Monday, January 30, 2017

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.