The compositional process behind the iconic Tallis forty-part motet, Spem in alium (ca. 1570) remains an enigma. Did he really check every pair of voices for illegal parallels? The author proposes a scenario based on Thomas Campion’s “Rule” for connecting notes in three voices above a bass. This very clever system ensures the presence of all three interval-classes above the bass (third, fifth, and root), and makes parallels impossible. The treatise was widely reprinted, and it is likely that the system was known well before its appearance around 1614. Any composer who knew this system could have grouped the melodic motions above the bass in such a way as to make the task of writing in so many parts more manageable. Campion believed that the bass was the principal melodic voice, and glimpses into the disposition of the sogge i in Tallis’s motet reveal that the bass is indeed the sogge o in the thick-textured sections. Volume 24, Number 1, March 2018 Copyright © 2018 Society for Music Theory [1.1] The famous motet in the title is of course Spem in alium nunquam habui (“Hope in another never have I had”), composed around 1570 (Tallis 1928; Legge 2010). This piece has always occupied a special place in the canon as an oddity among Renaissance masterpieces, and it has recently enjoyed appearances in popular culture, with Janet Cardiff’s museum installation (2001), the alarming mention it gets in Fifty Shades of Grey (James 2011; Higgins 2012), and the film Boychoir with Dustin Hoffman (Girard 2014). [1.2] Its iconic status may be partly due to the mind-boggling complexity of writing in so many parts. Denis Stevens (1982) recounts an anecdote in which John Bull travels to Northern France in 1601. There he meets a “famous Musician,” who “conducted Bull to a Vestry, or Music School joyning to the Cathedral, and shew’d to him a Lesson or Song of forty parts, and then made a vaunting Challenge to any Person in the World to add one more part to them, supposing it to be compleat and full, that it was impossible for any mortal Man to correct, or add to it. Bull thereupon desiring the use of Ink and rul’d Paper, (such as we call Musical Paper), prayed the Musician to lock him up in the said School for 2 or 3 hours; which being done, not without great disdain by the Musician, Bull in that time or less, added forty more parts to the said Lesson or Song. The Musician thereupon being called in, he viewed it, tried it, and retry’d it. At length he burst into a great ecstasy, and swore by the great God that he that added those 40 parts, must either be the Devil or Dr. Bull&c. Whereupon Bull making himself known, the Musician fell down and adored him” (Stevens 1982, 180). [1.3] This anecdote, which may or may not refer to the Tallis, portrays counterpoint as magic or alchemy.