Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), lines to ^9

Continuing by topic through examples of rising figures in the two books of Chambonnieres's Pieces de Clavecin, we look now at lines that "overshoot" ^8 in the first strain to end on ^9 as fifth of the dominant harmony. (The two previous posts concerned PACs that end a strain.)

A gigue from book 1, suite 3. One might perhaps expand the figure back to E4 to hear a unidirectional figure through the octave.

The sarabande from book 2, suite 3 is very similar in its cadence to the first strain but the line is longer and direct (by step throughout from F#4 to E5).

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), lines with ^9 = ^2 (2)

Yesterday's post began the third of five topics: rising lines that overshoot ^8 to reach ^9 then fall back to close. Today's examples are three courantes from book 2

Suite 1, courante 1. An opening fifth line touches each triad note in turn (circled notes), reaching ^5 by bar 3. The second strain doesn't define a focal tone, so that I have left the ending "open" in the sense that ^2 moves to ^1 (last three bars) but the beam is left open at the beginning. This seems to me the only musically satisfying linear scheme. The internal line, on the other hand, is plain as day—unfolded through the fifth G4-D5.

Suite  2, courante 2. The unfolded fifth appears again at the end of this courante. Overall, the tonal frame is ^5-^8, and the closing cadence generates a largely abstract upper voice ^8-^9-^8 (abstract because of the temporal distance covered between ^8 and ^9).

Suite 3, courante 3. The circled internal line is—atypically—subordinate to the unfolded fifth in the fourth bar from the end. Scale degree ^2 ( = ^9) is expanded across two bars.

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), lines with ^9 = ^2 (1)

So far in this series of posts on the two books of harpsichord suites by Jacques Champion de Chambonnieres, I have discussed two topics: simple rising lines, and longer, usually more complex rising lines. Of the five topical groups total, the third and fourth both focus on scale degree ^2. Today's post is about rising lines that overshoot ^8 then fall back to close. The examples are three courantes from book 1.

Suite 1, first courante. The cadence in the first strain is to III (C major) and involves a rising line -- circled notes. Because E5 is nearby and very plainly defined, the lower line is internal and the motion asymmetrical -- scale degrees mark the descending third line.

Suite 1, double to the courante (the only double in the two books). In the characteristic diminutions of the double, closely tied to the original, nothing is different in the cadence to the first strain.

Suite 2, second courante. Here the internal line is more muddled (^6-^5-^7-^8-^9?) and the local support for ^3 not so stable (inverted triad), but the end result is the same.

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), long lines (3)

The last examples for long lines (ascending figures in the cadence that span more than a fourth) come from book 1, suite 3, a sarabande and a gigue.

The opening of the sarabande slowly moves a line up from ^1 to ^3, giving more emphasis to the earlier notes rather than the ^3 that ends the line. Similarly to Book 2, suite 4, second courante, the long ending line here meanders a bit from an uncertain starting point (G4 in bar 18? F4 in bar 19? Perhaps even the eighth note D4 in bar 18, to make the line an octave?). The play of ^7 and ^#7 is also found in D minor/Dorian mode courantes by Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.

By contrast, the sixth line ending the gigue is much simpler and more direct.

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), long lines (2)

Two pieces from book 2, suite 6: a gigue and the third of three courantes.

The gigue gives more attention to melody in the left hand than is typical of many dance-movements, including the courantes. This textural play is common in keyboard gigues throughout the seventeenth century. At (a) a clear focal note ^5 and accented notes in line down to ^3, after which at (b) the bass carries the melodic interest, as it does again at (c) and (d). The bass continues through the end of the section while the right hand at (e) brings an uncluttered octave line to the cadence. At (f) is the cadenza perfetta that we might expect where both right and left hands carry melody.

The courante is simpler: ^5 at the outset, repeated (circled notes), clean descent to ^2 by bar 4 (not marked), then a line of the sixth up to the cadence. I haven't remarked on it, but the root position D: I tucked in between the two dominants in bar 7 has occurred several times already, and we will see it again. This one is rhythmically more prominent than most, the result of the courante's characteristic hemiola (switch to 3/2 time) for the penultimate bar.

