Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Music examples
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Historiography
- Part II Improvisation and composition
- Part III Humanism
- Part IV Music and other arts
- Part V Music in churches, courts, and cities
- Part VI Religious devotion and liturgy
- Part VII Theory and practice
- Part VIII Sources
- Part IX Genres
- 35 The polyphonic mass in the fifteenth century
- 36 The fifteenth-century motet
- 37 Fifteenth-century song
- 38 Instrumental music in the fifteenth century
- 39 Sacred song in the fifteenth century: cantio, carol, lauda, Kirchenlied
- 40 Plainsong in the age of polyphony
- Part X Reception
- Index
40 - Plainsong in the age of polyphony
from Part IX - Genres
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Music examples
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Historiography
- Part II Improvisation and composition
- Part III Humanism
- Part IV Music and other arts
- Part V Music in churches, courts, and cities
- Part VI Religious devotion and liturgy
- Part VII Theory and practice
- Part VIII Sources
- Part IX Genres
- 35 The polyphonic mass in the fifteenth century
- 36 The fifteenth-century motet
- 37 Fifteenth-century song
- 38 Instrumental music in the fifteenth century
- 39 Sacred song in the fifteenth century: cantio, carol, lauda, Kirchenlied
- 40 Plainsong in the age of polyphony
- Part X Reception
- Index
Summary
The majority of sources of plainsong are manuscripts, and there is evidence of wholesale recopying of the plainsong repertory in various institutions in the fifteenth century. Printed sources of plainsong also appear in the fifteenth century, considerably earlier than they do for polyphonic music. Plainsong resounded in a number of different ways in the fifteenth century. Plainsong melodies were performed as equal notes, or were perhaps organized in repeating rhythmic cells, or sung as if they were mensural, or in a free manner. Some were conceived as cantus fractus. And plainsong could always serve as the basis of polyphonic embellishments of greater and lesser sophistication. Modern scholarship has been increasingly concerned with identifying the exact plainsongs that underlie polyphonic compositions. The operating assumption is that when a composer composed a work based on a plainsong cantus firmus, he chose a version of the melody that was current in the institution where he happened to be working at the time.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music , pp. 771 - 784Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015