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Looper's Delight
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Polyphonic composition doesn't disregard the harmonic implications of
the pitch simultaneities, its just that the primary interest is in
the harmonic lines and the dynamic relationships between them.
** simple lines intertwining . . . but seriously, it is about the idea of imitative counterpoint and so forth, tone painting with melodic lines.
Gesualdo is interesting because he did use harmony in deliberate ways
to underscore the meaning of the text. Some of his "chords" were
quite dissonant when used to illustrate passion or heartbreak. But
they tended to be coloristic devices rather than functional harmony.
** funny thing is that with wagner onward (through debussy, etc.), harmony starts to be much more coloristic and loses its *functionality* . . .
Your line of argument seems to spring from a harmonic bias (you're a
guitarist, right?), with such statements as "wouldn't the
'line/counterpoint' still be a function of the harmony" or "the end
result (i.e. the harmony)." In discussing polyphonic music I'm more
inclined to say that "the harmony is a function of the polyphony" or
the end result is "a polyphonic fabric given support by careful
attention to the harmonic implications of the voice leading."
** yeah, i was thinking abou the fact that most of us (coming from music that has been dominant since the baroque era) tend to think "chordally" first.
my hunch is that the dominance of *harmony* (that is, chord progression and function) didn't really arrive until the late renaissance when things started moving over to the baroque (but people *had* been doing troubadour music and all, which is pretty much sung lines with some sort of chordal accompaniment), bach et al seemed to be very involved with that sort of thing. the only instance i've read about of someone putting harmony before melody (that is, *line*) was jean phillipe rameau, who theorized that melody was driven by harmony, not the other way around. (that is, most people seem to start with a melody that would lead the harmony as it goes, he had the harmony lead the melody).
but this is all really western classical music theory - - it doesn't really even touch on the folk tradition in europe.
stig
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