1. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com HARMONIC EXTROVERSION IN THE POPE MARCELLUS MASS Dmitri Tymoczko Princeton University

2. SUMMARY OF LAST YEAR’S TALK Argued that functional harmony arises extremely gradually over the years 1500– 1700, and continues to change thereafter. Around 1500 one starts to find Ionian-mode popular music exhibiting “rudimentary functionality”: –An emphasis on root position I, IV, V behaving functionally (Dalza, Frottola, etc.) By the mid-1500s, one starts to find this music influencing that of the learned tradition. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

3. POPE MARCELLUS MASS Perhaps the most celebrated example of extroverted polyphony. Many commentators use functional language when discussing it. –invariably hedged with scare quotes or other signs of rhetorical nervousness http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

8. HARMONIC TENDENCY http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

10. POPE MARCELLUS MASS This harmonic character of the piece opens interesting interpretive problems on the local level. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

11. THE 6–5/4–3 IDIOM http://dmitri.tymoczko.com Progression occurs 6 times in the Christe eleison section.

12. THE 6–5/4–3 IDIOM http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

13. THE 6–5/4–3 IDIOM http://dmitri.tymoczko.com 6–– 4–3 The contrapuntal formation though perfectly sensible linearly, almost never appears in Palestrina’s music. –Once in 7 masses (~12,000 chords, 0.01%) –Much more frequent in Josquin. –It is disfavored for harmonic (rather than contrapuntal) reasons. –How do we characterize this? E.g. Is it that the G-C-E sonority is a tonic?

14. CONCLUSIONS 1 Sixteenth century music is polystylistic across modes and genres. –Composers had the option to draw upon popular proto-functional harmony. –When they did, we find an abundance of root position I, IV, and V chords behaving functionally. –Suggests an awareness of harmonic style as a compositional parameter. This is particularly interesting given the legends surrounding the MPM. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

15. CONCLUSIONS II The style we teach in sixteenth-century counterpoint classes is fictional: –Combines the harmonic freedom of Josquin with the contrapuntal systematicity of Palestrina. Jeppesen: –“The line is undoubtedly the starting-point of Palestrina's style. The exactions arising out of harmonic aspects are really only intended to ensure the sonority of the individual harmonic moments. ‘Harmonic’ does not signify here any independent sphere of interest; chords had not yet reached a stage where they had their own vigorous life, as in Bach's works” (p. 84). http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

16. PROPOSAL We should consider replacing the opposition “Renaissance/Baroque” with a tripartite division that recognizes the proto-tonal period from 1550–1650 as its own unique era. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com

17. Thank you! http://dmitri.tymoczko.com http://dmitri.tymoczko.com/palestrina.pdf

18. APPENDIX: WHAT IS HARMONY? http://dmitri.tymoczko.com Regularities that cannot be explained by linear factors or dissonance treatment. Three different classes: –Universal regularities independent of scale degree E.g., the 6-5/4-3 idiom –Regularities attached to specific triads C major tends to move to F major regardless of mode. –Regularities relative to scale degree “The 5/3 chord on ^ 5 tends to move to the 5/3 on ^ 1.”