Quen Serve Santa Maria Analysis

In comparison to how early percussion was performed and how musicians of the percussive arts are viewed upon today is almost an opposite perspective. In the medieval era of music, percussionists and parts were most definitely not used as much as which the other instruments were written for. The use of percussion back in this era were only written if the composer felt the percussion parts were a necessity for a piece, and if they were included in a piece, the parts were normally improvised. With the exception that percussionist were less prepared and trained than they are today, there are many aspects of this field of music that can be used to learn from and also information to see how percussion has evolved into what it is today.
Our chosen piece is The Cantigas de Santa Maria by _____. This collection of works of which consists of …show more content…
This song, “Quen Serve Santa Maria,” which can be referred to as no. 213 of the Cantigas, seems to have a much more unique form than the other cantigas, which are nearly all strophic. The song opens with percussion playing a cadenza-like section, which melds into a more solid rhythmic pattern. The percussion is then joined by several instruments that play a rhythmically active, loud, and rambunctious melody.3 After this section of the music, the parts that follow is a completely different composition than what is heard in the beginning of this piece. It begins with a lute performing a transition into the next section, which is written for the voice of a singer to create a slow melody. After this, the percussion reintroduces the parts that are performed in the beginning so that they can accompany the melody. What actually makes this piece unique is that almost every other song in this collection only carry the same ideas that reoccur after every