de Padilla (MEX) (1 janv. 1590 – 1 janv. 1664)

Description:

The interior of Puebla Cathedral, where a vast majority of his works were composed, was situated in such a way that the choir sat in the center of the room, facing one another
This arrangement helped elevate the antiphonal writing common at this time – and encouraged polychoral voicings.
Antiphonal writing also is a common trait of Padilla’s masses
His double-choir music shows a balance between antiphonal writing and imitative polyphony
His style is somewhere between the late renaissance approach of composers like Victoria mixed with…
The a cappella style of the Baroque polychoral works from composers like Benvoli – treating the ensemble as a unit and alternating in block sections with strict chordal texture
Frequently, one or two phrases of text are treated antiphonally, followed by a combination of the two choirs.
Much of this comes as a result of the Baroque demand for dramatization and clarification of the text, so alternating and punctuating sections is ideal.

Thick texture and rich voicings
Often the voices are dovetailed as such, that harmonic tones are spaced and interlocked through all eight parts – creating a rich texture
This takes the form most frequent in having one choir sing the chord in a closed voicing, with another in an open voicing.
Most commonly the first choir sings the chord in the closed voicing and then the second choir joins in antiphonally to fill out the rest of the notes beneath, above, and sometimes between.
Less commonly one choir sings a chord without the third in a very wide voicing and lots of doubling of the root while the other choir fills out the rest of the chord
His polyphonic treatment follows the Spanish conservative ideals which follow expanded practices of Stile Antico
Though Palestrina was held as the gold standard for sacred vocal music, the Baroque practice expounded upon Stile Antico by gradually applying more functional harmony and accentuating rhythm and Padilla’s music certainly reflects this.
A very common practice in his counterpoint is the construction of a complete imitative section based on a single theme and its inversion.
Though more “Baroque” in aesthetic than Guerrero or Victoria, the masses don’t follow concerted practices from the Italian tradition (which followed into German, French, and English mid-Baroque composer styles)
One very common treatment is a consistent re-entrance of antiphonally answering choirs on syncopations, which adds a driving energy to Padilla’s music.
The usual construction is bringing the antiphonal choir with the last beat of the previous phrase or the following beat, but on a syncopation.
Padilla’s music is very rhythmic but generally follows the convention of setting strong syllables to long notes and weak syllables to shorter ones.
His most polyphonic textures have an incredible driving force behind them as the rhythms add a layer of complexity
His treatment of melody shows considerable variety and will often match the text more closely with step-wise melismas where grace and love need be shown and harsh, angular leaps on more depressive or angry texts
In the masses, a subject is usually employed as a motive in all the movements
Regardless, he still follows the practices of Stile antico wherein melodies most commonly move by step, third, p4, p5, or octave with 6ths and 3rds being less common, and essentially no tritones or augmented seconds.
Frequent use of imitation, sometimes with a “subject-answer” relationship usually at the fifth.
Countermelodies can also be imitated and inverted alongside the subjects
Harmonically, he is rather conservative for the mid-17th century (characteristic of the Spanish School)
The bass is slightly more melodic, following chord outlines or jump from root to root of the harmony
His harmonic rhythm can often be quite fast
Chords rarely if ever are present in anything other than root position
Chromatic notes are rare, unless they are in the Stile antico tradition of producing a leading tone or creating major-minor modal juxtapositions
Another key characteristic is Padilla’s closing of one section with a choir on a major chord, with the antiphonal choir entering on the minor of that chord
The notation implies that they are held over one another, but in practice they likely were not.
Voice ranges are wide – generally spanning a tenth as opposed to a seventh or an octave as one might expect

Performance Practice note: The prominent use of instrumentalists was common in Spanish cathedrals during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the practice became standard in New Spain as well.
These included musicians performing on organ, harp, and bass viols; it was usual for these instruments to double the bass line.
Treble instruments, especially flutes, were used to double the remaining voice parts.
There are no direct indications in Padilla’s scores of this doubling, but it was a common performance practice at the time

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