role of the
bass voice demands a somewhat different formulation that more
closely approximates to Schenker's Bassbrechung. For our
purposes, then, the approximate historical limits of the
proposed models will be assumed to run from Josquin to
Gesualdo, even though stylistic boundaries are necessarily
somewhat blurred. In general, works built around a strict
cantus firmus will be excluded from the scope of the theory.
However, one late example of cantus firmus technique has been
included as an illustration of the interaction of the cantus
firmus style with cadential principles.
This is not intended as a source study, nor is any
attempt made here to deal with the fraught issues of
editorial procedures and performance practice. Some of the
analytical points made in later chapters (for instance, in
the discussion of Vergine bella) rest on certain assumptions
about accidentals, whether ficta modifications or shifts
between durus and inollis hexachords. In these cases, a
certain degree of question-begging must be conceded; however,
issues of performance practice in these repertories would
require an entire volume to themselves, and have in any
case been amply developed elsewhere (notably Berger 1987).
14
As for editorial practice, this study has taken as its
sources the most widely available collected editions of
works. Editorial inconsistencies will, of course, have an
effect on the analytical readings offered in the later
chapters, but any questionable editorial reading is likely
to affect the foreground rather than the deep-level events
that are the main focus of this project.
15
CHAPTER ONE
RENAISSANCE MUSIC AND VOICE-LEADING THEORY
1.1 Tonality versus atonality
Edward Lowinsky's famous application of the term
'atonality' to the chromatically complex vocal polyphony of
the late sixteenth century has generated a great degree of
controversy among theorists in the last two decades.- In
particular, his reading of the Prologue to Lassus's
Prophetiae Sibyllaruin as an 'atonal' piece has been highly
influential. Indeed, the Prologue has subsequently acquired
the status of a locus classicus in the discipline of early
music analysis. 2 A number of contributors to The Music Forum,
under the initial editorship of Felix Saizer, have attempted
to demonstrate, by the appropriation and modification of the
graphic techniques of Heinrich Schenker, that a basic 'tonal'
centricity provides a controlling force in the polyphonic
repertory of the sixteenth century and earlier. William
Mitchell, Karol Berger and, more recently, William Lake, have
all attempted to demonstrate, pace Lowinsky, that even a work
16
as chromatically deviant as the Lassus Prologue manifests a
'tonality' of some sort. However, the vast variance between
their graphic analyses suggests not merely a discrepancy of
interpretation (such as might occur between Schenkerian
analysts in the reading of an eighteenth-century piece), but
a more deep-seated difference in the nature of the background
models, implicit or explicit, that underpin their respective
methodologies. 3 The precise nature of sixteenth-century
'tonality', therefore, remains vague and undefined. Since
much of the analytical debate is founded on an assumed
dichotomy between the ostensibly tonal and atonal aspects of
Renaissance music, it will be pertinent to take this debate
as a starting-point for a more thoroughgoing attempt to
define some normative features of large-scale musical
structure in the sixteenth century. At a superficial level,
Lowinsky's comments are persuasive in elucidating the highly
individualistic nature of certain inotets of the period. In
his discussion of the Lassus prologue, his designation
'atonal' is demonstrably false in its literal sense, since
the cadence-points on G and C, as Berger (1980a:488) has
pointed out, serve to outline the larger phrase-structure of
the piece. However, his observation seems true in a broader,
poetic sense: Lassus's violent chromaticism in this enigmatic
motet cycle seems, at least at the bar-to-bar level, to
17
subvert one's expected sense of order and to substitute a
series of tonal disorientations which convey something of the
ambiguity and mystery of the text.
Mitchell's slightly later commentary on the prologue
(Mitchell 1970) takes a diametrically opposed view: by
adopting an orthodox Schenkerian model of structural
background, Mitchell aims to bring the complex harmonic
vocabulary of Lassus (and, by implication, the 'simpler'
diatonic polyphony of the sixteenth century as well) within
the scope of a broad 'common-practice' tonal system. Thus the
two readings of the piece differ not only in their analytical
approaches, but in their critical objectives: Mitchell aims
to demonstrate the homogeneity of a canonic repertory by
means of a reductive process, thus arguably neutralizing the
individualistic aspects of the piece; Lowinsky's reading, on
the other hand, seeks to demonstrate the stylistic
originality and deviance of the setting, despite his
unsystematic and somewhat loosely descriptive analytical
approach.
The present project arises from a broad dissatisfaction
with these two prevalent strands in the analysis and
criticism of Renaissance music. On the one hand, the tonalist
school (exemplified by the work of Saizer and other
contributors to The Music Forum) has tended to minimize
18
historical differences by imposing certain structural
principles (specifically those of the Chord of Nature and
thoroughbass) upon music conceived well before the evolution
of such principles. On the other hand, more sceptical pre-
Baroque specialists have tended to resort to a descriptive
approach that is at best unsystematic and at worst
negativistic: Lowinsky's work, for instance, is sensitive in
stressing the deviant and modernistic nature of late
Renaissance chroinaticism, yet offers no systematic attempt to
define a structural norm from which individual pieces may be
said to deviate.
The most extreme anti-organicist position is exemplified
by a recent article by David Schulenberg (1985-6). In a
closely-argued critique of several post-Schenkerian analyses,
Schulenberg suggests that the aesthetic criteria of Schenker
(particularly that of organic coherence) may be inappropriate
for music 'created under different cultural conditions':
This objection [of inappropriateness] might be met by the
observation that the analyses in question are in fact
rationalizations for the aesthetic value that we place on
compositions dating from times and places in which the
conception of aesthetic value was unknown. But I would
argue that this entirely idiocentric approach will seem
intolerably limiting.
(Schulenberg 1985-6: 305)
Certainly, the concepts of historical time and place are
19
central to the values that we attach to musical compositions;
consequently, it might be historically (and aesthetically)
insensitive (and 'intolerably limiting') to import
nineteenth-century value-systems (especially those based on
ideas such as organic coherence) to sixteenth-century
repertories. However, it might be pertinent here to
distinguish between 'coherence' in the sense of
intelligibility (as a spoken utterance might be coherent) and
'coherence' as organic or architectonic unity. Although the
latter reflects Schenker's own terminology - organische
Zusammenhang - Schenker's writings suggest a certain
equivocation in this respect: in a telling paragraph from
Free Composition, Schenker rejects the metaphor of music as
architecture (prevalent in writings of the time) in favour of
the metaphor of music as language. 4 The Ursatz, therefore,
may be interpreted in two distinct ways: not merely as an
all-controlling architectonic framework, but as a paradigm
that guarantees overall intelligibility: a stylistic common
ground that facilitates the comparative appraisal of musical
compositions. Since sixteenth- and nineteenth-century
compositions do not share an identical stylistic context,
Schulenberg is surely justified in questioning the propriety
of applying a nineteenth-century model to Renaissance
repertories (particularly salutary are his observations that
20
Renaissance part-writing is intervallically, rather than
triadically, determined). Yet Schulenberg's somewhat negative
conclusions suggest a degree of oversensitivity to historical
authenticity that might ultimately constitute a serious
historiographical distortion:
In sixteenth-century polyphony, the texture as a whole
defines a musical space which can be understood as an
interlocking set of smaller modal spaces occupied by the
individual parts ... Such a modal space is not coherent
and integrated [my emphasis].
(Schulenberg 1985-6: 317)
It would appear that the zealous avoidance of anachronism
has, in this case, resulted in a somewhat nihilistic view of
sixteenth-century polyphony as incoherent and unintegrated: a
view which may come to be regarded not only as unduly
restrictive for the pre-Baroque analyst, but (ironically) as
a more serious anachronism that characterizes the music of
the past negatively, in terms only of its failure to
correspond to later aesthetic norms or ideals.
1.2 Schenker' s conception of background
The concept of musical background remains one of the
most widely misunderstood of the innovations outlined in
Schenker's last theoretical work, Free Composition. Recent
21
pedagogical reformulations of Schenker's methodology have
tended to concentrate on its reductive (foreground-to-
background) aspects at the expense of the synthetic
(background-to-foreground) process that provides the basis
not only for the ordering of chapters in Free Composition,
but also for the consistent presentations of background,
middleground and foreground that characterize Schenker's
analyses in Das Meisterwerk in der Musik and elsewhere. This
tendency to equate Schenkerian methodology with a
monodimensional reductive process has resulted in a number of
recent analyses of Renaissance music that purport to
illustrate 'backgrounds': Frederick Bashour's work on Dufay,
for instance, offers a piece-specific 'background' that
consists of little more than a series of pitches moving in
parallel octaves. Likewise, Karol Berger, in his analysis of
the Lassus prologue (while more sensitive to the textual
structure than Mitchell) asserts that the 'background' (his
inverted commas) comprises a tonic-subdominant-tonic harmonic
schema:
In the case of a syllabic and hoiuorhythinic setting such
as Lasso's prologue, initial clues will most likely be
provided by the structure of the poem ... [The] three
main cadential points, on C, C and G respectively,
constitute the most fundamental structural level and
provide an unmistakeable framework of modal reference
(I-IV-I in G-Mixolydian or lonian) for the entire
composition.
(Berger 1980a: 488)
22
Berger's sensitivity to modal issues and to the setting of
the text makes this an elegant and persuasive analysis of the
musical foreground; yet the modification of the Schenkerian
background raises a number of important conceptual
difficulties, and rests on certain undefined theoretical
assumptions. While I do not wish to deny the interpretation
of the prologue as a representation of a particular mode
(most probably Mode 8, given the status of the pitch C as the
reciting-note in the eighth psalm tone), Berger's
equivocation as to the modality of the piece ('Mixolydian or
lonian') sits uneasily within the concept of an
'unmistakeable framework of modal reference'; the problems
inherent in assigning particular cadential models to
particular modes are greatly exacerbated by the co-existence
of a number of modal theories and competing systems of eight
and twelve
modes.B
(The implications of modality for large-
scale voice-lefiing structure and cadential orientation form
the subject of the next chapter.) However, even if we leave
aside the issue of modality, Berger's analysis raises
significant problems concerning the ontological status of the
'background'. Is the plagal 'background' level a generalized
level that defines the limits of the style (analogous to the
Schenkerian Ursatz), or merely a piece-specific (and rather
ad hoc) distillation of salient events? As the analysis is
23
derived principally from specific features such as the
structure of the text, we must assume the latter. How then
can Berger's methodology be extrapolated to account for the
structure of other works of the period (and in particular, to
works without texts)?
For both Bashour and Berger, therefore, the proposed
'backgrounds' differ fundamentally from Schenker's conception
of the background (as occupied, in the period of common-
practice tonality, by the Ursatz) in that the 'backgrounds'
are piece-specific, while the Ursatz in its three possible
forms represents a normative model for all tonal pieces: a
cultural paradigm against which the individual (iniddleground
and foreground) characteristics of tonal pieces may be
judged. Thus while the modified Schenkerian approaches of
Berger and Bashour result in more sensitive and cogent
interpretations of the foreground than the (rather
Procrustean) applications of the orthodox Schenkerian model
offered by Mitchell and Saizer, they remain fundamentally
hermetic: pieces are analysed in vacuo rather than within
wider stylistic contexts.
24
1.3 The concept of background as historical context
In order to consider this conflict between the
implicitly paradigmatic approach of Schenker and the
reductionist procedures of post-Schenkerian systems
(particularly those formulated by Saizer) it is necessary to
turn briefly from sixteenth-century issues to an analysis of
Schenker's ideas themselves. 9 The dichotomy between Schenker
and the post-Schenkerians has been most widely discussed in
the context of extended tonality in the late nineteenth
century. In her seminal work on the songs of Wolf, Deborah
Stein argues that Salzer, by modifying the Schenkerian model
to fit the adventurous harmonic schemata of certain songs,
succeeds only in devaluing the rhetorical and dramatic
aspects of Wolf's style. 3 - Stein, by contrast, applies the
orthodox Schenkerian model to the songs as a means of
pinpointing the precise nature of the composer's deviations
from an expectational norm; thus, the concept of background
is convincingly harnessed to a consideration of the history
of musico-rhetorical style. Indeed, as Stein has observed,
the intimate connection between the concept of structural
background and that of historical origin and development lies
at the root of Schenker's critical thought. However, the
connection between the 'background' in its historical and
25
cultural senses and in its structural sense has been widely
overlooked by post-Schenkerian
theorists.h2
In the opening
chapter of Free Composition, Schenker introduces the concept
of the background as a historical model, where the now
familiar structural hierarchy is presented as a metaphor for
the historical transmission of ideas:
Origin, development and present I call background,
middleground and foreground.
(Schenker 1979:3)
In addition, he hints at the possibility of a background
which might be subject to historical evolution:
[It] is highly probable that this effort [the attempt
to generate mass-appreciation of art] will prevent our
time from developing into a background for the music of
the future.
(Schenker 1979:4)
The background, therefore, may be represented not merely as
the result of a series of analogous reductive processes, but
as the model of tonal expectations against which individual
pieces project their specific characteristics.
In the analysis of sixteenth-century music, however, the
definition of background remains problematic. While the
extravagantly chromatic pieces of the later part of the
century, such as Lassus's prologue, seem to require a
clearly-defined conceptual model of voice-leading
expectations in order to pinpoint those aspects of the
26
structure that are stylistically deviant, it is evident that
the application of the Schenkerian model, founded on the
eighteenth-century principles of triadic monotonality and
thoroughbass, is not only technically inadequate for the
purpose (as will be argued in the following critiques and
examples from sixteenth-century polyphony) but also
anachronistic in that it contradicts Schenker's own view of
the historical status of the background model as stylistic
origin. By contrast, Schenker's analyses of free compositions
of the classical period originate in the compositional
principles of the music that preceded them: the rules of
voice-leading as codified by Fux, and those of thoroughbass
outlined by C.P.E. Bach. Any methodology for the analysis of
earlier music, if it is to preserve the convincing sense of
historical perspective that Schenker's approach offers, must
therefore be grounded on principles that are generally
applicable to contemporary (or slightly earlier) repertory,
so that the structural 'background' of a work by, say,
Lassus, may be regarded as a metaphor for the historical and
cultural background that informs Lassus's compositional
procedure and underpins his individualistic stylistic
traits.
In this attempt to restore a historical perspective to
the analysis of sixteenth-century music, it has been
27
necessary to formulate a new structural archetype from the
compositional principles applicable to the music of the
period, and to deduce these principles partly from
contemporary theoretical sources and partly from the
empirical observation of a sizeable corpus of contemporary
polyphony. As a result, the approach pursued here has meant
that many of the specific features of Schenker's system and
notation have been jettisoned in an attempt to extend
Schenker's concept of background (in its wider sense) to a
repertory which may lack the specific features of the Ursatz
model. However, since Schenker's concepts represent a
starting point for the present project, it will be pertinent
to offer a brief analysis of Schenker's system in order to
determine which of his underlying principles may justifiably
be espoused in the analysis of pre-tonal music, and which
must be dismissed as anachronistic manifestations of a later
(tonal) style.
1.4 Strict counterpoint, diminution and thorougbbass
Schenker's view of musical structure, as presented in
its most comprehensive and polished form in Free Composition,
may be summarized as an amalgam of five distinct theoretical
28
principles that were assimilated into the theory at different
stages of its development. Perhaps the first to emerge in
Schenker's writings was the concept of diminution: for
instance, in the articles from Der Tonwille, where a
'fundamental line' (Urlinie) might consist of both ascending
AAA.A%A
and descending motions such as 5-6-5-4-3-2-1, the detailed
workings or 'composings-out' of the musical surface are
regarded as manifestations of a deeper linear process (this
linear formulation had not yet attained the status of a true
background, since the Urlinie was piece-specific, and thus
essentially descriptive rather than prescriptive).- 2 The
extension of this aspect of Schenker's thought to the
sixteenth century is relatively unproblematic, since the
concept of the musical surface as an elaboration of deeper
linear motions has, historically, the most far-reaching
roots. An extension of the Renaissance principle of
intabulation, the embellishment of a line by diminution
manifests itself in the three sixteenth-century commonplaces
of cantus firmus technique, parody and paraphrase, and
represents one of the main implicit points of agreement
between sixteenth-century theorists whose views on other
aspects of musical structure may have been widely divergent.
Similarly, the principle according to which voices move
within the levelled structures proposed by Schenker is
29
grounded in the voice-leading rules of the stile antico.
Although the relatively late treatise Gradus ad Parnassum
(first published in 1725) forms the basis of the voice-
leading principles outlined in Schenker's Counterpoint and
extrapolated in Free Composition, the hierarchic distinctions
between consonance and dissonance on which Fux's system is
based apply also to the free compositions of the sixteenth
century. Indeed, Fux's rules of counterpoint are extensively
prefigured in Italian and Spanish treatises of the mid- to
late-sixteenth century: Zarlino's Istitutioni harmoniche, for
instance, outlines the prohibition of consecutive perfect
consonances and of unsupported fourths; the requirement that
suspensions be prepared and resolved downwards by step; and
the regola delle terze e seste (particularly as applied to
cadential formulations)
13
Montanos's Arte de Musica of 1592 (discussed in a later
chapter) offers a comparable set of rules, with the addition
of three maneras that prefigure the first, second and third
species of Gradus ad Parnassum. However, Fux was perhaps
the first to codify a genuine model for a historical
background, in that the principles of free composition in the
eighteenth century were to be derived theoretically from the
stylistic norms established in the stile antico. It might be
contended that in two salient respects, Schenker extends the
30
scope of Fux's model to accommodate later stylistic
developments: the admission of the minor seventh as a
consonance in certain dominant seventh formulations and the
unprepared cadential 6/4. However, since the first of these
extensions applies only at the foreground or low middleground
levels (and cannot thus be considered as part of a normative
paradigm) and the second is aduinbrated by the 'consonant
fourth' progression familiar in Renaissance cadences, it
follows that the laws of voice-leading adopted by Schenker in
his Counterpoint might feasibly form the basis of any
reductive analysis of the earlier repertory itself.1-5
If Schenker's twin theories of strict counterpoint and
diminution seem applicable to sixteenth-century polyphony
almost without modification, it is in the exposition of the
specific model, the Ursatz (developed somewhat later and only
outlined systematically in Free Composition) that the theory
significantly parts company with sixteenth-century practice.
Schenker, by contrast with those post-Schenkerians who have
concerned themselves with pre-tonal repertory, explicitly
denied the possibility of extending the model to encompass
what he saw as 'primitive' musical systems. His view of
sixteenth-century music was influenced not merely by his
ignorance of much of the repertory, but rather by his
teleological view of music history as a single evolutionary
31
continuum with the monotonal system as its goal. In Harmony,
for instance, he suggests that the evolution of a musical
language in which scale-steps could be tonicized, as a means
of generating form, constituted the first stage in the
development of large-scale, integrated structures.- 6 For
Schenker, the polyphony of the sixteenth century, lacking
this tool for long-range tonal structuring, represented only
an undeveloped precursor of the tonal system.
Such a view may seem somewhat paradoxical: while
Schenker's later, fully developed theory rested on the
concept of organic unity, it was only through its diversity
of potential cadence-pitches (by contrast with the few
cadence-pitches permitted by the modal system) that the
emergent tonal system was able to project the large
structural unfoldings that lent a masterwork its beauty and
cohesion. In effect, it is this apparent paradox which
enables the tonal system to project, in Schenker's view, the
duality of unity within diversity: 'semper idem sed non
semper eodem modo'.2-7
More recently, the growth of research in historical
musicology has led theorists justly to question the
evolutionistic historical stance of nineteenth-century
theorists, and to view the sixteenth-century polyphonic style
as a highly-developed system in its own right. Although some
32
commentators, among them Saul Novack, continue to view the
structural principles of certain motets, particularly those
of Josquin Desprez, as aduinbrations of some later tonal
system (his term is 'proto-tonal'), this historical teleology
is widely, and justifiably, regarded with some suspicion:
certain 'proto-tonal' procedures, such as sequence and
circle-of-fifths progressions, seem to become rarer, rather
than more prevalent, in the polyphony of the latter half of
the century, while the 'tonal anticipations' of those
Phrygian motets of Josquin that end with full closes on A
tend to be supplanted in Palestrina's Phrygian motets by
endings on E major triads, which are more difficult to
rationalize in terms of common-practice tonality. 2 - 8 In
addition, the growth of chromatic systems during the late
sixteenth century, exemplified by the Lassus prologue, would
suggest a tendency of composers, particularly in the madrigal
and related genres, to subvert pre-existent compositional
norms with affective or rhetorical purpose; polyphonic style
becomes effectively less, rather than more 'tonal' at the
turn of the seventeenth century, and the evolutionary
progression that Novack seems to postulate, running from
Josquin to early common-practice tonality, seems an
excessively convoluted one.
Before moving on to a consideration of the principles
3 3
48
L
A
21
_ L _ _ E
' - '
implicit in Schenker's Ursatz, I will offer a brief critique
of a post-Schenkerian analysis which demonstrates the two
most salient problems arising from the wholesale application
of the model to pre-Baroque repertory. Mitchell's analysis
(Ex.l:l) of the Lassus prologue, mentioned above in a broader
context, represents one of the earliest attempts to apply a
genuine structural background to a sixteenth-century piece. 2 -
This is a problematic reading in a number of respects, not
least in its implications of voice-leading at the foreground
level: the triad on C/f in bar 4, for instance, is interpreted
as a Contrapuntal Structural Chord whose bass note leads
upwards to the 'dominant', D, in bar 8, while one might also
question, as Berger does, the assumed prolongation of C/f in
this passage, given the arrival at a 'tonic' triad
articulated by a distinctive bass coupling in bar
6.20
A
Ex.l:l. Tonal analysis of the Prologue to Lassus:
Prophetiae Sibyllarum, after William Mitchell.
34
However, the aspect of the analysis most pertinent to the
present study lies in his location of the structural closure
of the Ursatz: Mitchell identifies the closure of the bass
arpeggiation I-V-I on the last beat of bar 21, thus
relegating the remaining material to the status of a coda.
In this reading, the point of tonal 'closure' fails to
coincide with the prosodic structuring of the text: it
appears highly irregular, for instance, that the last
syllable of 'cecinerunt' should come after the point of
large-scale closure, a feature which seems incompatible with
the sixteenth-century concept of cadence, as summarized by
Bernhard Meier:
For if we ask what a cadence is, music theory of that
period replies with the definition that a cadence
signifies the end of a song or a break in its progress,
comparable to the articulations in a well-organized and
artistically "embellished" speech. Consequently, the
composer must take care that cadences, their location,
and the force of their articulating effect conform as
closely as possible to the caesuras in the text.
(Meier 1988:89)
Similarly, Mitchell's closure occupies a weak beat, and is
immediately disrupted by a triad on the flat seventh
occupying a metrical downbeat, so that the sense of cadential
resolution is contradicted by the rhythmic context of the
prevailing tactus. Most significantly, however, the
structural cadence of the piece, according to the sixteenth-
35
century definition of the term, occurs not at bar 21, but at
the very end of the piece (bar 25):
--ne--runt 0-----p. -----------Lot.
Ex.l:2. Closure of the Lassus prologue (bb.20-25).
Using the invaluable nomenclature of cadential voices
derived by Meier from Dressler and elsewhere, the final
cadence consists of a vox cantizans (the cadence-pitch
approached by its leading-note) in the tenor and a
vox tenorizans (the same pitch approached by a linear
descent) in the bass. 21- Such a reading is also consistent
with the views of theorists such as Zarlino, who defines
cadence in terms of the intervallic content of these two
voices: in this case, the motion from a major sixth to an
octave represents a manifestation of the Renaissance rule of
thirds and sixths that has found a more recent analytical
role in the work of Carl Dahlhaus. 22 The vox basizans (which
one might equate with the Schenkerian Bassbrechung) had the
36
theoretical status of a supporting voice whose leaping motion
to the cadence-pitch was subordinate to the basic two-part
cadential structure, while the vox altizans represented
another subordinate voice, this time not moving towards the
cadence-pitch and therefore not participating in the
cadential process. Thus, the basizans (and altizans) might
legitimately be omitted from a cadential formulation (as in
the present example) without undermining the normative status
of the cadence as a point of large-scale resolution.
The shortcomings in Mitchell's interpretations of the
prologue therefore result not from a faulty application of
the Schenkerian method, but rather from features intrinsic to
the theory itself. Since the bass note D in bar 21 represents
the only pitch that could possibly stand as a structural
dominant (given the necessity of a I-V-I Bassbrechung at the
background level in an orthodox Schenkerian reading), the
resultant distortion of meaning suggests that the
thoroughbass principle, although an essential component of
Schenker's conception of harmonic structure, lacks any
normative or generative status in music conceived before the
development of the secunda prattica; the bass in a sixteenth-
century cadence is an 'optional extra', not a defining
feature of cadential closure.
In one respect, Schenker's theory of voice-leading
37
A
Ir r I I
16
. I
b )
appear s to b e diametr ically opposed to the nineteenth-centur y
tenets of har monic theor y (in par ticular , the doctr ine of
inver sional equivalence that stemmed fr om Rameau's concept of
b asse fondainentale) in that it attempts to define har monic
function in contr apuntal r ather than tr iadic ter ms. 23
However , it is evident fr om the gr aphical pr esentation of
b ackgr ound and middlegr ounds in Fr ee Composition that the
vox cantizans (or 8-7-8) for ms an implicit thir d voice whose
r ole is deducib le thr ough the pr inciple of thor oughb ass
r ealization: for example, in his demonstr ation of
middlegr ound b ass ar peggiations thr ough the thir d degr ee,
Schenker distinguishes b etween the two for mulations I-16-V-I
and 1-111-V-I, which differ only in their middle voices:
Ex. l:3. Schenker 's models of fir st-level ar peggiation
thr ough the thir d degr ee in the b ass, with
implicit vox cantizans in the inner voice.
It is this sub or dination of the vox cantizans to the b ass
voice (as a thor oughb ass r ealization) that constitutes one of
38
the principal axioms of common-practice tonality, yet the
historical primacy of the two-part cadential system without
basizans suggests that any normative background model for the
sixteenth century must abandon Schenker's triadically
conceived Ursatz in favour of a two-part model.
1.5 Goal-directed motion and the Chord of Nature
In his presentation of the concept of the structural
background, Schenker's teleological view of musical evolution
finds a parallel in a structural teleology: the view that
musical syntax is defined through the inexorable motion
towards a contrapuntally-defined goal. In comparing musical
structure both to linguistic syntax and to drama, Schenker
suggests that the background structure (by contrast with the
achronic 'chord of nature' which Schenker defines as the
origin of the background itself) is imbued with an essential
dynamism generated by the relative instability of the
Ursatz's penultimate component (the second degree supported
by the structural dominant, which demands resolution to the
final tonic):
[The] goal [Schenker's emphasis] and the course to the
goal are primary. Content comes afterward: without a
goal there can be no content.
(Schenker 1979:5)
39
By invoking a model of tension followed by resolution,
Schenker implicitly and inextricably binds up the concept of
Ursatz with two principles: that of human perception and that
of cultural identity. Since the concept of a goal, whether
tonal, harmonic or melodic, presupposes some sort of
expectation on the part of the listener, any Schenkerian
analysis will depend to some extent on principles of human
cognition. Indeed, the tonal space of a third, fifth or
octave which is presented as the initial component of the
Ursatz might be interpreted as a cognitive 'gap' that demands
to be filled by the subsequent descent. In this respect, the
appropriation of certain aspects of Gestalt theory by figures
such as Leonard Meyer and Eugene Narmour seems to have been
prefigured in Schenker's own theory, despite their
presentations of cognitive theory as an alternative to
Schenkerism. 25 However, where these later theorists have
attempted to provide a quasi-scientific basis for the
principle of expectation in music, Schenker clearly believes
this principle to be culturally determined:
The fate of the art of music is especially bound to the
law of its origin. Polyphony, once discovered, has
become indispensable for music. So the art irrevocably
belongs only to those who have ears capable of
perceiving polyphony. This the historical background of
music reveals.
(Schenker 1979:4)
Thus the loosely-defined model of expectation is founded
40
on the principle of cultural development: the grounding of
listeners' expectations in the 'historical background', the
norm established by the musical structures of the past. By
contrast, the concept of the Chord of Nature, Schenker's last
theoretical innovation, constitutes an attempt to establish a
basis for musical cohesion in natural, universal principles.
In deriving a 'hyper-background' of a single triad from the
acoustic principles of the harmonic series, Schenker was able
to establish a rationale for his view of the supremacy of the
(Germanic) monotonal system: the D major harmonization of a
chorale from Hassler's Lustgarten 26 , for instance, is
considered more complete than (and implicitly superior to)
the older Phrygian setting (even though the latter had equal
prominence in the settings by J.S.Bach), while a Chopin
mazurka that seems to begin in B minor and end in F# minor is
considered an 'incomplete' piece 27 . In addition, the doctrine
that the Ursatz represents an unfolding of a single tonic
triad underlies the familiar theoretical restriction of the
A A
potential head-note (Kopf ton) to the degrees 3, 5 or 8, and
offers a convincing definition of tonal coherence in the
monotonal repertory of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries; however, such a restriction seems inappropriate to
those earlier pieces (before Bach) that sometimes lack a
symmetrical Bassbrechung (I-V-I).
41
Palestrina's paraphrase of a line from the Magnificat in
the fifth psalm tone (Ex.l:4) is one such example. Any
attempt to impose a Chord of Nature upon the piece will lead
inevitably to some distortion of meaning: although the
cadence-pitch is A, articulated by a full three-part cadence
with vox basizans, the pre-cadential bass prolongation
stresses F, the finalis of the psalm tone. 28 In Schenker's
terms, the piece is manifestly 'incomplete': an A minor
reading (Ex.l:5) would imply that an initial A in the bass
had been suppressed, while an F major reading (Ex.l:6) would
necessitate a reading of the cadentially-articulated A as a
middleground third-divider in a structure whose latter part
had been truncated.
A -?1;flQ. - - a- bo- - - 114fUAN1 a-lu-md. n- -a.- - - --iwjri..
- ni-ma.. inc - -&bo ft -nut a-q ij-mu. ne-a.. .o- - flu. - -sujzr.
Ex.l:4. Palestrina: Magnificat Ouiriti Toni (Liber Primus).
42
A
A
3
.1
L .
Ex.l:5. Magnificat Ouinti Toni: A minor reading.
Ex.l:6. Magnificat Ouinti Toni: F major reading.
However, an alternative, historically grounded,
expectational background for the voice-leading behaviour of
the piece lies in the chant itself (Ex.l.7): the initial
prolongation of C over A and F reflects the incipit of the
piece (where F and C function as finalis and reciting-note
respectively), while the cadential articulation of A is a
polyphonic realization of the closing pitch of the chant.
43
Rc/ 11/' - P17tH

CATNC -
.tosntTuLm.
Ex.l:7. Magnificat Ouinti Toni: incipit.
Thus the origin and goal of the piece may be best represented
as starting-point and finishing-point within a larger goal-
directed process, rather than as manifestations of a single
triadic unfolding.29
In short, Schenker's theory seems to propose a marriage
of convenience between the principle of goal-directed motion
and the Chord of Nature: while the former is a culturally-
determined principle that connects individual pieces with
their 'historical background'; the latter is an attempt to
provide a basis for value judgeinent through the concept of
art as a metaphor for nature. Indeed, the two principles
evolved at different stages in Schenker's development. While
the concept of an expanded line moving towards a cadence was
firmly established in the early writings, that of an all-
encompassing triadic unity was relatively slow to emerge:
even in the opening chapters of Free Composition, the stages
by which the arhythinic Chord of Nature unfolds to generate
the contrapuntal Ursatz are ill-defined (by contrast with the
44
stages of diminution from background to iniddleground).3
Similarly, even the most cursory observation of sixteenth-
century polyphony (such as the Palestrina extract mentioned
above) reveals that the cadence as an organizing principle
predates the principle of triadic inonotonality. Certainly,
the model proposed by Schenker provides a convincing basis
for the analysis of later (major/minor) tonality, but the
divergent philosophical origins of the two principles (linear
and harmonic) suggests that a model of goal-directed motion,
divorced from the Chord of Nature, might offer a much broader
paradigm with a far wider historical applicability.
1.6 Summary
To conclude this preliminary presentation of Schenker's
archetypal model, the five structural principles underlying
its formulation may be outlined, together with a brief
summary of the applicability of each principle to sixteenth-
century polyphony:
1. Diminution theory.
The principle of diminution, whereby the musical surface
may be interpreted as an elaboration of larger linear
motions, is sanctioned by sixteenth-century treatises and
45
offers a means of demonstrating voice-leading progressions
beneath the level of the immediate surface.
2. Consistent procedures of dissonance treataent.
The rules of counterpoint and dissonance treatment,
derived by Schenker from Fux, form the basis of
pedagogical treatises of the sixteenth century (such as
Zarlino's) and provide the analyst with a criterion for
identifying and analysing structural diminutions.
3. The thorouglthass principle.
Schenker's conception of cadence, where the leading-note
in a cadential formulation is considered a component of an
indispensable dominant triad, seems ill-fitted to the
analysis of music conceived before the development of
thoroughbass as an indispensable musical component. In its
place, I will propose a two-part model of cadential
closure to which the bass voice will act as an optional,
reinforcing adjunct.
4. Long-range teleology.
The concept of goal-directed motion as a metaphor for
rhetorical narrative will be considered in greater detail
in a later discussion of a Josquin motet. However,
46
Schenker's notion of goal-directed voice-leading would
appear to complement the prevalent Renaissance view of
cadence as the means by which large-scale sectional forms
obtain their cohesion.
5. The Chord of Nature.
The concept of a single triad underpinning the background
provides a model for the tonal symmetry of major/minor
tonality, rather than for the sometimes asymmetrical
structures that occur in Renaissance polyphony. Instead,
a looser paradigm of structural descent, potentially
encompassing 'irregular' intervals like the fourth and
sixth, will be proposed as a means of generating
background systems (particularly in those structures,
often assigned to modes 3, 4 and 8, whose initial upper-
voice prolongation seems to lie a fourth above the
cadence-pitch).
It may be concluded that, by contrast with the reductive
analyses proposed by post-Schenkerians, Schenker's own
conception of musical background as an expectational norm has
considerable latent potential as a tool for the investigation
of pre-tonal music, and of historical style-change. In order
to lay the foundation for a more rigorous scrutiny of
sixteenth-century music in general, and in particular to
47
enable the analyst to identify the individual inotivic
features and deviant aspects of works, the discipline of
early music analysis requires a paradigm which might fulfil
the role played by Schenker's Ursatz in the analysis of
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century tonality. In a work such
as the Lassus prologue, the points of apparent deviation need
to be considered in the wider context of a normative
procedure: only then can the precise nature of their
stylistic 'abnormality' be determined. However, the
methodology of orthodox post-Schenkerian reductionism
succeeds only in measuring a piece anachronistically against
the norms of a later style. It is the purpose of the present
study to formulate, from first principles, a definition of
what constitutes structural 'normality' (and, by extension,
'abnormality') in the sixteenth-century repertory, and thus
to codify a set of normative models against which individual
pieces may be interpreted.
In seeking to establish a theoretical basis for the
analysis and criticism of the modernistic strands in late
sixteenth-century compositions, this study will propose a
normative paradigm of compositional practice, analogous to
Schenker's Ursatz but derived from contemporary compositional
procedures, from which the affective chromatic works of the
period may be said to deviate. In contrast with the position
48
of Leo Treitler, for whom the Schenkerian method appears to
'minimize the individualizing features of a work', the
present study will offer the view that the violently
disruptive aspects of late sixteenth-century chromaticism
acquire their affective meaning only in the context of a
wider, historically determined model of structural
expectation.
The most generalized norms of compositional procedure
may be gleaned from two distinct sources: the empirical
observation of the repertories themselves, and the normative
systems proposed by contemporary theorists. The first of
these, the inductive process of deriving structural norms
from the observation of particular repertories, will be the
primary concern of this study. In this respect, the
methodology employed here reflects that of Schenker in
Free Composition, although the scope of the study has limited
the range of sources to the motets of Josquin and the sacred
works of Palestrina, Lassus and Victoria, with the addition
of two chromatic pieces by Willaert and Gesualdo. Within this
restricted range, the works to be discussed have been chosen
not for their conformity to a later tonal paradigm (as has
been the case in some of the recent post-Schenkerian
literature) but, conversely, for the extent to which they
challenge the normative status of the proposed model; this
49
I
LOW)
will necessitate a set of paradigms which, reflecting the
wider variety of Renaissance cadential structures, is more
complex (and more catholic) than the three background
structures proposed by Schenker.
A consideration of the latter category - the role of
contemporary theory - is essential in determining the degree
of cross-fertilization between the theory and practice of the
period, and in showing how the normative categories proposed
by theorists correspond to those derived from empirical
observation. While it is reasonable to draw freely on the
theoretical insights that accrue from readings of selected
sixteenth-century treatises, particularly in their
discussions of the relative status of cadence and mode, I
have made no attempt to base the theoretical models solely on
the tenets of any one specific theorist or school: such a
procedure would be fraught with difficulty, not least because
of the widely divergent theoretical viewpoints that
characterized the sixteenth century. Instead, the pertinence
of Renaissance treatises lies in the extent to which they
deal implicitly with large-scale structure and with what we
may loosely term the concept of prolongation. The value of
contemporaneous treatises (and the attendant concepts of
modality) in establishing a general theory of Renaissance
music will form the primary focus of the next chapter.
50
Notes to Chapter 1
1. Lowinsky's proposed dichotomy of 'tonal' and
'atonal' in sixteenth-century music (Lowinsky 1961) has
been widely questioned by more recent writers, yet the
cross-cultural comparisons implicit in this vocabulary
(that the diatonic and chromatic styles stand in an
opposition comparable with that of tonal and atonal
structures at the turn of the twentieth century) are
highly thought-provoking. Although the work eschews
rigorous analytical methodology, Lowinsky's
characterization of the chromatic type as a subversion of
established norms is closer to the spirit of this study
than the reductive methodologies of post-Schenkerian
writers.
2. For example, Everist 1992: xi-xii.
3. The existing analytical literature falls loosely into five
camps:
a) Cadential analysis (Meier 1988; Dill 1982) involving
lists of cadence-pitches without hierarchic distinction
between them;
b) Reductive analyses of various kinds, using a
methodology loosely derived from Schenker (Novack 1970,
1976, 1977 and 1983; Salzer 1983, Stern 1981 and 1990;
51
Carter 1993) or a monophonic model, usually derived from
modal theory and subject to harmonization in various ways
(Aldrich 1969, Perkins 1973, McClary 1976, Krantz 1983);
c) Harmonic analysis (Dahlhaus 1990);
d) Motivic analysis at a localized level (Godt 1977 and
1983; Straus 1983);
e) Paradigmatic analysis using models substantially different
from Schenker's and influenced by contemporaneous writings
(Judd 1992 and 1993).
Published analyses of the Lassus prologue include Mitchell
1970, Berger l980a and Lake 1991. The prologue is also
analysed at some length in my recent (unpublished)
dissertation (Wilde 1990), which offers two alternative
structures derived from theoretical principles similar to
those expounded here. I am grateful to Christopher Wintle
for his suggestion of an incomplete descent to C:
this is the only analysis to my knowledge that accounts
for the voice-leading connection between the prologue and
the succeeding piece.
4. Schenker 1979: 5.
5. Schenker 1979: 3-8.
6. For example, Schenker 1930.
7. Bashour 1979: 145 ff.
8.
Here Berger's names for the modes are consistent with
52
Glarean, Dodekachordon (Glarean 1547). Given that certain
of Lassus's mature compositions (such as the Psalmi
Davidis) are arranged in cycles of eight modes rather
than twelve, it is more probable that the prologue was
conceived as an eighth-mode (Hypomixolydian) piece rather
than an eleventh-mode (lonian) piece. However, the
following piece has a final cadence on C and is thus
modally equivocal. It may even be argued that the piece
is unlikely to have been consciously conceived in modal
terms at all. For a discussion of modal representation in
Lassus, see Powers 1981: 446-8, 460-7.
9. Saizer 1962. The distinction between Schenker's
contextual historicism and the reductive
algorithms of post-Schenkerian analysts has rarely been
noted in recent publications, and has been blurred by the
frequent bowdlerizing of Schenker's texts in recent
English translations (notably Schenker 1979): a notable
exception is the interesting deconstruction of
Schenkerian narrative strategies offered by Littlefield
and Neumeyer 1992.
10. Stein 1985: chap. 1, passim.
11.
An exception is Meyer 1980, which offers an original view
of style-change based on the evolution of structural
archetypes. Although these archetypes are not intended as
53
universal backgrounds, they reflect Schenker's historical
sensitivity in employing paradigms as a means of
investigating historical perspectives (despite Meyer's
ostensible desire to distance himself from orthodox
Schenkerian methods).
12. Schenker 1921-4.
13. The 'rule of thirds and sixths'; this and other
contrapuntal rules are expounded systematically
in Zarlino 1558: 153 ff.
14. Montanos 1592: bk.3, 'De contrapunto', fol.4v.
15. Much recent debate (Rothstein 1990 ; Cadwallader 1992;
Beach 1992) has centred around the possibility of
supporting the 3 by an unprepared 6/4 sonority in
descents from . Schenker (1979, fig. 16.5) allows a 6/4
support for the third degree (the resultant weakening of
the third degree is one criterion for the choice of g as
head-note in such instances). See below, pp. 147-9n.
16. Schenker 1973: 139.
17. 'Always the same, but not always in the same way'
(Schenker's motto).
18. For instance, Novack 1976. Of the Josquin motets (A.
Smijers, ed.: Werken van Josguin des Prez: Motetten,
vols.1 and 2) that might be thought to represent mode 3
or 4, six have E endings with a clausula in lid (Qj
54
velatus; Liber generationis Jesu Christi; Magnus es tu;
Domine. ne in furore; Lectio actuuin apostolorum; Deus, in
noinine tug), two have cadential endings on A and would be
assigned to the ninth or tenth mode following Glarean
(Miserere mei; Misericordias Doinini); one (Memor esto
verbi tui) is irregular: the prima pars has a cantus
durus system and an E ending with clausula in ml, while
the secunda pars has cantus mollis and an ending on A
with a clausula in mi (transposed Phrygian). Those works
of Palestrina that purport to represent the third or
fourth mode (for instance, the Missa sanctorum ineritis,
Of fertoria nos. 9-15, and 'Vergine' madrigals 3 and 4)
have endings of all main sections on clausulae in ml.
These invariably articulate E in cantus durus (Phrygian)
systems and A in cantus mollis (transposed Phrygian)
systems. The issues surrounding modes 3 and 4 and the
clausula in mi are considered below, pp.217 ff.
19. Mitchell 1970. For a fuller critique of Mitchell's
graph, see my MMus dissertation (Wilde 1990), from which
this and the next two paragraphs are derived.
20. Berger 1980a: 486 ff.
21. The terms clausula cantizans, clausula tenorizans and
clausula basizans are introduced by Meier (1988: 91) to
denote the cadencing voices: these terms are borrowed
55
from Gallus Dressier: Praecepta musicae poeticae (1563)
and elsewhere. Because 'clausula' also refers to the
whole cadence, I prefer the terms vox cantizans, etc. to
denote specific voices. Throughout this study the terms
are used in a broader structural sense, referring to
large-scale archetypal voices prolonged and varied by
means of diminution. See below, pp.103 ff.
22. Zarlino 1558: 183-4 contains the stipulation that perfect
and imperfect consonances should alternate through
contrary motion; Zarlino 1558: 221-5 gives the
definition of cadence and a selection of archetypal
forms. These principles are discussed in Dahlhaus 1967.
23. Schenker's opposition to the tradition of analysing
harmonic function through the theory of inversions was
voiced in his famous polemic 'Rameau oder Beethoven' from
Das Meisterwerk in der Musik (1930). This was emphasised
in Free Composition which contains an explicit attack on
Riemann (1979: 95). However, the traditional antithesis
of Schenker's system as 'contrapuntal' and Riemann's as
'harmonic' is perhaps a little overstated: Schenker's
labelling of chords with numerals almost always
recognizes first inversions (but seldom cadential second
inversions, which tend to be interpreted as dominants
with double suspensions).
56
24. Schenker 1979, fig. 15.1(a) and (b). For analogous
treatments in the case of 5, see Schenker 1979,
fig.16.l(a) and (b).
25. Meyer 1973 offers a reading of an extract from
Beethoven, Sonata Op.81a, based on principles derived
from Gestalt theory. Narmour 1979 attempts a more
rigorous codification of these principles.
26. Hans Leo Hassler, Lustgarten, no.24 (1601). Cited (with a
voice-leading graph) in Schenker 1979: 95 and fig.116.
27. Frederic Chopin, Mazurka, Op.30, no,2. Cited (with a
graph) in Schenker 1979: 131 and fig.152.7.
28. The term 'pre-cadential prolongation' is used here to
designate that part of a structural model preceding the
cadence: here, the C in the top voice, supported by F in
the bass. The term 'unfolding' will be used later in this
study to designate an interval projected by a series of
imitations in the incipit (here, C and F, which are the
initial pitches of the imitative points).
For an alternative graph of the Magnificat, see Ex.4:11
on p.191.
29. Below, pp.152 ff.
30. For a fuller discussion of the implicit processes of
transformation between the Chord of Nature and the
Ursatz, see below, pp.153-S.
57
CHAPTER TWO
CONTEMPORARY ThEORY AND PRACTICE
2.1 Modality versus tonality
The usage of the two terms modality and tonality in the
literature of the last century has often been highly
equivocal and ill-defined. As a result, the analysis of early
music has tended to lack a common set of terminologies with
which to refer unambiguously to pitch organization: in
particular, the investigation of stylistic norms or of pitch
structure in present-day studies of Renaissance music has
tended to be clouded by a tendency to regard the modes and
the principles of major/minor tonality as two discrete
systems, rather than two potentially coexistent aspects of
musical structure.
Until fairly recently, it was common to view the modes
as a historically established, integrated, precompositional
system, providing an a priori framework within which
composers worked: an analogue of the major/minor key system.
Recent musicological research, however, has thrown
58
considerable doubt on this assumption: in particular, the
work of Harold Powers in this field has become so influential
in recent years that his revisionist position has come to
acquire the status of a new orthodoxy. In his early article
on the modality of a Palestrina motet, Powers was unable to
decide with precision on the work's modal category, since the
criteria for the determination of mode according to
contemporary sources were diverse and often mutually
contradictory: eventually the motet was assigned to the
somewhat dubious category of 'Node 1
retroactivel.1
Perhaps
as a result of this equivocation, Powers's subsequent work on
modal theory has been more radical: although his work
continues to focus on modal categories, these are regarded
not as precoinpositional determinants of structure but as ,
posteriori taxonomic resources or rhetorical adjuncts;
indeed, the essence of his position has been the view that
some (if not most) sixteenth-century compositions might not
have been conceived in modal terms at all. 2 Even where
compositions carry explicit modal designations, these do not
always correspond to codifiable aspects of structure such as
cadential orientation: thus the qualification 'primi toni'
does not, as we shall see, always provide a definition of a
work's cadential structure as would a term such as 'in D
minor' in a later (tonal) composition. This musicological
59
revisionism has had profound repercussions for the analysis
of early music: if the system of modes is not an adequate
determinant of large-scale structure in the music of the
period, there remains a significant theoretical lacuna: a
distinct need for new theoretical categories which might
replace the traditional dichotomy of 'tonal' and 'modal'.
The perceived distinction between modality and tonality
underpinned much of the Germanic theory and historiography of
the nineteenth century: indeed, even such apparent opposites
as Hugo Riemann and Heinrich Schenker shared the common
conception that 'modal' and 'tonal' represented the discrete
styles of two periods (with the former implicitly regarded as
a primitive and inferior antecedent of the latter). For
instance, Riemann's consideration of Zarlino's cadential
schemata led him to propose that modality and tonality,
formulated in terms of harmonic progression, represented two
systems of pitch organization, analogous (that is, concerned
with the same musical parameter: harmony) but mutually
exclusive.
Schenker himself proposed a threefold model comprising
the major system (derived from the harmonic series); the
minor system (an artificial development) and the church
inodes. Unfortunately, discussion of the latter is couched in
superficial and almost entirely negative terms, the only
60
developed analysis of a 'modal' piece being of the Heilige
Dankgesang from Beethoven's Op.132 (which in any case is
shown to be controlled by a secure F major tonality despite
its 'Lydian' B naturals; clearly, the distinction between
'modal' and 'tonal' for Schenker does not lie purely in
scalic identity) .
In their extensions of Schenker's methodology to embrace
earlier styles, post-Schenkerian scholars have,
unsurprisingly, preferred to eschew the traditional
modal/tonal dichotomy in favour of an uninterrupted
evolutionary continuum: Felix Salzer, in direct opposition to
Schenker, has even gone so far as to present eleventh-century
organum as the first stage in a 'history of tonality1
6,
while
Peter Bergquist has remarked that 'most Western music is
tonal, and the character of tonality, not the fact of
tonality, is the element that fluctuates'. 7 This more modern
usage of 'tonality' as a broader category embracing
Renaissance compositions is more reminiscent of the French
tradition as exemplified by Ftis than the dualistic
nomenclature of Germanic theory.8
However, the dualistic view of mode and tonality as two
distinct systems of organization remains a fairly prevalent
assumption in a number of more recent analytical writings,
particularly in the United States, where it constitutes, at
61
least in part, a reaction against the positivistic tendencies
of post-Schenkerianism. Leeman Perkins, one of the most
extreme proponents of the view, has suggested that:
"tonal" and "modal" [represent] two mutually exclusive
directions ... cadential formulas did not serve to set a
goal ... for the point of conclusion was not cadentially
determined: rather the rules simply provided for
handling such a [melodic] termination in a manner that
makes it immediately perceptible to the listener, a sort
of contrapuntal punctuation for the structural syntax of
the work.
(Perkins 1973: 193)
For Perkins, this 'structural syntax' is essentially a
monophonic one, in which the harmonic and contrapuntal
elements of a polyphonic composition are subordinated to the
melodic dimension, rather in the manner of the harmonization
of a theme. His methodology seems pertinent to the analysis
of pieces built around precomposed tenors, but becomes more
problematic when applied to late Renaissance polyphony whose
voices have equal melodic prominence within a many-stranded
texture, and thus lacks a means of explicating the means by
which voices are integrated contrapuntally.
Susan McClary, whose early work on Monteverdi is
similarly concerned with the traditional duality of 'modal'
and 'tonal', offers selected madrigals as evidence of an
evolutionary transition from one to the other. 9 Like Perkins,
McClary identifies a monophonic line (invariably a descent
through the diapente in what she terms the 'mode-bearing
62
voice') as the most fundamental constituent feature of the
modal style, while the polyphonic support is more variable
and (consequently) structurally subordinate. For McClary,
however, 'modal' does not imply an absence of directed
motion; indeed, it depends upon a finalis for its definition.
Further, it is the contrapuntal treatment of the structural
line, most specifically with regard to the harmonization of
the fourth degree, which distinguishes the 'modal' from the
'tonal' in McClary's formulation.
These disparities in theories of mode and tonality are
exacerbated partly by the divergence between
historiographical and theoretical usages: the use of the
terms to define stylistic eras in the manner of 'Renaissance'
- or 'Baroque' stands in potential contrast with their
application to specific musical parameters that are
potentially co-existent. As a generalized working definition
of the two terms, it might be proposed that 'tonality' should
refer to any system governing large-scale pitch centricity or
hierarchy of pitches, leaving 'mode' to refer to a piece's
scalic content and to the disposition of tones and semitones
within the octave. Such a definition would be compatible
with, for instance, Schenker's view of the major/minor shift
(mixture) as a change of mode rather than a change of key.'
However, it will be clear from the following remarks on
63
sixteenth-century treatises that contemporaneous theories of
mode were concerned not only with scalic distribution but
with broader issues such as affective representation, rhythm,
large-scale cadential orientation, cadential hierarchy,
motivic content and overall tessitura. Thus the contemporary
theories of modality embraced far more than 'mode' in its
narrowest sense of scalic disposition: indeed, sixteenth-
century modal theory in all its diverse forms might best be
regarded as an all-encompassing category which (in its
considerations of cadential orientation and hierarchy)
embraced, at least in part, an implicit theory of tonality.I2
Thus, if one accepts that the modal theory of the time
includes the consideration of large-scale voice-leading
towards goals ('tonal' behaviour), one must draw two
conclusions: first, that the traditional dichotomy between
'modal' and 'tonal' systems is a false one (arguably, a
definition of paradigmatic voice-leading norms for various
historical styles is ultimately more precise than a
vocabulary corroded by equivocal usage); and secondly, that
Renaissance ideas are far more pertinent to the formulation
of a general theory than the reductive empiricists of the
Salzerian school would have us believe, since they may
provide valuable clues to the nature of historically-grounded
stylistic norms.
64
2.2 Sixteenth-century views of mode
Those contemporary writers that concern themselves
with large-scale structure and with the notion of stylistic
norms invariably invoke, in some form, the medieval concept
of mode. The concept is embraced either as a means of
classifying pre-existent repertory for didactic purposes, or
as part of a theory of rhetoric in which the modes are
regarded as affective topoi. In the former category, Pietro
Aron's treatise of 1525 on the modes and their recognition
(Trattato della natura di tutti gli tuoni di canto figurato)
employs the medieval eight-mode system as a means of
assigning pre-existent repertory to specific categories.
Engaging principally with the mass and motet repertory of
Josquin des Prez, Aron formulates a set of principles by
which the mode of a polyphonic composition might be
identified. Since the criteria for determining a mode are
principally the range and final of the precomposed tenor of a
work, irrespective of cadential centricity, it might be
expected that Aron's classifications are less pertinent to
freely-composed music, especially that composed after the
death of Josquin, than to strictly chant-based repertories.
Moreover, recent attempts to employ Aron's loosely-defined
criteria as an empirical means of determining modality have
65
met with a number of ambiguous or unclassifiable cases, even
within the output of Josquin.3-2
The relation of mode to large-scale cadential behaviour
in Aron is likewise characterized by a certain vagueness, as
has been pointed out by Bernhard Meier among others. 2- 3 While
a mode may be associated with certain cadence-pitches in
preference to others (for instance, a third-mode piece is
more likely to form cadences on E or A, especially at
sectional endings), the final cadence pitch of a work need
not coincide with the modal finalis. 2-
1)7/ - - - 3 -ie-cinei. b -u31)11 - J-T-it me--'. D (46.
Ex.2:l. Miserere mel, Deus: ending of tertia pars.
66
Josquin's celebrated motet Miserere meL, Deus, for
instance, was assigned by Aron to the third mode (despite its
ending on a modified cadence on A) principally on account of
the range of the tenor ostinato in the prima and secunda
partes, but perhaps also because of the melodic content of
the ostinato, with its initial semitonal motion (E-F-E):2-5
Mi- - -- - -- -
me - --2e -- - -a . , c
Ex.2:2. Miserere mei, Deus: incipit
Aron's broad classification of works, in order to distil
from them certain stylistic norms, contrasts markedly with
the more systematic schemata proposed by later theorists.
Zarlino, in the fourth book of the Istitutioni hariuoniche,
for example, suggests that each mode was associated with a
threefold hierarchy of cadence-pitches that determined its
identity: the clausula prilnaria, clausula secundaria and
clausula tertiaria (generally on the first, fifth and third
degrees respectively in modes other than the third and
fourth). 2- 6 Aron, on the other hand, offers a less
prescriptive view of mode in which even the final cadence is
variable within a particular modal designation (for example,
6 7
E or A in Phrygian; G or C in Mixolydian). Thus, Zarlino's
schematic method represented a move away from the concept of
mode as a purely taxonomic resource towards a theory that
attempted to define large-scale cadential structure in modal
terms.
To what extent, therefore, can the theories of mode as
proposed by contemporary writers be presented as a starting-
point for the development of our theoretical paradigm of
voice-leading structure, and to what extent can they be
considered as reflections of contemporary practice? Since the
sixteenth century lacked the vocabulary of tonal theory, it
is in the concept of mode that Renaissance theory most
closely approaches the consideration of large-scale pitch
centricity. Both in Aron's loosely hierarchical designations
of regular and irregular cadence-pitches within each mode,
and in Zarlino's more rigid schemata of the cadence-
formations proper to each mode, the points of repose (as
articulated by final and internal cadential formulae)
constitute one of the defining features of a mode. Indeed,
this close relationship between modality and cadential
centricity has led one commentator to identify 'a well-
developed sense of tonal relationships within the system of
four modes' even in those theories (such as Aron's) in which
the relationship between mode and cadential structure is
68
loosely defined.
The implicit 'tonal relationships' inherent in the modal
systems may be discussed with reference to a much later
example of musical criticism: Artusi's famous critique of the
Monteverdi madrigal '0 Mirtillo, anima iuia' (whose incipit
and final cadence are given as Ex.2:3). 3- 8 Although the
madrigal lies slightly outside the historical scope of this
study, Artusi's frequently- cited remarks provide an
analytical example of the relationship between mode and
cadential structure as understood by late sixteenth- century
writers.- Artusi employs the general rules of the modal
system, as inherited from Zarlino, as a basis for an attack
on Monteverdi's compositional technique. Here it is evident
that for Artusi, the concept of modal identity is dependent
on that of cadential centricity, not only on the level of the
whole piece (in the relationship between incipit and final
cadence) but also more locally. Artusi's characterization of
the incipit as 'impertinentia d'un principio', for instance,
suggests that the first cadence (on F) is incompatible with
the final cadential articulation of D; 2 thus the opening of
the work appears incongruous only retrospectively, in the
context of a large- scale G or D centricity. While it is
evident that Monteverdi's madrigal deviates violently from
the structural norms that underpin Artusi's concept of
69
modality, it is less clear whether these structural norms
correspond to the modal rules laid down by earlier theorists
or to some undefined sense of 'tonal relationship'.
0I.
0_,mte4---,i -a.!
0 Mr-----to,
/vfr-tiui 4 - ( U .- ( ( ' 4 .1fl.4- - a.
-,*
-9--9--#-
r-
..1 ' I

