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.

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.