(Stand: 25. Juli 2007) ANDERSON, Michael Alan ... - Universität Wien

MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE MUSIC CONFERENCE 2007 – WIEN, 7.-11. AUGUST ABSTRACTS
VAN BERCHUM, Marnix (Utrecht University)
Fortune, mercy & death – two masses of Jachet Berchem
Freitag/Friday, 10.8., 16.30 Uhr, MuWi, HS 1
In total four masses have in one or more sources an attribution to Jachet Berchem. Two of
these masses are also attributed to Jachet of Mantua, with three books of masses and three
books of motets the more ‘sacred’ composer of the two Doppelmeister. The other two
masses have an unproblematic attribution to Berchem: the Missa Mort et fortune (a4) and
the Missa Mort et merci (a5). Both masses were first published by the printers Gardano and
Scotto in the 1540s (the decade in which Berchem probably resided a few years in Venice)
and have other prints and several later manuscripts as concordant sources. The two
masses use the chansons Mort et fortune of Nicolas Gombert (first printed in 1538 by Moderne)
and Mort ou merci of Adrian Willaert (first printed in 1560 by Le Roy & Ballard) as
their models. Remarkable is that the models used by Berchem both start with the word
‘mort’.
In this paper I will focus on these two masses, their sources and the way Berchem
treats the models. I hope to shed some light on possible extramusical relations between the
two masses and the two chansons on which they are based.
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VAN DAMME, Simon (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Quasi una taciturnità – The theoretical silence and practical salience of dissonance
Samstag/Saturday, 11.8., 11.15 Uhr, KuGe, SR 3
In his letters, the Italian theorist and composer Giovanni Spataro defends his own compositions
against contrapuntal errors, pointed out by his colleague Pietro Aaron. Several
times, he argues that certain dissonances are allowed because they are simply not perceived
by the ear. This is the case when a dissonant interval occurs not on the beginning
of a note but only in the middle of it (as with figurations over a sustained note or as with
syncopation). He refers explicitly to the writings of Gaffurius who stated that there are
some kind of „taciturnitates“ between the „percussiones“ of the notes to distinguish them
from the other notes (De harmonia instrumentorum opus, 1518, I-2). Even if some applications
of this theory show clear contrapuntal shortcomings, Spataro uses it as an argument in his
letters, underpinning his practical work with the authority of speculative theory.
Interestingly enough the concept of „silence between the notes“ appears in at least
two major sixteenth-century treatises. Glareanus mentions briefly that the dissonant interval
of a whole tone is not heard in a syncopated formula (as in a regular cadence, Dodecachordon,
1547, I-9). More extensively, Zarlino explains that the only dissonances allowed
on the first beat of the measure are suspensions, using the same words „taciturnità“ and
„percussione“ but without crediting Gaffurius (Le istitutioni harmoniche, 1558, III-42).
This idea of silence contrasts with the legato style, heard in performances of Renaissance
music nowadays. Starting from this remarkable contradiction between the theoretical
subtleties and the actual aural image of the polyphonic texture, this paper will consider
how aspects of sound quality and the idea of melodic movement are treated in Renaissance
music theory and how this relates to the authority of the musician’s ear.
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