41r tL --tofur -tctta.. - lu. - illO.. ((U.

_____
J J
1j
0ITh( -tiL- - -Los '$le.tiu' 4 - ,- ,no. ,ni.- - a.
0M;rttL - - - 'r0,
,411r-tiW. - - ru. - 'no.- - a. !
per- -fi -do Airo - - - ic
per-f-
f
coAf o--
er -
I - fl - -
c-
-?
----doA_-
Ex.2:3. '0 Mirtillo': opening and closure.
For instance, if the cadential structure of '0 Mirtillo' were
analysed according to the much earlier modal system of Aron,
the supposedly deviant cadence- pitches would not be
70
considered 'imperfect' at all, but entirely regular: Aron
(whose designation of cadence-pitches proper to each mode is
far more catholic than that of later theorists) draws a loose
distinction between the regular and irregular cadence-pitches
within each mode: 2 2 -
Mode

Regular

Irregular
cadence pitches

cadence pitches
1

DFGA

EBC
2

CDFGA

EB
3

E F GA BC

D
4

CD E F GA

B
5

FAC

D EGB
6

CD FA

EGB
7

GABCD

EF
8

DFGC

EAB
In the eighth mode, the putative domain of '0 Mirtillo', Aron
allows four 'regular' cadence pitches; these are derived from
the empirical observation of selected works by Josquin des
Prez. Since they include both D (the final cadence of the
piece though not the modal finalis) and F (the cadential
7 1
focus of the first line of the madrigal), it might be
concluded that Nonteverdi's supposedly deviant structure did
in fact conform with the old (loosely-defined) norms of modal
theory set out by Aron. However, Artusi's observations would
appear to be grounded not in earlier theoretical expositions
of modal behaviour, but rather in the more recent
prescriptive modal classifications of Zarlino, and in his own
aural expectations of long-range voice-leading: it might even
be suggested that Artusi considers Monteverdi deviant not
simply because he infringes historical rules of modality, but
because he departs from some undefined archetype of aural
expectation that was implicit in Artusi's concept of mode but
beyond the scope of the traditional vocabulary of modal
theory. Zarlino's rules are consequently invoked not ,
priori, as a basis for objective criticism, but as an attempt
to vindicate, a posteriori, Artusi's own adverse reaction to
the aural challenges posed by a work like '0 !4irtillo'.
In other words, if we define 'mode' as the disposition
of tones and semitones within the octave in an individual
voice together with the ambitus of that voice (a far narrower
definition than any that contemporary theory offers) and
'tonality' as the principle of goal-directed motion towards a
cadence, whether final or internal (a commensurately broader
definition than that provided by the Schenkerian system), we
72
must conclude that the incongruity identif led by Artusi is
essentially one of tonal, rather than modal, behaviour.
Similarly, according to this broad definition of tonal
centricity, it may be argued that many of the theoretical
writings of the period, from Zarlino onwards, constitute
attempts to formulate a theory not merely of modal, but of
tonal activity.
The assigning of pieces to particular modes is
especially problematic in works written after 1550, since the
development of a theory of twelve modes (by Glarean and
subsequently by Zarlino) conflicted with a parallel but
opposite tendency of composers to arrange works into eight-
mode cycles, beginning with Cipriano da Rore's 'Vergine'
cycle and extending to the Of fertoria and Madrigali
Spirituali of Palestrina. 22 The expansion of the eight-mode
system to a twelve-mode system in Glarean's Dodekachordon
represented an attempt to rationalize the existence (already
widespread) of cadential closures on A and C. One might
conclude from this addition of four modes that cadential
orientation had become one of the primary defining features
of a mode. In a monophonic melody, the mode was to be
identif led by the octave species of the chant, by its
concluding pitch (finalis), and by the location of a
secondary point of repose (confinalis) either a fifth or a
73
fourth above or below the finalis. In polyphony, the
identification of mode was more complex: in works based
either on a liturgical cantus firmus or a freely-composed
cantus prius factus. the mode of the entire work was equated
with that of the tenor (one salient exception is
Miserere inei. Deus, whose mode was identified as Aeolian
despite the Phrygian range and E-finalis of the tenor
ostinato in the prima and secunda partes, and despite the
deviations from the pitches of the modal scale in other
voices of the texture). 23 Clearly, the modal theories
expounded in the Dodekachordon are applicable only to those
pieces that employ the tenor as a precompositional donnee,
and would fail to account for the means by which composers
(especially after 1550, when cantus firmus technique, at
least in continental repertories, began to decline) achieved
long-range unity and goal-directed motion within a
contrapuntal context. Moreover, the normative status of
Glarean's model even for the behaviour of the tenor in each
of the twelve modes is open to question. In his discussion of
the deviant aspects of Josquin's inotet Victiinae
paschali laudes, for instance, Glarean applies his rules to
the tenor part:
Tenor autem ditono profundius serpit quam poscit
Hypodorii forma, sed id solita facit licentia author.2'
(Glarean 1547, bk.3, chap.24)
74
Thus the tenor is said to deviate from the established rules
of modality by moving outside the ambitus of the second mode,
even though Glarean's modal norms were formulated after the
work's composition: an example of the anachronistic relation
of sixteenth-century theory to contemporary practice.
The meaning of the term 'forma' in this and similar
contexts is somewhat equivocal: Zarlino, who derived many of
the modal concepts (including the twelve-mode system) from
Glarean, employs the term to embrace cadential centricity,
although it is evident that 'forma' here is far more
inclusive, encompassing vocal ambitus and the location of the
points of melodic repose within the range of each voice
(Strunk's translation 'form' is potentially misleading):
For although some would have us judge a composition by
its final (as by its end and not what precedes it),
seeing that everything is rightly judged by or in its
end, it does not follow from this that we may come to
recognise the mode on which a composition is based by
this alone. Thus we ought to believe, not that we may
judge by this alone, but that we must wait until the
composition has reached its end and then judge it
rightly, that is, by its form [forma], for the
composition is then complete and has its form, which is
the occasion of our judgment.
(Zarlino 1558, bk.4, chap.30
[in Strunk 1950:253])
Zarlino's remark that 'everything is rightly judged by or in
its end' suggests a teleological view of music in which the
overall structure of a work can be determined only
75
retrospectively after the final cadence: a striking
vindication of the goal-directed analysis pursued here.
However, it is evident that, while the final cadence is a
contributory factor in a work's supposed modality, the mode
presumably manifests itself through factors other than
cadential orientation. Indeed, Zarlino goes on to identify
two motets that conclude with cadence-pitches other than the
modal finalis: Verdelot's Si bona suscepimus and Willaert's
0 Invidia.25
Although Zarlino's Istitutioni harinoniche adopts
Glarean's system of twelve modes rather than the older eight,
the role of the modal system within the pedagogic
presentation of the theory is dramatically altered, so that
the presentation of the twelve modes in the fourth book
appears after the exposition of the basic rules of
counterpoint, dissonance treatment and cadence, suggesting
once again that although there was an close correlation
between modal identity and cadential orientation, the latter
was by no means the sole determinant of the former.
Montanos's Arte de Musica, briefly mentioned in the
preceding chapter, is essentially a pedagogical text which
offers a pragmatic approach to contrapuntal technique rather
than a more abstractly philosophical contemplation of the
modal system. In this treatise, the modes are assigned to a
76
final chapter ('De lugares comunes'), where they assume the
status of rhetorical commonplaces, or generic types, rather
than prerequisites of compositional procedure. In this
respect Montanos follows Zarlino in postponing the exposition
of the modes until after that of contrapuntal procedure.
Indeed, the Arte de musica deals with modes very briefly; by
contrast, Montanos devotes the far larger foregoing sections
('de Contrapunto' and 'de Compostura') to a consideration of
cadence both in its basic two-part form (cantizans and
tenorizans) and in elaborately diminished forms in three,
four and five parts. The cadence and its expansion by
diminution technique thus form two basic precompositional
resources, to which mode forms a rhetorical adjunct. Only
briefly does Montanos consider the extent to which mode
should determine a composer's choice of cadence-pitches, and
even here it seems more likely that 'tono', mentioned in the
context of psalm-settings, refers to the eight psalm-tones
rather than to the more nebulously defined system of modes:
Ningun tono ay pie no tenga dos signos doride hazer
clausula, una principal, o primera, y otra segunda, y a
veces otra que ilaman inter media. La primera en cada
tono es la que haze en el signo donde fenece. Y la
segunda, en los inaestros quinta arriba, excepto el
tercero, que es sexta arriba. La segunda, en los
dicipulos, segundo, y sexto, en tercera y quinta arriba,
y quarto, y octavo, en quarta.2
(Montanos 1592, 'de Compostura': fol.3v.)
77
This evolution of the status of modal theory from a
precompositional, normative system (Glarean) to a rhetorical
topos (Montanos) is reflected in the changing status of mode
in sixteenth-century compositions. In particular, Montanos,
for whom Palestrina represents a locus classicus (and the
source of some of the examples from the Arte de mnusica)
returns to the eight-mode medieval system, reflecting the
tendency of Palestrina's later works to show explicit signs
of ordering into eight-mode systems. In both the 'Vergine'
cycle of Madrigali s pirituali (1582) and the first thirty-two
motets in the cycle of Of fertoria (1593), the individual
pieces are ordered into eight-mode cycles (the relationship
between voice-leading and modal representation in these
pieces will be considered in a later chapter).
One aspect of modal arrangement in these cycles has
perplexed recent theorists, however, and demands
consideration here: the consistent representation of Mode 1
(in 'Vergine bella' and Offertoria 1-4) by a structure that
moves towards a cadential articulation of A rather than the
more common D (or G intus mnollis systems). An Aeolian
reading of these pieces according to Glarean's twelve-mode
system would undermine the cyclical arrangement of the sets,
while a reading in transposed Dorian would demand a
musica recta F# which is absent from Palestrina's score (and
78
which is not, in any case, a part of contemporary
compositional practice, since there existed no convention of
'sharpwise' transposition of Dorian types as an analogue of
the 'flatwise' transposition to a Mode 1 with finalis G and
cantus mollis system).
In his consideration of this problem in harmonic terms,
Carl Dahihaus has offered the intermediate view that 'the
Aeolian finalis is intended as the Dorian confinalit', and
goes on to propose a two-sided view of Renaissance tonality,
in which the D-A finalis/confinalis relationship represents
an irreducible conflict between a 'subdominant-to-tonic'
structure in A and a 'tonic-to-dominant' one in D. 27 Although
Dahlhaus's formulations are essentially harmonic rather than
post-Schenkerian, the terminologies 'tonic', 'dominant' and
'subdominant' nevertheless suggest a hierarchy of structural
stability in which the 'subdominant' and 'dominant' acquire
their meaning only in terms of a controlling tonic triad.
However, it may be argued that the concept of a controlling
tonic is itself inapplicable to the sixteenth-century
repertory: if, as intimated above, the structures of the
Renaissance are independent of a 'Chord of Nature', it might
be more appropriate to characterize a piece like the first
Offertorium not in terms of two competing 'tonics' (D versus
A) but simply as an open-ended structure outlining an
79
asymmetrical bass motion of a fourth from D to A. (The issue
of open-ended backgrounds will be discussed at greater length
below, where the term 'semi-open type' will be formally
introduced as a means of categorizing such pieces.)28
Any generalized formulation, whether of a harmonic kind
(like that of Dahihaus) or of a contrapuntal kind as pursued
here, demands a departure from the formulations of any one
contemporary theorist, since the twelve-mode system of
Glarean and Zarlino and the eight-mode system of Aron and
Montanos would result in conflicting analytical findings.
Similarly, Dahihaus's inescapable conclusion that a
confinalis might represent as stable a conclusion as a
finalis when articulated cadentially at the end of a work or
section, seems to contradict the prevalent view of finalis
and confinalis as primary and secondary cadential centres and
determinants of modal identity. 29 In short, the empirical
observation of contemporary practice, even in those pieces
that purport to represent one or more of the Greek modes,
stands in opposition to the wholesale application of
contemporary theory as a normative model.
2.3 Discrepancies in theories of mode
In any attempt to formulate a truly normative system of
80
long-range structure founded on the theories of mode, the
sixteenth-century theoretical controversies on the subject
are likely to prevent the development of a theory based on
the generalizations of any one sixteenth-century writer.
Glarean's twelve-mode system, designed primarily as a means
of assimilating those pieces with final cadences on A and C
within a comprehensive taxonoinic system, did not supersede
the traditional eight-mode system either in theoretical
writings or in composers' cyclical orderings. Rather, the
systematic eight-mode motet cycles by Palestrina and Lassus
after 1580 suggest a revival of the original system while
retaining some examples of the A and C closures that would be
regarded as either Aeolian or lonlan in the twelve-mode
system. In addition, the distinction between authentic and
plagal modes in a polyphonic composition was subject to
shifting interpretations throughout the century. Aron's
monophonically-grounded theory most easily accommodates the
distinction, since the mode is to be determined by the
ambitus of the tenor relative to the finalis. In later
theory, however, pieces are ascribed modal identities even if
they lack a precomposed tenor. Such pieces pose a greater
problem for the modal taxonomist, in that works whose tenor
and cantus voices occupy an authentic range will tend to have
altus and bassus parts in the plagal range, and vice versa.
81
Aron, however, sustains the distinction with reference to
cadential structure (observing differences between regular
cadence-pitches, particularly in the seventh and eighth
modes, where Mode 8, unlike Mode 7, permits a cadential
articulation of the seventh degree), while Montanos goes
further in identifying the pitch D as the secondary cadential
focus in Mode 7, and C in Mode 8.
Similarly, the debate as to whether the medieval eight-
mode system represented a genuine reflection of the Greek
modal system throws further doubt on the status of mode as a
precompositional norm: Zarlino contrasts the medieval D-
Dorian system with the (no less spurious) Greek C-Dorian
system, 3 - while the preface to Monteverdi's eighth book of
madrigals (albeit somewhat too late for our present purposes)
suggests that an A-Dorian and G-Phrygian system underlies the
affective symbolism of these two cadence-pitches in the
eighth book itself. 3 2 Thus, the discrepancies in the
structural status assigned to the modes take four distinct
forms that may be briefly summarized:
1. The dichotomy of eight-mode and twelve-mode systems.
2. The differing extents to which theorists presented the
modes as determinants of cadential structure (especially
with regard to the subsidiary cadence-pitch or
confinalis).
82
3. The varying relationship of contemporary modal theory
to the growing consciousness of the ancient Greek modes.
4. The changing status of modal identity from a means of
classification (Aron, Glarean) to a rhetorical topos
(Zarlino and, to a greater extent, Montanos).
2.4 Mode and cadence theory
Since the status of modality and its relation to large-
scale pitch structure in Renaissance polyphony were subject
to considerable flux during the sixteenth century, and since
no two theorists were able to agree as to how the cadence -
the most basic means of resolving tension at the conclusion
of a work as well as the primary means of sectional
articulation - was to be related to a piece's modal identity,
one might legitimately question the extent to which modal
theory should form the basis of a normative system of voice-
leading for the repertory of the period. This is not to
demean the importance of mode as a rhetorical adjunct
(representing textual affect) or as a means of ordering
individual pieces within sets and cycles; indeed, a later
part of this study will consider how certain modal identities
are projected by specific types of background model in those
cyclic works of Palestrina which display modal ordering.33
83
Rather, it is to suggest that certain norms of cadential
behaviour informed Renaissance musicians' view of mode, so
that an investigation of structural norms might more
legitimately begin with a study of sixteenth-century cadence
theory itself.
While modal theories of the period are diverse and often
mutually contradictory, reflecting the changing status of
mode in contemporary compositions, the theory of cadence
remained relatively stable. In formulating a generalized
theory of cadential behaviour for this period, the
terminology proposed by Bernhard Meier, derived from
seventeenth-century theorists, provides a useful nomenclature
for the normative voices in a cadential formula. 3 A cadence
was essentially a two-voice construct (Ex.2:4) consisting of
a vox tenorizans (the descent to the cadence-pitch
corresponding broadly to what Schenker termed the Urlinie)
and a vox cantizans (the voice bearing the leading-note that
was normally modified by musica ficta accidentals in
cadential articulations of D, A and G).
_-* vc
-Tht___
__
'er
1
P__fr
tala
I
p
Io
i -___1I
Il
I
VT
Ex.2:4. Two-part cadential models in simplest form.
84
a ) b)
A third voice, the vox ba siza ns (corresponding broa dly
to Schenker's Ba ssbrechung) , forms a n optiona l support or
reinforcement to the ba sic ca dentia l motion ra ther tha n (a s
in la ter tona l pra ctice) a necessa ry prerequisite for
ca dentia l closure; indeed, it is the role of the ba ss voice
tha t forms the vita l distinction between sixteenth-century
polyphonic pra ctice a nd eighteenth-century tona lity (a
distinction not a lwa ys recognized by those who ha ve sought to
a pply the Schenkeria n methodology to works which a nteda te the
evolution of the thoroughba ss a s a n indispensa ble component
of voice-lea ding structure) . Although the older form of the
vox ba siza ns, in which the ba ss voice lea ps by a n octa ve
(Ex.2:5a ) still occurs in the cha nsons of the ea rly pa rt of
the sixteenth century, the vox ba siza ns, where present,
genera lly ta kes the form corresponding to the modern I-V-I in
mid-century polyphony (Ex.2:5b) :
Older:

MoSer, fcrvv%. :
Ex.2:5. Modern a nd older forms of ca dence with a dded
vox ba siza ns.
85
A fourth voice, the vox altizans, is mentioned by a
number of contemporary theorists; however, it will be largely
disregarded in this study of structural norms, firstly
because it is the one voice which does not generally contain
the cadence-pitch itself, and secondly because the y
altizans, as defined by theorists, takes so many varied forms
that it must be regarded as a form of textural and harmonic
enrichment rather than as a part of a normative archetype.
In general terms, however, the altizans articulates the pitch
a fifth above the cadence-pitch (except in the Phrygian or
type, where such a formula would result in ml contra fa).
Although sixteenth-century theorists share a common view
of the cadence as a fundamentally two-voice construct, the
presentation of cadences in theoretical texts show a great
degree of flexibility in the means by which a cadence might
be articulated and elaborated. Gailus Dressler, for instance,
presents two standard models of cadence (clausula) in which
the vox tenorizans and vox cantizans move towards either an
octave (where the cantizans lies in the cantus and the
tenorizans in the tenor) or a unison (where the parts are
inverted); although the nomenclature of the structural voices
is derived from that of the literal voices as represented in
the score, Dressier recognizes a discrepancy in the use of
the term 'vox' in its literal and structural senses.35
86
Zarlino's slightly earlier definition of cadential closure,
while avoiding the explicit labelling of voices, is
essentially identical but expressed intervallically: the
motion towards the octave or unison is interpreted as a
manifestation of the regola delle terze e seste, in which an
imperfect consonance must move to a perfect consonance by
contrary motion:
Ex.2:6. Cadences as a manifestation of the rule of thirds
and sixths.
In Montanos, the diminished structural importance
assigned to the eight modes is balanced by a vastly increased
exposition of cadential theory, together with a theory of
diminution which adumbrates the five-species model of Fux.36
VT
VT
Clausula remissaClausula sustenida
Ex.2:7. cadential models in Montanos: Arte de Musica.
87
Ex.2:8. Four-part treatment of a clausula remissa.
Although the two-part cadential models proposed by Montanos
(Ex.2:7) are identical to Zarlino's, he provides a more
thoroughgoing didactic presentation of the composition of
cadences in three, four and finally five parts in which the
vox tenorizans formula is carried by cantus, altus and bassus
as well as by the tenor itself. In addition, Montanos
observes a fundamental distinction between the
clausula sustenida (where the semitone lies in the
vox cantizans; this includes the cadential articulations of
all pitches except E and B in cantus durus and A in
cantus mollis systems) and the clausula remissa (where the
semitone lies in the tenorizans; this form is normally termed
a Phrygian cadence, although Montanos gives examples of the
88
type in other modal contexts). 37 That the term 'remissa'
suggests his perception of this cadential type as a less
stable ending is borne out by the rhythmically weak feminine
endings and evaded cadences that occur in his examples
( E x. 2 : 8 ).
By contrast with Zarlino, who minimizes the distinction
between Phrygian and non-Phrygian cadential types in an
attempt to assimilate the Phrygian species into a uniform
system of twelve modes, Montanos emphasises the uniqueness of
the Phrygian type and accords it special theoretical
consideration. 38
The most striking advance of Montanos's
cadential models over those of Zarlino, however, lies in his
conception of cadence as a basic compositional resource,
subject to many forms of expansion by diminution ( a
forerunner of Schenker's concept of prolongation). Diminution
theory in the Arte de musica takes the form of a tripartite
scheme in which the three species ( maneras) correspond
broadly to the first three species of Fuxian counterpoint
( with the exception that each species permits a combination
of the note-values of the preceding species, thus obviating
the need for a composite species answering to Fux's fifth).
Montanos does not propose a manera with suspensions
corresponding to Fux's fourth species ( the suspension
represents a rhythmic displacement rather than a true
89
diminution).
This brief survey of cadential theory in conjunction
with the theory of modes would suggest that in both
theoretical strands there is a tendency of the later
theorists to attempt to establish systems that are
structurally hierarchic. In place of the loose relation of
mode to cadence-pitch suggested by Aron, in which a single
modal line may by transformed contrapuntally into a wide
variety of cadentially-oriented structures, the later studies
surveyed here offer three primary means by which cadences may
be subject to hierarchic differentiation: first, the
identification of the vox basizans as a reinforcing voice
suggests that the three-voice cadence was accorded a certain
rhetorical strength, or sense of finality, relative to the
two-voice cadence (a principle evident in the progressive
arrangement of cadences from simple two-voice to full three-
voice forms in those Josquin motets that contain continuous
repetitions of cadences on one pitch). 9 Secondly, Montanos's
distinction between sustenida and remissa implies a
distinction between the relative stability of the two forms.
Although the clausula remissa appears as the final cadence in
contemporary representations of the third and fourth modes
(Victoria's Missa cuarti toni of 159 2, for instance, uses the
'weaker' Phrygian cadential type consistently at sectional
9 0
endings), Montanos's position perhaps reflects a contemporary
tendency to hear the Phrygian cadential type as somewhat
incomplete, and even as an archaism. 4 Thirdly, the
implicitly hierarchic nature of later sixteenth-century
systems manifests itself in a tendency to distinguish between
primary, secondary and anomalous cadence-pitches as a means
of articulating modal identity (it has been mentioned,
however, that the widely divergent nature of these
designations makes it impossible to draw from them any true
'background' norms). Such hierarchic systems suggest that
even when a piece involves a cominixtio modorum or clausula
peregrina (mode-change or aberrant cadence), it must still
preserve the features of the principal mode at a deeper
level. This hierarchic view of structure is suggested in the
modal theory of Calvisius (quoted by Dahlhaus in a different
context):
propria igitur clausula, cum ubique in principio,
medio et fine, cuiuslibet Harmoniae locum habeat, ne per
alias clausulas, in aliuin atque aliuin Modum deducatur, sed
ut ubique verus Modus conspicuus sit.-
(Calvisius 1602, ch.18)
This idea of the 'true mode' (verus Modus) being evident at
all times, despite the permissible articulation of subsidiary
cadence pitches, suggests not only an overriding concept of
structural unity and coherence, but also a more subtle notion
91
of double meaning, through which an internal cadence may be
perceived simultaneously as a mutatio modi at a local level,
and as a manifestation of the true mode at a more extended
level (since the subsidiary cadence is enclosed between
cadences on the 'true' modal finalis).
2.5 The cadence as structural background
The central position occupied by cadential theory within
the corpus of sixteenth-century theoretical treatises, as
well as the consistency of its theoretical treatment,
suggests that the cadence forms the single normative
principle of organization in those works which lack an
obvious precompositional basis, such as a regular tenor
derived from plainchant. Such cantus firmus compositions,
particularly those before Josquin and those of the English
school, may occasionally contain consistent cadential
formulae of the type codified by sixteenth-century writers,
but in examples where the ending of a chant fails to conform
to the model of the vox tenorizans (that is, to descend in a
linear fashion to the finalis), the tenor itself must be
granted the status of the normative background (since the
contemporary familiarity with the melodic line is assumed to
form the basis of the cognitive principles of good
92
continuation and aural expectation). One such instance is
Taverner's famous Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas, whose expanded
cantus firmus approaches the finalis, D, by means of the
lower pitch C. Here, a cadentially-grounded analysis of the
piece might therefore locate the closure at a point too far
removed from the termination of the chant to be rhetorically
convincing. 42 By contrast, the use of cantus firmus technique
in the continental polyphony of the second half of the
century occurs not only rarely, but in modified forms that
reflect the subordination of the cantus firmus to the
cadential motion as a primary organizing principle (one such
example, Palestrina's Missa Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, will be
analysed later in some detail).43
The theoretical expositions and analyses which form the
basis of the present study will take as their starting-point
the hypothesis that the linear motion towards a cadence in
two main structural voices, as defined by sixteenth-century
theory, may be expanded to form a structural background that
operates as a normative principle of organization in the
polyphonic repertory of the period. Although this hypothesis
has its roots in Schenker's concept of the expanded cadence
(Ursatz) as a structural paradigm, the main points of
deviation from Schenker lie in the abandonment of the
principle of the Bassbrechung (since contemporary sources
93
make it evident that the vox cantizans and vox tenorizans
have historical primacy over the optional vox basizans) and
of the Chord of Nature (which restricts the choice of
AA
A
possible head-notes [Kopftbne) to 3, 5, and 8). This
reformulation of Schenker's theory according to first
principles necessarily involves a methodological difficulty
in the choice of head-note, since sixteenth-century theory
provides normative ground-rules only for the last two notes
of the vox tenprizans (the structural motion -1), leaving a
far wider choice of pre-cadential prolongations in the tenor
than in the three syntactical formulations of common-practice
tonality. Although linear motions through the diapente,
AAAAA
corresponding to Schenker's 5-4-3-2-1, are so common in the
madrigalian style of around 1600 that some writers have
granted them the status of a structural norm, the linear
motion through a third (--1) represents a more basic
pattern that allows the vox tenorizans to operate within a
smaller ambitus (the relation of a piece's ambitus to the
choice of head-note will be discussed in a subsequent
chapter) .
94
1% A-'
87-8
rAA '
I
L4-2
I
- ' A
8 -
1A
A
2-7-8
I
I
I
I
IA

A
a ) b)
C)
- N---I
AA
3Z I
Disjunct tenoriza ns

Bidirectiona l tenoriza ns
Ex.2:9. Possible a na lytica l interpreta tions of a disjunct or
bidirectiona l vox tenoriza ns.
In a ddition to these two ca dentia l descents,
contempora ry theorists recognize two further types of y
tenoriza ns: the motion through a fourth, either with or
without a third degree linking the sca le-degrees 4 a nd 2
(Ex.2:9a ) , a nd the a scending a nd descending second (1-2-1)
95
which occupies no tonal space above the finalis (Ex.2:9b) but
simply provides a symmetrical prolongation of the cadence-
pitch. 4 In both of these forms, the presentation of the
cadence in sixteenth-century treatises is confined to a local
context, so that the form shown at Ex.2:9a may often be
regarded as an elaboration of a linear background descent by
the addition of an incomplete upper neighbour, as in the
closure of the Lassus prologue (Ex.2:9c), while the form at
Ex.2:9b will tend to represent a prolongation of a larger
descending motion (Ex.2:9d). In both cases, the preference
for stepwise motion in one direction over leaping motions (Z-
-I) and bidirectional motions (1--I) in the vox tenorizans
is observed here as a consistent methodological principle.
2.6 Conclusions
The theory of the sixteenth century, in its divergent
attempts to formulate systematic archetypes, concerned itself
with two primary aspects of pitch-structure: modality and
cadence. These two preoccupations have formed the bases of
the majority of recent analytical studies of Renaissance
polyphony: on the one hand, modal analyses of melody (such as
those proposed by Perkins) adhere closely to the monothematic
concept of modality espoused by Glarean; yet modal theory
96
after 1550 appears to have been wider in its scope,
encompassing larger questions of cadential hierarchy (Zarlino
and Montanos) and structural unity (Calvisius) that remain
largely untouched by Glarean. Similarly, the monodimensional
cadential analyses by Bernhard Meier and Charles Dill, for
instance, provide accurate descriptive lists of cadences in
motets by Josquin and Mouton; yet these are essentially
piece-specific and lack a means of showing the points at
which the works conform to, or deviate from, established
norms
It is hoped, then, that the adoption of Schenker's
principle of a normative background, redefined in terms of
the large-scale motion towards a cadence in two voices, will
provide a more secure definition of those norms of voice-
leading expectation that are implicit (to a greater or lesser
extent) in the modal theories of Zarlino, Montanos, Calvisius
and Artusi; in other words, the norms against which the more
revolutionary compositions of the turn of the century may be
evaluated.
97
Notes to Chapter 2
1. Powers 1975: 46.
2. In particular, Powers 1982. The concept of tonal type is
discussed below, pp.163-5.
3. Riemann 1920: 126 ff. For critical surveys of Riemann's
treatment of Zarlino, see Mickelsen 1977: 6-8.
4. Schenker 1973: 133-6.
5. Schenker 1973: 137 ff.
6. Saizer 1967: 35-6.
7. Bergquist 1967: 100. For critiques, see Schulenberg 1985-6
and below,
pp.
272-4.
8. Ftis (1844), in his discussion of Monteverdi, invokes the
pluralistic concept of tonalit, divided into several
ordres: the ordre unitonique refers to sixteenth-century
polyphony; the ordre transitonique to Monteverdi.
9. McClary 1976. The madrigals analysed in the greatest
detail come from Books 4 and 5: Ah dolente partita, Anima
mia perdona, and Cruda Amarilli.
10. Schenker 1979: 40.
11. See above, p.70.
12. Judd 1992: 431-4.
13. Meier 1988: 105-6.
14. Aron 1525, chaps.9-12, summarized succinctly in Meier
98
1988: 105-6.
15. See Judd 1992: 458n.
16. Zarlino 1558: 323-35.
17. Bashour 1979: 142.
18. Artusi 1600, fol.48v.ff.
19. The Artusi/Monteverdi controversy has been widely
documented by musicologists. See, for instance, Palisca
1985 and (for an analytical perspective) Chew 1989.
20. Artusi 1600, fol.49r.
21. Aron 1525, chap.8. A version of this table also appears
in Meier 1988: 105.
22. Powers 1982 and, to a lesser extent, Powers 1981, deal
with modal representation in cyclically-ordered motets.
A chronology of modal cycles (establishing Rore's cycle
as the earliest example) has been provided by Frans
Wiering in a paper (unpublished) given at RHBNC, London,
1991.
23. This striking discrepancy between Aron and Glarean is
cited in Judd 1992: 458n.
24. 'But the tenor reaches down a ditone lower than the
Hypodorian species [forma] permits, but this is a result
of the composer's customary licence'.
25. Cited in Zarlino 1558: 336. Translated in Strunk
1950: 253.
99
26. 'Each tone has two locations at which it can form
a cadence: a principal, or first pitch, and another
secondary one, and sometimes another which is called
intermediate. The primary pitch in each tone is that on
which the closure occurs. And the secondary pitch in the
masters [authentic tones] is a fifth above, except in the
third [tone], when it is a sixth above. The secondary
pitch in the pupils [plagal tones] is a third or fifth
above in the second and sixth tones; a fourth above in
the fourth and eighth.'
27. Dahihaus 1990: 224.
28. Below, pp.152 ff.
29. The status of the confinalis in polyphonic compositions
is a source of much disagreement in Renaissance
treatises: for a concise survey, see Atcherson 1970.
30. See above, p.69 and p.75.
31. Zarlino 1558: 298-9.
32. For a discussion of modal representation in Book 8, see
Chew 1993.
33. For instance, below, pp.233 ff.
34. Meier 1988: 89ff.
35. See Meier 1988: 93-4.
36. Montanos 1592, bk.3.
37. Montanos 1592, bk.3, fol.15v; 22r.
100
38. For a fuller discussion of the
j
type and the Phrygian
mode, see below, pp.262 ff.
39. For instance, Huc me sydereo, Victimae paschali laudes
and Illibata Del virgo nutrix. Victlmae is analysed
at greater length below, pp.120-42.
40. For a brief middleground sketch of part of the Victoria
Missa guarti toni, see below. p.303.
41. 'Therefore the proper cadence [on the finalis], [should
appear] throughout in the beginning, middle and end,
whatever position it occupies in the harmony, so that the
mode is not led astray through other cadences and through
other and still other modes, but that the true mode be
evident at all times.'
42. Taverner, Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas, discussed in
greater detail below, pp.313 ff.
43. Below, pp.317 ff.
44. McClary 1976, for instance p.9.
45. Below, pp.160 ff.
AA
46. The symmetrical tenorizans 1-2-1 is especially common in
contemporary treatises. Berger identifies this form in a
wide variety of sources including Schanppecher and
Cochlaeus (Berger 1987: 131); the latter includes the
A
additional form (6-7-8) of the vox cantizaris.
47. Meier 1988: 129-31; Diii 1982. Judd 1985 begins with a
101
comparable strategy but vastly widens the scope with the
inclusion of neo-Schenkerian and distributional
approaches. For a critique of Judd's more recent work,
see below, pp.175-9.
102
CHAPTER THREE
A PRELIMINARY HYPOTHESIS
3.1 Cadences in expanded form
It has already been argued that the formulation of a
normative archetype of sixteenth-century polyphonic structure
is a necessary prerequisite for the analysis of the more
extravagant structures of the later part of the century: the
works described by Lowinsky as 'atonal' and by contemporary
commentators, such as Artusi, as unacceptable deviations from
common practice.- Although the music theorists of the period
attempted to formulate laws of modality by which the
cadential structure of works might be assimilated within
normative categories, these laws differ so widely from
theorist to theorist that their status as precompositional
archetypes is at best dubious: in particular, the loose
relationship between modal category and cadence-pitch
observed by Aron gives way to more systematic attempts
(exemplified by Zarlino) to define modality in terms of
cadential articulation. 2
The parallel tendency towards
103
modally-ordered cycles of motets after 1550 would also
suggest that modality, at least in its relationship to the
cadential orientation of pieces, was primarily a concern of
the second half of the century.3
The principles of cadential articulation, however, may
be applied to earlier works whose modal category remains
unclear: Josquin's Miserere mel, while assigned by Aron to
the third mode (reflecting the mode of the tenor ostinato)
and by Glarean to the tenth (reflecting the point of
cadential closure of the tertia pars), contains sectional
cadences that conform to the more consistent norms codified
in contemporary definitions of cadence.
The cadence theory of the time provides the present-day
analyst with the most consistent norms of closure in
sixteenth-century musical structures. However, with the
exception of some examples showing cadential elaboration over
large time spans, the concept of cadence in contemporary
treatises was confined to points of closure and their
immediate vicinity. Although the cadence was assigned a
rhetorical function in serving to delineate points of textual
repose, the possibility of a cadentially-derived structural
paradigm which might generate an entire musical span lay
outside the scope of contemporary theory. The task of the
present study, therefore, is to propose the means by which
104
the cadential paradigm might be extended to encompass large
musical spans. This chapter will propose the preliminary
hypothesis of a two-part cadential model (vox tenorizans and
vox cantizans) as a structural background, before exploring
the concept of cadential hierarchy and the role of the
vox basizans, with reference to a Josquin iuotet; in the next
chapter, I shall consider the concept of tonal type and the
expanded range of structural paradigms that appear in
Renaissance polyphony independently of the theoretical
constraints of a Chord of Nature.
3.2 Structural archetypes: an initial hypothesis
In deriving structural archetypes of voice-leading by
the inductive method (drawing generalized conclusions from
the empirical observation of selected repertories), it is
necessary first to posit a hypothetical norm of musical
structure, and secondly to test the applicability of this
model by the analysis of problematic works. It is clear that
the orthodox Schenkerian Ursatz is an inadequate model for
sixteenth-century norms of voice-leading, not only because
the harmonically-conceived definition of cadence (as a
chordal progression from V to I) fails to accord with
105
contemporary cadence theory and with contemporary practice in
those pieces whose final descent (vox tenorizans) lies in the
lowest voice; but also because the doctrine of the Chord of
Nature presupposes a monotonal system founded on a
symmetrical bass structure (I-V--I). This, as we shall see,
fails to account for a sizeable corpus of works that project
embellished linear motions through the interval of a fourth
or a sixth rather than from the three triadically-derived
head-notes (,5 and ) permitted by Schenker. In place of the
Schenkerian archetype, therefore, I shall propose the
preliminary hypothesis that the continental polyphony of the
sixteenth century shares a common language defined by the
large-scale linear motion towards a cadentially-articulated
goal.
6
The hypothetical background model in some of its basic
forms is shown in Exx.3:l-5. Since the theory of the period
defines cadence in terms of two structural voices, the vox
A A s,
.4 a
cantizans (8-7-8) and vox tenorizans (in this case, 3-2-1),
it is these which form the essential components of the
proposed background model, and which are represented
graphically by open notes. Since the vox basizans plays a
reinforcing role, and is not a prerequisite for cadential
closure, this voice has been accorded a subordinate status in
the graphic notation, while the terms structural cantizans,
106
structural tenorizans and structural basizans have been
adopted in preference to terms such as Urlinie, Bassbrechung
and leading-note, all of which (especially the latter) carry
potentially confusing implications of later major/minor
tonality.
Before moving to a consideration of the various
permissible head-notes in the structural tenorizans, it will
be pertinent to consider the various forms of the background
model in the simplest case: that of a descent through a
third. Unlike the Schenkerian model, in which treble and bass
have distinctly stratified functions, the present model is
invertible within certain limits: this reflects the imitative
surface of Renaissance polyphonic style, in which descents
may be carried by any of the contrapuntal voices within a
homogeneous texture (in contrast with the polarized nature of
the outer voices in the secunda prattica and later styles).
Of the models in Exx.3:l-5, representing the five basic forms
of the background in the case of a descent through a third,
the first two show three-part cadential structures with a
vox basizans, while Ex.3:3 shows the most common and
idiomatic form of the structural type whose tenorizans lies
in the lowest voice. Ex.3:l is the model that most closely
resembles Schenker's Ursatz: the tenorizans lies in the
highest voice, while the cantizans occupies an inner voice.
107
A A A
8
r
r
B
A
3
___ 2. ___
----
PT
vi.
v c
' S
1 -
E x . 3 : 1 .

