File:Dufay Mass cantus firmus.png

Dufay - Missa cantus firmus, derived from Se la face ay pale.^[1]  Play (help·info)

In music, a cantus firmus ("fixed song") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.

The plural of this Latin term is cantus firmi, though the corrupt form canti firmi (resulting from the treatment of cantus as a second- rather than a fourth-declension noun) is also attested. The Italian is often used instead: canto fermo (and the plural in Italian is canti fermi).

History[link]

The earliest polyphonic compositions almost always involved a cantus firmus, typically a Gregorian chant, although the term itself was not used until the 14th century.^[2] The earliest surviving polyphonic compositions, in the Musica enchiriadis (around 900 AD), contain the chant in the top voice, and the newly-composed part underneath; however this usage changed around 1100, after which the cantus firmus typically appeared in the lowest-sounding voice. Later, the cantus firmus appeared in the tenor voice (from the Latin verb 'tenere', to hold), singing notes of longer duration, around which more florid lines, instrumental and/or vocal, were composed.

Composition using a cantus firmus continued to be the norm through the 13th century: almost all of the music of the St. Martial and Notre Dame schools uses a cantus firmus, as well as most 13th century motets. Many of these motets were written in several languages, with the cantus firmus in the lowest voice; the lyrics of love poems might be sung in the vernacular above sacred Latin texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be sung to a familiar secular melody.

In the 14th century, the technique continued to be widely used for most sacred vocal music, although considerable elaboration began to appear: while most continental composers used isorhythmic methods, in England other composers experimented with a "migrant" cantus firmus, in which the tune moved from voice to voice, however without itself being elaborated significantly. Elaborations came later, in what was to be known as the paraphrase technique; this compositional method became important in composition of masses by the late 15th century. (See paraphrase mass.)

The cyclic mass, which became the standard type of mass composition around the middle of the 15th century, used cantus firmus technique as its commonest organising principle. At first the cantus firmus was almost always drawn from plainchant, but the range of sources gradually widened to include other sacred sources and even sometimes popular songs. The cantus firmus was at first restricted to the tenor, but by the end of the century many composers experimented with other ways of using it, such as introducing it into each voice as a contrapuntal subject, or using it with a variety of rhythms. During the 16th century the cantus firmus technique began to be abandoned, replaced with the parody (or imitation) technique, in which multiple voices of a pre-existing source were incorporated into a sacred composition such as a mass. Yet while composers in Italy, France, and the Low Countries used the parody and paraphrase techniques, composers in Spain, Portugal, and Germany continued to use the cantus firmus method in nationally idiosyncratic ways.^[3]

Probably the most widely set of the secular cantus firmus melodies was L'homme armé. Over 40 settings are known, including two by Josquin des Prez, and six by an anonymous composer or composers in Naples, which were intended as a cycle. Many composers of the middle and late Renaissance wrote at least one mass based on this melody, and the practice lasted into the seventeenth century, with a late setting by Carissimi. There are several theories regarding the meaning of the name: one suggests that the "armed man" represents St Michael the Archangel, while another suggests that it refers to the name of a popular tavern (Maison L'Homme Armé) near Dufay's rooms in Cambrai. Being that this music arose shortly after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, it is possible that the text "the armed man should be feared" arose from the fear of the Ottoman Turks, who were expanding militarily towards central Europe.^[4] There are numerous other examples of secular cantus firmi used for composition of masses; some of the most famous include: Se la face ay pale (Dufay), Fortuna desperata (attributed to Antoine Busnois), Fors seulement (Johannes Ockeghem), Mille Regretz, Pange Lingua (Josquin), and Westron Wynde (anonymous).

German composers in the Baroque period in Germany, notably Bach, used chorale melodies as cantus firmi. In the opening movement of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, the chorale "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" appears in long notes, sung by a separate choir of boys "in ripieno". Many of his chorale preludes include a chorale tune in the pedal part.

As a teaching tool[link]

Using a cantus firmus as a means of teaching species counterpoint was the basis of Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux, although the method was first published by Girolamo Diruta in 1610. Counterpoint is still taught routinely using a method adapted from Fux, and based on the cantus firmus.

References[link]

• M. Jennifer Bloxam: "Cantus firmus", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed November 7, 2006), (subscription access)
• Sparks, E. H. Cantus firmus in Mass and Motet, Berkeley, (1963)
• The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-674-61525-5
• Blanche Gangwere, Music History During the Renaissance Period, 1520–1550. Westport, Connecticut, Praeger Publishers. 2004.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• GLOBAL CHANT DATABASE – Index of Gregorian Chant - The largest searchable database of cantus firmus melodies

For the 4th century Roman usurper under Valentinian I, see Firmus (4th century usurper). For the saint and martyr, see Saint Firmus and Saint Rusticus. For the energy company, see firmus energy

Firmus (died 273) was a Roman usurper against Aurelian. His story is told by the often unreliable Historia Augusta twice, with the first account the most sketchy and reliable.

Life of the historical Firmus[link]

Firmus was a businessman from Seleucia, with business interests ranging from India to Egypt. He was associated with Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire. After the Emperor Aurelian defeated the Palmyrans, Firmus staged an uprising in Alexandria in Egypt, interrupting the grain supply on which Rome depended. Aurelian was obliged to defeat and kill Firmus.

Firmus never proclaimed himself emperor,^[1] but fought to support the second Palmyrene uprising against Aurelian. It is possible that Firmus was actually the name of the general sent by Aurelian to suppress the revolt, as Egyptian papyri of the time have the presence of one Claudius Firmus, corrector. Another possibility is that the author of the Historia Augusta — the only source to name Firmus — invented this figure in parallel with another Firmus, an African usurper under Valentinian I.

