Anne-Emmanuelle Ceulemans, Cadential and Modal Treatment in Palestrina’s Delle Madrigali Spirituali a Cinque Voci Libro Secondo (1594) and Lasso’s Lagrime di San Pietro (1595)

Abstract

The article analyses the cadential treatment of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s Delle Madrigali Spirituali a Cinque Voci Libro secondo (1594) and Orlando di Lasso’s
Lagrime di San Pietro (published posthumously in 1595) in relation to sixteenthcentury modal theory. The results of this comparative analysis are tested against the
theories of polyphonic modes developed by Bernhard Meier and Harold Powers. This
research shows that in sixteenth-century polyphony, modes are an epiphenomenon in
relation to counterpoint and possess no universal significance. This, however, does
not prevent them from being, at times, a priori categories in musical composition.