Rhetorical Aspects of The Renaissance Modes PDF

Rhetorical Aspects of the Renaissance Modes
Author(s): Bernhard Meier and Geoffrey Chew

Source: Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 115, No. 2 (1990), pp. 182-190
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association
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Rhetorical Aspects of the

Renaissance Modes
BERNHARD
MEIER
THE 'rhetorical' character of Renaissance music - or, more precisely, of

the vocal music of that period - is generally well known. Briefly: the
musical segmentation of every vocal composition of that period is determined by the syntactic division of its text; each individual word that is
suited to musical 'translation' not only renders this quasi-allegorical
representation possible, but absolutely requires it; and the ability to
discover such 'allegories', to apply them appropriately and thus to enrich
the expressive vocabulary of music was regarded as the chief measure of
the competence of a composer.
Besides (or rather before) all these considerations, however, contemporary music theory testifies that keys - known at the time as modes or
tones - played a pre-eminent, indeed fundamental, role. The choice of
mode was the first decision to be taken by the composer; however, this
choice was determined by the character of the text to be set. Thus the
modes were regarded, as indeed they had been in the Middle Ages, not
merely as purely musical phenomena, defined according to melodic
criteria, but also as vehicles for definite affective qualities; although this
is to oversimplify, the authentic modes were regarded as 'joyful to
moderate', and the plagal modes as 'moderate to mournful'.
However, this verdict must immediately be modified, for it was said
also that the specific affective qualities of the modes were not rigid or unchanging. Tinctoris (1476) already notes that a competent composer can
render any of the modes 'joyful' or 'mournful', and this is repeated later
by Glarean and others.' The question whether the affective character
ascribed to the modes has any objective meaning must thus be answered
afresh in each particular instance. I propose to demonstrate, with
reference to some examples, how we may proceed to answer this question
- or, to put the matter more modestly, how we may attempt to approach
an answer.
The first method of investigation considers modal usage in the output
of a single composer. To this end, I wish purposely to choose the work of a
'progressive' composer, Cipriano de Rore. It has been shown that the affective characteristics of the traditional fifth and sixth modes still in principle govern his works 'in fa'.2 What is the position in Rore's works in D
modes, those 'in re'? As a sample from the works in question, let us take
'
Johannes Tinctoris, Liber de natura et proprietate tonorum (manuscript dated 6 November

1476), chap. 1; ed. Albert Seay, Corpus scriptorum de musica, 22/1 (American Institute of
Musicology, 1975), 68. Heinrich Glarean, Dodecachordon (Basle, 1547; written 1519-39), book II,
chaps. 11, 25. (Note that Tinctoris's statement refers also to instrumental music.)
2 Bernhard Meier, Die Tonarten der klassischen Vokalpolyphonie nach den Quellen dargestellt
(Utrecht, 1974), 376-9 (trans. as The Modes of Classical Vocal Polyphony (New York, 1988), 394-6).

MODES
OFTHERENAISSANCE
RHETORICAL
ASPECTS
183
nos. 1-5 from Rore's First Book of Madrigals a5 (Venice, 1542), a

