Date of Graduation
1993
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century composers of French secular music sometimes based their compositions on monophonic popular chansons, or chansons rustiques. The resulting "popular arrangements" were most often composed in three voices, but a significant number in four or more voices are extant as well. This study examines the style, sources, and legacy of popular arrangements in four or more voices composed between ca. 1470 and ca. 1570. Chapter 1 discusses the methods by which four-part popular arrangements are identified. This is followed by a stylistic overview of the four-part popular arrangement and a brief account of the "pseudo-arrangement," a genre which is stylistically similar to the popular arrangement but is free of borrowed material. Chapters 2 and 3 survey the four-part popular arrangements preserved in Italian and northern sources, taking special note of the earliest recorded appearance of each arrangement. Through this process it is possible to obtain a sense of how the genre changed over time. In both repertories, northern and Italian, there is a gradual shift toward homorhythm, vocality in all parts, and thorough assimilation of the borrowed melody. Chapter 4 provides new evidence supporting the theory (first stated by Howard Mayer Brown) that the four-part popular arrangement exerted a direct influence on the narrative Parisian chanson. Three factors are taken into consideration: (1) the stylistic and textual similarities between the narrative Parisian chanson and some examples of the four-part popular arrangement (and pseudo-arrangement); (2) the record of preservation of four-part chansons in northern sources prior to Attaingnant; (3) and the numbers of narrative chansons in the early Attaingnant prints. Chapter 5 discusses the style and preservation of popular arrangements in five or more voices. These are not as plentiful as those in four parts, and they tend to be found in Netherlandish rather than Italian or French sources. The many-voiced arrangements share some style features with those in four parts but are more expansive and are more often based on canon. Volume II presents a catalogue of popular arrangements in four or more voices along with selected transcriptions.
Recommended Citation
Whitney, Mark Leland, "The chanson rustique in polyphonic arrangements of four or more parts, ca. 1470-ca. 1570. (Volumes I and II)." (1993). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 10008.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/10008