Comment by fredley | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fredley | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

A bit off-topic, but it makes me think of how words and their setting has changed over history. In English music at least, words and how they were set was a big deal during the various switches between Catholicism and Protestantism in the 16th Century.

Catholicism allowed for polyphonic music, where the words (in latin) were layered to produce very beautiful music. An extreme example is Thomas Tallis's Spem in Alium that has 8 choirs of 5 parts each:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT-ZAAi4UQQ

However Protestantism required the words to be in English and sung without polyphony - so that they could be understood by all. For example another work of Tallis's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4fHU0Nales

Byrd in particular wrote a lot of works in the Catholic idiom that he had to hide, for writing such music could have got him killed.

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/music/william-b...

The lyrics to secular Renaissance music wouldn't be too out-of-place today, for example this example from http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Jacques_Arcadelt:

How crazy is this thought, my lady: although you are craving for my death, if you do not help me by looking at me with that scornful countenance that gives me life, and which I miss so much: then, since who has no life cannot die and he who has life must die, then—if you give me life, you'll have my death, and I, through death, will gain my life.

Yes, and I imagine the text of many Madrigals is extremely compressible, especially if you include all the 'fa la la's verbatim.

> However Protestantism required the words to be in English and sung without polyphony

This is stated a bit too broadly. Some protestants preferred that, others didn't. Bach didn't have a problem with polyphony, for example.

Specifically English Protestantism, in this case. Some things were allowed to be polyphonic, such as Psalm settings, and Byrd made a point of setting Psalms that alluded to the struggles faced by Catholics at that time. Some referenced the desecration of Jerusalem, others were the known last words of martyrs.

Sicut Cervus (a setting of Psalm 42) is such an example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yd5EE0hAB8

Reply on news.ycombinator.com