Cantus firmus
Cantus firmus (for example: “fixed song”, plural cantus firmi , abbreviation c. F.), Also cantus prius factus (“previously made song”), is a fixed melody that is played around by the other voices in the context of a musical work without to be changed particularly extensively. The cantus firmus plays an important role in the context of counterpoint , in which a new voice is added to the melody of the cantus firmus .
In Johann Joseph Fux 's counterpoint textbook Gradus ad Parnassum (in the translation by Lorenz Christoph Mizler ) the German meaning of cantus firmus is given as “bad [= plain] singing”.
history
In the beginning polyphony of the Middle Ages , it was common for the tenor (emphasized here on the first syllable, v. Latin tenere , "to hold") to hold the line of the chorale , i.e. to hold the cantus firmus, while one, two, later three more voices played around him.
This technique was expanded in the music of the Renaissance to include contrapuntal arts, such as applying the cantus firmus in two voices with different times and positions. The Quodlibet experimented with creating up to three different cantus firmi, e.g. B. folk songs to put against each other. The parody mass was also popular , in which a well-known melody appears again and again as cantus firmus (“is parodied ”), for example the secular L'homme armé . A typical Cantus firmus genre of Renaissance is also the German tenor song , a four-part a cappella - choral setting in which the voice in the tenor is.
Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of Mary is an important work on the threshold from the Renaissance to the Early Baroque, which is characterized by cantus firmus techniques . In it, the Gregorian vespers are continuously woven into the vocal concerts, which are designed with the latest musical means.
In baroque music the Cantus firmus technique was more intensively cultivated. It is particularly distinctive in the baroque organ arrangement ; Usually the other voices begin with imitating entries, which are already borrowed from the melody to be processed, before it then begins in longer note values . Like most composers of sacred music in the Baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach also used this technique very often in his cantatas and organ works . Another important composer of cantus firmus compositions was Johann Pachelbel .
literature
- Martin Bieri : Ricercare. Directory of organ music linked to cantus firmus . Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden et al. 2001, ISBN 3-7651-0371-3 , (with CD-ROM).
- Wolf Frobenius : Cantus firmus . In: Concise dictionary of musical terminology . Vol. 1, ed. by Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht and Albrecht Riethmüller , editor-in-chief Markus Bandur, Steiner, Stuttgart 1972–2006 ( online ).
- Édith Weber (Ed.): Le cantus firmus. Exploitation à travers les siècles . Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-8405-0330-1 , ( Itinéraires du Cantus Firmus 6), (École Doctorale Musique Paris, Musicologie, Groupe de Recherche sur le Patrimoine Musical, Colloque Itinéraires du Cantus Firmus 6, April 2-3, 1997).
- Édith Weber (Ed.): Le cantus firmus. Hymnologique, pédagogique et lexicologique . Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-8405-0331-X , ( Itinéraires du Cantus Firmus 7), (École Doctorale Musique Paris, Musicologie, Groupe de Recherche sur le Patrimoine Musical, Colloque Itinéraires du Cantus Firmus 7, April 22-23, 1998).
- Édith Weber (Ed.): Le cantus firmus. Aspects multiple . Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-8405-0483-2 , ( Itinéraires du Cantus Firmus 8), (École Doctorale Musique Paris, Musicologie, Groupe de Recherche sur le Patrimoine Musical, Colloque Itinéraires du Cantus Firmus 8, July 4-8, 1999).
- Johann Joseph Fux : Gradus ad Parnassum or an introduction to the regular musical composition, translated from Latin into German, annotated and edited by Lorenz Christoph Mizler, 3rd reprint of the Leipzig 1742 edition, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zurich, New York, 2014, ISBN 3-487-05209-1