The Advent of Harmony and Polyphony
In this lesson, I cover the advent of harmonypolyphony as well as the different kinds of music—from monophony to homophony to polyphony. Aspects of the Ars Antiqua, Ars Nova and notation are covered. In addition, I reference the idea of thematically linked compositions of liturgy and use the Franklin Missa Brevis as an example of a newly composed cycle of sung responses that were written for use in a protestant worship liturgy. Here is a link to that setting.
It is hard to write a beautiful song. It is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole. The internal structures that create each of the voices separately must contribute to the emergent structure of the polyphony, which in turn must reinforce and comment on the structures of the individual voices. The way that is accomplished in detail is…“counterpoint.” —John Ruhn
Here is a link to the third lesson.