In the 17th century composition, besides a multi-choir style represented in Polish music by Mikolaj Zielenski, a concerting style was applied as well. Compositions were written for vocal instrumental ensembles by Italian and Polish composers working at royal and magnates' courts. One of those was ensemble of Piarists from Podoliniec (Spisz). The author of the paper explores lists of mostly unpreserved compositions from Podoliniec and presents one of those preserved: Dixit Dominus by Wladyslaw Leszczynski.
The author of the paper is trying to capture the dependencies between the word and the music in the work Offertoria et communiones by Mikolaj Zielenski. The theory of musical affects and rhetorical figures (wildly known in the 16th century) laid at the basis of Zielenski's compositions. There were also many other factors which played a significant role in the composer's work. Among them was undoubtedly a secret of the composer's sensibility.
Musical elaborations of the word alleluia are especially numerous in Mikolaj Zielenski's compositions. There are several characteristic features of these elaborations, such as predominance of syllabic over melismatic movement of melody, different patterns of accentuation in opposed choirs in his multi-choir compositions, and many others. Different rhythms and declamations of the word alleluia are the starting-point in the process of composition which begins with a single word and grows to great compositive structures.
Salomon de Caus was a French engineer, architect and designer. His teaching of counterpoint - presented in the treatise Institution harmonique published in 1615 - is a very original way of looking at musical composition. According to his view, the harmony is a kind of structure composed of different elements.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.