Renaissance

Te Deum’s Approach to Renaissance Polyphony: Modernized Partbooks

Te Deum approaches Renaissance polyphony with a deep commitment to historical and scholarly performance practices. In keeping with the principles of historically informed performance (HIP), the ensemble seeks to engage with Renaissance choral music in a way that is both artistically compelling and grounded in historical accuracy. A fundamental challenge in performing this repertoire is the way modern editions often impose anachronistic notational conventions, altering the way singers perceive and execute the music.

To address this, Dr. Shepard has developed a set of modernized partbooks that preserve the essential characteristics of Renaissance notation while ensuring accessibility for modern singers. These editions allow performers to experience the music as it was originally conceived, maintaining the integrity of Renaissance compositional techniques while offering a practical tool for today’s choral ensembles.

Two defining characteristics set these modernized partbooks apart from standard modern editions:

1. The Horizontality of Line – Renaissance composers wrote polyphonic music with each voice functioning independently. Singing from a partbook rather than a full score restores this independence, allowing singers to engage with their own melodic line in a way that reflects the original compositional intent.

2. Phrasing Informed by Text and Melodic Shape – Renaissance music was shaped by the natural flow of text rather than the strict metric structures imposed by later musical traditions. The absence of barlines in these editions ensures that phrasing is guided by text stress and melodic contour rather than artificial metric accents.

Each score below includes a list of editorial decisions specific to that edition, providing insight into how the modernized partbooks balance historical authenticity with practical application. A complete overview of the editorial principles behind these editions can be found at the bottom of this page.

As part of Te Deum’s commitment to historically informed performance, these modernized partbooks are now being made available to the public. Conductors and ensembles interested in exploring Renaissance polyphony through this lens are invited to use these scores as a resource for their own performances.

By utilizing these modernized partbooks, Te Deum remains committed to interpreting Renaissance polyphony with scholarly integrity, bridging the gap between historical performance practice and modern choral artistry.

Scores

Editorial Decisions

Bar Lines

• Bar lines were retained in the full score to aid the conductor during the rehearsal process
• A dotted, rather than solid, bar line is used in the full score to reduce their emphasis and to remind that they must not imply metric stress
• The individual partbooks have no bar lines

Note Length

• Non-​diplomatic score = reduced note lengths that resemble half the length of the white mensural notation originally used. Reflects modern note values.
• Long notes that cross bars were retained in the full score rather than using a tie across the bar. These match the note lengths used in the singers’ partbooks.

Slurs and Beams

• Modern editorial practice is to slur notes together that are sung on the same syllable. No slurs were used in these editions to match the original partbooks and to avoid resultant note groupings.
• Modern editorial practice is to beam notes together to show placement within a bar. No beams were used to avoid metric groupings.

Mensuration

• Modern time signatures have been used, and the original mensuration is explained with each score.

Latin Text

• The Latin pronunciation guide is based on Ecclesiastical Latin, and may vary if using regional Latin pronunciation (i.e. British, French, German, Spanish, etc)
• In two-​syllable words the stress will always be placed on the first syllable
• In polysyllabic words, the location of the stress varies, so diacritical accents (á,é,ó) have been used to indicate the stressed syllable
• Modern punctuation has been used to reflect the structure of the Latin text phrases

Chromatic Notes

• Chromatic notes on the staff were retained from the various prints used for each edition
• Chromatic notes above the staff are suggested ficta
• Chromatic notes on the staff in parenthesis are courtesy accidentals.
• Accidentals are repeated on every pitch because the singers’ partbooks do not have bar lines so cannot follow modern rules of applying accidentals

Rehearsal Letters

• Rehearsal letters have been added to aid in the rehearsal process
• Where possible, rehearsal letters fall at moments when all voice parts are singing, allowing the singer to know where the conductor is starting and to give them a reference pitch from which to find their subsequent pitch
• Most rehearsal letters fall at phrase endings rather than beginnings because that is when most voices are singing