E x . 3 : 2.
Thr ee-v oic e model.

Inv er ted for m.

S * *
8 7-8
E x .3 : 3 . Model with v oic e-ex c hange.
E x .3 : 4.E x .3 : 5.
Inadmissible.Admissible but r ar e.
E x x .3 : l-5. Possible models in the c ase of a desc ent fr om .
1 08
In Ex.3:2 the disposition of the structural voices more
closely reflects the historical derivation of their
nomenclature: the tenorizans occurs in the tenor voice and
the cantizans in the cantus. Although this semantic
connection between the literal and structural senses of the
term 'voice' may have some relevance to fifteenth-century
works, especially those with precomposed tenors outlining a
descent to the finalis, it would appear that the disposition
of structural voices in the vocal texture of sixteenth-
century music was greatly variable and dependent on factors
such as vocal ambitus. Thus the compositional practice of the
sixteenth century, like the theoretical examples from Zarlino
and Montanos, shows a great deal of freedom in the
assignation of vocal parts to each structural voice within
the cadential framework.8
The role of the vox basizans in this model is not only
to give reinforcement to the basic cadential formula, but to
fulfil Zarlino's stipulation that a work should begin with a
perfect consonance: thus the bass voice, although not a
component of the true background, has the important function
of rendering the pre-cadential prolongation grammatical and
idiomatic. This concept, where a middleground bass addition
supports a prolongation which would be dissonant at the more
fundamental level, and thus renders it consonant, is one of
109
the most important principles of Schenkerian theory, where it
manifests itself in the various middleground bass supports
for the dissonant fourth degree in descents from
2O
Indeed,
it is this dual meaning, by which a prolongation can be
considered consonant at one level and dissonant at another,
that underpins Schenker's basic concept of diminution: not
only do iniddleground and foreground diminutions provide
elaboration and distinctiveness; they also enable potentially
ungrammatical structures (such as deep-level consecutive
fifths and octaves, which, as will be shown, occur frequently
in sixteenth-century iniddlegrounds) to be rendered
grammatical by a process of Auskomponierung.
The third manifestation of the model, shown at Ex.3:3,
is the one which will facilitate the structural analysis of
the hitherto problematic final cadence in Lassus's prologue.
Here, the vox tenorizans occurs in the lowest voice, thus
obviating the need for bass support. While a conventional
Schenkerian approach would regard this form as an anomalous
one, the piece (at least in its last few bars) may be easily
assimilated within the prevalent cadence theory of Lassus's
time; indeed, as Don Randel has argued with some
persuasiveness, the cadential type with the tenorizans as the
lowest voice (the 'V11 6 -I' cadence) has a longer history than
that with the additional basizans (the 'V-I' type)." (To
110
regard the former type as a dominant seventh without root
would be unacceptably anachronistic.) However, as with the
model shown at Ex.3:l, the initial prolongation of a sixth
requires some modification to satisfy the demand that the
initial sonority should be a perfect consonance: here, the
pre-cadential voice-exchange between the structural voices is
the almost invariant means of prolonging a more stable
background sonority of over I in the absence of a vox
basizans.
Two further hypothetical forms of the model, shown at
Ex.3:4 and Ex.3:5, complete the set of principal cadential
types in the case of a descent through a third. While the
form shown at Ex.3:5 is theoretically permissible, the vox
cantizans in the bass is commoner in internal and sectional
cadences than in final cadences. The version shown in Ex.3:4,
however, is inadmissible, since its pre-cadential
prolongation of a sixth requires either an additional bass
support, as shown at Ex.3:2, or an initial voice-exchange
( Ex. 3 : 3).
Although the Lassus prologue has an interesting
ambiguity of head-note that I have discussed elsewhere,
it will suffice here to show how the final cadence is
generated by a series of transformations of the basic model
shown at Ex.3:3.2-3
111
0
0
0
0
0
0
Ex.3:6. Processes of diminution in the cadence of the
Lassus prologue (above, p.35).
112
In Ex.3:6, the open notes show the constituents of the
cadential background in tenor and bass (8-7-8 and 3-2-1),
articulating the pitch G as the goal of motion by means of
six successive levels of elaboration:
1. The preparation of the cadence by a voice-exchange.
2. The addition of a third-progression to allow imitation at
the musical surface.
3. The support of the dissonant passing-note A by an
incomplete upper neighbour-note.
4.
The preparation of this neighbour-note by a preliminary
arpeggiation, F-A-C.
5. The addition of a cadential suspension between the two
structural voices.
6.
The addition of the non-essential upper voices.
The various means by which a musical surface can be
generated from its cadential background, therefore, are
analogous to those outlined by Schenker in his discussion of
the fifteen basic prolongational devices at the middleground
and foreground levels. 1- 4 By these means, the musical surface
can be shown to represent an expansion of a basic cadential
model. By contrast with Mitchell's problematic graphical
presentation (above, p.34), the present reading allows a
greater degree of sympathy both with the textual structure of
the prologue (the setting of the final words 'ore sibyllae'
113
now has the status of a sectional closure rather than that of
a mere coda) and with contemporary definitions of cadential
closure (so that the final cadence, expanded and dramatized
by a formal suspension, now assumes priority over Mitchell's
internal I-V-I). In addition, the identification of these six
stages of elaboration allows a more precise definition of the
structural hierarchies that were implicitly recognized in
sixteenth-century treatises such as Zarlino, without imposing
upon the prologue any anachronistic system derived from
eighteenth-century thoroughbass principles.
3.3 Towards a hierarchy of cadences
That the conclusion of a work or section could be shown
to form a diminution of a more basic cadential formula is one
of the axioms of sixteenth-century cadential theory: indeed,
some of the examples provided by Montanos in the Arte de
Musica show a degree of cadential elaboration that compares
with the more systematic analysis shown at Ex.3:6. 1 - 5 However,
despite contemporary attempts to extend modal theory to
encompass a hierarchy of cadence-pitches, it is evident that
sixteenth-century theorists viewed the cadence purely as an
ending rather than as a model that might be expanded over an
1 1 4
entire musical structure. The two structural voices of the
cadence, while almost invariant in their last two components
(that is, the -1 in the vox tenorizans and thein the
vox cantizans), vary widely in the pitches in each voice
AA
preceding the cadence (as we have seen, examples of the 4-2-1
tenorizans and thecantizans are common in contemporary
literature). 2- 6 How, therefore, is it possible to formulate a
background archetype which, like the Schenkerian Ursatz,
operates at the level of an entire piece?
Similar problems arise in those pieces of the period
which contain a succession of cadences, almost all
articulating the same pitch: Josquin's works with a final
cadence on G in the cantus inollis system (in Glarean's terms,
the transposed Dorian works) provide salient examples. The
repetitive cadences of the inotets Illibata Del Virgo nutrix
and Victimae paschali laudes, for instance, raise the
question of cadential hierarchy: do such works constitute
single voice-leading structures with a demonstrable
background, or do they merely consist of a chain of
structures, each with its own closure independent of any
wider structural contro1? 2-
If it is legitimate to argue that a single structural
background spans the entire work, it will be necessary to
propose a set of criteria for determining a hierarchy of
115
cadential types, by which the internal cadences may be viewed
as subordinate to a larger goal-directed motion. Although
such a teleological approach has been dismissed by some
commentators as an anachronistic intrusion of tonal concepts
upon music that was modally conceived, it may be argued,
conversely, that the inexorable drive to a goal is entirely
compatible with Josquin's rhetorical strategies in other
parameters of musical structure, including rhythm.
aa
The two
works Illibata Dei and Huc me sydereo, for instance, are late
examples of a type of isorhythmic structuring in which the
tenor ostinato figures (very much more extended in the latter
than in the former) are subject to progressive rhythmic
diminution, producing a steady increase in surface activity
at the approach to the final cadence. This arguably
constitutes a kind of teleological drive: an accumulation of
surface energy as a means of dramatizing the large-scale
motion towards a final cadence, which is consequently
perceived as more conclusive than those that precede it.
A comparable, but more radical, teleological strategy is
exemplified by the beautiful tripartite motet Virgo
salutiferi, whose sectional endings, unusual even within the
output of Josquin, are shown at Ex.3:7.
116
PRiMA PA/S
v,eci'wrr
*
'7Zr: C'1-I'l/NM 7ECr4 C45R
cuNrA P4R
TErMPAR.5
-7Scr; A A-J-J-U/A
Ex.3:7. Josquin, Virgo salutiferi: endings of
the three partes.
117
The endings of the prima and secunda partes, articulating
triads on B flat and C respectively, lack the status of true
closures since they are not cadentially articulated and are
preceded by regular cadences on the finalis, G; rather, they
form connecting codettas whose structural purpose is to
deflect the main rhetorical focus away from the local cadence
and towards the final closure of the tertia pars: only here
is there a full cadential closure on the (transposed) Dorian
finalis.
r
Ex.3:8. Virgo salutiferi: middleground analysis showing
post-cadential deflections.
118
Ex.3:8 offers a middleground interpretation of the
motet: here, the cadential closures of the first two sections
are assigned to a more local structural level than that of
the third, since they are weakened by deflections of the
bass-note towards the third and fourth degrees (B flat and C)
respectively. In the secunda Dars, the rhetorical force of
the final cadence is weakened still further by Josquin's
adoption of the rare two-voice model shown at Ex.3:5, in
which the vox cantizans appears in the lowest voice.
Such explicitly goal-directed structuring of rhythm (in
the proportional diminutions of Huc me sydereo) and harmony
(in Virgo salutiferi) would suggest that a rhetorical
strategy of goal-directed motion might also underpin the
disposition of internal cadences within a larger motion
towards the final cadence, even in pieces whose sectional
endings are less violently discursive than those of
Virgo salutiferi.
The following brief analysis of a more typical work
aims to demonstrate that the succession of cadences may be
subsumed within a larger drive towards the final cadence by
means of a hierarchy not merely of cadence-pitches, but of
cadential types, even when the chain of cadences articulates
only a single pitch.
119
3.4 An illustrative analysis: Victimae paschali laudes
This four-voice sequence is unique among Josquin's
motets in that it incorporates two simultaneous precoinposed
melodic strands: the liturgical chant of the sequence itself,
and a pair of secular chanson melodies by Ockeghein and Hayne
van Ghizeghem in the prima and secunda partes respectively. 2
-The modal identity of the motet was unclear even to Glarean,
since the two melodic lines occupy different ranges: the
superius a plagal range and the tenor an authentic one.
Although both cantus prius facti are of the transposed
proteus type with finalis G, it is clear that the polyphonic
combination of the two lines can be assigned neither to Mode
1 nor to Mode 2 , and that the modality of the piece cannot,
therefore, be regarded as an adequate determinant of
cadential hierarchy (despite the retrospective taxonomic
generalizations of theorists from Aron to Zarlino); instead,
the analysis offered here will begin from the more basic
assumption that the linear motion towards a cadence on G
forms the normative background of the work. Indeed, despite
the integration of precomposed material into the texture, it
is evident that the two lines project similar descending
motions towards the firialis in each of their melodic strains,
so that the paraphrased voices reinforce, rather than
12 0
contradict, the repetitive cadential pull toward the finalis.
However, such repetitive reinforcement of the pitch G as the
goal of a series of cadential descents poses a compositional
problem: the need to project each line of the extended text
as part of a larger continuum with the endings of each tars
as rhetorical goals.
The text itself also provides a basis for an
investigation of two aspects of Josquin's compositional
technique: first, the disposition of internal cadences within
the structure, and secondly, the means by which these
are subordinated to final cadences:
Prima pars

syllables
Victimae paschali laudes immolent Christiani 15 (8+7)
Agnus redemit oves: Christus innocens Patri14
Reconciliavit peccatores.

10
Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando14
Dux vitae inortuus regnat vivus.10
121
Secunda ears
Dic nobis, Maria,
6
quid vidisti in via?
7
Sepulcrum Christi viventis
8
et gloriam vidi resurgentis.
10
Angelicos testes

6
sudarium et vestes

7
Surrexit Christus spes inea

8
praecedet suos in Galileam

10
Credendum est magis soli Mariae veraci 14
quam Judaeorum turbae fallaci.10
Scimus Christum surrexisse ex mortuis vere:14
tu nobis, Christe rex, miserere.10
A11e1uia. 2 -
4
The above division of the text illustrates a simple scheme of
rhyme and verse lengths: the prima pars consists of one
stanza with verses of fourteen and ten syllables
respectively, with the addition of a first line of fifteen
syllables standing outside the scheme. The secunda pars falls
into three stanzas, in which the syllabic scheme of the last
12 2
stanza (14+10+14+10 plus the Alleluia) corresponds broadly to
that of the prima pars, creating a sort of modified formal
symmetry (ABA). The two intervening stanzas, however, consist
of verses of progressively increasing length (6+7+8+10). It
may be argued, then, that the secunda pars displays a
cumulative rhetorical process on two levels: in the general
lengthening of verses from the second to the third stanza,
and in the systematic increase in verse lengths within the
first and second stanzas. The introduction of rhyming
couplets in the first stanza of the secunda pars contributes
further to the general tendency towards increased momentum at
the approach to the final peroration: a striking metaphor
for the transition from death to life that forms the subject
of the paraliturgical text.
In setting this implicitly teleological text as a
conflation of two pre-existent Dorian melodic lines, however,
Josquin was unable to achieve large-scale goal-directed
motion either by isorhythmic structuring, as in Huc me
sydereo, or by violent deflections of cadence-pitch at
sectional endings, as in Virgo salutiferi, since the fixed
closures of the two cantus prius I acti imposed severe
compositional constraints. Instead, the following voice-
leading analysis will attempt to demonstrate how Josquin
achieves a comparable rhetorical drive to the final cadence
123
of each section by means of a hierarchy of cadential types.
The final cadence of the prima pars (Ex.3:9, shown
graphically at Ex.3:9a) will form a convenient starting-point
for an attempt to extend the principles of the cadential
model to encompass the prima pars in its entirety. Although
this reading shows the expanded vox tenorizans as a descent
from the fifth degree, the choice of head-note is
intrinsically problematic: the range of the superius, and the
repetitions of the consonantly-supported fifth degree suggest
a motion through the modal diapente, while the support for
the fourth degree (a C in the bass returning to the finalis
under the structural ) suggests that the main drive towards
the final cadence begins only after the arrival at the
structural in the upper voice (implying a background
descent through a third).
These discrepancies in the choice of head-note are
closely associated with the concept of structural types that
will be investigated more fully below; 22 however, the
discrepancies are as pertinent to the analysis of later tonal
systems as to the sixteenth-century repertory, and do not
affect the basic hypothesis that a linear motion towards a
cadence forms a basic normative archetype.23
124
VL.
VL(.
Ex.3:9. Victiivae paschali laudes: ending of prima pars.
-
- ' 5UC2Vg4 Vo, c xc1eNE
5- .
4- 3- -
I(i- )i
- I
Ex.3:9a. Graphic interpretation.
vc-
VT
125
Ex.3:9a illustrates the extensive elaboration of the
structural model: in particular, the material at the approach
to the closure is generated by an expansion of the structural
voice-exchange between cantus and tenor, while the cadence
itself is reinforced by the addition of a vox basizans, and
by the presence of a suspension between the cantizans and
tenorizans. Although this cadential formula is unremarkable
by seventeenth- or even late sixteenth-century standards, an
investigation of the earlier cadences in the prima pars shows
that in every case, the sense of finality is weakened either
by the omission of one or more of these structural elements
(in cadences articulating the finalis, G) or by the formation
of a cadence on a degree other than the finalis (in this
case, on B flat in the pair of cadences in bars 33-4).
Under 'cadential type', the following table lists some
of those features of each cadence, other than textural
interlocking of vocal parts, which may be said to weaken its
closural effect. For the purpose of the table, a two-voice
cadence is one without a vox basizans (irrespective of other
non-structural voices such as the vox altizaris), while the
formulation of cadences on pitches other than the finalis is
denoted by an asterisk:
126
51

54

60

64

69

74

80

* 82

88

G
BarCadence-Cadential type
pitch

10

20

25

* 33

Bb

* 34

Bb

39

44

G
2 vv.; no ficta F#
3 vv.; no ficta F#; truncated antizans
No true cadence (descent, no cantizans)
2 vv.; no ficta F / I ;
truncated cantizans
3 vv.; full formal cadence
2 vv.; formal cadence, imitates b.33
2 vv.; no ficta F/I
3 vv.; full formal cadence
The secunda pars exhibits a similar strategy, although its
subsidiary cadence-pitches are C and D rather than B flat:
Bar

Cadence-

Cadential type
pitch
2vv.; no ficta F#
2vv.; vox cantizans in bass
2vv.
3vv.; bass has octave leap (not I-V-I)
No true cadence (descent, no antizans)
2vv.
2vv.,; cadence evaded in vox cantizans
3vv.; full formal cadence
No true cadence (descent, no cantizans)
127
93G 2vv.

100 G 3vv; full cadence (no suspension)

* 106D3vv; full formal cadence

110 G 2vv; no ficta F#

121G 3vv; full formal cadence

1. Cadence and evaded cadence.
A number of possible criteria for the determination of
cadential hierarchy arise from this preliminary analysis, and
may be considered in the light of sixteenth-century cadence
theory. One such criterion is that proposed by Zarlino: the
distinction between a complete cadence (conforming to the
models shown at Exx.3:1-5) and a cadenza fuggita, where one
or more of the cadential voices fails to conform to the
structural paradigm (an example from the present motet would
be the linear descent in the bass at bar 20, which forms the
ending of a line of text but which lacks a vox cantizans).2
2. Cadential suspensions.
A second criterion is essentially one of rhythm: the
cadence articulated by a suspension in the vox cantizans
(clausula forinalis) is almost ubiquitously regarded by
theorists as a more conclusive type than the undecorated form
(clausula siinp1ex). 2 In the present motet, the prima pars
128
contains only three examples of the formal type among its
eight cadences, and of these only the final cadence at bar 44
articulates the finalis, G.
3. Sustentatio.
A more problematic issue is that of the sharpening of
the leading-note in the vox cantizans. Contemporary
theorists, notably Aron, demand that the vox cantizans be
modified by a musica ficta accidental (sustentatio) in order
to carry the cadential semitone in cadences on G, F and A
(the cadence on
is a separate case in which the semitone
occurs in the vox tenorizans; this will be discussed
separately). 6
Such a demand seems somewhat impracticable,
however, in the context of a chant-derived motet such as
Victimae paschali laudes. In the prima pars, only the final
cadence forms a textural caesura; in all other cadences, the
linear descent in one voice is dovetailed with the next line
of text in another voice. Because of this contrapuntal
interlocking of lines, the voice-leading motions from F to G
in either of the two cantus prius facti (for instance, that
between bars 9 and 10 in the superius) have the function of
the vox cantizans in local cadential formulations. Again,
the only cadence in the prima pars which can be sung with
sustentatio in the vox cantizans without contradicting the F
natural in a pre-existent chant line is that which concludes
129
the entire section: 27 thus Josquin allocates greater closural
weight to the final cadence by the constant and skilful
deferral of the cadential semitone throughout the prima pars.
4. Cadence with and without basizans.
A fourth criterion for determining cadential hierarchy
lies in the distinction between the two-part models
(corresponding to those shown above in Exx.3:3 and 3:5) and
the full three-part models with a vox basizans (Exx.3:l and
3:2). The theoretical expositions of Josquin's
contemporaries, such as Aron, show examples of both types
without any indication that the model in two parts
constitutes a less conclusive cadence than that in three:28
indeed, the two-part background model forms an essential
analytical resource in those works such as the Lassus
prologue which lack a vox basizans in the final cadence.
Only by the middle of the century do theorists begin to agree
as to the relative conclusiveness of the three-and two-part
models: Gallus Dressier in 1563, for instance, invokes a
dichotomy between the clausula perfecta in three parts and
the clausula imperfecta in two, suggesting that the latter is
suitable only for local and sectional endings (our example
from Lassus's Prophetiae Sibvllarum would presumably be
explained by the piece's status as the prologue to a larger
cycle). 29 Although the cadence on j (the Phrygian type)
130
cannot possess a vox basizans because of the resultant
tritone above the fifth degree, Dressier avoids the
designation of the Phrygian cadence as a weak type by
treating it as a special case. In earlier writings,
particularly those Italian treatises concerned with mode
(Aron and Zarlino), the general desire to integrate the j
type into a systematic framework of modes may well explain
the reluctance of these theorists to assign any great
rhetorical significance to the one structural voice that was
inadmissible in the Phrygian system: the vox basizans.
In Josquin's motet, however, there is analytical
evidence of a systematic rhetorical strategy in which the
full three-part formal cadence is eschewed in both the prima
and secunda partes until the final cadence of each section: a
strategy which complements the parallel evasions of
suspensions and cadential sustentatio, and which allows the
motet to project large-scale goal-directed motion despite the
absence of any form-generative prolongations achieved by
tonicized scale-steps (the chief means by which later
major/minor tonality achieves comparable rhetorical ends),
and despite the consistent repetitions of cadential closure
on the finalis.
Some criteria for the determination of cadential
hierarchy are summarized in tabular form (the first of each
131
of these pairs is considered the more conclusive, and will
assume priority over the second in a voice-leading analysis):
RELATIVELY CONCLUSIVE

RELATIVELY INCONCLUSIVE
1. Completed cadence

Evaded cadence
2. Clausula formalis

Clausula simplex

(with suspension)

(without suspension)
3. Cadential semitone

Absence of semitone
(sustentatio)
4. Three-part model with

Two-part model
vox basizans
These four independent divisions of cadential type allow
one of two compositional choices in each parameter:
statistically, therefore, this would permit fifteen
theoretical cadential types (resulting from the theoretical
permutations of the choices), with four distinct levels of
conclusiveness.- However, these means of cadential weakening
and strengthening are not exhaustive by any means: a cadence
might be strengthened if it coincides with a textual closure,
is articulated homophonically or is subject to repetition,
132
A
5--
A
A A A
--s_4_
and commensurately weakened if it appears mid-phrase,
if the vox cantizans occurs in the lowest voice (as in the
secunda pars of Virgo salutiferi, Ex.3:8 above) or if it
receives a feminine ending (Ex.2:8 above). 32 Even with these
refinements, these criteria for cadential hierarchy are
applicable to chains of stable cadences on a single pitch. It
remains to be shown how secondary cadence-pitches operate
within the wider context of a background model directed, in
this case, towards G.
I]m1:1:
5
Ex.3:lO. Victimae paschali laudes: prima pars, middleground.
The graph of Victimae paschali laudes (prima pars) shown
at Ex.3:1O illustrates the means by which the cadence on
133
B flat at bars 32-3 is subsumed within the larger context of
a motion towards G. This middleground interpretation typifies
one aspect of sixteenth-century style that stands in sharp
contrast to the syntactical structures of common-practice
tonality. In this case, the tonicization of the third degree
above the finalis is followed by a return to the prolonged
pitch G in the bass before the final cadence; there is no
syntactical connection between III and V in the middleground
prolongation of the Bassbrechung as one might well expect in
the major/minor tonal system (for instance, in the
middleground paradigm at Ex.3:12, where the III forms a
partial filling-out of the tonal space between I and V).
A similar stylistic principle applies to the support of
the fourth degree in linear descents, such as that in the
cadential approach of the prima pars, graphed above at
Ex.3:9, and reproduced in simplified form at Ex.3:1l. Here
the structural I
is supported by the fourth degree, which
returns to the finalis in the bass to support the structural
p..
3. Such a model does not appear in Schenker's list of
middleground paradigms; indeed, such a bass formulation would
presumably have been consigned by Schenker to the structural
foreground because of the lack of syntactical connection
between the III and the V in the bass. (The two paradigms for
supported by IV are given, for comparison, at Ex.3:l3.)
134
-'
A
5
4- 4
, -
- -
Ex.3:ll. Middleground bass supports in Victimae paschali.
A
54______
(IIL)__- ^v WI
EX.3:12. Typical support for tonicized in major/minor
tonal systems, after Schenker 1979, fig.16, lb.
- --. I - I
6-
4-3
Ex.3:l3. Typical bass motions in major/minor tonal systems
in the case of 4 supported by IV, after Schenker
1979, fig.16, 5.
135
The large-scale cadential schema of the secunda pars
displays a similar structuring which may be regarded as a
motivic expansion of the bass pattern supporting the descent
in Ex.3:9a; the cadentially-articulated bass-notes C and D
(bars 83 and 106 respectively) are similarly devoid of any
syntactical voice-leading connection, owing to the
intervening tonicization of the finalis at bar 100.
The middleground structures of Victimae paschali laudes
(especially with respect to the contrapuntal treatment of the
fourth and third degrees) are by no means untypical either of
Josquin's style or of later sixteenth-century structures.
Indeed, the superficial likeness to major/minor tonal
structures, especially in its goal-directed drives, is a
feature of Josquin's style in general - perhaps the one
feature that has made Josquin's music a favourite subject of
recent post-Schenkerian analysis. Yet a paradigmatic
comparison with the archetypical structures of major/minor
tonality (Exx.3:11-13) suggests some interesting differences
and by extension, some generalizations about the Renaissance
style as a whole. A motet of the early sixteenth century,
like Victimae paschali is likely to be as dependent on
cadential orientation as an eighteenth-century piece for its
coherence and for the articulation of its internal sections.
For instance, the tonicization of the third degree by means
136
of a first- or second-level Terzteiler (third divider) is a
familiar resource of major/minor tonality: in minor keys,
this device often generates form (as in a classical sonata
form, where the relative major [III supporting 3] is the
usual locus for the second subject and for the closure of the
exposition). 33 In such cases, the tonicized III tends to be
part of a larger bass motion: a subsidiary connection between
the tonic and the Oberguintteiler (fifth-divider) that
generates the first-level interruption. The Josquin motet
likewise forms a secondary cadence on III (bars 32-33); such
a change in the cadence-pitch may have been regarded by
contemporary theory as a temporary change of mode (just as
nineteenth-century theory, lacking a coherent theory of
structural levels, would have regarded a tonicized III as a
modulation, or a temporary change of key). 3 However, the
stylistic difference lies, crucially, in the voice-leading
behaviour of the motet immediately after the cadence on B
flat: instead of a bass motion driving towards a structural V
(Teiler), the music simply resumes its original cadential
orientation towards the finalis, G (it has been noted above
that later theorists, such as Calvisius, advocated that
cadences on the finalis be interspersed among cadences on
secondary pitches, so as to preserve the overriding sense of
the 'true mode').35
137
The support for 4 by the fourth degree in the bass
(permitting either IV or II harmony) is another commonplace
of major/minor tonality, detailed by Schenker in two examples
from Free Composition (Schenker 1979, fig.l6, 5), which also
occurs in Victimae paschali. Once again, however, there are
fundamental stylistic differences that have all too often
been glossed over in post-Schenkerian readings of Josquin.36
4
In Schenker's conception of the descent from 5, both the
fourth and third degrees in the tJrlinie constitute an 'empty
stretch' (Leerlauf) which requires support at the
middleground level. It is evident from Schenker's two
A
models (Ex.3:13a and b) that when the 4 receives support
either by a IV or a
116
chord, the bass note must move
directly to the structural V of the Bassbrechung without an
intervening tonic; otherwise the supporting IV constitutes a
foreground, rather than a middleground, phenomenon. This
motion from IV to V in the bass has its origins (according to
Schenker) in counterpoint (unlike the I-V-I Bassbrechung
itself, which is harmonic in origin and is derived from the
unfolding of the Chord of Nature and the harmonic series),
and thus effects (in Schenker's view) a dialectical synthesis
of harmonic and contrapuntal principles (symbolized by the
intersecting slurs of Ex.3:l3). 3 In practice, the direct
motion from IV to V in the bass means that the third degree
138
is commensurately weakened: it may occur either as a passing-
note (Ex.3:13a) or as part of an unprepared 6/4 chord
(Ex.3:13b, an especially common model in pieces of the
eighteenth-century style). In Victiinae paschalt, however, the
immediate return to the finalis in the bass after the
supporting IV gives the music a quite different character:
once again, the bass assumes a supporting role and can
scarcely be regarded as a large-scale composing out of a
motion from I to V.
A number of conclusions may be drawn from the foregoing
extension of cadential principles to the level of whole
pieces. To begin with, the investigation of the Josquin motet
illustrates the rhetorical function typically accorded to the
expanded vox basizans in sixteenth-century polyphony.
Although this voice is not a prerequisite of cadential
closure, and thus cannot be regarded as an obligatory feature
of any background archetype at this period, its structural
function is twofold: first, it enables the basic two-part
model to be presented in invertible form, as illustrated in
Exx.3:2 and 3:4 above; it will be seen that this principle is
especially pertinent to tonal types projecting descents
through a fourth, where the prolonged interval of a fourth is
rendered consonant by the addition of a supporting fourth
degree in the bass. 38 Secondly, the basizans provides an
139
optional support for the basic two-part model, enabling
composers to project large-scale rhetorical strategies by
reserving its use for significant points of textual closure:
here, the endings of prima and secunda partes. Although these
compositional strategies are often explicitly teleological,
the means by which the motets achieve long-range motion
towards cadential goals differs significantly from that
employed in the common-practice tonality of later periods. To
borrow the terminology of Charles Rosen (applied in a
different context), we might broadly characterize the goal-
directed structures of later tonality as 'syntactical' and
those of Josquin as 'cumulative': 3 whereas common-practice
tonality has the capacity to generate form through the
prolongation of scale-steps, the Renaissance concept of goal-
directed motion, allied closely to concepts of rhetoric,
manifests itself in a series of repetitive descents whose
teleological force results from a weakening of local
cadential articulation prior to the final cadence.
If the classical sonata-form represents the ne plus
ultra of 'syntactical' teleology (where every event forms an
indispensable part of a single expanded structural
'sentence', subordinate to its final cadence and acquiring
its meaning only with respect to that cadence), then the
goal-directed motion of a work like Victiinae paschali is a
140
perfect example of 'cumulative' teleology: unlike, say, the
cadence at the end of a typical sonata-exposition, each
cadence in the motet (with the possible exception of that on
B flat) could theoretically stand as the final cadence, since
its weakness relative to the cadences that follow is
understood only retrospectively. Yet the systematic build-up
of activity engendered by the successive cadences means that
the motet is rather more than an undifferentiated chain of
cadential events: its inner logic is, to borrow Meier's
generalized description, that of 'a well organized and
" eip e11jshed" speech' (1988: 89); one which is goal-oriented
and which permits of hierarchic distinctions between events -
not that of a single expanded 'sentence' generated by a
composed-out Bassbrechung.
This essentially cumulative nature of sixteenth-century
polyphonic structures does not, however, undermine the
concept of a background structure in the repertory of this
period, any more than the repetitive forms of the eighteenth
century (rondo, variation and strophic song) challenge the
validity of the Schenkerian archetype, despite their
essentially cumulative nature. Indeed, as Schenker's own
analyses of variation-sets and strophic songs have
demonstrated, such an archetype provides an invaluable tool
with which to investigate the processes underlying variation
141
forms, and to demonstrate how long-range teleology operates
in such cumulative structures. Rather, it appears that the
relationship between background and middleground levels in
sixteenth-century polyphony differs fundamentally from that
in major/minor tonality, and that the elements of the
middleground level evolve from the background archetype by
processes of repetition and developing variation rather than
by the large form-generative prolongations associated with
later tonal style. This is not to argue, as Schenker does,
that the large-scale continuity and goal-directed motion of
early Renaissance polyphony is any less developed than that
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; 4 3 - rather, that it
tends to be achieved by a continually developing series of
cadential formulations in a variety of foreground guises,
subject to long-range rhetorical schemata rather than to any
systematic laws of large-scale tonal syntax.
Having established a preliminary hypothesis for a
structural archetype and questioned the universal
applicability of the Bassbrechung and the Chord of Nature to
Renaissance music, we may now turn to a more thorough
theoretical exposition of the various voice-leading
structures that arise in a repertory that is essentially
independent of these two theoretical restraints.
14 2
Notes to Chapter 3.
1. Above, chaps. 1 and 2, especially pp.15-16 (on Lowinsky)
and pp.67-72 (on Artusi).
2. Aron 1525; Zarlino 1558. See above, pp.66 and 69-70.
3. The term 'modal cycles' excludes cycles of magnificats or
other liturgical cycles in the eight psalm tones. I am
indebted to the research of Frans Wiering on the
chronology of modal cycles: in a paper (RHBNC, 1991,
unpubl.) he has suggested that the earliest explicitly
ordered cycle was Rore's Primuo libro dei madrigali of
1542, and that the greatest concentration of interest in
the form was between the years 1550 and 1600.
4. This discrepancy is cited in Judd 1992: 458n.
5. Below, pp.149ff.
6. The qualification 'continental' is a concession to the
continued prevalence of the cantus firmus mass in English
repertories after around 1520. The use of strict cantus
prius facti in these repertories results in a number of
cadential irregularities, so that the normative status of
the paradigms offered here would be highly questionable.
However, the presence of a precomposed plainchant does
not in itself invalidate the hypothesis of a cadential
background, since the cantus prius facti of Josquin's
143
motets tend to coexist with regular cadential descents
(for instance, above, Ex.3:9-1O), while some examples of
cantus prius factus in later repertory, such as
Palestrina's Missa Ecce sacerdos niagnus (below,
pp.318ff.) even go so far as to modify the plainchant
melody to fit the large-scale cadential archetype.
7. The assimilation of the vox cantizans into graphic
representations of the background has its origins in an
article by Geoffrey Chew (1983), who proposes the
notation T-L-T (tonic - leading-note - tonic) for the
voice bearing the cadential leading-note. While this
notation is unproblematic in the later tonal repertories
analysed in that article, I have opted here for the more
neutral -9- for two reasons: first, it avoids the term
'tonic' with its possible implications of the Chord of
Nature (this will be especially relevant to the open and
semi-open structural types discussed below,
pp.
188-201,
where the pre-cadential prolongation in the bass differs
from the final cadence-pitch; in such cases neither can
legitimately be termed a tonic in the traditional sense).
Secondly, the adoption of arabic numerals for both
tenorizans and cantizans emphasizes the interchangeable
nature of these two voices, by contrast with the
144
supporting role of the vox basizans. The -7-8, like the
can occur in any octave, and the notation thus has
no intended registral implications.
8. See above, pp.86-7.
9. Zarlino 1558: 153-5.
10. Schenker 1979: 19-20.
11. Randel 1971: 75ff.
12. There is a fundamental distinction, not always made by
contemporary theorists, between the two classes of
imperfect consonance: thirds and sixths. A work may begin
or end with the interval of a third presented vertically,
but not with a sixth (perhaps because the third is still
consonant in conjunction with the two perfect consonances
- the 8/5 sonority - whereas the sixth is decidedly not).
In this context, then, the interval of a third is
interpreted as an honorary perfect consonance.
13. Wilde 1990: 35ff.
14. Schenker 1979: vii-viii; 29-52.
15. For instance, that given on p.87 above.
16. Above, p.102n.
17. The notion of a concatenation of descents (without.
reference to a background level) occurs in Chew 1989
and Chew 1993. This theoretically somewhat circumspect
approach is especially persuasive given the cumulative
145
nature of the style (as opposed to the long-range quasi-
syntactical structures of major/minor tonal styles), but
may beg questions as to the ontological status (normative
or otherwise) of the linear descents.
18. For example, Aldrich 1969; Perkins 1973; Schulenberg
1985-6. Brief critiques of the last two cited appear
above, pp.19-21 and 60-1 respectively.
19. For details of the two secular chanson melodies
appropriated by Josquin, see Josquin, Motetten, vol.1,
Bundel V, Aanteekeningen VII.
20. Glarean's equivocation on the mode of this piece is
cited by Smijers (Josquin, Motetten vol.1, Bundel V1
Aanteekeningen Vil-VI). A similar difficulty in assigning
a (later) piece to an authentic or plagal mode has been
explored by Harold Powers (1975); it is perhaps these
difficulties which have led Powers subsequently to reject
the concept of mode as sole structural determinant in
favour of the concept of 'tonal type' (for instance,
Powers 1981).
21. Prima pars:
Christians will anoint with praise the paschal victim,
the lamb redeems his flock: Christ the innocent Son of
the Father has reconciled sinners. Death and life have
battled in a miraculous duel; the leader of life having
146
died reigns alive.
Secunda pars:
Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the way? I saw the
tomb of the living Christ and the glory of his
resurrection. I saw the angelic witnesses, the shroud and
the garments; Christ my hope rose up and goes before his
people into Galilee. Believe rather the only true
testament of Mary than the false crowds of the Judaeans.
We know that Christ truly rose from the dead: Christ the
king have mercy upon us. Alleluia.
22. Below,
pp.
160 ff.
23. The identification of the head-note is one of the most
contentious points of debate in the post-Schenkerian
literature, especially in possible 5-lines whose 3 is
supported by a dominant with 6/4 harmony. William
Rothstein, in an article on Mozart's K.333 (Rothstein
1990), has suggested that such a model must be in fact a
A
descent from 3, since the 6/4 has the status of a double
suspension and must be prepared earlier; Joel Lester
(1992) concurs and takes the even more extreme view that
the descent from 5 is consequently a middleground
phenomenon. This view is, of course, a logical extension
of the reductionist principle (regrettably ubiquitous in
pedagogical literature) that the background should
147
represent the most consonant level of structure to which
more dissonant events are subordinated. Yet I believe
this view to be a flawed one and a serious
misrepresentation of Schenker's position (exemplifying
the familiar caricature of Schenker as reductionist). In
any descent from , the Leerlauf between and always
contains a dissonance ( over I) at the background level,
whereas this is usually rendered consonant at the first
level of middleground. The background model occupies that
level not because it is more consonant, but because it is
more generalized: a tonal piece with a g -iine will always
have a linear motion to a cadence, but different pieces
will harmonize the Leerlauf in different ways. Allen
Cadwallader's position (1990) is closer to Schenker's in
admitting the model with supported by a 6/4. One might
A
suggest, pace Lester and Rothstein, that the model with 3
supported by a 6/4 is not only defensible but
indispensable: the weakening of the third degree in this
way (familiar in, for instance, the 6/4 chord prior to a
classical cadenza) serves to drive towards the cadential
goal (Schenker is consistent in privileging contrapuntal
teleology over harmonic stability), and is arguably one
of the principal criteria for identifying the head-note
as 5 in the first place (although these criteria are not
148
made explicit by Schenker).
24 Zarlino 1558: 226.
25.
The familiar distinction between formalis and simplex is
summarized in Meier 1988: 91-2.
26. Meier 1988: 92n.
27.
This makes the assumption that contemporary singers would
have avoided the resultant false relation. However, this
is an issue of performance practice that lies outside the
scope of this study.
28.
Akron 1525; see also Meier 1988: 89-90.
29.
Dressler, op.cit., cited in Meier 1988: 93.
30.
This study follows I4ontanos (see below, pp.262 ff.) in
treating the j cadential type as a special case. This
type is sometimes described as Phrygian, although this
description is potentially misleading given the loose
relationship between modality and structural type (below,
pp.l5Off.).
31.
Statistically, this is equivalent to 1+4+6+4+1 minus
one, since a formulation lacking all four features would
not be classed as a cadence at all. However, one must
take all such formulations with scepticism (since the
four criteria cannot be assumed to have equal status);
these criteria can only ever represent guidelines for the
subjective assessment of a cadence's relative weight.
149
32. Ex.3:8 appears on p.118, Ex.2:8 on p.87.
33. Examples of this are very numerous: one such is
Beethoven, Op.l0, no.1 (first movement), analysed in
Schenker 1979, fig.154.3, 7.
34. On cominixture as a theory of 'modulation', see Meier
1988: 286-320.
35. Cited above, p.91.
36. For instance, Novack 1976. An exception is Cristle
Collins Judd's comparative analysis of a Josquin motet
(Judd 1985), which includes a penetrating account of the
differences between an orthodox Schenkerian reading and
one based on contemporary views of cadence.
37. Schenker 1979: 29-30.
38. See below, p.206.
39. Rosen 1971: 455. The subject here is Schubert's songs,
which are termed 'cumulative' as opposed to
'syntactical'.
40. Schenker's analyses of cumulative forms are especially
penetrating in their observations of register: in his
analysis of Haydn's F minor variations (Hob.XVII/6), for
instance, Schenker observes that the descent in the
obligatory register is completed only in the coda, thus
allowing a goal-directed motion to be projected across
the boundaries of a form that is essentially static and
150
repetitive (Schenker 1979: 52; a music example appears as
f ig . 4 8 . 1)
A striking example of cumulative structure in
Schubert (not analysed by Schenker) is the late song
f l
Doppelg ng er, in which the repetitive ef f ects of the
repeated g round bass are counteracted by Schubert's
avoidance of the oblig atory reg ister prior to the
climactic f inal descent on 'so manche Nacht in alte
Zeit'. Althoug h such violent rhetorical strateg ies are
unavailable to Renaissance composers (because of a
restricted vocal ainbitus) it may be arg ued that the
weakening of cadential f orce in internal closures has an
analog ous dramatic f unction.
4 1. For example, Schenker 1973: 29 f f .
151
CHAPTER FOUR
THE CONCEPT OF STRUCTURAL TYPE
4.1 Structural backgrounds and the Chord of Nature.
In the above critique of Schenkerian theory and its five
underlying principles, I have suggested that the concept of a
normative structural paradigm, as exemplified by the
Schenkerian Ursatz, is an indispensable resource for the
critical understanding of historical process in sixteenth-
century polyphony, since it enables the historian of musical
style to evaluate the individual and distinctive aspects of a
work with reference to a generalized stylistic framework. 2
-In the absence of such a resource, the analyst of Renaissance
music may still be able to elucidate some aspects of musical
structure on a small scale (that is, at the level of
contiguous pitches), as exemplified by the motivic analyses
of Leo Treitler and Irving Godt, who amply demonstrate how
motivic cohesion may be seen to operate in selected works of
Dufay and Palestrina respectively.
2
However, such a locally-
oriented approach not only fails to deal with larger-scale
152
voice-leading connections, but also evades the question of
the relation of an individual piece to its wider stylistic
and historical context.
Equally, in seeking to establish a working definition of
the norms of expectation in sixteenth-century polyphony, it
has been necessary to dispense with two of the main
restrictions imposed by the orthodox Schenkerian archetype.
Although composers from Josquin onwards employ a consistent
set of cadential models as norms of musical closure, it is
clear from the above analyses that these norms do not always
conform to the model of the Ursatz as codified by Schenker:
in particular, the Bassbrechung (or, in the terminology of
contemporary theory, the vox basizans) is sometimes absent,
even in final cadences. In addition, the voice-leading of a
clausula in ml (the cadential type generally associated with
the Phrygian mode after 1550), with its semitone in the
tenorizans, precludes the addition of a basizans owing to the
proscription of mi contra f a, and thus demands a different
background model that reflects the necessary modifications of
the supporting bass voice. By abandoning the principle of
thoroughbass, we arrive at a two-voice contrapurital paradigm
which may appear in various guises, subject to inversion,
voice-exchange and variable bass support; even in the simple
case of a background descent through a third (excluding, for
153
the moment, the Phrygian cadential models and those with
asymmetrical bass supports such as VI-V-I), there are a
number of possible paradigms (shown above at Exx.3:l-5) by
contrast with the single model prescribed by Schenkerian
theory.
The present chapter aims to explore the theoretical
justifications for, and consequences of, abandoning the
second of Schenker's structural principles: that of
monotonality and the Chord of Nature. The premise that a
single triad underlies an entire musical structure, and can
therefore act as a point of reference throughout the whole
temporal span of a piece, is at once the most fundamental and
most controversial tenet of Schenkerian theory, and one which
demands close scrutiny if we are to abandon the concept of
the Chord of Nature in formulating any normative archetype of
voice-leading. To begin with, the idea of a controlling chord
underpinning the background level generates problems of two
distinct sorts: first, the conceptual problems associated
with the relationship between the essentially linear, goal-
directed background and the non-linear, non-temporal, chord
of nature; and secondly, the pragmatic problems associated
with the application of the theory to pieces (even in the
period of 'common-practice' tonality) which appear to be
modulatory rather than tonally stable or symmetrical.
154
HYPER-BACKGROUND III:
support for by unfolded bass.
BACKGROUND.
FIRST LEVEL MIDDLEGROUND.
Schenker 1979, fig.16,5.
CHORD OF NATURE, from harmonic
2

