Figure 6.

1 Mensural levels and the four prolations

 Pitch: an overview 57

Example 4.2 Two-voice cadential motion

Example 4.3 Cadential ornaments

of voices on the octave or unison (the most perfect consonances), proceed-

ing stepwise in contrary motion from the nearest imperfect consonance
(the major sixth or the minor third). Example 4.2 shows the cadence in its
simplest form. In octave cadences (Example 4.2a) the lower voice, called
‘tenor’, descends, and the upper voice, called ‘discantus’ (one of several
possible names), rises. These positions are reversed when the cadence is
at the unison (Example 4.2b; voice-names are considered at length in
Chapter 5). The principal difference between this dyadic form of cadence
and the cadence of tonal music is that it is complete in itself and requires no
other voices. But the similarities are greater than may first appear: like
a tonal cadence, the dyadic cadence is predicated on the principle of
contrary motion, and on tension and resolution; and, as in tonality,
cadences may occur on other pitches than the final or tonic.
Another similarity between the two-voice (dyadic) and triadic cadence is
that although the basic structure remains in place for centuries, changes in
local contrapuntal detail become indicators of style (Example 4.3: note that
in all these cadential forms the voices may be inverted). By the fifteenth
century, cadences were usually inflected by delaying the arrival on the
major sixth via a suspension in the ascending voice (Example 4.3a), and
further ornamented or embellished with ‘inessential’ notes (i.e. notes that
do not affect cadential function). Throughout the fifteenth century, the
under-third cadence (sometimes known as ‘Landini cadence’) was the most
common type of embellishment and took many forms (Examples 4.3b–d).
By about 1520 it had been replaced by simpler ones (Examples 4.3a and
58 Renaissance Polyphony

4.3h). The descending voice’s approach to the final was the more standar-
dized of the two, but the penultimate pitch (above the final) could also be
prepared in several ways: in practice, most of the descending cadential
patterns in Example 4.3 are interchangeable. Certain cadential forms were
localized not only in time but also in place: English polyphony was dis-
tinguished by its idiosyncratic cadential usage. Examples 4.3e, 4.3f, and
4.3g are typical of fifteenth-century England, where the suspension so
common elsewhere was generally avoided. In the early Renaissance, for-
bidden consecutive octaves could be offset if just one pitch intervenes
between them (Example 4.3g). Later, these blunt forms of displacement
were less frequent. In general, ‘forbidden’ consecutive intervals (usually the
octave or fifth) were more readily tolerated in the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries, when they occur reasonably often.

Cadence and mode

I chose the pitch F for the cadences in Example 4.3 because it is the most
straightforward of the four modal finals on which to cadence. The upper
stave of Example 4.4 shows two-voice cadences on each modal final.
Although the cadence on E (Example 4.4b) satisfies the definition given
above, it alone places the semitone in the descending voice rather than the
ascending one. However, the cadence’s ‘gravitational pull’ resides in this
semitone motion, just as it does in the Lydian. In the two remaining modes,
Dorian and Mixolydian (Examples 4.4a and 4.4d), the discantus’ penulti-
mate pitch must be sharpened (hence the editorial accidental placed above
it). Of all the unwritten inflections applied when reading from original
notation, this is the most important.

Example 4.4 Three-voice cadences on modal finals, (a) Dorian, (b) Phrygian, (c)
Lydian, (d) Mixolydian
 Voice-names, ranges, and functions 67

(a) (b)

Figure 5.1 (a) Modern SATB clefs and voice-ranges; (b) Old-style SATB clefs

though they have been largely superseded in vocal and choral music.) Thus,
clefs once played a more significant role in the notation of voice parts than
they do today. In fact, Figure 5.1b is a survival of medieval and Renaissance
practice, in which the role of clefs is essential.

What clefs mean (and what they don’t)

From the earliest stave notation, the number of lines was less important
than the location of the semitones. Originally, this was the sole function
of clefs, the most common of which indicated the position of the pitch C,
and therefore the semitone between it and the B below it. The stave,
meanwhile, denoted the voice’s overall range. Since plainchants rarely
exceed the octave, four lines were usually sufficient, and if a few extra
notes were needed, the position of the clef could be shifted temporarily.
But just as important as the clef’s meaning is what it didn’t mean: the clef
indicated relative pitch (that is, the voice’s relation to other voices) but
not absolute pitch. In a monophonic framework, there was of course no
need to indicate absolute pitch: the pitch-level was selected to accommo-
date the available voices. Of all the clef types, the one on c' was the most
prevalent, followed by that a fifth below it (the modern bass clef). Both of
these could be located on any line of the stave, but the usual position of
the f was on the second highest. (The treble clef locating g' only became
common currency towards the turn of the fifteenth century. In its earliest
usage, it often carried a signature flat on the top line, which marked the
placement of the mi–fa semitone.) A more rarely used clef, named
‘Gamma’ after the lowest note of the gamut, was used for very low pitches
lying up to a seventh ‘outside the Hand’. The essential point is that in
polyphony, clefs indicate the voices’ relative ranges. There is no evidence
of absolute pitch in the Renaissance, any more than for other types of
measurement: as with currency, weight, or distance, pitch-standards were
a matter of local custom.
 Voice-names, ranges, and functions 71

