Thinking With and About Rhythm

This chapter argues for a construction of the word “rhythm” that might contribute to ways of thinking and speaking about music that would validate the activity, the on-goingness, and the actuality of musicing. If discourse about music is connected to music, and if nothing—neither words nor concepts—escapes time, then talk of rhythm is itself not without or outside rhythm. Following an exploration of several allied terms (“event,” “duration,” “dimension”), the argument turns to sonic examples and concludes with a detailed analysis of the first phrase of the “Pleni sunt coeli” from Josquin des Prez’s Pange lingua mass.

THE LUTHERAN IDENTITY OF JOSQUIN’SMISSA PANGE LINGUA: RENAISSANCE OF A RENAISSANCE MASS

In sixteenth-century Germany, both Catholics and Lutherans circulated and performed Josquin’sMissa Pange lingua, even though its model, the hymnPange lingua, was associated with Eucharistic practices that were exclusively Catholic. This source-based study reveals how Lutherans selected theMissa Pange linguafor performance over other available masses and adapted it for their liturgical and pedagogical needs. Two printed sources of the mass offer perspectives on how Lutherans might have negotiated the polemical rituals and theology associated with theMissa Pange linguaalongside an aesthetic interest in the work. The intention of this study is not to de-emphasise the connection between theMissa Pange linguaand its borrowed melody or the initial Catholic identity of the mass. Rather, the Lutheran identity of theMissa Pange linguaprovides an additional layer to the early reception history of this work and a case study of the Lutheran appropriation of Catholic music.

Josquin Desprez – Missa Pange Lingua

The historical portion of this chapter presents material about Josquin’s artistic status during the Renaissance, including testimonies by Martin Luther, Hans Ott, and Heinrich Glareanus. Included also is an overview of Josquin’s Masses, with focus on his final Mass—the Missa Pange lingua, composed sometime after 1515 but not published until 1539, after Josquin’s death. However, numerous copies of the Mass existed during and shortly after Josquin’s lifetime. The analysis portion of the chapter discusses Josquin’s imitative technique, extensive use of ostinatos, and paraphrase of Gregorian chant. Performance practices include numbers, types, and placements of singers; meter, tactus, and tempo; text underlay; and musica ficta and music recta.

Grundtvig og de latinske salmer - et teologisk perspektiv

Grundtvig and the Latin Hymns - A Theological PerspectiveBy Lars ThunbergA number of scholars have devoted attention to Grundtvig’s hymns, as they are represented in his magnificent Sang-Værk. The hymns form a kind of corona of Christian poetry, intended for the congregation to use in its worship and outside the church. A number of them are congenial renderings of hymns from other traditions: the Greek, the Latin, the Anglo-Saxon, beside the Lutheran. As far as the Greek and the Latin material is concerned, Jørgen Elbek, the literary historian, has made a remarkable contribution. This article follows up Elbek’s intentions.In his Sang-Værk Grundtvig follows the principle that his collection of hymns should reflect what is given - to Christendom as a whole, and the Danish congregation specifically - through the seven historical traditions: the Hebraic, the Greek, the Latin, the English, the German, the Nordic (= Danish) and possibly a seventh, not yet fully discovered. Theoretically Grundtvig develops this idea in his late work Christenhedens Syvstieme, where an Indian congregation is indicated as the seventh one. Elbek has shown that - against this background - Grundtvig wanted to give to the Danish Church a collection of hymns, expressing the unison hymnody of the present day Danish congregation..Among the classical traditions, the Latin ‘congregation’ occupies a particular place. This particularity, however, is a problem to Grundtvig at the same time. Elbek has underlined that Grundtvig was aware of the fact that no Christian is basically able to speak on behalf of the universal Church. Thus, this is also true of Grundtvig himself in his translation/rendering of Greek or Latin hymns. His translation of them into present-day Danish involves a contextualisation, which means that they are at the same time felt to be close and familiar as well as distinct from their original setting. They become songs of praise, integrated into the Danish contemporary situation.However, it is characteristic of Grundtvig that he is very faithful to his Latin originals (which he studied in different versions and very carefully), and at the same time feels free to render them according to his own understanding of what is of importance to his own Danish Church. This combination of faithfulness and freedom is a genuine expression of Grundtvig’s unique ability as a hymn writer. He uses it to express his very personal feeling of what is - as a matter of fact - universal Christian belief.In the article these principles of Grundtvig are illustrated through a short analysis of his rendering of the following 14 Latin hymns: Conditor alme siderum, Veni redemptor gentium, Puer natus in Bethlehem, Vexilla regis prodeunt, Salve crux arbor, Stabat mater dolorosa, Salve mundi salutare, Mane prima sabbad, Mundi renovatio, Zyma vetus expurgetur, Laus tibi Christi, Beata nobis gaudia, Urbs beata Ierusalem and Pange lingua gloriosi.

Symbol and Ritual in Josquin's Missa Di Dadi

The author examines one of Josquin's earliest cantus firmus Masses, the Missa Di dadi, composed on a tenor drawn from Robert Morton's rondeau, N'aray je jamais mieulx que j'ay. Surviving only in Petrucci's third book of Josquin Masses, the work is distinguished by its use of pictures of dice as proportional canons in the Tenor voice. This study demonstrates that the dice images and the original chanson text associated with the cantus firmus melody form a metaphorical ground plan for the composition, and are linked to contemporary liturgical ritual and to fifteenth-century readings of the Mass text. Musical relationships between Di dadi and the later Missa Pange lingua establish the authenticity of the early work, and illuminate the evolution of Josquin's musical personality and style over some thirty to forty years.