series (Schenker 1979, fig.2).
-_-
HYPER-BACKGROUND I:
triad projected linearly.
HYPER-BACKGROUND II:
passing-note (2) inserted.
6-
4-
Ex.4:l. Schenker's 5-line: Implicit intermediate levels.
,ss.
In his discussion of the Chord of Nature in Free
Composition, it is evident that Schenker is aware of the
conceptual difficulties associated with the relationship
between the controlling triad and the Ursatz. 3 Although he
defines the Ursatz as an unfolding of the tonic triad,
Schenker is at pains to point out that this unfolding differs
fundamentally from the unfoldings and prolongations which
generate the middleground and foreground levels from the
background: whereas the basic voice-leading patterns of the
upper voice at both the background and middleground levels
are founded on the principle of goal-directed motion, the
tonic triad itself lacks temporal organization. In addition,
the system of levels by which the foreground is synthesized
from the background depends upon an assumed precedence of
stepwise motion over motion by leap: thus, an interval of a
third or more in a melodic line is generally regarded either
as a local arpeggiation of a pitch within a linear motion at
the next level, or else as an unfolding between two
structural voices at the same level. 5 In proposing the Chord
of Nature as a theoretical hyper-background, however,
Schenker's theory suggests a diametrically opposed hierarchy
of steps and leaps: the tonic triad itself consists entirely
of intervals greater than a second, and the linear motion of
the IJrlinie must, by implication, be regarded as a filling-
-15 6
out, with passing-notes, of the more fundamental pattern of
leaping thirds and fifths that are derived ultimately from
the harmonic series.6
In attempting to conceptualize the structural background
as an unfolding of the tonic triad, therefore, it is
necessary to posit a set of intermediate levels (shown at
Ex.4:l) which are not made explicit in Schenker's
presentation of the theory. In the present example, the head-
note is the fifth degree (a descent from 3 would contain one
level fewer). The Chord of Nature is shown as a derivation
from the harmonic series, in which the pattern of overtones
produces intervals of an octave, perfect fifth, perfect
fourth, major third and minor third respectively above the
bass note C. At the first 'hyper-background' level, the
elements of the triad are temporally separated; the next
level sees the introduction of the second degree, which is
dissonant at the level of the Chord of Nature; the subsequent
level renders this degree consonant by the addition of a bass
support. At the background level itself, the fourth degree
emerges as a dissonant passing-note, and is rendered
consonant only at the first level of the middleground.
A simple levelled reduction, then, of the background
level to that of the Chord of Nature begins to expose a
problematic irony of Schenkerian theory: whereas the levels
157
from foreground and background are founded on the hierarchic
precedence of the linear over the harmonic, the implicit
levels beyond the background would appear to rest on an
inverse hierarchy: the subordination of line to chord.
Indeed, this conceptual difficulty may explain Schenker's
uncharacteristic vagueness in expressing the nature of the
mysterious unfolding by which the background is synthesized
from the tonic triad:
The overtone series, this vertical sound of nature, this
chord in which all the tones sound at once, is
transformed into a succession, a horizontal arpeggiation
thus the harmonic series is condensed, abbreviated
for the purposes of art. This basic transformation of
the chord of nature into an arpeggiation must not be
confused with the voice-leading transformations of the
fundamental structure which occur in the middleground.
(Schenker 1979:10)
Moreover, this central irony may explain why Schenker's
early analyses from Der Tonwille and Das Meisterwerk are
successful in tracing long-range linear motions towards the
final cadence without reference to the controlling triad that
underpins the background level in the analyses from Free
Composition. It may be, then, that the concept of 'tonic' as
the point of arrival of a linear descent, rather than as an
all-encompassing triadic unfolding, will provide a more
generalized foundation for a theory of goal-directed voice-
158
leading whose scope might extend over a wider historical
range.
It may be argued that, while the doctrine of the Chord
of Nature generates conceptual problems in assimilating the
tonic triad within the systematic theory of levels, it
nonetheless embodies an empirical truth about the tonal style
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: that a sense of
'home key', established at the outset of a piece, sets up a
general expectation of final cadential closure in that key.
Certainly, in the closed tonal structures of the late
eighteenth century, the Schenkerian archetypes provide a
convincing generalization of voice-leading behaviour at both
background and middleground levels. The most striking
manifestation of the archetypes occurs in late eighteenth-
century sonata form: the tension generated by a motion
towards the structural dominant in a sonata exposition, and
its subsequent prolongation during the development, is
resolved at the return to the tonic in the recapitulation.
This familiar three-stage model of stable, unstable and
stable, associated particularly with the explicitly dramatic
sonata structures of Beethoven, forms a simple rhetorical
strategy which Schenker compared, characteristically, with
that of a narrative plot in contemporary drama: for Schenker,
the motion towards the structural dominant represented, in
159
rhetorical terms, a generation of tension that demanded
resolution. This perceptual tension associated with the
prolongation of the structural dominant ( over V) is not
explicable with reference to the background level alone
(where the tonic and dominant triads appear to occupy the
same structural level); rather, it can be explained only with
respect to a controlling Chord of Nature, against which the
elements of the structural dominant are perceived as
dissonances that demand resolution to a more stable tonic.
It may be concluded, then, that the concept of a triadic
hyper-background is an essential part of Schenker's
historiographical strategy, since the concept is most
pertinent to eighteenth-century style where the dualism of
tonic and dominant generates a quasi-rhetorical patterning of
dramatic tension and resolution.
To what extent, however, is the doctrine of the Chord of
Nature applicable to works which, despite their goal-directed
motion towards a cadence, lack the dramatic dialectical
opposition between tonic and dominant that characterizes the
closed tonal structures of Germanic sonata form? As Clestin
Delige has argued in his discussion of Chopin's Prelude,
Op.28, no.2, these open-ended pieces are numerous enough,
even within the narrow historical limits prescribed by
Schenker, to cast some legitimate doubt on the status of the
160
Chord of Nature as a defining principle of common-practice
tonality. 8 Although the open-ended background (2-1 over V-I)
of a work such as Chopin's prelude may be ascribed to
modernistic deviance from an expectational norm, such an
explanation seems less plausible in the case of historically
established genres such as recitative, or in the modulating
songs that are common in early Schubert. 9 Rather, such pieces
demand a looser theoretical framework of tonal behaviour
which recognizes points of tonal departure and points of
arrival; these, in certain instances, may be independent of
all-encompassing triadic control.
In the analysis of sixteenth-century music, the even
greater weight of empirical evidence (examples of which are
offered below) suggests that the concept of an open-ended
background is not only useful, but indispensable to the
formulation of a set of genuinely normative archetypes, and
that the doctrine of a single controlling triad must
consequently be jettisoned. As a result, the range of
normative paradigms for pieces in the sixteenth-century
repertory is dramatically widened: in place of the three
permissible forms of the Urlinie proposed by Schenker, we are
faced with over twenty structural models reflecting not only
the wider range of possible inversions and bass supports for
the two-part model, but also the expanded number of potential
161
head-notes which can occur in the expanded tenorizans
independent of the constraints of a controlling triad.
However, the abandoning of the concept of triadic
control raises new questions for the analysis of Renaissance
music. Any analysis which seeks to demonstrate the operation
of large-scale processes, beyond the level of the final
cadence and its immediate approach, must assume that the pre-
cadential span of music constitutes some prolonged consonant
interval between the two structural voices. How, therefore,
is it possible to define pre-cadential prolongation in the
absence of a controlling triad? Consequently, what criteria
can be established for the identification of a particular
head-note in the expanded vox tenorizans? In addition, to
what extent is it possible to group the wide variety of
background paradigms into a smaller collection of stylistic
types, and to what extent do the classifications of
sixteenth-century theorists (particularly with respect to
modality) correlate to these groupings?
This and the following chapters will take some possible
approaches to these questions with reference to selected
sacred works of Palestrina: in particular, the first book of
Magnificats and the first thirty-two of the late Of fertoria.
In the four-part Magnificats, the pre-existent chant is
paraphrased contrapuntally and the cadence-pitches in each
162
psalm tone are consequently predetermined by the terminal
pitches of the monophonic source. Because of their brevity,
and because their voice-leading is explicitly prescribed by
liturgical tradition (with respect to finalis and reciting-
pitch), the Magnificats provide an ideal focus for the
investigation of the various structural paradigms proper to
each psalm-tone. The Of fertoria, on the other hand, are
ordered into a systematic modal cycle; by analysing their
voice-leading structures according to the hypothetical
paradigms, it will be possible to investigate the extent to
which Palestrina's implicit modal designations correspond to
particular structural models, and to draw some conclusions
about the relationship between modality, as perceived by
contemporary composers and theorists, and the underlying
cadential structure of the background level.
4.2 Tonal type and modal type
Before introducing the range of structural paradigms, it
will be appropriate at this point to consider the notion of
'tonal type', pioneered in the work of Harold Powers, and
that of 'modal type', more recently proposed by Cristle
Collins Judd in her studies of Josquin.'- While both writers
163
seek to establish some sort of correlation between 'type' and
the modal designations of sixteenth-century theory, their
approaches differ markedly: Powers offers a tabular
classification of types based on textural, registral and
cadential factors, whereas Judd tends towards a reductive
analytical methodology reminiscent of certain strands of
post-Schenkerian thought.
Powers, in his classifications of inotet cycles by
Palestrina and Lassus, invokes the concept of tonal type as a
means of investigating the extent to which a composer's modal
designations are dependent on certain aspects of pitch
structure. His definitions of tonal type depend on three
principal criteria: the overall ambitus and tessitura of the
voices within a polyphonic composition, the presence or
absence of a B flat signature, signifying the cantus mollis
and cantus durus systems, and the 'final'. 3 - 2 It is in this
last criterion, the identification of a work's final, that
Powers's proposed categorization is most pertinent to our
present study of long-range cadential goals; furthermore, it
is in this respect that Powers's criteria for classification
are most problematic. In his tabular classifications of
Of fertoria 1-3 2 , Powers observes that the final (defined,
presumably, as the root of the concluding triad) is the pitch
A for motets 1-4 (which, according to Palestrina's implied
164
cyclic ordering, represent the first mode), and D for motets
5-8 (which represent the second mode).- 3 Thus, as Powers
concludes, the final bass pitch of a work cannot be equated
with the modal finalis as defined by contemporary theory;
indeed, this discrepancy vindicates Powers's influential view
of mode as a somewhat flexible concept, applied by late
sixteenth-century composers as a rhetorical commonplace or as
a basis for cyclical ordering, rather than as a prescriptive
system analogous to later concepts of key.
While Powers's arguments concerning the imprecise
structural status of modality are highly persuasive, his
definitions of tonal types are arguably too vague: although a
work is assigned to a particular type according to its final
(the final pitch articulated by a cadence), there is no
attempt to refer a tonal type either to a work's incipit or
to the internal cadence-pitches within a work. Palestrina's
sacred madrigal Vergine bella, for instance, is a work whose
modality and tonal type Powers has discussed in some detail.
Since the madrigal is the first of a cycle of eight pieces,
it is evident that its structure, as Powers points out, is
intended as a representation of the first mode. However, its
final cadence on A presents a difficulty of modal
classification: the cadence (Ex.4:2a), unlike those of the
other seven 'Vergine' madrigals in the cycle, does not
165
articulate the historically prescribed final of its mode
(here, D); instead, like the first four Of fertoria, it
projects a motion towards a cadence on A. Consequently,
Powers assigns the piece to a tonal type with 'final' A.
Ex.4:2a. Vergine bella: final cadence on A with post-
cadential prolongation.
However, a brief survey of the incipit suggests an unfolding
of the interval of a fifth between D and A (shown by the
circled notes in Ex.4:2b); in addition, the pitch D
166
constitutes a secondary point of cadential focus throughout
the piece.!4
Vet -.brUa. ch di
Ex.4:2b. Vergine bella: incipit showing pre-cadential
prolongation.
The work cannot adequately by categorized according to the
system of common-practice tonality: it is neither 'in' D
minor (since it ends with a cadence on A) nor 'in' A minor
167
(since it unfolds a sonority of A over D at the opening,
which in turn supports the salient pitch F in the superius).
Rather, the piece projects an open-ended structure which is
not adequately defined by the simple designation of the
'final' as A.
I
t
A
3 -.-------.
-
I
Ex.4:3a. Josquin: Miserere mel: closure of tertia pars.
The problem is exacerbated when the same final cadence
pitch is articulated by works of very different large-scale
voice-leading behaviour. Josquin's Miserere inei, like the
168
Palestrina example cited above, has a final cadence on A and
a final triad on A in its tertia pars (Ex.4:3a); yet the
incipit of the tertia pars unfolds a very different interval
through its successive imitations: in this case, G over C,
supporting the pitch E in the tenor ostinato (Ex.4:3b).
I
Do - -me-a...
Ex.4:3b. Miserere inei: opening of tertia pars.
Again, the large-scale structure is open-ended and cannot be
classified as either 'in C' or 'in A', and the problem is not
alleviated by viewing the three parts as a single structure,
169
since the prima pars unfolds an interval of B over E. Yet,
according to Powers's criteria, the two works would share a
common 'final', even though the large-scale voice-leading
motion from incipit to closure differs strikingly between
them.
The true large-scale tonal behaviour of Vergine bella
and Miserere mel cannot, pace Powers, be elucidated by a
simple observation of final cadence pitch and vocal register;
this would only obfuscate the glaring structural differences
between the two works. Similarly, a simple modal designation
of the two works as Aeolian or Hypoaeolian (Mode 9 or 10),
following the model of Glarean, would not only minimize the
differences of long-range voice-leading behaviour, but would
also run counter to the evidence of modal representation in
the two pieces: Vergine bella represents the first mode by
virtue of its position within an eight-mode cycle, whereas
Miserere mei contains a third-mode tenor ostinato and was, in
any case, written before the formulation by Glarean of the
twelve-mode system.
To summarize the arguments concerning the concept of
tonal type as defined by Powers: the modal system, as
outlined in the mutually contradictory body of sixteenth-
century theory, does not provide a universal system to
explain or codify the cadential behaviour of pieces, even
170
though there appears to be some correlation between modal
identity and tonal centricity in those works that show
evidence of cyclic ordering. The precise nature of this
correlation, and indeed the precise definition of the various
types of tonal behaviour in sixteenth-century music, have
proved elusive. Powers's concept of tonal type, while
valuable as a taxonoinic tool, depends exclusively upon the
events of the structural foreground: types are defined by
their final triad, regardless of the means by which that
triad is approached contrapuntally, and of the relationship
between a piece's incipit and its closure.
Judd's concept of 'modal type', on the other hand, is
based on the threefold classification into 'Ut', 're' and
'itti' endings hinted at in Glarean's Dodekachordon. 2 - 5 Works
are still classified according to their finals, but the modal
type is determined not simply by the final triad and its
immediate cadential articulation, but (and here Judd's
classifications represent an advance on those of Powers) by
the long-range linear approach to the final, usually carried
by the tenor and the superius. Thus an 'ut' type will
AAA
contain a 3-2 -1 descent through two whole tones,
corresponding broadly to a major tonality (at least in the
behaviour of its upper voice at the approach to the cadence),
while the 're' and 'mi' types correspond to what may be
171
termed minor and Phrygian cadential patterns respectively.
The value of such a simplified system lies in its wide
applicability: a piece may be designated as an 'ut', 're', or
'ml' type without difficulty, even though its modal identity
may be vague and impossible to establish.
However, Judd's classification carries with it one of
the main problems associated with modal analysis: a modal
type is defined essentially by the behaviour of a single
voice and does not explain how the voices are integrated
contrapuntally over a wide span. Instead, the contrapuntal
dimension is considered by Judd with reference to a set of
'melodic-contrapuntal paradigms', which she contrasts with
the traditional Schenkerian archetype: her models are
'reductive representations of a structural voice-leading
framework' and 'not a background in any sense'.In
addition, she claims that the bass voice is 'not a structural
determinant; it is generated as part of the counterpoint
rather than a harmonic force'. 2 -
Two conceptual difficulties arise from this argument.
First, the notion of contrapuntal paradigms that do not form
'a background in any sense' raises theoretical problems: if a
simplified voice-leading pattern is to constitute a genuine
structural paradigm (as distinct from an ad hoc, piece-
specific reduction, like those of Bashour and Berger
172
considered in Chapter 1 above), it must represent a
generalized norm of voice-leading behaviour that defines the
stylistic limits of a particular corpus of music.- 8 To this
extent it will constitute a structural background, even
though its specific features may well diverge widely from
those of the Schenkerian Ursatz. Indeed, it may be argued
that any systematic reductive method, if it is to avoid
arbitrariness, requires not only a set of voice-leading rules
to regulate the transformation from one structural level to
the next, but also a hypothetical background level from which
subsequent levels may be seen to be synthesized.
Since Judd's proposed models lack a genuinely normative
background as a means of regulating her reductive analytical
process, some of her analyses tend towards arbitrariness: in
her reading of Josquin's motet Dominus regnavit, for
instance, the deep-level reduction of the superius shows a
partially ascending line to which the final descent (C-Bb-A-
G-F) is subordinated, while an analogous passage in
Benedicite. opera omnia is treated more convincingly as a
deep structural descent through the diapente towards a
cadential goal. 3 - 9 A second potential point of dispute
concerns the role of the bass voice in Judd's archetypes: the
bass appears as a consistent component of each paradigm in
preference to the cadential vox cantizans, even though the
173
'Melodic/contrapuntal
paradigm'.
'Reduction'.
a)
b)
bass voice (particularly in the 'flj' tonalities) does not
form an indispensable prerequisite for cadential closure.
-
IPI5-1CVcr- -D' W.-- Lser - -SVb.- a Ltt(Uo isML--zb.
JOSQUIN: Menior esto verbi tui, incipit.
AFTER JUDD 1992:
ALTERNATIVE READING:
Niddleground.
Background (cf.Ex. 3:3).
Ex.4:4. Comparative analysis of a phrase from Josquin's inotet
Mentor esto verbi tui.
174
A comparative analysis of Josquin's Memor esto verbi tui
(Ex.4:4) will most succinctly summarize the problem: Judd's
two-levelled reduction (Ex.4:4a) shows a structural descent
through a third in the superius, in 'counterpoint' with a
third-descent in the tenor. Although superius and tenor do
indeed outline descending thirds (owing to the canonic nature
of the material), the status of the two paired descents as a
contrapuntal paradigm is illusory, since the resultant
consecutive octaves do not form a true two-part counterpoint;
rather, they constitute a doubling of a single voice, the
structural tenorizans. A further difficulty arises at the
pitch marked 'x' in Ex.4:4: in the motet, the upper-voice
note E forms a dissonant passing-note (as shown at Ex.4:4b)
rather than part of the structural descent (the true E in the
vox tenorizans lies in the lower voice).
At the deeper level, Judd's paradigm is even more
questionable, since a non-existent bass (I-V-I) is presumed
to form an implied triadic foundation for the two-part
cadential activity between superius and tenor (the
anachronistic nature of this assumption has been considered
in detail above). An alternative reading is given at Ex.4:4b,
which regards the structural background as a two-part
cadential model prepared by a voice-exchange (corresponding
to the archetype given at Ex.3:3 above). Such a reading has
175
the advantages of fidelity to sixteenth-century definitions
of cadential closure, and avoidance of consecutive perfect
intervals in the contrapuntal paradigm at the deepest
structural level.
4.3 Structural types
As a development of the categories of structure outlined
by Powers and Judd, the present study will propose a third
set of taxonomic categories, in which pieces may be
classified according to structural type. A threefold division
is proposed here: works may be classified as closed, semi-
open or open, according to the presence or absence of
cadential articulation of the closure, and according to the
relationship between the point of large-scale closure and the
prolonged sonority before the closure. Such a
classification is necessarily a posteriori, and not intended
as a reflection either of conscious compositional intention
or of contemporary theoretical prescriptions. However, it is
hoped that the proposed trichotomy of structural types will
prove useful in two main areas: in quantifying the somewhat
nebulous relationship between voice-leading behaviour and
modality, as understood by contemporary theorists and
176
composers, and in drawing generalized conclusions about
historical developments in musical style (in particular, the
closed type becomes the favoured structural model in the
madrigalian repertory after 1600, where the descent from a
fifth over a symmetrical bass assumes the status of a
structural norm to the almost total exclusion of the open and
semi-open types)
22
Closed type
The closed structural type can be considered first,
since it is the one which most closely approximates to the
model of common-practice tonality as defined by the
Schenkerian Ursatz: indeed, it is in their discussions of
works of this type that neo-Schenkerian theorists have
achieved the most convincing results. 3 The type is defined
as a set of background paradigms in which the final sonority
is articulated by a cadence, and which project a structural
descent in the expanded vox tenorizans through an interval of
a third, fifth or octave. Further, in the closed types, the
pre-cadential prolongation in the lowest voice will be the
same as the cadence-pitch (in pieces with a cadential ix
basizans, this amounts to a symmetrical bass arpeggiation, I-
177
V-I).
Although this model closely resembles the Schenkerian
paradigms, it is more loosely defined, since the bass is
viewed as an optional support rather than as the generator of
inner voices; for this reason, the number of structural
paradigms within the closed type is far larger than in
Schenker's system. The various models available in the case
of a third-descent have already been codified in Ex.3:l-5
above; the complete set of closed models may now be
summarized together with illustrative analyses from
Palestrina's first book of Nagnificats.
Each of the Magnificat settings from the first book
follows the principle of paraphrase, in which the precomposed
chant for each psalm tone (Ex.4:5) is treated alternatim.
Since the contrapuntal settings of alternate verses are
identical in their final cadence-pitches as well as their
overall tessitura, it will be legitimate to view a single
polyphonic verse setting in each psalm tone as a complete
piece with its own background paradigm, and to consider the
extent to which the reciting-note of the psalm tone
influences the choice of head-note in the background model.
178
First tone
- - -
-f t -
cat4. - - STIQ. (nc-a.- - ,n -nw"i..
Second tone
- - - o.ta- It - 17W. 711C. - a. Do -1514. - ltLufl...
Third tone
- - f i -
cata. ---L2o-nt4. -
Fourth tone
- - Jj -
a. --,n. tnt.- a. t' -iwi riunt
Fifth tone
lcg -rl.1. - -

(Lit--ma. n - a. l)o -atZ -swine.

Sixth tone
mu - -
f t -
cata. - s-iL - ma. .0w.-..Do -mL - nunl..
Seventh tone
- - - sic-
f- cat
a - . - sna. nr_- a. .Do-snc--'Iwn...
Eighth tone
s-aL-
- f i -
- Ca.t-- f lL- 1TTO.. me- a.0-flPL-TM4Sn..
Ex.4:5. Reciting- pitches and intonations for each psalm
tone as paraphrased in Palestrina's Magnificats.
179
1 3 a
V
10NE 1
TONE(lu)V
I
-ro,v r (HI'Nc) i (LOW
ccs)
Ex.4:6. Rela tion of hea d-note to reciting-note in
Pa lestrina 's I4a gnifica ts, Liber Primus (first a nd
second tones)
180
In both the first and second psalm tones with cantus mollis
system, the final cadence pitch is prescribed by the
generality of contemporary theory as G (this contrasts with
the divergent sets of cadential hierarchies that arise in
sixteenth-century theories of mode); here the pitch G forms
the cadential point of focus of each verse. However, the two
psalm tones differ in their reciting-notes: in the first
tone, the reciting-pitch lies a fifth above the cadence-
pitch, whereas it lies a third above in the second tone. This
distinction is reflected not only in the overall vocal
tessitura (one of the determinants of Powers's 'tonal type'),
where the low cleffing of the second tone is contrasted with
the high cleffing of the first, but also in the large-scale
expansion of the structural tenorizans (Ex.4:6).
In the Magnificat in the first tone, as in Josquin's
Victimae paschali laudes, the ambitus of the superius and
tenor, which operate an octave apart, allows these voices to
project the fifth degree, D, repeated and supported by a
prolonged bass sonority, G. The salience of the pitch D, as
well as its status as the reciting-note of the psalm-tone,
would appear to vindicate the choice of head-note as 5, even
though the motion of the bass voice, where 4 is supported by
IV before a return to over I, is more static than the goal-
directed bass voices of the Schenkerian middleground
181
(fY) i V I
I ( v u )
I V p
Descent from 5 withou t
basizans. Cadence prepared
by v oice-exchange
( cf. Ex.3:3, p.108) .
paradigms in the case of 5 ( a comparison of typical
sixteenth.. and eighteenth-centu ry middlegrou nd paradigms in
the case of 5 is giv en abov e at Exx.3:12 and 3:13) .
Descent from 5 with
basizans;su pported
by IV.
Descent from 5 with
basizans. Stru ctu ral
v oices inv erted.
su pported by VII.
Ex.4:7. Theoretical descents from .
182
Like the generalized model of a descent through a third, the
model of the 5-line is subject to inversion within certain
limits, to the addition of a vox basizans (which renders
consonant the interval of a fourth that occurs when the
tenorizans lies below the cantizans) and to voice-exchanges:
a summary of these hypothetical types is shown at Ex.4:7.
However, in the second-tone Magnificat, the lower overall
ambitus and the salience of the reciting pitch, Bb, justify a
reading of the background line as a descent from . Although
there is a prolonged fifth degree, D, throughout the piece,
it appears in the alto voice, where it is sustained as an
inner voice, rather than descending in a linear fashion (it
has already been argued that the vox altizans, since it does
not participate in the motion towards the cadence-pitch, is
to be considered a non-essential voice).
The descent from the eighth degree completes the set of
paradigms within the closed structural type. Although this
model is included here for the sake of theoretical
completeness, its occurrence is rare in the sixteenth-century
repertory, since a line from the eighth degree would require
a wide ambitus as well as consonant support for the seventh
and sixth degrees. Such a line may occur either in a
localized context, usually as an affective means of
articulating the idea of descent in a poetic text, as at
183
Ex.4:8, or as an amalgam of two lines in two distinct vocal
parts (Ex.4:9a).
lB
Pasu--e- -ru.rtt qeL&-u. t;-ft._-L-O_ - - - - - -
-- rZ.
a -
Ex.4:8. Victoria: 'Aestimatus sum' (Tenebrae responsoria for
Holy Saturday)
Even in the latter example (Ex.4:9), the background paradigm
of a descent from the fifth degree would appear to carry
greater conviction, given the relative weakness of the
harmonic support for the seventh and sixth degrees, and the
reading shown at Ex.4:9b has the additional benefit of
showing the structural in the superius not as the head-note
of the expanded tenorizans, but rather as the 8 in the 8--
cadential cantizans in the upper register.
184
CAI*JTUS
-' Uf
ALTU5
I 'I I vI
PALESTRINA: 'Scapulis suis' (Of fertoriuin XIX), closure.
i
bIApttf7.
-
I
( v) i-----
I
AS A DESCENT FROM 8 (DIVIDED).
5 4-3-2----1
I
i") vi
AS A DESCENT FROM 5.
Ex.4:9. A composite 8-line and an alternative reading as a
descent from .
185
As with Schenkerian approaches to common-practice tonality,
the question of determining the head-note is one of the
principal difficulties associated with the background line.
Since the debate surrounding the determination of structural
head-notes is a general problem of voice-leading analysis
rather than a particular issue associated with sixteenth-
century paradigms, it will be considered here only in brief.
Three criteria suggest themselves for the determination of
the structural head-note within each structural type:
1. Salience. The repetition of a particular scale-degree in
the upper-voice or in the voice that bears the linear
descent (vox tenorizans) forms the most audible criterion
at the surface level. In those pieces with reciting-notes,
the head-note will tend to be the same as the reciting-
note.
2. Ambitus and cleffing. In a polyphonic work, the highest
pitch within the vocal ambitus of the superius will tend
to be perceived as the head-note provided that it is quit
in a descending linear motion. Thus, in a closed piece of
high tessitura with a cadence-pitch D, such as
Palestrina's madrigal Vergine saggia, the head-note will
tend to be the third degree, reflecting the pitch F as the
highest pitch within the cantus range. In a closed
186
structure with cadence-pitch G (such as the Magnificats
discussed above), the high ainbitus of the first-tone
setting will tend to project a descent from , whereas the
lower range of the second-tone example projects a descent
from .
3. Contrapuntal support. This criterion is central to
Schenker's own determination of the head-note. All closed
models, even those with 5- and - lines, will contain
within them a descent from
5; higher scale degrees usually
acquire background status only if they have contrapuntal
support from the bass voice. Moreover, this contrapuntal
support tends, in Schenker's own models, to represent a
filling-out of the large-scale bass motion from I to V
(thus a --5--i line supported by I-IV-I-V-I would be
considered weaker than, say,the more teleologically
directed ----1
over I-Il-Ill-V-I).
In sixteenth-century music, these criteria, while still
pertinent, are more likely to stand in conflict with one
another than in common-practice tonality. In Josquin's motet
Victimae paschali laudes, for instance, it was shown that the
superius outlined a structural diapente (D-C-Bb-A-G) which
was transferred into the tenor at the point of closure: thus
a reading with a descent from 5 would satisfy the criteria of
salience and vocal range. 2 However, the bass support for the
187
fourth degree, C, returns to G to support the structural
thus projecting a middleground model that fails to conform to
any of Schenker's models for the descent from
525
By
Schenker's own methodology, therefore, the work would almost
certainly be graphed as a i-line, even though the %-line best
embodies the overall vocal salience and the modal diapente
associated with the transposed first mode.
The graphic analyses presented here concern themselves
less with the identity of the head-note within each type as
with the more fundamental distinction between structural
types; although an s-line and a 5-line are both theoretically
reducible to a descent through a third, the semi-open i-line
and g -iine (proposed below) project a background of a quite
different type, where the symmetrical bass associated with
common-practice tonality is, by necessity, absent.
Semi-open type
The paradigms presented so far are unproblematic in that
they may be assimilated (albeit anachronistically) into the
Schenkerian system as unfoldings of a hypothetical Chord of
Nature. However, other examples from Palestrina's Nagnificat
settings resist such assimilation, since they unfold large-
188
scale motions through intervals other than a third, fifth or
octave. In his polyphonic setting of a Magnificat of the
eighth tone (Ex.4:lO), for instance, the reciting-pitch lies
a fourth above the cadence-pitch.
g c-ar,N -p(-rcHCA.DLJCE- PITCH
A4a- - -
- - -
cua. - flL- TTa1Tt - 4e - flu. - IUUIt.
I
A- vtima.mea..Do.4..nwn., g-rn-alnLu. .bo-,nZ-1iusL
I
I

-A
8_8
Ex.4:lO. Palestrina: Ma gnificat Octavi Toni: semi-open
background generated by reciting-note and finalis.
189
Although the G of the expanded vox cantizans is
prolonged for the first seven bars of the piece in the alto
voice, the final cadential closure of this voice (G-F#-G) is
assigned to the cantus, where it is prefaced by a linear
fourth-progression that aduinbrates the cadential motion of
the vox tenorizans in the tenor. Thus, the vox cantizans
A
outlines a stable, symmetrical voice-leading motion (8-7-8)
expanded over the span of the entire piece: in this respect
the structural type is comparable to that articulated by the
paradigms in the case of descents from and . The
descending fourth (C-B-A-G) outlined by the tenor, however,
is open-ended and cannot be assimilated as an unfolding of a
single tonic triad. Similarly, the bass voice outlines a
large-scale voice-leading pattern IV-V-I, where the third
degree is supported by a bass note E at the mniddleground
level, and the resultant consecutive fifths in the
middleground paradigm are composed out by Palestrina in the
crotchet figure of the foreground at bar 8.
The term 'semi-open' is employed here to refer to a
background of this type: on the one hand, the final sonority
is articulated cadentially, and in addition, the prolonged
vox cantizans (-1-) is stable and symmetrical; on the other
hand, the supporting bass voice outlines an open-ended
motion. By adopting an essentially contrapuntal view of the
190
musical background in place of the triadically-conceived
Schenkerian model, however, it is possible to show that a
voice-leading structure can articulate a long-range motion
towards a cadential goal without any dependence upon triadic
control.
Al - ru. - - - -
fi -
a - - - to- "se - abo - m. - -nw.
- tu-na.-
- -
-
- - I - - -
i - -TU4Jfl.
I I l
4 -,ii-na. me -a
- 1n,Zo--wu.4--vuLs.A -I1t-
4- - a. bo-s4-
- I''"I "'I "', - -
"Ic--A----
4-,iZ.ma. nIe-a. Do- -1L-W,bt, a-fln,LtMea-bo--1n---?uLj,j..
A
Ex.4:ll. Magnificat Quinti Toni (semi-open mode1). '
191
A further kind of semi-open background model will
elucidate the formerly problematic voice-leading structure of
the Magnificat in the fifth tone (given above). In this brief
example (Ex.4:ll), the prolongations of the two-voice model
are shown in the two upper staves: the prolonged pitch C
(labelled 3) in the cantus migrates into the tenor in the
sixth bar, where the prolonged A (the of the vox cantizans)
is transferred into the cantus; this pre-cadential voice-
exchange is directly comparable to that of the closed models
(Exx.3:l-5). However, the setting deviates from the paradigms
of the closed type in that the theoretically-prescribed
finalis of the psalm-tone, F, differs from the cadence-pitch,
A. In order to emphasize the identity of the psalm-tone,
therefore, the present setting has an added bass which
prolongs the finalis, F, prior to the structural cadence;
this once again creates a pair of consecutive fifths at the
middleground level, which is composed out by means of the
foreground diminutions in the tenor. As with the Magnificat
in the eighth tone, the two-voice counterpoint between
tenorizans and cantizans forms a stable construct in which
the initial pitches of the two voices (here, C and A) prolong
a consonant interval (that of a third); again, by replacing
the concept of triadic prolongation with that of intervallic
prolongation, it is possible to view the piece as a stable
192
two-voice structure in which the bass plays a subordinate
role.
In the semi-open type, the theoretical issues associated
with the identification of the head-note are analogous to
those found in the closed models. In particular, a descent
through a sixth will be distinguishable from a L i-line by
virtue of its ambitus, its salient upper pitch, and the
presence, or absence, of consonant support for the fifth
degree (analogous to the consonant supports for the fourth
degree in closed lines from
One further hypothetical model of the semi-open type
deserves mention here. This model (Ex.4:12) belongs to the
semi-open type since it contains a cadential articulation of
the final sonority. However, the vox cantizans is
asymmetrical, projecting a motion from 7 to 8, usually
underpinned by an asymmetric bass of the form Ill-V-I or V-I.
Such a model can support various lines in the vox tenorizans,
including descents through an interval of a second, a third,
a fifth or even a seventh. (The latter will be discussed in
detail in later chapters: in particular, the descent from the
seventh degree supported by a bass Ill-V-I (Ex.4:12c) will be
proposed as a possible, if problematic, hypothetical model
for the structure of Gesualdo's madrigal Moro lasso.)
193
a
a
V
I
S I
I I I
V
I
b)
a)
c )
I ll
V
I
Ex.4:12. Hypothetic al forms with asymmetric al c antizans.
194
Open type
It has been argued that the distinction between the
closed structural type (approximating to Schenker's model of
triadic monotonality) and the semi-open type (where the bass
voice is asymmetrical) is valuable only as a retrospective
historical resource: as recent research has demonstrated, the
madrigals of Monteverdi exemplify the almost complete demise
of the semi-open type in favour of the closed type; moreover,
the descent from the fifth degree in this late repertory
would appear to have become established as a structural norm,
while the forms of the cadential model without vox basizans
become defunct except in internal and sectional closures.27
In Palestrina's output, however, the semi-open models exist
alongside the closed models even in contemporaneous works
such as the Magnificat cycles. Given this co-existence
between the two types in contemporary compositions, as well
as the relatively weak role of the bass voice in sixteenth-
century definitions of cadential closure, it seems likely
that there was no perceived distinction between the two
types, and that the closed types were considered no less
stable than those which seem, in modern terms, to project a
'modulatory' or 'progressive' tonality.
195
a) ASYMMETRICAL OPEN TYPES
One possible reading of
Vergine bella
Open model with partial
descent from 5 (normally
occurs in Phrygian
contexts with a clausula
in mi)
b) SYMMETRICAL OPEN TYPE (reserved for preludial structures).
Nb1
lv I
e.g. Oldfield: Praeludium (below, Exx.4:14 and 4:15)
Cf. Schenker 1979, fig.6,4.
Ex.4:13 Open structural types
196
The open structural type, by contrast, has a genuinely
'open' function. The type is employed in sixteenth-century
polyphony (from Josquin onwards) only in strictly defined
contexts: in primae partes and subsidiary sections, and in
instrumental compositions of a preludial or introductory
nature. The open type is defined as one whose final sonority
is not articulated by a true cadence, even though the ending
may be prefaced by a cadential closure on another pitch. The
open types in the sixteenth-century repertory take two
distinct forms: an asymmetrical model (Ex.4:l3a) in which
both the vox tenorizans (here, -2) and the vox cantizans (8-
7) are incomplete and form only a half-close rather than a
true termination; and a symmetrical model (Ex.4:l3b) where
the initially prolonged sonority corresponds with the
concluding sonority even though there is no cadential
articulation.
One analytical instance of the rare symiuetrical
background of the open type is Thomas Oldfield's Praeludium
from the first volume of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, which
is reproduced at Ex.4:14 and graphed on three levels at
Ex.4:15. Although the piece begins and ends on A in its
outer voices, this pitch is not approached cadentially at any
point; the background level consequently shows a single
prolongation of the interval A-C/I throughout the piece.
197
Ex.4:14. Thomas Oldfield: Praeludiuin (The Fitzwilliam
Virginal Book, vol.1, no.49)
198
L r;-:-
j
-.-- _,,r-,
Ex.4:15. Oldfield: Praeludium.
Levelled analysis showing absence of cadential
background (hence 'Praeludium').
199
The expanded 'plagal cadence', in which the C# is elaborated
by an upper neighbour-note over a bass motion A-D-A, does not
constitute a true background, since the pitch A is prolonged
through the 'subdominant' region and does not participate in
any cadential voice-leading (this study, in common with
sixteenth-century cadential theory, does not recognize the
'plagal cadence' as a true cadential closure). 28 Rather, the
musical material of the prelude is generated by a series of
middleground registral transfers with a resultant crossing-
over of the two main upper voices, and by a foreground
replication, in bars 1-4, of the basic voice-leading pattern
of the middleground.
The piece illustrates the relationship, first noted by
Schenker, between a work's genre and its structural
background. 29
The absence of a true cadential background in
works of this type does not invalidate the basic premise that
a linear motion towards cadential closure forms a structural
norm of the period; rather, the generic designation
praeludium suggests a quasi-improvised piece whose long-
range structure is purposely left incomplete. Indeed, the
prolongation of a single sonority without a completed
cadential line occurs in an even more radical form in
examples of the seventeenth-century instrumental toccata:
that which opens Monteverdi's Orfeo, for instance, is devoid
200
not only of cadential articulation, but also of any
middleground voice-leading motion, and its tonal function is
consequently no more than a simple prolongation of a single
triad.
4.4 Conclusions and summary of types
The initial hypothesis of a cadential background,
derived from Schenker's concept of the background archetype,
has now been expanded to encompass a wide variety of
structural paradigms within a system of three basic
background types. Although Schenker's three background
models appear applicable to certain pieces within the
sixteenth-century repertory (the closed structural types),
there remains a body of contemporaneous music which, despite
its comparable cadential orientation, is essentially open-
ended and not reducible to the level of a single 'tonic'
triad: pieces of this sort are characterized as the 'semi-
open' types. The concept of open-ended tonality outlined here
thus demands a refinement of technical vocabulary: in both
the closed and semi-open types, the term 'tonic' and kindred
terms, such as dominant and subdominant, which are dependent
on the concept of a single controlling triad, are eschewed
201
here in favour of the more flexible terms cadence pitch and
pre-cadential prolongation, indicating (respectively) the
points of arrival and departure of a background-level voice-
leading process. The vocabulary of modal theory
(particularly the terms finalis and confinalis) is no less
problematic: in Palestrina's setting of the Magnificat in the
fifth tone, for instance, the finalis (universally recognized
by theorists as F) does not equate to the cadence-pitch, A.
Such problems are compounded in pieces of disputed modality
(such as Josquin's Miserere mel), and in modes whose
confinalis does not always correspond to the secondary
cadence-pitch in sixteenth-century writings. Pieces of the
open type, though they may contain local cadential formations
of pitches other than the final sonority, have no deep-level
cadential closure and may be interpreted either as preludes
or as constituent parts of larger multipartite structures.
A compendium of the possible structural paradigms within
each of the three types is summarized below.
Ex.4:16. CLOSED TYPES.
1) Descent from 3 in tenorizans; 8-7-8 in cantizans.
Invertible; often preceded by voice-exchange.
Optional basizans: I-V-I.
202
ii) Descent from 5 in tenorizans; 8-7-8 in cantizans.
Consonant support for at iniddleground level.
Invertible after arrival at 3 in tenorizans.
Optional basizans: I-V-I.
iii) Descent from 8 in tenorizans; 8-- in cantizans.
Rare in vocal music because of restricted ainbitus.
Ex.4:17. SEMI-OPEN TYPES.
i) Descent from 4 in tenorizans; 8-7-8 in cantizans.
Invertible; consonant support for 3 at middleground level.
Asymmetrical basizans IV-V-I.
ii) Descent from 6 in tenorizans; 8-7-8 in cantizans.
Consonant support for and at middleground.
Asymmetrical basizans IV-V-I.
iii) Descent from 3 in tenorizans; 8-7-8 in cantizans.
As Ex.4:16(i) but with asymmetrical basizans VI-V-I.
Consecutive fifths composed out at middleground.
203
iv) Descent from 2 in tenorizans; 7-8 in cantizans.
Asymmetrical basizans V-I.
v) Descents from ,or in tenorizans; 7-8 in cantizans.
Asymmetrical basizans Ill-V-I.
Ex.4:18. OPEN TYPES.
i) Incomplete descent (-) counterpointed by Dependent
on subsequent resolution.
ii) Incomplete descent from also counterpointed by
incomplete cantizans. This type, especially in
conjunction with a cadential articulation of E (the
clausula in mi) may also be regarded as a semi-open type
with cadence-pitch E; this type is associated with the
Phrygian mode and will be discussed in Chapter 6 below.
iii) Symmetrical articulation of a single sonority
(elaborated here by a middleground neighbour-note
pattern).
204
VT
VT
A
1) DESCENTS FROM 3.
ii) DESCENTS FROM 5.
iii) DESCENTS FROM 8.
Ex.4:16. Summary of closed types.
205
A
1) DESCENTS FROM 4.
ii) DESCENTS FROM
iii) DESCENTS FROM S with asymmetrical bass.
5-3-5
Ex.4:17a. Semi-open types with symmetrical cantizans.
206
iv) DESCENT FROM 2.
v) DESCENTS FROM 3, 5 AND 7 with asymmetrical cantizans.
Ex.4:17b. Semi-open types with asymmetrical cantizans.
207
1) PARTIAL DESCENT FROM
ii) PARTIAL DESCENT FROM
iii) SYMMETRICAL PROLONGATION WITHOUT CADENTIAL MOTION.
Ex.4:18. Summary of open types.
208
Despite the apparent plurality of different background
archetypes, the hypothesis proposed here is essentially
simpler than that proposed by Schenker: an expanded vox
tenorizans will tend to descend linearly towards the final

