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Studies in Analysis and History of Theory: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesAuthor(s): Benito V. RiveraSource: Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 11, No. 1, Special Issue: The Society for Music Theory:The First Decade (Spring, 1989), pp. 24-28Published by: on behalf of the Society for Music Theory

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S t u d i e s

in

nalysis

a n d

H i s t o r y

o

T h e o r y

h e

Sixteenth

a n d

eventeenth

Centuries

BenitoV. Rivera

The

originally

assigned

title of

this

report,

The

State

of Re-

search in

Sixteenth- and

Seventeenth-Century

Music

Theory,

has a

deceptively

smooth and continuous

flow. In

reality,

a

drastic contrast

splits

the

subject

into two

highly

distinct areas

of focus: the

vocal

counterpoint

and

modal

procedures

of

the

sixteenth

century

against

the

figured

bass and

emerging

tonal

harmony

of

the

seventeenth.

Accordingly, many

scholars draw

a sharp dividing line, and in their

specialized

studies

they

choose one side to

the exclusion of

the other. A

separate

assess-

ment of each of

these

fields

of

research

is therefore in order.

Having just

made that

division,

we

should at

the same time

recognize

a

merging

at

a different

point.

Sixteenth-century

the-

ory

is

so

closely

linked with

that

of

the mid-

and late fifteenth

that we will

do well to

treat these

as

one,

under the

heading

of

Renaissance

theory.

The constant

stream of

publications

re-

lated to this

field and

the

lively

controversies that these

publica-

tions have generated assure us that work here is healthy and

thriving.

It

is also

gratifying

to note that

although

this terrain

is

frequented

mainly

by

musicologists

who are not

active

mem-

bers of

our

Society,

a

growing

number

of active

members do

research in

the same

area and

signal

the

Society's

firm

commit-

ment to the

undertaking.

One foresees

that as

theoretical trea-

tises become

more available and

familiar

in

English

translation,

and as

the

weight

of

activity

shifts from

paleographical

and

edi-

torial work to

concentrated

analysis

of the

music,

more

theo-

rists

will find the Renaissance a

challenging

and

congenial

field

to

explore.

A

degree

of

competence

in

foreign languages

and

early

notation will of course

continue to be a

requisite.

Modern

translations and

editions

require

vigilant

appraisal,

and since

the

music often

represents

in a

very

real sense the

composer's

own

analysis

of the

underlying

text,

the modern

analyst's grasp

of the

language

of the text is crucial.

The

burning

issues that have

been

occupying

scholars

of

Renaissance

theory may

be summed

up

in three

interrelated

questions:

To what extent can

we

rely

on

early

theoretical trea-

tises to teach us about

the structural

design

of Renaissance

mu-

sic? How

profitably

can modern

systems

of

analysis

be

applied

to

early

music? What

real influence did modal

theory

bring

to

bear on the actual

practice

of musical

composition?

Studies on mode in

Renaissance

polyphony

have

com-

manded considerable attention during the past two and a half

decades.

Subsequent

to

the

appearance

of Bernhard

Meier's

book in

1974,

a

general feeling

arose that we were

finally

com-

ing

to

grips

with the

perplexingly

unfamiliar

pitch

organization

of

early

music.

After

studying

many

theoretical treatises and

examining

an

impressively

vast musical

repertory,

Meier

pro-

posed

a

systematic

method of

correlating

mode with

the

ambi-

tus of individual

voices,

cadence

deployment,

pentachord

and

This content downloaded from 76.79.81.114 on Thu, 22 May 2014 11:23:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions






Studies n

Analysis

and

History

f

Theory:

ixteenth nd

SeventeenthCenturies 25

tetrachord

structure,

melodic

reciting

tone,

and text

expres-

sion. But while his contributionwillsurelyhave a lastingeffect

on

future

research,

a

serious

challenge

to

the

very

idea of mode

as

a

prescriptivecompositional

norm has

recently

been

raised

in a series of articles and a

paper by

Harold

Powers.

Arguing

that

early

theorists

writing

on mode

were more concerned

with

modal classification han with actual

compositional

procedure,

or

that

they

were

voicing

what

they thought ought

to

be

done

rather than

testifying

to what

actually

was

done,

Powers

is in

effect

advocating

a

freer,

modally

unbiased

approach

to the

music. Just what direction this approachwill eventuallytake

still remains

unknown.

