Dunstable - lucid harmony, dense text

I am very taken by the lucid harmony of Dunstable's Veni Sancte Spiritus. I am realising that the change from C/G fifths and octaves to C/E/G with thirds is itself a change of harmony, not merely a colour change. It is a moment of emphasis like other harmonic changes in the piece. Throughout, the composition retains an astonishing lucidity of harmony, but density and complexity of text.

Beginning to work on this... exploring the original chant, and the composer's counterpoint, then adding chromatic ornament and extending the phrase to begin to make this my own.

Also, thinking again about the value of this exercise - what's the point of looking back to notated musical fragments in order to make something new today, when the original is itself already so stylish and complete?


Some answers might include:

- learning from close up studies of individual moments/colours in musical history

- refreshing one's own core technique

- reminding oneself of core values in musical composition

- discovering new forms of musical expression by repurposing the old

- rethinking the role of the voice as a starting point in music... the voice as invocation, the prayer or plea from release, the placing of the individual in a meaningful context.

- tracing the lines/shapes of vocal lines so the lines are shadow-traces in the new music

- realising through this work that harmonic resources are cyclic, not teleological

- but that harmonic change is fundamental in western human expression - change, but perhaps not 'progression'