The Fascinating Counterpoint of Lamentation Letters
The Fascinating Counterpoint of Lamentation Letters
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MAIN SOURCES
Orlando di Lasso, Lamentations for four voices (ca. 1575). MS, München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus.ms. 2745. Originals at [MDZ] and [imslp]; modern edition at [cpdl].
Giovanni Guidetti, Cantus ecclesiasticus officii majoris hebdomadae (Rome, 1587) [link].
Emilio de’ Cavalieri, Lamentations (ca. 1590-1600) [imslp].
More about Lamentation settings in general: Robert L. Kendrick, Singing Jeremiah: Music and Meaning in Holy Week (Indiana University Press, 2014)
FOOTNOTES
[02:14] More specifically, chapters 1-4 are written like this, chapter 5 is not. Furthermore, chapter 3 is written with three verses per letter, that is, instead of having 22 verses like the other chapters, it has 66.
[03:35] It should be noted that since not all the verses from each chapter were chosen to be part of the liturgy, the original idea of the acrostic including the entire alphabet (from Alpha to Omega if you wish) is lost here. There were different traditions and verse selections before it was more or less standardized, but in no case entire chapters were included in the services.
[05:22] More about illuminated initials see in: Elizabeth MacDonald, "Lighting the Way: How illuminated initials guided medieval readers through books", blogpost on euopeana.eu [link].
[07:13] See our episode Cantare super librum [YouTube]. Concerning the use of alternating 5th and 3rds see minute 10:39, as well as Appendix II-b on the footnote page of that episode.
[08:29] Ibid. Concerning the use of parallel 10ths see minute 11:50 as well as Appendix II-c on the footnote page of that episode.
[09:05] See our episode Stretto fuga - How to make a masterpiece out of two intervals [YouTube].
[10:38] See our episode How to improvise polyphony in four voices according Tomás de Santa María [YouTube].
[11:38] To what we refer here is invertible counterpoint, Zarlino referred to contrapunto doppio (double counterpoint). Gioseffo Zarlino, Le istitutioni harmoniche, part III (Venice, 1558) [imslp] [TMI], ca. 56. Zarlino doesn’t mention invertible counterpoint at the octave and starts with invertible counterpoint at the 12th, and then goes on to further kinds.
[16:50] See our video Artusi’s complaints over Monteverdi’s counterpoint [YouTube].
APPENDIX - Orlando di Lasso's Lamentations a 4 - letter composition techniques:
[IC = invertible counterpoint]
CREDITS:
Created by Elam Rotem, July 2023.
Music examples from Lasso’s Lamentations were recorded especially for this episode by ensemble Profeti della Quinta with Giovanna Baviera, Doron Schleifer, Jacob Lawrence and Elam Rotem; excerpts from Emilio de' Cavalieri’s Lamentations are taken from Profeti della Quinta’s upcoming recording of the piece (Emilio de’ Cavalieri: LAMENTATIONS; Pan Classics, September 2023).
Special thanks to Enrico Correggia, Peter Schubert and Anne Smith.
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