publication which is ordered according to the sequence of the eight
modes.' A particularly instructive contrast is offered by nos. 2 (Hor che'l
ciel) and 5 (Solea lontana) of these madrigals, both settings of sonnets
from Petrarch's Canzoniere.
The poems both deal with 'Amor' and - as invariably in Petrarch and
his sixteenth-century imitators - with unfulfilled, unhappy love. If the
texts of these madrigals are considered in detail, however, clear differences can be found. However much lamentation there may be in Hor
che'l ciel, there are expressions of hope dawning, most clearly in the
penultimate verse of the poem, 'Mille volte il di moro e mille nasco'. In
accordance with the (one might add: persistently) 'moderate' affective
character of its text, Rore chooses mode 1, a mode which had long been
regarded as 'moderate', and which is here transposed to G. The sentiments in the second of these madrigals are, however, quite different:
here Petrarch relates how his deceased beloved appears to him in a
dream; and the conclusion of her speech to the poet is: 'Never hope to see
me on earth again.' However, the key word 'death' leads to the choice of
mode 2, again transposed to G. The same observation can be made of the
three other madrigals 'in re' in the above-mentioned First Book (nos. 1, 3
and 4). In no. 4 the key word 'death' again leads to the choice of the
plagal mode, whereas the character of the text in no. 3 as an encomium
and in no. 1 as moralizing contemplation leads to the choice of the
authentic 're' mode.
A second method of casting light on the relationship between mode
and affective character is offered by the investigation of settings of a
single text. However, one cannot expect to find one and the same text
always set in the same mode; texts of high literary quality in particular
customarily comprise sections of contrasting affective character, and the
composer is thus free to take one or other of the affections to which the
text gives rise as the 'dominant affection' governing the choice of mode.
The first example illustrating the possibilities is offered by the settings
of Petrarch's sonnet 'Cantai, hor piango' by Adrian Willaert and his pupil
Perissone Cambio. For the choice of mode, Willaert proceeds from the
text incipit and accordingly elects to use the extremely 'mournful' plagal
mode with E ('mi') as final, i.e. mode 4. Perissone, indeed, quotes one of
the two initial motifs of Willaert's madrigal at the outset;4 however, influenced by the 'brightening' of the affective character at the conclusion
of Petrarch's poem, he chooses for the tonality the affectively 'moderate'
mode 1, transposed to G (compare the phrases 'Ch'i non penso esser mai,
se non felice' and 'Si dolce e del mio amaro la radice'). An even more impressive example is offered by Josquin in his two settings of the sixth
penitential psalm, 'De profundis'. The first setting, for low voices, which
is in mode 4 (the mode is attested by Zarlino), corresponds to the affection of deep sorrow, which is given immediate expression in the first
3 Ed. Bernhard Meier, in Cipriani Rore opera omnia, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 14/2
(American Institute of Musicology, 1963), 1-24.
4 See Helga Meier, 'Zur Chronologie der Musica nova Adrian Willaerts', Analecta musicologica,
12 (1973), 71-96 (pp. 79-80, including music example).

184
BERNHARD
MEIER
words of the text. In his second setting, however, Josquin apparently proceeds (as Perissone does later, in the above-mentioned madrigal) according to the principle by which the ending dictates the character of the
whole, 'a fine denominatur res'. The closing clause of the psalm 'De profundis' is coloured by hope: 'And he [the Lord] shall redeem Israel from
all its sins' ('Et ipse redimet Israel ex omnibus iniquitatibus eius'); and,
in accordance with this clause, Josquin chooses mode 8 for his second setting; though it is not unrestrainedly joyful, it is also not mournful. (It is,
so to speak, self-evident that the words 'De profundis' should in this setting also be underlined in musical terms.)
The question of 'mode and affective character' might also be approached with reference to specific genres - even to genres of limited
literary value. Connections of this type, between largely stereotyped text
content and mode, seem, as far as I have been able to discover, to exist in
the French Renaissance chanson: the 'mournful' modes mentioned above
are used for lovers' laments; mode 1 seems to predominate in settings of
anecdotal texts; and mode 8 seems principally to have been regarded as
appropriate for texts whose scope is a pledge of loyalty.
In all the considerations so far advanced, we have attempted to show
that the assertions of sixteenth-century music theorists concerning the affective character of the modes may in no way be relegated wholesale to
the realm of fable. We have, however, also recognized that in particular
instances a single solution is not the only possibility. And the relationships
are even more complicated than this: the facts must be taken into account, first, that it is not always the affection of the text that determines
the choice of mode; secondly, that the choice of mode does not always depend on the composer's choice; and finally, that the affective character,
peculiar to a mode 'by its nature', may be altered by various compositional procedures.
Affective qualities do not determine the tonality of those works whose
text contains a particular cardinal number in a prominent position,
which then provides a pretext for the composer to choose the mode of
that number. This type of connection between text and mode may seem
purely superficial to us; in the sixteenth century, however, this procedure
was adopted even by the greatest masters. Examples are offered by
Lassus's motet Unus dominus, unafides, unum baptisma, set in mode 1,
and Willaert's setting of Octo beatitudines in mode 8 (the mode is attested by Zacconi). Since mode 8 was the last mode in the traditional
modal system, Leonhard Lechner was able to use it as the basis for his
motet Annusfinit iter (the mode is attested by Maternqs Beringer).5 Even
so 'modern' a composer as Monteverdi still acts according to this convention, not only in setting the motet Duo seraphim clamabant from the
Vespers as a duet (as far as the text comprises the paean of these angels),
but, for the sake of the numeral with which the text begins, also in basing
it on the (transposed) second mode.6
5 Maternus Beringer, Musicae ... Erster und Anderer Theil (Nuremberg, 1610; repr. Leipzig,
1974).
in Monteverdis "Marienvesper"',
6 See Bernhard Meier, 'Zur Tonart der Concertato-Motetten
Claudio Monteverdi: Festschrift Reinhold Hammerstein, ed. Ludwig Finscher (Laaber, 1986),
359-67 (p. 365).

