JMT series, part 7-2 (note 32)

This is the final post on music mentioned in the notes to my article "The Ascending Urlinie" (Journal of Music Theory, 1987). One additional post will return to the main text of the article, in response to a published analysis of the menuet in Beethoven's Piano Sonata, Opus 22.

Note 32 is about the registral variant ^5-^6-(reg.)^7-^8. Here is a link to the first post about this form: link.

In the note I mention Beethoven, String Quartet, op. 74, IV. Comment in the note: "where ^6 is somewhat extended."

In looking at the score of this quartet again, I see that my placement of this movement under the registral variant doesn't make sense. Since it is equally reasonable to hear movements I & III in terms of backgrounds with rising lines, I now suspect "IV" was an error, a typo for either "I" or "III." I intend to examine both earlier movements in the essay I am preparing based on the JMT-series blog posts. Here, however, I will keep attention on IV, whose rising line is prominent indeed.

The fourth movement is not an Allegro molto or Vivace finale, but instead a set of variations on an Allegretto theme. Here is the theme, and as the score and annotations show, there really is no doubt about the status of a focal tone ^5 and an ascending Urlinie at the end.

Five variations follow, plus a extended coda that starts out sounding like another variation. Variations 1-3 & 5 maintain the clarity of the rising line -- variation 2 (below) even gives to the first violin a simple reduction of the line! Variation 4 (not shown here) has a new melody in the first violin; it is centered on and closes on ^3 (G4).

A distinctive feature of the theme that is repeated in the first three variations is the old cadenza perfetta 6-8 figure appearing in both the half-cadence to G that ends the first strain and in the final cadence to the tonic.

The coda-qua-variation-6 (or variation 6 with coda character) can be read with the shapes of the theme in the first violin part, but the bass is strange indeed, so that it's hard to know quite what to make of the upper voice(s). The durations of the theme are maintained: bars 3-10 = theme, bars 1-8;
bars 11-14 = theme, bars 9-12, continuation phrase 1; bars 15-22 = theme, bars 13-20, expanded continuation phrase 2. The coda to this variation (or coda to this coda) runs an additional 53 bars. Within that the gesture of a "structural cadence" does appear in bars 39-42 -- see the bottom of the example below. At this moment, at least, the rising line is gone, but after the theme and five (six?) variations, the gesture seems rather hollow, a formula there because it's expected.

Music for dancing, 1650-1700, part 2

Madge on a Tree appeared in the first edition of The English Dancing Master (but this facsimile is from the fourth edition [1670]). The tune was called Mage on a Cree and Margery Cree in some other editions. (Many songs and dance tunes went by various names in that era.)

Clearly a modal tune, Madge on a Tree is in once-transposed Dorian (one flat in the signature with G as the final or tonic note). The climb to the final cadence is as clear as it could be, occupying the entire fourth phrase.

As a postscript to an earlier series on the clausula vera or cadenza perfetta in the sixteenth century, I have created a second part (at *) to show how naturally the 6-8 figure appears in a cadence with an ascending upper voice.

In this series of posts, basic information about the individual tunes is taken from Jeremy Barlow, ed., The Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master, 1651-ca.1728.

Praetorius, Terpsichore, part 5: ns 92-96

Here are five courantes. They are consecutive in Terpsichore and are also closely related to each other by certain features (Praetorius tries to group similar dances when he can). Like the majority of the many courantes, these are in two sections (others are in three sections, like the galliards we've examined in previous posts).

In this group the focus on the fifth range C5-G5 in the first strain is of interest, with a rise toward a cadence on G5 (a pattern we've also seen in some galliards recently).  Note also that these courantes show the typical treatment of the 6-8 cadenza perfetta between the upper and middle voice ("tenor") in five-part writing.

n92:

n93:

n94:

n95:

n96:

16th century cadences, part 8: Vecchi, duet n22

Continuing the census of cadences in the duets of Orazio Vecchi, I look at the twenty-second (btw, there are 38 duets in all). Here are 12 cadences, including a closing cadence with a rising line to ^8 (G5 in the Mixolydian mode). I admit, however, to having relaxed my rules (see part 7, yesterday's post) and counted an evaded cadence (n6) and both cadences in a cadence pair (ns 7 & 8). Without those, there are 10 cadences, six of which are 6-8 and four are 3-1.

I suspect the slight bias toward 6-8 in the two duets by Vecchi would be erased in bicinia where the two voices are in the same range. I may take up that question at another time, once I find a suitable repertory. (Lassus's duets aren't good for this work because he emphasizes very long phrases, so that even the lengthy un-texted duets have no more than 2 or 3 cadences.)

16th century cadences, part 7: Vecchi, duet n21

In the same year as Gastoldi, Orazio Vecchi published his own book of instructional duets. I have chosen two of them for the sake of a census of cadence types: n21 in today's post, n22 in tomorrow's. Granted, these pieces are somewhat arbitrary constructions, but I suspect that the numbers in "proper" compositions will be similar.

