Historical dictionary of sacred music

CANTUS FIRMUS

Cantus Firmus: translation

(Lat. "fixed chant")
Compositional technique whereby the composer takes a preexisting melody, usually from the traditional repertories ofGregorianor medievalchant, Lutheran chorales, etc., and sets it in long durations (determined by him) while composing originalcounterpointto accompany it. The technique originated in themelismatic organumof southern France in the 12th century and in thediscantorganum of the so-called Notre Dame school (c. 1160–c. 1225). The voice singing the traditional chant melody, called "tenor" from the Latintenere"to hold," already has the comparatively long durations and the repetitions of the melody that would come to mark the classic technique.Repeating, oftenisorhythmictenors were the foundation of virtually allmotetsandpolyphonic massesuntil the turn of the 16th century when structuralimitationand polyphonicparodyreplaced the cantus firmus. Throughout this period, the tenor voice was the most common location of the cantus firmus, but it might wander among the upper voices in some pieces. In Baroque compositions, it may be found in any voice.
The virtues of the technique are its repetition, its sustained tones, and its origin in tradition.
Its repetition allows a texture of fast rhythm to be extended for far longer duration than it could have otherwise sustained, an essential advantage in medieval polyphony. Repetition also unifies the composition perceptually while allowing creativity and change in the added contrapuntal voices. Composers often increased the speed of the repetitions in carefully chosen symbolic proportions (e.g., the motetNuper rosarum floresofGuillaume Du Fay).
The sustained quality of the cantus firmus produces a subtle musical tension based on the disparate speeds in the texture. The composition cannot end until the voices match up. For this reason, when the cantus firmus repeats at proportional speeds it is almost always a faster proportion, never slower, in order to facilitate the matching. The use of a traditional, known melody instantly assures a semantic reference for all those who know it. For this reason,Josquin Despresemploys a chant from theRequiemmass in his famous {}Nymphes des Bois, the lament on the death ofJohannes Ockeghem(c. 1497).Chorale cantatasandchorale preludesfrom theLutherantradition take advantage of the same principle.Ludwig van Beethovenuses a chant melody in the Credo of hisMissa Solemnisin 1823, when few would have recognized it, because by then the sound of one slow voice against a fast texture was so singular that it had become, like choralfugues, part of the sacred semantic.

  1. cantus firmus—Cantus firmus bersetzung Cantus firmusstrong m. firmi Mus. Hauptmelodie im kontrapunktischen Satzem [lat.] Cantus firmus der [kantus] mi [zu lat.u firmus festste...Universal-Lexicon
  2. cantus firmus—Cantus firmus bersetzung Cantus firmusstrong m. firmi Mus. Hauptmelodie im kontrapunktischen Satzem [lat.] Cantus firmus der [kantus] mi [zu lat.u firmus festste...Universal-Lexicon
  3. cantus firmus—кантус фирмус...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  4. cantus firmus—кантус фирмус ведущая мелодия главная тема являющаяся композиционной основой полифонического произведения...Англо-русский дополнительный словарь
  5. cantus firmus—муз. букв. в переводе с лат. прочный напев кантус фирмус ведущая мелодия главная тема являющаяся композиционной основой полифонического произведения...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  6. cantus firmus—лат. m pl em .mi сокр. c. f. муз. ведущая мелодия в контрапункте...Большой немецко-русский и русско-немецкий словарь
  7. cantus firmus—кбнтус фирмус лат. букв. сильное или тврдое пение прочная неизменная мелодия итал. canto fermo в вв. тема крупного хорового произв. иногда только его части заимствован...Музыкальная энциклопедия
  8. cantus firmus—[kntsfms] муз.кантус фирмус...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  9. cantus firmus—cantus firmus [kntsfms] муз.i кантус фирмус...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  10. cantus firmus—kntsfms муз. кантус фирмус...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна