Elam Rotem interview

0:58 What was music scene like in the 16th century?

1:27 Who were the most famous musicians in the 16th century?

1:48 Were they so well known that everyone was copying their music?2:25 Is Italy the main focus of interest?

3:19 What are madrigals?

3:59 Is an Italian madrigal different?

4:19 When was the Renaissance?

4:41 What was the standard form of counterpoint in 1600? Did any a significant theorist shape it?

6:17 Are treatises written often looking backwards?

7:20 How would have composers back then learned music?

8:20 Was their training more focused on improvisation and composition?

9:06 Hexachordal Solfeggio

10:44 Did they use more clefs?

11:36 Locating Fa on Fa Clefs

12:30 Did these think about cadences differently?

13:41 In any of the treatises did they talk about vertical chords?

14:56 What do prima pratica and seconda practica mean?

15:43 What were Artusi’s complaints with Monteverdi?

16:12 How did Artusi get copies of Monteverdi’s music before they were published?

16:47 How did Basso Continuo have an effect on composition when it came on the scene?

18:51 Did anyone criticize Basso Continuo when it appeared for the first time?

19:16 Do we distinguish between accompaniment and counterpoint?

19:50 Did Basso Continue subsequently explode in popularity?

20:25 If there were no figures, how did they interpret scores correctly?

21:03 Do we know how these musicians learned counterpoint?

22:33 Are there any historical counterpoint workbooks available?

23:45 Why was the major 6th considered the harshest interval in the renaissance?

26:28 If someone had absolute pitch, how would that work in the Renaissance?

27:23 Did you have to tune instruments on the fly if you had tunes in different keys?

27:50 Could you give examples of instruments not being able to match the flexibility of the voice in transposition?

28:26 Modes

29:58 Were these composers really only thinking horizontally and with consonances and dissonances?

30:35 What are some remaining mysteries of music in the Renaissance?

32:12 What are common questions you get about your work and research?

32:49 Is music of this period mainly vocal?

33:10 What pieces of music are required to know in order to get handle of the music of the 16th and 17th century and develop your counterpoint?

33:57 Are you singing syllables or just the notes?

35:25 What do you mean by compositional situations?

36:03 Should students study counterpoint rules from treatises?

36:57 How about the Thomas de Santa Maria treatise?

37:27 Can you learn faster with a master composer?

38:04 Has the art of counterpoint watered down with newer styles?

38:54 Do you feel that there’s different languages of counterpoint for different styles of music?

39:55 How did you compose the Lamentations of David?

40:53 How long did it take you to compose it?

41:24 Were you always a composer?

42:07 Can you describe your experience studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis?

43:34 Wrapping Up