Shaw's Musical Olio (1814)

An interesting item found on IMSLP: Oliver Shaw (1779-1848), Musical Olio. Comprising a selection of valuable Songs, Duetts, Waltzes, Glees, Military Airs, &c. &c. adapted to the Piano-Forte, with an accompaniment for the Flute or Violin. Selected and published in numbers, by Oliver Shaw. Providence: H. Mann & Co. Of these, four issues are available on IMSLP: March, June, September, and December 1814. The pieces are consecutively numbered. Five of them are presented below.

The term "olio" may seem odd-to-humorous today, but it was a common 19th and even early 20th century term for miscellaneous incidental pieces intended for vaudeville, minstrel shows, and similar kinds of entertainments. More generally it meant "miscellany" or "hodge-podge" (link to dictionary definition). (An internet search will show that "olio" is still very much alive, in periodicals with the older sense of miscellanies, in a food-sharing app, the Anglicized version of the Spanish dish olia, a Los Angeles based rock group, etc.)

9_contentment. The figure is in the 1st voice and might be read as an incomplete mirror, where ^8 drops directly to ^5 (bars 3-4), then returns by line (bars 5-8) -- or as a double neighbor figure about ^8.

17_Belles. A 6/8 country dance that might well have been called a reel. Complicated though this might seem, I hear a principal voice rising from ^1 to ^3 (bars 1-2, again in 5-6 and 13-14), answered by ^6-^7-^8 in the same part in bars 3-4 but in the "discant" in bars 7-8 and 15-16.

19_Himmel waltz. Dance and trio (at the dolce), with the rising figure in the former.

39_Moore. Music repeated for a second verse. Small ternary form in the verse. From ^9 to ^8 in the voice's opening (bar 5), then focus on figures in the tetrachord, ^5-^8.

49_Cottage dance. A simple 2/4 contradance, the music (not the suggested figures) having some of the character of a schottish. Equally simple in design: mirror Urlinie in the first strain, same but leading on the dominant in the second strain. Ends with reprise of the first strain.

Essay on British Isles Dance and Song

I have published an essay titled English, Scotch, and Irish Dance and Song: On Cadence Gestures and Figures. It can be found on Texas Scholar Works: link.

Here is the abstract:

This is a documentation of ascending cadence gestures in some 260 songs and dances from the British Isles, taken from eighteenth and nineteenth century sources, with some emphasis on collections for practical use published between about 1770 and 1820 and on the later ethnographic collections of P. W. Joyce and the anthology of Francis O’Neill.

Celtic series, part 2

Recently I began a series based on a small sampling of items from a documentary essay I am now preparing and hope to publish by end of the month.

The four categories for this series are: (1) simple examples of rising lines, with appropriate focal tones; (2) play of registers common in—and congenial to—the violin; (3) "long" cadences where the lower and upper registers are connected by a stepwise sequence; (4) modal tunes, or tunes showing a modal heritage.

Here I continue with tunes that mix categories (1) and (2).

"The Runaway Bride." A jig. This may be a good moment to note that, as with the many old English and French country dances, titles usually have little if any obvious relation to their music (unless texted, of course). At (a) a simple line creates focus on B4 (^3) but the register jumps upward at (b) in the violinistic pattern I describe in the first post. In the consequent phrase (a) is repeated but (b) is transformed at (c) into a simple rising cadence. The same registral pattern is repeated at (d) and (e).

"Donald Dow." Here I can thank the Highland Music Trust (link) for making available a number of collections transcribed via music notation programs (link to free downloads page). "Donald Dow" is a strathspey that could be nothing other than a violin tune. I have parsed the registers in this initial example (thicker rectangles with downward or upward pointing arrows).

As in "The Runaway Bride," the upper register follows and enables a rising cadence gesture. The strong "violin fifth"—though F4-C5 here, not open strings—with its repeated neighbor D5 (at (a) below) creates a focal tone C5 and so what I call a "primitive rising line" ^5-^7-^8, as C5-E5-F5 (beamed).

As in "David Grady's Reel" (see the first post in the series), every phrase ends with this cadence. Phrases 3 & 4, however, alter the earlier part of the phrase to make a space of the triad—at (b) and (c)—or A4-C5-F5, and by this means F5 becomes the focal note. An interesting moment at (d) brings a bit more emphasis to the bottom of the triad, so that one can hear—and in some variation a player might very well literally generate—a subsidiary line A4-G4-F4. See my small added notes in parentheses at (e).

