Keiko Tsukada
Music 250
April 3, 1997
Richard Freedman
Lassus's Musical Expression of the Poem
As Bergquist discusses many ways of expressing texts in music in The Seven Penitential Psalms by Orlando di Lassus. According to him in the Preface, "since the psalms express hope, trust, and joy as well as penitence, and the music responds accordingly (ix)." Lassus's focus of the musical expression is on individual word and short phrase, rather than the structure of the music. As I listened and looked at the music carefully, I found several interesting ways of musical expression.
According to Bergquist, Lassus's ways of musical expression can be
separated in several different chatagolies. I was focus on three
specific chategolies. First one is
"spatial correspondence," named by Bergquist. The music goes up or
down according to the emotion written in the text. Example follows;
Since the phrase is "gravata est super me manus tuas" which means "your hand was heavy upon me." The tone of music stays low and every syllable has long value note, in order to express the heaviness of the "hand."
In the phrase "sicut umbra declinaverunt" which means "decline like a shadow,"the pitch in each voice gradually goes down, because of the word "decline." Moreover, it is sung by upper voices first, and then it is repeated by the lower voices, like the shadow always follows an object.
In this section, the word "clamavi" which means "depth" is physically expressed by the music. When the music reaches this word, the pitch goes down in every voices.
Psalmus VII, pp. 166, m. 19-26
Since the phrase is "descendentibus in lacum" which means "go down to the pit," the musical phrases go down in every voice to express the poetic situation.
The second chatagoly is the relationship between the rhythm and music. Berquist writes in the Preface, "A sudden prevalence of fast or slow notw values can underscore ideas of haste or slowness, joy or sorrow, turbulence or calm (ix)." Example follows;
Lassus uses long value notes and many notes on one syllable to express the word "usquequo" which means "how long?" in the translation.
Each syllable has long note value and the notes do not change very often, because the phrase is "Quoniam tacui" which means "when I was silent." The music stays calm to express the silence.
The phrase "dum clamarem tota die" which means "while I cried out the whole day" is repeated three times in each voice. Every time, the highest pitch in each voice becomes higher or at least stays the same. When the phrase is repeated the third time, the note value of the highest pitch in every voice becomes relatively longer to express the emotion of crying.
Psalmus III, pp. 51-52, m. 23-30
Since each syllable has long note or several notes tied for one syllable, the music moves very slowly. This slow moving music express the heaviness of the poem; "et sicut onus gravate sunt super me," which means "and like a burden weighed heavily upon me."
Psalmus III, pp. 61-62, m. 3-7
The word "longe" is emphasized by the high, half note. That is because this word means "distance" in the phrase "de longe steterunt." The physical distance between the notes of the syllable "de" and "lon" is an octave in every voice, and the half note is a long note among other 1/4 notes.
Psalmus III, pp. 64, m. 13-15, 17-19
Mainly 1/2 note or longer is used for the phrase "tota die meditabantur." This phrase means that "all day long." The long value notes are used in order to express the length of the day.
In the phrases, "tanquam surdus (a deaf man)," "et sicut mutus (and like a dumb man)," and "non aperiens os suum (who does not open his mouth)," the music is very slow and calm, and the notes do not change very much. That is because, a deaf man lives in the silence, and a dumb man won't notice the slight change o music very much. And when he does not speak a word, then he also lives in the silence. Therefore, in order to depict those men, the music stays calm. Also, there are rests after each phrase, in order to depict the isolation of those men from the rest of the world.
The word "dele" is emphasized with the long notes (two half notes tied together to be a whole note for each syllable), and 1/4 rest follows right afterwards. That is because, the word means "wipe out," so as soon as the word is sung, it is wiped out by the 1/4 rest.
The phrase "gaudium et laetitiam" has very lyrical music because it means "joy and gladness." The emotion is expressed by the combination of different length of notes and different piches.
In order to express the phrase "Cor mundum crea in me" which means "Make a clear heart in me," the music is very simple and settled. It starts from A cord and ends in A cord.
The word "libera" which means "Free" is well expressed by simple and clear movement of the cord G-G-C.
The word "velociter" which means "quickly" is expressed with the same musical phrase in all voices; 1/4 note to two 1/8 note and back to 1/4 note. Since the inner two notes are shorter than the outer notes, the phrase carries away quickly.
The phrase is "Quia defecerunt sicut fumus dies mei" which means "Because my days have vanished like smoke." The music stops in the middle of the phrase, in order to express the word "vanished"; the music is also vanished. The music is very slow because it is expressing the situation that vanishing likesmoke. The music gradually disappears.
In this section, there is a musical contrast between the words "compeditorum (prisoners)" and "ut solveret (to free)." The word "prisoners" is sung at once by all upper four voices, and it represents a restriction. However, the word "to free" is sung by all five voices but in different timing; and it represents the freedom.
Same as the section in Psalmus V, pp. 111, m. 1-4, the word "Velociter" which means "quickly" is expressed in the musical pattern; 1/4 note - two 1/8 note - 1/4 note. Since the two inner noter are shorter than the outer notes, the phrase sounds carrying away very fast.
The next two examples are ways of expressing the text by using the negative relationship between the rhythm and music. When a rhythm can express the emotion in the text, then it also can express the statement without emotion.
The word "Dixi" has separate phrase from the rest of the music. That is because the word means " I said." Since this word is a clear statement which is different from the rest of the poem, the music is very simple and distinctive.
Similar to the phrase in Psalmus II, pp. 29, m. 1-4, the phrase "Quia dixi" which means " Because I said is separated from the rest of the music. That is because, The word is also separated from the rest of the text in terms of its literal meaning.
In the third chategoly, Bergquist menssions about "circulatioand redicta (x)." He explain those categoly that Lassus expresses the situation, duration, and permanence by using a wavy musical line (x). Example follows;
The notes which each voice starts the phrase and the notes which they end the phrase are the same or close to each other. That is because, the phrase is "Convertere Domine" which means "Return, Lord." So the music returns to the pich which it started.
The word "permanes" which means "for ever" is expressed by the long musical phrase. Especially, the last syllable of the phrase has a relatively long note, in order to express the idea of continuing.
The phrase is "In conveniencdo populos in unum" which means " To gather the people into one." The musical phrase is very simple, and the rhythm (especially the later half) is tha same in all five voices. Moreover, the phrase starts from C cord and ends in F cord (home key). The rhythm and the cord progression represent the situation, "gathering into one.
As I could present those examples, Lassus's musical expression was very much focused on specific word or short phrase. He pays attention to the small elemets of the texts when he composed the music, in order to present the texts in music as well as in language.