Hi Stewart, From playing a lot of Spinacino and his contemporaries I got into the habit of hearing notes, in polyphonic settings, that were "understood" rather than actually written out, so that when I played through the lute part of your extract, set against the vocal part, it occurred to me to hear in my mind's ear the stepwise motion of d, c, b to a, despite the fact that only two of the notes (d and b) were notated. I realize that the music of 1501 is not quite the same (great understatement!) as that of 1601, but I still tend to hear those "understood" notes. Let's just stay for a moment with the stepwise motion: we end up with an a in the lute part set against the g in the vocal part. With d in the bass the g becomes a suspended 4th which leads naturally into the cadence which follows. But as you point out, we then have the problem of consecutive 5ths. The thing is, though, there is no bass note written below that g in the voice part: the bass note comes in in the next chord, where it doesn't form a 5th with the a, but rather an octave with the next note up in the lute part. So I'm, wondering if that still constitutes consecutive 5ths. If it does, then something needs to be done: either your solution, which I agree is the most likely because so many notes get misplaced in the original (the "primary" ;-) ;-)) sources, or possibly the elimination of that e in the bass that caused all the trouble in the first place!
It's an interesting problem, whether we sense the stepwise motion of polyphony, or the movement of chord tones. It may have its roots in the fact that music theory itself was in a state of change at that time. I think your solution is the best one. Any other solution would hack the music up too badly. Best regards, David Rastall On Tuesday, September 23, 2003, at 06:48 AM, Stewart McCoy wrote: > Dear David, > > Many thanks indeed for your reply to my e-mail about Campion's "It > fell on a Summer's Day". Your idea of adding c' (d3) to the 3rd > chord of my extract is an ingenious way of ironing out what happens > before the E minor chord, but it still leaves us with the problem of > what follows it. > > There is a basic rule of harmonisation, which from your message you > seem to understand, but which will need clarifying for others trying > to follow the discussion: > > "Notes which do not move by step must be harmony notes." > > Moving by step is going up or down one note at a time, as you do > when playing scales. If you have two notes further apart than that, > for example > > ______a__ > __c______ > _________ > _________ > _________ > _________ > > they must each belong to a chord. The harmony of the two chords > doesn't have to be the same, for example > > ______a__ ______a__ > __c___c__ __c___a__ > __d___d__ __d___c__ > __c______ or __c______ > __a___a__ __a______ > _________ ______a__ > > C major twice, or C major followed by G major, are both acceptable. > > Now, you can fill the gap between those two notes with what's called > a "passing note", without that note having to belong to a separate > chord: > > ______a__ ______a__ > __c_d_c__ __c_d_a__ > __d___d__ __d___c__ > __c______ or __c______ > __a___a__ __a______ > _________ ______a__ > > The passing note f' (tab d2) is fine, even though it does not fit > the harmony of the two chords either side of it. > > If a note doesn't move by step like that passing note, it has to be > a harmony note and have its own chord. In other words, you can't > have > > ______c__ > __c_d____ > __d___d__ > ______a__ > __a______ > _________ (bad) > > because d2 doesn't move by step to c1. Instead you'd have to have a > separate chord for d2, for example > > __________c__ > __c___d______ > __d___a___d__ > ______a______ > __a_______e__ > _____________ (good) > > This means that you are absolutely right to say: "try putting middle > c in the 3rd chord of the lute part. Then you have a descending > line (d, c, b) that makes sense polyphonically", because those three > notes move by step. Any one of them may be taken to be a passing > note, and any clash with another voice part (e.g. C/B) is > acceptable. > > Unfortunately this doesn't solve the problem of what happens after > the E minor chord, since the b natural (tab c3) does not move by > step to any note in the following chord (D major). You cannot add an > a (tab e4) to the D major chord, or you'll have consecutive fifths. > You could conceivably insert another c' (tab d3) as a passing note > between the E minor chord and the D major chord, but even though > this has the merit of some imitation with the voice, doing that is > starting to get a long way from what Campion wrote in the first > place, and we are still left with an ugly C/B clash at the end of > the first bar. > > My solution of avoiding E minor in the lute part by changing c3 to > c4 seems to be the neatest solution, with minimum editorial > interference. After all, having a letter on the wrong line must be > one of the most common mistakes in French tablature. > > Best wishes, > > Stewart McCoy. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "David Rastall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: "Lute Net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2003 2:59 AM > Subject: Re: It fell on a summer's day > > >> On Friday, September 19, 2003, at 05:34 PM, Stewart McCoy wrote: >> >>> Dear All, >>> >>> It fell on a summer's day is a well-known song by Thomas > Campion - >>> naughty but nice - published as No. VIII in Philip Rosseter's _A >>> Booke of Ayres_ (London, 1601). It presents a problem towards > the >>> end. This is how the voice part ends: >>> >>> >>> _h__e__f_______e__e_f_h_f_c_____a___ >>> _____________|________________|____|| >>> _____________|________________|____|| >>> _____________|________________|____|| >>> _____________|________________|____|| >>> _____________|________________|____|| >>> >>> >>> and the lute tablature has: >>> >>> _c__a__a_______a________________a___ >>> _e__a__c_____|____e_c_e_f___e_|_a__|| >>> _f________c__|____f_______d___|_c__|| >>> ____c________|________________|_c__|| >>> _c_____a__e__|____c___________|_c__|| >>> _____________|________________|_a__|| >>> >>> >>> It has always troubled me that the first bar of my extract ends > with >>> a chord of E minor on the lute, while the singer is singing c". > I >>> might be tempted to change the b natural (tab c3) to middle > c'(d3), >>> to have a chord of C major (1st inversion) instead, yet I can't > do >>> that, because the lute chord rings on into the next bar, where > the >>> singer has b' natural. I don't think B's and C's clashing > against >>> each other is an option, so something needs to be done. I > propose >>> changing the c3 at the end of the first bar to c4, to produce a >>> chord of e (e5) and g (c4). These two notes are common to C > major >>> and E minor, so will sound well with the singer's part. I know > of no >>> other sources of this piece to offer inspiration, but having a >>> tablature letter on the wrong line is a common and plausible > error. >>> >>> In a word, I propose the following for the lute: >>> >>> >>> _c__a__a_______a________________a___ >>> _e__a__c_____|____e_c_e_f___e_|_a__|| >>> _f___________|____f_______d___|_c__|| >>> ____c_____c__|________________|_c__|| >>> _c_____a__e__|____c___________|_c__|| >>> _____________|________________|_a__|| >>> >>> What do people think? >> >> I'm not sure what you're hearing: are you saying that the e and > the b >> in the lute part are the root and 5th of an Em chord, and the c in > the >> vocal part is an added discordant note? Harmonically speaking, e, > b >> and c are more likely to function as a C Major 7th chord. But in > 1601 >> we're not quite there yet. So, if you're listening for chord >> progressions, then "B's and C's clashing against each other" are > going >> to sound a wee bit heretical for 1601. I think that at the point >> you're referring to in the music, the lute part isn't supposed to > make >> sense as a chord progression. The b and c seem to me to be a > point of >> intersection between voices that are moving, not static chords. >> >> I think if you want to hear chords, that's what you'll hear; but >> that's no reason to change the music. If you have to change it, > try >> putting middle c in the 3rd chord of the lute part. Then you have > a >> descending line (d, c, b) that makes sense polyphonically. >> >> Regards, >> >> David Rastall > > >
