Tinctoris

Medieval and Renaissance counterpoint treatises offer a practical guide to composing and improvising polyphony that respects stylistic norms. These counterpoint treatises are also replete with theoretical implications and can serve as a penetrating window into Renaissance musical thought, training, and style. Sarah Fuller has described Tinctoris's Liber de arte contrapuncti (hereafter LAC) as a " culmination of contrapunctus theory from the preceding two centuries, " underlining its importance to our understanding of the period. 2 In this chapter I reexamine the LAC in order to rectify the common misconception that its interval-succession list is exhaustive, and to reveal nine tacit contrapuntal principles that Tinctoris systematically followed in the examples in the treatise. In addition to providing insight into Tinctoris's intervallic thinking, my methodology also serves as a general model for taking a corpus-study approach in researching the examples in counterpoint treatises in order to enrich our understanding of them.

[Complete Dissertation]
Abstract
Interval-succession treatises convey idiomatic polyphony by explaining what vertical intervals between two voices could follow one another in improvisation and counterpoint, as connected by specified melodic motions. They were the primary means of the transmission of contrapuntal teaching in treatises for centuries. This dissertation is the first to take a comprehensive, computer-assisted approach to the study of these treatises’ numerous examples. I focus on the interval-succession lists in book I of Johannes Tinctoris’s Liber de arte contrapuncti (1477), and in book II of Pietro Pontio’s Ragionamento di musica (1588). By comparing Tinctoris’s list of 768 interval successions to the theoretical list of all the successions that follow his five explicitly-stated voice-leading principles, I refute the commonly-held misconception that Tinctoris’s list is exhaustive. In my examination of the 167 interval successions that respect all of Tinctoris’s explicit constraints, yet that he omits from his list, I uncover nine tacit voice-leading principles that all of Tinctoris’s successions respect despite the fact that he does not explicitly state them.
This study is also the first in-depth examination of the contrapuntal teaching found in Pontio’s list of 123 interval successions. I draw attention to the multitude of contextual enrichments that he brings to the theoretical genre, the most significant of which is the inclusion of dissonance directly into interval-succession theory. I expose the tacit theoretical assumptions and analytical methods that are apparent in his interval-succession examples when considered together as a coherent whole. Well-known for the numerous repertoire references that Pontio makes to his own and other composers’ works, I show that his approach to interval-succession theory is more akin to teaching through the use of commonplaces than through the memorization of tables of numerous examples. My examination of Tinctoris and Pontio’s interval-succession treatises culminates in a comparison of their theoretical and pedagogic approaches. An appendix provides a transcription of all the examples from book II of Pontio’s treatise.
I draw on these newly-uncovered facets of Tinctoris and Pontio’s intervallic thinking and some important concepts from Nicola Vicentino and Joachim Burmeister’s treatises to problematize the discernment of structural tones in a contrapuntal passage. These authors highlight important points to consider, but do not offer a viable approach to counterpoint reduction. I develop Ruth DeFord’s (2015) theoretical discussions of her terms “compositional tactus” and “contrapuntal rhythm” into a historically-informed method of determining the structural tones of Renaissance counterpoint. An automated implementation of this approach, which I call the dynamic-offset method, can be used to reduce a contrapuntal passage, or to more generally characterize its rhythmic profile. It is made freely available online as part of the VIS Framework (Vertical Interval Successions) for music analysis of scores in symbolic notation. This music-analysis framework is a tool open to music researchers looking to make empirical observations about a piece or corpus of music. By taking my research on Renaissance interval-succession treatises into account in the computational tools I have created, my research findings and new analysis methods are made available to other researchers both in written form in my dissertation, and as computational tools in the VIS Framework.