1% F..
cadence, and will be complemented by a vox cantizans (8-7-8
or occasionallyBecause of the freedom with which
composers supplied bass supports for this basic two-part
model, the number of possible paradigms is larger even than
the selection given here (which has been confined to real
examples drawn from the sixteenth-century repertory). The
theoretical models, however, form a necessary starting-point
for two important theoretical and analytical enterprises.
First of these is the investigation of middleground
structures, which will facilitate a method of inotivic
analysis that transcends the immediately perceptible musical
surface (this will be especially pertinent to works with
chromatically 'deviant' middlegrounds). Secondly, the models
may be used as a means of investigating the relationship
between modality and cadence-structure, since the reference
to a background structure enables the analyst to identify,
with greater precision than was available within the
sixteenth-century vocabulary of modality, the relationship of
subsidiary cadences to the main structural cadence by means
of a hierarchical system of levels.
209
The paradigms suggested here represent a departure from
Schenkerian and post-Schenkerian approaches in one further
respect: because they are independent of a controlling Chord
of Nature, it is hoped that the paradigms will convey an
essentially processive, rather than static, concept of
tonality in which the conceptual background consists of a
basic motion from starting-point to closure, rather than a
stable manifestation of a single vertical sonority. Whereas
the reductive approaches of neo-Schenkerians have tended to
produce analyses of a static nature, the methodology outlined
here aims to explain the sense of long-range dynamism and
goal-directed motion which is in keeping with sixteenth-
century rhetorical concepts of musical structure. 3 ' It is
hoped that the threefold paradigm of closed, semi-open and
open backgrounds will better serve this aim, so that large-
scale voice-leading processes in sixteenth-century music
might be subjected to adequately rigorous scrutiny within the
limitations of historical sensitivity.
210
Notes to Chapter 4.
1. Above, pp.45-50.
2. Treitler 1965 is concerned with both primary motives
derived from pre-existent chant material, and secondary
motives which constitute 'individualizing' features.
Godt 1977 and 1983 show motivic connections at a local
level though not always between immediately contiguous
pitches.
3. For example, Schenker 1979: 10.
4. 'Urlinie is the name I have given to the upper voice of
the Ursatz. It unfolds a chord horizontally while the
counterpointing lower voice effects an arpeggiation of
this chord through the upper fifth.' (Schenker 1979: 4).
The term 'unfolding' (Ausfaltung) at the middleground and
foreground levels is used to denote a projection of two or
more voices within a single melodic line; here its use is
more problematic, because the Urlinie is considered as a
single voice, the 'upper voice of the Ursatz'. This
problem has led later theorists to argue the case for an
Urlinie composed of two, three or more real voices (for a
broader discussion of this issue, see Rothstein 1990).
5.
'Since it is a melodic succession of definitive steps of a
second, the Urlinie signifies motion, striving toward a
211
goal, and ultimately the completion of this course'
(Schenker 1979: 4). This view of the Urlinie as a melodic
line suggests the precedence of stepwise motion over
disjunct motion, and reaffirms Schenker's view of the
Urlinie as a single voice.
6.
The second and fourth degrees are regarded by Schenker as
passing notes at the deepest level:
'In accordance with the arpeggiation from which it stems,
the Urlinie exhibits the space of a third, fifth or
octave. These spaces are filled by passing tones.'
(Schenker 1979: 12).
7.
'Every drama presents a content whose meaning truly
reveals itself to the audience only if they perceive the
fundamental (Wurzelhaft) significance of the inner
connections which find expression in it according to
I
iuiddleground and foreground.' (Schenker
1979: 159)
8. Deli'ege 1984: 75-82.
9.
There has been very little analytical literature on
modulatory tonalities in music of the major/minor period
(1700 to 1850). (Interesting exceptions are De1ige 1984,
Renwick 1992 and Burns 1993.)
In particular, the tonal structure of modulatory
recitative has gone largely unanalysed. Since the main
212
Closure
A
F#
d
b
E
Eb
Opening Key of aria
Comfort yeE
For beholdb
Then shall the eyesG
Thy rebukeAb
He was cut of fb
All they that see him bb
E
b
F-Bb
e
A
c
tonal function of a recitative is to connect movements of
different keys, a tonally stable example is the exception
rather than the norm. Moreover, the relationship between
the points of arrival and of departure is almost
impossible to categorize, as this representative sample
from Handel's Messiah indicates:
In addition, the Phrygian type (where a movement ends on
a clausula in ml) is almost universal in the slow
movements of sonate da chiesa of Handel and his
contemporaries (for instance, Handel's sonatas Op.l);
these endings do not always function as dominants
resolving to the tonic of the succeeding fast movement.
The prevalence of such types in the Baroque repertory in
general casts some doubt on the assumed applicability of
the Schenkerian archetype for this period, since
Handel's open-ended structures cannot be considered as
deviations from an established norm in the manner of
later 'deviant' works (for instance, Chopin, Op.28, no.2
and Op.30, no.2).
213
The dramatic nature of some early Schubert songs (such as
Der Snger), which even incorporate recitative, suggests
a loose scena-like structure consisting of several
discrete units. Other modulating examples (Ganymed, for
instance) are less explicitly heterogeneous although they
retain an open-ended tonal structure.
10. Powers 1981 introduces the much-borrowed concept of
'tonal type'; Judd 1992 introduces 'modal type'.
11. Although Judd rejects the orthodox Schenkerian
paradigms applied in earlier work (Judd 1985), the basic
reductive methodology is retained.
12. Powers 1981: 428.
13. Powers 1981: 450-1.
14. The formal cadences on D occur at bars 130-1 and
146-7. These both lack a vox basizans, which renders
them less conclusive than the formal cadences on A (bars
38-9, 86-7 and 155-6). A full analysis of the
ambiguities in this piece is given below (pp.234 ff.)
15. Judd 1992: 429 ff.
16. Judd 1992: 439.
17. Judd 1992: 439.
18. Above, pp.22-4.
19. Doininus regnavit and Benedicite opera omnia are shown
paradigmatically in Judd 1992: 440. The latter has a
214
linear descent to the cadence-pitch denoted by stemmed
notes: this is consistent with post-Schenkerian
approaches and also corresponds to the background models
given here (the descent being the structural tenorizans
in a cadence-oriented model). Dominus re gnavit, on the
other hand, is reduced to an upward motion (this voice
is non-cadential); thus it would seem that cadential
orientation is not a primary criterion for the
analytical reduction. In general, it is precisely this
lack of a coherent set of criteria for reduction that
constitutes the principal difficulty in Judd's
(otherwise persuasive) argument.
20. Judd 1992: 445.
21. Closed, semi-open and open are defined in full above,
pp.179-200.
22. The uniformity of structural types is especially evident
in Monteverdi's madrigals from the fourth, fifth and
sixth books. The prevalence of a single tonal type,
corresponding to the modern G minor, has prompted some
commentators (McClary 1976, Chafe 1992) to regard this
development as the transition from modality to tonality.
23. Especially Judd 1985, which deals with a closed type.
24. Above, p.124 and p.147n.
25. Schenker 1979, fig.16.
215
26. Below, pp.380 ff.
27. For instance, McClary 1976, Chew 1990.
28. The term 'cadence' is used here in Zarlino's sense, and
refers to two parts approaching either an octave or a
unison in contrary stepwise motion. A 'plagal cadence'
is not considered a true closure in this context.
29. Schenker acknowledged the existence of open-ended forms
and their association with the genre of the prelude:
Chopin's Op.28,no.2 is called a 'true prelude'(l979:89).
30. See Judd 1992: 458n. For the disputed relevance of
confinalis theory to polyphonic compositions, see also
Atcherson 1970.
31. Borrowings of terminology from rhetoric are ubiquitous
in sixteenth-century writings, although their
application to specific aspects of musical structure and
to specific works is rare until the seventeenth century.
Burmeister's much-discussed analysis of Lassus's In me
transierunt in his Musica poetica (summarized in Palisca
1972) is one example.
216
CHAPTER FIVE
STRUCTURAL ANBIGUITIES
5.1 Difficulties in analytical applications
In place of the reductive systems of post-Schenkerian
theorists, who have tended to pursue a 'bottom-up'
methodology proceeding in a linear fashion from the specific
to the general, I have proposed, in the foregoing chapters,
an alternative, 'top-down' methodology which enables pieces
to be placed in stylistic contexts. 2 - The closed, semi-open
and open models provide a paradigm of common practice in the
sixteenth century against which stylistic individualities may
be evaluated. The inductive process by which these structures
are derived consists of two phases: first, the positing of an
initial hypothesis (in this case, the three categories of
structural type, founded on the basic premise of large-scale
cadential centricity), and secondly, the application of this
hypothetical model toproblematic repertory as a test of its
appropriateness. Since the proposed backgrounds are intended
to function as genuine norms of aural expectation that are
2 17
historically and stylistically grounded, as distinct from ad
hoc reductive schemata, they are arguably closer in
conception to Schenker's 'historical background' than to
those later analytical applications that are essentially
reductive and anti-historical. Although the models themselves
differ markedly from Schenker's Ursatz, this divergence
itself reflects Schenker's own view of the sixteenth-century
repertory, which in his view belonged to a system
diametrically opposed to that of major and minor tonality.2
However, our understanding of the norms and constraints of
this system is clouded by the existence of certain works (the
closed structural types) which happen to resemble later tonal
structures. Josquin's motet Ave Maria ... virgo serena, for
instance, has a closed structural type with a vox basizans at
its final cadence; consequently, the Schenkerian methodology
will be expected to 'work' effectively with this piece and to
result in a satisfactory analysis. 3 Yet other works of this
and later periods are less comfortably explicable in orthodox
Schenkerian terms: Josquin's Virgo salutiferi; Palestrina's
Magnificat Ouinti Toni; Lassus's prologue. 4 The question that
reductive analysis cannot address is one of historical
interpretation: is the ostensible non-conformity of these
pieces due to their antiquity (because they predate the
evolution of 'tonality' as defined by the Schenkerian
218
paradigm) or to their modernity (as genuine deviations from
some prevalent stylistic norm, as yet ill-defined in the
current literature)? It is evident that such 'deviant' pieces
demand consideration in the context of a hypothetical common
practice that is historically accountable. However, any
genuine theory of common practice in the sixteenth century
must avoid a simple exposition of pieces chosen so as to
conform to preconceived norms: clearly, such a biased
selection of pieces would result in a logical circularity.
Rather, having established a set of hypothetical structural
models for the analysis of Renaissance polyphony in general,
we must now turn to some of the more problematic aspects of
their application.
This and the following chapters will explore some of the
difficulties inherent in the application of the background
paradigms to actual pieces of the sixteenth century.
One such methodological difficulty arises in the
analysis of works whose final cadence is on E (or A in cantus
mollis systems), whether or not these pieces are assigned to
Modes 3 or 4 (in Glarean's terms, these constitute the
Phrygian types). Since a cadence on these pitches will
contain a semitone in the vox tenorjzans and will not sustain
a vox basizans, owing to the prohibition of mi contra fa,
these Phrygian types demand a voice-leading model of a
219
somewhat different kind from those proposed above. Indeed,
the Phrygian type has been so problematic in the analytical
literature of recent years that it demands separate
consideration here (below, chap.6).5
There are two further difficulties in the analytical
application of the models that arise from concerns central to
sixteenth-century theoretical discourse. First is the
changing status of the cantus firmus in sixteenth-century
compositional technique. If a work is explicitly constructed
through the elaboration of a precomposed tenor, liturgical or
otherwise, this compositional given may in some circumstances
conflict with the large-scale cadential orientation of a
work. The relation of the proposed models to precomposed
chants raises the most fundamental issue of the relationship
of any analytical interpretation to the processes of
compositional genesis: consequently, the cantus firmus and
its implications for voice-leading demand a separate
consideration (below, chap.7).
Secondly, the rise of the chromatic genus in the mid-
sixteenth century is central to the aesthetic controversy of
the time: does the celebrated chromatic counterpoint of
Vicentino and his followers endanger the normative status of
the cadential models (as Lowinsky implied in his discussion
of the Lassus prologue), or can the chromaticism of this
220
repertory be regarded as a middleground deviation from a
diatonic background (the presence of which is arguably
necessary to ensure long-range intelligibility)? This and
related issues will be developed below (chap.8) in a series
of illustrative analyses that demonstrate the modernistic
deviations from stylistic norms that were to culminate in the
emergence of the seconda prattica.
Finally, there is the issue of structural ambiguity:
because sixteenth-century compositions (such as mass
movements and multipartite motets) tend to consist of a
number of interlinked sections, the structural type of a work
will vary depending on whether individual sections are
interpreted as self-contained structures or as part of larger
background systems. This issue is especially problematic
given the absence of a controlling Chord of Nature, where
open-ended structures are not necessarily perceived as
unstable entities which demand resolution. It was suggested
in my reading of Palestrina's fifth-tone and eighth-tone
Magnificats that the open-ended nature of their voice-leading
structures was due to the asymmetrical nature of the chants
from which the polyphony is derived. 6 Since works of this
type are intended for performance as self-contained units
within a liturgical context, it would appear inappropriate to
regard such structures as unstable, or demanding resolution.
221
However, when semi-open structures occur as internal sections
within a larger context (a mass or a multipartite motet),
their interpretation becomes potentially more equivocal. It
is the purpose of the present chapter to explore some
approaches to sectional connections and the varying (and
sometimes irreducibly ambiguous) background interpretations
that these engender.
5.2 Structural connections in cyclic pieces
The designation of structural type in sixteenth-century
pieces is especially difficult in the case of multipartite
works: motets of two or more parts, settings of the mass
ordinary, and the motetti missales of Josquin and his
contemporaries (intended as substitutes for the mass ordinary
in certain liturgical contexts). 7 In such cases, pieces are
intended for performance in succession, although the
succession of pieces may be interrupted according to
liturgical context. Pieces of this type stand in contrast to
those such as Palestrina's Of fertoria, where the first 32
pieces are probably intended for performance separately
despite their cyclical ordering (modal ordering in this case
is a taxonomic resource rather than an indication of
222
cyclical performance) .
In Chapter 3, it was suggested that the large-scale
teleological drives in Josquin's multipartite motets could be
seen to cross sectional divisions and to create a sense of
interconnection between prima and secunda (and, where
present, tertia) partes. This interconnection is achieved
differently in different pieces: in Virgo salutiferi, the
large-scale strategy of a successive motion to III, IV and V
in the bass (I-III/I-IV/I-V-I) suggests that the deflected
terminations of the first two sections acquire their meaning
only in the context of the larger motion to the final
cadence-pitch (G) at the end of the tertia pars. 9 Yet these
sectional connections are essentially middleground phenomena:
each pars has a closed structural type effected by cadences
on G; the unexpected endings on B flat and C in prima and
secunda partes respectively are post-cadential and thus
function as codettas within a succession of closed types.
Consequently, there is no difficulty in assigning the entire
motet to a closed type according to the criterion of
cadential orientation (G, unlike B flat and C, is articulated
cadentially before each sectional ending).
Where the sections of larger works have different
cadence-pitches, the designation of structural type is
necessarily more complex. Table 5.1 gives a representative
223
Partes C.P. Subsectional C.P.
2 CCC
FFC(nocad)
GBbGG
GG
EAE(nocad)
EAG
AE
FFFF
GC
3 F?
4

G
2

G
3

E
3

G
2

E
4

F
2

C
2 2 4
sample of sectional endings from the first two volumes of
Josquin's motets, excluding single-section works and motetti
missales. By contrast with the analogous tables offered in
recent literature (Powers 1981, Judd 1992 ), this gives
cadence-pitches (C.P.) as articulated by the cadential
formulas that are consistently defined by sixteenth-century
theorists, rather than simply final triadic roots. Where the
final triad of a section differs from the last cadentially-
articulated pitch, this is regarded as an appended coda or
codetta (as in the case of Virgo salutiferi).
Table 5:1.
Josquin des Prez: motets of two or more partes (Vols. I and
II): voice-leading and tonal behaviour of subsections.
No.Motet
3 Mittit ad virginem
12 Ave verum corpus
13 Domine, non secundum
14 Tu solus
15 Liber generationis
16 Factum est
19 !4 agnus es tu
2 0 Planxit autem David
2 1 Alma redemptoris I
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
2
3
2
2
2
2
3
3
2
F
G
G
C
A
D
G
D
G
F
A
F
E
D
E
F
A
E
2 2 Ut Phoebi radiis
2 6 Victimae paschali
2 7 Illibata Del
2 8 Homo quidam
3 1 Memor esto
3 2 Huc me sydereo
3 3 Praeter rerum
3 4 Ave nobilissima
3 5 virgo salutiferi
3 6 Stabat mater
3 7 Miserere mel
3 8 Alma redemptoris II
3 9 Domine ne in furore
40 Missus est Gabriel
41 Lectio actuum
42 Inviolata
43 Misericordias
44 Deus, in nomine tuo
DF
GG
GG
CC
E A (mi-type)
AD
G G (modified cad)
AD
GGG
CF
E E A (mod cad)
FF
AE
DD
EE
A A (no cad) F
EAA
AE
Of the 2 7 motets sampled in Table 5:1, eleven are of a
stable type whose cadence-pitch is identical for each
section. These are structurally unproblematic and may be
analysed either as separate pieces or as chains of structural
descents in the manner of a set of variations: in both cases
2 2 5
their designation as closed types is straightforward,
although the pieces with E endings demand a different kind of
voice-leading treatment that will be discussed in a separate
chapter.- Domine. non secundum peccata (no.13) has one
sectional ending on B flat (in the secunda pars); as this
corresponds to the initial harmony of the tertia pars, this
may be construed as a linking passage in the manner of Virgo
salutiferi: a middleground connection within a large-scale
closed type.-'
A further six motets have sectional cadences ending on
pitches a fifth above or a fourth below the final cadence-
pitch: in anachronistic tonal terminology, these might be
termed 'V-I' types; in terms of modal designation as
exemplified by Glarean's Dodekachordon, these secondary
cadence-pitches would correspond to the modal confinalis in
those modes with finalis C (no.21), D (nos.32 and 34) F
(no.36) and A (nos.37 and
43)12
Where the final cadence-
pitch of a work is E (or A in the cantus mollis, system), the
relationship of internal closures to the final closure is
slightly different. As observed by Glarean, Zarlino and
others, the secondary cadence-pitch will tend to be A rather
than B in the case of pieces with final cadence-pitch E (in
Glarean's terms, the Phrygian and Hypophrygian pieces).'-
This results in a 'IV-I' rather than 'V-I' relation between
226
sectional and final cadences in three such motets from the
sample (nos.19, 39 and 44; no.15 is of a similar type
although its ending is not properly cadential).
Finally, five motets from the sample might be described
as irregular: in these examples (nos.12, 16, 22, 31 and 42),
the relationship between sectional and final cadence-pitches
is neither of the stable I...I type nor of the V...I or
IV.. .1 type. In Memor esto verbi tui (no.31, also classified
as irregular by Judd's criteria), the two partes have
different systems: the first section has a mi-type cadence on
E in a cantus durus system; the second is transposed to end
on A in cantus mollis.- 4 Factum est autem (no.16) has a
curious ending on G, articulated by a modified two-part
cadential model, despite its derivation from a third-mode
chant, and despite the more regular endings on E and A in the
prima and secunda partes. This ending is not really deviant
according to the criteria of contemporary theorists: Aron,
for instance, allows cadences on any pitch except D as
'regular' in the third mode. 2- 5 However, this unusual
relationship between final and internal cadence-pitches casts
some doubt on any view of the subsections as subsumed within
a wider structural totality at the level of the entire motet.
Ave verum corpus (no.12) has an anomalous structure in
that the vox tenorizans in the tertia pars is deflected from
227
the final cadence pitch by a whole tone (F to G, supported by
a bass motion F-C, or 'I-V'); this is problematic not only
because the post-cadential behaviour of the tenor and bass
denies, rather than prolongs, the final cadence-pitch, but
also because it contradicts the F-ending in the original
fifth-mode plainchant. The ostensibly curious harmonic
structure of Ut Phoebe radiis (no.22), on the other hand,
arises out of the elaboration of a pre-cadential schema based
on ascending hexachords.
The empirical observation of endings in this small
sample of motets thus suggests a simple threefold
classification of multipartite structures in Josquin's
output:
1. Stable types, where each section has the same cadence-
pitch, giving a concatenation of similar structures;
2. 'Confinalis-finalis' types, which have sectional endings
on V (or IV in the case of final cadences on E);
3. Anomalous types.
Such a taxonomic resource, however, is of only limited
usefulness in determining whether or not the subsections of a
multipartite work might function as parts of a larger whole,
and whether they acquire their tonal interpretation through a
large-scale syntactical relationship with the surrounding
228
sections. In particular, like the designations of tonal type
proposed by Harold Powers, these categories define large-
scale musical structures only in terms of their endings; they
take no account of long-range voice-leading behaviour or of
the relationships between the beginnings and ends of
sections: between the pre-cadential prolongation unfolded in
a work's incipit, and the cadence-pitch articulated at its
closure.
5.3 Case-study I: Domine. non secunduin peccata
The secunda pars of Domine. non secundum eccata is a
case in point. It has already been remarked that the cadence-
pitch of this section, Bb, contrasts with the G cadences of
the other three partes. This new cadence-pitch is clearly
determined by the point of repose at the corresponding
section of the original chant, where the mid-point of the
gradual (on the words 'misericordiae tuae') comes to rest on
the pitch B flat. Similarly, the internal cadences within the
secunda pars have their origins in the monophonic cadences of
the chant itself: for instance, the cadence on F on the words
'nostrarum antiquarum'
229
Tenor.
Bauus.
an - ti-qua -
ci - to an - ti - ci - pent

mi-se-ri-cor -
Ex.5:1. Josquin des Prez: Doinine. non secunduin peccata,
secunda pars.
230
U
-I
b-4
I
1-4
H
I
0
a,
4.)
0
0
r4
C N
LO
lxi
o--nwfl

neme-mL- -
-ne- - - --

ftcdlL-'1Q71.- dii. -t-C LL.-- - -

nu

Ci - to an - - fL-ci -n n-.se -rL - C or - cL-

- -

qw -a- pa.IL- - - -- -
foc..tL.1U. .zLL.S - flL-J7U4 -
Ex.5:3. Doinine. non secundum peccata: Gradual, verse 2.
Because the cadential structure of the motet is closely
allied to that of the chant itself, the secunda pars is
musically, as well as textually, dependent upon the
surrounding sections. Since the secunda pars represents only
a part of the second verse of the gradual, it is textually
incomplete and its final cadence-pitch may consequently be
regarded as a subsidiary pitch within a larger-scale
orientation towards G:
PRIMA PARS (cadence-pitch G)
V.1. Domine, non secundum peccata nostra quae fecimus nos,
neque secundum iniquitates nostras retribuas nobis.
232
SECUNDA PARS (cadence-pitch Bb)
Domine, ne memineris iniquitatum nostrarum antiquarum:
cito anticipent nos misericordiae tuae.
V.2.
TERTIA PARS (cadence-pitch C)
Quia pauperes facti sumus nimis.
OtJARTA PARS (cadence-pitch G)
V.3. Adiuva nos, Deus salutaris noster, et propter gloriam
nominis tui, Domine, libera nos, et proptius esto
peccatis nostris propter nomen tuum.2-7
The opening sonority of the secunda pars also suggests its
dependence on the surrounding music for its structural
interpretation. Although this unusual interval (a sixth)
might be understood as the (of the structural cantizans)
A
over 3 within a closed model with cadence-pitch B flat, the
successive cadences on G in bars 62 and 73 suggest a pre-
cadential prolongation of B flat over G (Ex.5:2). In
addition, it was argued above (pp.108-9) that the initial
unsupported sixth was inadmissible at the background level;
as a consequence, the initial sonority is viewed here as a
middleground excrescence, subordinate to the larger B flat/G
prolongation established at the outset of the prima pars.
The further subdivision of the secunda pars into two
sections (each carrying a line of the text) raises
interesting questions of large-scale voice-leading. The
233
closure of the first subsection with a two-part cadence on F
suggests a degree of structural ambiguity: although
contemporary sources (such as Aron 1525) allow the formation
of a cadence on F as regular within the transposed second
mode (to which the original chant of this gradual is usually
assigned), the F articulated at bar 89 may be regarded as the
secondary cadence-pitch within a B flat centricity;
certainly, the foreground prolongation of B flat over B flat
(on 'cito anticipent') at the outset of the triple-metre
section anticipates the B flat closure at the end of the
secunda pars, despite the intervening cadence on G at bar
100.
The structure of the tertia pars would similarly
resemble a semi-open model if taken in isolation, since it
begins with a B flat triad and ends with a cadential
articulation of G in four parts: however, in the context of
the surrounding material, the section can be viewed as part
of a wider goal-directed motion towards the true cadence-
pitch, G, and the motet as a whole may be regarded as a
single closed structural type with cadence-pitch G, within
which the secondary cadence-pitch B flat is subsumed at a
middleground level.
This syntactical connection between the sections of
multipartite motets is relatively easy to establish in the
234
case of an early motet such as this example from Josquin: in
this case, the 'weak' interval of a sixth at the outset of
the secunda pars, together with the deflection of cadence-
pitch from G to B flat at its closure, suggests a
destabilizing strategy that is borne out by the status of the
secunda and tertia partes as two halves of the same gradual
verse. The large-scale analytical interpretation offered
here, therefore, is facilitated by the close relationship
between the motet and its chant source (where B flat is a
point of repose in the chant melody rather than a true goal
of motion in its own right). In later motet styles, however,
the increased liberation of polyphonic settings from their
dependence on chant sources makes ambiguities of
interpretation much more acute.
5.4 Case-study II: Vergine bella
A second, and rather different, example of the
ambiguities in interpretation arising from the juxtaposition
of two or more units is Palestrina's Vergine bella, whose
unusual final cadence on A has been briefly discussed in a
modal context. 1 - 8
In this example, there are two potential
readings at the background level, depending on whether the
piece is taken in isolation or in a wider cyclical context.
235
Semi-open reading
If taken alone, the structure of the madrigal clearly
conforms to the semi-open model with a descent from the sixth
degree in the expanded vox tenorizans to the cadence-pitch A
(Ex.5:4). The head-note of the linear descent (expanded
tenorizans) is F (defined as the highest pitch in the texture
that is consonantly supported and quit linearly), established
in the canto at bar 2, while that of the expanded
vox cantizans is A, established in the alto in the same bar.
The semi-open nature of the structure is confirmed by the
bass, which enters on a D (bar 7) to support the interval of
a sixth between prolonged treble and alto voices (F over A).
A
A
A
-5__4,__
Iv
- V
Ex.5:4. Vergine bella: semi-open background model
(cf. model shown as Ex.4:l7a [ii], p.206).
236
A more detailed levelled sketch (Ex.5:5) shows how this
basic paradigm is expanded by a series of linear descents
articulated by internal cadences at the middleground level.
Unusually for this repertory, the setting has a clear-cut
internal repetition of musical material to produce an AAB
form (bars 1-39 corresponding almost exactly to bars 41-79),
where both the A sections, all well as the B section, have
formal cadences on A: the only three-part formal cadences in
the entire madrigal. This correspondence, incidentally,
results in an elegant musical analogue of the textual rhyme
'ascose/pose' at bars 39 and 79 respectively.
In the semi-open reading, this tripartite form is
projected through a concatenation of descents from at the
iniddleground level, although the final descent is rendered
more conclusive by the addition of a climactic pitch G as an
upper neighbour to the head-note in the canto on the word
'ciel' and by the appending of a post-cadential I-IV-I
prolongation in bars 156-160. Other points of cadential
closure (on A, D, C and F) belong to a lower level of
middleground than the three form-generative cadences on A;
such a hierarchic distinction is justified by the criteria
laid out in Chapter 3 above, where two-voice cadences such as
that formed by treble and bass in bars 146-7 are considered
weaker than the full three-part model with basizans.
238
Similarly, cadenze fuggite (such as the evaded cadence on
C - on the word 'ascose' - at bar 28, whose basizans moves V-
VI instead of V-I) function at a lower structural level: in
this case, the evaded cadence prolongs a component of the
first-level middleground descent (E in the upper voice) by
means of a third-progression (E-D-C in the tenor at bars
26-8):
Ex.5:6. Vergine bella: bars 25-30.
239
At the foreground level, a number of replications of the
background model occur as motivic features; this process is
somewhat akin to the replications of the form of the Ursatz
frequently encountered in compositions of the major-minor
period. The melodic line of the canto at bars 84-7 ('ben
sempre rispose'), for instance, has a sweeping foreground
descent through a sixth that reflects, in nuce, the large-
scale motion of the structural tenorizans.
''VT
rr r r r r r

_____

[irtj -
vo Cotti cht ei sent--- ---seP-
ir
the ben. seni. - - - /re r. - - - .sjo- -
rrflrr rr __
-J___
-vo -co
( e. cJe.ben.S C4q, u-i. -- Co
- '
______________________________________________-_- -
___ .
ffrt
I11_VO Coe4. ckie bat.
Ex.5:7. Verg ine bella: bars 83-88.
240

hi .-..vo-cOe. he cnri. - -cpac/u 14 Clii4.-
N
,n-- - -
+ -I
1VC I Jdthkiflt
id1ilI i
na_____
1chiacoivfr-
I
w- - - - - - - dc
Verji-ne. s-sner- ce - - - - - -
- -
/06
o,; - - ce - - - - - rVe -$- - -r.1! *4---nw. - - - -
I-I I
-
na e -sfre - - aw.u- - - - - - Ia -- - -
______=p ____
A
r F___1

0
--e- - se - - - - ra- - iriade. t-mo. - - -nc.
_________-0-
-P- r,,
___-0- _________

1-'-
_c____________
i_r -____________ ______ ______ ______
____ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
0 __

- dc-------roe - str- -4g.('u - - 0. - - - ne.

Ex.5:8. Verginebella: bars 86-115.
241
The following section (bars 90-114) is theoretically
interesting in that it superficially resembles a modulation
to F, with five successive cadences on that pitch. In
particular, the means by which this F-centricity is subsumed
within the large-scale voice-leading model raises a number of
methodological difficulties, and highlights the distinctions
between the present approach and more traditional analytical
approaches (especially of the post-Schenkerian kind). This
'modulatory' passage might, in the terminology of sixteenth-
century theory, be regarded as a mutatio iuodl, signified by a
series of formal cadences on the sixth degree, F: a brief
excursion from the Dorian to the Lydian mode. In this
reading, however, these internal cadences are consistent with
the prolongation of F in the structural tenorizans over A in
the inner voices of the texture; only the bass in this
passage has moved from a prolonged D to a prolonged F, which
has the quality of a third-divider. The differences between
the present reading and conventional harmonic and post-
Schenkerian approaches are most salient here: the prolonged F
in the bass in bars 91-107 does not genuinely function as a
triadic root in a harmonic third-progression, since this
music is contrapuntally, rather than triadically, conceived
(in this respect, the present approach is closer to that of
Dahihaus, who expressed his scepticism of Riemannian harmonic
242
analysis by demonstrating that a so-called 'third-relation'
in Gesualdo had its origins in a contrapuntal cadential
mode1). 9 Nor does the 'modulation' to 'F major' in bars 9 1-
107 constitute an expanded arpeggiation in the bass, filling
out a tonal space from I to V (as an orthodox Schenkerian
middleground model demands), since there is a return to a
cadential centricity around D in bars 130-1 which contradicts
any such interpretation (I-Ill-I-V as opposed to I-Ill-V-I).
Rather, the present reading (in common with sixteenth-century
cadence-theories) views the bass only as a support for the
intervallic prolongation of F over A in the two structural
voices, not as the root of any triadic prolongation; it is
intervals, not triads, that are prolonged within the present
system, since it is upon intervallic (not triadic) concepts
that the sixteenth-century contrapuntal rules are formulated.
Given the intervallic prolongation of F over A, only two bass
supports (F and D) are theoretically permissible; here
Palestrina provides an alternation between the two without
affecting the basic intervallic prolongation of a sixth
between the structural cantizans and tenorizans.
Incidentally, the behaviour of the canto in this passage is a
good illustration of the sort of dual function that recurs
consistently in the Renaissance repertory as a whole: the
pitch F functions at the background level as the head-note of
243
the structural tenorizans, even though it forms part of the
vox cantizans at a more local level of cadential activity
(bars 94-5 and 100-1). similarly, in the alto, the prolonged
AA
A of the background-level cantizans (8-7-8) functions as part
of the vox tenorizans in two of the local cadences on F at
bars 94-5 and 101-2; however, the deep-level prolongation of
A is subtly reinforced at these points by the motion of these
local tenorizans voices, which outline A-G-A (locally,
3-a-S)
instead of the expected A-G-F (--I).
A striking feature of this motet, familiar elsewhere in
Palestrina's mature compositions, is the mixing of cantus
durus and cantus inollis systems: the alternation between B
natural and B flat. Although Palestrina never ventured into a
genuinely chromatic genus of composition, this affective
device is his closest approximation to chromatic alteration
(usually for expressive purposes) within a diatonic
background. Examples of durus/mollis shift abound in the
'Vergine' cycle, often with more explicitly expressive
purpose than in the present example. In the second madrigal,
Vergine saggia, the shift into mollis falls on the word
'tristi', where it coincides with a beautiful slowing in
harmonic rhythm:
244
Ctie vi-dc( W- - - - -(OJ
____________DURLJS
s1j) i ___________ oL-is (a k)
Ex.5:9. Vergine saggia: bars 75-86.
Equally striking is the durus/inollis shift at the end of the
seventh madrigal, Vergine. quante lagrime, whose
significance, both expressive and structural, will be
considered in greater detail in a later chapter. In this
example, the change to cantus inollis . occurs on the words 'e
sol morte n'aspetta', once again coinciding with a dramatic
slowing of harmonic rhythm:
245
-
____(.a t) j _______________ M0LLIS ( ) ________________
i
Ex.5:10. Vergine guante lagrime: bars 140- 50.
Although the rhetorical and affective significance of
the durus/mollis shift has been widely discussed in the
recent literature (especially with regard to the slightly
later repertory of Monteverdi, of which these madrigals are a
significant stylistic precursor), the structural
ramifications have been less thoroughly explored. 20 In
Vergine. quante lagriine, the mode is ostensibly the seventh
(given the position of the piece within the eight- mode cycle
and the cantus durus signature) and the final cadence- pitch
is G (in this case, although not in Vergine bella, the
246
cadence-pitch is the same as the modal finalis).
Consequently, the B natural/B flat shift constitutes an
alteration of the third degree over the cadence-pitch G: a
change from major to minor or, in Schenkerian terms, a
mixture. Although this change carries a good deal of
affective significance (especially as it is an early example
of a major/minor shift carrying the clear-cut affective
signification that it was to acquire in later tonal systems),
it does not significantly affect the basic background model:
after all, a descent to G in the tenorizans may contain
either B flat or B natural without affecting the behaviour of
the other cadencing voices (cantizans and basizans). (At the
middleground level, the alteration to B flat is necessary to
sustain a triad as at Ex.5:9.)
This view of the mixture as a middleground phenomenon
was evidently shared by Schenker, who (in Free Composition)
allowed any number of first-level mixtures of the third
degree without altering the basic diatonic background; 2 in
Harmony, however, his somewhat Riemannesque attempts to
rationalize the major/minor systems in terms of the harmonic
series led him to propose a rather awkward trichotomy of
major, minor and modal systems, which he regarded as
respectively natural, artificial and unsatisfactory.2 2
Because the present study
views large-scale structure in
247
purely contrapuntal terms (and rejects the postulate of an
all-controlling Chord of Nature in Renaissance music), the
notion of major and minor as two separate tonal systems is, I
believe, untenable in this repertory. Instead, such
alterations of the third degree are regarded as middleground
or even foreground phenomena depending on their context.
The durus/mollis shifts in Vergine bella, however, are
of an entirely different nature from the middleground and
foreground mixtures found in the seventh madrigal and in
later major-minor tonality. Since the final cadence-pitch
here is A rather than G, the alteration of the pitch B is one
of the second degree rather than the third: a difference
which has far-reaching structural ramifications. Since a
motion from B flat to A in the vox tenorizans cannot sustain
either a vox basizans or a semitone in the vox cantizans
(which would produce a tritone and an augmented sixth
respectively), the appearance of B flat in a cadential
context occasions closural formulae of a very different sort.
The ending of the phrase 'coronata di stelle al sommo
Sole' (bars 15-22) is an example of the so-called clausula
in mi, with the vox tenorizans in the bass and the cantizans
in the alto (Ex.5:ll). Although this cadence is a
middleground, rather than background, phenomenon (by contrast
with the Phrygian pieces to be discussed in the next
248
chapter), it still raises questions of background-level
structure owing to its implications of D-centricity: given
the unfolding of a D minor sonority in the incipit, the
clausula in ml at bar 20 may be regarded not as a stable
closure on the final cadence-pitch, A, but as a subsidiary
cadence (in anachronistic terms, a D minor half-close).
jrr ________- r
ii
.3teL - - aL- - 'no- -- ce-st 1
_____- _
J
J i __
stct- Lq.L sm. mo - _____So - -
r F rr __r r r r r rr rr ir
B- na.- . c,stgL - - (tai .So- - 'no- - - - - - - -
r rr
r
1iiitJ ____
S
Go- ro n- 4steL-ej .sosn - - - - ma So - -
- -
CO-(V-rW..- tO.
d.
- - ljzLom. - - - - 'no
So - - ______
Ex.5:ll. Internal clausula in ml on A, bars 15-22.
249
This implication of closure on D is further emphasized
by the modal representation of the piece: given the modal
ordering of the cycle and the cantus durus signature,
Vergine bella is unequivocally intended as a representation
of the first mode with finalis D (once again, the piece gives
analytical weight to Zarlino's observation that a piece may
end on a pitch other than the modal finalis). 3 Thus it might
be suggested that there are two legitimate ways of viewing
the 'tonality' of Vergine bella: as a self-contained semi-
open structure with cadence-pitch A (as was implicitly
suggested by Powers when he classified the 'final' as A), or
as part of a larger goal-directed motion towards D (as
intimated by Dahlhaus when he suggested that the ending was
on the 'Dorian confinali').
This fundamental ambiguity is crucial to our
understanding of cyclic connections in late sixteenth-century
polyphony: is Vergine bella a self-contained structure, like
the other seven madrigals in the cycle, or is it, like the
subsections of the Josquin mnotet discussed above, to be
understood as merely the first section in a larger model of
the closed type (in this case spanning the first and second
of the madrigals) with cadence-pitch D? The latter, albeit
somewhat organicist, interpretation is superficially
seductive given that Vergine bella is clearly intended as a
250
representation of the first mode with finalis D, and that A-
endings in ostensibly Dorian pieces are very rare (confined
to a handful of Palestrina's late works, including the
Of fertoria 1-4). The following gives a reappraisal of the
work from this alternative perspective.
Closed reading (spanning two pieces)
This alternative reading (Exx.5:l2 and 5:13) is
dependent on the voice-leading structure of the succeeding
piece, Vergine saggia. This madrigal, ostensibly in the
second mode, is somewhat problematic in terms of modal
representation, since it has high clefs (chiavette), unlike
the other three pieces in the cycle that purport to represent
the plagal modes (4, 6 and 8); its voice-leading structure,
however, is relatively straightforward, since it has a final
cadence-pitch (D) that corresponds to the modal finalis.
Whereas Vergine bella has an incipit that unfolds F over A
and D, the second piece is notable in articulating A and E in
its successive entries (Ex.5:12). This gives the two pieces,
taken together, the effect of a beautiful structural chiasmus
(D-A in the first piece being reflected by A-D in the second)
and suggests a conscious desire to connect the first two
pieces of the cycle (a similar, and even more striking,
strategy in the last two pieces will be considered below).25
251
-
I
I
I . .
Q . .
U
0
U
0
.
.t ',
'4,
1
.4
r

