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Sunday 29 September 2019

Fuenllana: Passeavase (paseàbase) el roy moro

Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of Miguel de Fuenllana (c. 1500 – 1579). Although blind he became a court musician to the Spanish and, later, Portuguese royal families. Most of his large body of works is for vihuela (which was built like a guitar but tuned like a lute), but he wrote 9 pieces for 4-course guitar (and hence suitable for the ukulele).

I find it difficult to appreciate his music, which I admit is my own fault. He wrote in a linear, contrapuntal, academic style, with the harmonies arising from the overlapping lines. In contrast, the song entabulations by Le Roy et al. were often based on grounds (chord sequences), and are more familiar to our modern ears.

When I play arrangements of his pieces using simulated MIDI instruments such as the flute or fiddle, I can hear the harmonies emerge. When the same piece is played on a plucked instruments, it inevitably sounds like a succession of chords with connecting notes. Quite a challenge to interpret!

The first two lines of Fuenllana's original.
The tablature is in the Spanish-Italian format, with the lower string on top.
The red numerals are the instrumental notes that ± duplicate the sung notes.

Fuenllana has been quoted as saying “words are the soul of any composition”, so presumably he intended his song arrangements (for vihuela and guitar) to be played as an accompaniment to the singer. I have therefore included the song to the present transcription, which makes the whole thing more understandable. It would help to learn the tune.

In voicing, I have emphasised the melody to the original air (indicated by red numerals in the original) by note stems pointing up, whereas all other voices have stems pointing down. This is obviously not possible for semi-breves / whole-notes, but fortunately after the introductory (instrument-only) 9 bars, all such notes on the top line are part of the melody.

The piece is set in the Phrygian mode – the use of keys is a later musical development – which on the piano can be heard (but not in the same key as on the ukulele) by playing a scale on the white keys starting on E. The melancholic mood is appropriate to the sentiment of the song (see below).

You can download for free in the following formats:
[Arrangements updated on 30 Sept 2019 to correct a misprint in bar 22.]

 

HISTORY   

 "Paseábase el rey ... tells a story of the struggle that took place between the
 Catholic and Moorish forces in Spain. The text reflects the Moorish perspective, their
 king [actually, caliph] expressing his anguish at having lost Alhama [in] Granada , their last fortress in Spain." EGA1.
"In 1482, the fortress town was taken from the Moorish Sultanate and Kingdom of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs. Alhama's position between Málaga and Granada gave it strategic importance for the Moors but they also had a particular fondness for the town and its thermal waters and hot springs.The cry of sorrow, "¡Ay de mi Alhama!", uttered by Abu Al-Hacen (Abu l-Hasan Ali, Sultan of Granada) following the battle ... entered the Spanish language as an exclamation of regret." Wikipedia.

WORDS 

(from EGA1)

Paseábase el rey moro 
Por la ciudad de Granada.
Cartas le fueron venidas 
Como Alhama etra ganada.
Ay! Mi Alhama! 
Como Alhama etra ganada 
Ay! Mi Alhama! 

The Moorish king was walking
Through the city of Granada.
Letters had come to him
About how Alhama had been taken.
Alas! my Alhama!
About how Alhama had been taken.
Alas! my Alhama!

SOURCES


Orphenica lyra, libro sexto, p 163v, 1554.
Facsimiles at
https://www.delcamp.net/pdf/facsimile_1554_Miguel_de_Fuenllana_Libro_de_musica_para_guitarra_intitulado_Orphenica_lyra-Sevilla.pdf
http://www.bibliotecavirtualdeandalucia.es/catalogo/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?path=1000562&presentacion=pagina&posicion=341&registrardownload=0

Having transcribed this piece from the facsimilies, I was informed by the transcriptions for classical guitar by




Thursday 26 September 2019

Le Roy: Fantasie première revisited

Continuing the process of revising my earliest posts, now that I know (a little) more about the music, here is an improved (I hope) transcription of the first piece published in Le Roy's first book Premiere livre de tablature de guiterre, ff 1 – 2.

You can download the transcription freely here:



SOURCES

Facsimile online at: https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/36992e38-4a04-c705-affa-253d7b309c67/1/
(Permanent link: http://purl.org/rism/BI/1551/23)

Having transcribed these pieces from the Renaissance guitar facsimilie above, I was informed by the fine transcriptions for classical guitar by Keith Calmes in Guitar music of the 16th Century, 2008, Mel Bay Publications. I have not, however, followed his version slavishly, but have taken much from it.

Another excellent and learnèd publication is “Early Guitar Anthology, I, The Renaissance, c.1540-1580” by Charles Wolzien, music edited by Frank Bliven, available to download here: http://www.guitarlessonz.com/earlyguitaranthology/EGA_Renaissance-I.htm. As well as many musical scores, they provide useful essays on the music of the period. In some places have followed their version.

