Clausula

In the Middle Ages a clause (also clausula ) was a multi-part portion of a chant. Clause compositions can be found in manuscripts of the 13th century.

Originally, the hymns were sung monophonic, but with the beginning of the vocal polyphony middle of the 12th century changed this inviolability of the chorale. Léonin wrote the Magnus liber organi de graduali et antiphonario per servitio divino, the Great Book of Organa, which only two voices Organa initially contained. The period 1160-1250 is also known as Notre- Dame school because it coincided with the construction of Notre- Dame de Paris cathedral.

Later Pérotin also added his clausulae, the clauses. These were excerpts from melismatic chants, in which the main points with a second voice, called organum Duplum had been provided, a small number of clauses is even three voices. Here is a basic distinction between the so-called Haltetonfaktur, in which the second voice holds a sustained tone, and the Diskantusfaktur in which both voices sing equal melodies. Clauses are usually written in Discantus - sentence, that is, all votes have many similar tones.

The text of the clauses of the chorale section, of which the lower voice. This is typically only one word, in most cases even a single syllable. From the clauses but later the genre of the motet developed by the upper voice (s ) received a new text. For instance, the Johanne clause from the Notre -dame- Handwriting F fol. 164V musically identical to the motet Ne sai que depending from the Codex Montpellier fol. 235R.

Other considerations of the origin of clauses refer to the " Enttextierung " motets out ( by Wolf Frobenius theory, read eg in "New Handbook of Musicology "). Here About a dissertation by Klaus Hoffmann ( Tübingen contributions to musicology in 1972, p.122 ). Confirmatory results also provided a long-standing working group (1988-1995) at Fred Buttner.

Itemization

• Church Music