Table 5.1 Voice-names and functions in the Renaissance

music: the triplum disappeared, leaving the discantus on its own at the top of
the texture.
Although we do not know precisely what attracted composers to the new
texture, its practical consequences were momentous. Previously, the hand-
ling of sonority was conditioned by the pitches of the tenor (especially at
cadences), but now the options were considerably expanded, since the new
voice could supply a number of consonances beneath it (Example 5.2). This
passage also shows an increase in the voices’ overall range compared to Je
requier, encompassing the whole gamut: the gap between the tenor and the
lower contratenor could be as much as an octave, resulting in new textural
possibilities. The new range also changed the lower contratenor’s melodic
profile: with the tenor no longer treading on its toes, it was free to move in
the more fluid, stepwise manner hitherto reserved for the discantus and
tenor. The ‘filler’ quality previously associated with it was now left to the
voice that lay in the same range as the tenor. With the contratenor function
effectively split between them, they were labelled ‘contratenor altus’ and
‘contratenor bassus’ (‘higher’ and lower’). Eventually the word ‘contra-
tenor’ was dropped, leaving only the Latin forms of ‘alto’ and ‘bass’.
80 Renaissance Polyphony

Example 5.9 ‘Fermata’ cadence

Examples 5.8b and 5.8c are typical of the Hypophrygian mode, because
the lowest voice takes the fifth below the tenor either in the final sonority
(Example 5.8b) or at the preparation (Example 5.8c). In the latter case, the
free voices continue beyond the cadence in the discantus and tenor
(remembering that in terms of contrapuntal theory it is the movement
of the discantus and tenor that constitutes the cadence in Examples 5.8b
and 5.8c, not the motion in the bass). Another stylistic marker is the
presence of the third at final cadences: before 1500, when three- and four-
voice music was the norm, it is rare (except in England, where it some-
times takes the place of the fifth). Example 5.9 shows a typical four-voice
cadence of the ‘fermata’ variety, often used in sacred music to set the final
‘Amen’. This type of cadence dispenses with the suspension; a third may
be added by doubling the discantus in five voices (in black notes). It is
most frequent in five-voice cadences, but over the course of the sixteenth
century it extended to all types of scoring.
After 1500, an increase in the number of voices leads to more
exotic cadences, as more voices have to be accommodated within the
same vocal compass (cf. Example 5.10). In Example 5.10a, the
‘Quinta vox’ sounds the third below the bassus just before its
appearance in sharpened form in the discantus. Though very com-
mon with Gombert and his generation, this cadential false relation
was given the derogatory label ‘Satzfehler’ (‘part-writing error’) by
scholars in the mid-twentieth century who held an unfavourable
view of the period between Josquin and Palestrina.2 The Satzfehler
is closely related to the so-called ‘English’ cadence (Example 5.10b),
which exists in several forms, the most famous (not to say notorious)
of which has the distinctive gesture in the voice labelled ‘medius’
(‘mean’ being the common designation for the second-highest voice),
with the two types of third still closer together or even simulta-
neously. This sonority endured until the time of Purcell, more than a
 Voice-names, ranges, and functions 81

Example 5.10 (a) ‘Satzfehler’ cadence; (b) ‘English’ cadence

(a)

(b)

Example 5.11 Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno (conclusion)

century after its first appearance. With composers of the late

Renaissance, these more exotic types of cadence types are abandoned
in favour of simpler layouts. One is a form of pedal point derived
from the cadential extension shown in Example 5.8c. Such coda-like
material occurs throughout the Renaissance, but, during the second
quarter of the sixteenth century, it is common for the discantus to
hold the final on its own, as in Example 5.11, the conclusion of
Arcadelt’s famous Il bianco e dolce cigno. Although the tenor initially
cadences with the discantus, pedal points like this signal a further
loosening of the tenor’s role as the structural voice: whereas tradi-
tional Renaissance theory continued to uphold the discantus–tenor