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), simple lines (2)

Two courantes, from the fifth and sixth suites of book 2, respectively, give us additional examples of what I have been calling the simple rising line from ^5 to ^8.

A firmly established focal note ^5 (D5) is presented at the beginning. A line ascends from it at the end, in tight coordination with the bass. Note that the ascent happens twice -- this is one of the only instances in Chambonnieres's two books of the petit reprise, a repetition of the final few bars, usually embellished, that became a standard part of performance practice by the early eighteenth century.

In the courante from suite 6, an ascending octave line begins the piece and an ascent from ^5 ends it. Here again, harmony and line are closely coordinated. The dal segno sign indicates the point to begin the petit reprise.

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), long lines

The first group of examples (two previous posts) showed simple rising lines. This second—and much larger—group reveals longer lines, from a sixth to an octave. Most of these are not so easily situated in comprehensive figures as were lines from ^5 to ^8, either because focal notes aren't clear or because the line would need to be divided in some way.

The two books of suites each have one pavane and one galliard, though not paired as was routine at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the galliard often was written as an elaborate variation of the pavane. This (see score below) is the galliard from book 2, shown in its beginning and ending. Note the long descending octave line in the opening. By now this shouldn't be surprising: recall that, in the first post in this series, I commented on "a characteristic—and very strong—tendency to shape melodic units of 3 to 5 measures or more in entirely or mostly unidirectional lines."

In the B-section, a line ascends from ^3 (as E4) to ^8, then promptly descends again, note by note. The close is still another line, an octave ascent from C4 to C5. Overall, then, C5 is readily heard as the focal note, and it is eventually regained by lines from below.

Another unusual time signature for a sarabande, 6/4 (not the 3/2 signature familiar from eighteenth century sarabandes like those by Handel). This sarabande closes the third suite in book 2. A focal note ^8 (as D5) at the beginning is eventually recovered in the ending of the piece by means of a sixth line that's not quite diatonic (note G#, not G-natural) and where ^8 is gained early (third bar from the end). This "wandering about ^8" is as common in the final cadence as the unidirectional melodic shapes are elsewhere (or, I should say, everywhere).

Book 2, suite 4, second courante: similar to the sarabande above in that an initial focal note—the F5 at the top of an interval frame this time (see boxed notes and circle in the beginning)—is recovered by means of a long line at the end of the piece. Here ^8 truly doesn't arrive till the final tonic, and the beginning of the line is not coordinated with harmony, a fact that suggests we would have to divide it in some way if we were carrying out a detailed, hierarchical linear analysis.

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), simple lines (1)

The fifth suite of the first book has two sarabandes; this is the opening of the second one. An emphasis on arpeggio rather than line in the first three bars turns into a pair of linear progressions that would not be out of place a century later: a linear descent from ^5 to ^2, at which point another line ascends through a PAC to V. The one bit not so likely in 1770 is the cadenza perfetta shape at the end: interval sequence 6-8: E3/C#5 to D3/D5.

A courante in suite 1 closes its first strain with a simple rising line over III (circled), but this is clearly subordinate to a stretched-out descending line from E5 (a: ^5 at the beginning, then C: ^3 in bar 5 to ^2 to begin bar 6 and ^1 in bar 7).

This canaris (alt: canarie, a close relative of the gigue) closes the fifth suite. The melodic shapes are similar to the courante above, in that a simple rising line to the cadence is an internal voice, and both ^3 and ^2 are stretched out across the previous measures. The close is now in the tonic key.

Book 1, suite 2: A curious sarabande whose notation is atypical—a mixture of 3/4 and 6/4 (the consistent 3/4 meter of the first example above is much more common until late century)—but whose design is less odd than it looks at first: a small binary form with written out, slightly varied repeats. Section B in its first statement ends with the PAC in bars 21-22. Boxes identify a parallel place in the first statement and the varied repeat. Angled lines show the rising line repeated several times over the course of the section. In every case it is probably another inner line like the ones above, but the presumed focal tone, E5, although certainly clear enough in its registral position, is not at all well-supported harmonically. At x, it must contend with a marked dissonance in the bass; at y, the triad is not in root position. However, if one must have a focal note, I don't see a better alternative.

Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670)

Jacques Champion de Chambonnieres (1601-1672) was the first of the celebrated school of French harpsichordists (claveçinists) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As a curiosity that pleases me but which is hardly an odd bit of news about someone involved in the French court in that era, Chambonnieres was also an excellent dancer.

Near the end of his life, Chambonnieres published a number of volumes of his compositions. In this series of posts, I will look at pieces from Les Pieces de Clavecin Livre Second (1670), using the edition and notation of Steve Wiberg (Due West Editions, 2008) available on IMSLP: link. Apologies for artifacts introduced in editing the graphics for use here.

The second book consists of six suites, and as it happens there is something of interest to us in every one of them. The posts in the series cover five topics:

Simple lines from ^5 (includes V: ^5-^8 to end first strain)
Long lines (6th or more) from below to ^8
Line from below but where ^9 is clear above
Line up to ^9 to end first strain
Others  

I will augment the demonstration with similar examples (not analyzed) from book 1, which also was published in 1670 and is laid out in the form of five suites (six if you separate out the final three pieces in G major from those in G minor preceding them).

To begin then, here is a simple ascending line from ^5 in the first of three courantes in the second suite of book 2. The line F: ^6-^7-^8 is both clear and simple, but in addition this courante is of interest here because it shows a characteristic—and very strong—tendency to shape melodic units of 3 to 5 measures or more in entirely or mostly unidirectional lines. The line that opens this courante is typical, as is the wave-like motion of the whole: first up in vigorous manner, then down and up again to close.

Additional examples of simple lines to close a section or to end a composition will be found in the next post.

Two pieces by Vincent Lübeck the Elder

Vincent Lübeck enjoyed not only a long life (1654-1740) but also a high reputation as a composer and organist. The small number of pieces that survive are mainly fugues and chorale preludes, as one might expect, but two small pieces have been verified as his by Dr. Wolfram Syré in an edition published in 2002. Because the edition is under copyright, I am reproducing only a few short fragments of each, with analytical annotations.

The March is a small binary form in 16 bars, with a cadence to the dominant at the end of the first strain. The beginning of the second strain puts attention on C5 (circled), and the ending seems to confirm the significance of that note with a covering C6 (circled) and a line rising through the cadence.

The menuet is likewise in a small binary form, 8 + 16 bars. In the second strain, a PAC on vi (D minor) falls midway. Without backing this with more notational evidence, I will claim that the ^8 (as F5) apparent in the first bar continues to hold sway abstractly throughout, and thus the quick passage through the octave approaching the end (circled notes and slur) generates a neighbor-note cadence figure, ^8-^9-^7-^8.

Finger and Bingham, Airs anglois, part 3

Concluding the series of three posts, I look at the last of the 16 pieces by Godfrey Finger in George Bingham's collection 40 Airs Anglois. . . , published in Amsterdam, 1704-05: IMSLP link. The  notation is by Hans-Thomas Müller-Schmidt.

The chaconne was a considerably more flexible compositional type in the seventeenth century than we generally assume based on the tiny sampling of still well-known compositions, such as "Dido's Lament" and the chaconne that ends Bach's D minor violin Partita. Even given that, Finger's chaconne in G major is an oddly constructed piece that consists of eleven eight-bar segments with a PAC to the tonic in every one. The bass of the first segment is never repeated, either literally or in varied form. Instead, at the opposite extreme, the bass line changes for every segment. The first three segments have repeat signs, and the effect at the beginning—as shown below—is that of a small binary form, especially because of the unstable bass at the beginning of the "B-section," across which a rising line is easily traced.

Two other couplets are of interest. In the sixth, a strongly formed rising line from ^5 appears. In the ninth, a rising figure in bars 5-6 is undercut by a thoroughly-prepared descending line from ^3 (as B5).

