Orchestration of Sonorities in Renaissance Polyphony

We might think about how a single voice part within a composition expresses a mode (one of the prevailing systems governing the organization of pitch in this period), or how multiple voice parts move against one another (counterpoint, from the Latin contrapunctus—literally means note-against-note), creating successions of intervals. This essay focuses on the amazing moments ensconced in those intervals: the way they are arranged, the spaces between them, and ultimately, the sonorities they create.