Although Magdeburg cantor Heinrich Grimm was frequently listed among prominent musical figures of the early seventeenth century such as Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein, and Michael Praetorius in music lexica through the nineteenth century, he has almost disappeared from modern scholarship. However, a resurgence in Grimm studies has begun in recent years, especially in the areas of biographical study and compositional output. In this study, I examine the yet unexplored music-analytic perspective by investigating the stylistic characteristics of Grimm's 1631 motet, Unser Leben wehret siebenzig Jahr'. Furthermore, I compare his compositional technique to that of his contemporaries and predecessors with the goal of examining the work from both Renaissance and Baroque perspectives.

Though cadences have long been recognized as an aspect of modality, Gallus Dressler's treatise Praecepta musicae poeticae (1563) offers a new understanding of their relationship to mode and structure. Dressler's comments suggest that the cadences in the exordium and at articulations of the text are "principal" to the mode, shaping the tonal structure of the work. First, it is necessary to determine which cadences indicate which modes. A survey of sixteenth-century theorists uncovered a striking difference between Pietro Aron and his followers and many lesser-known theorists, including Dressier. The latter held that the repercussae of each mode were "principal cadences," contrary to Aron's expansive lists. Dressler's syntactical theory of cadence usage was tested by examining seventeen motets by Dressler and seventy-two motets by various early sixteenth-century composers. In approximately three-fourths of the motets in each group, cadences appeared on only two different pitches (with only infrequent exceptions) in their exordia and at text articulations. These pairs are the principal cadences of Dressler's list, and identify the mode of the motets. Observations and conclusions are offered regarding the ambiguities of individual modes, and the cadence-tone usage of individual composers.

Title from accompanying document. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Although there is a marked increase in the number of surviving motets from the early sixteenth century, the context in which they were performed remains a mystery. The first five printed anthologies of motets, published by Petrucci in Venice between 1502 and 1508, include a significant proportion of Marian motets (95 of the 174 pieces). In the first chapter I provide evidence that these polyphonic Marian motets were used in the Venetian confraternities, or "scuole." The second chapter draws connections between the musical needs of the scuole and the Marian text types of the motet anthologies. The final chapter looks at settings of the most common devotional prayer of the early sixteenth century, the Ave Maria. This thesis thus proposes a new context---the Venetian scuole---for the consumption of printed motet books and the performance of motets, with a special emphasis on their role in lay Marian devotions.

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v.1. Text (246 leaves) -- v.2. Figures and musical examples (145 leaves) / William Byrd's motets with Latin text are a little-known contribution to the sacred vocal repertoire. Most important among these works are three books of Cantiones Sacrae, published 1575, 1589 and 1591, respectively. The 1589 Cantiones Sacrae was Byrd's first harvest from a backlog of motets that had been accumulating since 1575. This collection lies at a midpoint between Byrd's earliest published works and his full maturity, as seen in the Masses of 1592--95. / This study will describe the contrapuntal strategies that characterize Byrd's 1589 Cantiones. I will examine Byrd's deeper-level tonal organization and its derivation from cantus firmus technique. I will show how Byrd uses musical material in cantus firmus values (the breve and semibreve) to shape his subject material and his cadence points, and how this shaping plays out over the course of an imitative point. / I will then examine Byrd's introductory gestures in the 1589 Cantiones, identifying 24 presentation types that characterize different degrees of beginning. These types contain one or more melodic subjects in a recurring temporal relationship, and form a vertical interval pattern or harmonic motive. Next, I will discuss Byrd's variation techniques by which he develops these presentation types: textural change, transposition, melodic inversion and invertible counterpoint. Byrd's presentation and variation of subject material divides an imitative point into distinct phases of tonal and contrapuntal activity, providing insight into its overall form and tonal design. / Finally, I will apply these analytical tools to a complete analysis of Tristitia et anxietas, from the 1589 Cantiones, thereby showing how Byrd establishes central pitches in the middleground. Through this analysis, I will summarize Byrd's contrapuntal strategies, both long-range and local, that typify his middle-period sacred vocal style, as viewed through the lens of the 1589 Cantiones Sacrae.

Diss.--Urbana-Champaign, Ill., 1993. / Bibliogr. p. 189-201. Index.

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v.1. Text (246 leaves) -- v.2. Figures and musical examples (145 leaves)