From 204 Country Dances (~1775), part 3

This is the final post in the series on Straight & Skillern's collection 204 Country Dances (~1775). Today I look at three "special cases."

The two strains of "Chelsea Stage" are nearly identical, the only changes in the second being in bars 1-2 and a single note in bar 7. Although progress through the octave in the second phrase is obvious, just whether this can be resolved into a unidirectional line is not.

One possibility is shown below, in form of a "split" line where an internal ascent goes from ^1 to ^5 (beginning of the boxed notes), then a simple rising line follows to ^8. I don't find this entirely satisfying because of the sharp trajectory running toward and reaching ^9, but one can use substitution frequently found in cadences and specifically involving the dominant: ^9 substitutes for ^2 here, in the same way that, according to the traditional Schenkerian, ^7 commonly substitutes for ^2 in the descending line.

An alternative is to elevate the ^3 in the first bar of the strain, but this is decidedly less plausible. In previous posts I have observed that it is common in such small pieces as these to make an expressive "leap" above the prevailing register at the beginning of the second strain. To choose the isolated note A5 here would seriously unbalance the prevailing expressive gestures of this dance.

"Bevis Mount" is a collection unto itself -- four independent strains that bear no relation to each other beyond being complete eight-bar themes in the same key and all closing in the home key. The second strain is of interest. The close in the upper register is definite, but here again a unidirectional line seems implausible.

Finally, then, "Cave of Enchantment" is in a small ternary design with a truncated reprise and a close in the dominant for the first strain. Emphasis on ^1, ^5, and ^8 sets the frame for the first strain. The opening of the second shifts the basic idea to the dominant level, but the result is draw out the third, F#5, which is given on the first beat three times in a row before leading to G5, thus ^7-^7-^7-^8. In the reprise, then, attention is easily shifted to G5.

Thus, I would read the second strain as given below.

From 204 Country Dances (~1775), part 2 continued

The first post in this series dealt with simple ascending lines in a strain; today's is the second post about numbers with more complex lines.

By a pleasant coincidence, the first number up today is "Valantines Day in the Morning." This jig is set in a small binary form with "balanced cadences" (that is, the same figure for both), uses entirely different shapes to lead to those cadences. In the first strain, a profusion of tonic triad notes makes definition difficult, but the accented F#4s (^3) suggest a line upward at the end, F#4-G4-A4-B4-C#5-D5, with a balancing secondary line from above, G5-F#5-E5-D5-C#5. In the second strain the directions are reversed, as the new attention on A5 suggests a line A5-G5-F#5-E5-(D5-C#5)-D5, with an internal A4-B4-C#5-D5.

The 9/8 meter, by the way, is considered a variant of the standard 6/8 jig -- what it might have been called in London in the eighteenth century I don't know; now it is called a "slip jig" or a "hop jig," both of which refer to a particular style of dancing.

"Ralph's Ramble to London" is still another piece in a small ternary form, and with a complete reprise. A full triad frame at the beginning -- see at (a). The accent patterns and the lower line that follows in the cadence (circled) suggest that the extremities of the frame, A4 & A5, have priority -- in the first strain at least. In the "contrasting middle," attention turns to F#5 -- see stemmed notes starting at (b) --  but that dissolves into the initial frame again with the reprise. At the end, I have staked out a possible path -- see (c1) -- that implies a short line down from A5 to F#5, but finally I think it really is the frame itself that retains priority to the end -- at (c2), subordinating everything else, including the internal rising line in the cadence.

"Warkworth Castle"is a jig with the dotted rhythms that had become a bit old-fashioned by the 1760s, when the French-style gigue with flowing eighths predominated in the contredanse. The impression is heightened by the period forms in both strains (the period had become almost a universal requirement in the contredanse by this time).

From 204 Country Dances (~1775), part 2

Of the 204 numbers in Straight & Skillern's collection, fifteen or so are of interest here. Yesterday I discussed those with simple ascending lines in a strain; today I will look at those with more complex lines.

"Miss Butt's Favorite" is a jig in a small ternary form where the reprise is exact and complete. (There are more than the usual number of such designs in this collection, suggesting more instrumental character than music for dance, where multiple, independent strains fit better with the needs of the dance, especially the English long dance.) An approach to the tonic from below (^6-^7-^8) is obvious, with all notes accented, but the balance earlier is clearly tipped toward ^5, so that the principal linear figure in the cadence comes from above to imply ^3 over ^1 in the end.