RHETORICAL ASPECTSOF THE RENAISSANCEMODES
185
Proof that the choice of mode was determined not according to the
wishes of composers but according to the taste of their patrons is,
understandably, extremely rare. However, one such case exists, thanks to
the survival of the diaries of the Tiibingen Greek scholar Martin Crusius
(1526-1607).7 This man, a leading scholar and enthusiastic musical
amateur, used to conclude his formal academic addresses with motets,
whose texts were given to musicians from the Stuttgart Hofkapelle to set.
He designates most of these motets as 'quarti toni', and proceeds to comment that he finds this 'tender' mode pleasing, in contrast with 'cantiones, ubi dominatur Ut et Sol' - i.e. compositions in modes 5 and 7.
Whether partiality for, or aversion towards, particular modes was
decisive in other instances is as yet unknown. However, even as early as
John of Afflighem we find the recommendation that the composer of 'new
songs' (i.e. chants) should take account, in his choice of mode, of the personal characteristics (in this instance the age) of his patron.8
In what ways, however, can the composer effect an alteration of the
affective character of a mode? Here, too, sixteenth-century theory offers
answers; a brief account of its assertions must suffice.
The first means of contradicting the affective character which a mode
possesses 'by nature' is the transposition of the mode out of its usual pitch
range. Mode 2, for example, may lose its 'mournful' character by being
transposed in the tenor to d' and in the discantus to d", a procedure
adopted by Orazio Vecchi according to the precedent set in Palestrina's
madrigal Vestiva i colli.9 In the same manner the (traditional) sixth mode
may acquire a markedly 'joyful' affective character by being transposed
up a fifth, with the consequence that this mode, termed mode 12 by
Glarean and (in his early work) Zarlino, is one of the most frequently used
modes in 'joyful' instrumental canzonas. 0 Even the most 'mournful' of all
the modes, the plagal mode on the final 'mi', is capable of losing the affective character normally peculiar to it if it is transposed up an octave, as
is attested by some of the compositions for festivals in the Christmas
season from Palestrina's cycle of offertories. " A precisely opposite effect is
achieved by transposing modes down. An example of this is offered by the
7 On this point see Georg Reichert, 'Martin Crusius und die Musik in Tiibingen um 1590', Archiv
fiir 'Musikwissenschaft, 10 (1953), 185-212 (pp. 202, 205, 208).
John of Afflighem, De musica cum tonario, ed. Joseph Smits van Waesberghe, Corpus scriptorum de musica, 1 (American Institute of Musicology, 1950), chap. 18 ('Praecepta de cantu
componendo').
9 See Orazio Vecchi, Mostra delli tuoni della musica (a manuscript dating from 1630), 9.
Palestrina's madrigal is assigned to mode 2 (transposed up an octave) also by Zacconi and Costanzo
Porta, whose four-voice Missa secundi toni is based on the madrigal Vestiva i colli. The examples of
mode 2 constructed per b-durum given by Seth Calvisius (Exercitationes musicae duae, Leipzig,
1600) also correspond to this type, as do the details of the disposition of mode 2 per b-durum in
Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, iii (Wolfenbiittel, 1619; repr. Kassel, 1958), 36, 40. Concerning Palestrina's madrigal in particular see Harold S. Powers, 'The Modality of "Vestiva i colli"',
Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Music in Honor of Arthur Mendel (Kassel and Hackensack, NJ,
1975), 31-46.
"0 A distinctive branch of modal theory, apparently represented mainly by Italian authors,
regards this mode as a variant of mode 7. See Harold S. Powers, 'Tonal Types and Modal Categories
in Renaissance Polyphony', Journal of the American Musicological Society, 34 (1981), 456-9. The
variations in the nomenclature do not affect the question of its affective character.
" See Bernhard
Meier, 'Zu den "in mi" fundierten Werken aus Palestrinas OffertoriumsMotettenzyklus', Die Musikforschung, 37 (1984), 215-20.

