Project #2

Music 230, Professor Freedman

To be accompanied by MCD 1940: Loyset Compère Motets (Orlando Consort)

Loyset Compere, an accomplished yet not very well-known composer of the 15th century, has been neglected as a figure in musical history. Historians through the ages have somehow left him out of most of their writings. Therefore, as modern researchers and discoverers, we have very little resources from which to gather information about Compere. In fact, even his date and place of birth are argued upon by historians. Thus, our study is limited to what we see on the pages of his music and what we glean from the music we hear (MCD 1490, Carapetyan).

It is believed that Compere wrote some motets for the French Royal court during his years there. Among these motets was the canon Asperges me Domine, a beautiful four-part canon in 4ths. It was written sometime between 1500-1505, although the exact date is not known for sure. This was towards the end of Compere's life when his experience as a composer was at its peak (Carapetyan and Finscher 255). The canon was a popular musical form of this period; however, a canon in 4ths was not. There are many aspects of this piece that make listening to it fascinating. The following pages will explore the intrigues of Aperges me Domine including its structure and its ties between music and text.

Asperges me Domine is broken up into three sections, each section starting with a solo chant from the superius voice. After the chant, each section then continues with a canon starting in one of the four voice parts.

The first section, which we will call section I, starts with the opening chant and ends with a strong cadence on measure 18. It uses six overlapping phrases to express the first sentence of text. The first canon starts with the bassus voice, but the starting voice changes throughout the piece. However, each canon, throughout, is sung at the fourth. There are four strong cadences, m. 2, m. 5, m.10, and m. 18, each marking the end of a thought in the text. There are also many other places that exhibit a kind of pseudo-cadence where the modern ear expects to hear a resolution, and the resolution is reached; however, movement among the middle parts nullifies the effect of the cadence. For example, in m. 12, the superius and the bassus parts seem to reach a cadence point, but the tenor and alto parts continue to move catching the listeners attention away from the cadence point. This gives the piece a forward motion that moves the phrase forward. This is an especially effective result here, close to the end of section I. It gives the piece a little momentum just before is comes to a temporary close. Section I is the longest and move involved of the three sections and therefore this close is very satisfying to the ear when all of the interweaving parts finally resolve together in fifths.

The second section, section II, also starts with a chant. The bassus and tenor parts then start the canon. Section II expresses the entire second sentence of text in one long phrase with only one major cadence at its close in m. 26. This is the shortest of the sections, yet it has some of the more interesting motives of the piece. It starts out with a series of repeated notes in all four parts which then use canon to move on counterpunally (m. 20-23). Then the alto part imitates a delightful motive in the superius part (m.24 &25). Section II then continues to close at a cadence in fifths.

The third and final section, section III, encompasses the remainder of the text. Following its chant, it proceeds into three overlapping phrases with two major cadences in m. 32 and m. 41. This part of the canon starts with the alto, tenor, and bassus parts leading with the superius as the sole voice in canon. This quickly changes as the section III continues; however, this is the first time we have heard only three parts start out the canon which sounds new and different to us even though the music goes on restate the repeated notes we heard in section II (m. 28-30). Also, the second phrase in section III is a direct quote of section II up until m. 37 where the "Amen" moves into a variation on section II. The piece then culminates to a resolving cadence in fifths.

Now that we have somewhat of an understanding of the structure of Asperges me Domine , we can begin to look at the links between the music and the text. This piece can be viewed in many different ways. I see it as an ad-libed prayer. When someone is saying an unprepared prayer, he might start out with sentences or key phrases that are common to most prayers and then hope that those beginning words engage thoughts that lead to the rest of the prayer. Asperges me Domine can be heard in this way. If we consider the chants to be the beginning sentences or key phrases that start out each part of the prayer, then the following canon sections can serve as the elaboration of the thoughts engaged by the opening words. By looking closely at the texts of the chants, we can see how this could be possible.

The opening chant reads, "Aperges me" which means something similar to "shower me". It is then followed by an elongated statement of the word "Domine" or "Lord". Here, the chant starts out the prayer and then the music gets caught up in the word Lord, much like someone might get caught up in prayer. When there is a lull in the flow of the prayer, another familiar text is inserted, "Miserere mei, Deus" or "Have mercy on me, Lord". This, too, sparks another phrase of text and musical elaboration through to the culmination of section II in m. 26. Finally, after another lull in the prayer the closing words of the prayer follow the chant "Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto" or "Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit", a traditional ending to a prayer. Thus, the chants can be seen as kind of collecting of thoughts. They have a recitative-like style to them that adds to this idea because it makes them sound more spoken than sung.

Another tie between the music and the text of Asperges me Domine is the repetition of the music in section II in the second phrase of section III (m. 32 and following). As pointed out earlier, the music here is a direct quote of the music in section II. The text in section II reads, "secundum magnam misericordiam tuam" which means "...according to your [God's] great compassion". The text that goes with the quoted material in section III reads, "et saecula saeculorum" which means "and forever and for all ages". Although these to two pieces of text are clearly in completely different sections of the piece, Compere has made a connection between them by using the same musical expression in both. By repeating the music, the listener's memory is triggered into thinking about the previous passage. So, the listener almost subconsciously makes a connection between God's "great compassion" and "forever, and for all ages".

Similarly, the repeated notes discussed earlier (m. 20-23, m. 28-30, and m. 34-35) can also be interpreted as an expression of the phrase, "forever and for all ages" since the same notes seem to go on forever. It really is quite a brilliant effect.

Finally, the piece ends with a 7-bar expression of the word, amen. Compere takes the entire second have of the quoted musical phrase from above to state amen. This might seem excessive, but the combination of the repeated material with a little variation on the material creates a nice close to the piece. Compere could have spread the text over more of the music, but then the ending might lose the ambiance of such a close. The word amen at the end of a prayer is a kind of release, or sigh, signifying the end of dialogue with God. Therefore, this drawn-out passage serves to create a "sigh" effect for the listener and is another way this piece sounds much like an actual prayer instead of just a piece of music. It sounds like it is spur-of-the-moment, ad-libed, straight from the heart. Isn't that what a prayer should be? Compere found a way to take a well-known genre, the motet, and fuse it with a part of daily life, the prayer. This makes for a great work of art.

Works Cited

Carapteyan, Armen. ed. Loyset Compere: Opera Omnia. American Institute of Musicology, 1961.

Finscher, Ludwig. Loyset Compere: Life and Works. American Institute of Musicology, 1964.