New publication: more on ascending cadence gestures after 1860

 I have published Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 5d: After 1860 on the Texas ScholarWorks platform: link.

Abstract:

This is Part 5d of a multi-part essay gathering compositions with ascending lines and cadence gestures in European and European-influenced music. Composers include, among others, Chaminade, Benjamin Cutter, Edward German, Grieg, Kéler, Sousa, Tchaikovsky, and Waldteufel. Additional examples come from folk song and dance collections by Elizabeth Burchenal.

New publication: ascending cadence figures in hymns

I have published Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 5b: Music from Hymnals, 1893-1909 on the Texas ScholarWorks platform: link.

Here is the abstract:

Part 5b of this multi-part essay gathers compositions with ascending and upper-register cadence gestures in European and European-influenced music is given over to examples from Shaker and Mormon hymnals published in the United States between 1893 and 1909.

New publications: more on music to 1650 and an index

I have published Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 2f: to 1650, addendum 2 on the Texas ScholarWorks platform: link.

Here is the abstract:

Part 2f of a multi-part essay gathers additional compositions with ascending and upper-register cadence gestures in European and European-influenced music before 1650. Compositions include instrumental and vocal music by Arcadelt, Banchieri, Cazzati, Hammerschmidt, Marenzio, Quagliati, and Rusca (among others), as well as music from volumes published by the houses of Gardano and Vincenti. The document is in three files, Parts 2f1, 2f2, and 2f3.

I have also published an updated index to Part 2: link.

Description:

This file is a complete index to Part 2. It adds to Part 2d’s index all items in Parts 2e, 2f1, 2f2, and 2f3.

Index, updated March 2020

I have published Index to Ascending Cadence Gestures in Essays Published on the Texas ScholarWorks Platform: Update 2020 on the Texas ScholarWorks platform: link.  Here is the abstract:

This file updates the Index published in January 2019. There are two sections. The first is a progress report on the project Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey. The second is an updated list of all compositions with ascending or upper-register cadence gestures, as mentioned in my article "The Ascending Urlinie" (1987), in essays published on the Texas ScholarWorks platform, and in work files prepared for remaining numbers in the new historical survey.

Sousa, two marches

Contrary to what one might expect, linear rising cadential figures are relatively rare in late 19th century marches and the closely related repertoires of the one-step and rag. Here are two examples from John Phillip Sousa.

In The Manhattan Beach March (1893), we are obliged to settle for an internal cadence (dominant ending for the first strain).

In Our Flirtation March (1880), an equally stark ascending line from ^5 to ^8 closes the second strain. I am quoting here from an early 20th century theater orchestra set of parts. In such circumstances, the violinist was considered the leader. In the second strain, the flute part duplicates the upper notes of the violin's octave, the first cornet and first clarinet the lower notes.

Combined with the melody, the circled notes would create what I call a "wedge," two voices approaching the final tonic from opposite directions. Historically, the more common version has a descending line above and a rising line below, but here Sousa does the opposite. We are obliged to imagine the final tonic note in the descending line ^5-^4-^3-^2- (^1). I have examined the full band score for this march and no part makes a ^2-^1 descent.

Rusca, Sacri concerti (1630), 2

Yesterday I looked at two motets from Rusca's collection that make expressive use of the upper register for "alleluias." The third piece is another four-voice motet: "Gaudete gaudio magno martyres Christi." Here is a familiar separation of roles in the concertato style: upper-register instrumental descant or obbligato and principal (cantus or soprano) choral part. Note the ritornello at the outset and the repetition of it over the chorus's "alleluias" in bars 22 ff.  The score in modern notation is by Lorenzo Girodo (2016).

Notwithstanding the above, the three chorus voices end the main text with a firm descent for "in caelis" . . .

. . . after which, the ritornello is repeated . . .

. . . and the alleluias are considerably expanded with antiphonal play before the section from the beginning (22 ff.) is repeated to close.

Rusca, Sacri concerti (1630), 1

Claudia Francesca Rusca published a varied collection of music in Milan in 1630: her Sacri concerti a 1-5 con salmi e canzoni francesi includes nearly 30 choral pieces, ranging from solo motets in a modern style to an 8-voice Gloria in Venetian style. Along with these are two instrumental "canzoni francesci." Of all these pieces, a surprising eight have upper register endings. I will look at the equally surprising three of those that tie their endings to exultant "alleluias." Although one might suppose that a closing section with multiple "alleluias" would be an open invitation to upper register endings and even rising lines--whether exuberant or mystical-transcendental--that doesn't seem to be the case, which of course makes the three illustrated here all the more remarkable.

From the fourth of five solo motets for soprano or tenor with continuo, here are the opening and the close of "Veni sponsa Christi." In the end, the hushed echo of "in aeternum" (boxed) gives way to dotted rhythms in the continuo and then the voice in sequences that lead to a lower register cadence in bars 72-73 (circled). The sudden shift to the "subdominant"--arrow in bar 74--normally signals a final flourish over that sonority and ending with the tonic major. Here, the octave-length rising line fits the description but a final full cadence with the voice in the upper register literally upends the usual structural cadence/coda flourish design. As the subdominant flourishes in published music are often frozen versions of improvisations, it is not at all difficult to imagine a solo singer in the first half of the 17th century (and probably earlier) adding one of these spontaneously.  The score in modern notation is by Lorenzo Girodo (2016).

Ending:

The four-voice motet "Hic accipiet benedictionem," on the other hand, gives us a firm upper-register structural cadence (boxed), after which the alleluias follow.

I will discuss the third piece, "Gaudete gaudio magno martyres Christi," in tomorrow's post.

Paul Peuerl, Padouan (1611)

Paul Peuerl (1570-c. 1625?) was a German-Austrian composer, organist, and organ builder. Below is the first pavane in the collection Newe Padouan, Intrada, Dantz und Galliarda (1611). Source: Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, Bd.70.

The opening -- at (a) and (b) -- gives us a very compact "mirror": from Dorian ^8 down to ^5 and back up again. At (c) and two later places (arrows), an expressive upper note F5. At the end, the figure of (a) is repeated with a repetition of its head (also boxed) and then the cadence line follows: (e), which is a variant of (b). The surprising restriction on range is typical of published instrumental ensemble music through as late as 1650.

New publication on polkas

I have published the essay Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 4b: 1780-1860, Polkas on the Texas ScholarWorks platform. Here is the link: polka essay.

Here is the abstract:

This is Part 4b of a multi-part essay gathering compositions with ascending lines and cadence gestures in European and European-influenced music. The repertoire here is polkas published in Europe or the United States between 1840 and 1861. Composers include, among others, Barili, D’Albert, Dodworth, Dressler, Grieg, Grobe, Lumbye, Rziha, Smetana, Johann Strauss, jr., Johann Strauss, sr., Valentini, Viereck, and Zawadzki. An appendix lists polkas mentioned in other publications of mine. A separate file contains data on form design in fifteen published polkas.

Part 4a is the general essay for the time period 1780-1860 -- it will be published at a later date.