Finger and Bingham, Airs anglois, part 2

Continuing the series of posts begun yesterday, I look at three more pieces by Godfrey Finger, from the collection 40 Airs Anglois. . .  by George Bingham (published in Amsterdam, 1704-05): IMSLP link. The  notation is by Hans-Thomas Müller-Schmidt, and I apologize for the artifacts I have introduced here and there.

The first section of an Allegro in F major is very close in its pitch design to the two Airs discussed yesterday, except that the priority obviously goes to the active lower voice, not the oft-repeated cover tone ^8 (as F5). As a result, it is quite easy to hear a simple rising line in the cadence.

If the Allegro resembles the two Airs from yesterday, Sybell is like Bingham's Jigg, the last example in the previous post. Here there is a nice balance between the initial A5 (the abstract ^2 of the Schenkerian interruption) and the rising line that moves from it to the main internal cadence.

Finally, one of several chaconnes and grounds offers a concise example of the effects of variation. One of the most straightforward, uncluttered octave lines I have ever seen sits above a Romanesca bass (not the descending tetrachord we usually, though not entirely correctly, associate with the chaconne). The first of seven couplets lifts the line up a third over the first five bars, then engages the C5 in bar 6, beat 3, and turns the line back up to close on F5. Note that an upper line is touched on -- neighbor Bb5 and A5 -- but would need an obviously lacking ^2 (as G5) to be anything more than a covering figure.

Finger and Bingham, Airs Anglois, part 1

George Bingham, 40 Airs Anglois dont les 16 prémiers sont de Mr. FINGER & les 24 suivantes de Mr. George Bingham, published in Amsterdam, 1704 or 1705, by the active and successful music publisher Estienne Roger, who also brought out several other collections by Bingham between 1702 and 1706. Not much is known about Bingham. He was a probably a violinist, was certainly a "musician in Ordinary in the Private Musick" at the Royal court from 1689 to 1696, at which time he was dismissed over a financial dispute with another musician. Since his collections from Roger are dedicated to his students ("Messieurs ses Disciples"), we may assume that Bingham was active at least till 1706, perhaps still in London or possibly elsewhere. Gottfried (or Godfrey) Finger was a Moravian musician who was a viol virtuoso, a contemporary of Bingham, and also worked in London at about the same time.

This Air by Godfrey Finger is a menuet in small binary form, with three theme-sized units of 8, 9, and 10 bars, respectively. Focus on ^5 in the A section (circled notes, bar 1) cedes to ^8 in bar 9, then to a ^5-^8 frame in bar 18. The upper note remains primary and a stepwise rising line from ^5 is secondary -- see the final six bars.  The notation, btw, is from a modern edition by Hans-Thomas Müller-Schmidt that is available on IMSLP: link.

This menuet, also by Finger, defines D5-F5 at the outset, a frame that changes to C5-F5 for the expanded second phrase (seven bars!), with similar motions to the Air in G Major to end, but some confusion in distinction between voices: the lower, rising line is more prominent here, the upper line about ^8 less so; indeed the lower line seems to meet and then "subsume" the upper in the final two bars. The result is more dramatic than I have shown it: a line from C5 going up as far as G5 before settling back to the tonic note F5.

This Jig is by Bingham. The figure is a familiar one: period with identical openings in antecedent and consequent (boxed notes) and, in the latter, an ascent from ^2 ( = V: ^5) to the cadence in the dominant key. For a traditional Schenkerian, this is a common figure elaborating an interruption. My only problem with that is the effect in the consequent is of a perfect balance (not a simple hierarchical relation) between the originating ^2 and the line that follows.

Michael Pamer, Neue brillante Ländler, vol. 10 (1827), part 2

In yesterday's post, I looked at ns 5 & 6 in the first group of Ländler in volume 10 of Michael Pamer's Neue brillante Ländler. Like those two, n3 has a clearly formed rising line ^5-^6-^7-^8 in the first strain with upper-voice covering embellishments. Here, E6 suggests an open cadence with implied D6 in bar 8. In the second strain, however, the upper register becomes much stronger, the result being the balanced voices of the interval frame G5-D6. I don't hear a primitive rising line at the end, though you can see the notes in the score, because the lowest voice D5 has receded greatly in favor of the two higher voices.