"Blind Beggar" is also in a small ternary form, but this time its first strain closes on the dominant and the reprise is truncated -- both of which traits make this a bit more amenable to the practical needs of the dance. A full triad frame (circled) puts the emphasis on ^3/^5 in the first strain but resolves to ^3 with a cover tone ^5 in the reprise, where the rising line is internal (boxed).

"Frisky" is at the opposite extreme of design from the previous two numbers: four independent strains that, however, are related to one another by their cadence figures (strains 1 & 3, 2 & 4). If we take the third strain as a kind of variation of the first, and the fourth as a variation of the second, then the ascent from ^5 up to ^8 in the cadence (boxed) is definitely an internal line, as the balance at the beginning (and throughout strain 3) is on ^3.

From 204 Country Dances (~1775), part 1

Straight & Skillern in London published a book of 204 Country Dances around 1775. In format (single line treble melody with succinct dance instructions below), the book resembles editions of the earlier Playford Dancing Master (multiple editions 1651-1728). The music appears to be almost all familiar songs and fiddle tunes, and the dancing instructions are simple, nor by any means ample in detail. Here is a link to the file on IMSLP: link.

Of the 204 numbers, fifteen or so are of interest here. I've divided them into three groups: (1) those with simple ascending lines in a strain; (2) those with more complex lines; (3) special cases.

"The Hot Bath" is in two strains. The first has an internal ascent in the cadence (not marked). The second consists of a rising figure from ^5, repeated. The first time it overshoots its mark, reaches ^10 and then settles to ^9 for a half cadence. The second time it reaches ^8 again in the third bar and stays there for the duration.

"The Nabob" is about as simple a rising line out of the space ^1-^5 as I have seen anywhere. Not only that the ascent to the cadence is used in both strains.

"The Shepherds Jigg" in its second strain makes three attempts (circled) at a simple stepwise ascent from ^5 to ^8, then "gets it right" at last.

"What's that to You" would require an Urlinie from ^3 with an implied ^2 under the traditional Schenkerian rubric. But, even if it is a bit a surprise, the simple ascent clearly can't be willed away as an internal line in this instance.

I'll write about more complicated examples of the rising line in the next post.

Theodor Lehmann, Ländliche Suite

Theodor Lehmann was a Norwegian musician whose dates are 1847-1915. I was able to find nothing else about him with a cursory search. His Ländliche Suite for violin and piano, op. 7, was published by Hansen in Copenhagen. Link to the score page on IMSLP: link.

The second movement (of three) is titled "Bauerntanz" and shows some hints of the Hardanger fiddle style. The design is curious -- on the surface a ternary form of the common sort, with A closing in the dominant key, B unstable but moving about and toward the dominant, and a prominent and full reprise in the main key. But B turns out to be nothing but unstable -- it's a longish (re)transition with no tune of its own -- and "the full reprise" turns out to be an entirely new tune, or C.

Here is the first half of A, a sentence with an expanded continuation phrase. The second half (not shown) repeats the theme but reaches a PAC on the dominant for the first ending; it veers off in striking way to the minor subdominant for the second ending.

The B-section takes its time reaching the dominant and then revs up to a scalar rush to the tonic, which opens the reprise.

The "false reprise" or C is a double period (Caplin's 16-measure period), in which the 8-bar antecedent is a sentence:

 Here is the consequent of the double period, with the structural cadence (I have reproduced the coda underneath). It might take a little work to specify the individual tones, but overall the inverted arch is clear enough: ^8-^7-^6-^5-^5-^6-^7-^8.

 Coda with a pedal tonic and a couple quick V-I repetitions. Notice that its principal gestures all run downward, a foil to the strong rush-upward in the cadences of the preceding theme.

Elegant Dances for the Year 1810

Title: Button and Whitaker's Elegant New Dances for 1810, arranged for the Harp or Piano Forte, with correct Figures as Danced at Court, Bath, Brighton & all Polite Assemblies. IMSLP page for this score: link.

The publication of music for dancing stretches back at least to Michael Praetorius's large collection Terpsichore (1612), but it was the popularity of the country dance (later as the French contredanse) that spurred the efforts of compilers, composers, and publishers. By far the most famous series is John Playford's The [English] Dancing Master, first published in 1651, with new editions and supplements through 1728. Its combination on one page of music and instructions for the dance was especially influential on all subsequent collections. By the mid-18th century it was common (especially in France) to issue dances in folios, one or a few at a time, to be bound in volumes at the end of the year, if one chose. Button and Whitaker assume the same for their Twelve New Dances: the title page has a note at the bottom reading "This elegant Selection is Printed Quarterly, on Sheets, & paged onward for the convenience of Binding. Nos. 1 to 14 are already Published."

