The Recovering Choir Director

I’d guess both, and others. (For example, the crowd who argues that polyphony is pretentious/doesn’t foster “active participation,” or the ‘worship space’ that doesn’t lend itself to a good presentation of it, etc.)

There are plenty of rules to follow concerning the composition of Renaissance-style polyphony, and before one even thinks of attempting a composition, one would need to, among other things:

1) listen to the music of the genre;
2) have a solid understanding of melodic and harmonic functions, or at least a keen instinct for them.

On CPDL, I haven’t found too many polyphonic pieces I’d feel comfortable asking my choir to do…yet. There are a few Martini, Dufay and Monteverdi SAB settings that aren’t too rhythmically, melodically, or harmonically wild. The Dufay “Ave Regina coelorum” would push the harmonic envelope of choir members a bit, I think.

I wrote this post after attempting a basic polyphonic setting of the hymn, “Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended.” There are still some kinks to work out, and it sounds like a cheap knockoff of Byrd, but it’s a start.
As an aside, I believe this plays into the resurgence of interest in Eastern Christian musical forms. I’ve had limited exposure to Russian Orthodox choral music, and I find it more harmonically static than Renaissance polyphony, but it too has a certain ethereal quality. I think other than the need for an entire basso profundo section, the style is quite accessible.

As a further aside have you looked at any Lauridsen? It’s contemporary and quite beautiful, although much of it is probably too difficult for the average church choir (too many parts, for one thing).

I think that the composer needs to be aware of what is and is not difficult for amateur choirs to learn. The contrast is the palestrina “O Rex Gloriae” and the di Lasso “Miserere Mei” Both are four part motets. The Palestrina has some very odd intervals and rhythms. The di Lasso is more straight forward on both counts and is therefore much easier to learn. Volunteer choirs need mucho hand-holding in learning notes - it’s like a high school band - simple rhythms, big notes, etc. It’s not to say that they can’t learn it - it’s just tough to get non-trained singers to learn stuff that trained singers have problems with…