On Mar 27, 2011, at 8:38 AM, Ron Andrico wrote: > Chris: > Let's not be too hard on poor Striggio's and his choices for writing in > 40-60 parts. Try it yourself observing 16th century norms of > counterpoint and the handling of dissonance. > Ron Andrico
Indeed. The more voices in the texture, the simpler the musical ideas need to be. Josquin's 24-voice Qui Habitat and Ockeghem's 36-voice Deo Gratias are strikingly similar to 20th-century minimalism, and I recall someone (Andrew Parrott?) writing about how the voices in Spem in Alium (likely Tallis' response to Striggio's 40-voice Ecce Beatam Lucem) "hop about" just to avoid consecutive fifths or octaves. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
