David Stewart wrote:

>Tedd A Jander wrote:
>
>>...but exactly how does the word "antiphonal" pertain to the sacred
>>choral music of the Renaissance and its affect acoustically.
>
>I heard that some Monteverdi pieces, perhaps the Vespers? were performed
>in a church/cathedral setting where they would be forced to disperse the
>performers around the galleries and things, so you would have a very
>distinct antiphonal and spatial effect when the different groups were
>employed.  A performance to put Dolby Surround Sound to shame!

The church in question is San Marco in Venice.  Because of its unique
design and the fact that it has, I believe, four organs, composers
intentionally composed music that could utilize opposing forces.  It is
a spectacular effect.  This was done of course years before Monteverdi came
upon the scene.  The Gabrielis and Schuetz among others wrot much music for
antiphonal forces.  There were any number of ways to carry it off as well.
You could have one singing choir, one vocal choir and an organ or two or
any combination that you maight desire.  the technique is known in Italian
as Cori spezati.  Yes, the Vespers of 1610 of Monteverdi use the technique
with fantastic results.

>It is a surprise that this kind of thing has not been done more often.
>It would be a nightmare to keep everything together but what if you put
>all the performers in Brandenburg No. 3 in a loose circle around the
>audience.  I expect that would be very insightful.

It's done all the time and it isn't as difficult as you would think. the
music itself is composed in such a way that the harmonic rhythm is rather
slow. Ergo, the overlapping sounds are sonorous and it works just fine.

Kevin Sutton