186
BERNHARD
MEIER
Preces speciales composed by Jacobus de Kerle for the Council of Trent.12

These Preces are set as a cycle of the traditional eight modes. The normally 'joyful' (even 'wanton') mode 7 could therefore not be omitted.
Its own affective character would not, however, have been appropriate
for pieces for votive use; Jacobus de Kerle therefore transposed mode 7
down a fifth (i.e. to c or c', with a flat signature), and the 'darker' texture
created in this way gives even mode 7 the solemn tone suited to the
occasion. 3
The procedures outlined so far relate to the overall alteration of modal
affections, that is, alterations which are in force throughout a composition in a particular mode. However, the affection of each mode can also
be altered during part of a work. This is attested most impressively by
Zarlino, especially in the Istitutioni harmoniche, and by Rore's pupil
Pietro Pontio in his Dialogo,'4 but they are not the only witnesses.
These two authors are familiar by name with the traditional affective
characteristics of the modes, but immediately set a limit to their assertions by commenting that each of the modes may be rendered 'joyful' (or
alternatively 'hard') if the composer introduces movimenti veloci and uses
many major thirds, sixths or tenths over the bass; conversely, in each
mode the music will become 'mournful' or 'languid' ('languido') if the
composer makes use of slow rhythms and introduces many minor thirds,
sixths or tenths over the bass. Thus they speak quite explicitly of 'major'
and 'minor' effects. However, such 'major' and 'minor' sonorities do not
as yet represent a system; like unusually quick or slow rhythms, they remain special techniques, used to interpret individual words in the text,
and, like all other text-expressive devices, they are placed in relief during
the course of the work.
It can already be seen from the few examples I have adduced that there
are numerous methods of altering the traditional affective characteristics
which are always, so to speak, 'available' within each mode. In addition,
finally, it is possible virtually to 'expunge' the affective character of the
modes: in particular, if all the words capable of being interpreted in
musical terms (including all verba affectuum) are subjected to this treatment. There are examples of this procedure especially in the works of
Lassus in which the modes assume the role only of providing musically
'logical' coherence; however, they invariably do so strictly in order to provide a point of departure for the interpretation of individual words in the
text, whether this is done through intentional 'solecisms' breaking the
modal rules or through the 'exaggerated observation' of modal principles.
The principles I have outlined in abstract terms, concerning the modes
as a point of reference for the interpretation of texts, may be illustrated
12 Ed. Otto Ursprung, Jacobus de Kerle: Ausgewihlte
Werke, Erster Teil, Denkmiler der
Tonkunst in Bayern, 26 (Augsburg, 1926).
" See no. 9 of the Preces
(Domine rex omnipotens), as an example of the transposition of mode 7
libri
per b-molle mentioned by Maternus Beringer (Musicae), Johannes Magirus (Artis musicae .
duo, Frankfurt am Main, 1596) and Johannes Nucius (Musices poetzcae . . . praeceptiones, Neisse,
1613). The versus of the same composition (Tu domine, cui) is named as an example of the same
mode by Andreas Raselius in his Dodecachordi vivi exempla, an autograph manuscript dating from
1589.
4 Gioseffo Zarlino, Istitutioni harmoniche (Venice, 1558), book iv, chap. 32; Pietro Pontio,
Dialogo (Parma, 1595), 58.