I tried to focus on clearly articulating phrase-ending cadences. I did not include evaded cadences or brief cadence-like figures that are obviously within longer phrases. On those terms, the duet has 11 cadences, six of which are 6-8, and five are 3-1. Cadence types are distributed more or less evenly throughout. Of particular interest is that every one of the 6-8 cadences is different, something obviously useful for pedagogical illustration.

16th century cadences, part 6: Gastoldi, n12

Following up on yesterday's post about wedge shapes in cadences, here are opposing cadence figures, both for 6-8. The two cadences are at beginning and end of the piece. In the first case, motion is down in both voices and is especially pronounced in the tenor. In the second case, a stream of parallel motion is interrupted in the final few beats as the tenor reaches a high note, E4, and then descends firmly by step.

16th century cadences, part 5: Gastoldi, bicinium n3

Twenty years after the publication of Lassus' two set of duets, Giovanni Gastoldi published his first book of music for two voices. Like most pieces in the category of bicinia, these were most likely intended primarily for instructional purposes, rather than for performance. (The importance of the repertoire of didactic pieces is recognized and provides the pedagogical foundation for Peter Schubert's excellent textbook Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style (Oxford 2007, second edition).)

Among the internal cadences in the third duet are a pair that neatly illustrate my point today. In two of the three pieces by Lassus (from parts 2-4 in this series of posts), the voices largely approached the cadence in the same direction—up, of course, since I was bringing out the historically significant idea of rising cadence gestures.

Contrary motion is entirely possible, too: in the cadence pair below, the 3-1 is approached in a closing wedge, 6-8 in one that opens. Both express broadly basic motion in each of the cadences: 3 closing into 1, 6 opening out to 8.

It is important to note, however, that there is in fact no necessary directional bias in either of the two cadence types, 3-1 and 6-8. Subsequent posts will attempt to make that clear.

16th century cadences, part 4: Lassus, bicinia with text n14

Another texted duet borrows from the Magnificat. "Fecit potentiam . . ." is in KJV "He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts" Luke 1:51. Here a short first phrase ("Fecit potentiam") is without cadence, but the second is very clear (for "in brachio suo"), involving three thirds and two 2-3 bass suspensions.

The conclusion again is the point of interest, however: now familiar rising gestures in connection with a 6-8 cadenza perfetta, but note that the approach in the upper voice is repeated, a less likely option than a more varied, but still mainly stepwise figure.

16th century cadences, part 3: Lassus, bicinia with text n15

The last of the texted bicinia uses the same text as n6. Here again I have shown beginning and ending only, and here again the opening phrase is quite long and without cadence in my excerpt (probably this does have something to do with text painting, since the text is about "filling the poor with plenty"; KJV: "He hath filled the hungry with good things"). And here again the focus of my interest is the ending, which offers a more elaborately embellished cadence than did n6, along with even more emphatic rising gestures.

16th century cadences, part 2: Lassus, bicinia with text n6

This and several subsequent posts provide examples of cadences in 16th century bicinia, or pieces in two voices. The object is to discuss features and treatments of the two versions of the clausula vera (also known as the cadenza perfetta), intervals 3-1 and 6-8. An introductory post is here: link.

Lassus published two sets of bicinia in 1577. The first set of fifteen of these are texted, another with twelve are not. Among the texted duets, numbers 6 and 15 use the same text, "Esurientes implevit. . ." [KJV: "He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away," Luke 1:53; from the Magnificat]. I am not an expert in 16th century text painting and will not comment on that element. Which is another way of saying that I don't see anything obvious in the particular choices of figures or cadence types.

The opening and closing measures are in the example below. The points of interest here are that Lassus is not afraid to use the 6-8 cadence to close (that is, he shows no prejudice in favor of 3-1), and the overall gesture in the upper voice is rising.

On the clausula vera (3-1 or 6-8)

The articulation of cadences in sixteenth-century European music relied on the formula of third to unison intervals (if the parts are flipped, then it's sixth to octave). In each example just the beginning of a phrase in two voices is shown, followed by the cadence.

Here is an example from literally thousands of pieces showing the treatment of these figures. This is the fifth of Thomas Morley's Duets for Two Viols. In the opening phrase (mm. 1-5), a sixth (marked in m. 4) "prepares" a suspension dissonance that resolves into the 6 of the cadence: asterisks mark the 6-8. In the second phrase, similarly, a third D-F "prepares" a 2-3 bass suspension and the cadential 3-1 follows (note that the lower notated voice is actually higher in pitch at this point).

And here are the final two phrases, in which the cadence types are reversed: 3-1 first, then 6-8. Again note that the second cadence has the lower notated voice higher in pitch. Indeed, it is one of the uncommon instances of a rising cadential figure in notated ("art") music in the centuries before 1800.

Far more common in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is to bring a string of parallel sixths down, often with suspensions, toward the 6-8. The example below is from the fifth of the texted bicinia (sometimes called "duets") of Lassus. Four sixth intervals in a row, three with suspensions, make for an inexorable drop to the cadence, and it is only the sudden turn to the final octave that stops the progression (and is a big part of the expressive and formal point).