Use with Ockeghem Complete Secular Music The Medieval Ensemble of London

Greg Dobler

11 / 25 / 97

Music 230A

Ockeghem's Prenez sur moi

I writing Prenez sur moi, Ockeghem created a complex piece in which the text intertwines in subtle and obvious ways with the structure and composition of the music. In addition, the music is both aurally and academically pleasing, in that the song sounds pleasing to the ear, but at the same time the cannonic style of the music makes it extremely difficult to formulate a comprehensible musical thought. However, not only does Ockeghem create this beautiful and complex music, but he also, with the writing of this piece, begins to stretch the bounds of medieval music with respect to harmonies and structure. Before the music/text relationship can be established, the structure of the music must be examined in some detail.

The first, and most obvious, feature of Prenez sur moi is that it is a cannonic piece, meaning that one line begins and is mirrored by the other line(s) after a set number of measures. However, Ockeghem complicates this to a very large degree by incorporating two additional features to the music. First, the cannon is in three part contrapuntal harmony which is far more complex than two part harmony. Second, each successive voices opens a fourth above the preceding voice. (Musical Example 1) Taking these two facts into consideration one would wonder how this piece could sound musically coherent at all. In addition, the musical nature of the time period and the musical nature of a cannon conflict with one another, in that the melody must break after the second A section (see structure column on page 6). This means that with all this confusion of repetition of melodic lines a practical musical "breaking point" must be established in the middle of the melody. This poses particular problems because each part of the text (and similarly each part of the music) must be a certain length, so the performers must create a semi-conclusive cadence with just a few measures of leeway. It is interesting to note the harmonic structure of the end of the A section in this particular recording. After the repetition of the A section there is a fermatta before the melody goes back to the beginning. One would think with this type of break there would be a cadence at the end of the A section. However this is not the case. The typical cadence of Ockeghem's day involved contrary motion of two lines that resulted in octaves, fifths, or unisons. But in this recording the end of the A section falls on a Dm triad which does not correspond at all to the harmonies of the day. (Musical Example 2) The harmonies of a Dm triad would sound dissonant to medieval composers and these harmonies were often avoided.

On its way to the Dm triad, the beginning section of the piece goes through a whirlwind of medieval cadences. The first cadence occurs at measure 3 and 4, where the lower melodies go to d octaves. The next cadence occurs between bars 4 and 5 where the upper melodies move to g octaves. The third cadence is between bars 5 and 6 where the lower melodies move to a octaves. This cadence is somewhat deceptive and cannot be heard in the music very well because the middle voice immediately moves to f after landing on a. (Musical Example 3) The same is true for the next cadence which occurs between bars 6 and 7. Here the notes move to octave d's. The pattern of two cadences per measure continues to the end of the A section (see cadences on page 5). The frequency of cadences decreases after the A section, in that cadences begin to occur in pairs approximately every 4 measures.

The choice of a cannonic structure for this piece is quite important in listening to it and holding it as an example of a medieval piece that broke away from the boundaries of the time period. Ockeghem gives emphasis to the melody line by having it repeat three times in the various voices. This creates an echo or call and response effect that Ockeghem could have used as a tool to make his music more aurally pleasing. For example the first time through (the bottom voice) a particular run could have been to get the listener acquainted with the sound, the second time through (the middle voice) could have been used to get the listener used to the sound so that the third time through (the top voice) the listener was familiar with the run already and it was not shocking. What must be noted is that this process is a continuing cycle. The result of the constant introduction, familiarization, and repetition of musical ideas results in the subconscious sense that the music is familiar, and the more familiar the music, the more the listener can relate to it and the more aurally pleasing it is. This repetition pattern is the most notable in measures 15 through 17 where there is a strong rhythmic contrast between the descending eighth notes and the half notes that follow. (Musical Example 4) What is interesting to note is that the three voices present seem to represent the maximum number of individual voice that one can hear distinctively and clearly at one time. Four voices would have made the piece far to jumbled and confusing, and the listener would not be able to concentrate on the cannon or the melody. But with three voices, the melody and cannon are still interesting while one can hear all three voices, distinctively, at once.

