Polyphony

POLIFONIA. – From the Greek πολός = much and φωνή = sound, voice, this is music based on the simultaneous association of two or more parts, whether or not they have a thematic relationship. The great trunk of polyphony divides into two flourishing branches: vocal and instrumental polyphony, which in turn are each subdivided into sacred and secular. According to another criterion, in polyphonic music one may distinguish the style known as imitative, based that is on the mutual imitation of the parts (thematic imitation—“canonic” when prolonged), the homophonic style, in which verticality predominates, and the free style, more suited to instrumental counterpoint.

I. ORIGINS

From the ninth to the thirteenth century, the forms of the ars antiqua arose. The Irish philosopher Scoto Eriugena, Ubaldo di St-Amand, and Reginone di Prüm were the earliest theorists on the threshold of polyphony, before Guido d'Arezzo. It was within ecclesiastical culture that the initial forms of the new musical era were devised. They are: the organum (to the given, Gregorian chant, a part in oblique or direct motion is added); discant (which inaugurates contrary motion; its theoretical formulation is found in the thirteenth-century treatise Quiconquex cent desechanter); and fauxbourdon (a series of 3rds and 6ths, apparently originating from the English gymel or cantus gemellus). But up to this point the music remained within the realm of note against note.

Mensuralism soon introduced proportional note values, maxima, longa, brevis, etc., bringing about the decline of the old six rhythmic modes (constant series of iambs, trochees, dactyls, etc.) and allowing the development of polyphony properly so called. All this flowed into the most elaborate of the ancient polyphonic forms, namely the motet, which brought together not only different rhythms but even different texts: as many texts as voices. Other primitive forms of polyphony were the conductus (with the tenor of free invention derived from Gregorian chant), clausulae (compositions based on the incipit of graduals or other liturgical melodies), the copula (with melismatic sections), and the rondellia (with reciprocal inversions of the various parts). Since all this, however, had generated problems for sacred art, the Church rose up in its defense. The bull Docte sanctorum of Giovanni XXII (Avignon, 1324), without banning polyphony, deplores and excludes from the music of the Mass and the Hours accented and constant rhythms, the hiccupping breaks (hoqueti), double and profane texts, and the corruption of melodies disfigured by rapid passages and at times even accompanied by gestures made by the singers. According to specialists, ancient polyphony was probably soloistic. The Notre-Dame school of Paris is said to have been the first to adopt triple meter.

II. RENEWAL

Although destroying Gregorian rhythm, the ancient polyphony had intensified and given outward expression to the sentiment of the text. A vigorous renewing impulse came to it in the 14th century from forms of music set to texts in the vernacular, such as the madrigal, the ballad, and the «caccia». The madrigal has two melodic motifs, one for the stanzas and the other for the refrain. The ballad is, musically, ternary (scheme a-b-a). In the «caccia», two of the three voices pursue one another in canon. In the Italian Ars nova, consonances in the long notes, rhythmic suppleness, and freshness of melodic invention predominate; the meter is often binary; rapid figurations increase, the descriptive sense is extremely vivid, and instruments (psaltery, viol, portable organ, etc.) are associated with it gracefully. Cherardello da Firenze, Giovanni da Cascia, Casella, remembered by Dante, and others exemplify the Italian Ars nova; Guillaume de Machault is the foremost representative of the French school. The latter developed the forms of the virelai and the ballade notée, whose 1st stanza is divided into the ouvert and the clos (Machault introduced an instrumental contratenor in addition to the tenor, which was likewise instrumental).

III. MATURITY

In the fifteenth century, Flanders (Holland, Belgium, Northern France) possessed a cultural fervor resulting from centuries of commercial exchanges, which permitted a great development of music. On the one hand, the maltrises (one of the most illustrious was that of Cambrai), and on the other, the chapels of the princes, among which that of the duke of Burgundy stood out, simultaneously contributed to fostering the unfolding of the technical means and expressive possibilities inherent in p. An erroneous judgment has been passed on the production of these masters, accusing it of cerebralism and arid technicality; the judgment merely demonstrates that these musics have not been heard. Although certain cases justify the accusation, such as combinations of inversion and canonic retrogradation, these procedures were employed coldly only by exception, and the overwhelming majority of examples are forms consciously expressing an intense religious feeling. Skilled in overcoming the most arduous difficulties of thematic counterpoint, the Flemings gave p. an admirable depth and suppleness. An excess resulted from this, and it cannot be denied, with regard to the texts, which became unclear to the listener; and the Council of Trent took up the matter. Flemish p. is generally divided into periods corresponding to the generations of the most representative composers: 1st generation with Guillaume Dufay (1440?-74) and Gilles Binchois (d. in 1460); 2nd with Antoine Busnois (d. in 1492) and Jean Okeghem (1430?-95); 3rd with Jacob Obrecht (1450-1505) and Josquin des Prés (1450-1521). The simple reading of these authors (to whom not a few others should be added) is a source of abundant joys, and one is surprised not only by their skillful craftsmanship, but also by their evocative power and linear beauty. As the theorist M. de Menehou declared in 1558, the fundamental requirement of counterpoint was to «make the parts sing as pleasantly as possible».

IV. APOGEE

The values of vocal polyphony were brought together, with differing ideal attitudes and expressive preferences, but with an equally enviable mastery and unsurpassed fervor of religious feeling, in the work of Andrea Gabrieli (1510?–86), Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525?–94), Orlando di Lasso (1532–94), and Tommaso Luigi da Victoria (1540–1613). In an anti-Italian tendency, attempts have been made to deny Palestrina the rank and importance that historical tradition attributed to him. But whoever approaches his immense production with a serene spirit and without polemical aims cannot fail to recognize them in him. He rises with regal distinction above Festa, Animuccia, the two Nanino, the two Anerio, Cifra, Allegri, Soriano, and Giovannelli in the “Roman school.” Similarly, A. Gabrieli rises above Willaert, C. Porta, and G. Croce.

After these great masters, vocal polyphony rapidly declined. But the symptoms of decadence in polyphony (the 4th-and-6th chord, the diminished thematic interest of the parts, and the prominence of the upper voice) are also the symptoms of the new age, the tonal and monodic age.
V. STRUMENTALISMO. - Instrumental p., with its own technical-expressive requirements, although derived from vocal p., appears when, in the German countries, the organ drew inspiration from the melodies of the chorale and then became intertwined with them together with the strings; that is, from the first quarter of the seventeenth century onward. The organ music of Scheidt, G. Goffredo Walther, Pachelbel, and Buxtehude; the sacred compositions with orchestra by Buxtehude himself, Ahle, and Weckman; and the oratorios of Sebastiani and Schütz are the premises of that perfect contrapuntal independence and melodic flexibility of the instrumental parts which finds its complete and glorious fulfilment in the art of G. S. Bach.

BIBLI. C. De Sanctis, La p. nell'arte moderna, Rome 1886; F. Ludwig, Studien über die Gesch. der mehrstimm. Musik im Mittelalter, in Sammelbände der Internat. Musikgesellschaft, 5 (1905), p. 29 ff.; M. Haller, Trattato della composiz. music. norm., Italian trans., Turin 1908, inspired by the revival of Palestrinian polyphony; P. Wanner, Über die Anfänge des mehrstimm. Gesanges, in Zeitschr. für Musikwissenschaft, 3 (1920), p. 325 ff.; G. Fara, Genesi e prime forme della p., in Riv. music. ital., 33 (1926), p. 3 ff.; M. Schneider, Gesch. der Mehrstimmigkeit, 2 vols., Berlin 1934–35. Edgardo Carducci Agostini