Cantus contra cantum
The term “contrapunctus” (Latin for “counterpoint”) first appeared in musical theoretical writings from about 1330. It originated in a stricter medieval compositional practice: “punctus contra punctum” (“point against point”), a type of polyphonic writing rhythmically measured in a note-against-note manner between voices. In the early 15th century, the Italian theorist Prosdocimus de Beldemandis wrote in his treatise Contrapunctus that note-against-note composition had been supplanted by a “cantus contra cantum,” a melody-against-melody compositional style: in other words, a counterpoint of independent voices combined together and concerned with horizontal (i.e. harmonic) and vertical (i.e. melodic or rhythmic) integration. Alfred Mann, in his introduction to Johann Joseph Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum1, draws an analogy between the development of counterpoint and that of perspective in visual art: “both reflect a rise of three-dimensional thought.”2 That—to me—is one of the more successful metaphors: counterpoint and perspective were instrumental developments of Renaissance art and both trace their origin in the artistic experimentation of the 14th and 15th centuries. This “three-dimensional” manner of composing starts to flourish with composers of the Franco-Flemish school: Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/55 – 1521) and Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495 – c. 1560), to name a few. These composers wrote choral music, almost all of it sacred, and developed a contrapuntal technique of unity in diversity.
Josquin des Prez (like Beyoncé, also known mononymously as Josquin) was especially ambitious, setting the standard of music com position for the 16th century and beyond. Taruskin goes so far as to compare Josquin to Beethoven, “in his unprecedented stature and his undisputed preeminence in the eyes of his contemporaries and posterity…”.3 His psalm setting Qui habitat requires four choirs, each 18
