Minor key series, part 14 (Dorian and Aeolian octaves), continued (1)

Johann Walther's ATB setting of the Easter chorale Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (from 1524) shows the relatively rare case of conflicting signatures: once-transposed Dorian in alto and tenor, twice-transposed Aeolian in the bass. The chorale, in the tenor (boxed below) avoids the Dorian ^6, using all other scale degrees within the octave G3-G4. Against this, alto and bass engage in a play of chromatic cross-relations, which, as I noted in the previous post, is far more common in music of the 16th and 17th centuries than our usual counterpoint rules would have us believe.

The final phrase of the chorale (circles below) is embellished via the ubiquitous pre-cadence flourish of small notes, and there the Dorian ^6 finally does appear in the tenor -- not surprisingly, as the alto and tenor move in parallel thirds through the figure. The alto starts with notes of the final chorale phrase and makes an easily heard chromatic connection from F5 to F#5 across the phrase. I would regard the alto here as a descant voice; to analyze in Schenkerian (Salzerian/Novackian) terms, the Urlinie would reside in the tenor.

Nevertheless, there is a point of historical interest in the alto's descant. I quote from my essay Rising Lines, p. 17 (link to the essay):

[One] source of rising lines comes from five-part vocal (but more often) instrumental music, where the cantus (or topmost) line takes on the character of a descant. . . . When the cantus "loses" its descant character and acts as a principal upper voice, rising structural lines are easily achieved. This change is parallel to the one that occurs in the first half of the nineteenth century, when—even though the force of a century-old cliché that demands descending cadential formulas is still strong—composers sometimes "forget" to relegate ascending lines to [their usual position in] the coda. 

A dance from John Playford's English Dancing Master (first edition 1651); music only, without dance instructions. For more information on "Madge on a Tree" go to an earlier post on this blog: link. The Dorian signature and the ascending Urlinie are obvious features. At the asterisks, note E-natural expressing the Dorian ^6 in a striking way in the context of G minor and Bb major triads, then Eb as a simple neighbor note ornament to D5.

Here are the first two of four dances from Michael Praetorius's collection Terpsichore. The four are ns104, 147, 148, and 295, and all have been discussed elsewhere on this blog.

(1) Here is my comment on n104 from an earlier post:

A shift to minor quality in the second strain, with a fairly leisurely descent/ascent pair that use both F# and F-natural in each half of the figure. (link)

A modern-sounding major/minor contrast is achieved between the strains: Mixolydian in the first, once-transposed Dorian in the second -- except that the consistent use of Eb (asterisks) renders the scale Aeolian in sound. Exceptions in the cadence (boxed) are routine embellishments.

(2) Here is my comment on n147 from an earlier post:

. . . author of the melody unknown; this is one in a series of courantes in once-transposed Dorian mode (final G; one flat in the signature). The box shows a simple linear ascent to the cadence on D5. In the second strain, the figure in part or whole occurs four times in a row.  (link)

Here, as we have seen in some earlier cases, inflections of E as Eb produce an Aeolian sound in the first half of the first strain, but move toward a cadence on D brings back the Dorian ^6 as E-natural in bars 5-8. The final measures of the second strain are exclusively Dorian in sound.