The

question regarding

he

place

of

harmony

n

Renaissance

music

continues

to

be

debated,

and the recent

provocative

ar-

ticle

by

Bonnie Blackburn

On Compositional

Process

in the

Fifteenth

Century )

will

soon without doubt run

a

gauntlet

of

rebuttals

from

some

dissenting specialists.

Blackburn

goes

so

far as to

attributesome sort of functional

harmony

o

fifteenth-

century

music,

an idea

that has

often

been branded

ana-

chronisticby many theory historians. What is remarkable s

that she cites the

testimony

of

the

fifteenth-century

heorists

themselves to

support

her contention.

This leads us to

the

question

of whether

early

treatises

can

provide

accurate clues

regarding

he structureof

early

music.

There

are those who contend that

the treatises were

designed

for

beginners

or

at best for

students

still in

their

formative

years;

hence such

teaching

cannot

apply

to music

composed by

professionals.

On

the other hand

there are those who

insist

that

the treatisesdo reveal a basicconceptionof the music, shared

by

students and

professionals

alike;

scholarsof

this

persuasion

painstakingly

omb

every

chapter-indeed every

sentence-to

find

guidance

for

their

musical

analyses.

This

disparity

of atti-

tude

needs to

be aired

more

in

professional

meetings. Sorely

needed are

studies

that

will

clarify

for whom

specific

treatises

were

written and

how

they

were

actually

used.

We

must

try

to

trace the

ways

in

which

Renaissance

professionalcomposers

actually

earned their

craft,

as

suggestedby

HowardM.

Brown

inhisarticle, Emulation,Competition,andHommage:Imita-

tion and Theories of Imitation n the Renaissance.

All

these

questions

can of course also be asked with

regard

to

seventeenth-century

music

and music

theory.

What

distin-

guishes

the

present

state of research

n

the seventeenth

century

is that the

specialists

have

hardly

touched those

important

questions

at all.

Indeed,

the lack of

controversy

n this area

can

be

viewed

as

a

symptom.

There seems to be a

general

consen-

sus

that

seventeenth-century

pitch

structure s neither

fully

mo-

dal norfullytonal.Attemptsto define the specificelementsthat

constitutethatmiddle

ground

have so far been

negligible.

Nor

have

enough

studies been made

to

correlate

seventeenth-

century

theory

with

seventeenth-centurycompositional

prac-

tice. One reason

may

be the

intimidatingplurality

of

styles,

forms,

and

genres

in

seventeenth-century

music,

not to men-

tionthe

plurality

of

national

diosyncrasies.

n

fact,

the work of

most

researchers

n

this

period

has been concentratedon

defin-

ing

those

various

stylistic

areas. But from the theorist's stand-

point, we still do not know whichtreatises would applyto the

music

of

Corelli,

or

which would

apply

to that of Buxtehude.

The recent

studies

by

Wilhelm Seidel and

Barry Cooper

on

Frenchand

English

music

theory

present

a valuablebroad

per-

spective

of

the

early

theoretical iterature

originating

rom the

two

countries. Given that broad

perspective,

researchers

shouldnow

return o the individual

reatises

and

nterpret

hem

critically

n

light

of the

contemporary

music. In like

manner,

Joel

Lester's

findings

on modal

theory

in

Germanyprovide

the

groundwork or follow-up investigationsof the ways in which

this

theory

was

actually

put

into

practice.

This

task

s not

as

easy

as

it

may

sound. For how

can we

get

a handle on the

waning

modal

practice

of

the seventeenth

century,

if

scholarsare not

even

agreed

about

the

thriving

modal

practice

of

the sixteenth?

It

is

clear that

analysts

of

seventeenth-century

music must cross

the Great Divide and

enter into a

dialogue

with their

sixteenth-

centuryspecialistcolleagues.







26

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Vicentino,

Nicola. L'antica musica ridotta

alla mo-

derna

prattica

(1555).

Translated

by

Maria

Rika

Maniates,

forthcoming.

Zarlino,

Gioseffo.

On

the

Modes:

Part Four

of

Le

istitutioni harmoniche

(1558).

Translated

by

Vered

Cohen,

1983.





studies in analysis and history of theory the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

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