Resisting the Tyranny of the Barline: Teaching Metric Stress and “Meter” in Renaissance Polyphony

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels but specifically K-12 and community choirs. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For more information, email  or visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the Winter 2024 issue titled “Resisting the Tyranny of the Barline: Teaching Metric Stress and ‘Meter’ in Renaissance Polyphony” by Stephen Kingsbury.
______________________

Renaissance polyphony presents teachers with a wealth of literature for the high school choral classroom. And yet, anecdotal evidence suggests that high school performance of Renaissance polyphony is rare and, when it is performed, limited to a few marquee-level works such as Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus and Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium. This begs an important question: Why isn’t polyphony performed more?

Discussion with secondary-level teachers suggests that it is because Renaissance music seems overwhelming and beyond the technical and artistic reach of many high school ensembles. Issues range from singing in a foreign language to the complexity and overall independence of each voice part. Additionally, in the repertory’s purest form, there is a fundamental lack of performance indications, which can lead to issues of interpretation, such as dynamics, phrasing, tempo (both initial tempo and alterations of tempo within a work due to changes of time signature), and even pitch (due to issues of musica ficta).

More fundamental is that modern interpreters must grapple with music that differs from much of the music performed by school-age ensembles because it is based on different “harmonic” and rhythmic models. Such models not only require effort to understand, but to some ears (especially when not fully understood or handled properly), can leave the music sounding flat and uninteresting. It is important to recognize that our comprehension of these issues has a profound impact on our interpretation of this repertory. A thorough awareness will greatly influence the soundscape of a given piece. Unfortunately, these problems are made even more difficult by the plethora of editions of early music that pervade the market but vary widely in terms of quality. While addressing all these issues is beyond the scope of one article, this essay attempts to begin demystifying the repertory by explaining the complexity of Renaissance rhythmic practice. It also suggests an efficient and effective means of teaching these rhythmic structures that will not only enlighten, but also enliven, our performances of this compelling music.

*Visit acda.org/chorteach and choose the Winter 2024 issue.