187
with reference to Table 1, which presents the cadential and modal structure of Lassus's setting of the Octo beatitudines.
I have already noted that Willaert set this text in mode 8, on account of
the numeral eight. Lassus undoubtedly knew Willaert's motet: he makes
use of Willaert's soggetto cavato for the key word (based on its vowels,
giving re-fa-mi) and the leitmotif-like way in which Willaert utilizes it.
However, Lassus chooses mode 2 for the tonality, transposed as usual to
TABLE 1
ORLANDE DE LASSUS, BEA TI PAUPERES SPIRITU, COLLECTED WORKS, NEW SER.,
i, 11lff.
Mode 2, transposed to G
KEY
5 + Cadence
4 - Cadence
Cadenza
fg
sp Clausula
on the note a perfect fifth above the final

on the note a perfect fourth below the final
fuggita (i.e. deceptive cadence)
simplex (i.e. cadence without suspension)
Text-expressive devices occur at italicized words of text.
Text
Special
features
Beati pauperes spiritu,

quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.
Beati mites,
quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram.
Beati qui lugent,
quoniam ipsi consolabuntur.
Beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam,
quoniam ipsi saturabuntur.
Beati misericordes,
quoniam ipsi misericordiam consequentur.
Beati mundo corde,
Cadential
notes
G
D (5 +)
A-mi (sp)
G, D (4-), G
D-mi (4-), D (4-)
Bb
G
(D-mi, 4-)
D-mi (4-)
F (fg)
quoniam ipsi deum videbunt.
G, half-cadence
on D
Beati pacifici,
quoniam filii dei vocabuntur.
Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur
propter justitiam,
quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.
Beati estis,
cumrnmaledixerint vobis homines,
et persecuti vos fuerint,

et dixerint omne malum
G
A-mi, D (4-)
G
no cadence
C
(A)
commixtio 6.
toni
mentientes propter me.
Gaudete et exultate,
(F)
(A)
F (sp), G
movimenti veloci
quoniam merces vestra

copiosa est in caelis.

Bb
G
G
188
BERNHARD
MEIER
G. The relative lack of interest in the 'inherent' affective characteristics of

the modes, which I have mentioned as typical of him, emerges clearly in
this choice. However, one cannot speak of a mismatching of text and
music. The textual segmentation of this motet offered in Table 1 shows
that each clause of the text contains at least one text-expressive device at the words italicized in the table. Which of these devices depends on
modal rules, and in what way?
The first of these text-expressive devices can be recognized in the
discantus cadence concluding the first Beatitude, at 'regnum caelorum'.
Introduced so early in a composition, this cadence, on the note a fifth
above the final in the discantus, is too high for a plagal mode. Lassus
further underlines its text-expressive character by avoiding any similar
cadence throughout the subsequent course of the work. The cadence on
A-mi, foreign to the mode, which is introduced at the word 'mites', has
many counterparts in classical vocal polyphony with its prominently
semitonal character. In this particular instance the semitone step 'fa-mi'
occurs in the upper voice, and is thus particularly audible.
More extensive discussion is called for by the setting of the following
clause, 'Beati qui lugent, quoniam ipsi consolabuntur.' Here two
cadences should first be noted on the note a fourth below the final (i.e.
D), at the word 'lugent'; then a cadence on the note a third above the
final (Bb) at 'consolabuntur'. Only the first of the D cadences is foreign to
the mode, strictly speaking, since Lassus introduces it as a cadence on
D-mi.' However, if the setting of the clause is considered as a single unit
(bars 29-38), it can be seen that the three cadences in question are closely
connected to the musical events preceding them: in the structure, which
can hardly be described as polyphonic in conception, sonorities with
minor thirds predominate at the phrase 'Blessed are those who mourn',
whereas the phrase 'for they shall be consoled', affectively opposite to the
first, clearly favours sonorities with major thirds. From a purely formal
point of view, 'major' or 'minor' effects thus do not necessarily imply any
breach of modal norms: both the second D cadence (D-re) and the
cadence on Bb are regular mode 2 cadential tones (claves clausularum).
In another context and to another text, they might be, so to speak,
'neutral' in significance. However, if they are 'reserved' for the contrasting of 'mournful' and 'joyful' concepts, as they are in this motet at
bars 29-38, and if this occurs in the context of a texture in which the vertical, chordal aspect is particularly emphasized, then the cadences in
question are invested with a quality that is alien to mode 2 even though
they belong to that mode. In other words, they become ambiguous: they
remain regular in modal terms, but become opposed as 'minor' or 'major'
cadences. The further use of the cadence on BI also illustrates this ambiguity: Lassus uses this particular cadence only once more, at 'Gaudete
et exultate', in the secunda pars (bars 45-51), and again in a context
where the 'major' character of the cadence is emphasized; the preceding
movimenti veloci not only in themselves produce a joyful effect, but at the
same time point to a preponderance of 'major' sonorities.
"' The construction
of a cadence on D-mi at bar 24 reflects an error in the edition.

