Year 12 As Music Lesson - Musical Meanderings
Year 12 As Music Lesson.
“O Wilhelme, pastor bone” by Taverner.
Analysis.
Background information to the piece and the composer.
• In 1526 John Taverner was appointed to the prestigious post of Master of the Choristers at the newly-founded Cardinal College in Oxford. At this time the established church in England was still Roman Catholic, and services at the college chapel were sung in Latin.
• Cardinal Wolsey was the founder of the college and he stipulated that after the service of Compline [the close of the day] (which was held at about 4pm in this college) three antiphons should be sung – these were settings of religious texts for unaccompanied choir. Oh Wilhelme, pastor bone is addressed to St William, one of Wolsey’s predecessors in the office of Archbishop of York.
• St William is asked to help all members of the college to ‘banish the sins of this life’ and to bring each of them ‘the joy of a heavenly crown’. There is also a request for the protection of the founder, Cardinal Thomas.
Antiphon: from the German meaning sounding across. In the RC church the antiphon is intoned or sung during the recitation of Divine Office (set prayers which must be recited at fixed hours of the day or night, not including the mass or other services.), before and after the psalm or canticle. The antiphon may serve to reinforce the meaning of the psalm or to introduce a Christian application of the original Jewish text.
O Willhelme was intended for all male choir. Boys would have sung the upper two parts, and men the lower two.
In the 16th century music of this sort was not normally written out in a score showing all of the parts, but in separate books – one for each voice. In this piece the tenor line is missing, and so a part has been made following the stylistic conventions of the time. The version on the page is one possible answer to the missing part, and the one on the CD is another.
Analysis of the piece.
Questions.
1. How are the words set in this piece of music?
2. Do you notice any use of melisma?
Each phrase of the text has it’s own melody and texture, sometimes separated from the following phrase by a decisive cadence. Sometimes joined by overlapping the end of one phrase with the beginning of the next.
3. How does Taverner vary the texture?
4. Why does he do this?
The first three phrases of the text begin with mainly staggered entries of the parts rather than starting together. They are not imitative as they are too dissimilar, the fact that the syllables of the text do not coincide reinforces that we are listeining to a combination of simultaneous melody lines.
5. What is this type of texture called?
6. Look at bars 38-42. Is this polyphonic?
7. What is it?
8. Why do you think Taverner used it?
In bar 56 Taverner uses rising intervals to start each phrase followed by a gentle descent. Each part enters in turn, therefore using imitation this time. Therefore, the three textures used in this piece are polyphony, homophony and imitation.
9. Look at bar 64, at the treble part and bass part especially on the final beats of the bar. What do you notice?
Taverner’s harmony consists entirely of triads in root position (sometimes without a third) and first inversion. There is not a single on the beat dischord. The slightly different reconstruction of the tenor part on the CD does introduce a suspension at some of the cadences. We don’t know of Taverner’s intentions, and the exam questions themselves will refer only to the printed version.
10. Taverner sometimes made use of false relations. Can you find an example?
The use of this device is an integral part of the English polyphonic style of the period.
Homework.
Answer the following questions:
1. What is meant by a mean?
2. What is the difference between syllabic and melismatic word setrting? Give examples from the Taverner.
3. What term describes the texture of bars 48-49?
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