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Humanities LibreTexts

1.19: Imitation

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You’ve already studied the compositional technique known as cantus firmus, in which a new composition is built around a pre-exisiting melody. This technique continued into the middle of the Renaissance period. Josquin des Prez certainly used cantus firms in many of his works, but by Josquin’s time a new compositional technique, imitation, was becoming more popular among composers. Josquin’s own use of imitative counterpoint represents a high point in Renaissance polyphony. Read the first three paragraphs of this webpage for an introduction to imitative composition.

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This page titled 1.19: Imitation is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Elliott Jones via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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