Sicut Cervus free essay sample

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of spiritual music and the best ­known 16th ­century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He has had a marvelous influence on the development of church music, and his work has often been seen as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony. Palestrinas masses show how his compositional style developed over time. One of the symbols of Palestrinas music is that dissonances are typically credited to the weak beats in a measure. This produced a smoother and more consonant type of polyphony which we now consider late Renaissance music, given Palestrinas position as Europes leading composer. In this piece, Sicut Cervus, Palestrina uses the smooth style of 16th century polyphony. It speaks of a deer longing for spring, a soul longing for you, and God. He had written three sections of music, with parts taken out then added in. Palestrina wrote this piece as the first part of a double motet. Musical Content In this piece, Palestrina is using metaphoric context to describe how an individual longing for God is exactly how a deer longs for springs of water. It starts out with the tenor part singing â€Å" As the deer longs for springs of water†, which is when overlapped by the other parts because it is emphasizing springs of water which is compared to God. So all throughout the middle piece, each part sings back and forth beautifully, which represents a musical â€Å"sigh†. As the notes soar, the longing builds and you can see that Palestrine was trying to imitate an almost perfect expression of the human yearning for God . At the end of the song, everything is taken into a peaceful manner because you are going to praise God. Everyone is trying to be at peace because they all want to see and praise God. The song comes to a peaceful end on a note of hope that one day they shall all see God together. Type of Piece This piece here Palestrina created is a polyphonic texture. It is in duple meter and is also a motet in the F major key. Also, it from Psalm 42. The translation of the piece is â€Å" As a deer longs for springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God†. The Strategic Plan Palestrina had a simple but complex way when it came to his strategic plan in this piece. The piece is text ­ driven as is written as a simile. Palestrina used Aesthetic appeal, emotional power, and intellectual depth to make this piece a true masterpiece. Part of Palestrina is strategic plan was to write the piece as a simile. He used the translation from Psalm 42, â€Å" As a deer longs for springs of water, so my soul longs for you†. First off, this line is represented throughout the motet, like a simile. The deer longing for springs of water is a simile as to how the soul longs for God. Each part is put into three sections, because Palestrina is comparing â€Å" As a deer longs for springs of water† and â€Å" my soul longs for you†. Palestrina also uses â€Å"so† or â€Å"ita† to put the simile together, he uses this to show what is being compared and to help show that the deer longs for water is the same as the soul longs for God. Palestrina also shows text ­painting when has the notes flowing just like the flowing of water when it says water. The springs of water is a comparison to God. Also, he when it states in the piece ,† my soul longs† the notes go down because the soul is connected to Earth. This is also a connection to how the notes go higher when it reaches God because God is up in heaven. As a result, the strategic plan was to make the piece a simile and show how towards the end God and the soul come closer together, which would be considered the stretto, because it symbolizes God and the human soul together at last. Compositional Techniques Used This piece is text driven, beginning with â€Å"like† or â€Å"as† which means it has a simile in the piece. Similes have three parts in the sentence? the first comparison, the â€Å"like† or â€Å"as† and the second comparison. Palestrina has three parts, or sections right when the cadences happen. The second section is shorter than one and three, having only two voices. The entrances are a bit imitative, every cadence. The melodic line moves diatonic, complex frame and shows the mood and characters throughout the text, with four voices. Form and Structure Contrast is the form in this 5th species masterpiece, because all three sections had different text painting to construct the feeling, and motion of the piece. With the heroic help of polyphonic texture that happens throughout the piece, it helps balance the voice parts throughout all three sections, and also helps all the voices come to harmonize together throughout the piece, that ALSO help to create the contrast of this masterpiece. Then with all these little pieces of incredible creations coming together to create this masterpiece, also helped create the strong, and powerful structure of this piece. The cause of this strong and powerful structure mainly comes from the word and text painting that comes together to help stabilize the harmony, and balance that is listened to threw out the masterpiece. Sections: There are exactly 3 sections in the motet. Each section connects in some way and has an inner meaning. The first section is based on the springs of water, which is represented through the notes. The next section about â€Å"Ita† which shows how the piece is a simile and it also shows how the soul is connected to Earth just like God is connected to Heaven. Lastly, the third section is the stretto and shows how in the end the soul and God will be together. As a result, each section relates to each other because they are part of a simile, which forms a connection to the strategic plan of the entire piece.