If viewed from a tonality and texture perspective, this piece can be seen as a very modern and somewhat progressive piece of music. The familiarization pattern sounds nothing like any of the other music at the time. While this piece is fluid and smooth sounding, other medieval music sounds jarring and rigid. However, it is the tonality of the music that truly sets it apart. Prenez sur moi is, unlike the other music of the period, very tonal and harmonic. When one listens to it, the sounds and harmonies used (in particular the extensive use of thirds and fourths) seem very far removed from the blocky fifth and octave structure of other period music. This is all set up with the opening phrase where the three voices enter with stacked fourths. (Musical Example 5) The result is a very harmonic overtone that is present throughout the piece. Also, throughout the piece there is much emphasis placed on major triads and in particular the C major triad. By placing such emphasis on the C major triad, Ockeghem brought out the color tones (the third on the major triad) while at the same time remaining somewhat faithful to the fifth structure (the C chord is the fifth of the tonic). The C major triad is best heard in measure 17 where it is further emphasized by the fact that it marks the end of the eighth note/half note rhythmic contrast. (Musical Example 6) Overall, the piece seems very harmonic with the exception of the last cadence. The last cadence sounds much more like the other music of the time period and less like the harmonic sound of the rest of the song. It is not coincidental that the last cadence sounds blocky and also ends on octave fifths above the tonic which was a musical rule for the period. (Musical Example 7)

One of the most interesting points about this piece is the double meaning of the text and the way in which it is used to virtually describe the music itself. On the exterior, the text seems to be just a narrator telling the listener to take his advice about love, in that although it seems great at first, once the opening fascination is passed, only difficulty lies ahead until one finds himself a mistress. The narrator then goes on to describe the same situation in more poetic language. It can be easily shown that the first part of the text (sections A and B) relate to the music. The line "take from me your amorous example" describes the cannonic form of the piece in that the other two voices take the first as their example. "The beginning of love is savory," refers to the opening sequence and the sweet sounding cadence on d that follows. "The middle full of pain and sorrow," deals directly with the fact that the middle section of the piece involving the eighth notes and half notes was both quite difficult to write and hard to hear exactly clearly. "The outcome is to have a pleasing mistress," is referring to the fact that the last part of the B section is now slow and easy and once again sweet sounding. "Breaking up is hard steps," reveals that Ockeghem did not have an easy time coming up with an ending for the piece which is probably why the simple octave fifth cadence was used. What is a bit more cryptic, however, is how the other two parts of the piece relate to the music, but upon closer inspection these have the same general nuances of parts A and B. Section a deals with the fact the song changes from pretty and simple to pretty and complex, while section b states that each time that Ockeghem wrote sweet sounding harmonies, other problems throughout the rest of the music arose. This attests to the fact that a three part cannon in fourths is not an easy piece of music to compose.

Prenez sur moi represents both a complex piece and a push towards a more harmonic future for multiple voiced pieces of music. The ties between text and music are clearly apparent and although the a and b sections seem like they have less to do with the topic of musical structure, they really only restate what the A and B sections said. One can tell just by listening to the piece that the harmonic structure of the music emphasizes the color tones of thirds and fourths. The sound of the harmonies resembles baroque and classical music more so than it does medieval music, and the inherent problems of the structure of a three part cannon are easily overcome by Ockeghem to create a beautifully composed and well thought out piece of modern music.

Cadences

Cadence ,Voices, Measures

d, lower, 3-4

g, upper, 4-5

a, lower, 5-6

d, upper, 6-7

c, lower, 8-9

f, upper, 9-10

g, lower, 10-11

c, upper, 11-12

d, lower, 13-14

c, upper, 19

g, lower, 24

c, upper, 25

a, lower, 30

d, upper, 31

g, lower, 33-34

c, upper, 35

Structure of Text

The letter A corresponds to the first half of the piece up to the Dm break. The letter B corresponds to the rest of the piece. The small letters mean that it has the music of the section of that letter but with different text. The difference between the two a sections is only lyrical and not musical.

Structure Column

A

B

a₁

A

a₂

b

A

B