Improvised Counterpoint Sources and Corpora
Published March 10, 2026 | Version 1.0
Dataset Open

Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples (CRCE), vol. 6: Vicente Lusitano — 38 Solo Counterpoint Examples on Mensural Music (Skills, Vol. 4)

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon KU Leuven
  • 2. ROR icon LUCA School of Arts
  • 3. ROR icon Orpheus Institute

Contributors

Description

Description

The Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples (CRCE), vol. 6: Vicente Lusitano — 38 Solo Counterpoint Examples on Mensural Music (Skills, Vol. 4) presents instrumental recordings of the examples transmitted in the fourth chapter of Vicente Lusitano’s Libro segundo in his counterpoint treatise (F-Pn Esp. 219, ca. 1550).

Within the CRCE series, Lusitano’s material is distributed across four volumes corresponding to distinct pedagogical domains within Libro segundo. The present dataset corresponds to the fourth domain, dedicated to counterpoint on mensural music.

The dataset forms part of the multi-volume Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples (CRCE), a research dataset documenting historically informed instrumental realisations of counterpoint examples preserved in Renaissance music theory treatises.

Contents

This dataset contains the complete set of recordings corresponding to Lusitano’s examples of counterpoint on mensural music. Audio files are provided in both FLAC and MP3 formats and are accompanied by a volume-specific metadata file describing the musical, analytical, and editorial characteristics of each example.

The recordings may be consulted both as standalone analytical materials and through several complementary modes of access within the broader CRCE framework.

Treatise-specific contextualisation is provided through the companion site:


Further companion sites forming part of the same research corpus include:

Corpus-level navigation and listening are supported through:


These interfaces provide structured access to the recordings in alignment with the metadata model and analytical organisation of the corpus.

Corpus context

The examples of counterpoint on mensural music preserved in Lusitano’s treatise document a distinct pedagogical domain within Renaissance contrapuntal practice. They centre on the addition of new voices to pre-existing mensural models, whether monophonic or polyphonic.

These examples require the musician to operate within a fully mensural framework while generating a structurally coherent contrapuntal line in real time. They therefore involve the integration of notational awareness, aural projection, memory, and procedural control.

Unlike the preceding chapters of Libro segundo, which organise contrapuntal practice primarily through procedures applied to a cantus firmus, this repertory foregrounds interaction with an already articulated mensural texture. It thus provides important documentary evidence for advanced contrapuntal practices involving the real-time integration of newly generated voices into notated repertory.
 

Corpus framework

The CRCE documents historically informed instrumental realisations of counterpoint examples preserved in Renaissance theoretical sources, including treatises by Mateo de Aranda, Melchor de Torres, and Vicente Lusitano. Together, these recordings support research on historical improvisation, contrapuntal pedagogy, and the aural-procedural foundations of Renaissance polyphony.

The corpus forms part of the Improvised Counterpoint Sources and Corpora community on Zenodo, which brings together digital corpora of primary sources and related audio datasets within a unified research framework.

Research framework

The recordings were produced by Vicente Parrilla as part of the doctoral research project:

Renaissance Improvised Counterpoint: Rethinking Concept, Cognition, and Aural Foundations

KU Leuven / LUCA School of Arts (docARTES programme), supported by a PhD Fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO, project no. 11A9922N).

Related dataset

Metadata, technical documentation, and corpus-wide information are provided in:

Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples (CRCE): Metadata, Documentation, and Corpus Overview
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18648158

Project website

Further information, related publications, and additional resources are available at:
https://improvisedcounterpoint.com

Files

crce-audio-flac-vol6-357-420.zip

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Additional details

Is derived from
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.17865921 (DOI)
Is part of
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.18648158 (DOI)
References
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.18944002 (DOI)
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.18944766 (DOI)
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.18944882 (DOI)
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.18944977 (DOI)
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.18945152 (DOI)

Funding

Research Foundation - Flanders
Renaissance Improvised Counterpoint: Rethinking Concept, Cognition, and Aural Foundations 11A9922N