Contrafacere. Re-textualizing polyphonic music from the late sixteenth to the seventeenth century

The present article examines the contrafacta, vocal compositions in which the original text has been modified or substituted with a new text, sometimes in a different language, thus representing intertextual artifacts par excellence. The phenomenon of retextualization is investigated from different points of view: from the phonetic-timbre perspective, it has been observed that the substitution of the text, especially when the new text is in a different language, determines a change in the way the composition sounds, as any listener can note, even without being able to distinguish the words while listening; with regards the reception, it has been observed that the different categories of listeners could appreciate the contrafacta each with a different level of comprehension: the more simple listener enjoying it in a less conscious manner; the more informed listener being able to grasp its more refined aspects; from the viewpoint of transmission, the contrafacta have been read as signs of the dissemination of a composition; from that of the Wirkungsgeschichte, as indicators of the duration of its effectiveness. Besides the quantitative data of the phenomenon (which madrigals were subjected to the greatest number of re-textualization procedures? Which collections were appreciated longer than others?), an attempt has been made to assess in what way the compositions assumed as models have been given new life. From this point of view, the procedure of textual substitution proved to be partly similar to translation. Just as a good translation (traducěre means to transfer) aims to revive the sense of a text by unveiling in a new language meanings that the original language was not able to render explicit, music similarly does not limit itself to ‘clothing’ a text, but goes beyond, revealing its deeper sense. In the same way, the affixation of a new text to a pre-existing composition can at times shed further light on the sense of the original text, even if the meaning of the new text is apparently far from that of the first, while in other cases it can betray it. This explains the efficacy of the apparent ‘transmigration’ of compositions from the secular domain to the sacred: sacred is what produces an emotional impact on the listener, it is the sense conveyed by the music, over and above the meaning of the text that has been set. It is no coincidence that, in an era of frequent doctrinal reforms and confessional divisions such as the one in question (16th- and 17th-century), music acted, in varying circumstances, as a genuine religio, uniting different communities within a relatively stable and common sonic landscape, irrespective of the constantly shifting geopolitical borders of the time.