Le 30 juin 2017
de 11h00 à 11h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
salle 3204
Séance - Music of the Renaissance
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Alexander Morgan
In this paper I analyse the works of late-15th-century composers to deduce a common practice with respect to suspensions in triple meter. I then demonstrate how later stylistic trends departed from these conventions in important ways. Almost all accounts of idiomatic dissonance treatment in period treatises as well as in modern textbooks discuss dissonance treatment exclusively in duple meter. Triple-meter contexts are therefore an under-examined facet of musical practice and must be theorized if we are to continue using dissonance treatment as a key identifying component of style-change analysis such as Jeppesen, and Siegler and Wild have. This study builds on the metric research of Ruth DeFord by paying particular attention to the metric level at which counterpoint functions, which she calls the “contrapuntal rhythm.”
One of the main contributions this paper makes is that, in the 15th century, music with a ternary contrapuntal rhythm almost always places suspensions on beat two. The various ways later composers depart from this convention will be explored with examples from composers from Monteverdi to Bach. Another important distinction is that while in the late-15th century suspensions are almost always included in the context of a cadence, already by Palestrina this convention begins to change as suspensions more regularly occur outside of the context of cadences. In addition to its implications with respect to style-change analysis, this research seeks to redefine our fundamental understanding of and theoretical approach to suspensions.