ANALYSIS

As with all music in French tabs, which were less prescriptive than modern notation, there is much scope for interpretation. For example, does an unoccupied place after a note represent a continuation of the note (sometimes ligatured across bars) or a rest?  Rather than agonise over this, if one follows the rule “hold a note down as long as physically possible” I don’t think one can go far wrong. (See footnote below.)

The piece is set in a counterpoint of two or three voices. The first voice makes a statement of the first motif in bars 1 – 2, the second voice repeats it a 4th below in bars 2 – 3, and a third voice (with doubled-length notes) starts on the open 4th string (an octave lower than the first voice) in bars 4 – 6.

In bars 7 & 8 we have a theme very similar to that often used by John Dowland about 50 years later (e.g. in “Solus cum sola”), partially echoed in the middle voice in the next two bars and leading via a kind of duet to a cadence in the dominant (D major).

The next passage, bars 20 – 44, includes a sequence of arpeggiated chords, in which one can detect a hint of the campanella style – depending of course on how long the notes are held. Bars 45 – 61 include a seriest of overlapping scalar fragments (counterpoint) leading to a high G-major chord.

There is then (in bars 65 – 69) a duet high on the fingerboard, repeated an octave lower (bars 70 – 73). After another chordal (campanella-like) passage, the piece closes in a very familiar way.

Such a lot going on in the narrow scope of four strings! The challenge is to first identify the voices, and then to bring them out in the playing as they move from string to string - I have coloured them in on a printout, as part of my self-tuition. The more you look the more you see.

FINGERING

For interpretation of the right hand fingering indications, see this post.

_________________________________
* FOOTNOTE

One difference between the published transcriptions (see refs above) is whether they maintain certain notes for as long as possible or insert breaks. In bars 32 – 41, as in Calmes, I have maintained a continuous upper voice (dotted minims), whilst in bars 76 – 83 I have followed Wolzein and Bliven and inserted rests in the upper voice. Unlike these authors, I am no expert, so it must be a matter of choice. To be quite honest, with a plucked instrument having little sustain it makes not a deal of difference to the listener. In any case, the choice is yours.

Friday 20 September 2019

Mudarra: Four fantasias

Alonso Mudarra (c. 1510 – April 1, 1580) was a priest and vihuela player, who became canon of Seville Cathedral and was in charge of the music there. As well as many pieces for the vihuela, he published six for four-course guitar in Tres libros de musica en cifras para vihuela, Seville, 1646. Four of them, all fantasias, are presented here.

The title page of Mudarra's Tres libros...



SOURCE

http://hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/7/7b/IMSLP579453-PMLP932396-Mudarra,_Alonso_(TRES_LIBROS_DE_MÚSICA_EN_CIFRAS_PARA_VIHUELA).pdf

Having transcribed these pieces from the Renaissance guitar facsimilies above, I was informed by the fine transcriptions for classical guitar by Keith Calmes in Guitar music of the 16th Century, 2008, Mel Bay Publications. I have not, however, followed his versions slavishly.

Another excellent (online) publication is Early Guitar Anthology, I, The Renaissance, c.1540-1580  by Charles Wolzien, music edited by Frank Bliven, available to download at: http://www.guitarlessonz.com/earlyguitaranthology/EGA_Renaissance-I.htm.
They include the first and third of the Fantasias transcribed here, and I have quoted in full their learnèd comments on the modal structures, which I hope one day to get to grips with.

GENERAL COMMENTS


The musical style at this time was evolving from modal polyphony, which can make it seem rather alien to modern ears. The long horizontal lines of notes overlapped, and at any one time they formed what we hear as chords. The chords are not so obvious when the music is sung, or played on instruments with sustained sound such as flute or fiddle. (It’s interesting to change the instruments in the MIDI renderings to hear this.) On the ukulele or guitar, however, the chordal structure is much more obvious, with vertical stacks of notes being plucked into life.

I have only recently been aware of this music, and find that it needs a lot of thought to understand it, and even more practice to interpret it on an instrument. Most of the harmonies are familiar and can be given modern chord names, but that hasn’t really helped my appreciation, and is probably an anachronism too far. My recent postings of music by Le Roy and from the Osborn Commonplace Book often use grounds (chord sequences) that are more easily understood, and basically jolly good fun, but these by Mudarra are much more cerebral and elevated – good luck!

The various “tonos” refer to the modes of the time: 1st = Dorian, 4th = Hypophrygian, 5th = Lydian. You will see from my notes below that I am struggling to get to grips with this. Mudarra must have been a great musician to bend and weave in and out of the eponymous modes in such a cunning way.