189
After all that has been said so far, we may briefly pass over the interpretation of 'misericordes' and 'misericordiam consequentur' by means of
cadences on D-mi. However, the concluding clause of the prima pars of
this motet, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' ('Beati
mundo corde, quoniam ipsi deum videbunt'), deserves detailed discussion. It may initially seem surprising that the words 'mundo corde' lack
text-expressive treatment, and indeed conclude with a clausula peregrina
on F (admittedly only weakly projected). For the present, we may ignore
this apparent difficulty and consider the second part of this Beatitude,
'for they shall see God'. Again, the texture can scarcely be described as
polyphonic; the most prominent feature is a stepwise descent in the
discantus from d" to d'. The rationale behind this procedure is easy to
discern: in later Baroque terminology, Lassus examined the text according to the loci topici and made use of the so-called locus descriptionis for
the purpose - in other words, he sought out a quality of 'seeing God'
which was 'translatable' into music. He found this in the fact that 'seeing
God' is equivalent to prayer', which is visibly expressed in prostration, and
thus easily expressible in musical terms as a melodic descent. It is obvious
that the affective character intrinsic to mode 2 should be 'brightened' for
such a text, which occurs, moreover, in a prominent position (at the conclusion of the prima pars); equally self-explanatory is the particular stress
laid on the word 'deum' by means of a so-called noema (homophonic
block-chord passage). The introductory word 'quoniam' is included in the
'brightening'; and it is the above-mentioned peregrina cadence on F
which makes this possible. The repetition of the phrase of text (bars 80-3)
is marked by the same 'major' character; both sections conclude with a
strictly regular modal caesura.
The most radical departure from modal norms in this motet, and that
which lasts longest, occurs, however, in the secunda pars, shortly before
the end of the composition, at the closing sentence which follows the eight
Beatitudes
('Beati estis .. .'). Here Lassus abandons
mode 2 transposed
to
G, and instead makes use of a commixtio of (traditional) mode 6 (see bars

31-43/4). This change of tonality seems to be motivated by words such as
'maledicere', 'malum' and 'mentiri' in the text, words which may be
regarded as res tristes or res adversae. Again, the commixtio is introduced
by a clausula peregrina (this time on c', 'Beati estis'), which is not in itself
required by the text. The role of F, which now dominates, as temporary
final, is projected first of all by the quasi-imitative entries of the two outer
voices, beginning on C and F respectively, and then by imitative entries
based on the perfect fifth mi-ut-sol or the perfect fourth ut-fa, at 'et
persecuti'; and again by the imitative entries (c-f, c'-f') at 'et dixerint',
in the bass and alto, as also by the position of the caesuras. It is only after
a simple cadence (clausula simplex) on the temporary final, F, with an
irregular exchange of the melodic cadence formulas, that the tonal
equilibrium is re-established with a cadence on the true final (bars 44-5).
We have encountered many procedures, exemplified in Lassus's motet
Beati pauperes spiritu, through which affective words in the text (verba
affectuum) may be interpreted in musical terms, using the mode of the
composition. The full range of such expressive devices is, however, far

190
BERNHARD
MEIER
from being exhausted in this discussion. If time had permitted, one might
have gone on to consider the suppression of cadences important to the
mode; the use of introductory imitative passages which are intentionally
vague from a modal point of view; the use of intentionally 'deceptive' progressions within complete works; and, not least important, the use of endings on degrees of the scale other than the final, a device which is variously
capable of representing 'hope', 'perversity' or 'immortality' - the latter,
for example, at the concluding phrase, 'and would, but cannot die', in
Dowland's ayre Love stood amaz'd.
It can thus be seen that the results of these considerations are very
various. One conclusion is inescapable, however: the full extent of the
rhetorical aspects of Renaissance music can be understood afresh only
when the modal system is taken into consideration as one of the principal
foundations of contemporary compositional practice.
University of Tiibingen
translated by Geoffrey Chew


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