(1) We are still so awed by the massiveness and intricacy of this piece that we don’t dare speculate on how it might have been pulled off in the first place, much less how Bull’s subsequent feat could have been accomplished. While we justly celebrate its dramatic and expressive deployment of sound masses, we have no idea how to compose in so many parts without parallel fifths and octaves. The scholarship one reads about the motet is almost exclusively focused anywhere but on the details of compositional process. The subjects that have interested scholars are how Tallis might have been influenced by Striggio’s 40-part mass, the occasion for which the work might have been wri en, its political significance, its overall proportions, the disposition of the eight five-part choirs, and the choice and se ing of its text (Cole 2008; Doe 1970; Roth 1998; Schofield 1951). An exception is Davi Moroney’s (2007) treatment of the Striggio (see [8.2] and [8.5]). [1.4] In the following pages I propose a scenario for the compositional process behind the piece, using tools provided by Thomas Campion. Be er known as a poet and composer, Campion (1567– 1620) wrote a li le treatise that contains a detailed discussion of four-voice counterpoint. His examples look to us like chord progressions in four-part harmony, although they are conceived quite differently, as I will show (Campion 2003).(2) His method is very clever in its own right, and it can also be used to illuminate writing in many parts. 2. Voice Leading Combinatorics [2] When we write in four parts, we are told to check every pair of voices separately for duplications, parallel perfect intervals, skips from dissonances, etc. In a four-part texture, there are six pairs of voices (just as, if four people clink glasses at a table, there are six clinks). This can be calculated by taking the number of voices, n, and applying this formula: yielding 12/2 = 6 pairs of voices in a four-voice texture. Tallis, to check for hidden parallels in the full-textured sections of his motet, would have had to check or 780 pairs of voices (John Bull in the anecdote would have had to check 3160 pairs). This seems ridiculously cumbersome and time-consuming. Can anybody believe that Tallis did that? I will show how Campion’s method makes the task more manageable. 3. Thomas Campion’s “New Way” [3.1] Campion’s method begins by showing how to connect notes in three upper voices above a given bass motion. The title of his treatise, “A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counterpoint,” and the fact that it prescribes the motions of each voice above the bass place it in the long line of counterpoint treatises that show all possible first-species motions above or below a tenor. The differences are that 1) the given “tenor” melodic motion is now only in the bass, so all counterpoint is above, and 2) at first, Campion only allows three intervals above the bass: the third, the fifth, and the octave (and their compounds). His rule specifies that, for any given first vertical interval and any given bass motion, there are only two possible motions to the second vertical interval (later in the treatise he will add an exception for parallel tenths). Those motions will lead to another third, fifth or octave above the bass. Thus his musical world is a very limited version of that in previous counterpoint treatises, and it is further limited by texture: he maintains a four-voice texture at all times. The rule ensures that, in this texture, every vertical sonority will contain all three intervals. n × (n − 1)