Résumé
Les traités de suites d’intervalles enseignent les idiomes de la polyphonie en expliquant les intervalles pouvant s’enchaîner dans l’improvisation et dans la composition, telles que connectées par des mouvements mélodiques précis. Ces traités ont été, pendant des siècles, le principal moyen de transmettre l’art du contrepoint. Cette thèse est la première à adopter une approche systématique et assistée par l’ordinateur pour l’analyse des nombreux exemples de ces traités. Mon étude porte spécifiquement sur les listes de suites d’intervalles incluses dans le premier livre du Liber de arte contrapuncti (1477) de Johannes Tinctoris, et dans le deuxième livre de Ragionamento di musica (1588) de Pietro Pontio. En comparant la liste des 768 suites d’intervalles de Tinctoris à la liste théorique de toutes les suites qui respectent ses cinq principes de maniement de voix explicitement développés dans son traité, je réfute l’idée fausse mais courante que son inventaire est exhaustif. Dans mon analyse des 167 enchaînements d’intervalles qui se conforment à toutes les contraintes explicites de Tinctoris mais qu’il a omis de sa liste, j’ai découvert dix principes tacites de maniement des voix que toutes ses suites d’intervalles respectent, bien qu’il ne les mentionne pas explicitement.
Cette étude constitue le premier examen en profondeur de l’enseignement pédagogique fait à partir de la liste des 123 suites d’intervalles identifiées par Pontio. Je souligne la multitude d’enrichissements contextuels qu’il apporte au genre théorique, le plus important étant l’inclusion de la dissonance directement dans sa théorie des suites d’intervalles. J’expose les suppositions tacites de son approche et de ses méthodes d’analyse qui sont apparentes dans ses exemples de suites intervalliques lorsque considérées comme un tout cohérent. Bien connu pour les nombreuses références à ses propres œuvres et à celles d’autres compositeurs, je montre que l’approche de Pontio concernant la théorie des suites d’intervalles est plus semblable à l’enseignement avec des lieux communs qu’à celui fondé dans la mémorisation de tables de nombreux exemples. Mon examen des traités de suites d’intervalles de Tinctoris et Pontio aboutit ainsi à une comparaison de leurs approches théoriques et pédagogiques. Une annexe fournit une transcription de tous les exemples du deuxième livre du traité de Pontio.
Je puise dans ces facettes nouvellement découvertes de la pensée intervallique de Tinctoris et Pontio et dans les traités de Nicola Vicentino et Joachim Burmeister afin de problématiser le discernement des notes structurales dans un passage de contrepoint. Ces auteurs soulignent beaucoup d’éléments importants à considérer, sans toutefois offrir une approche viable pour la réduction contrapuntique. Je développe la discussion théorique de Ruth DeFord (2015) à propos de ses termes « tactus de composition » et « rythme contrapuntique » en utilisant une méthode historiquement informée qui détermine les notes structurales dans le contrepoint de la Renaissance. Une mise en œuvre automatisée de cette approche, que j’appelle le « dynamic-offset method », peut être employée pour réduire un passage contrapuntique, ou pour caractériser son profil rythmique de façon plus générale. Cet outil est librement disponible en tant que partie du VIS Framework pour l’analyse musicale d’œuvres en notation symbolique. Ce logiciel d’analyse est mis à la disposition des chercheurs en musique qui souhaitent faire des observations empiriques à propos d’un morceau ou d’un corpus. En prenant en compte ma recherche sur les traités de suites d’intervalles de la Renaissance dans la création de ces outils d’analyse, mes conclusions et nouvelles méthodes d’analyses sont disponibles aux autres chercheurs dans cette thèse, et aussi comme outils numériques dans le VIS Framework.

Despite the scholarly attention that has rightly been paid to Universitat de València, Biblioteca Històrica, MS 835, and Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 2573, as crucially important textual sources for Tinctoris’s music theory, insufficient regard has so far been given to these two Neapolitan presentation manuscripts as historical artefacts that encode information about the priorities and concerns of those who brought them into existence. This thesis presents the first complete physical descriptions of these manuscripts, and employs detailed palaeographical, iconographical, and historical analysis to establish the likely circumstances of, and reasons for, their production. In the course of proposing identifications of the scribes and artists involved, analysing in fine detail their sequences of preparation, considering the organisational structure articulated by the decorated initials, interpreting the iconography of the portrait miniature on the frontispiece of Valencia 835, and marshalling complex heraldic evidence, many other Neapolitan manuscripts are brought into discussion. By analysing and contextualising Valencia 835 and Bologna 2573, therefore, the thesis functions also as a significant contribution to anglophone scholarship on the wider output of the Neapolitan scriptorium in the late fifteenth century.

A newly enriched account is proposed of Tinctoris’s arrival and period of employment in Naples, and of his and the wider court’s involvement in the preparation of music theory manuscripts as instruments of political expression. This thesis, therefore, offers a re-appraisal of the genesis and later history of these two high-value music theory manuscripts. By presenting detailed codicological analysis and using it to construct and reshape historical narratives, it also provides a firm basis for future scholarly investigation into Tinctoris and music theory within the intellectual, cultural, and political climate of late fifteenth-century Italy.

Il volume raccoglie le osservazioni sul lessico tecnico della musica e del teatro del Cinquecento, attestato dalle traduzioni manoscritte di alcuni trattati greci: «Onomasticon» di Polluce, i «Problemi musicali» («Probl. XIX»), attribuiti ad Aristotele e altri testi più brevi. Le traduzioni, eseguite dal fonetista fiorentino Giorgio Bartoli (1534-1583), forniscono materiali per l'allestimento di un glossario ragionato che costituisce il nucleo centrale del volume.

