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Music Study assignment done on"Fair Phyllis”, an English madrigal by John Farmer, and "Ave Maria ... Virgo serena" (Hail Mary … Gentle Virgin), a Motet by Josquin des Prez...

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Professor Lee T. Lovallo MUS 100 18 March 2015 Music Study

Identify

The first piece I chose was “Fair Phyllis”, an English madrigal by John Farmer. John Farmer was an English composer born 1570 and died 1601. This piece was written in 1599, just a couple years before the composer’s death. (“John”). The second piece I chose was “Ave Maria … Virgo serena” (Hail Mary … Gentle Virgin), a Motet by Josquin des Prez. Josquin des Prez (hereon referred to as Josquin) was a FrancoFlemish composer born in 1455 and died August 27th, 1521. He wrote this piece in his early-tomid 30’s in 1485, right around the middle of his life. (“Josquin”).

Compare

I chose these two pieces because they have many similarities and differences that can be discussed, and I’ll explain what I mean. For one thing, they are both from the Renaissance era, and they are both capellas, meaning they are sung entirely with voices, and use no instruments. Fair Phyllis is secular, while Ave Maria … Virgo serena (hereon referred to as Ave Maria) is

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sacred. The instrumentation of both can be described as SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass). (“Ave Maria…”). They each have multiple singers. Fair Phyllis is a lively, uplifting song, considered by some to be amusing. The singers in Ave Maria have a strong sense of harmony as they sing together. Each song has sections. In Fair Phyllis, the sections are short and repeated. In Ave Maria, each section begins with “Ave”, meaning “Hail”. The tempo of Fair Phyllis remains the same throughout. The tempo of Ave Maria can best be described as moderato. They both start in duple meter, shift to triple meter, and then go back to duple. (Forney, Dell’Antonio, and Machlis, 79). The text of Fair Phyllis is an innocent English poem, and that of Ave Maria is a prayer to the Virgin Mary. Fair Phyllis has a straight-forward meaning, to be taken literally, and uses word painting. The texture of Ave Maria is polyphonic, while the texture of Fair Phyllis can be described as starting out monophonic, then some imitation, and ending homorhythmic.

Evaluate:

I do like both of these songs, and I can recognize some strengths and weaknesses in both. I generally do not like sacred music, but I make an exception for some. For one thing, in my opinion, in order for a song to be a full, complete song, without the listener having a sense there’s something missing, there usually has to be instruments. That is not the case with these two songs. They sound great just as they are being capellas. I can’t see any instrumentation

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making the songs any better than they already are. Fair Phyllis doesn’t have many lyrics, but that makes it straight-forward and easy to understand, and I think that is an altogether strength. In Ave Maria, one rendition I heard sounded as though it was sung in a church, or some sort of large enclosed building, which really works well considering the nature of the music. One rendition of Fair Phyllis I heard had a similar echo sound, which worked well with the song. One weakness I see in both of these songs, in my opinion, is that the lyrics could have been written better. This totally subjective, I understand, and times do change. These songs are very old and perhaps it sounded better at the time. I had to look up the translation for Ave Maria, but not so much for Fair Phyllis. There was one word in Fair Phyllis I had to look up – “hied”, which basically means “to go”. To be specific with one example from each piece, in Fair Phyllis, the part where they sing “O then they fell a-kissing” didn’t hit the ear right at one part and neither did “ore pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc” “(pray for us sinners now”) in Ave Maria. These songs were nearly perfect in my opinion so it’s a little difficult to name many mistakes.

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References

Josquin Des Prez. Naxos: The World’s Leading Classical Music Group. (n.d.) (http://www.naxos.com/person/_Josquin_des_Prez/22586.htm) John Farmer I. Naxos: The World’s Leading Classical Music Group. (n.d.) (http://www.naxos.com/person/John_Farmer/22843.htm) Forney, Kristine, Andrew Dell'Antonio, and Joseph Machlis. The Enjoyment of Music. W. W. Norton & Company Inc. 2013. PDF. Ave Maria…virgo serena (Josquin Desprez). IMSLP: Petrucci Music Library. (n.d.) (http://imslp.org/wiki/Ave_Maria%E2%80%A6virgo_serena_%28Josquin_Desprez%29)...