Presuming the present item to be volume 15, we have just one piece that is of interest for ascending cadence gestures. "Kitty Kickaway," like all the dances in the volume, is a British-style fiddle tune, in this case a jig. Strong focus on ^5 in the first strain ends with a quick run down to ^1 in the final bar. In the second strain, bars 1-4 move back up to ^5 and a PAC on the dominant, but then attention shifts suddenly to the upper note of the frame ^8 (G5) and an upper-register close (circled). D5 is a persistent inner voice now (see the ***). Note that, because of the context, the same music in bars 6 and 14 (boxed) has a different balance between upper (G5) and lower (E5) voices.

Thomas Davis, Country Dances (1748)

I have found very little information about Thomas Davis, except that he was apparently a professional musician active between 1740 and 1760, perhaps a flutist (he published a set of sonatas in 1744), and his work was published by Henry Waylett in London, including a volume of Country Dances (1748). Here is the title page:

Of the twenty four dances, a half dozen have interest for us, even if none offers a simple, direct ascending line in the final cadence. These six are:

Glascon Lasses (p.6)
Kitty's Frolick (p.16)
Leister House (p.5)
Merry Hary (p.4)
Pretty Miss's Fancy (p.22)
Westminster Bridge (p.2)

Of these, Merry Hary comes the closest, managing a simple ^5-^8 line to end the first strain. Because the frame of the melody is most easily heard as the octave G4-G5, however, the ascent sounds like a return to the original position of ^8, rather than an ascent out of the prevailing register.



Westminster Bridge. Note, above, that the second strain of Merry Hary uses the 18th-century cliché of a rising figure above unstable harmony just before the fall to a strong cadence. The second strain of Westminster Bridge does the same, but with stronger harmonies. Note also the relatively simple ascent in the first strain.

Glascon Lasses focuses on ^5 (as C5)—see the circled notes—and rises in the cadence but overshoots its mark in service of the Scotch snap figure (bar 8). It then repeats that F-A-F interval outline three times to open the second strain before ending with paired thirds (boxed) descending to an open cadence (that is, ^3 is balanced with ^1, a curious effect of the Scotch snap is that it's like the spondee in poetry: two equally weighted notes, one accented, the second longer).

Pretty Miss's Fancy has two sections in a dance-trio arrangement, where the trio is in the minor. The second strain of the dance has a rising cadence at (b), but the lower register of the beginning gives priority to the lower voice at (a). The close of the trio reverses the relationship, as the upper voice, rising, has priority at (c) and the lower voice is secondary at (d).

Leister House and Kitty's Frolick are more traditional, with prevailing descending lines in the upper voices and ascending lower voices. See (u) [upper] and (l) [lower} in the first strains of both. In the second strain of Kitty's Frolick, one could stretch the focus of G5 from the first strain across to the end, for an ^8-^7-^8 shape overall, but the steady and continually accented descent from ^5 (circled notes) turns the upper register into covering motion.

Revised Playford essay published

I have published a heavily revised version of my essay/documentation John Playford Dancing Master: Rising Lines (link to original). The new version is, appropriately, titled John Playford Dancing Master: Rising Lines, Revised and Updated. It can be found on the Texas Scholar Works platform here: link to revision.

Here is the abstract:

This updates and substantially revises two publications of mine on the Texas Scholar Works platform: John Playford Dancing Master: Rising Lines (2010; 2015) and the corresponding section in Rising Lines in Tonal Frameworks of Traditional Tonal Music (2015). The main goal was to provide higher quality graphics, but I have also written a new introduction as well as new analysis and commentary for almost all of the dances.

Minor key series, part 14 (Dorian and Aeolian octaves), continued (1)

Johann Walther's ATB setting of the Easter chorale Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (from 1524) shows the relatively rare case of conflicting signatures: once-transposed Dorian in alto and tenor, twice-transposed Aeolian in the bass. The chorale, in the tenor (boxed below) avoids the Dorian ^6, using all other scale degrees within the octave G3-G4. Against this, alto and bass engage in a play of chromatic cross-relations, which, as I noted in the previous post, is far more common in music of the 16th and 17th centuries than our usual counterpoint rules would have us believe.

The final phrase of the chorale (circles below) is embellished via the ubiquitous pre-cadence flourish of small notes, and there the Dorian ^6 finally does appear in the tenor -- not surprisingly, as the alto and tenor move in parallel thirds through the figure. The alto starts with notes of the final chorale phrase and makes an easily heard chromatic connection from F5 to F#5 across the phrase. I would regard the alto here as a descant voice; to analyze in Schenkerian (Salzerian/Novackian) terms, the Urlinie would reside in the tenor.