I
U -
8

U-
Crj
I'.-
'I-
I
H
d
4
p
.
1 )
II
I-I'
zr o'f,-tQci,w zqnc-,w
Although F is interpreted here as the head-note of
Vergine sacTg ia (it is the highest pitch of the entire
madrigal and is repeated saliently in the upper voice with
consonant support), it is noteworthy that the upper F in the
canto is delayed until bar 16 and reached by a composed-out
linear ascent; more significant still is the delay of the
expected supporting pitch D in the bass under the head-note
until the first cadence on D at bar 48. This retardation,
together with the succession of internal cadences on A (on
'numer'una' and 'chiara lampa' at bars 14-15, 25-26 and 30-
31) serves to reinforce the symmetrical patterning and to
establish the structural connection between the first and
second madrigals.
In voice-leading terms, the exact nature of the
connection is shown in Ex.5:13. Whereas the semi-open reading
labelled the head-note as (assuming a cadential gravitation
towards A), the alternative reading retains the head-note F
in the canto, but re-notates it as : the third degree in a
larger-scale descent to D. In this reading, the long-range
voice-leading motion of the two madrigals constitutes an
interrupted structure not dissimilar to that posited by
Schenker for binary forms in the major-minor tonal system:
p. A
the first piece (itself now an open model) projects 3-2 over
8-7 with basizans I-V, while the second piece projects a
254
completed descent (3-2-i) to the modal
finalis.2G
In this
model, the cadential motion to A at the end of Ver g ine bella
is assigned to the first level of middleground rather than to
the background.
To summarize the analytical evidence in favour of each
of the two possible readings:
VERGINE BELLA AS A SEMI-OPEN MODEL WITH CADENCE-PITCH A
1. The structure of Vergine bella is exactly analogous with
that of the first four Of fertoria (1593), which have pre-
cadential bass prolongations of D, head-note F, high
clefs and cadence-pitch A. Yet these are undoubtedly
self-contained motets, and there is no evidence that they
were intended to be performed in conjunction with the
second-mode pieces (which end on D).
2. The pitch A is articulated by a full formal cadence plus a
post-cadential prolongation (I-IV-I); in this respect its
ending is analogous with (and as conclusive as) the
closures of Madrigals 2-8.
3. Sixteenth-century modal theorists allow for a cadential
ending on a pitch other than the modal finalis: thus a D
finalis does not presuppose that an A ending would
necessarily be perceived as incomplete or as an unresolved
255
'dominant'.
4. Semi-open models with bass IV-V-I occur elsewhere in
Palestrina's mature output (for instance, the eighth-tone
Magnificat of the First Book, analysed above, p.189).
VERGINE BELLA AND VERGINE SAGGIA AS A SINGLE CLOSED MODEL
1. The madrigal represents Mode 1 with finalis D; all the
other seven madrigals in the cycle have final cadences on
their modal finalis.
2. The frequent foreground-level alteration of the B natural
to B flat suggests a mixture of the sixth degree within a
D-directed structure.
3. Vergine saggia opens with an imitative point starting on A
and E, and the articulation of F over D (the prolonged
interval at the background level) is delayed to produce a
symmetrical AB/BA structure spanning the two pieces.
Given that a case may be made for either interpretation,
it would appear that the first two pieces of the 'Vergine'
cycle have a fundamental structural ambiguity: from the
available analytical evidence both here and in the
Off?rtoria, it is moot that the semi-open types with an
asymmetrical bass were perceived, at this period, as unstable
256
relative to the closed structures that were to become the
immutable norm of later major-minor tonality. Thus it is
almost impossible to generalize about the perceptual status
of the semi-open types: in the eighth-tone Magnificat, for
AAAA
instance, the semi-open type with tenorizan 4-3-2-1 occurs
as a direct function of the paraphrased chant, which moves
through an interval of a fourth. Where there is no ostensible
connection with a pre-existent chant melody, the semi-open
type may be construed either as a complete structure in its
own right or as part of a larger closed structure: as so
often with Schenkerian analysis of later tonal music, the
fundamental analytical decisions as to the nature of the
background depend partly on external evidence from analogous
pieces (in this case, the Offertories and Magnificats) and
partly on the internal evidence of the musical surface. That
the ambiguities are irreducible in this case suggests not so
much a weakness in the theoretical apparatus as a subtlety
inherent in the madrigal: a richness that derives (as
Dahlhaus has suggested in a different context) from the
equally convincing applicability of two rival
.2
257
Notes to Chapter 5
1. The terms 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' (referring to
generalized philosophical systems) were borrowed by
Eugene Narmour in his criticisms of Schenker (Narmour
1977); they correspond broadly to what may be termed
'foreground-to-background' and 'background-to-foreground'
methodologies respectively. In the present approach, the
models are posited as a preliminary hypothesis rather
than deduced empirically through a reductive process
(I have argued above [pp.21 ff.] that this top-down
process is, pace Narmour, the basis of Schenker's own
methodology, and stands in diametric opposition to the
systematic reductionism of the post-Schenkerians).
2. See, for instance, Schenker 1979:95 .
3. For instance, Judd 1985 .
4. Josquin: above, p.116-9.
Palestrina: above, pp.41-3, 190-2.
Lassus: above, pp.16-8, 34-5 , 111-3.
5 . 'Phrygian' refers here to a structural type ending with a
clausula in iiii (not necessarily to pieces designated
as Mode 3 or 4). See below, p.262 ff.
6. Above, pp.43, 190 ff.
7. Domine Jesu Christe (no.10) and gui velatus (no.11)
258
probably belong to the missal type on account of their
homophonic texture and number of partes. All numberings
of Josquin's motets as well as bar numbers refer to
A.Smijers (ed.): Werken van Josquin des Prez (Amsterdam:
VNM, 1922-5): Motetten, vols. 1-2.
8. For a discussion of modal cycles in the Offertoria, see
Powers 1982; Powers 1981 discusses cycles in a more
general context.
9. Above, pp.116-9.
10. Below, p.262 ff.
11. For a more detailed discussion, see above, pp.229-33.
12. In this context the roman numerals are designations of
bass supports taking the final cadence-pitch as I. They
do not imply harmonic function or any hierarchy of of
relative stability as they might in an analysis of later
tonal music.
13. Zarlino (1558: 323-4) suggests that cadences are
regularly formed on A in third- and fourth-mode pieces,
and that this approximates to the ninth and tenth modes
respectively.
14. Judd 1992: XXX, for a critique, see above, pp.174-6.
15. See above, p.70.
16. Graduale Romanum (Tournai: Desclee, 1908), p.78.,
reprinted in Motetten, vol.1: 172.
259
17. 'Lord, thou judgest us not by our sins that we have
committed nor by our iniquities. Lord, remember not our
wrongdoings of old: thy mercies swiftly go before us for
we have become too lowly. Help us 0 Lord of our
salvation, and by the glory of thy name, Lord deliver us
and redeem our sins through thy name.'
18. Above, pp.166-7. Bar numbers in all Palestrina examples
refer to The Complete Works of G.P. da Palestrina
(Huntington, NY: Kalmus); the present motet occurs in
Vol.23: 1-8.
19. Dahihaus 1967: 92.
20. For instance, Chafe 1991: 171 ff. and 1992: 239 ff.
21. Schenker 1979: 40.
22. Schenker 1973: 55-76.
23. See above, p.74.
24. Powers 1981: 452; Dahihaus 1990: 224.
25. Below, pp.379-87.
26. Schenker suggests that an interruption acts as the
generator of sonata-form (for instance, 1979, fig.l54).
27 Ambiguity of interpretation is a recurring theme in
Dahlhaus's work, as exemplified by his concept of 'modal
indecisiveness'. In Dahihaus's terminology, the two
readings offered here might be described as
260
'paratactical' and 'hypotactical' (Dahlhaus
1990: 307),
referring to systems where units are respectively
juxtaposed as a series (the semi-open reading) or
subsumed within a larger whole (the closed reading).
Dahihaus himself suggested (1990: 307-10) that the
'hypotactical' systems with closed tonal units emerged in
Monteverdi's Sixth Book of Madrigals, where they
constitute a defining feature of 'harmonic tonality'.
Although the style-changes effected by Monteverdi's music
lie outside the scope of this study, this later repertory
is clearly crucial to any understanding of the origin of
the major-minor systems. It may be conjectured, however,
that the concept of semi-open and closed models might
have some relevance to the music of this slightly later
period. It is almost certain that in the madrigals of the
early seventeenth century, the co-existence of semi-open
and closed types found in the sixteenth century gives way
to the predominance of the closed type; similarly, the
co-existence of cadences with and without basizans gives
way to a bass-driven style where the basizans becomes an
immutable, and thus a defining, constituent of tonal
closure. For the analysis of seventeenth-century music,
the terms of reference provided here might well be more
useful in tracing the stylistic evolutions of the period
261
than those borrowed either from major-minor tonality on
the one hand or from modal theory on the other.
262
CHAPTER SIX
ThE PHRYGIAN MODE AND THE CLAUSIJLA IN MI
6.1 The Phrygian mode
The foregoing exposition of structural backgrounds has
been founded on the assumption that the systems of eight or
twelve modes, as formulated by sixteenth-century theorists,
are too diverse (especially in their designations of
cadential hierarchy) to constitute a truly normative model of
sixteenth-century polyphonic style. Instead, the more
consistent cadence theories of the period have been the
starting-point for the formulation of a set of normative
archetypes: the basic models which might allow analysts to
place individual pieces in a wider stylistic context.- I have
argued, along with Harold Powers, that modal classification
is not a universal determinant of cadential structure.
2 As
Powers and others have noted, the cadential endings on A in
works as diverse as Josquin's Miserere inei and Palestrina's
Verp
ine bella cannot be neatly rationalized according either
to the principles of modal transposition or to a putative
twelve-mode system: not only was the Josquin motet conceived
2 63
before Glarean's formulation of such a system, but the
Palestrina example appears as the first item in a cycle of
eight modes, not of twelve: an unequivocal indication that
the piece was intended as a representation of the first mode,
not the ninth or tenth.3
Zarlino, in his chapter on modal identification,
suggests that the mode of a composition is dependent on
factors other than the final point of cadential articulation.
In particular, he makes the somewhat obscure claim that modal
identity is dependent on 'the form of the whole' rather than
merely on the cadential point. 4 Thus a work ending on an E
major triad, approached cadentially, is not necessarily
assigned to the Phrygian (E) mode, and conversely, a work may
be assigned to this mode even though its final cadence-pitch
may be A or even G. Therefore, even though there remains a
degree of correlation between the modal designation of a
piece and its structural type (as defined by a work's
cadential orientation), the two classifications remain
potentially independent.5
This chapter will attempt to define a voice-leading
paradigm for those cases which have cadential endings on E
(or A in transposed models with a B flat signature),
irrespective of whether a work is designated as Phrygian in
contemporary theoretical sources. Naturally, works of this
264
type tend to have a close association with the Phrygian and
Hypophrygian modal categories (in Glarean's terms), since
these modes are the only ones in either the eight-mode or the
twelve-mode systems which have a semitone above their
finalis. Consequently, a closure formed on the finalls must
contain a cadential semitone in its vox tenorizans (F-E
or Bb-A), and, in order to form an imperfect consonance
immediately before the cadential resolution, the vox
cantizans must articulate the whole-tone ascending motion to
the finalis (D-E or G-A). This cadential type, the so-called
clausula In ml, is expressed in its simplest two-part forms
in Ex.6:l.
'IC
"(C VT
V1
VT
after Zarlino 1558:221.
Ex.6:l. The clausula in mi in simple two-voice forms.
265
As has been intimated, the structural type ending with the
clausula in ml is not strictly synonymous with the Phrygian
mode: a work that contains a Phrygian tenor or has an incipit
unfolding the interval E-B may be assigned by theorists to
the Phrygian mode even though it lacks a final cadence of the
jj type (hence Aron's designation of Miserere
j
as
Phrygian); similarly, the clausula in itti may occur as an
internal cadence outside the Phrygian category (particularly
in structural types with a final cadence on D, where the
clausula G-A over Bb-A has the effect of a half-close)..6
Since such structural types are already catered for by the
theoretical frameworks provided in earlier chapters, the rest
of the present chapter will be devoted exclusively to those
pieces whose final cadence is of the
ii
type. These will be
termed 'Phrygian types', for the sake of convenience, even
though their association with the Phrygian mode is a somewhat
loose one.
The concept of , re and
j
tonalities (corresponding
broadly to major, minor and Phrygian systems respectively)
recently introduced by Cristle Collins Judd and derived from
Glarean, has been considered briefly in another chapter.7
Significantly, Judd's analytical methodology is most
successful in pieces of theand'tonalities'. After
all, the clausula in ut (formed on C, G and F in cantus durus
266
systems) differs from the clausula in re (formed on D and A)
only in its species of third (major or minor) above the
finalis; while this difference may have a rhetorical or
affective significance, it does not substantially affect the
voice-leading formulae that occur in additional voices (in
particular, the I-V-I formula of the optional vox basizans is
identical for both j and re cadential types). In the j
type, on the other hand, the additional voices (particularly
the bass) must adopt radically different formations. However,
since Judd's reductive models assign a privileged status to
the outer voices (and this is by far the most questionable
aspect of her approach), there is a tendency, in her readings
of
.j
types, to emphasize the bass at the expense of the true
clausula in iiii, which normally occurs in inner voices. As
will be seen, works ending with a clausula in nil demand a
voice-leading model of a fundamentally different kind from
those whose cadential semitone lies in the vox cantizans. In
this chapter, while appropriating the useful concept of a
'nil tonality' (which is much more precise a formulation than
the hazy notion of a 'Phrygian mode'), I will suggest a new
model for this type based not on the polarity between outer
voices but on the basic cadence-bearing voices (cantizans and
tenorizans) discussed in theoretical formulations of the
time.
267
In this treatment of the Phrygian type, the clausula in
j
will be considered, as with the other cadential types,
from two distinct perspectives: firstly from the viewpoint of
orthodox post-Schenkerian theory, and secondly from that of
sixteenth-century cadential theory. The former is problematic
in that the basic I-V-I paradigm is inapplicable to Phrygian
pieces without considerable distortion of the musical
surface, while the focus of the latter is confined to the
musical foreground. Thus a synthetic model will be proposed,
in which the basic models of the clausulae in ml (provided by
specific examples from contemporary treatises) are combined
with the long-range structural hearing of the Schenkerian
school: this will facilitate an analytical method that is at
once on a wide temporal scale and accountable to sixteenth-
century theoretical models.
6.2 Schenkerian treatments of the ml type
A number of theoretical difficulties associated with the
Phrygian repertory have arisen in recent analytical
literature, and it is unsurprising that the problems have
been especially acute in those analyses that adopt a
Schenkerian perspective. Since the clausula in ml contains
268
the semitone in its vox tenorizans, the addition of a vox
basizans (E-B-E) is inadmissible (resulting in mi contra fa);
thus the 'Phrygian' cadence on E cannot be explained in the
traditional triadic terms of Schenkerian analysis. As a
result, tonalist writers have tended to interpret such
endings not as E minor/major cadences at all, but as half-
closes in A minor, whether or not they are preceded by
cadential articulations of A. Such A minor readings of
Phrygian works are not merely a product of recent post-
Schenkerian literature. In fact, the concept of a Phrygian
cadence as an A minor tonality ending on the dominant has a
far longer historical pedigree: it was a common currency of
eighteenth-century German theory at least as early as 1767.8
However, it is only in the work of recent post-Schenkerians
that the function of the E ending within an A minor
'background' has been considered systematically.
One such commentator is David Stern, who, in an
article on Phrygian structures, proposes a dichotomy of
endings on the 'dominant' either as a goal of motion (a sort
of truncated Ursatz in A minor: I-V--) or as an
'afterthought' (I-V-I-[V]).9 Stern's approach is at once
interesting and problematic: in a consideration of three
j -
type works (Josquin's motets Mentor esto verbi tui and Nymphes
des bois and a setting of Psalm 2 by Thomas Talus), each
269
piece is assigned a fundamentally different background: in
Memor esto, Stern observes that 'the final motion to V has
the character of an afterthought or coda, rather than that of
a large-scale I-V progression', while Nyinphes des bois is
analysed as a long range motion to the dominant, where 'the
Phrygian finalis functions as V'. A similar harmonic motion
at the end of the Talus example, however, is interpreted as
part of a plagal background (I-3V-I) where the finalis
functions as the 'tonic' rather than the 'dominant'. The
criteria for these structural distinctions, however, remain
undefined and arguably somewhat ad hoc: under what
circumstances does A function as a 'tonic' and E as a
'dominant', and when does E function as a 'tonic' and A as a
'subdominant'? Clearly, Stern's approach is grounded in an
essentially triadic concept of cadence in which the
succession of dominant and tonic triads forms a prerequisite
of cadential closure: a concept that is not supported either
by contemporary (two-voice) definitions of cadence or by
contemporary practice (many Phrygian works, like Palestrina's
mass examined below, contain sections with three-part
cadences in A minor; yet these tend to be internal sections
within larger spans that cadence on E). Once again, the
adoption of a modified Schenkerian paradigm emphasises the
outer voices and the concept of bass-driven harmonic function
270
at the expense of the contrapuntal formation of a clausula in
ml in inner voices. To summarize the difficulties inherent
in Stern's approach:
1. Works of similar cadential orientation are classed,
somewhat anomalously, as fundamentally different
'backgrounds'.
2. These backgrounds are piece-specific reductions
rather than genuinely normative models.
3. Cadences tend to be conceived in triadic rather than
intervallic terms and clausulae in mi are minimized.
4. It is unclear whether 'tonic' and 'dominant' represent
points of relative stability and instability or are
arbitrary designations signifying points of arrival and
departure.
However, it would be facile to dismiss such A minor
interpretations as anachronisms, inferior to those sanctioned
by sixteenth-century theory. As the following empirical
observation will seek to demonstrate, there are a number of
aspects of the clausula in mi which lend themselves to
incomplete A minor readings such as Stern's: where the two-
part cadences have a bass support, this will almost
invariably end with a motion from A to E; moreover, as will
be seen in examples from Palestrina, other voice-leading
formulae in a four-part clausula in mi (typically, the linear
271
voices E-D-C-B and A-G#) are as consistent a feature of the
Phrygian sectional ending as the true cadential cantizans and
tenorizans given at Ex.6:1.
However, there are a number of conceptual difficulties
inherent in an A minor reading, quite apart from the problems
of fidelity to contemporary theoretical concepts. These
difficulties can be most conveniently discussed in relation
to an early, but representative, neo-Schenkerian treatment of
a Phrygian piece: Peter Bergquist's ground-breaking graphic
analysis of a chanson, 'Allez mon cueur', by Agricola.-
Although Bergquist concedes that the chanson ends on a
cadence on E, it is A which is identified as the 'tonic' of
the piece:
The piece at first glance appears to be in Phrygian mode,
but a strong affinity to A is evident on closer
examination, even at the final cadence in bar 52 ... A is
the tonic of the piece, not E, and it is definitely in
some combination of Aeolian and minor modes.
(Bergquist 1967: 148)
As in Mitchell's treatment of the Lassus prologue, the
internal cadence, because it conforms to the three-voice
(I-V-I) model proposed by Schenker, is emphasized at the
expense of the work's final cadence.--- However, the problems
associated with Bergquist's reading are still more acute,
since the final cadence pitch is different from the 'tonic',
so that it is impossible to regard the last twelve bars as a
272
harmonic prolongation of A minor. Instead, Bergquist
conceives of this section as 'a coda, that is, a section
appended to the main harmonic movement of the piece'.3-2
However, rather than confirming the point of cadential
arrival (the traditional function of a coda according to
Schenker's conception of tonal structure), the 'coda' has the
effect of deflecting the voice-leading away from the 'tonic'.
This negation, rather than affirmation, of the tonic in the
coda is, of course, recognized by Bergquist, who interprets
the coda as moving 'in almost a retrograde character' as
denoted by a backward arrow-head. Yet one might conclude that
this curious inverted teleology not only runs against the
grain of sixteenth-century conceptions of cadence (as
exemplified by the teleological cadential drives in Josquin's
Victimae paschali laudes analysed above), but also
contradicts the basic premise of the Schenkerian system: that
the ending of a work must be perceived as a goal of motion
upon which the internal composings-out of the middleground
are dependent. Bergquist's analysis, however, succinctly
summarizes the modern tendency to perceive the Phrygian E
ending, the clausula in ml, as incomplete: a less stable
construct than the three-part clausula in ut or
clausula in re with vox basizans.
273
4-Z
4-p
3
1
___-J
Ex.6:2. Post-Schenkerian treatment of the clausula in mi:
Peter Bergquist's reading of an Agricola chanson.
274
Schenker himself was more circumspect in his stylistic
generalizations: since his background models are underpinned
by the assumed instability of the dominant relative to the
tonic, his theoretical apparatus precludes the possibility of
a dominant chord standing as a point of closure. Instead,
Schenker was reluctant to provide any analytical discussion
of the Phrygian cadence and its structural status, preferring
to dismiss this structural type as a modal archaism (despite
its survival in the chorales of J.S.Bach: a repertory central
to Schenker's historical canon).
Schenker's analysis of a chorale setting by Hans Leo
Hassler (subsequently known as the 'Passion' chorale) is one
of the most extensive examples from Free Composition; the
chorale, dating from 1600, is also one of the earliest works
admitted by Schenker into the tonal canon.- 3 Although it is
initially surprising that Schenker should have chosen to
devote one of his most comprehensive sketches to a work of
this period rather than to one of the more familiar settings
by J.S.Bach, the choice of Hassler is a significant one. By
establishing that large-scale tonal logic was securely in
place by 1600, Schenker sought to dismiss Bach's later
Phrygian settings as an archaism: a 'superficial tribute to
the old Phrygian system which composers still believed in',
and thus to circumvent the problem of the continued existence
275
of the Phrygian types in Bach's chorales.
However, while Schenker's somewhat dogmatic exclusion of
the Phrygian cadence from his theoretical system may result
in a disconcertingly one-sided view of the tonal norms of the
eighteenth century, it nonetheless reveals a degree of
historical sensitivity arguably lacking in the reductive
graphic analyses of the post-Schenkerian school. Implicit in
Schenker's definition of the structural background is a
concession that the Phrygian cadence (inexplicable in terms
of the Ursatz) might demand an entirely different structural
paradigm to occupy the background level. Once again, any
historically sensitive starting-point for the formulation of
such a paradigm may lie not in these anachronistic
definitions of cadence (which are essentially triadic in
conception and inappropriate to all but the fully-fledged I-
V-I cadences of the classical style) but in the linear
cadential theories of the sixteenth century itself.
6.3 Sixteenth-century views of the j cadence
The sixteenth-century view of cadence as a two-part
contrapuntal (rather than triadic) construct allowed the
clausula in iiii to be assimilated without difficulty into a
276
generalized theory of cadences. Zarlino, in his exposition of
cadential types, offers a number of clausulae in mi among his
examples of two-and three-part cadences, without any explicit
differentiation between these and the cadences with the
semitone in the cantizans (clausulae in Ut and clausulae in
re) and often without modal designation; one might infer
that the
ii
type was considered to have equal closural force,
just as the E-inode was assimilated by Zarlino into the
twelve-mode system without any suggestion that it might be
structurally anomalous. 2 - In settings of cadences in three or
more parts, however, the relationship between the clausula in
mi and other cadential types becomes more problematic: a bass
voice may no longer support the two-voice construct with a
conventional basizans of the V-I type, and must adopt a
different voice-leading procedure.
Montanos, in the Arte de Musica, takes a diametrically
opposed view of the clausula in mi, perhaps reflecting a
general trend away from the Phrygian cadential type in
Spanish and Italian polyphony in the last decade of the
century. His unusual division of cadential types into the
clausula remissa (Phrygian) and the clausula sustenida (non-
Phrygian) has already been briefly discussed. Unlike Zarlino,
who is at pains to assimilate the
j
type into a unified
theoretical system of twelve modes, Montanos observes that
2 77
the two cadential types have vastly different implications
for the behaviour of other voices, particularly the bass.
Since his treatise is essentially of a didactically
pragmatic, rather than a theoretical, nature, Montanos takes
the unusual step of devoting a separate chapter to each of
the two cadential types.
In a four-part setting of a Phrygian cadence, the voice-
leading possibilities are severely restricted by the
prohibition both of consecutive perfect intervals and of j
contra f a. Thus the two options given by Montanos, reproduced
here as Ex.6:3, can be assumed to be a reasonable
representation of the two basic voice-leading norms that
occur widely in contemporary polyphony. In the first example,
the vox tenorizans is in the bass and the vox cantizans in
the alto: a formula which, although relatively rare, occurs
consistently at the sectional endings of an exactly
contemporaneous work, Victoria's Missa quarti toni, where it
contributes to the work's starkly distinctive tonal flavour
(below, Ex.6:15).
More typical is the second of Montanos's examples, in
which the two normative voices are carried by cantus and
tenor, allowing the bass to arpeggiate an upward motion of a
fifth (A-E): it is in works of this type that post-
Schenkerian scholars have been most inclined to posit a
278
tt)
truncated A minor background model with Bassbrechung I-V. 3 -
I
Montanos: from Arte de musica, fol.15v.
Examples of the clausula remissa in four parts.
Omission of vox basizans; Tenor voice unfolding
tenorizans carried by bassto project two structural
(analogous with Ex.6:lO). voices (analogous with
Ex. 6:8).
Feminine ending suggests
internal closure.
Ex.6:3 . Four-part models of the clausula in mi.
279
6.4 Towards a general model
In attempting to formulate a normative model for
Phrygian endings, therefore, we are presented with two
distinct possibilities. On the one hand, the two voices
projecting the clausula in nii (ending with D-E and F-E) may
be regarded, by an extension of sixteenth-century ideas, as
the two normative voices in a structural model of the semi-
open type. In this case, Montanos's two examples might be
represented in analytical notation as at Ex.6:3a. In both
cases, the two cadencing voices have been assumed to be the
most generalized defining features of the structural type.
However, while this view is entirely sympathetic with
contemporary definitions of cadence as exemplified by
Zarlino, it neglects two other voices which are also linear
and, as we shall see, almost always present (in various
guises) in contemporaneous cadences of this type: these are
represented by black noteheads. 2 - 7 In the first example, this
alternative model consists of the line moving to G# in the
cantus, and the line from E to B in the tenor. The second
example is more complex: the altus has the line from E to B,
but the tenor voice, rather than sustaining the finalis,
moves upwards to outline the motion A-G# with a somewhat
weakening feminine ending (this, coupled with Montanos's
2 80
designation 'reinissa', may suggest that the ending of this
type had come to be regarded as less stable than the non-
Phrygian type; perhaps more suitable for internal than for
final cadences).
A late sixteenth-century Phrygian cadence on E, then,
typically contains two pairs of voice-leading components: a
semi-open structure containing the two voices of the clausula
in umi (the cantizans, E-D-E, and the tenorizans, usually
moving through a fourth from A to E) and an open structure
corresponding, in anachronistic terms, to a half-close in A
minor (A-G# and E-D-C-B). Even though the latter pair of
voices lacks the defining features of cadential closure, this
voice-pair is so widespread in contemporary practice,
sometimes even to the exclusion of one or other of the 'true'
cadential voices, that it merits inclusion in the normative
model.
A final cadence from 'Deus enim firmavit' from
Palestrina's Of fertoria (Ex.6:4) illustrates this principle.
The Phrygian cantizans and tenorizans appear in an
undisguised form in cantus and tenor respectively, while the
diatessaron descent from E to B occurs in a more subtle form,
migrating through the top three voices in the texture.
281
-
Prolo,attoaof d iokrcirt, descertt E- - c - -.8
r
- - d.et - -
f
a.- u.sex.'cur..c 1 e'c
a- so,.
- - F- - I-
0-
t* -- 1-
u.ecj -- tune, a. sa2.
8
--I------I ---- 1-I
- - - - -}
ct-.s tU. -
---
ue' Jtu.ne-, extwc, oa2-
- U4&XiU2IC, (
-tLuC1a
CL4Usvi-. iN ,411 - - -
Ex.6:4 Palestrina, Of fertorium 10: closure.
282
Despite the textural disguise, however, this linear motion is
given particular salience by the addition of a supporting
circle-of-fifths motion in the bass in bars 55-57, and by the
prolongation of the sonority D over G by means of internal
cadences on G (bars 52-53 and 55-56). The other voice of the
open model, A to G#, appears in the altus in the last two
bars.
Having identified two pairs of linear structural voices
in the upper parts, we may now turn to the supporting motion
in the bassus. Between bars 58 and 61 the bassus outlines a
stereotypical formula comparable to that of Nontanos's second
example: C-D-A-E. This configuration of pitches, like the I-
V-I vox basizans in non-Phrygian cadences, has a supporting
role and is a dispensable component of the cadence. However,
whenever this fifth voice is present, its pitches are fixed
by the two pairs of linear voices that it must support, given
the criteria of intervallic consonance and avoidance of
consecutive perfect
intervals.8
Thus, like the I-V-I
figuration in non-Phrygian types, the bass line acquires the
status of an archetype.
A deep middleground-level analysis of the entire inotet
is shown at Ex.6:5. Although the extract at Ex.6:4 begins
with a prolongation of D over G, the incipit itself unfolds
the interval of a fifth: E over A, so that the bass outlines
283
a large-scale arpeggiation from A to E at the deepest level.
As in the case of the non-Phrygian models of the semi-open
type (above, pp.203-4), the bass notes A and E represent
points of departure and arrival within an open-ended process:
in the absence of a controlling tonic triad, neither can be
subordinated to the other (so that neither of the 'tonal'
designations IV-I in E and I-V in A minor is appropriate).
Ex.6:5. A deep middleground reading of Of fertorium 10.
284
r_(ui)
AAA
g-----
7-8vc.
5
SEMI- OPEN 8ACK5R-OuNb

OPEr'I aACKROUALb
(E1).

( A
Ex.6:6. Alternative hierarchies at the background level.
Above the bass voice, there are two diatessaron descents
in canon (E-D-C-B and A-G-F-E), the former corresponding to
an open-ended line, which in anachronistic terms would be
A
regarded as a half-close motion in A minor (5-4-3-2), and the
latter to a descent (4-5--i) to the modal finalis, E. This
potential ambiguity raises difficulties of notation: since
there is no controlling Chord of Nature in an open-ended
excerpt of this kind, any numerical notation of scale degrees
is necessarily somewhat arbitrary. Indeed, two distinct
numbering systems are theoretically possible: when the pitch
285
A is taken as i (owing to the pre-cadential prolongation),
the two cadencing voices would be labelled as
and __g; in the system with E as (the cadence-
pitch) they would be labelled ---1 andIn this
study, the Phrygian models are notated without numerals of
any kind, not only because of the anachronistic implications
of a controlling tonic triad, but because of the coexistence,
peculiar to the Phrygian model, of the two alternative
structural lines A-G-F-E and E-D-C-B.
In short, we might conclude that the Phrygian structural
type, as exemplified by Palestrina, represents a conflation
of two background models: a semi-open and an open model,
where the first corresponds to the sixteenth-century
definition of the clausula in mi and the second to the later
ideas of the Phrygian closure as an A minor half-close.
A five-part paradigm has thus been proposed as the
Phrygian archetype: a pair of two-voice models, and an
optional bass support. However, it is difficult to establish
which of the two models has structural primacy and functions
as the true background of the Phrygian type. Of the two
alternative hierarchies (shown at Ex.6:6), the first is
sanctioned by contemporary theory. However, there is some
analytical evidence, particularly in the Phrygian works of
Palestrina, that the second is at least as appropriate to
286
contemporary practice, since it may occur when one of the
orthodox cadential voices is In this context, a
number of sectional closures from a single mass will be
considered: the Missa Sanctorum Meritis. Since the work is
conceived as a modally integrated cycle of movements and
contains a variety of textures (three, four and five voices),
it will form a convenient locus for the investigation of
voice-leading archetypes in the Phrygian mode.
6.5 Case study: the Missa Sanctorum Meritis
This mass, despite its uniformity of mode and tessitura,
is characterized by a great diversity of cadential forms at
the foreground level: some sectional endings (like that of
the Gloria) have a clausula in ml whose vox tenorizans lies
in the lowest voice (a form comparable to Montartos's first
example); others have an additional supporting bass
(analogous to the second example). Subsidiary sectional
endings also have clausulae in re: these (Pleni sunt coeli;
Crucifixus) articulate the secondary cadence-pitch, A.
The mass is assumed, for the present purposes, to
represent the fourth mode (Glarean's Hypophrygian). Each
complete section of the mass ordinary ends on E with a
287
clausula in ml, while internal sections articulate either E
or A. In addition, the low clef fing of the five voices of the
Agnus III is consistent with that found in Palestrina's
Of fertoria 13-16 and the fourth of the 'Vergine' madrigals
(unambiguously identifiable as fourth-mode works owing to
their positions within modal cycles).
In analysing the cadential centricity of each mass
movement according to the paradigm given in Ex.6:6, however,
one particular structural problem arises. Since the mass has
four voices (with the exception of the Agnus Dei), it follows
that not all the five structural voices of the structural
paradigm can be present as simultaneous voices in the literal
sense. Consequently, the four-part settings must resort to
some kind of structural amendment or elision: they must
either omit one of the paradigmatic voices, or else project
two or more of the structural voices within a single voice-
part: an analogue of the Schenkerian principle of unfolding.
The closure of the Christe (Ex.6:7) is especially
intriguing from the viewpoint of sixteenth-century theory.
Although the cantus clearly projects the vox tenorizans of
the clausula in ml (A-G-F-E), the expected vox cantizans is
absent. Instead, the altus descends through the vox
tenorizans of the open model (E-D-C-B), so that
t h e ' i
cant i zans would h ave t o be const rue d as conve rgi ng wi t h t h e
288
tenorizans upon the E in the cantus. This elision, together
with the four-bar extension following the clausula in mi,
serves to provide the components of the open model (E-D-C-B
over A-G#) with greater prominence.
In the second Kyrie (Ex.6:8), however, the relative
status of the two competing models is interchanged: here, the
vox cantizans of the clausula in mi occurs in the upper part,
and the division of the voice into two strands allows the
open fourth-descent E-D-C-B to be construed as a composite
line shared between cantus and altus. The tenor voice
meanwhile unfolds to project two structural voices: the
Phrygian tenorizans A-G-F-E and the open ending A-Gd; in this
respect it constitutes an analogue of Montanos's second
theoretical example. An extension of this principle occurs at
the beautifully expanded version of the cadential archetype
at the end of the Credo (Ex.6:9); here, both cantus and tenor
have complex unfoldings, so that the lines of the open model
(here with the character of a coda on 'Amen') are temporally
separated from those of the clausula in ml.
289
Ex.6:7. Missa Sanctoruin ineritis: Christe.
290
Ex.6:8. Kyrie II: closure.
291
j(yeit-tu-rt SOLC44A------
--men.,A-----mez, A------mesi
Ex.6:9. Credo: closure.
292
Ex.6:lO. Gloria: closure.
293
I
d.c - - i-o1-LO - -------
I
Ex.6:ll. Agnus Del I I I : five-part closure.
294
Two other u-type closures from the mass are analysed
here for the sake of completeness although they are not
especially problematic. The final cadence of the Gloria omits
the supporting bass voice, allowing the bassus to project the
Phrygian vox tenorizans (Ex.6:lO). In this example, the
status of A as the secondary cadence-pitch is reinforced by a
pseudo-cadential formulation between cantus and tenor (A-G#-A
over C-B-C) in canon with the 'true' cadence between altus
and bassus: here, the inherent ambiguity of the Phrygian
cadence, with its two pairs of competing cadential voices, is
brought into immediate relief at the foreground level
(producing a pair of thinly-concealed consecutive fifths).
To conclude the survey of cadential types in the Missa
Sanctorum Meritis: the five-part Agnus Dei III (Ex.6:ll)
restores the full voice-leading model of Ex.6:6 in its five-
voice form with one structural voice to a part: a peroration
that renders explicit the structural voice-leading motions
implied in preceding sections.
Given the great variety and elegance with which
Palestrina contrives to articulate both the clausula in mi
and the open model, with its parallel diatessaron descent
from E to B, we might conclude that both systems have equally
normative status, and that the Phrygian cadence, at least on
the evidence of Palestrina's mass, constitutes an irreducible
295
combination of the two models: a genuine four-part model
which expands to five voices with the addition of a
supporting bass. In summary, the assimilation of this
compound model within the limitations of a four-part texture
in the Missa Sanctorum Meritis takes three distinct forms:
1. The apparent suppression of one voice of the five-part
texture, where the missing voice may be construed as
moving from one part to another (Christe and Kyrie II).
2. The use of pseudopolyphony in a single voice (Kyrie II and
Credo), allowing one literal voice to project two
structural voices.
3. The omission of the structural bass voice, allowing the
bassus to project the vox tenorizans of the clausula in iui
(Gloria); an analogue of the non-Phrygian two-part cadence
without basizans.
Having analysed the main sectional closures of the mass,
we may now turn to the closures of the internal subsections,
with particular attention to those of a reduced texture.
Given the thickness of texture required to articulate the
four- or five-voice model, it is significant that the three-
part sections of the mass eschew the Phrygian type
altogether. Instead, the texturally reduced sections
296
(Crucifixus and Pleni sunt coeli) are of a closed structural
type cadencing on A, with a descent from the fifth degree.
This motion through the upper diapente of the modal species
complements the motion through the lower diatessaron in the
four- and five-part sections, so that A functions as a
secondary point of cadential focus within the mass. Although
the cadence-pitch of these sections is the same as that of
the first four Of fertoria and the first of the 'Vergine'
madrigals, there are a number of discrepancies which
illustrate the connections between modal identity and
structural type. Whereas the Mode 1 pieces unfolded the
interval of A over D in their incipits, the Crucifixus and
Pleni sunt coeli unfold E over A: a closed rather than semi-
open structural type. However, within this closed
articulation of A there are foreground details which hint at
the melodic formulas of the clausula in mi. In the
Crucifixus, the cantus moves down through the lower modal
diatessaron A-G-F-E as a post-cadential prolongation
(Ex.6:12); this monophonic hint at a clausula in ml is given
particular salience by the prolongation of the vox basizans,
which delays its motion from E to A by means of a cadenza
fuggita.
297
Ex.6:12. Crucifixus: internal closure.
Ctt.---u..s re--------rtt.
A A A
8___
rI
298
Hy,00bheticaA ba.s
I
I
A
S 8
Ex.6:l3. Pleni sunt coeli: internal closure.
299
The cadence of the Pleni stint coeli (Ex.6:13) is
ostensibly less complex, although it contains some
significant consecutive fifths at the middleground level. The
first of these is the consequence of supporting the
structural by the seventh degree, G, in the bass; here, as
in the Crucifixus, the fifths are composed out (through the
intervallic motion 5-3-5) at the foreground level. More
striking, however, is the thinly concealed pair of perfect
fifths in the penultimate bar, which could have been evaded
simply by adopting a more orthodox voice-leading (Ex.(:l3a).
Once again, it might be argued that the motion from F to E,
this time in the bass and before the cadence, gives a
monophonic hint of the Phrygian clausula, and that the
criterion of modal coloration overrides that of avoiding the
consecutive intervals.
The three-voice sections, therefore, differ markedly
from the four-voice examples at the background level, but
include iniddleground and foreground details which reflect the
overall modal conception of the work. Indeed, Zarlino's
observations, that modal identity depends on factors other
than cadential orientation, are borne out by the analytical
evidence of the Missa Sanctoruin meritis. It might be
concluded that, even though the Phrygian identity of a work
may not always manifest itself in a true clausula in iiii (as
300
in the three-voice sections of the mass), the thematic and
inotivic formulae associated with the mode (in this case, the
linear descent G-F-E) are retained even within the framework
of a closed structural type centred on A. The two concepts of
modal category (as considered by sixteenth-century writers)
and structural type (as proposed here), might thus be viewed
as complementary, rather than contradictory, theoretical
approaches. While the modal identity of a work can hardly be
said to constitute a genuinely normative 'background' in
itself, the assumed modality of a work can extend its
influence to all levels of structure. In the present work,
the concept of a Hypophrygian mode has ramifications far
beyond the background-level pitch-centricity: it influences
even the smallest melodic detail of the structural
foreground.2
6.6 Sectional connections in the Plirygian mode
In the discussion of sectional connections between
Vergine bella and Verciine saggia, it was argued that
consecutive sections within a larger work may have different
cadence pitches and different structural types, but that
these types may be interpreted as part of a wider structural
301
background model spanning two sections. 2 ' Similarly, in
analysing Josquin's unusual tripartite motet Virgo
salutiferi, it was essential to regard the motet as a whole
in order to explicate the series of strange pitch deflections
which conclude the prima and secunda partes.2 2
This more global view is especially pertinent to those
multipartite pieces, like Palestrina's masses, which are
consistent in their modal representation. Although the three-
voice sections of the Missa Sanctorum meritis are of a
different structural type and might be regarded (in
sixteenth-century terms) as examples of mutatio modi (where
the mode might putatively change to Mode 10), they might also
be regarded as middleground prolongations of A within a
larger Phrygian background with the clausula in ml as its
goal.
This wider perspective can be most simply illustrated
with reference to the Kyrie from Victoria's four-part J4issa
guarti toni. Here, the two Kyrie sections articulate the
four-voice Phrygian model without basizans. The y
tenorizans of the clausula in mi appears in the bass (as it
does consistently in every section of the mass), and outlines
the diatessaron A to E (from which the G is omitted, but
implied by the voice-leading in the upper parts).
302
A____
KYRJE ICHR-4STER.YRIE.. I L
Ex.6:14. Connections between sections in the Kyrie of
Victoria's Missa quarti toni.
Ex.6:15. Schematic model.
303
The Christe, by contrast, is of the closed type, articulating
A by means of a three-voice cadence. Since the A in the bass
at the end of the Christe forms the head-note for the
expanded tenorizans of the Kyrie II, the whole of the Christe
may be seen as a prolongation (Ex.6:14) of this head-note in
preparation for the background-level descent.
6.7 Conclusions
From these observations, what conclusions may be drawn
about the status of the Phrygian mode and the clausula in ml
in the second half of the sixteenth century? Is the Phrygian
type an anomalous one, or can it truly be assimilated within
the two-part definition of cadence provided by Zarlino?
Finally, and most tellingly, which of the two alternative
interpretations most closely reflects contemporary
perceptions of the Phrygian type in the sixteenth century:
was the clausula in nii really perceived as unstable relative
to the other clausulae (as implied by the familiar notion of
a truncated A minor 'background'), or is such a view
anachronistically distorted by the influence of later tonal
models?
304
The analytical evidence from Palestrina's mass lends
some authority to both views: Phrygian endings tend to
contain the two-part cadential articulation of E as
stipulated by the theory of the time, yet these exist in
combination with other, equally consistent voice-leading
features which tend to imply a partial motion to a cadence on
A. Indeed, the consistency with which these patterns recur at
closures would suggest that the structural type, at least in
the second half of the century, was irreducibly ambiguous: a
symptom of what Dahlhaus has called 'modal indecisivenessl.23
ULC4
By 1592, the date of bothLVictoria's Missa quarti toni and
Montanos's treatise, the Phrygian type was arguably in a
condition of obsolescence. It is still the consistent model
of closure in the Victoria mass, even though this work might
be considered to have a deliberately archaic quality. In the
Phrygian and Hypophrygian examples (nos. 9-16) of
Palestrina's Of fertoria (1593) the
j
type is also employed
consistently at endings. Outside this liturgical context,
however, the type is far rarer, at least in the Italian
repertory: in Monteverdi's madrigals, for instance, the type
is absent altogether (perhaps reflecting the rise of the
seconda prattica, in which the I-V-I vox basizans, impossible
in the Phrygian type, gradually becomes an indispensable
component of cadential closure).24
305
In the final archetype proposed for the Phrygian
structural type, the conflation of two 'rival' two-part
linear models (Ex.6:l5) reflects the type's inherently
ambiguous nature. Because the four-part model contains both
the open and semi-open two-part models (directed towards A
and E respectively), the numerals used in non-Phrygian models
have logically been omitted in this type, since they would
carry inappropriate connotations of tonicity. (The ambiguous
archetype, avoiding any particular designation of a tonal
centre, allows Dahihaus's concept of harmonic
'indecisiveness' to be incorporated within the more
systematic context of voice-leading analysis.) Likewise, both
pairs of structural voices are notated in open noteheads, to
reflect the inherent duality of the structural type (only the
bass, like the I-V-I vox basizans in non-Phrygian types, has
black noteheads to denote an optional supporting role). The
new model, based on cadential centricity but avoiding any
inappropriate tonal connotation, forms a suitable
historically-based background for the Phrygian type, and, it
is hoped, a sound potential basis for detailed middleground
interpretation.
306
Notes to Chapter 6.
1. Above, pp.58-97.
2. Powers 1981, discussed above, pp.l63ff.
3. Powers 1981, Dahihaus 1990: 223. For a fuller discussion,
see above, p.99, n.15.
4. Zarlino 1558, bk.4, chap.30 (in Strunk 1950:
253). This remark is discussed above, pp.74-5.
5. Zarlino cites two instances of closures on pitches other
than the finalis of the mode: Verdelot's Si bona
suscepimus (Motetti del fiore, bk.2, Lyons, 1532) and
Willaert's 0 invidia (Musica nova, Venice 1559). To these
may be added Palestrina's Magnificats in the fifth tone,
cited above, chaps. 1 and 4.
6. For a fuller account of Aron's modal designations, see
Judd 1992: 458n.
Examples of the latter type appear in Palestrina's
Vergine saggia (Madrigali spirituali), in internal
cadences.
7. The terms, re and
j
types are proposed in Judd 1992.
Here they are used in a slightly stricter context,
however. A
j
type refers exclusively to a type with a
clausula in mi as given by Ex.6:l. Josquin's Miserere mel
is assigned by Judd to the
j
type because of the
307
behaviour of its upper voice; here the motet is assigned
to a re type with A as the cadential goal of the tenor
ostinato (vox tenorizans) in the tertia pars. Although I
do not dispute Judd's view of the piece as Phrygian (Mode
3) in conception, my designation of structural type is
grounded purely on the behaviour of the cadencing voices,
NOT merely on the melodic patterns formed by outer voices
(indeed, my primary bone of contention with Judd lies in
her attribution of normative status to the bass voice at
the expense of the voices bearing the true cadence). It
must be conceded, however, that the final cadence of
Miserere mel is a substantially modified one, lacking both
a cadential semitone (sustentatio) and a suspension. A
comparison of Judd's graph of the motet (1992: 463-4) with
my partial sketch on p.168 should clarify the differences
in methodology.
8. Georg Andreas Sorge: Einleitung zur Fantasie (1767):
'Phrygian is no other key than our A minor, only with this
difference: that the dominant chord E-G#-B begins and
ends, as the chorale "Ach Gott von Himmel sich darein"
illustrates.', cited in Lester 1989: 158.
9. Stern 1981: 20
10. Bergquist 1967. Despite the early date of this article,
the theoretical issues it raises have yet to be
308
satisfactorily addressed: his orthodox post-Schenkerian
models have tended either to be adopted uncritically
(Novack 1976, Mitchell 1970, Stern 1990, Carter 1993) or,
at the other extreme, to be rejected out of hand
(Schulenberg 1985-6).
11. For a brief critique of Mitchell 1970, see above,
pp.34-8. See also Wilde 1990.
12. Bergquist 1967: 148-9.
13. Schenker 1979: 95. The 'Phrygian system' receives
scant treatment in Schenker's theoretical writings, yet
his designation of the Phrygian as a separate system
(1979: 95 and 1973: 55-76) suggests that the
discrepancies between Phrygian and non-Phrygian types
apply at a background level. It is critical that the
Phrygian system be distinguished from the middleground
phenomenon of the 'Phrygian 2' in major-minor tonal
systems (Schenker 1979: 41-2), where the Phrygian 2
(supported by the so-called 'Neapolitan sixth') can 'no
more occupy the background level than a mixture' (1979:
41) and must be superseded by a naturalized second degree
with dominant support. This iniddleground formulation has
no place in the sixteenth-century repertory and is
fundamentally unconnected with the
j
type at the
background level.
309
14. Zarlino begins his chapter on cadences (Zarlino 1558,
bk.3, chap.53) with three flj-type examples (these appear
on p.221). His discussions of Modes 3 and 4 in the fourth
book (1558: 323-4) omit any mention of the fundamental
dichotomy between the mi type and the other types with
respect to the cadential semitone.
15. Montanos 1592, bk.3 ('de Contrapunto'), fol.4r.ff. Also
discussed above, pp.87-90.
16. This is a modernized version of the two examples from
Montanos 1592, bk.3, fol.l5v.
17. Zarlino 1558: 221.
18. This is also true of the other cadential types
For an account of the I-V-I as a voice-leading necessity
in compositions of four or more voices (except where
either cantizans or tenorizans is in the bass) see Randel
1971.
19. For analytical evidence, see Exx.6:7-11.
20. The association of modal identity with factors such as
stereotyped melodic formulae has been discussed
widely in recent literature. Especially convincing are
Powers (1981: 458-60) who discusses 'characteristic
figures' as determinants of modal identity, with examples
from Palestrina's Motecta festorum totius anni of 1563,
and Judd, who employs a more rigorous method of
310
distributional analysis in her reading of Josquin's
Dominus re gnavit (1992: 447-9), where she introduces the
term 'motivicity' to denote a feature that interacts with
'modal type'.
21. Above,
pp.
251-5.
22. Above,
pp.
116-9.
23. For instance, Dahlhaus 1990: 223.
24. The seventeenth century lies outside the scope of this
study. However, the subsequent history of the Phrygian
type is profoundly influenced by geographical
distribution: the type persists in Germanic music
throughout the seventeenth century, particularly in the
Schtzian stile concertato, and still persists in those
works of Bach that contain Lutheran melodies (cf.
Schenker 1979: 95). It is also a critical component of
slow movements in baroque sonate da chiesa (see above,
p.212, n.9) which often fail to conform to the
Schenkerian archetype of major-minor tonality. I am
currently preparing an article on the wider influence of
the Phrygian model on nineteenth-century musical
structures, with special reference to Schumann's
Dichterliebe (which, I shall argue, incorporates
allusions at a background and middleground level to the
Phrygian type as manifested in Bach's chorales). On the
311
question of Bach's 'modal' chorales, the recent work of
Lori Burns (1993) offers a paradigmatic approach in which
each mode has a different background model. The
assumption of a direct relationship between structural
background and modal identity is perhaps a slightly
simplistic one (although more justified in eighteenth-
century music than in the Renaissance), but her work is
ground-breaking in establishing a normative background
context for these problematic repertcies.
312
CHAPTER SEVEN
CANTUS FIRMLJS AND STRUCTURAL ARCHETYPES
7.1 Problems in the analysis of cantus-firmus pieces
It has been hypothesised that the large-scale linear
motion towards a cadential closure, articulated by two
indispensable structural voices (the cantizans and
tenorizans) and elaborated through a process of diminution,
forms a common practice in sixteenth-century polyphony. In
the foregoing chapters, this basic hypothesis has been tested
on a selection of repertories in an attempt to verify the
normative status of the paradigms and to subject them to
refinements where necessary. However, it has so far been
assumed that the generalized structural paradigms proposed
here are truly normative only in music that is freely-
composed. Works that employ a strict cantus firmus technique
(such as the tenor masses of the first half of the century)
are more problematic, since the pre-existent chant melody has
the status of a compositional donne: where the melodic
contour of the chant termination is not compatible with a
313
cadential formula, the large-scale counterpoint will tend to
be generated by the contour of the chant rather than by a
cadential paradigm of the type outlined in this study. This
is not to argue that all cantus firmus pieces are excluded
from the domain of the theory; after all, sixteenth-century
pieces exhibit consistent procedures of diminution and
dissonance treatment whether or not they are based on a
cantus prius factus, and it would be somewhat implausible to
propose a dichotomy between the stylistic norms of strict
chant-based music and those of freely-composed or paraphrase
works. To what extent, therefore, can the proposed voice-
leading models shed light on the contrapuntal procedures
found in tenor masses of this period?
A polyphonic treatment of a precomposed chant in, for
instance, a Taverner mass, will almost invariably tend to
exhibit norms of dissonance treatment that are consistent
with those found in 'free' compositions: indeed, the rules of
strict counterpoint, posited a posteriori by Fux and later
developed by Schenker, had their theoretical basis in strict
cantus firmus technique, and were extrapolated by both
theorists to encompass free compositions;- since Schenker's
theory of levels is predicated on the laws of strict
counterpoint, and since these exist de facto in strict cantus
firmus masses, a neo-Schenkerian voice-leading approach to
314
these works seems superficially seductive.
However, the present theory, like that of Schenker,
is founded on the principle of cadential orientation
(although 'cadence' in the present context is defined
contrapuntally rather than triadically). If a liturgical
chant is adopted as a precompositional given, it is unlikely
that the immutable chant melody will always sit comfortably
within a background paradigm such as the cadential models
outlined here; instead, as will be illustrated, the
applicability of the proposed analytical method to a
particular cantus-firmus work depends largely on the melodic
contour of the chant itself, as well as on historical and
geographical factors. True tenor masses, with an immutable
cantus firmus, represent a stylistic norm in the mass
repertory around 1500-20, both in Continental and in English
sources; this type survives at a later date, but is
statistically rarer: in Palestrina's output, for example, it
is represented by only seven examples (Ecce sacerdos magnus;
L'homme arm; Ut re ml fa sol la; Ave Maria; Festum nunc
celebre [octavi toni]; Veni creator spiritus; Panem nostrum)
by contrast with 35 masses of the paraphrase type.
This chapter will briefly examine the use of cantus-
firmus technique in works by Josquin and Taverner, before
proceeding to a closer analysis of the chant and its relation
315
to voice-leading in a tenor mass of Palestrina. In each case
the basic question arises as to the status of the cantus
firmus in the compositional genesis of the work: is the tenor
line, as is often assumed, an invariant compositional
starting-point to which other voices are added, or is the
cantus firmus merely an adjunct to a more generalized
stylistic norm defined by the cadential model? To reformulate
the problem in theoretical terms: does the cantus firmus
itself have the status of the stylistic background, the
source of large-scale coherence and intelligibility (in which
case one might expect the cadential model in certain cases to
be considerably modified to fit the pre-composed tenor), or
does the cadential paradigm have background status (in which
case one might, conversely, expect 'problematic' tenors to be
modified to fit the cadentially-oriented voice-leading)?
The problem may be approached by comparing the structure
of the cantus firmi themselves with the voice-leading
structure of polyphonic movements, and by examining the
degree of correlation between structural cadences and the
closures of chant melodies. By adopting this comparative
procedure, it is possible to show the extent to which the
cantus firmus technique challenges the normative status of
the cadential model, and conversely, the extent to which the
choice and treatment of a cantus firinus are constrained by
316
the boundaries of the cadential paradigm. If it can be shown
that the cadential model needs considerable modification to
fit the pre-composed chant in, say, a Taverner mass, and that
the reverse is true in a later example of the genre, such as
Palestrina, it may be possible to draw wider conclusions
about style-change in the genre of the cantus firinus mass as
a whole: a process in which the status of the chant evolves
from that of a precoinpositional given to that of a rhetorical
adjunct.
Josquin's setting of the sequence Victiinae paschali
laudes has been analysed at length in Chapter 3 above.2
Although the motet uses two cantus prius facti, there are few
problems in the analysis of the work according to principles
of cadence-directed motion; indeed, the two chants themselves
have endings which descend in a linear fashion to the
finalis. The descending contour of the chants makes them
compatible with a normative cadential model, since the cantus
firmus in the tenor may function as the structural y
tenorizans:
317
A
43-
Ex.7:l. Victimae paschali laudes (precomposed melody I).
6'a
3 z
Ex.7:2. D'ung aultre amer (precomposed melody II).
The analytical problems in Victimae paschali arise not
at a background level, but at a middleground level: the
melodic contour of the chant is so suggestive of cadential
closure that the repetitions of the cantus prius factus tend
to give the effect of a concatenation of small-scale descents
rather than a unified structure with a single background.
This repetitive effect, however, is counteracted by the
318
systematic weakening of cadential closures prior to the final
descent, either by the dovetailing of phrases or by the
omission of the vox basizans: a teleological strategy
described in greater length above.3
Other chant-based works are less compatible with a
cadential archetype, however, and appear to call into
question the universality of such a model. One such example
is John Taverner's celebrated Missa Gloria tibi trinitas. In
this mass, the ending of the chant melody cannot be
harmonized as the structural tenorizans of a cadential
paradigm, since its finalis is approached from below:
-1-
Ex.7:3. Taverner: Missa Gloria tibi trinitas, chant melody.
319
)03
-
$____
Fl--li us
Pa4-
-
I
I
-
- I I
-
fr,5.
I
Ex.7:4. Missa Gloria tibi trinitas: Gloria, bars 103-110.
320
Taverner's polyphonic treatment of the chant melody is
therefore somewhat problematic when viewed from a cadential
perspective. The Gloria of the mass has an imitative opening
outlining A over D; the A in the upper voice subsequently
ascends by an arpeggiation to F. Although the salience of the
F in the upper voice, together with the ending of the Gloria
on a D major triad, suggests a structure of the closed type
with head-note 5, the contour of the chant makes the endings
of sections somewhat difficult to rationalize according to
the cadential model. A case in point is the ending of the
first statement of the cantus firmus, on the words 'filius
Patris' (Ex.7:4). The motion of the cantus firmus from C
natural to D at this point precludes any traditional
vox cantizans formula with either a ficta C sharp or a
cadential suspension; however, the two lowest voices in the
texture articulate stereotyped tenorizans (--1) and
basizans (I-V-I) formulae. In the bass, the motion from I to
V is filled in by a third-divider, F, which in turn is
prolonged by an arpeggiation in the foreground (Ex.7:4).
This third-divider in the bass is a general characteristic of
the sectional endings of the mass. The end of the Gloria
(Ex.7:5), for instance, displays a vastly expanded version of
the same voice-leading pattern, where the prolongation of F
is subjected to a highly florid series of diminutions:
321
Ex.7:5. Missa Gloria tibi trinitas: Gloria, bars 184-199.
-
--J--rL--tu('I.
qL-roe--------4---
-----rL-tujtnO--r-aDe-----
-
Ln q-rL--f-------4. Po.
-
&31D-r4.a. be------
, t
1 i .J
j J 1
1 J1 f
i
r
I I r

