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- Title
M onteverdi' s E arly S eventeenth-C entury'H armonic P rogressions'.
- Authors
KANG, YOUYOUNG
- Abstract
ABSTRACT The seemingly tonal harmonic markers in Monteverdi's music, identified by many previous analytical investigations, appear side by side with tonally unconventional progressions in Monteverdi's oeuvre, particularly the sacred polyphony composed for San Marco. These unique 'harmonic progressions' which so clearly distinguish Monteverdi's music sonorously from that of both his contemporaries and his successors exhibit instead a peculiarly seventeenth-century experimentation with counterpoint. Monteverdi's harmonic practice, like that of his contemporaries, is firmly embedded in a few basic contrapuntal principles: using the bass as the fundamental part, always preferring the fifth (rather than the sixth) and third above the bass, creating sequences of melodic motives to give impetus for harmonic motion and employing diminished note values to mask consecutive perfect consonances. Consequently, the counterpoint against a melodic bass line which moves by step or by thirds also creates sequential harmonic motion by those intervals, often resulting in juxtapositions of unrelated harmonies. In the Selva Morale (1640) and Messa et Salmi (1650) collections, these adventurous progressions help express affect and provide dramatic contrast to the harmonically static and conventional sections for solo voice or small ensembles.
- Subjects
MONTEVERDI, Claudio, 1567-1643; HARMONY in music; 17TH century music; SACRED part songs; COUNTERPOINT; MELODIC analysis; EARLY-music groups
- Publication
Music Analysis, 2011, Vol 30, Issue 2/3, p186
- ISSN
0262-5245
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1468-2249.2011.00304.x