Koncepcja formy i brzmienia Magnificat Mikołaja z Radomia

Abstract

The "Magnificat" by Mikołaj of Radom is above all one of the earliest examples of the application of the fauxbourdon technique in European music. (This technique is described in the manuscript as "per bordunum"). The composition has an interesting and ingenious conception of form and sound. It is composed of 11 segments which use the text of the consecutive verses of the "Magnificat". Its form can be described as symmetrical. (Its graphic shape can be seen on page 143 of the present article). The segmentation of the whole composition into two macro-formal structures of an identical interior arrangement is evidence of this. An important part is played here by those verses which are elaborated with the help of the fauxbourdon technique. These mark "the axis of symmetry" of the form of the work (verse no. 6) and at the same time the whole formal structure of the "Magnificat" is rounded and framed by them. The first segment is an introductory structure, and the last segment is a concluding structure. The other segments, because of the regularity and symmetry of their occurrence, form microformal structures. Almost every segment – because of the kind of technique used here – has its "correspondent" or its "correspondents" in the structure of the composition. This is a constructivistic law of analogy. The main base in the forming of the sound of the composition is the Gregorian model found in the first psalm tone. The given elements of the model (initium – tuba – mediatio – tuba – terminatio) constitute the sound material of the highest voice of the composition (discantus) which is used in various ways (see examples 1 and 2). The composer applies moreover some sound patterns of the segments of the model which contain the whole three part structure: five sound patterns for the initium (see example 3), four models for the terminatio (see example 4), one model for the tuba (example 5). It should be noted that the models used here are applied in a constructivist way based on the law of analogy mentioned previously i. e. one model is used in several verses. As a result of the analyses carried out we can state that the constructivistic law of analogy and that of symmetry embrace and unif all three levels of the composition: its form, its horizontal structure of the highest voice (discantus) and the sound of the three part structures. This is proof of the existence of a constructivistic conception of not only the form but also of the sounding.