-J 1
---ri--
-r' -_---
i.rr-4.,be-
VI
32
3i
At a superficial level, this passage does not appear to
contain a cadential closure of any kind. Although the ending
of the chant suggests an expanded vox cantizans (--), the
absence of a cadential semitone and a suspension militates
against an interpretation of this passage as a cadential
closure. However, it is possible to view the whole ending as
an extremely complex composing-out of a three-part cadential
model, in which the head-note () is prolonged in the
uppermost voice, and descends to the cadence-pitch in the
tenor (Ex.7:6). In addition, the bass voice projects an
elaborate version of the vox basizans, not only composing out
the motion from I to V by means of a third-divider (F),
prolonged over ten bars, but interposing the fourth degree
(G) between the V and the I (a motion which results in
consecutive fifths between outermost parts).
Thus, although the closures of these two sections may be
shown to originate from the cadential archetype, the presence
of a non-cadential cantus firmus necessitates a certain
degree of alteration of the normative model: the cantus
firmus functions as a vox cantizans (without the customary
ficta accidental), while the closural bass motion V-IV-I
may be viewed as an elision of a cadential formula (I-V-I)
with a post-cadential I-IV-I:
324
L- : i i i I
Ex.7: 6. Mi ddleground readi ng of above.
In those secti ons of the mass that lack a cantus fi rmus,
the voi ce- leadi ng si gni fi cantly reverts to a cadenti al
ori entati on. One such secti on i s that begi nni ng 'Quoni am tu
solus', whi ch arti culates D by means of two cadences: the
fi rst for two voi ces (canti zans and tenori zans), the second
wi th an enti rely regular vox basi zans (Ex.7: 7): 5
325
1L
j _ Qu-rt-am.ti 0--- ------ ILLSSOIL.----
----------CXU5,
AA A A
3_1_A
1
Ex.7:7. Missa Gloria tibi trinitas: 'Quoniam tu solus'.
326
1
So- - Lu.s L- - nws,
J-- - - - - - -
I
A
I
3
_:_
I V
I
Ex.7:7 (b) 'Quoniam tusolus', three-part closure.
327
The behaviour of the lower voice in the duet at Ex.7:7
above (p.326) exploits the wide ambitus of a tenth by means
of two descending leaps: G to D in bar 170, and E to A in bar
172. The isolated lower pitches (D and A) may thus be
explained as a vox basizans stated through a process of
unfolding, the octave descent in the lower voice in bars 167-
170 being a coupling between two structural voices in
different registers (the implicit 'consonant fourth' at the
cadential approach is, of course, in keeping with the style).
The implicit D in the register of the basizans is provided by
the bass of the subsequent section 3 (above, p.327).
To summarize: the survival of strict cantus firmus
technique in the early part of the century challenges the
normative status of the cadential archetypes, since the
contours of tenors in certain cases are incompatible with
stock tenorizans or cantizans formulae. However, even in
works which seem to lack cadential orientation at the surface
level (as in the Taverner example), the middleground voice-
leading suggests a kind of modified cadential logic (albeit
without sustentatio and without a cadential suspension).
Where sections of a work (such as the 'Quoniam') lack a
cantus firmus altogether, orthodox cadential formulae are
more likely to be apparent at the level of the musical
surface. It might be concluded that this Taverner mass,
328
probably composed around 1520, represents a transitional
style in which a modern tendency towards cadentially-oriented
voice-leading over a long span is co-ordinated with, and held
in check by, the pre-existent cantus firmus.
7.2 Case study: Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus
In general, the applicability of the proposed background
model to a work built on a strict precoinposed tenor varies
not only according to historical and geographical factors
(the example from Josquin, for instance, is more explicitly
cadentially-oriented that that from Taverner) but according
to the nature of the chant itself. While strict cantus firmus
technique flourishes in the English repertory (at least until
1550), the occurrence of such techniques in later Continental
repertory is a relative rarity. The output of Palestrina is a
case in point: not only is the true tenor mass a relative
rarity in Palestrina's oeuvre, but of the seven tenor masses,
six employ chants that close with a linear descent to the
finalis; as a consequence, they are entirely compatible with
a cadentially-oriented style.
The following analytical case study takes the earliest
of these: the Missa Ecce sacerdos inagnus, dating from 1554.6
Given the rarity of the strict cantus-firinus mass in
329
Palestrina's output (by contrast with the prevalent technique
of chant paraphrase), and the ceremonial nature of this work
(which was written for Julius III), it may be assumed that
the genre was already something of an archaism: a
compositional tour de force in which the chant melody, far
from being the sole precoinpositional determinant of large-
scale coherence, is worked into a normative large-scale goal-
directed structure. This analysis seeks to demonstrate that
the cadential model postulated in earlier chapters represents
a genuine norm of voice-leading behaviour which has primacy
over the cantus firmus, since the latter is modified so as to
conform to a large-scale cadential system. To this end, the
approach pursued here will investigate the extent to which
the structure of the cantus firmus correlates to the large-
scale cadential structures at background and middleground
levels.
The chant itself (Ex.7:8) has the finalis G and an
aiubitus of a sixth, G to E; consequently, it can be assigned
to the seventh mode. The first strain of the melody suggests
a prolonged head-note, D, elaborated by its upper neighbour,
while the overall descending linear contour of the melody
invites a polyphonic setting of the closed type with 5-4-S--
1 in the expanded vox tenorizans. Since the pitch C on the
last syllable of 'diebus' is quit by leap (and retrieved on
330
the word 'placuit'), the use of the chant as an expanded y
tenorizans implies a lengthy prolongation of the fourth
degree prior to the final cadential descent:
Ec- -ceSO.- W dS ,Ta.-11LLI41. ud e - - - -
. IIS
II
icLLLte- - - 0j(L- -VCJ'..- -ttLcstiuf:L.S
Ex.7:8. Ecce sacerdos inagnus: chant.
Ex.7:9. Hypothetical use of chant as expanded tenorizans,
showing prolongation of fourth degree.
Palestrina's encyclopedic treatment of the chant is
outlined in Table 7:1. Of the five movements of the mass
ordinary, the Gloria is the least problematic: the cantus
firmus remains in the tenor throughout, and is stated three
times in complete form, together with a reprise of its last
line for the repetition of the concluding text 'in gloria Dei
331
Patris, Amen'. While the first two statements are
rhythmically regular, the third appears in augmentation with
a number of metrical modifications; this relative liberty in
the durational values of the cantus firmus is continued in
the Credo. In terms of structural type, too, the Gloria is
unequivocal: both of its sections belong to the closed type
with cadence-pitch G and head-note .
Other sections of the mass are more variable, in the
changing locations of the cantus firinus (which occurs in
every voice, except the bass, at some point), in its
transpositions (the Christe and Sanctus have a version
transposed upwards by a perfect fourth), and in the
structural types employed for internal sections (although
final sections of each movement are always of the closed
type). The transpositions in the Christe and Sanctus are of
particular analytical interest, since the structural types of
the two sections are fundamentally distinct. Whereas the
Sanctus has an unadulterated version of the chant melody
transposed to terminate on C (so belonging to a closed type
with cadence-pitch C), the Christe has an unusual mutation in
its final pitch: D is substituted for the expected closure on
C. Palestrina's alteration to the chant has structural
ramifications: it allows the Christe to project an open type
sandwiched between two closed types (Kyries I and II).
332
No true cadence
Last line repeated
Transposed
First 7 notes only
CREDOTenor (2)
Crucifixus No c.f.
Et iterum Tenor (2)
SANCTUSAltus (1)
PleniNo c.f.
Hosanna ITenor (3)
Benedictus No c.f.
Hosanna II No c.f.
OPEN G
OPEN G
CLOSED G
CLOSED C
OPEN G
CLOSED G
CLOSED G
CLOSED G
Table 7:1.
Treatments of cantus firmus in ?4issa Ecce sacerdos maqnus.
SECTION VOICE BEARING C.F.DETAILS
STRUCTURAL
(no. of statements)
TYPE & ENDING
KYRIE ICantus (2)
ChristeAltus (1)Transposed; modified
Kyrie IITenor (1)
GLORIATenor (2)Rhythmic augmentation
Qui tollis Tenor (1)Last line repeated
CLOSED G
OPEN D
CLOSED G
CLOSED G
CLOSED G
AGNUS I

Cantus

CLOSED G
Agnus II

Tenor (guinta vox)

CLOSED G
Agnus III

Freely migrating

CLOSED G
333
Kyrie
The relation of voice-leading structure to cantus firmus
in both the Kyrie I and the Christe is clarified at Ex.7:lO
and Ex.7:ll respectively. In the Kyrie (Ex.7:lO), this
relation is uncomplicated: the cantus firmus occurs in the
upper voice and functions as the expanded vox tenorizans of
the cadential paradigm. The motion to 4 occurs rather early
(bar 14), as might be expected from the contour of the chant
(Exx.7:8 and 7:9 above); here, it occurs in conjunction with
the prolonged G in the vox cantizans, and the resulting
fourth rendered consonant by a C in the bass, moving to A at
the approach to the cadential descent.
In the Christe (Ex.7:ll), however, the role played by
the cantus firmus in the overall voice-leading structure is
more problematic. The chant melody, this time in the altus,
moves through a fourth, rather than a fifth, on account of
its modified final pitch. Yet the cantus firmus does not
function here as a semi-open tenorizans, descending from
(since there is no clausula on D); nor is it a truncated
descent to C (since the Christe concludes with Fl/A rather
than B/G). Instead, the cantus firmus outlines a fourth-
progression (G-F-E-D) running in canon with the true open
line (D-C-B-A) which lies in the tenor; these two staggered
lines are reminiscent of the two canonic diatessaron descents
334
associated with the
j
model outlined in the preceding
chapter.
The role of the Christe within the Kyrie as a whole, as
well as the rather enigmatic substitution of D for C in the
cantus firmus at the end of the Christe, may be explained by
a voice-leading analysis of the entire Kyrie (Ex.7:12). The
Christe, lacking a cadential closure, belongs to the open
type (it has already been remarked that this type, by
contrast with the semi-open type, was reserved for internal
sections and 'incomplete' pieces of a preludial nature); its
large-scale voice-leading function is thus dependent on the
two surrounding Kyries, both of which are closed types with
cadence-pitch G. Viewed in such a context, the half-close at
the end of the Christe articulates the V of a large-scale I-
V-I harmonic schema. This pattern is clearly not a
Bassbrechung in the Schenkerian sense, since it does not
correspond to the vox basizans in a cadential model; rather,
the weakening of the Christe by means of a half-close serves
to enhance the teleological drive towards the closure of the
Kyrie II, so that the voice-leading structure of the Christe
is subsumed within that of the entire Kyrie.
335
9
' C!' )
H
VI
<1
0
11
H
'It)
0
<0
L
U
11.
(t1
H
4-
I-I
S
(T
tll
L
I
(c1
"I
(3D

H
' U
I4
Credo
The analysis of chant treatment in the Credo is
ostensibly less problematic in that the cantus firmus is
carried exclusively by the tenor and its pitch content is
unmodified. However, the relationship between the cantus
firinus and the structural vox tenorizans is somewhat complex,
and may be elucidated with the aid of voice-leading analysis.
Like the Kyrie, the Credo exhibits a broadly tripartite
design: although the movement as a whole belongs
unambiguously to the closed type with cadence-pitch G, the
central section (here, the Crucifixus) has an open structure
(without cantus firmus) that serves to deflect the main
cadential drive towards the final closure of the Credo.
However, the open type employed for the Crucifixus is
symmetrical, prolonging the tonic throughout by the addition
of a middleground neighbour to the head-note, supported by IV
in the bass; in this respect its structure is quite unlike
that of the Christe, which is asymmetrical and underpinned by
a I-V bass (the two paradigms for Christe and Crucifixus are
given above, p.208, as Ex.4:18 (ii) and (iii) respectively).
The argument for a single background model spanning the
entire Credo is further strengthened by an analysis of the
first section, ending 'et homo factus est'. The voice-leading
here is highly unusual, and suggests a strenuous avoidance of
339
cadential formulae at the closure of the cantus firmus:
Ex.7:13. Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus: Credo, bars 94-101.
The underlying voice-leading here projects the unusual
intervallic sequence 5-8-5-8 between outer parts: a
composing-out of a succession of parallel fifths. This
somewhat awkward non-cadential ending offers further evidence
of a large-scale teleological design in which internal
endings are systematically rendered less conclusive than the
final cadence.
Such a goal-directed strategy is further evinced by
an investigation of the relationship between the cantus
340
firmus structure and the cadential structure. Table 7:2 gives
a list of all the internal closures of the Credo with respect
to three categories: textual closure (the ending of a
verse of the creed); chant closure (the ending of a statement
of the cantus firinus) and cadential closure. While there are
four full statements of the cantus firmus, only two of these
(the first and last) function as the vox tenorizans within a
cadential model. Of these, the first is relatively weak: it
not only lacks a supporting basizans but also fails to
coincide with a textual ending. Similarly, the second
statement of the chant does not carry the structural
tenorizans; the final cadence of the first section occurs at
'descendit de coelis' (bar 79), at which point the cantus
firmus has a falling third (D-B), functioning locally as the
vox altizans. The third chant ending (bar 212) is the weakest
of all: it coincides neither with a textual ending nor with a
cadential formula.
Thus the three-way correlation between textual,
cadential and chant closures is reserved for the cadence at
bar 247 ('et vitam venturi saeculi'). In the voice-leading
sketch (Ex.7:14), this cadence has the status of the
structural closure, with the Amen (also containing a three-
way correlation) functioning appropriately as coda.
341
TABLE 7:2.
Nissa Ecce Sacerdos Ma g nus: Credo.
Correlations between text, cadences and chant terminations.
BARTEXTCADENTIAL CLOSURE CLOSURE
c.p.v.t. v.c.v.b.of c.f.
11 omnipotentemGAltus Cantus Bassus No
6 1_____GTenor Altus _____Yes
6 6 facta suntGCantus Altus BassusNo
72 nos homines GCantus Altus Bassus No
79 de coelisGCantus Altus Bassus No
99 hoino factus est[no cadence]Yes
102-159Crucifixus [open structure] tacet
16 4 Et iterumGCantus Altus BassusNo
179 non erit finisGCantus Altus BassusNo
201 simul adoraturGBassus Altus ______No
210 per prophetasGBassus Cantus ______No
212 __________[no cadence]Yes
221 ecciesiamGAltus Cantus Bassus No
246 saeculiGTenor Cantus BassusYes
26 0 AmenGTenor Cantus BassusYes
Key: c.f. Cantus firmus
c.p. Cadence pitch
v.t. Vox tenorizans
v.c. Vox cantizans
v.b. Vox basizans
Correlation between
Correlation between
* truncated version
closures in two parameters
closures in three parameters
342
CANTUS
FI1MUS
ACIKcROUMD
A-8
I
I
CROIN UNUF-I

CIWCIP-1Xu5

7, -r4
EUM VENTURU5EST
MIr.Di_RouMb
decces

--honwfadit.

1ACiJixu - - -t ttrusT1 ---perp9hets

- - _t VLIDJfl ILtLU1, - -iASIlCfl.
CL.o5uRE OFC.4N7w F/P/.IUS.
CADEN T11i CL-G.SU.E..
Z :/4W/sc..mc: Cr-e4o
The Credo thus emerges as a unified, clinker-built
structure (Ex.7:l4), in which the linear descents in the
cantus firinus (X) overlap with the local statements of the
vox tenorizans (Y) at internal cadence points. Only at the
climactic cadence-point before the Amen do the two types of
descent coincide in a full three-part clausula forinalis. It
may be concluded, therefore, that the presence of a
precompositional chant melody in the Nissa Ecce sacerdos
magnus does not significantly threaten the status of the
cadential archetype as a stylistic norm; on the contrary, the
principle of large-scale cadential orientation is so
ingrained in Palestrina's polyphonic style that a component
of the cantus firmus is modified to conform to a
closed/open/closed schema (in the Kyrie), while the
overlapping of descents in the Credo reinforces a similar
sense of long-range teleology by allocating greater
rhetorical weight to final closures than to internal ones.
7.4 Summary
A number of conclusions may be gleaned from the
foregoing case studies. Although the technique of polyphonic
composition on a strict cantus firmus ostensibly presents a
challenge to the normative status of the cadential models, a
344
close examination of foregrounds and middlegrounds reveals
that, even where the cantus firmus fails to conform to a
descending contour that would allow it to function as a
tenorizans, the norms of dissonance treatment correspond to
those of 'free' compositions. In the earlier of the two
masses sampled here, the termination of the chant was of a
type incompatible with an orthodox cadential formula at the
foreground level, but the long range voice-leading was
strongly suggestive of a highly elaborate diminution of a
basic closed model with head-note 3. In sections of
Taverner's mass where the chant was absent, the stereotyped
cadential formulae (corresponding closely to the proposed
model in both two- and three-part forms) were invariably in
evidence at the musical surface: an intimation that linear,
cadentially-oriented motions constitute a stylistic norm of
Taverner's compositions in general.
In the example from Palestrina, the cantus firmus has
ceased to represent a compositional starting-point that
regulates every aspect of the counterpoint; rather, large-
scale teleological structuring would appear to be an
overriding concern that takes precedence over the melodic
consistency of the chant. Although chant melodies in general
remain central to the mass in the sixteenth century, the
preference of composers for paraphrase technique over the
345
elaboration of a precomposed tenor would appear to be
entirely consistent with a new common practice: one which
absorbed chant melodies into the musical foreground while
emancipating itself from the control of a cantus firmus over
a longer temporal range. Where cantus firini are adopted in
later compositions (such as the Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus),
they appear not as a priori compositional prerequisites but
as additional melodic material, woven into a texture that is
already coherent and secure in its large-scale cadential
orientation.
346
Notes to Chapter 7
1. Schenker 1921, for instance, includes a number of worked
cantus firmus exercises.
2. Above, p.120 ff.
3. Above, p.136 ff.
4. Bar numbers pertain to the familiar performing edition,
Taverner: 'Gloria tibi trinitas' Mass, ed. Hugh Benham
(London: Stainer and Bell, 1969).
5. The analysis shown at Ex.7:7(b) illustrates a primary
distinction between the present method and the
Schenkerian method. It is tempting to reduce the D in the
upper voice in the penultimate bar to the status of a
passing-note between E and C(#); certainly, this would be
the expected voice-leading in a piece of major/minor
tonality (reading the triad before the V as an implied
116
sonority rather than a IV). Yet the leading-note C(#)
must come from D and lead back to D to function as the
vox cantizans, so that the bass note G functions simply
as a local consonant support for 8, necessitating a move
to G in the tenorizans. Similarly, a Schenkerian analysis
would favour the bass note G in the approach to the V;
yet the background status of the 8 in the cantizans
requires a different set of criteria for reduction: the
harmony notes in the second minim of the penultimate bar
347
P
not
not
1 -
(sJ')_V - a
Thus:
p
-I
be
not
are D and F; these are rendered dissonant by the p assing-
note G in the bass at the extreme foreground. Thus the
p rimacy of the vox cantizans over the bass arp eggiation
in this rep ertory forces a very different view of the
foreground from that offered by a Schenkerian ap p roach;
the bass here has only a sup p orting role, and does not
generate the inner p arts through triadic realization.
6. P alestrina: Works, vol.1, p p .1-34.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MIDDLEGROUND CIIROMATICISM AND AFFECT
8.1 The chromatic style
So far the theory, as exemplified by all the structural
paradigms proposed in Chapter 4 and the subsequent
discussions of the middleground, has dealt almost exclusively
with diatonic structures, the sole exception being the
modification of the cadential vox cantizans by means of a
musica ficta accidental (this modification or sustentatio,
according to contemporary theory, constitutes a norm of
cadential voice-leading rather than a shift into the
chromatic genus). 2
- Where the musical examples have been of a
highly chromatic nature (as in the Lassus prologue discussed
at the outset of this study) the chromaticism has been
assumed to occupy a lower level of structural hierarchy,
representing a local modification (however violent or
dramatic) of a structure that is fundamentally diatonic. In
this respect, the theory outlined here is similar to
Schenker's system: as in that system, the transformation of
levels through successive processes of diminution is
regulated by the Rules of counterpoint, which, I have argued,
349
remain historically consistent throughout the sixteenth
century from Aron to Montanos and reappear almost unchanged
in Fux's Gradus ad Parnassuin.
In sixteenth-century expositions of these Rules, such as
Zarlino's Istitutioni harmoniche, the diatonic behaviour of
voices is almost invariably given structural precedence over
the chromatic, the latter being regarded as an optional
modification of the former. Towards the end of the third
book, in his contribution to the Ancients-Moderns
controversy, Zarlino introduces the concept of the three
orders (ordines): diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic, which
Vicentino had introduced three years earlier with a
comparison between the orders of music and
architecture.2
He
goes on to suggest that the order may be subject to mutatio
for affective purposes; indeed, a change from the diatonic to
chromatic order may play the same rhetorical or affective
role as a inutatio modi: a major third may be altered to a
minor third, for instance, as a means of invoking a
particular affect of pathos ('tristi effetti').3
Although the Ancients and Moderns (exemplified by
Zarlino and Vicentino respectively) differed over the
aesthetic propriety of extreme chromaticism, both camps
shared a common theoretical view of the chromatic style as an
affective deviation from a diatonic norm of large-scale
350
structure. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how
this iniddleground chromaticism operates within a diatonic
background in three very different case-)studies. In each of
the studies I shall offer a structural analysis based on the
foregoing theoretical principles, in order to identify the
points at which the structures deviate from expectedt
diatonic models. By mapping these salient points on to the
text in each case, I shall conclude with some suggestions as
to how the analytical models might serve as a starting-point
for a broader historical perspective dealing principally with
two issues: the relationship of voice-leading structure to
the rhetoric of the text, and the precise nature of
historical style-change.
8.2 Some recent views of chromatic structure
It was suggested at the outset of this study that the
most salient point of controversy in the current discipline
of Renaissance music analysis lay in the widely divergent
treatments of chromaticism, as exemplified famously by
Lowinsky's account of the Lassus prologue as 'atonal' at one
extreme and, at the other, Mitchell's reduction of the same
piece to a 'G major' diatonic background. Further, I
351
suggested that Lowinsky's reading was persuasive
in its critical and historical observations (rightly
emphasising the work's affective and structurally 'deviant'
qualities) but analytically undeveloped (since it interprets
the piece only negatively, in terms of the absence of 'tonal'
features). In my critique of Mitchell's reading, however, I
suggested that the reductionistic pursuit of a unifying
principle served only to minimize the affective deviance of
the work (rendering any critical appraisal of the relation of
music to text almost impossible) and, perhaps more seriously,
to evade the fundamental question of historical style-change
(some, notably Joseph Kerman and Leo Treitler, have applied
this criticism to Schenker's analyses as well, although, as I
have argued above at some length, Schenker's methodology may
be viewed conversely as a background-to-foreground one, in
which the deep-level paradigms serve as a basis for stylistic
comparison, not as analytical conclusions in themselves).5
The problem of the chromatic foreground in Mitchell's reading
was largely (and deliberately) sidestepped in an attempt to
focus on the principal shortcoming of the post-Schenkerian
method: the stylistically anachronistic requirement that a
cadential closure be articulated by dominant and tonic
triads, which results in an uncomfortable distortion of the
work's textual structure and a misidentification of the
352
work's true closure. Yet Mitchell's interpretation contains
other problematic assumptions about the function of
chromaticjsm that affect the detail of the foreground level;
on the whole, these tend to minimize the stylistic
differences between this chromatic repertory and the
chromaticism of later (major/minor) tonal styles.
I
Car---nji---na dv-----nta-----co cU4CLU.--4$ mo--d,*&--(&---th
V
Ex.8:l. Prologue to Prophetiae Sibyllarum (bars 1-8), with
iniddleground reading after Mitchell 1970.
353
An example of this tendency arises in bar 4 of the
prologue (Ex.8:l), where the bass note C sharp is interpreted
as a prolonged scale-step (Schenker's Stufe), leading to the
pitch D (the structural 'dominant') in bar 8. The assumed
voice-leading here is highly questionable: there is a
complete absence of any tonicizing local progression before
the C sharp minor triad; moreover, the motion from C sharp to
D is disturbed by an intervening diatonic progression, G-C,
in bars 6-7, which suggests a prolongation of either G or C
from the opening. As with Mitchell's reading of the final
cadence, the voice-leading of this passage has, I believe,
been analysed anachronistically, using a middleground
paradigm derived implicitly from an eighteenth century style.
The four-part realization of Mitchell's middleground (Ex.8:2)
clarifies this underlying voice-leading motion, where the
three upper parts move in logical stepwise motion towards
their contrapuntal goal.
Ex.8:2. Hypothetical (anachronistic) realization of above
with implicit 6/5 sonority.
354
While contrapuntally logical and elegant, however, the
progression is more typical of the Bachian style and is
untenable in a historical repertory that does not admit the
unprepared cadential 6/5 that Mitchell's reading tacitly
suggests. Thus, although chromatic alterations of this kind
exist in abundance in the later sixteenth-century repertory,
they frequently arise in very localized contexts (as here)
and seldom occur as prolonged scale-steps (Schenker himself,
as has already been noted, denied the existence of the Stufe
in music of this period).6
An alternative hypothesis, more closely allied to
contemporary views of chromaticism, has been proposed
in an article by James Haar. 7 Like the theorists of the post-
Schenkerian school, Haar believes that chromatic behaviour
represents a deviation from a more fundamental diatonic
model, but he defines this not in terms of a tonal
'background' but in modal terms, as a 'salutary condiment to
the blandly diatonic modal framework'. 8 His method stands in
direct opposition to that of the post-Schenkerians in that it
concerns itself only with the immediate foreground and posits
no deeper structural level; moreover, it deals principally
with vertical relationships and arguably lacks the capacity
to explicate large-scale contrapuntal connections or
cadentially-oriented motions.
355
Where an analysis such as Mitchell's retains the
chromaticisni at all but the very deepest level, sometimes
giving chromatic pitches the status of prolonged scale-steps,
the diatonic 'framework' in Haar's analysis is deduced
through a reductive methodology involving the removal of
accidentals, but not the removal of any actual pitches at the
foreground (a principle derived ostensibly from Vicentino
but also owing much to the early work of Dahlhaus). 9 Thus the
C sharp minor triad in the Lassus prologue might be viewed
not as part of an (anachronistic) chain of dominants but
merely as a C major triad with coloration that functions only
at the most localized level.
A 'de-chromaticized' version of the first phrase of the
Prologue, following Haar's method, is given at Ex.8:3.
By construing the accidentals as local colorations, it is
possible to view the C sharp not as a prolonged scale-degree
dependent on the later D, but as a means of prolonging the
bass pitch C from bar 2; in this reading, therefore, the
chromaticisin is viewed as essentially non-functional; its
purpose affective rather than (as in Mitchell's reading)
syntactical. Yet it is possible to extend the analytical
process beyond the de-chroinaticizing stage given at Ex.8:3,
by analysing the middleground voice-leading behaviour of
the diatonicized version itself.
356
Iauv---
ak -cLL- ctu.-1t Lu.
-tic
-f-
i,
(ar I -
-m;-rw
I
chr - - kt- -ti.

I
4U4.k ,
r I c 1-d
L t.--ta- ta] t-n- -
c.r
t-
--tn--no.Ig hru-
-4n1L--t.

null -
ta-rto -f-c t ,
Car- - m*a.&hrc - - iria. - (i - cc- clis n -du. -L&.-t.
Lu -no - t-t.
Ex.8:3. Lassus's prologue de-chromaticized (after Haar 1977).
357
I v VI
Ex.8:4. Voice-leading interpretation of abov e.
The v oice-leading sketch of the opening passage in its
diatonic v ersion (Ex.8:4) illustrates how the passage may be
v iewed as a semi-open model with a descent from 4 (C amended
locally to C sharp) in the tenorizans (migrating from altus
to tenor) and an expanded cantizans (-5-) in the upper
v oice. The v ox basizans (I V-[I )-V-I ) is of the type detailed in
Chapter 4 abov e: it requires the initial I V to render
consonant the fourth degree in the v ox tenorizans.a0
One further point of detail arises in this brief
analysis: it concerns the apparently chromatic pitches in the
'diatonic' v ersion: B flat in bar 7 and F sharp in bar 8.
358
The latter is unproblematic in that it is part of the
normative archetype (a semitone in one or other of the two
structural voices being an almost universal prerequisite of
cadential closure in this period). The pitch B flat has been
retained both in the dechromaticized version (Ex.8:3) and the
analytical sketch (Ex.8:4), since it functions not as a
chromatic colouring of B (this would result in tritones in
both the melodic and harmonic dimensions) but as part of a
circle-of-fifths progression (G-C-F-Bb): an archetypal means
of composing out the potential consecutive fifths between
outer voices. This kind of chromatic alteration, resulting
from a motion through the circle of fifths, is familiar in
sixteenth-century polyphony well before the development of
the chromatic style as such (the motet Absalon fill mi,
formerly attributed to Josquin, is a celebrated example, as
is Willaert's q
uid non ebrietas, which will be discussed
shortly). 2 - 3
- In cases of this sort, the added flats do not
generate distortions in the voice-leading although their
purpose may be highly affective; rather, they serve to effect
smooth sequential motions and to evade harmonic and melodic
tritones.
An especially acute analytical problem of a similar sort
arises later in the prologue, on the words 'quibus nostrae
ohm' (bars 13-15):
359
UL-bIUfl-tLU- - --&flr- -c.. - -so.. - -- -J.u.--- - - -
Ex.8:5. Prologue, bars 13-16.
Here, the initial process of 'de-chromaticizing' the passage
is far from straightforward: the simple removal of the
accidentals in the first chord of bar 14 results in liii contra
La.,
and even if the ensuing B in the bass is modified to B
flat, the subsequent E natural results similarly in a false
relation and the melodic interval of a tritone. Thus it is
impossible to rationalize this passage without some extension
to the de-chromaticizing method.
A possible (albeit slightly tentative) solution is
offered at Ex.8:6.
360
Circle-of-fifths model (Type I); Cf. Willaert, below, p.377.
I I
Modified by semitonal transposition (Type III), to end
on C.
I I
Ex.8:6. Bars l2-1 as conflation of two chromatic types.
361
The passage is, I believe, not simply a chromatically-
modified version of a simple diatonic progression. Rather, it
is an unusual and striking instance of two kinds of chromatic
behaviour being introduced simultaneously: the process of
semitonal coloration (the true chromatic genus) is used in
conjunction with a circle-of-fifths progression, so that the
chords of F sharp major, B major and E major, while almost
totally inexplicable in terms of scale-steps within a G major
context, actually function as chromatically-raised versions
of the circle of fifths F - B flat - E flat. Thus in this
case the accurate application of the 'de-chromaticizing'
process proposed by Haar unusually involves the addition of
some accidentals as well as the removal of others.
8.3 Towards a methodology for the analysis of chromaticism
A number of conclusions arise from the above discourse:
1. Sixteenth-century polyphony employs chromaticism as
a means of coloration or affective deviation from norms
that are fundamentally diatonic; thus chromatic motions
cannot occupy the background level.
2. Unlike the major/minor tonal repertory, polyphony of this
period does not employ chromatic pitches as prolonged
362
scale-steps; thus chromatic behaviour occurs more usually
in the immediate foreground than in the middleground.
3. Chromatic alterations (excluding musica ficta
modifications in the cadential cantizans) may be
subdivided into three basic categories:
TYPE 1. Those modifications (usually flatwise) arising
from sequential motions through the circle of
fifths, which usually serve to eliminate tritones
between outer parts or in a melodic part;
TYPE 2. The alternation of durus and niollis hexachords,
resulting in chromatic modifications of the third
degree above the bass;
TYPE 3. Modifications of single or multiple chordal
sonorities through (usually sharpwise) transposition
by a semitone (as in the substitution of C sharp for
C natural in the Lassus prologue; in addition, this
may occur in combination with the other two
categories, as at Ex.8:5 and Ex.8:6). In such
examples, the underlying counterpoint may often be
clarified by the preliminary removal of chromatic
pitches (as at Ex.8:3 above).
As has been seen, it is possible for two or three of the
chromatic types to be combined within a single passage,
occasionally resulting in a sort of pseudo-diatonicism, as in
363
bars 13-15 of the Prologue, where the sharpwise transposition
of Type 3 and the flatwise transposition of Type 1 appear to
cancel one another out.
8.4 Three chromatic case studies
Each of the following works has been chosen as
representative of each of the three chromatic types. Although
they appear here in chronological order of their composition,
there is only a loose relationship between the chromatic
types and the historical evolution of style: Type 1 occurs
throughout the century, usually at a local level as in the
Lassus prologue. However, the work examined here, Willaert's
Quid non ebrietas, takes the circle-of-fifths type to its
extreme, resulting in a remarkable enharmonic transformation
precisely at the work's mid-point. Type 2 is represented here
by the last pair of madrigals from Palestrina's 'Vergine'
cycle, which provide a beautiful, early example of the sort
of affective mixture that was to characterize the later
stile concitato. The final example is Gesualdo's madrigal
Moro lasso al mio duolo, which contains a degree of
chromatjcjsm so violent that the boundaries of the proposed
model are significantly strained. In the approach pursued
here, no attempt will be made to decipher the symbolic import
364
of each chromatic substitution; rather, the piece will be
rationalized in terms of its iniddleground behaviour in order
to elucidate the relationship between the strange chromatic
surface and the underlying model (this model acts as a
historical paradigm of normative behaviour against which the
deviant chromaticism functions).
TYPE 1. Willaert: Ould non ebrietas.
In 1956, Edward Lowinsky published a new and highly
persuasive reconstruction of an unpublished chromatic work by
Willaert, formerly believed to be an unusual duo between a
discant and tenor. Having unearthed a lone altus part in
the Libro Primo de la Fortuna (sine loco e sine annol bearing
a text (from Horace's Epistle V) similar to that of the duo,
Lowinsky was able to add a plausible bass and thus reassemble
the work as a four-part composition. The result is a striking
example of chromatic counterpoint in which the 'inebriated'
tenor, in order to conform to the laws of counterpoint, is
modified by a succession of flats while the other three parts
remain consistently diatonic. In this respect the
chromaticism of the work is quite unlike that of, say, the
Lassus prologue, since it involves no seluitonal substitutions
or transpositions of entire chords; rather, it represents the
365
ne plus ultra of the chromatic style detailed above as Type
1, where the tenor moves through a protracted circle-of-
fifths progression to reach a final cadence on a pitch that,
while notated as E double-flat, clearly functions as D in the
context of the surrounding voices.
Although the work has generated great interest among
musicologists, its curious voice-leading structure has yet to
be dealt with from a rigorously theoretical perspective,
perhaps because the work lacks a single definitive source.
-The following analysis sidesteps the thorny issues of sources
and performance practice, and takes Lowinsky's four-part
reconstruction as its source. Its primary purpose is to
vindicate this reconstruction through internal analytical
evidence, by seeking to demonstrate how the chromatic tenor
functions at a middleground level, subsumed within a diatonic
background framework. By applying the structural paradigms
formulated earlier, it will be possible to show how the
apparently deviant behaviour of the tenor conceals a large-
scale coherence both in cadentially-oriented voice-leading
and in rhythmic proportions.
Lowinsky's edition comprises forty bars, which can be
divided proportionally according to the behaviour of the
tenor. The first ten bars are entirely diatonic (with B flat
integral to the cantus mollis system) and are demarcated by
366
a full three-part cadence on G (the only formal cadence
before the final one). The introduction of modifying flats in
the tenor begins at bar 11, where the modified pitches form a
sequence through the circle of fifths: Eb-Ab-Db-Gb. However,
the continuation of the sequence to C flat under the discant
pitch G signals an enharmonic change that coincides exactly
with the mid-point of the movement (bar 21). Thus if the C
flat is interpreted structurally as B natural (which is
necessary if a consonant relation between parts is to be
maintained), the remainder of the movement may be viewed
quite simply as an entirely diatonic passage with the tenor
re-notated. In this case, since the final cadence is on D
rather than the G articulated by both the incipit and the
internal cadence (bar 10), the work as a whole appears to
belong to the semi-open structural type.
However, the head-note of the work is difficult to
establish definitively. Since the opening imitations begin on
G in all parts, and since this pitch is articulated
cadentially at bar 10, a semi-open -1ine (Ex.8:7) suggests
itself. In this reading, the head-note at the level of the
entire piece is G. At the iuiddleground level, this pitch is
prolonged throughout bars 1-10 by means of a descending
A
5-line in the tenor (D-C-Bb-A-G), in conjunction with a
cantizans formula (G-F#-G) in the discant.
367
A
Ex.8:7. quid non ebrietas as a descent from 4.
However, following the chromatic section (bars 11-20, of
which more will be said later), the cadential orientation of
the piece has clearly undergone a dramatic change from G to
D; in modal terms, this might be described as a shift from
transposed Dorian to true Dorian, or in anachronistic terms
as a modulation from G minor to D minor. Only
retrospectively, therefore, is the pitch G perceived not as
the in a closed structure but as the in a larger, semi-
open model with D as its cadential goal.
A number of details at the middleground and foreground
levels support this view: between bars 21 and 24, for
instance, the discant outlines a iniddleground-level
368
)
descent through a fifth (A-G-F-E-D) to a cadenza fuggita on D
(bar 24) . The strong suggestion of a Dorian mode with finalis
D is emphasised further by the introduction of a new point of
imitation between discant and tenor in bars 25-28, using a
motivic formula which has strong associations with first-mode
chant types:
(017Ve$- -- - -
Ex.8:8. quid non ebrietas: bars 25-28.
Both voices in this passage outline an ascending motion
through the diapente D to A, reaching a cadence of the mi
type on A. Once again, the orientation towards D is
emphasised by a diapente descent to another evaded cadence at
bar 34.
369
This evidence would appear to suggest that, taken in
isolation, the second half of the work belongs to a simple
closed type with cadence pitch D and a clear-cut descent from
the fifth degree (A): after all, it is the A that is given
particular salience in the upper voice throughout the last
ten bars of the piece. Yet this reading is potentially in
conflict with the descent from in the proposed background
model, since a middleground prolongation of A over D is
incompatible with the background prolongation of the head-
note G. Indeed, the two diatonic sections (bars 1-10 and bars
21-40) differ so radically in their cadential orientation
that one might argue that the 'C minor' and 'D minor'
sections have different head-notes and that the piece is a
concatenation of two structures (Ex.8:9) connected by a
chromatic transitional passage, rather than a single
integrated structure. However, such a reading is itself
problematic in that it fails to address the relationship of
the parts to the whole; it also represents a piece-specific
schema rather than a genuinely paradigmatic analysis (the
dangers of such schemata have been addressed at length
above). 2- 3 Instead, the head-note would have to be construed
either as falling to (with prolonged throughout the
passage from bar 21 onwards and 5 as a middleground
excrescence) or as rising to (which would function as an
3 70
upper neighbour).
A
Ex.8:9. quid non ebrietas as a pair of descents from 5.
However, a more satisfactory reading at the background level
is offered by the semi-open model with a descent from
(Ex.8:lO): a rare type which belongs taxonomically with the
A
descents from 4 and 6 (above, p.206).
a-
Ex.8:l0. Semi-open model with head-note
371
The head-note in this model is consonant both with the
initial bass prolongation of G and with the final cadence-
pitch of the piece. In Willaert's composition, the head-note
D is suppressed in the upper voice throughout the opening ten
bars, but is reached in bar 12 by means of an ascending
arpeggiation G-Bb-D. In the subsequent chromatic section
(bars 11-21), the background line in the discant moves
downwards through the seventh and sixth degrees, reaching the
fifth degree immediately after the enharmonic shift at bar
21; in this way, the whole of the chromatic section may be
seen as a composing-out of the upper diatessaron (D-C-Bb-A),
while the lower diapente (A-G-F-E-D) is stated in elaborated
form in bars 21-40.
The richness of this piece originates in the inventive
ways in which these two composings-out are effected at the
middleground level, particularly in the beautiful chromatic
treatment of the upper tetrachord between bars 11 and 21.
This tetrachord occurs in its pure diatonic form in the
discant, with the seventh degree prolonged through bars 13
and 14 and the sixth degree (B flat) for a somewhat longer
duration (bars 14-22). This prolongation of B flat (supported
by B flat in Lowinsky's hypothetical bass) is itself form-
generative: it produces a lengthy and highly colouristic
passage that corresponds in modern terms to a modulation to B
372
flat minor.
The descending tetrachordal motion from D to A also
occurs in the tenor, which forms a somewhat distorted canon
with the upper voice. Instead of the diatonic form of the
diatessaron, the tenor has a whole-tone fourth-progression
Eb-Db-Cb-Bbb (the latter pitch functioning enharmonically as
A). At the next layer of middleground, this too is composed
out by means of a series of motions from an inner voice
(exactly analogous to Schenker's Untergreifen); this inner
voice outlines a secondary whole-tone motion through the
lower diapente in a modified form (Bb-Ab-Gb-Fb-Ebb, where Fb-
Ebb functions enharmonically as E-D). This striking tenor
line is consonant with the diatonic background line in the
discant at all points up to the enharmonic turning-point at
bar 20: this, the crux of the entire work, has a B natural in
the tenor (notated C flat) while the prolonged B flat (6) in
the upper voice moves down by a third to G; this forms an
implicit mixture of the sixth degree (Bb/B).
The bass voice, although supplied by Lowinsky, has its
basic middleground contour determined by the upper three
parts: this contour is essentially an arpeggiated motion from
G (at the outset) through B flat (supporting the sixth
degree) to D (following the enharmonic shift). Thus the basic
middleground activity can be graphed succinctly (Ex.8:ll).
373
BACKGROUND
I I
I MI DDLEGROUND I
I 8-__(I .
MI DDLEGROUND I I
r
-'/------5_-4-3
Ex.8:11. quid non ebrietas: background to iniddleground.
374
The following sectional graphs of quid non ebrietas are
designed to show more local detail; these are largely self-
explanatory, although they reveal a number of attractive
motivic correspondences between small- and large-scale
structure that deserve comment here. Bars 1-10, for instance,
contain a hint of ambiguity (Ex.8:12): the passage is
interpreted here in terms of a descent through a fifth in the
tenor, but the facts that the highest discant note in this
passage is C, and that the bass has a C in the second bar,
suggest a possible i-line in the discant at the middleground
level; a semi-open model within a semi-open model. That the
putative local 4 (C) in the descent to G should be superseded
by a 5 in the tenor is also a reflection of the background
ambiguity discussed above, where the hypothetical head-note
A
4 (G) is superseded by 5 (A) at the level of the entire
piece.
This fundamental ambiguity is also reflected on a small
scale at the very end of the work (Ex.8:l4), where the
consonantly-supported occurs in the discant at bar 35,
followed not immediately by 3 but by the fifth degree (this
functions here as a foreground elaboration over the
structural , since the subsequent linear motion through a
fifth in bar 38 lacks a supported fourth degree).
375
M
------------]
Ex.8:12. Bars 1-10: iniddleground to foreground.
376
A p..
8
6
Ex.8:13. Bars 11-30: foreground showing integration of
chromatic tenor into diatonic background model.
377
I I I
Ex.8:14. Bars 31-40: foreground.
As Ex.8:l3 demonstrates, the chromaticism in
quid non
ebrietas, while extreme, is confined to a single voice which
is integrated fully into a diatonic background structure; it
does not involve chromatic shifts in melodic lines themselves
(with the exception of the implicit mixture of the sixth
degree around bar 20) and does not entail any kind of
substitution such as that demonstrated above in the Lassus
prologue. Indeed, the chromatic behaviour of the tenor is
less problematic for the analyst than the large-scale
ambiguity of structure at background and middleground levels
378
(a feature which the piece shares, incidentally, with the
prologue). This apparent conflict between the semi-open type
descending from 4 and the closed type with a descent from 5
(even though it can be resolved conceptually in terms of a
larger s-line) has ramifications at more local levels that
contribute to the rich and multi-faceted nature of this
curious composition.
TYPE 2. Palestrina: 'Vergine' madrigals 7 and 8.
By contrast with the preceding example, the two later
madrigals sampled here are largely diatonic. Chromaticism in
the work of Palestrina is confined almost exclusively to the
second of the types outlined above: the alternation between B
flat and B natural that in contemporary treatises was
generally described in terms of shifts between the durus and
mollis hexachords. In recent studies, the durus/inollis shift
as a theoretical resource has been discussed widely with
reference to Monteverdi and his contemporaries, notably in a
study by Eric Chafe, who has explored the rhetorical and
symbolic significance of these alternations to an extent that
will not be attempted here.' 4 Little, however, has been
written of the durus/inollis shift and its significance in
earlier music such as the two 'Vergine' madrigals analysed
379
here.
In an earlier chapter I argued that the first two of
Palestrina's Madri gali spirituali (1582) formed a connected
pair, which was open to interpretation either as two
structures with the same head-note (semi-open and closed) or
as a single closed structure with an interruption. Here I
shall consider the last two pieces in the cycle, which form a
pair not through any syntactical link at the background
level, but rather on a more poetic, rhetorical level, where
certain middleground features carry expressive significance
that is employed symbolically in both pieces.
The two Petrarch texts, Vergine. quante lagrime and
Vergine. tale e terra, are characterized by poetic features
that suggest an antithetical pairing. The seventh piece ends
in despair and the desire for death:
Non tardar, ch'io son fors' all' ultiino anno:
I di miei pii correnti che saetta,
Fra miserie e peccati
Son se n'andati
E sol morte n'aspetta.-5
while the eighth ends in a final transcendent salvation after
death:
Pon fin a]. mio dolore,
Ch'a te honore et a me fia sa1ute. 3 -
The ambiguity of devotional and sexual meaning in this
madrigal cycle is a typical, almost ubiquitous feature of the
madrigalian repertory towards the turn of the century, and
380
much has been made of the local devices (particularly the
shifts between durus and inollis) employed in slightly later
madrigal collections as a metaphor for textual
coinplementarity and ambiguity of this sort. However, the
poetic device of the durus/inollis shift (or, in Schenkerian
terms, the mixture of the third degree in structural
descents) occurs in the present pieces at a middleground
level; indeed, it is only in the seventh and eighth modes
with finalis G (represented here by the seventh and eighth
pieces respectively) that a mixture (B natural! B flat) is
possible within the system of untransposed inodes. 2 -
The position of the two pieces in the cycle confirms
that they purport to represent the seventh and eighth modes
respectively. While both pieces end with full formal cadences
on G, the modal finalis, their different modal identities are
established in several ways. The seventh madrigal (Vergine.
guante lagriine) has high clefs (chiavette) and the eighth
(Vergine. tale e terra) low clefs (chiave); a feature invoked
by Harold Powers (1981) as one of the principal determinants
of 'tonal type'. There are also substantial differences in
the choice of internal cadence- pitches (Table 8:1): the
seventh madrigal tends to form secondary cadences on the
fifth degree (D), while the eighth has secondary cadences on
the fourth degree (C). This tendency may reflect a certain
381
Text BarC.P.

