Spem in Alium is one of my favorite choral pieces of all time. It is a 16th-century motet in 40 parts by the English composer Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). It is composed of eight choirs of five parts each: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone, and Bass. The amazing thing about it is that it all follows the rules of counterpoint! While it’s been 30 years since I studied music theory- and sang this wonderful motet- there are many rules in counterpoint which tell you how the individual parts- or lines- can relate to each other. For example, parallel 4ths or 5ths are not allowed. Parallel motion, for example would be two parts which are a 4th or 5th away from each other moving up or down stepwise to a second parallel 4th or 5th, as the case may be. Dissonances must be resolved downward in a stepwise motion. In music theory class even trying to write a 3 or 4 part piece of counterpoint proved difficult! It boggles my mind that Tallis arranged these 40 parts together like he did! (See documentary below on false relations.)
Work initiated by Guerino Mazzola (born 1947) has given counterpoint theory a mathematical foundation. In particular, Mazzola's model gives a structural (and not psychological) foundation of forbidden parallels of fifths and the dissonant fourth. Octavio Agustin has extended the model to microtonal contexts.[4][5] (See the link below on counterpoint on Wikipedia.)
Spem in Alium is fun to sing, especially when all 40 parts are sounding at once. The eight soprano parts frequently go up to the G just above the treble staff in succession. In parts of the piece, it’s 40 individual musical lines at the same time that each have a melody of sorts going on (some of which are very simple, such as Choir eight’s bass line), the apparent result of which is a cacophony, but still each vocal part following the rules of counterpoint, tonal centers washing over the listener in waves. To swim through this, each singer must rely on reading the intervals between notes and on utilizing solfège. Since the tonal centers change frequently, one must “be on their toes”!
When I was 18 and in my freshman year as a Vocal Performance major, I had a music theory class taught by Doctor Kaleb. As part of the class, we had to learn to sightread solfège. (See link below.) Solfège is a way of relating notes to a set of word symbols which stand for relative pitches, named do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti and do again. There are also names for the half steps in between - one set for going up the scale- do, di, re, ri, mi, fa, fi, sol, si, la, li, ti and do again, and one for going down- do, ti, te, la, le, sol, se, fa, mi, me, re, ra, do. Each class, in addition to learning other important theory, like counterpoint, we practiced singing solfège. Printouts were handed out and each student had a few lines of notes to read. Doctor Kaleb would sing do and the student would have to sing the line which, more often than not, did not begin with do, but another note in the scale such as, for example, sol.
As Doctor Kaleb went around the room, he would invariably call on a certain student, who, for this example we will call “Michael”. Michael was a piano major. According to the university’s rules, piano majors had to be voice minors and voice majors had to be piano minors, both of which required several semesters of private lessons. When Micheal was called upon to sing a solfège (see link below) exercise, the professor would give him do by singing it. “Do”, Micheal would sing back, his voice wobbling around the pitch. “Do!” Doctor Kaleb would repeat, placing his pitch exactly where it was before. “Do…” Micheal sang again, his tonal center blurred. “Do!” The professor would come back, his pitch never failing. Sometimes when a student was performing particularly poorly, Doctor Kaleb would cover his ears, his hands shaking and his face scrunched up in pain, breathing in between his teeth with his voice warbling exclaiming “Saaaaaaave IT!!” in a rising tone. This would go on until, inevitably, he moved on to someone else.
Near the end of Spem in Alium, there is a false relation (see link below) where one soprano part is singing “ti do” starting on the downbeat and a second sings “te la sol fa mi” starting with “te”on the offbeat thus resolving the dissonance in a stepwise downward motion as the counterpoint rules require. I actually had the false relation in my part in choir two where I sang an F-natural against the F-sharp in another choir, BUT unfortunately for me, that soprano decided to take a breath right at her F-sharp, thus dissolving the false relation! But, you can definitely hear it in the King’s College Choir performance linked below!
Someone has made a documentary on the history of this magnificent piece. Of special interest is the animated diagram at the end when the whole piece is performed which moves along with the singing showing which voice is active at the time by lighting up the active voices. He also has a shorter video on “the most dangerous note” in Spem in Alium, which if not sung could make the whole performance collapse! I had thought that that note would be the choir two’s F-natural against another choir’s F-sharp that I mention above- a false relation, see link below- but it’s actually a B-flat entrance earlier by choir four’s baritone!
Documentary on the history of Spem in Alium
The first piece with basso continuo and how it can teach you counterpoint
False relations in the late Renaissance
Spem in Alium - King’s College Choir
The most dangerous note in Spem in Alium
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