In the first number of the group, neighbor notes move about G5 (circled). The violinistic broken figures are even more prominent in the second strain here than they were in n3 above.

In n4, a simple line rises in the first phrase -- at (a), but, uniquely among the twelve strains of the six Ländler in this group, the second phrase doesn't open with a literal repeat of bar 1. The upper voice in this case starts from D5 -- at (b) -- and descends to an open cadence with a strongly implied B4.

I'm not quite sure what to make of n2, which is why I have put it last. The second strain is obvious enough: boxed notes show thirds descending by step in each of the two phrases: D6-B5 to C6-A5 to B5-G5. I haven't shown the lower-octave doubling of this figure: B4-D5 at the beginning, C5-A4 in the seventh bar and G4 (with an implied B4) in the final bar. The first strain seems to separate its display opening flourish—open-string pizzicato and two high notes—from the descending stepwise figures that follow (see the lines charting these below the staff and then above).

Michael Pamer, Neue brillante Ländler, vol. 10 (1827), part 1

Michael Pamer was a band leader and skilled violinist who is widely acknowledged as a principal influence on the professional dance musicians of Schubert’s generation, in particular on Josef Lanner and Johann Strauss, sr., who effectively apprenticed under Pamer. Born in 1782, Pamer died in 1827, the year that the twelve volumes of his Neue brillante Ländler were published. The title page, below, is translated: New brilliant solo Ländler for the violin with ad libitum accompaniment of a second violin and bass, composed and presented for use in house balls by Michael Pamer, music-director of the Saale zur Schwan in the Rossau [district of Vienna]. The design of the volumes is distinctive: each has two sets of six Ländler in the same key, for which the same accompaniment is supplied, so that the six Ländler are much like variations of each other.

In the two parts of this post, we will look at the six Ländler in the first group of volume 10.

                                          

I am beginning at the end, with ns 5 & 6, because they have clear rising cadence figures. So does n3 (in part 2 of this post series), but the others have mostly open cadences without rising figures. Given the format Pamer has adopted, it is not surprising that ns 5 & 6 have very nearly the same underlying figures: a rising line with accented elements in the first phrase (beamed notes), repeated in the second phrase, and a "one-too-far" flourish that pushes the line up to ^3 (as B5) in bar 4 (circled notes). In n5, note that Pamer has inserted an embellishing flourish (circled C6 in bar3) that makes a nice covering connection to B5 in bar 4.

The second strains of the two numbers differ slightly in that n5 gives—if possible—even more attention to D5 and brings the line up in a quick run, as it did in the first strain, where n6 makes more of the upper register, unfolding D5 to D6 and generating a strong open cadence that implies in the last bar the B5 we heard literally a few bars earlier. The two lines are thus balanced, the cadence open, the lower voice a primitive rising line, ^5-^7-^8.

In Pamer's edition, the second violin and bass parts are placed at the bottom of a tall page, after all six Ländler in each group. I have assembled a score version of n5 below. This is just for reference, as I don't think it tells us anything new about the design or shapes of the violin melody.

Schubert, Piano Sonata in E Major, D 157, III (1815)

Schubert's Piano Sonata in E Major, D 157, is in three movements, with a menuet as finale. Thinking of this in Schenkerian terms, the emphatic ^1 in phrase 1, repeated, is preliminary to the focal tone ^3 in bar 9. That note, D#5, promptly drops to an interrupted ^2 (as C#5) and the typical fifth line -- at (a) -- runs down from it to the cadence (beamed notes). The actual gesture at the cadence, however, is a rising line -- at (b); it repeats C#5, then rises by step as F#: ^5-^6-^7-^8. The two fortissimo chords that follow -- at (c) -- confirm the significance of this rising fourth, to which the falling fifth is now clearly understood as subordinate.