I find that the scores fit comfortably on a tenor uke, can be a bit of a stretch on a Renaissance guitar (scale length 54 cm), and would need very long fingers on a full-sized guitar if you didn’t have a capo.

Below are some comments on the four Fantasias. Two have the same name, so I have appended the page numbers (f) from Mudarra's tome.

By the way, well over two years ago I made a reduction of Mudarra's vihuela piece Pavana de Alexandre, which you can see here. It's rather easier to comprehend than the fantasias and has a distinct melody and counter melody, and a hint of a bass line as well.


(1) FANTASIA DEL PRIMER TONO, f 21

In the original, the 4th string is tuned down to F to provide the root note of the home key. To avoid the inconvenience of re-tuning I have modified the piece slightly with, I hope, only slight detriment to the music.



The first two lines of the piece in facsimile. Note the corrected misprint in the heading. Temple nuevo meant that the strings were tuned in the intervals we use on the ukulele, temple viejo that the bass string (strictly "course") was tuned a whole tone lower.  The fret positions are shown by numbers, but the bass is shown on top as that is where it is when the instrument is held: difficult to get one's head round when playing.


The primer tono is the Dorian mode, but this piece uses every note in the chromatic scale except F# and A.

Wolzein & Bliven write (referring to the guitar notation which is a fourth lower than the ukulele, so for B read E, for G read C, for D read G):

“Mudarra’s Fantasia … is labeled as del primer tono, so one expects to find a piece
written in the dorian mode (or first mode); but the dorian mode is obscured right from the
beginning by the use of the flatted sixth degree in the opening phrase. The flatting of the
B-natural in this case follows the convention of solmizing a single note above la with fa
and flatting the fa: thus the first two measures of the soprano line are solmized la-fa-la-sol-fa-mi-fa.
This exchange between the B-natural/B-flat that emphasizes the characteristic
sixth degree of the dorian mode occurs throughout the entire piece, right up to the final
plagal cadence that moves from a G minor chord (with a B-flat) to a D major chord (with
the raised picardy third).”

(2) FANTASIA DEL QUARTO TONO, f 22

* Note moved to adjacent string for ease of performance

† Note on 1st string is 8 in the original, which I read as 6 and seems OK, while Calmes uses 2. The choice is yours.

§ Note on 1st string is 9 in the original.

I must confess to finding the chord changes in bars 42 – 44 difficult to play cleanly, but much easier if I omit the 3rd string, which doesn’t affect the music much (or is that sacrilege?).

I can’t relate this piece to the 4th mode, Hypophrigian (quarto tono): it includes all notes on the chromatic scale except C# and F.

(3) FANTASIA DEL QUINTO TONO, f 22

* In bar 13 Calmes suggests replacing the F# (fret 2) with G (fret 3). I must admit that I quite like the dissonance. It's up to you.

The title specifies 5th Mode (Lydian), but the piece seems to be mostly in G major (Ionian mode), with occasional side-stepping into D major (where you see note C#) and D minor (F natural). That’s the way I look at it, anyway.

Wolzein & Bliven write more learnedly (referring to the guitar notation which is a fourth lower than the ukulele, so for D read G and for G read C):

“In Mudarra’s … fantasia …, the designation del quinto tono
indicates the lydian mode (on D in this transcription), but the diagnostic fourth step,
or G-sharp, is usually lowered to a G-natural, thus producing passages in the ionian mode
as well as the lydian (the ionian mode was formed by combining the mixolydian fifth and
lydian fourth ...). The opening scale with its g-natural and then g'-sharp
underscores this mixing of modes. When the g'-sharp appears again in measure twelve it
is featured in the supple two voice imitation that leads up to the cadence on the dominant
in measure nineteen, beat one. On beat four of this same measure the g'-sharp is again
positioned prominently in the scale that begins the last section of the piece, but it is
quickly replaced with the G-naturals that remain constant through the descending scale
that concludes the composition.”

(4) FANTASIA DEL PRIMER TONO, f 23

* Note moved to an adjacent string for ease of playing

† The final chord is given in the original as a G7 chord (i.e. with an F on the 2nd string). Following Calmes, I have raised the F to G to give a G major chord.

Again Mudarra plays with his treatment of “tonos”. This piece looks, to my inexpert eyes, more like Hypodorian than Dorian.

Downloads

Having reached this far in the post, you deserve the downloads, available free in the following formats:
Have fun!

Monday 16 September 2019

Renaissance chord sequences (grounds)

Harmonic structures on which much Renaissance music was based.

