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›Chromatische‹ Kompositionen bilden einen kleinen, aber interessanten Seitenzweig der mehrstimmigen Musik des 16. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere da sie die Grenzen des musiktheoretischen Systems erkunden oder gar überschreiten. Mit Jacobus Gallus’ Motette Mirabile mysterium steht ein heute vielfach aufgeführtes, analytisch jedoch bislang kaum beachtetes Stück dieser Art im Zentrum des Artikels, der zudem eine kritische Edition nach den Quellen des Prager Erstdrucks von 1586 enthält. Im Text verbinden sich editorische mit satztechnischen, tonsystematischen und analytischen Überlegungen. Für die Gesamtdeutung werden Parallelstellen in italienischen Madrigalen und die Konzepte des Paradoxen und des Manierismus herangezogen. ›Chromatic compositions from the sixteenth century are few in number, but they are particularly interesting because of the ways they explore and even exceed the boundaries of contemporary theoretical thought. The motet “Mirabile mysterium” by Jakobus Gallus, which is often performed today but has rarely been analyzed, is the chief subject of this article. A critical edition derived from the sources of the first printing (Prague, 1586) is included here; its text combines the discussion of editorial problems with reflections upon the motet’s compositional technique and tonal system. The interpretative commentary deals with some parallel cases in cinquecento madrigals and concepts of paradoxical rhetoric and mannerism.

This article proposes an intervallic approach to classifying and interpreting sixteenth-century chromaticism. The approach is based on a distinction between active leading tones, which imply resolution by diatonic semitone, and stable notes, which do not. This distinction underlies a dyadic approach to categorizing contrapuntal uses of chromatic semitones, providing an alternative to prevalent classifications by interval of triadic root or bass motion. The article distinguishes three chromatic semitone types: (1) normative/expressive, (2) chromatically deflected leading tones, and (3) chromatically thwarted leading tones. For each type, the article discusses representative examples drawn from motets and madrigals by Orlando di Lasso, Giaches de Wert, Luca Marenzio, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Alfonso Fontanelli, and Carlo Gesualdo, and considers how the chromatic semitones express the poetic texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay presents the discovery of Torquato Tasso's autograph kept at Madrid, Royal Library, ms. II/3281. The witness constitutes a fundamental finding within the textual tradition of Tasso's Rime, since it is the original version of Tasso's madrigals commissioned by Carlo Gesualdo. The first part of the article provides a physical description of the manuscript; the second part focuses on the historical context and more specifically on the events that preceded and followed the composition of the manuscript; finally, the third part focuses on the role of the codex in the constitutio textus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumo:A escrita musical do compositor Carlo Gesualdo transforma-se ao longo de seus seis livros de madrigais. Enquanto nos aspectos que integram os dois primeiros livros encontramos principalmente características da tradição polifônica do Renascimento, nos madrigais dos terceiro e quarto livros predomina o experimentalismo harmônico, ao passo que nos dois últimos há maior ocorrência dos procedimentos tipicamente associados ao compositor maduro - a escrita cromática e dissonante. O principal elemento que faz a ligação desta escrita ao longo das três fases é a relação entre a música e o texto. Observando o tratamento que o compositor fez em relação a dois termos recorrentes nos madrigais - as palavras amor e morte -, em obras de diferentes fases, foi possível constatar o estreitamento desta relação textual da música, bem como suas implicações no resultado sonoro final. Na primeira fase, Gesualdo utilizava os procedimentos mais comuns na escrita musical para ressaltar estes termos, como a escrita contrapontística, contrastando com a escrita homofônica. Nas fases seguintes, ele passou a procurar elementos musicais mais sofisticados que permitissem explorar diferentes sonoridades. Por meio deste processo, o compositor destacou, de forma mais contundente, palavras e narrações dos poemas, recorrendo principalmente a resultantes harmônicas incomuns e a falsas relações melódicas. A análise do uso destes termos ao longo da obra demonstrou o aprofundamento da expressividade e o amadurecimento dos procedimentos musicais utilizados pelo compositor.