Historia Augusta account[link]

According to Historia Augusta ("Firmus"), Firmus was of great wealth. He had his house fitted with square panels of glass, and owned a huge library. His commercial relationships involved Blemmyes, Saracens, and India. He had two elephant-tusks, which later Aurelian projected to use as a basis for a statue to Jupiter and which were actually given as a present by Carinus to a lover of his. Physically, Firmus was noteworthy, being huge and very strong. He ate and drank a lot.

Even in this account, however, the importance and threat of Firmus revolt is related to the interruption of grain supply to Rome, caused by this rebellion in the very granary of Rome, Egypt.

Notes[link]

References[link]

Primary sources[link]

• "Firmus Saturninus Proclus et Bonosus" 3-6, Historia Augusta
• "Aurelianus" xxxii.2‑3, Historia Augusta'

• Zosimus i.61.1

Secondary sources[link]

• "Firmus", s.v. "Aurelian", De Imperatoribus Romanis site

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Andrew Toovey (b. 1962 London) is a classical composer, and recipient of composition awards including the Tippett Prize, Terra Nova Prize, the Bernard Shore Viola Composition Award and an RVW Trust Award. Two CDs of his music were released on the Largo label in 1998. He has worked extensively on education projects for Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera, Huddersfield Festival, the South Bank Centre and the London Festival Orchestra, and has been composer-in-residence at Opera Factory and the South Bank Summer School.^[1] He is now a full time composer, but used to teach part time at Bishop Ramsey School, Ruislip, Middlesex. He currently teaches at Alperton Community School in Wembley. ^[2]

References[link]

Andrew Toovey

‘Toovey consciously places himself outside what he regards as useless or outmoded conventions, whilst reserving the right to draw on, allude to, shoplift from absolutely anywhere. Not only are Toovey’s musical sympathies unusually diverse and deliberately unaligned to the readymade categories of our recent past (minimalism, neo-Romanticism, new complexity), but the fundamental stylistic “gesture” can be as readily compared to the visual arts as to any music - to the work of Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Robert Rauschenberg or Stanley Hayter

Michael Finnissy

Andrew Toovey was born in London in 1962, and studied composition with Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy and briefly with Morton Feldman. He has won a series of prestigious composition prizes including the Tippett Prize, Terra Nova Prize, the Bernard Shore Viola Composition Award and an RVW Trust Award.

Toovey was associate composer for the Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) from 1993-5 and has been the artistic director of the new music ensemble IXION since 1987. He was composer-in-residence at the Banff Centre, Canada for four successive years with his two operas and music theatre works. Two CDs of his music were released on the Largo label in 1998. He has worked extensively on education projects for Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera, Huddersfield Festival, the South Bank Centre and the London Festival Orchestra, and has been composer-in-residence at Opera Factory and the South Bank Summer School.

Toovey's works have been performed throughout the UK, Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. His works have also been featured at the Bergen, Brighton, Gaudeamus, Huddersfield and ISCM festivals and the Darmstadt and Dartington International Summer School. His music has been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and various European radio stations.

Toovey's work embraces a huge diversity of influences, from musical extremes such as Feldman and Finnissy, or the poetry of Artaud, Cummings and Rilke, to a passion for 20th century art - especially that by Bacon, Beuys, Davies, Hayter, Klee, Miro, Newman, Rauschenberg, Riley, Rothko and many more.

Recent commissions have included Music for the Painter Jack Smith (Brighton Festival), Dutch Dykes (De Ereprijs), Self portrait as a Tiger! (Ensemble Reconsil Wein), Going Home (Szymanowski String Quartet). He was commissioned by the BBC to write a viola concerto, premiered by Lawrence Power and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra earlier this year in Glasgow. He is currently writing an orchestral suite based on music from his first opera UBU and a large orchestral work.

Other commissions have included Acrobats, for COMA, mini opera I'll be there for you, commissioned by English Touring Opera, solo violin work Transparencies written for an exhibition of artist Julian Grater, and Noh for solo cello written for sculptor John Davies.

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (December 2010)

Mark Alburger (born April 2, 1957 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania) is a San Francisco Bay Area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, as well as the music director of Goat Hall Productions / San Francisco Cabaret Opera.^[1] Alburger is also the editor-publisher of 21st-Century Music Journal,^[2] which he founded in 1994 as 20th-Century Music.^[3]

Biography[link]

Alburger studied composition with Gerald Levinson and Joan Panetti at Swarthmore College; Jules Langert at Dominican University of California; and Roland Jackson, Thomas Flaherty, and Christopher Yavelow at Claremont Graduate University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Musicology in 1996. He also studied privately thereafter with Terry Riley. Alburger is best known for his use of troping techniques, combining structures and musical passages from a wide variety of pre-existing works across cultures and eras.^[4] He has a large opus list, including many concerti, operas, song cycles, symphonies, and a ten-hour theatrical setting of the Bible.^[5]

As a music journalist, he has published interviews with many notable composers across the new music scene, including Henry Brant, Earle Brown, George Crumb, Anthony Davis, Paul Dresher, Philip Glass, Ali Akbar Khan, Joan La Barbara, Steve Mackey, Tod Machover, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Erling Wold, Christian Wolff, and Pamela Z, and is a contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.^[2]

Dr. Alburger currently resides in northern California with his partner Harriet March Page, a mezzo-soprano and artistic director of Goat Hall Productions / San Francisco Cabaret Opera.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Free scores by Mark Alburger at the International Music Score Library Project