Johann Walter's two songs for seven voices, from Volume V of his collected works, present what seems to be a confused assemblage: three texts sounded simultaneously in a hierarchical structure of musical parts, at the centre of which is the technical feat of an ex unica canon for four voices. Viewing these pieces as part of the larger world of sixteenth-century vocal music, it seems that the normative procedures of musical composition and textual exposition have been turned inside-out, with startling results. One of the two, the setting of the Vulgate Psalm 119 (118), was performed publicly at the inaugural service of Hartenfels Chapel on Oct. 5, 1544, in the presence of such dignitaries as the reformer Martin Luther and the Saxon Elector, Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous. Texts in praise of these two, and Luther's associate, Philip Melanchthon, are worked into this composition, which was printed by the Lutheran printer Georg Rhau in 1544. The purpose of this thesis is to explain these two works in the context of Walter's own creative vision. The seven-part songs seem to be a bizarre experiment; seen from the viewpoint of the composer's life, which was dedicated to religious expression in music and poetry, they are a natural outgrowth of Christian and Classical traditions in verse, as well as music. The songs are approached from the perspective of Walter's life, and from his works. The initial chapters are primarily biographical, tracing Walter's background and his participation in the events of his own day. The third chapter discusses the putative influences on these songs, and compares them with the available manuscript and print sources which Walter can have had at hand. The description of this material reveals that symbolic relationships were often the genesis of contrapuntal procedures: musical representation in sources with which Walter was familiar included exemplars of the 'Trinitas in Unitate' construction of three-voice canons. Works such as these in Walter's background indicate a more subtle kind of influence at work on the intent of these songs. In addition to the musical influences that Walter drew upon in writing these works, there is also the influence of the revival of learning, and resurrection of the literature of the ancient world, in the presence of the use of Horatian meters and idioms. The relation of Medieval scriptural exegesis is an influence as well, for in these songs, Walter introduces the interpretive approaches to Biblical poetry and constructs the music as an analogue to them. The mirroring of the Medieval exegetical tool of the quadriga in the four-part canon within the musical whole is an example of Walter's desire to achieve a complete artistic synthesis of words and music, a phenomenon which informs his poems on music and its relation to theology. The final chapters treat this ideal, in reference to the songs themselves. The elements of the music are discussed at the end, and the symbolic aspects of the texts and music are detailed. These two songs raise a question. While the setting of Ps. 121 (120), which was not published, seems to provide a model for a composition that involves a synthesis of Biblical and Classical poetic traditions, in an innovative form involving Rennaisance contrapuntal approaches, the publicly-performed sister composition, based on Ps. 119, lacks this total integration of text and interpretive association of meaning through music.

Johann Walter's two songs for seven voices, from Volume V of his collected works, present what seems to be a confused assemblage: three texts sounded simultaneously in a hierarchical structure of musical parts, at the centre of which is the technical feat of an ex unica canon for four voices. Viewing these pieces as part of the larger world of sixteenth-century vocal music, it seems that the normative procedures of musical composition and textual exposition have been turned inside-out, with startling results. One of the two, the setting of the Vulgate Psalm 119 (118), was performed publicly at the inaugural service of Hartenfels Chapel on Oct. 5, 1544, in the presence of such dignitaries as the reformer Martin Luther and the Saxon Elector, Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous. Texts in praise of these two, and Luther's associate, Philip Melanchthon, are worked into this composition, which was printed by the Lutheran printer Georg Rhau in 1544. The purpose of this thesis is to explain these two works in the context of Walter's own creative vision. The seven-part songs seem to be a bizarre experiment; seen from the viewpoint of the composer's life, which was dedicated to religious expression in music and poetry, they are a natural outgrowth of Christian and Classical traditions in verse, as well as music. The songs are approached from the perspective of Walter's life, and from his works. The initial chapters are primarily biographical, tracing Walter's background and his participation in the events of his own day. The third chapter discusses the putative influences on these songs, and compares them with the available manuscript and print sources which Walter can have had at hand. The description of this material reveals that symbolic relationships were often the genesis of contrapuntal procedures: musical representation in sources with which Walter was familiar included exemplars of the 'Trinitas in Unitate' construction of three-voice canons. Works such as these in Walter's background indicate a more subtle kind of influence at work on the intent of these songs. In addition to the musical influences that Walter drew upon in writing these works, there is also the influence of the revival of learning, and resurrection of the literature of the ancient world, in the presence of the use of Horatian meters and idioms. The relation of Medieval scriptural exegesis is an influence as well, for in these songs, Walter introduces the interpretive approaches to Biblical poetry and constructs the music as an analogue to them. The mirroring of the Medieval exegetical tool of the quadriga in the four-part canon within the musical whole is an example of Walter's desire to achieve a complete artistic synthesis of words and music, a phenomenon which informs his poems on music and its relation to theology. The final chapters treat this ideal, in reference to the songs themselves. The elements of the music are discussed at the end, and the symbolic aspects of the texts and music are detailed. These two songs raise a question. While the setting of Ps. 121 (120), which was not published, seems to provide a model for a composition that involves a synthesis of Biblical and Classical poetic traditions, in an innovative form involving Rennaisance contrapuntal approaches, the publicly-performed sister composition, based on Ps. 119, lacks this total integration of text and interpretive association of meaning through music. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

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.

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

By considering sixteenth-century English chorister training, modern singers of Renaissance vocal music are informed of the practical and academic demands unique to Elizabethan musicians and audiences. Clauses in relevant choirmaster contracts provide an insight into pedagogical expectations of teachers and their choristers. Studies included plainchant, grammar, Latin, rhetoric, improvisation, poetry, morality, instrumental instruction on organ and viols, and composition. For those not associated with cathedrals and collegiate chapels, Thomas Morley outlined the educational sequence of his teacher's generation in his 1597 publication, "A plaine and easie introduction to practicall musicke." Morley presented education as discourse between students and teacher, and covered the fundamentals of singing, improvisation, and composition. With the digitization of and online access to Renaissance performing sources, present-day performers can readily examine the design of sixteenth-century manuscript and printed partbooks. Performance practice recommendations can be gleaned from the physical nature of the music that once equipped the Renaissance chorister with the visual means necessary for expression. Combined with principles of chorister training, this project suggests learned choices in pronunciation, tone, intonation, phrasing, pitch, text underlay, musica ficta, rhetoric, and expression for the prima pars of William Byrd's middle period motet, "Tristitia et anxietas." With the digitization of and online access to Renaissance performing sources, present-day performers can readily examine the design of sixteenth-century manuscript and printed partbooks. Performance practice recommendations can be gleaned from the physical nature of the music that once equipped the Renaissance chorister with the visual means necessary for expression. Combined with principles of chorister training, this project suggests learned choices in pronunciation, tone, intonation, phrasing, pitch, text underlay, musica ficta, rhetoric, and expression for the prima pars of William Byrd's middle period motet, "Tristitia et anxietas."