Final week

I feel that my paper was definitely not long enough.  I could have made this paper a lot better than it was.  I was able to provide a lot of information about my piece, along with a detailed biography of the composer and my personal feelings on the piece.  But I still feel that if I could have found more valuable sources, I would've been able to write a longer, more detailed paper.  It was the best I could do with what I had, and I'm happy with that.  If I could go back to the beginning and pick another piece, I probably would.  but hindsight being 20-20, I really enjoyed listening to my piece and developing my own ideas about it and discovering about the composer's ideas.  I had a great semester and a lot of fun in this class.  I feel I have grown a lot as a writer and as a student in general.

In conclusion, the motet, “O Magnum Mysterium,” is a great example of liturgical polyphony from the sixteenth century.  Victoria has such a talent to blend music and text, to evoke the presence of God.  He used polyphony for spiritual sections of the song, while he applied homophony to points where the text was most important.  He made sure that the liturgical text was the most important part to bring forth the glory of God.  His style is different from that of its beginnings in the thirteenth century.  For example, the early motet had either two or three voices, while the motets of this period usually had four.  Another difference is the text being used in “O Magnum Mysterium” is the same throughout the voices, while the motets of the thirteenth century had multiple lines of text, which could have all been in different languages.  Another thing that separates this motet from its predecessors is that it is entirely liturgical and has no secular text or meanings.  This helps polyphony maintain its importance in the Catholic Church.  This piece gives the listener that feeling of divine influence as the music just flows over them.   The imagery of the infant Jesus Christ, the blessed virgin Mary, and the great mystery and power of God.  The rise and fall of the text painting, the switch between homophony and polyphony, the change of polyrhythm and homo-rhythm, and the multiple meter shifts all give “O Magnum Mysterium” its unique qualities such as the leap of a fifth with the resolution of the semi-tone, and the way Victoria could bring about such spirituality in his music, that have given it a place among one of the more beautiful motets in history. (Harmon)

"O Magnum Mysterium"

O Magnum Mysterium, a motet by Tomas Luis De Victoria, was composed in 1570.  This liturgical piece is about the great mystery that is God and the immaculate conception of Jesus Christ. Written for the feast of circumcision, it differs from that of the original motet design, but still maintains a lot of the same characteristics.  Victoria uses his music to create a near religious experience by emphasizing points in the text either melodically or rhythmically. (Harmon)

week10

1. I'm feeling like I can't get enough sources for this project.  all i can really talk about is what i think of the music other than the history behind the genre and the composer.  There are many different songs that have the title "O Magnum Mysterium" but all of the sources i find are about other composers' works.  I feel i may have made a mistake choosing this topic to write on, but I've already put this time into it and it's stressing me out.  I think that my piece of music is still beautiful and it is still inspiring to listen to, but i feel there's not much I can talk about.  I don't even know what I want to prove in my paper.  I'm just trying to find out all I can before the rough draft is due.

2. I don't even have a thesis statement to find holes in.  I feel I'm pretty unprepared for this paper due to lack of sources with enough information or analysis on my piece.  I'm honestly just trying to make this paper happen, and it doesn't seem to be going too well.  If I could find sources that help me other than a biography of the composer and descriptions of my piece from the textbook, I feel i could write a semi decent paper which would be long enough.  I feel that I should have picked a piece with a less common name, and a composer that may have had a greater impact on the musical genre of which he was proficient.