Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670), sundries

This is the final post in the series on Chambonnieres's Pieces de Clavecin (two books, 1670). Three pieces from book 1 offer "sundry" examples -- figures that didn't fit into the first four topical groups, which were two types of rising lines and two types of lines that overshoot ^8 to reach ^9.

The allemande that opens suite 3 initially runs an octave from F4 to F5, a coupling of ^3 to ^3. What immediately follows in the descent, however, suggests an interval frame ^1-^3 (as D5-F5) in bar 3 (not marked), which then expands to C5-F5, the latter remaining stable to the end of the strain. The upper voice marks a neighbor-note figure about ^8.

The second courante from suite 4. Very similar to the first example but the interval frame F5-C5 is stretched out and confirmed over a longer distance.

The first courante from suite 5. The minor key always causes problems for ascending lines. Here Chambonnieres creates an audible "break" between Eb5 and E-natural5. The octave line traced from G5 to G4 and including Eb5 is obvious, but any earlier note connecting to E-natural5 is not. One might prefer to hear A5 (bar 14) connecting to G5 (bar 14) and then to the cadential G-F#-G in bars 17-18.

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.