Reconstruction
Methods for Reconstruction
We simultaneously set about reconstructing about half the incomplete pieces (about 60 chansons) using the same vocabulary of contrapuntal types that used in our analyses. Graduate student assistants translated our general principles into concrete results, reconstructing over three dozen chansons using our Thesaurus. Each piece was reconstructed by two or more different student assistants (there are over 80 reconstructions in all). It is of course rewarding when two different participants propose the same solution, especially when supported by insights provided via the analytic database. Sometimes the contrapuntal implications of the extant superius and tenor parts are so clear that there is little doubt about the contratenor and bassus parts. But in other instances we can imagine more than one plausible solution to the same contrapuntal puzzle presented by the missing contratenor and bassus voices. This is very much in keeping with the spirit of our project, which is equally concerned with how we arrive at those solutions: through discussion and debate, by formulating analytic categories and describing of stylistic norms. The Lost Voices Project is thus as much concerned with process as it is with product, in keeping with the digital medium and its capacities to sustain layered, dynamic texts and conversations about them.
Reconstruction in Three Phases
During the various workshops and editorial meetings conducted during The Lost Voices Project, a broad consensus emerged about the need for a clear framework that will allow contributors and collaborators to propose, discuss, and support various solutions to the problem of the missing voices. The basic method moves from consideration of general to specific, considering first the range and disposition of the vocal forces, then the relationship of text and music as they are manifest in the extant voice parts, and then through an interactive process that explores the specific contrapuntal choices available within the style. Our work moves through three phases:
estimation (of what might take place in each phrase)
comparison (by searching in The Lost Voices Project data base for analogous situations in the remainder of the repertory) and
re-composition (deciding on specific solutions that best fit the reconstructor’s emerging notion of the most likely compositional solution for the piece at hand).
See the full list of reconstructions via the Lost Voices website.
View our Du Chemin Recontruction Methodology, which explains our methods of analysis and reconstruction (also embedded below).
For a comparative discussion of two partcipant's experiences with reconstruction, see Freedman, Richard, Jamie Apgar, and Micah Walter, “In Search of Lost Voices” Journal of the Alamire Foundation 9/2 (2017), 319-53. https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.JAF.5.115547
Want to get started?
See the Practicum Page for text worksheets and for PDF and Sibelius files of the pieces with lost voices.
