tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post5247740468858105431..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: A Cathedral and a MotetBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-85329350600805966982015-05-25T13:01:01.903-05:002015-05-25T13:01:01.903-05:00Hmmm, that's an interesting question. Let me t...Hmmm, that's an interesting question. Let me think about it. Exactly how composers went about writing their music is often a mystery. Even in the case of someone like Stravinsky! But I will look around and see what I can find.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-89249821515746758262015-05-25T12:42:42.839-05:002015-05-25T12:42:42.839-05:00Do you know of a book that explains how Dufay, Ock...Do you know of a book that explains how Dufay, Ockeghem, etc. wrote their more intricate compositions? Not just a simple explanation of isorhythm or a rudimentary explanation of 15th->16th century counterpoint, but: if I am Dufay and I am going to write the music above in your post, how exactly do I go about accomplishing that?Ken F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08296737421194767997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-30079548476685589412015-05-25T12:20:49.244-05:002015-05-25T12:20:49.244-05:00Yes, this is the fundamental, as I believe, error ...Yes, this is the fundamental, as I believe, error of the pre-WWII serial composers: they believed they were replacing harmony with counterpoint, but, as you say, in the absence of the concept of dissonance, counterpoint becomes rather meaningless. After WWII progressive composers dropped the pretence and just wrote what they wrote without trying to tie it to any historical forms.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-87907857848047742652015-05-25T10:28:55.987-05:002015-05-25T10:28:55.987-05:00Serial composers have often claimed to be emulatin...Serial composers have often claimed to be emulating the counterpoint of 15th century composers such as Dufay and Ockeghem with their canonic writing, augmentions and diminutions of rhythm, and especially hexachordal pairs that complete the 12-tone set (semicombinatoriality). But it seems that the serialists wrote an inside-out emulation of 15th century counterpoint; inverting the use of dissonance and consonance seems to me to be just cheating compared to the complexity of this example of Dufay.Ken F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08296737421194767997noreply@blogger.com