Inspired by statements by Robert Craft, Claudio Abbado and Glenn Watkins, this article explores the presence of tonal order within the apparently disordered context of Gesualdo's music, using as a case study the Tenebrae Responsories of 1611. Pitch-based devices of 'order' include uses of cadence tones, harmonic patterns, underlying stepwise lines, and the musical association of similar concepts between responsories, though these tend to be small in scope. A comparison of Responsories 1 and 3 for Maundy Thursday shows how order and disorder contribute to their theological interpretation and performance. The description of devices and the analyses show that disorder is potentially present everywhere, but that order coalesces at certain crucial moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Die Modellsystematik ist ein inzwischen weit verzweigtes Teilgebiet der musikalischen Analyse. Eine Vielzahl von neu- bzw. wiederentdeckten Kompositionslehren vor allem des 17.–19. Jahrhunderts in der zurückliegenden Zeit führt zu einer wachsenden und immer detaillierter erfassbaren Palette der zur Verfügung stehenden harmonisch-kontrapunktischen Modelle. Bislang wenig beachtet sind dabei ›fallende Quintanstiege‹, ein schrittweise abwärts verlaufendes Sequenzmodell, in welchem die Fundamentaltöne der zugrundeliegenden Harmonien innerhalb jedes Sequenzgliedes im Abstand einer steigenden Quinte/fallenden Quarte stehen. Verfolgen lassen sich ›fallende Quintanstiege‹ durch viele Epochen der Musikgeschichte hindurch, angefangen im 16. Jahrhundert bis hin zur Spätromantik. Auch in tonaler Gebrauchsmusik stellen sie ein nicht seltenes satztechnisches Modell dar. In verschiedenen kompositionsgeschichtlichen respektive stilistischen Kontexten nehmen ›fallende Quintanstiege‹ dabei unterschiedlichste semantische Bedeutungen an. So erscheint das Modell als Variante der Ausharmonisierung eines chromatischen Lamentobasses ebenso wie als satztechnisches wie hörend erfassbares Gegenstück zu aufsteigenden Quintfällen. Sein Auftreten in zahlreichen Musikbeispielen sowie sein Vorkommen in historischen Traktaten zur Kompositionslehre qualifizieren es als eigenständigen musikalischen Topos.

During his last decade Carlo Gesualdo published two similar settings of O vos omnes: a motet in the Sacrae Cantiones a5 (1603) and a more elaborate responsory in the Tenebrae Responsoria (1611). The revisions he made when reusing materials from the motet for the responsory have significant implications for understanding the music of his last decade and late Renaissance chromaticism in general. To date, a consensus has not been reached over how the pre-tonal chromaticism epitomized in Gesualdo’s late works was conceived or should be analysed. Taking a cue from the oft-overlooked modal ordering of Gesualdo’s late publications, however, I argue for the relevance of modal theory in analysing his chromatic works—especially the theory of Gioseffo Zarlino, with which Gesualdo showed particular familiarity in the modal ordering of his publications. A close reading of Zarlino’s Le Istitutioni harmoniche (1558/1573) reveals an understanding of chromaticism from the perspective of the modes: pitch inflections alter the modal quality of a passage on a local level, which may in turn affect the modal character of the entire composition. My analysis of the two O vos omnes settings shows that while Gesualdo retained most of the chromaticism of the 1603 motet, he presented a much more consistent modal framework in the 1611 responsory. It shows the possible compositional and theoretical links between mode and chromaticism in Renaissance polyphony and suggests that during his final decade—albeit now marred with myths of madness and sadomasochism—Gesualdo increasingly engaged with modal theory and adopted a model of rational modal coherence in his chromatic music. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Carlo Gesualdo’s second book of Sacrae Cantiones a6 e 7 (1603) contains 20 motets and represents about one-third of the composer’s sacred music. Regrettably, two of its partbooks (Sextus and Bassus) have been lost, rendering these motets unperformable in modern times. Now, for first the first time in over 400 years, the collection has been painstakingly reconstructed. This article explains that process, including the crucial choice of clefs and voice-types used in the reconstruction, highlights the historical context of Gesualdo’s music, and examines some very different attitudes to Gesualdo over the ages by such figures as Charles Burney and Igor Stravinsky, which have contributed to so much mythology about Gesualdo’s style. The article also covers historical performance practice, and suggests modern-day solutions to the choice of voices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For Julio Cortázar, scored music exhibits the same problematics as language. ‘Clone’ constitutes Cortázar's most sustained exposition of this idea. The story abounds in musical versions and performances, denying any access to the putative originary centre of the music of Carlo Gesualdo sought by the group of madrigal singers. At the same time, the singers unconsciously enact events from Gesualdo's life, giving a version or performance of a story whose ‘originary truth’ is itself unknowable outside of the (textual) versions of biography. The third level of performance is the text itself. The story's epilogue and Cortázar's hand-written manuscript of both it and the story reveals ‘Clone’ to be a performance of a textual version of a (musical) version of Bach'sMusical Offering, further destabilising the notion of an ‘originary’ text/performance. However, the epilogue's implications are more far-reaching, with humans emerging as (passive) sites where a multiplicity of performances (of texts) is enacted. This radically alters our understanding of Cortázar's work. Rather than seeing the central concern as the need for a transgressive response to a ‘repression-return of the repressed-repression’ cycle, ‘Clone’ suggests that what is required is a liberation from the interpretative/performative structures, or ‘textual chains’, through which we live. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]