Nevertheless, there is a point of historical interest in the alto's descant. I quote from my essay Rising Lines, p. 17 (link to the essay):

[One] source of rising lines comes from five-part vocal (but more often) instrumental music, where the cantus (or topmost) line takes on the character of a descant. . . . When the cantus "loses" its descant character and acts as a principal upper voice, rising structural lines are easily achieved. This change is parallel to the one that occurs in the first half of the nineteenth century, when—even though the force of a century-old cliché that demands descending cadential formulas is still strong—composers sometimes "forget" to relegate ascending lines to [their usual position in] the coda. 

A dance from John Playford's English Dancing Master (first edition 1651); music only, without dance instructions. For more information on "Madge on a Tree" go to an earlier post on this blog: link. The Dorian signature and the ascending Urlinie are obvious features. At the asterisks, note E-natural expressing the Dorian ^6 in a striking way in the context of G minor and Bb major triads, then Eb as a simple neighbor note ornament to D5.

Here are the first two of four dances from Michael Praetorius's collection Terpsichore. The four are ns104, 147, 148, and 295, and all have been discussed elsewhere on this blog.

(1) Here is my comment on n104 from an earlier post:

A shift to minor quality in the second strain, with a fairly leisurely descent/ascent pair that use both F# and F-natural in each half of the figure. (link)

A modern-sounding major/minor contrast is achieved between the strains: Mixolydian in the first, once-transposed Dorian in the second -- except that the consistent use of Eb (asterisks) renders the scale Aeolian in sound. Exceptions in the cadence (boxed) are routine embellishments.

(2) Here is my comment on n147 from an earlier post:

. . . author of the melody unknown; this is one in a series of courantes in once-transposed Dorian mode (final G; one flat in the signature). The box shows a simple linear ascent to the cadence on D5. In the second strain, the figure in part or whole occurs four times in a row.  (link)

Here, as we have seen in some earlier cases, inflections of E as Eb produce an Aeolian sound in the first half of the first strain, but move toward a cadence on D brings back the Dorian ^6 as E-natural in bars 5-8. The final measures of the second strain are exclusively Dorian in sound.

Music for dancing, 1650-1700, part 5

This is the last entry in the Playford series of posts. Mug House appeared for the first time in a supplement to the 7th edition (1687); this version is from the 14th edition (1709) and includes the dance instructions that were printed with the melodies in all editions of The Dancing Master. (I deleted those from graphics in the previous posts.)

Four phrases, (a) to (d), are marked up with a soprano-alto pair—(1) and (2). The upper voice is centered on D5, traces a neighbor note figure in the first phrase, then a line into the cadence in the second phrase. It disappears in the third phrase, to re-emerge in the fourth, which, however, is dominated by G5, not D. The alto voice is similarly centered on B4, and it also disappears, after the opening notes of the fourth phrase.

 I have made a more traditional linear analysis, as well, based on the above. The reader can decide how plausible this all seems. For my part, I would be inclined to prefer a proto-background B4-D5 to begin, expanding to the sixth B4-G5 by the end of the second phrase, then remaining there for the duration.

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.

Music for dancing, 1650-1700, part 4

A well-known 16th century tune, Wooddicock, also known as The Green Man, is reproduced from the first edition, The English Dancing Master. I have sketched this in a preliminary way in the manner of linear analysis. An initial ^8 (final of the once-transposed Aeolian mode) sinks to ^7 by the end of the short first phrase. The figure appears again in the second phrase and in two consecutive notes to begin the third. An ascent from below (see the angled line) meets ^7 and closes to ^8 in the final phrase.

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.

Music for dancing, 1650-1700, part 3

Today's tune is The Cherping of the Larke (this facsimile is from the first edition, The English Dancing Master). From the second edition on, the C at the end of the third phrase and the C five notes from the end were given sharps—all that suggests that a player would have changed the notes in performance anyway (in the manner of the by then ancient musica ficta practice).

Four short phrases are marked (a) through (d) under (1) below. Under (2), patterns of recurring notes and lines are sorted, and under (3) registers. These last clearly parse the octave F5-F4, suggesting a proto-background, but the end of the melody is a surprise, as a wedge figure draws lines to a close on D, final of a once-transposed Aeolian mode. In this case, the registral isolation of F5 at the beginning of (c), its repetition a few notes later, and the ascent to D5 from below, all make a line F5-E5-D5 credible.

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.

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.