35

grave danno

44

riva d'Arno

64

inia vita

73

altro ch'affanno

94

sacra ed alma

130

sol morte n'aspetta

158

sol morte n'aspetta

interrelationship between the modes and the psalm tones, in
which the reciting-note for the eighth tone lies a fourth,
rather than a fifth, above the finalis (as suggested by my
earlier citation from Montanos).2-
Table 8:1.
Principal cadence pitches in 'Vergine' madrigals 7 and 8.
No.7.

No.8.
Bar C.P.Text
17 G lo mio cor
23 C lo mio cor

31

pianto ii tenne
35 D non sapea
41 G che n'avvenne
55 C era a me inorte
62 G fama rea
72 C nostra Dea
93 C gran virtute
100 mio dolore
107 F mio dolore
122 G f Ia salute
131 G fia salute
145 G fia salute
* evaded cadence (cadenza fuggita)
These features also have implications for the structural type
of the two pieces. Both the difference in tessitura and the
tendency of the eighth piece to form cadences on the fourth
382
degree rather than the fifth suggest a head-note of 4 for the
eighth piece: after all, C is the highest pitch in the canto
for the greater part of the piece (one exception is the
dramatic ascent to D just before the closure, which will be
discussed presently). In the seventh piece, the C sung
initially in tenor and bass in the incipit is quickly
superseded by a stable sonority of D over G at the words
'quante lusinghe' (bar 18), so that the entire madrigal can
be assigned to the closed type with a descent from the 5
established in bar 2.
The bulk of the seventh piece presents no particular
analytical problem: the fifth degree is prolonged in the
canto through a series of cadential descents to G, and is
itself articulated cadentially at the words 'riva d'Arno'
(bar 44). The final structural descent (Ex.8:15) is more
complex: not only does the B natural change to a B flat,
representing the longing for death, but the structural line
has an interrupted antecedent-consequent structure, in which
the descent migrates from canto to tenor in the consequent
(at this point, the upper voice carries a series of cover-
notes). Thus two psychological dissonances are created:
first, the expected B natural of the modal diapente is
subverted and replaced by an alien B flat; secondly, the
final descent occurs not in the register of its original
383
implication, but an octave lower. Both of these deflections
set up a delayed process of implication and realization: they
create perceptual tensions that demand resolution in the
following madrigal.-9
A
II
I V- iii - V- s]
I
I
()V-
Ex.8:15. Vergine. guante lagrime: closure.
384
This sense of incompleteness generated by the closure
is, however, not resolved immediately at the outset of the
eighth madrigal: rather, the piece begins in the cantus
mollis system with B flat, and the head-note D, left
'hanging' in the upper register at the closure of -Vergine,
puante lagrime is not immediately restored (since the upper
voice has a lower ainbitus).
A full voice-leading sketch of the eighth madrigal
(Ex.8:l6) illustrates not only how the local cadences within
the piece are subsumed within the larger context of a
prolongation of the fourth degree, but also how the dramatic
ending serves as a resolution of the processes set up in the
preceding piece. The status of as head-note is confirmed by
a number of factors: it receives consonant support from a C
in the bass; it is stressed repeatedly through cadential
articulation ('era a me inorte'; 'nostra Dea'; 'gran
virtute'); it is further emphasized by the cadenza fuggita on
'pianto 11 tenne', where a bass note C is substituted for the
expected G (bar 31).
However, it is at the closure of the piece (and of the
entire cycle) that the voice-leading graph is able to show
most clearly the long-range rhetorical processes at work. In
the final burst of optimism ('ch'a te honore ed a me f Ia
salute') the upper D in the canto stands saliently outside
386
ft.
4 --- 4___
r 1
F..
3
1
ft.
I I '
I
(8
VT
I
F. Veiri. -o1tcrrnndrourd-
the established ambitus of that voice, and functions as a
restoration of the head-note of the preceding piece.
Similarly, the cantus durus system (designated by 3) is
restored in the final descent: this effects a resolution of
the psychological dissonances generated by the affective
mixture at the end of Vergine. guante lagrinie. Such
connecting devices at the iniddleground level create a degree
of processive unity within the cycle, as well as a kind of
syliunetry between the two pieces (durus-mollis/mollis-durus)
comparable to the sylmnetrical arrangement of Vergine bella
and Vergine saggia, the two pieces which began the cycle.
TYPE 3. Gesualdo: Moro lasso
The last analytical case study is a madrigal whose
extreme and violent chromaticism stretches the theoretical
models to their historical limit. Gesualdo's madrigal Moro
lasso is a work which, despite its apparent outlandishness,
retains a basic cadential orientation at its closure. 2 1 - (By
contrast, some of Gesualdo's compositions, such as the
celebrated responsory 0 vos oinnes, lack a cadence that
conforms even loosely to sixteenth-century definitions; such
works are sports that lie beyond the range of the paradigms
387
suggested here.) Its middleground, however, is distorted by
chromaticisms of all three categories: local mixtures are
abundant; a circle-of-fifths progression occurs in the bass
at the approach to the closure (bars 53-67); both single
pitches and entire chordal simultaneities are modified by
chromatic substitution, to the extent that traditional modal
categories are severely challenged (a reading of the piece as
Aeolian would require a inutatio inodi in almost every bar;
similarly, a hexachordal analysis would necessitate a change
of hexachord in every bar). 22 In this respect, the work,
dating from 1611, is reasonably typical of Gesualdo's mature
style, so that the principles expounded in the present
analysis may be extended to encompass Gesualdo's style as a
whole.
The date is significant: that Gesualdo should pursue an
unprecedentedly intense chromaticism while preserving the
contrapuntal textures of the late sixteenth century and
eschewing the relative simplicity of the stile inoderno marks
him out as a somewhat paradoxical figure. In the words of one
commentator, Gesualdo's work is characterized by 'a
dialectical relation with the tradition of counterpointl.23
Indeed, his brand of modernism, perhaps to a greater extent
than Monteverdi's, entailed not only chromatic extravagance,
but the constant invocation, through dense contrapuntal
388
textures, of the norms of the stile antico (hence, perhaps,
the frequent allusions to Gesualdo as 'mannerist' by contrast
with the 'progressive' Monteverdi). 2 For instance, the
durus/mollis shift, that commonplace of the stile inoderno,
occurs to the point of saturation: mixture occurs not as a
salient affective device but as an integral part of the
homogeneous fabric of the musical foreground. Highly complex
imitation, as at the ending of Moro lasso, is pursued in
preference to monody; by sharp contrast with the
contemporaneous work of Monteverdi, there is no strong
demarcation of sections by cadential formulae, but an almost
Palestrina-like seamlessness of texture.
In the problems posed to the analyst and historian by
its ambivalent relation to the stile antico, Gesualdo's
polyphony rather resembles the post-tonal music of the late
nineteenth century, where the concept of structural
'deviance' only acquires any meaning within the context of
past stylistic norms: in the analysis of Brahms, for
instance, the Schenkerian paradigm may not 'work' as
effectively as it does in Beethoven, since the hegemony of
tonic/dominant polarity is considerably eroded by the
emergence of modernistic traits such as third-relations; yet
such a model is invaluable in pinpointing tonally 'deviant'
features, since it allows a view of Brahms in historical
389
context, through the prism of an earlier stylistic context
grounded in Beethoven. So it is with Gesualdo: to reach a
historically accountable, enriched critical view of his music
it is not enough to describe its events in vacuo (however
cogent the analytical schema); the analyst must adopt a
methodology that allows stylistic waywardness to be evaluated
in terms of a historical background: the contrapuntal model
(grounded in the stile antico) which Gesualdo's style invokes
and from which it 'swerves'.5
A number of analytical approaches to Gesualdo's music
have been pursued in recent years, initially and perhaps most
significantly by Carl Dahlhaus. 26 Taking issue with an
essentially Riemannian view of chordal relations that was
prevalent at the time, Dahlhaus aimed to show that the
curious harmonic third relations in Gesualdo had their
origins in counterpoint: indeed, his paradigmatic comparison
of a chromatic third-relation with its diatonic analogue and
his anti-Riemannian position reveal a certain closeness to
Schenker, although Dahihaus's observations are confined to
the immediate foreground.
The analysis offered here extrapolates this paradigmatic
approach to encompass the entire madrigal. The reading is not
intended as a reduction of any kind; rather, it is an attempt
to show how the chromatic complexities of the foreground are
390
generated in stages from a linear, diatonic model. In this
way, it is possible not merely to describe the events of the
madgrigal in hermetic terms, but to place the piece in the
context of the sixteenth-century polyphonic tradition; since
Gesualdo's affective deviations obtain their significance
largely through the exploitation of the unexpected, this
significance can be explained only in the interplay between
the musical events of the piece itself and the backcloth of
cultural and stylistic expectations. The background model
(Ex.8:17) gives a paradigm of these expectations; subsequent
levels show the progressive diminutions as well as the voice-
leading distortions that arise from the application of the
three basic types of chromatic modification detailed above.
An additional feature of the present analysis is the
appropriation of Leonard B. Meyer's Gestalt-derived concept
of the implication-realization model, not as a substitute for
voice-leading analysis, as Meyer intended, but as an adjunct
to a large-scale linear reading that facilitates the
interpretation of some of the more deviant aspects of the
Despite the curious opening on a C sharp minor triad,
the main sections of Moro lasso are punctuated by means of
archetypal cadence formulas; these establish a principal
cadence-pitch of A (bars 6 and 69) and subsidiary cadence-
391
pitches of C and D (bars 13 and 28 respectively). However,
while the background model clearly has A as its goal of
motion, the head-note of the expanded tenorizans (as in many
of the preceding examples) is open to two possible
interpretations: G (entailing a semi-open structure with a
descent from 9) or E (a closed model with descent from
The former is the highest pitch in the upper voice, and is
consistent with a prolonged C in the bass; this C occurs in
chromatically-altered form (as C sharp) in bar 1, and in
diatonic form at bar 6. However, the closed reading with 5 is
perhaps preferable: it is consonant with both A and C in the
bass, and A is articulated by a full formal cadence in bar 6.
In addition, the descent from permits a symmetrical
cantizans (A-Gil-A) in the inner voice rather than the
asymmetrical G-A; the initial A in this voice is a better
fit, being consonant with the two internal prolongations of D
and F in the bass at bars 19-28 and 29-35 respectively.
Ex.8:l7 a) Hypothetical background with descent from 7.
392
0 0
Ex.8:17 b) Background as closed type with descent from
The iniddleground and foreground sketches (Ex.8:l8)
demonstrate the integration of chromatic behaviour within an
A-oriented framework. In bars 1-6, there is a miniature semi-
open structure moving towards A by means of a pair of
descending third-progressions in inner voices: one (C#-B-A)
functions locally as the vox tenorizans, while the other runs
in parallel motion, projecting a vox altizans (E#-E-D#-D-C)
which (given the surrounding context) represents a 'coloured'
third progression (E-D-C) rather than an enharmonic fourth-
progression (F-E-D-C). In the next section, 'e chi mi pu6 dar
vita', the head-note is achieved in the upper voice; this
rises to a G in bar 8, the start of a dramatic form-
generative third-progression spanning 32 bars.
393
The reappearance of the salient upper G in the canto
throughout the madrigal poses a special analytical problem.
In bars 6-13, the upper G is sustained as a cover-note in the
canto, while a fifth-progression G-F-E-D-C (locally, the yg
tenorizans in a cadential motion towards C) is carried in a
lower voice. However, in bar 22, a D is reached in the bass;
this initiates a repeat of the text from the opening, with
the musical setting effectively transposed up a perfect
fourth (bars 23-31). The resultant cadence on D in bar 28 is
clearly incompatible with a prolonged G in the upper
register; although the G resolves downwards to F sharp in a
lower voice, there remains a middleground dissonance of a
fourth between outer voices in bars 19-21. The psychological
tension engendered by this registral dissonance is reflected
at the most immediate foreground level, where the canto leaps
(by a melodic dissonance) through an anguished diminished
fourth (G-C#) on the words 'mio duolo' ('my pain') in bars
27-28.
Although the expected middleground resolution to F in
the upper register is effected at bar 31, the upper pitch G
makes significant reappearances as a foreground phenomenon
throughout the B section (bars 45-69). In bar 44, the G is
once again left 'hanging', quit by leap in the upper
register; this produces a cognitive gap that is filled
395
1n4. dL
.lTI QP..----
Ex.8:19. Moro lasso: closure.
The large-scale motion of the bass contains a number of
motivic correspondences between the small and the large;
these are indicated at the deep iniddleground of Ex.8:18. For
instance, the whole of the B section beginning '0 dolorosa
sorte' (bars 45-69) is underpinned by a bass motion C-E-A
(111-V-I), which replicates the overall bass motion of the
introductory section (bars 1-6). Similarly, the bass in bars
397
_fi1I ]
I-
i(ut-
Ex. 8:18.Moro 1a.sso
J
28-41 consists of a chain of ascending thirds (D-F-A-C); the
resultant composed-out interval from D to C corresponds to
what Schenker termed the 'deceptive' seventh: a motion of a
second (0 to C) modified by registral transfer. This process
contains within it a descending third-chain F-D-B beginning
at bar 35, which in turn reflects the dramatic concluding
pitches in the canto in bars 68-9. The ascending third-chain
in the bass between 28-41, already identified as a motivic
feature, is an example of what may be termed 'encyclopedic'
middleground structuring: the bass in this passage has all
four of the possible pitches that form a consonance with the
prolonged A in the expanded cantizans.
As this brief analysis has sought to demonstrate, the
music of the late Renaissance chromaticists, while highly
subversive at the foreground level, is demonstrably rooted
(at higher levels) in the contrapuntal principles formulated
by contemporary theorists: in particular, these operate at
deeper levels. The types of harmonic progressions
characterized by Lowinsky as 'atonal' may be seen,
conversely, to be generated either by the local modification
of fundamentally diatonic counterpoint (bar 1-6) or by the
addition of new bass supports (bars 60-69) to cadentially-
oriented lines that are themselves diatonic.
For the first time in this historical survey, registral
398
displacement becomes a critical feature of long-range
structuring in this Gesualdo madrigal. It was argued above
that in the sacred polyphony of the earlier part of the
century, the cadential voices were likely to appear in any
voice-part within a many-stranded texture. In the present
piece, however, the roles of the voices are more distinctly
stratified: in particular, the status of the bass would
appear to have evolved from that of a purely supportive voice
to that of a cadential prerequisite (as suggested by the
prolonged E in the bass in bars 48-55, which resembles the
prolonged dominant pedal-points associated with major/minor
tonality). Indeed, that there are no cadences in Moro lasso
which lack a vox basizans suggests that the I-V-I cadential
model had begun to acquire the status of a normative
archetype in the inadrigalian repertory of the period (in this
respect, if not in matters of texture, the piece resembles
the stile inoderno).
The teleological strategies of this madrigal (and of the
Palestrina madrigals analysed above) also contrast markedly
with those of earlier repertories. Indeed, it is in the
relation of background to middleground that the differences
between the polyphonic style circa 1600 and that circa 1500
are most acute, even though both repertories share comparable
norms of cadential behaviour. In the analysis of Josquin's
399
motet Victimae paschali laudes, for instance, the large-scale
drive towards the final cadence was characterized as a
'cumulative teleology': although the final cadence was given
a sense of finality by the weakening of preceding cadences,
each internal cadence tended to articulate the same pitch;
even when subsidiary pitches were articulated, they tended to
lie within prolongations of the final cadence-pitch. 3 Thus a
typical large-scale bass motion in a Josquin inotet might read
I-(III)-I-(IV)-I-(V)-I, as in the motet Virgo salutiferi. 3 3 -
Gesualdo's madrigal, however, exhibits a genuinely
syntactical kind of teleology: cadences on A are avoided from
bar 7 to bar 69, not by localized cadenze fuggite or weakened
cadences without basizans, but rather by the formation of new
tonal regions (based around C, D and F) through the
tonicization of scale-steps. Although cadences on these
subsidiary pitches are permissible in earlier repertories,
they usually appear in very localized contexts, interspersed
(as demanded by Calvisius's exhortation cited above) among
cadences on the final cadence-pitch. 3 2 In Moro lasso,
however, the subsidiary areas are not only subject to lengthy
prolongation (the vast third-progression G-F-E in bars 8-40
would be unthinkable in a repertory such as Josquin or even
Willaert) but are arranged processively, so that the bass-
note C leads syntactically to the structural V by means of a
400
composing-out through the passing-note, D (bars 45-48). The
processive filling-out of tonal space is also exemplified at
lower levels, as in the transformation of a neighbour-note
motion D-C in the bass by means of a registral transfer and
subsequent composing-out through a chain of thirds (bars 28-
41). This new role assumed by the bass is reflected in the
notation of Ex.8:18, which for the first time employs open
noteheads to denote the bass; its systematic levels of
composing-out suggest the presence of the genuinely normative
assbrechung that characterized the secthda prattica and was
to become a defining feature of the major/minor system.
8.5 Conclusions: from theory to criticism
The three analyses offered in this chapter have aimed
not only to demonstrate each of the three chromatic types in
practice, but also to offer a few suggestions, by no means
exhaustive, of how the theoretical models might be employed
within a wider critical or historiographical perspective. The
restricted scope of this study, together with the need for
theoretical rigour and exhaustiveness at the level of the
general paradigms, has, of necessity, curtailed the extent to
which critical issues can be explored here. However, the
theories proposed here, while possibly of value as a
401
taxonomic tool (closed, semi-open and open, for instance, are
categories which might usefully sit alongside, say, Powers's
concept of tonal type as well as Renaissance theories of
mode) are not intended as ends in themselves, but rather as
the starting-point for an analytical method that is both
rigorous and historically accountable, without being
excessively dogmatic (I do not wish, for instance, to exclude
ambiguities of interpretation where these are an intrinsic
and enriching feature of musical artworks of the time).
The question of modality, for instance, has been
discussed here only in the context of the debate as to
whether mode constitutes a normative compositional system in
opposition to the major-minor system (in common with Powers
and others, I believe that it does not). Yet much work
remains to be done on the changing status of modality
in the sixteenth century, and on its relationship to voice-
leading structure; although mode is scarcely an a priori
determinant of voice-leading, there are significant
correlations between the two (for instance, between the
clausula in ml and the Phrygian mode) which are ripe for
further investigation through the analysis of case-studies.
An implicit theme throughout this study has been the
problem of formulating a theory that might be fruitfully
employed as a basis for the history of musical style.
402
Arguably, it is in the relationship between theory and the
history of style that post-Schenkerian thought has swerved
most sharply from the position of Schenker himself: whereas
Schenker postulated the concept of a 'historical background'
as a set of cultural and expectational norms, reductionist
approaches have tended to view pieces hermetically. Yet even
Schenker tends to eiuphasise the stylistic similarities of
canonic repertories at the expense of their differences: a
middleground sketch of a work by Chopin, for instance,
scarcely does justice to Chopin's stylistic modernity
(although it may provide a starting-point for criticism along
these lines, by providing a historical context for the piece
in question); nor was Schenker especially sensitive to
interpretational ambiguity. 35 Joseph Kerman has put the point
with characteristic trenchancy:
In the service of his idealistic vision, Schenker was
ready to strip away not only salient details of
individual compositions, but also distinctions between
compositions, composers and periods ... the most
baffling and irritating aspect of Schenker's thinking is
his view of music history as an absolutely flat plateau
flanked by bottomless chasms. All this makes him a very
difficult figure for the historian or the critic to get
much out of.
(Kerman 1985: 85).
The sixteenth century does not constitute a 'flat plateau'
any more than the period of major/minor tonality that forms
the domain of Schenker's method: indeed, much of the present
403
6. Vox tenorizans usually
carried by tenor
study has been devoted to pinpointing the precise stylistic
differences between the earlier and later styles analysed
here. Some stylistic differences may be briefly summarized:
c. 1500-1520

c.1580-1600
eg. JOSQUIN

eg. GESUALDO, LASStJS

1.
2.
3.
Bass as optional support
for two-part model
Plurality of semi-open
and closed types
Diatonic middleground
and foreground
V-I in bass becomes
cadential determinant
Prevalence of closed
type
Diatonic iuiddleground;
diatonic or chromatic
foreground
4. Cantus prius factus as

Cantus firmus
a precompositional donnee

obsolescent
5. 'Cumulative' teleology
(eg. bass I-III-I-IV-I-V-I)
'Syntactical' teleology
with composed-out
bass arpeggiations
(eg. bass I-Ill-V-I)
Vox tenorizans
(Urlinie) tends to lie
in upper voice
Yet I would contend that the concept of a background is an
essential prerequisite for a general history of style-change;
however diverse the styles may be at the two extremes of the
404
period, they share common principles of cadential behaviour
(the historical background). Perhaps ironically, it is only
through the application of this generalized model that such
stylistic distinctions can be adequately expressed; for
instance, of the six stylistic generalizations offered above,
five are couched in theoretical terms pertaining to the
background and iniddleground.
In a repertory where the conventional lexicon of common-
practice tonality is largely inapplicable ('tonic' and
'dominant', for instance, carry implications of relative
stability and instability that this music does not
necessarily possess), and where modal terminology is based on
the shifting foundations of a plurality of contemporary
viewpoints, the present system offers a new lexicon founded
on the concept of structural type: a vocabulary designed to
deal with long-range events within a theoretical framework
provided by sixteenth-century thought.
Theoretical treatises of the time espouse concepts of
structural coherence which, unlike the nineteenth-century
notion of organische Zusammenhang, do not necessarily demand
the presence of an all-controlling, unifying force (as
exemplified either by the Chord of Nature or by the
dialectical system of major and minor triads proposed by
Riemann); rather, they tend towards a rhetorically-defined
405
view of coherence, in which the parts are related to the
whole as sections within a well-organized speech. Theorists
of the time recognise structural hierarchies of different
kinds: hierarchies of cadence-pitches within each mode
(Zarlino 1558) as well as varying degrees of cadential
conclusiveness (Dressler 1563). In addition, contemporary
theory embraces a view of large-scale structure that is
essentially teleological (as evinced by Zarlino's remark that
'everything is rightly judged by or in its end'): a view
borne out by the observation of rhetorical strategies in
Josquin's motets (above, chapter 3) and of comparable devices
in later repertories. The approach pursued here is,
accordingly, both hierarchical and teleological: local
cadences are subordinated to final ones, and structural types
are determined retrospectively after a work's conclusion.
The work of post-Schenkerian analysts has, in recent
years, been especially valuable in addressing with a new
analytical rigour such issues as large-scale teleology and
structural hierarchy in a repertory that had previously been
the domain of historical musicology and of analysis of a
fairly unsystematic kind. Yet, as the foregoing critiques of
Mitchell and Bergquist have sought to establish, the
analytical rigour of post-Schenkerian approaches has rarely
been adequately buttressed by historical or theoretical
406
rigour: either the analyses were reductionistic, or else they
pursued a methodology that proceeded from an anachronistic
structural model. 36 In addition, there has been little
attempt by post-Schenkerian scholars (in the field of early
music) to engage with Schenker's principal assertion that the
Ursatz was inapplicable to this repertory. The Ursatz, after
all, presupposes certain voice-leading norms as the most
generalized defining features of the major/minor tonal style:
of these, the rules of strict counterpoint, the principle of
diminution and the teleological drive towards a goal are all
applicable as much to sixteenth-century reperories as to
those of major/minor tonal practice. Other underlying norms
implied by the Ursatz, however, are stylistically
inappropriate to Renaissance music: the stratification of
upper and lower voices within a texture; the role of the bass
as generator of inner voices through thoroughbass
realization; the concept of a single controlling triad.
The models proposed in this study are emphatically not
Urstze of any kind. Indeed, the terminology of Schenker's
system retains a basic distinction (sadly somewhat blurred in
the recent literature) between Ursatz, the unfolded triad
postulated as the Ions et origo of all tonal music from Bach
to Brahms, and Hintergrund, the conceptual level which it
occupies. In sixteenth-century polyphony, the background
407
level is occupied not by an Ursatz but by a plurality of
different models of three distinct types. The present theory
proposes no natural or universal basis for these models (as
Schenker proposed for the Tjrsatz); rather, the theoretical
models are culturally determined, rooted in the evolution of
stylistic archetypes rather than in any generalized,
transcendent 'laws', whether acoustic or cognitive.
The models themselves have their roots in the empirical
observation of actual repertories, rather than in any slavish
adherence to the work of any particular contemporary
theorist; however, contemporaneous theories of cadence are of
value not only as a source of analytical terminology (y
tenorizans, and so on) which might legitimately replace both
the anachronistic lexicon of major/minor tonal theory, but as
a reflection of contemporaneous modes of perception, in which
cadential behaviour is conceived intervallically, rather than
triadically.
In the first instance, the application of the models
serves a useful pragmatic purpose in explaining pieces that
are simply inaccessible through simple Schenkerian analysis:
in particular, Phrygian (mi-type) pieces, semi-open pieces
and those which lack a bass V-I at their closures. The use
of the historically-grounded models may not only elucidate
the internal coherence of pieces (through motivic
408
correspondences, symmetrical
, iniddleground
composings-out and the like), but may even facilitate a
comparison of pieces and of whole repertories. By
substituting a pluralistic model for the inflexible Ursatz of
the Schenkerian system, it may be possible to combine
analytical rigour with historical accountability, and
ultimately to forge a closer link between theory, analysis,
and the history of musical style. This study offers one
possible starting-point for such an enterprise.
409
Notes to Chapter 8.
1. See, for instance, Meier 1988: 92.
2. Vicentino 1555; for a fuller discussion of
Vicentino's modernist position, see Haar 1977: 391-3.
The three genera are outlined systematically in
Zarlino 1558: 280-1.
3. Zarlino 1558: 283.
4. Above, pp.16 ff.
5. Treitler 1978, passim; Kerman 1985: 85.
6. Schenker 1973: 139.
7. Haar 1977. This article, despite its exclusive focus on
the foreground, is ground-breaking in its codification of
chromatic categories. Haar in fact proposes five
categories, three of which have deeper-level
ramifications and are given here as Types 1, 2 and 3; the
other two are specific foreground examples arising from
bass progressions such as V-IV and V-VI-V.
8. Haar 1977: 417.
9. In particular, Dahihaus 1967.
10. Above, p.206.
11. Absalon f iii ml (Werken, Supplement iv), cited in Haar
1977.
12. Lowinsky 1956. Much of the article is devoted to a
410
critique of a much earlier article (Levitan 1938) that
presented the piece as a duo with the title 'Quidnam
ebrietas'.
13. For a fuller discussion of the somewhat illogical concept
of the piece-specific background, see above, p.21-23.
14. Chafe 1991; also Chafe 1992: 258ff.
15. 'Do not wait until I have perhaps reached my last year,
my days past more swiftly than an arrow
through misery and pain
and only death awaits me.'
16. 'End my sorrow
to your honour and my salvation.'
17. Durus/mollis shifts can occur in any mode and in any
structural type, but these correspond to a mixture of the
third degree (the major/minor shift) only where the
cadence pitch is G (or C in transposition). These
madrigals are a fairly early example of the symbolic use
of the major/minor dialectic. In earlier repertories it
is the Phrygian semitone (F-E) that is associated with
mourning (as in Josquin's Miserere); the minor third
above the cadence-pitch in itself carried no particular
affective significance. Yet this prophetic example
certainly calls into question Chafe's assertion (1992:
239) that the allegorical significance of major/minor
411
dualism originates in Monteverdi.
18. Above,
pp.
76-7.
19. The concept of implication and realization is borrowed
here as a subjective post-analytical resource, rather
than as a foundation for a theory of perception (as in
Narmour 1977, a work which tends to underestimate the
role of stylistic generalities and archetypes in melodic
perception).
20. See above, pp.251-5, especially the music example on
p.252.
21. Moro lasso al mio duolo. Libro sesto dei madri gal j . 1611.
(Smtliche Werke Carlo Gesuald ps, vol.6: 74).
22. An interesting attempt to decipher the chromaticism of
this madrigal through principles of solmization was
offered by Lionel Pike in a paper (unpublished) given at
RHBNC, January 1992; this entailed a change of hexachord
for almost every note.
23. Bianconi 1980: 324.
24. For example, Dahlhaus 1974.
25. The term originally used by Harold Bloom and recently
appropriated in Kevin Korsyn's work on influence in
Brahms (Korsyn 1991).
26. Dahlhaus 1967.
27. Meyer 1973. For an argument for archetypes as defining
412
limits within which style-change is effected, see also
Meyer 1980.
28. '[She] who is able to give me life'.
29. This is consistent with Meyer's theory, in which not all
implications need to be realized (by contrast with the
deterministic system of Schenker); here the symbolic
import of the unresolved voice-leading is obvious.
30. Above, p.140.
31. Above, p.116.
32. Above, p.91.
33. Powers 1981; discussed above, pp.163 ff.
34. The differences between the 'Phrygian'
(nj)
type and the
Phrygian mode are discussed above,
pp.
263-6; an analysis
of a nj-type piece appears above,
pp.
287-300.
35. Schenker's reading of the first song of Schumann's
Dichterliebe (Schenker 1979, fig.110 c) is a particularly
insensitive example, paying no attention to the A major!
F sharp minor ambiguity of the song, let alone its
Phrygian resonances.
36. On Mitchell: above,
pp.
33-5; 351-6.
On Bergquist: above,
pp.
270-7.
413
TABLE OF MUSIC EXAMPLES
Ex.
1:1. Tonal analysis of the prologue to Lassus:
Prophetiae Sibyllarum, after William Mitchell.
1:2. Closure of the Lassus prologue (bb.20-25).
1:3. Schenker's models of first-level arpeggiation
through the third degree in the bass, with
implicit vox cantizans in the inner voice.
1:4.
Palestrina: Magnificat Ouinti Toni (Liber Primus).
1:5. Magnificat Ouinti Toni: A minor reading.
1:6. Magnificat Ouinti Toni: F major reading.
1:7. Magnificat Ouinti Toni: incipit.
2:1. Miserere meL Deus: ending of terti p pars.
2:2. Miserere meL Deus: incipit.
2:3. '0 Mirtillo': opening and closure.
2:4. Two-part cadential models in simplest form.
2:5. Modern and older forms of cadence with added y
basizans.
2:6. Cadences as a manifestation of the rule of thirds
and sixths.
2:7. Cadential models in Montanos: Arte de Musica.
2:8. Four-part treatment of a clausula remissa.
2:9. Possible analytical interpretations of a disjunct
or bidirectional vox tenorizans.
3:1-5. Possible models in the case of a descent from
3:6. Processes of diminution in the cadence of the
Lassus prologue (above, p.35).
Page
34
36
38
42
43
43
44
66
67
70
84
85
87
87
88
95
108
112
414
3:7. Josquin: Virgo salutiferi: endings of the three

117
partes.
3:8. Virgo salutiferi: middleground analysis showing

118
post-cadential deflections.
3:9. Victimae paschali laudes: ending of prima pars.

125
:
3:10. Victimae paschali laudes: prima pars,

133
middleground.
3:11. Middleground bass supports in Victimae paschali.

135
3:12. Typical support for tonicized in major/minor

135
tonal systems, after Schenker 1979, fig.16, lb.
3:13. Typical bass motions in major/minor tonal systems 135
in the case of 4 supported by IV, after Schenker
1979, fig.l6, 5.
4:1. Schenker's g -iine: implicit intermediate levels. 155
4:2. a) Vergine bella: final cadence on A with post-
cadential prolongation.
b) Vergine bella: incipit showing pre-cadential
prolongation.
4:3. a) Miserere inei: closure of tertia pars.
b) Miserere mel: opening of tertia pars.
4:4. Comparative analysis of a phrase from Josquin's
motet Memor esto verbi tui.
4:5. Reciting-pitches and intonations for each psalm
tone as paraphrased in Palestrina's Magnificats.
4:6. Relation of head-note to reciting-note in
Palestrina's Magnificats, Liber Primus (first and
second tones).
A
4:7. Theoretical descents from 5.
4:8. Victoria: 'Aestimatus sum' (Tenebrae responsoria
for Holy Saturday).
4:9. A composite 8-line and an alternative reading as a
descent from .
166
167
168
169
174
179
180
182
184
185
415
4:10. Palestrina: Magnificat Octavi Toni: semi-open 189
background generated by reciting-note and finalis.
4:11. Magnificat Ouinti Toni (semi-open model).191
4:12. Hypothetical forms with asymmetrical cantizans.
194
4:13. Open structural types.
196
4:14. Thomas Oldfield: Praeludium (The Fitzwilliam 198
Virginal Book, vol.1, no.49).
4:15. Oldfield: Praeludium. Levelled analysis showing 199
absence of cadential background (hence
'Praeludium').
4:16. Summary of closed types.205
4:17. a) Semi-open types with symmetrical cantizans.206
b) Semi-open types with asymmetrical cantizans.207
4:18. Summary of open types.208
5:1. Josquin des Prez: Domine. non secundum peccata,230
secunda pars.
5:2. Domine. non secundum peccata. Reading of secunda 231
pars in context of surrounding partes.
5:3. Domine. non secundum peccata: gradual, verse 2.232
5:4. Vergine bella: semi-open background model.236
5:5. Vergiie bella: semi-open reading with descent 237
from .
5:6. Vergine bella: bars 25-30.
239
5:7. Vergine bella: bars 83-88.
240
5:8. Vergine bella: bars 86-115.
241
5:9. Vergine saggia: bars 75-86.
245
5:10. Vergine. quante lagrinie: bars 140-50
246
5:11. Internal clausula in mi on A, bars 15-22.249
416
5:12. Symmetrical structuring in 'Vergine' madrigals

252
1 and 2.
5:13. 'Vergine' madrigals 1 and 2 as a single closed

253
type with interruption.
6:1. The clausula in ml in simple two-voice forms.

265
6:2. Post-Schenkerian treatment of the clausula in

274
j: Peter Bergquist's reading of an Agricola
chanson.
6:3. Four-part models of the clausula in mi.

279
6:4. Palestrina, Of fertorium 10: closure.

282
6:5. A deep middleground reading of Of fertorium 10.

284
6:6. Alternative hierarchies at the background level.

285
6:7. Missa Sanctorum meritis: Christe.

290
6:8. Kyrie II: closure.

291
6:9. Credo: closure.

292
6:10. Gloria: closure.

293
6:11. Agnus Dei III: five-part closure.

294
6:12. Crucifixus: internal closure.

298
6:13. Pleni sunt coeli: internal closure.

299
6:14. Connections between sections in the Kyrie of 303
Victoria's Missa guarti toni (1592).
6:15. Schematic model.303
7:1. Victimae paschali laudes (precomposed melody I). 318
7:2. D'ung aultre amer (precomposed melody II).318
7:3. Taverner: Missa Gloria tibi trinitas, chant melody. 319
7:4. Missa Gloria tibi trinitas: Gloria, bars 103-110. 320
417
7:5. Missa Gloria tibi trinitas: Gloria, bars 184-199. 322
7:6. Middleground reading of above.
325
7:7. Missa Gloria tibi trinitas: 'Quoniam tu solus'. 326
7:8. Ecce sacerdos magnus: chant.
331
7:9. Hypothetical use of chant as expanded tenorizans, 331
showing prolongation of fourth degree.
7:10. Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus: Kyrie I.336
7:11. Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus: Christe.337
7:12. Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus: Kyrie.338
7:13. Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus: Credo, bars 94-101.340
7:14. Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus: Credo.343
[Music example to n.51
348
8:1. Prologue to Prophetiae Sibyllarum (bars 1-8),
353
with middleground reading, after Mitchell 1970.
8:2. Hypothetical (anachronistic) realization of above 354
with implicit 6/5 sonority.
8:3. Lassus's prologue de-chromaticized (after 357
Haar 1977).
8:4. Voice-leading interpretation of above.358
8:5. Prologue, bars 13-18.360
8:6. Bars 12-18 as a conflation of two chromatic types. 361
8:7. quid non ebrietas as a descent from .368
8:8. quid non ebrietas: bars 25-28.369
8:9. quid non ebrietas as a pair of descents from .371
8:10. semi-open model with head-note L 371
8:11. quid non ebrietas: background to middleground. 374
418
8:12. Bars 1-10: middleground to foreground.376
8:13. Bars 11-30: foreground showing integration of 377
chromatic tenor into diatonic background model.
8:14. Bars 31-40: foreground.

378
8:15. Vergine. quante lagrime: closure.384
8:16. Vergine. tale e terra: iniddleground.385
8:17.a) Hypothetical background with descent from 7. , 392
b) Background as closed type with descent from 5.393
8:18. Moro lasso: middleground showing gap-fill process. 394
8:19. Moro lasso: closure.

397
419
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abbreviations
IIQ
zTh
JAMS
MA
TVNM
In Theory Only
Indiana Theory Review
Journal of the American Musicological Society
Journal of Musicology
Journal of Music Theory
Music Analysis
Musical quarterly
Music Theory Spectrum
Tiidschrift van der vereeniging der Nederlandse
muziekgeschiedenis
ALDRICH, Putnam, 1969: 'An Approach to the Analysis of
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\
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