Despite the scholarly attention that has rightly been paid to Universitat de Valencia, Biblioteca Historica, MS 835, and Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 2573, as crucially important textual sources for Tinctoris’s music theory, insufficient regard has so far been given to these two Neapolitan presentation manuscripts as historical artefacts that encode information about the priorities and concerns of those who brought them into existence. This thesis presents the first complete physical descriptions of these manuscripts, and employs detailed palaeographical, iconographical, and historical analysis to establish the likely circumstances of, and reasons for, their production. In the course of proposing identifications of the scribes and artists involved, analysing in fine detail their sequences of preparation, considering the organisational structure articulated by the decorated initials, interpreting the iconography of the portrait miniature on the frontispiece of Valencia 835, ...

15th- and 16th-century mensural notation raises many debates and questions among musicologists and modern performers. The contradictory teachings found in the vast body of theory from the Renaissance can be addressed through a better understanding of the treaties’ roles as well as the highlighting of the mechanisms that turn a descriptive system in a set of prescriptive and self-referential rules disconnected from musical practice: the cult of authority, a wish for symmetry and a taste for completeness. Meanwhile, the exploration of the links between tactus and counterpoint makes it possible to define the active time window in which the management of dissonances becomes a dynamic process. The sliding cursor where the Notenbild is scrolled allows for an internal examination of the music that clarifies most of the ambiguities regarding choice of tempo while avoiding the pitfalls of theoretical contradictions.

French abstract :
La notation mensuraliste des XVe et XVIe siècles suscite débats et interrogations parmi les musicologues et les interprètes modernes. Face aux enseignements contradictoires du vaste corpus théorique de la Renaissance, il convient de mieux saisir le rôle de ces traités, mais également de mettre en évidence les mécanismes qui transforment un système descriptif en un ensemble de règles prescriptives auto-référentes déconnectées de la pratique musicale : culte de l’autorité, volonté de symétrie et goût pour la complétude. En parallèle, l’exploration des liens entre tactus et contrepoint permet de qualifier la fenêtre temporelle active à l’intérieur de laquelle la gestion des dissonances devient un processus dynamique. Ce curseur dans lequel défile le Notenbild rend possible un examen interne de la musique qui lève la plupart des ambiguïtés relatives au choix du tempo, tout en évitant l’écueil des contradictions théoriques.

The manuscript Universitat de València, Biblioteca Històrica, MS 835 has been known for some time as one of the principal sources of the music-theoretical works of Johannes Tinctoris (c.1435–1511). More recently, the codex has become the subject of serious study in terms not only of its value as a textual source, but also as a splendidly produced and decorated artwork that encodes information about the concerns and priorities of those who commissioned and produced it. The present study takes some of this recent research as the starting point for an in-depth investigation of the production and later history of manuscript, also considering in detail how the planners, scribe, and artists who manufactured the codex used decoration as a means of demarcating the internal structure and organization of Tinctoris’s texts.

https://earlymusictheory.org/Tinctoris/Articles/Johannes-Tinctoris-And-Music-Theory/Goursaud/#

In this paper, I interrogate the working processes of the scribe Venceslaus Crispus in his execution of the manuscripts Bologna 2573 and Valencia 835, the two presentation manuscripts of Johannes Tinctoris's music theory which were produced at the Neapolitan royal court in the late fifteenth century. I analyse closely his use of orientation marks, guide letters for decorated initials, and changes of pen and ink, in order to develop a narrative of composition of the several categories of textual and musical inscription. I consider some aspects of Crispus's wider work, arguing for his sole responsibility for the execution not only of the verbal text but also of both the monophonic and the polyphonic musical examples in these two manuscripts. I then explore the potential implications of my analyses and ascriptions in terms of Crispus's status at the Neapolitan court, particularly with direct relevance to his execution of the significant series of copies of the works of Aquinas for which he was responsible concurrently with Tinctoris's music-theoretical codices.

The Liber de arte contrapuncti of Johannes Tinctoris (c. 1435–1511) is perhaps his most famous treatise. Its sheer size and comprehensiveness on matters relating to counterpoint have made it an ideal case study for many scholars. One of its defining features is the inclusion of diverse range of examples to demonstrate theoretical points. These range from small graphical examples to show specific intervals to fully composed polyphonic pedagogical miniatures that demonstrate a complex theoretical point, normally relating to dissonance practice.
This range of examples, and their relationships with the text, raises questions as to how Tinctoris envisaged that his treatise would be read, and by implication who this readership might have been. Indeed, it is this range of examples that demands a number of different integrative methods to be adopted to successfully integrate non-text elements into the theoretical argument. When compared to other contemporary theorists, Tinctoris’s examples appear to have been carefully considered and tailor-made to the theoretical points, and not retrofitted after the composition of the treatise text.
In this paper, I will consider the range of examples found in Tinctoris’s counterpoint treatise and what clues these examples, and the ways that they are deployed, can give us as to how this treatise might have been used by its readership. Using Tinctoris’s treatise as a window into contemporary practice and reading habits, it is possible to begin to better understand the readership that music theory was written for, and how treatises of this sort would have been consumed.