(Lat.: ‘alternately’).
A term commonly used to describe the manner in which alternate sections of certain liturgical items were performed by distinct and normally dissimilar forces. The practice had its roots in the antiphonal psalmody of the early Western church. One of its first characteristic manifestations was in the performance of responsorial chants (e.g. gradual, alleluia) where the soloists (cantores) alternated with the choir (schola) (see Psalm, §II, and Responsory, §4). In the organum settings of these texts in the Notre Dame repertory, the soloists sang polyphonically the sections normally reserved for the cantor, while the choir sang its sections in plainchant. Some Renaissance settings of responsorial texts show the same alternation of polyphony with plainchant (e.g. the settings of Audivi vocem de caelo by Taverner and Tallis).
The practice of alternatim, however, was not restricted to liturgical texts that were responsorial in character, nor to the opposition of plainchant to polyphony: psalms, canticles, hymns, sequences and the Ordinary of the Mass were also set in this fashion, one verse alternating with the next; and the alternation of organ with choir, or fauxbourdon with plainchant, rapidly gained currency during the 15th century. The introduction of the organ as a partner in alternatim practices (some time in the 14th century; see Organ mass) led in particular to a fine body of liturgical organ music in Italy, Spain and France during the 16th and 17th centuries (see Organ hymn). Settings in which polyphony alternated with plainchant became common during the Renaissance: a Kyrie and Gloria by Du Fay reveal the penetration of this manner of performance into the Mass Ordinary; but more numerous are the plainchant–polyphonic settings of the Magnificat, sequences and hymns. Victoria (1581) and Palestrina (1589) each published important collections of hymn versets in addition to numerous sets for the Magnificat; other notable composers of alternatim Magnificat settings include Du Fay, Fayrfax, Festa, Gombert, Morales and Taverner (see also Magnificat, §2).
In the modern performance of alternatim pieces a problem may arise where apparently insufficient versets are furnished by a composer. For instance, Du Fay often provided only a single polyphonically worked verset for a particular hymn; in such a case one would have been expected to repeat the same music for succeeding alternate versets. Similarly, in Attaingnant’s publication Magnificat sur les huit tons (Paris, 1530), six of the eight sets of organ versets for the canticle contain only two versets (a minimum of six is required for the Magnificat); here the organist would have been expected to improvise the remainder. Modern performances need also to take into account the rules governing the modal or tonal relationships between choir and organ (Howell; Nelson).
Attention may also be drawn to alternatim patterns of greater complexity. The Caeremoniale parisiense (1662) describes the following manner of performing the invitatory at Matins (I = invitatory; i = section of invitatory; C = choir; cc = cantors; O = organ): I(cc); I(O); v.1(cc); I(C); v.2(cc); I(O); v.3(cc); I(C); v.4(cc); I(O); v.5(cc); I(C); Gloria Patri (cc); i(0); i(cc); i(C). Le Sieur de Moléon referred to another interesting alternatim scheme (Voyages liturgiques, Paris, 1718, p.132) used at the church of St Martin, Tours, on its patronal festival (12 May):
Le chantre de l’Eglise de S. Martin commence l’Introit, dont l’Orgue et la Musique chantent chacun la moitié. Le chantre des religieux chante le Verset et recommence l’Introit, que les Moines continuent; et le Chantre de l’Eglise le Gloria Patri, et reprend l’Introit pour la troisième fois, que la Musique poursuit; et ainsi du reste de la Messe qu’on chante à trois choeurs.
A.C. Howell: ‘French Baroque Organ Music and the Eight Church Tones’, JAMS, xi (1958), 106–18
W. Apel: ‘Probleme der Alternierung in der liturgischen Orgelmusik bis 1600’, Claudio Monteverdi e il suo tempo: Venice, Mantua and Cremona 1968, 171–86
M. Berry: ‘The Practice of Alternatim: Organ-Playing and Polyphony in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, with Special Reference to the Choir of Notre-Dame de Paris’, The Diapason, lxxii/6 (1981), 5–11
B. van Wye: ‘Marcel Dupré’s Marian Vespers and the French Alternatim Tradition’, MR, xliii (1982), 192–224
V. Donella: ‘L’annuale di G.B. Fasolo, dignitosa risposta alle esigenze di una prassi organistica liturgicamente assurda’, RIMS, vii (1986), 247–306
B. Nelson: ‘Alternatim Practice in 17th-Century Spain: the Integration of Organ Versets and Plainchants in Psalms and Canticles’, EMc, xxii (1994), 239–56
EDWARD HIGGINBOTTOM