Hierachies called into question: Leader and Accompanyng Roles in Multipart Music

Within the sphere of multipart music, not all the performance roles can be considered as being of equal importance. There are essential or main roles, second leads or complementary roles, unessential or subordinate ones, and so on. This different relevance of the roles can be interpreted as an iconic representation of the general conceptual framework of the society expressing them; it can be considered symbolically representative of aspects of shared cognitive models inherent to the social life of the population in question, which are experienced and lived in each performance. The article examines the theme by means of a case study from Sardinia that concerns the mutual coordination of four singing roles involved in a tenore singing. This music practice pivots on one main/leading voice accompanied by three vocal parts arranged as syllabic formulas: thus, it implies an idea of music behaviour based on a hierarchical relationship. In fact, each voice has a specific range of performance choices and, through melodic, rhythmic and timbral nuances, singers experience, negotiate and even call into question these basic senses of hierarchy. Beyond these nuances, Sardinia’s a tenore singing mechanism demonstrates the overall special relevance of singing/playing in four parts in cases in which each constitutive and distinctive sound action is performed by one singer (or instrument). Making music in four parts/with four people ensures gratification in terms of the musical outcomes as well as the inter-individual relationships that is proportional to the engagement of the participants. It can be considered a metaphorical representation of an ideal working group with a perfect balance of task distribution ensuring common engagement to achieve the best result.