Aranda Digital Corpus – The 38 Counterpoint Examples from Mateo de Aranda (1535)

Description

This dataset presents a modern digital corpus of the thirty-eight counterpoint examples transmitted in Mateo de Aranda’s Tractado de canto mensurable: y contrapuncto (Lisbon, 1535). The material is offered in two PDF editions, a clean version and an analytical version with interval labelling, together with MusicXML, MIDI, and MP3 files. The dataset is intended to support research, teaching, and performance practice in Renaissance improvised counterpoint.

A companion GitHub repository documents the editorial workflow, source files, and version history associated with the preparation of the corpus:
https://github.com/vparrilla/aranda-digital-corpus

The transcriptions and editorial documentation were prepared by Vicente Parrilla (2025) as part of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)-funded doctoral project Renaissance Improvised Counterpoint: Rethinking Concept, Cognition, and Aural Foundations (project no. 11A9922N), conducted at KU Leuven, LUCA School of Arts, and docARTES.

Editorial approach

Accidentals have been preserved as in the original source, with a small number of clearly signposted editorial musica fictaadditions. Modern clefs are used for ease of reading, while original rhythmic values have been retained. The clean edition presents the material in an unobtrusive layout, and the analytical version supports methodological aims related to aural and procedural training, intervallic awareness, and stylistic understanding.

Examples in this edition are identified using two numbering schemes: a sequential numbering (1–38), reflecting their order in the sixteenth-century print, and an analytical code grouping examples by technique. In the analytical edition, both identifiers appear together.

Relationship to other datasets

This dataset forms part of the Improvised Counterpoint Sources and Corpora community on Zenodo, which brings together digital corpora of primary sources and the multi-volume Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples (CRCE).

The CRCE currently comprises 420 historically informed instrumental recordings of counterpoint examples transmitted in Renaissance music theory treatises, including the present source. While the digital corpora provide edited transcriptions, navigational tools, and analytical metadata, the CRCE volumes document performative realisations of the same repertory.

Further contextual materials are available through the project website:
https://improvisedcounterpoint.com

Funding

Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), doctoral fellowship no. 11A9922N.