中文翻译：

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托马斯·坎皮恩的“和弦对位”和塔利斯著名的四十首颂歌

标志性的塔利斯 40 部分主题曲《Spem in alium》（约 1570 年）背后的组成过程仍然是一个谜。他真的检查过每一对声音是否有非法的相似之处吗？作者根据 Thomas Campion 的“规则”提出了一个场景，用于连接低音上方三个声部的音符。这个非常聪明的系统确保了低音（三度、五度和根音）之上的所有三个音程等级的存在，并使平行变得不可能。该论文被广泛转载，该系统很可能在 1614 年左右出现之前就已为人所知。任何了解该系统的作曲家都可以将低音上方的旋律运动分组，从而使写作任务变得如此许多部分更易于管理。坎皮恩认为低音是主要的旋律声音，对 Tallis 颂歌中 sogge i 的性格的一瞥揭示了低音确实是厚纹理部分中的 sogge o。第 24 卷，第 1 期，2018 年 3 月 版权所有 © 2018 Society for Music Theory [1.1] 标题中的著名箴言当然是 Spem in alium nunquam habui（“我从未拥有的希望”），创作于 1570 年左右（Tallis 1928 年） ；莱格 2010）。这件作品一直在佳能中占有特殊的地位，作为文艺复兴时期杰作中的奇葩，最近它在流行文化中崭露头角，珍妮特·卡迪夫 (Janet Cardiff) 的博物馆装置 (2001)、《五十度灰》(James 2011) 中令人震惊地提到它；希金斯 2012），以及达斯汀霍夫曼的电影男孩合唱团（吉拉德 2014）。[1.2] 它的标志性地位可能部分是由于写作如此多的部分令人难以置信的复杂性。丹尼斯·史蒂文斯 (Denis Stevens) (1982) 讲述了约翰·布尔于 1601 年前往法国北部的轶事。在那里他遇到了一位“著名的音乐家”，他“将布尔带到了一个 Vestry，或者音乐学校到大教堂欢呼一首四十部分的课程或歌曲，然后向世界上任何人提出了一个大胆的挑战，在他们身上再增加一个部分，假设它是完整和完整的，任何凡人都无法纠正或增加它。公牛于是希望使用墨水和纸（如我们所说的音乐纸），祈求音乐家将他锁在上述学校两三个小时；这样做，在当时或更少的时间里受到音乐家布尔的极大蔑视，为上述课程或歌曲增加了四十个部分。音乐家随即被召入，他查看、尝试并重试。最后他爆发出极大的狂喜，并以伟大的上帝发誓，添加这 40 个部分的他一定是魔鬼或布尔博士。因此，布尔让自己广为人知，音乐家就倒下并崇拜他”（Stevens 1982, 180）。[1.3] 这个轶事，可能会也可能不会提到塔利斯，将对位描绘成魔法或炼金术。 (1) 我们仍然对这件作品的庞大和复杂感到敬畏，我们不敢推测它会如何一开始就被取消了，更不用说公牛随后的壮举是如何完成的。虽然我们理所当然地庆祝它对声音质量的戏剧性和表现力的部署，但我们不知道如何在没有平行五度和八度的情况下创作这么多部分。读到的关于经文的奖学金几乎完全集中在任何地方，但都集中在作曲过程的细节上。令学者感兴趣的主题是塔利斯可能如何受到斯特里乔 40 部分弥撒的影响、该作品可能写作的场合、其政治意义、其整体比例、八个五部分合唱团的布置，以及文本的选择和设置（Cole 2008；Doe 1970；Roth 1998；Schofield 1951）。一个例外是 Davi Moroney (2007) 对 Striggio 的处理（见 [8.2] 和 [8.5]）。[1.4] 在接下来的几页中，我使用 Thomas Campion 提供的工具为作品背后的创作过程提出了一个场景。作为著名的诗人和​​作曲家，坎皮恩 (1567-1620) 写了一篇《理乐》，其中详细讨论了四声部对位法。他的例子在我们看来就像四声部和声中的和弦进行，尽管它们的构思完全不同，正如我将展示的（Campion 2003）。(2) 他的方法本身非常聪明，它也可以用于照亮了许多部分的写作。2. Voice Leadership Combinatorics [2] 当我们写成四部分时，我们被告知要分别检查每对语音是否有重复、平行完美音程、不和谐音跳等。在四部分纹理中，有六对声音（就像，如果四个人在一张桌子上碰杯，就会有六次碰杯）。这可以通过获取语音数量 n 并应用以下公式来计算：在四语音纹理中产生 12/2 = 6 对语音。塔利斯，为了检查他的诗歌全纹理部分中隐藏的相似之处，将不得不检查 780 对语音（轶事中的约翰布尔将不得不检查 3160 对）。这看起来非常麻烦且耗时。有人能相信塔利斯做到了这一点吗？我将展示 Campion 的方法如何使任务更易于管理。3. Thomas Campion 的“New Way” [3.1] Campion 的方法首先展示了如何在给定的低音运动之上连接三个高音中的音符。他的论文的标题“在对位中制作福尔部分的新方法”以及它规定了低音上方每个声音的运动这一事实将其置于一长串对位论文中，展示了上面所有可能的第一物种运动或低于男高音。不同之处在于 1) 给定的“男高音”旋律运动现在仅在低音中，因此所有对位都在上方，以及 2) 起初，Campion 只允许低音以上的三个音程：三度、五度和八度（及其复合音）。他的规则规定，对于任何给定的第一个垂直音程和任何给定的低音运动，第二个垂直音程只有两种可能的运动（稍后在论文中他将添加平行十分之一的例外）。这些动作将导致低音上方的另一个三分之一，五度或八度。因此，他的音乐世界是之前对位论文中的一个非常有限的版本，并且受到结构的进一步限制：他始终保持四声部结构。该规则确保在此纹理中，每个垂直响度都将包含所有三个音程。n × (n − 1) 对于任何给定的第一个垂直音程和任何给定的低音运动，第二个垂直音程只有两种可能的运动（稍后在论文中他将添加平行十分之一的例外）。这些动作将导致低音上方的另一个三分之一，五度或八度。因此，他的音乐世界是之前对位论文中的一个非常有限的版本，并且受到结构的进一步限制：他始终保持四声部结构。该规则确保在此纹理中，每个垂直响度都将包含所有三个音程。n × (n − 1) 对于任何给定的第一个垂直音程和任何给定的低音运动，第二个垂直音程只有两种可能的运动（稍后在论文中他将添加平行十分之一的例外）。这些动作将导致低音上方的另一个三分之一，五度或八度。因此，他的音乐世界是之前对位论文中的一个非常有限的版本，并且受到结构的进一步限制：他始终保持四声部结构。该规则确保在此纹理中，每个垂直响度都将包含所有三个音程。n × (n − 1) 因此，他的音乐世界是之前对位论文中的一个非常有限的版本，并且受到结构的进一步限制：他始终保持四声部结构。该规则确保在此纹理中，每个垂直响度都将包含所有三个音程。n × (n − 1) 因此，他的音乐世界是之前对位论文中的一个非常有限的版本，并且受到结构的进一步限制：他始终保持四声部结构。该规则确保在此纹理中，每个垂直响度都将包含所有三个音程。n × (n − 1)