Research Catalogue

activities

• Doctor of Arts (2011) connected to: Polifonia
  Degree: Doctorate, Leiden University (Netherlands), Orpheus Institute (Belgium), recipient: Niels Berentsen
  
• Counterpoint and Cantus super librum, towards a practical understanding of Renaissance music making
  Polifonia project, Principal Investigator: Niels Berentsen
  The field of this of research is the different practices of vocal non-written polyphony that existed in Western Europe roughly between 1300 and 1450. These techniques, called discantus, contrapunctus and cantare super librum amongst others, played an important role in the singing of the liturgy. They were also one of the main subjects of musical teaching (called contrapunctus), preceding the composition of written-out polyphony (compositio). The research aims at recovering and reconstruction for the researcher, colleague performers, students and ultimately the public, these forms of extemporised counterpoint. This kind of practical research which has already been conducted for many 15th and 16th century techniques – such as the different models of fauxbourdon and improvised canon (stretto fuga), as well as for the practice of 12th century organum. The music from the so-called Ars Nova period has been conspicuously disregarded in this respect by researchers and practitioners, a lacuna which this project attempts to fill. After the study of written music and theoretical sources, the researcher will attempt to create models (or “recipes”) instructing to extemporise a type of counterpoint. In a third phase these recipes are put into practice by the researcher with a small group of collaborators, an ensemble provisionally named the Cappella Porcellae (Guineapigs chapel.) The relevance of this project lies in it’s applicability to musical education and musical practice. Students grasp much more intuitively the language of a historic polyphony after having practiced improvisation in that style. For musicians performing medieval music the practice of cantare super librum has similar benefits, it enables them to recognise the use of improvisational formulas in written pieces aiding in their interpretation. Lastly, the extempore singing of counterpoint can in itself also make a interesting and exciting contribution to concert practice. To show the public that medieval music can be produced extempore leads to a healthy “demystification” of polyphony, and a vivid insight into what the craft of the medieval century musician was.