Musica poetica was a term commonly applied to the art of composing music in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German schools and universities. Its first known use was in the
Rudimenta Musicae Planae (Wittenberg: 1533) of Nicolaus Listenius. Previously, music had been divided into musica theoretica and musica practica, which were categorised with the
quadriviumThe quadrivium comprised the four subjects, or arts, taught in medieval universities after the trivium. The word is Latin, meaning "the four ways" or "the four roads": the completion of the liberal arts. The quadrivium consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy...
and trivium, respectively.
Musica poetica was a term commonly applied to the art of composing music in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German schools and universities. Its first known use was in the
Rudimenta Musicae Planae (Wittenberg: 1533) of Nicolaus Listenius. Previously, music had been divided into musica theoretica and musica practica, which were categorised with the
quadriviumThe quadrivium comprised the four subjects, or arts, taught in medieval universities after the trivium. The word is Latin, meaning "the four ways" or "the four roads": the completion of the liberal arts. The quadrivium consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy...
and trivium, respectively. Since music of the time primarily meant vocal music, it was natural for theorists to make analogies between the composition of music and the composition of
oratoryOratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
or poetry. Hence, the term
musica poetica.
Analogies between music and the rhetorical arts were made on several levels.
Gallus DresslerGallus Dressler was a German composer and music theorist who served as Kantor in the church school at Magdeburg.Though a few of his works have remained in the choral repertoire, he is best known for his theoretical writings, especially his Praecepta musicae poeticae , which contains some of the...
(1563) suggested to liken the structure of a musical composition with that of a speech, as outlined in
ClassicalClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
sources, dividing it into such sections as
exordiumExordium may refer to:* Exordium , the introductory section of a discourse in Western classical rhetoric* Exordium , by Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever....
, medium and
finisFiniş is a village in Romania, Bihor County, 2 kilometers distance from the town of Beiuş....
(literally, "beginning", "middle" and "end"). Another kind of analogy was to liken the rules or
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
of composition with those of speech, as illustrated by Joachim Burmeister's use of
tautoëpia to label consecutive fifths and octaves (which were generally regarded as illegal except in special circumstances).
Most significantly, though, special melodic, harmonic, or technical devices in music began to be associated with the figures of
ClassicalClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
oratory: for example, a rising or falling
sequenceIn mathematics, a sequence is an ordered list of objects . Like a set, it contains members , and the number of terms is called the length of the sequence...
in music was usually called
climaxIn general, a climax is a point of greatest intensity or force in an ascending series; i.e., a culmination...
in the literature of
musica poetica. However, it must be pointed out that such analogies were not always direct: terms used in
musica poetica do not always correspond equivalently to their rhetorical counterparts (for example, in oratory,
anaphora means a straightforward repetition of a word, but in music it can denote various kinds of repetitive device, such as the development of a subject through imitation (
fugueIn music, a fugue is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices". In the Middle Ages, the term was widely used to denote any works in canonic style; by the Renaissance, it had come to denote specifically imitative works...
); also, the presence of a rhetorical figure in the text being set to music did not imply an automatic application of that figure's musical equivalent (that is, it was never mandatory for composers to respond to such verbal ideas as "going up" with rising musical phrases (known as
anabasisAnabasis is an expedition from a coastline up into the interior of a country. Katabasis, by contrast, is a trip from the interior down to the coast.Two classic texts are titled with "anabasis":...
or ascensus in
musica poetica).
A knowledge of both Classical rhetoric and
musica poetica can greatly enhance the listener's understanding and appreciation of works composed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially by such figures as
Heinrich SchützHeinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...
and
Giacomo CarissimiGiacomo Carissimi , was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or, more accurately, the Roman School of music.-Biography:...
. However, it is also important not to seek examples of musical figures on every page; while rhetoric and musical theory were strongly associated, the nature of this association was complex and variable.
Sources
Jones, T.D.: "Passions in Perspective: An Analytical Discussion of the Three Passion Settings of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) against their Historical and Stylistic Backgrounds", (Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham, UK, 2000).