Successive vs Simultaneous composition

Question 1

Horizontal or vertical?

Answer 1

Bent vs Leech-Wilkinson

Question 2

Bent and Leach’s approach implies what?

Answer 2

That one line was written then the next - placing of note against note

Question 3

Why does Leech-Wilkinson reject this view?

Answer 3

Believes that this implies too much influence of ‘chance’ - i.e. dissonances left more to chance than Machaut was aware?

Question 4

L-W quote

Answer 4

‘We have no reasons to think that the skilled composer of late-medieval polyphony celebrated chance as part of his technical arsenal.’

Question 5

Implications for our understanding of Machaut’s skill

Answer 5

This element of ‘chance’ detracts from the skill of such composers

Question 6

Questions how Machaut…

Answer 6

‘managed to perceive polyphony principally in a single horizontal dimension, remaining largely insensitive to vertical coincidences’

Question 7

How can Leach-Wilkinson’s view be challenged?

Answer 7

Why does successive composition imply ‘chance’? Surely it is more in line with the rules of musica ficta - successive composition would seem to suggest a deeper undestanding of the rules of dyadic grammar than simultaenous composition - primacy of directed progressions