The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance

$17.95

Publication Date: 24th March 2005

The greatest Renaissance creator of liturgical music, the revered sixteenth-century composer known as Palestrina wrote works that served for centuries as models of counterpoint. Until The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance, theoreticians seldom closely analyzed the composer’s work to discover its fundamental elements, including the handling of rhythm, line, and harmony.
Beginning chapters discuss the standard use of rhythm and mensuration in Palestrina’s time, the ecclesiastical modes, and treatment of words. Author Knud Jeppesen proceeds to explore Palestrina’s music in te... Read More
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The greatest Renaissance creator of liturgical music, the revered sixteenth-century composer known as Palestrina wrote works that served for centuries as models of counterpoint. Until The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance, theoreticians seldom closely analyzed the composer’s work to discover its fundamental elements, including the handling of rhythm, line, and harmony.
Beginning chapters discuss the standard use of rhythm and mensuration in Palestrina’s time, the ecclesiastical modes, and treatment of words. Author Knud Jeppesen proceeds to explore Palestrina’s music in te... Read More
Description
The greatest Renaissance creator of liturgical music, the revered sixteenth-century composer known as Palestrina wrote works that served for centuries as models of counterpoint. Until The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance, theoreticians seldom closely analyzed the composer’s work to discover its fundamental elements, including the handling of rhythm, line, and harmony.
Beginning chapters discuss the standard use of rhythm and mensuration in Palestrina’s time, the ecclesiastical modes, and treatment of words. Author Knud Jeppesen proceeds to explore Palestrina’s music in terms of the elements that constitute his personal style, isolating unusual vertical lines and establishing common and uncommon interval skips and rhythmic accents.
The heart of the book presents a modern empirical treatment of dissonance. Palestrina's contrapuntal technique forged new harmonic devices, placing dissonance on unaccented beats and highlighting text in very unorthodox ways for his time. These new uses of dissonance and resolution are explored in meticulous detail. In addition, Jeppesen includes a complete history of the evolving concept and treatment of dissonance before Palestrina, including quotations from the earliest theoretical works and numerous musical examples that illustrate the practices of Palestrina’s predecessors.

Reprint of the Oxford University Press, 1946 edition.
Details
  • Price: $17.95
  • Pages: 336
  • Publisher: Dover Publications
  • Imprint: Dover Publications
  • Series: Dover Books On Music: Analysis
  • Publication Date: 24th March 2005
  • Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.5 in
  • ISBN: 9780486442686
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical
    MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Theory
    MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Composition
    MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Techniques
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Foundations of Style
Temporal Conditions
Rhythm
Modes
Treatment of Words
The Style of Palestrina
Melody
Harmony
Dissonance
Phases of Dissonance Treatment
Dissonance as Secondary Phenomenon
a. Passing Dissonance
b. Ornamental Dissonance
Dissonance as a Primary Phenomenon
Dissonance as a Means of Poetical Expression
Conclusion
Appendix
Table of References
The greatest Renaissance creator of liturgical music, the revered sixteenth-century composer known as Palestrina wrote works that served for centuries as models of counterpoint. Until The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance, theoreticians seldom closely analyzed the composer’s work to discover its fundamental elements, including the handling of rhythm, line, and harmony.
Beginning chapters discuss the standard use of rhythm and mensuration in Palestrina’s time, the ecclesiastical modes, and treatment of words. Author Knud Jeppesen proceeds to explore Palestrina’s music in terms of the elements that constitute his personal style, isolating unusual vertical lines and establishing common and uncommon interval skips and rhythmic accents.
The heart of the book presents a modern empirical treatment of dissonance. Palestrina's contrapuntal technique forged new harmonic devices, placing dissonance on unaccented beats and highlighting text in very unorthodox ways for his time. These new uses of dissonance and resolution are explored in meticulous detail. In addition, Jeppesen includes a complete history of the evolving concept and treatment of dissonance before Palestrina, including quotations from the earliest theoretical works and numerous musical examples that illustrate the practices of Palestrina’s predecessors.

Reprint of the Oxford University Press, 1946 edition.
  • Price: $17.95
  • Pages: 336
  • Publisher: Dover Publications
  • Imprint: Dover Publications
  • Series: Dover Books On Music: Analysis
  • Publication Date: 24th March 2005
  • Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.5 in
  • ISBN: 9780486442686
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical
    MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Theory
    MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Composition
    MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Techniques
Preface
Introduction
Foundations of Style
Temporal Conditions
Rhythm
Modes
Treatment of Words
The Style of Palestrina
Melody
Harmony
Dissonance
Phases of Dissonance Treatment
Dissonance as Secondary Phenomenon
a. Passing Dissonance
b. Ornamental Dissonance
Dissonance as a Primary Phenomenon
Dissonance as a Means of Poetical Expression
Conclusion
Appendix
Table of References