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John Dunstable's Argumentative Essay

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Two Shall Enter The Renaissance period occurred from 1400-1600. It can be separated into third smaller periods. The early, middle, and the late period, but for the sake of this paper, they will be referred to as stages to avoid confusion. This paper will focus on the early stage and the late stage. The purpose of this paper is to compare two composers John Dunstable from the early stage and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina from the late stage through the analysis of two of their works. Before discussing the analysis, a brief background of each composer will be discussed. John Dunstable or Dunstaple, both are accepted, was born around 1385 at Dunstable in Bedfordshire, England and died on Christmas eve 1453 in London. He was one of the most …show more content…

Dunstable articulates almost every word with a note value using very few elongated phrases. Quam pulchra es is thought to be in ¾ or 6/8 time signature. Dunstable uses longer note values when he reaches cadences such as measure 9. This gives each phrase a sense of completion. Lastly are the Harmonic features and the tonality of the composition. Earlier this paper touched on the Cantus and Tenor and their functions. Though when it comes to the harmonies the Contratenor is the star. The Contratenor is used to fill out the harmonies of the Cantus and the Tenor. Most of the chords in this composition are root position movements. Creating powerful power chords when cadences arrive. For a direct comparison, This paper will analysis Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s Quam pulchra es. Palestrina’s Quam pulchra es is a five-part arrangement. The voices are as follows from Highest to lowest: Cantus, Altus, Quintus, Tenor and Bassus. The Cantus has a range of F-65 to G-79. The Altus has a range of Bb-58 to C-72. The Quintus has a range of A-57 to C-72. The Tenor has a range of F-65 to B-82. Lastly, the Bassus has a range of Bb-46 to C-60. The entire composition has a three-octave range. Figure

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