Renaissance music was based on modes, rather than the keys we are familiar with today. It evolved from polyphonic and contrapuntal forms, mostly liturgical, where horizontal lines (voices) overlapped. Earlier, music was based on the intervals of octaves and fifths, but gradually thirds and sixths became acceptable. Chords arose from the overlapping notes being considered vertically, at a point in time, enabling us to analyse them in modern terms – although that would not have been how the composers or listeners thought of them. You can read an accessible account of Renaissance music here, and of course on Wikipedia.

The popular music of the 16th century such as songs and dances seems often to have been based on common grounds (bass lines and harmonic sequences), at least in the original statement of a theme. As I encounter ground types, and their variants, I will record them here for future reference.

In a more modern context the equivalent to grounds might be "blues in F" or "New York changes".

In the charts below chords are named by the position of their roots on the scale, as Roman numerals; so in the key of C major, for example, C = I, D = II, B = VII, and so on. Minor chords are shown as lower-case numerals: e.g. Cm = i. Note that, for example, E♭in the key of C minor isIII in C major.

In minor keys, the final bars were often modified to the tonic major: the tierce de picardie.

The boxes below may not represent bars/measures: each chord may be extended over several bars, or compressed into part of a bar. Composers, being creatives, might also have re-arranged these sequences. 

Passamezzo antico (p. a.)

i
VII
i
V
III
VII
i    V
i
Also found in major keys. Commonest key Gm.

Major key variant
I
♭VII
I
V
♭III
♭VII
I V
I

Robinson New Citharen Lessons No. 16 'Passamezo Pauan"
i (V)
VII
i (V)
V
III
VII
V, I, IV, V
I, V, I
Robinson voiced the i chord without the third, but the I chords have B-natural.

In Mulliner f120v... "Pavan on p.a." (Cm)
i II
VII
i I IV
V
III
VII
i IV V
I

Anon "Greensleeves" (Lute Society) 
i
VII
i VI
V
VII v 
i V
i
VII
VII
i
V
i
i v
i V
I

Cutting f. 29 "Greensleeves" variation
i
VII V 
ii V
i IV 
VII 
i V
i
VII i 
VII
i
ii iv V
i
IV
i V
I

Henry VIII (?) "Pastyme ..." §1
i
VII v
VII i V
i
i
VII i v
III VII i
v V i

Osborne f. 43r No 18. "Galliard on p.a."
i
VII
i II
i V
i
VII
i V
I

In Osborne f. 43 No. 17 "Pasy measure"
i
VII
i
v
i
VII
I
i IV
VII
i iv
V
i IV
VII
i V
I

In Osborne f. 42v – 43r No 16 "Queen Marie's Dump"
i
VII
i VII iv
V
i
VII
i V
I
i
VII
i V
I
i
VII
i V
I

In Osborne t. 40r No. 4 "Pardye"
I
bVII
I
V
I
bVII
i V
i
Coda
I : IV I V I 

V I IV

I

Finish

Osborne f. 43r No 18. "Galliard on p.a."
i
VII
i II
i V
i
VII
i V
I









Romanesca 

(a development of the above)

III
VII
i
V
III
VII
i    V
i

Major key variant
I
♭VII
I
V
♭III
♭VII
I V
I


Narváez "Diferencias sobre 'Guardame ...' "
Follows the minor format exactly.

Mudarra (via Cripps) "O guádarme las vacas" (statement)
III
VII
i
V


III
VII
i V
IV
V
Later variations in the piece vary

Le Roy Instruction ... Exercise
♭III
♭VII
I
V
♭III
♭VII
I V
I

Le Roy Livre 3... Tourdion
III
VII
i
V
III
VII
i V
i



Passamezzo moderno

I
IV
I
V
I
IV
I    V
I

Occurs in this form in:
Le Roy Instruction ... Exercise
Osborne f. 40 No.2 "The hedgynge hay"
Dallis via Lute Society "Passamezzo", "Passemezzo d'Italie"


Bergamesca 

(Conte clare: the first three chords)

I
IV
V
I
repeated 3 times


Folia (later)

i
V
i
VII
III
VII
i
V
i
V
i
VII
III
VII
i    V
i
In one version of the folia the first i-chord in each line is omitted.



Le Roy Livre 3 ... "Pavane de la gamba" – later sections deviate greatly
V
V
i
VII
III
VII
VI
V
i VII III
VII III
VII VI
V
i III
VII III
VII VI
V
i III
VII
VI V
I
i III
VII iv
VI V
I


Mulliner Book ff. 119v – 120v "Chi passa"
V x 2
i x 2
VII
VII i ii
III iv VII
iv V
i V
I





Andalusian "cadence"


Major key
vi
V
IV
III
Melodic minor
i
VII
VI
V
Harmonic minor
i
♭VII
VI
V

Often used as an ostinato (repeating pattern) in a downward direction. Similar to the Passamezzo antico.


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