Polychoir and Instruments: Thinking BIGGER
Things to Note:
The opening of this piece is a common example of Double Chorus writing: The piece consists of two separate ensembles (In this case: A cornetto and three sackbutts to each side) In most choral settings, we experience this as multiple SSAA/SATB “Choirs” being formed. This becomes so important when singing the music of Claudio Monteverdi
After both choruses resolve at 0:23, there is a Time Signature Change from a 4-beat pattern to a 3-beat pattern (in this case noted with the change from square notes to circled notes)
Renaissance music, especially from Italy, will often use alternating metres throughout a piece between 3/4 and 4/4. This stylistic interplay would be fully revolutionized by Monteverdi in the next generation.
Venitian Polychoral Style
The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. It involved spatially separate choirs (cori spezzati) singing in alteration. The style arose from the observed sound delay caused by the distance between the opposing choir lofts in Basilica San Marco (Right, notice the many Choir Galleries - the small balconies spread around the church), making it difficult for the cori spezzati to sing simultaneously.
Composer Adrian Willaert, maestro di cappella of San Marco 1527-1562, solved this problem by writing antiphonal music, where the cori spezzati would sing successive, often contrasting musical lines. The development of this style represented a major stylistic shift from the polyphonic writing of the middle Renaissance to the Baroque. A Capella Double-Choir music would become especially popular in Germany during the Baroque Era.