In the reprise (beginning at bar 49), the emphatic opening is repeated but F# in the second phrase is diverted to Fx (F-double-sharp) -- at (b) -- the result being to bring out the (already obvious) interval frame B4-F#4, shown as unfolding at (a). The Fx goes as expected to G# in the 9th bar of the reprise but then promptly relaxes back to F# two bars later -- at (c). An octave leap to F#5 enables the rising line in the cadence, and again we hear the energetic confirmation of the two fortissimo chords to end.



Overall, then, the shapes move from the ^8-^5 frame of the opening to the (expanded) upper fifth ^1-^5 and finally the upper fourth ^5-^8, as shown below.

Weber, Allemandes, Op. 4

In 1801, a young Carl Maria von Weber composed his Opus 4, a set of 10 allemandes with trios. He turned fifteen that year—and the set was published fifteen years later. "Allemande" here means Deutscher-Tanz or German dance, the foil to the Laendler in the first quarter of the nineteenth century and closely related to late-period menuets (after about 1790). For more on the distinction between Deutscher and Laendler, see these posts on my Schubert blog: link 1; link 2.

None of the allemandes or their trios has a simple rising line from ^5, but several are interesting nonetheless for their open cadences or figures focused on ^8.

The trio of n1 does have the ^6 down to ^7-^8 cliché common to the early waltz, but ^3 (as F5) is defined so clearly at the beginning, and ^2 at the beginning of each continuation phrase, that there is really no plausible way to hear a rising line. The cadence is open, but the implication of C6 in the final bar of each strain is fairly weak by comparison with many others we've seen in previous posts.

 N5 does have an emphatic rising cadence in the second strain, at (d), but here again it's very difficult to sort any of the previous material in a way that points toward a prolonged ^5 to precede the ^6-^7-^8 in the final two bars.

N6 runs neighbor notes about ^8 in the first strain -- not, I would guess, an uncommon feature of (the relatively rare) dance strains that begin in minor and end in major.

The trio of n9 uses another familiar cliché—the long scalar form of the "fall from the dominant"—but in the first strain the easiest figure to hear is ^8 (across the first phrase), then ^6-^7-^8 (all circled) in the second phrase. In the second strain the line begins plainly from C6 (bar 13) and continues by step down ("up") to ^8 (as F4), a reasonably convincing cadence figure despite the lack of definition of ^5 in the first phrase of strain 2.

Herz, Contredanses variées [Quadrille], op. 35

Henri Herz, Contredanses variées, op. 35, is in the form of a quadrille, a complicated dance for four couples that has a set design of five numbers, each of which has a specific form. The first number has an eight-bar promenade, A (see below) followed by two dance "figures" with the musical design BACA, for a total of 72 bars: 8 + 32 + 32. As Franz Hünten does in a quadrille published around the same time (link), Herz varies (embellishes) the return of B and C in the second figure, but never A.

At (a), a well-defined interval is unfolded; at (b), its lower note is extended; at (c), the unfolding reverses; at (d) a line descends from the upper note and at (e) ascends from the lower note.

For more information on the quadrille, see the sturdy seeming Wikipedia article: link.

Bell Polka (1855)

The Bell Polka (1855) was published in Detroit as a "Remembrance of the Germania Musical Society" and "dedicated to the Ladies of Detroit." Link to the Library of Congress page for this piece: link. According to Nancy Newman, the composer—who is listed here only as "Buchheiser"—was William Buchheister, a violist in the Germania orchestra, a group of German and Irish musicians who came to the United States in 1848 and were active in New York and Boston till they disbanded in 1854. Buchheister and his colleague Carl Stein then moved to Detroit to establish the Boston Music Store, renamed Weiss & Buchheister after Stein left in 1865; Buchheister died sometime after 1869; the store closed in 1880 (Newman 249).

The design is a very common one: dance-trio-dance da capo, where the dance has two repeated eight-bar strains -- each shown below -- and the trio, in the subdominant key, has the same. The da capo repeats the dance but then adds a coda which is still another repetition of the two strains with a slightly altered cadence to close -- see the third example below. The alteration consists of a simple rising line, followed by a brief codetta.

second strain:

coda:

text

Reference: Nancy Newman, Good Music for a Free People: The Germania Musical Society in Nineteenth-Century America. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2010.