Dear Thomas, In answer to your question, "Is playing the Quadro Pavan on the banjo lute related?" I would say, "Of course it is."
The Quadro Pavan is named after the quadrant or square-shaped sign looking like a modern natural sign, which was used in the lowest hexachord of the hexachord system - based on G - for the 3rd degree of that hexachord. Quadros appear in several lute sources, in particular early ones like Marsh and Willoughby ... Let's start again, and keep things simple. Today we have "do, re, mi" for the first three notes of the scale. In the past they called it "ut, re, mi." If you started your scale on bottom G (bottom line of the bass clef stave), G would be Gamma ut (origin of our word gamut, which now means a whole range of things, not just notes, and certainly not just the first note), A would be A re, and B would be B mi, i.e. B natural. Instead of writing the letter B, they wrote a natural sign, which they called the quadratum. "Quadro" is just a fun way of saying "quadratum" or low B natural. The point is that you get B natural in major keys (B flat in minor keys), so the Quadro Pavan simply means a pavan in a major key. Richard Allison found another way of saying the same thing. He called his well-known piece the Sharp Pavan, because it was based on a major key, not a minor one. He couldn't call it Quadro Pavan, because the Quadro Pavan had became associated with the following chord sequence: G - C - G - D - G - C- GD G - Thomas Morley refers to this chord sequence as Gregory Walker, because it walketh amongst all the barber shops, i.e. any old idiot can strum it on his cittern. [I'm afraid I can't find the exact quote from Morley's _A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musick_ (London, 1597), because I'm sitting at the computer in complete darkness. The light bulb has gone in the room, I can hardly see what I'm doing, and the beer in the Vale of Belvoir earlier this evening was particularly good. It would take too many lutenists to put in a new bulb, but please don't ask me why.] Now, anyone who has had the pleasure of learning the 5-string banjo will have learned the old favourite, "Bile dem cabbage down", which has the following chord sequence: G - C - G - D - G - C- GD G - The more observant lutenetters may have noticed that there is a striking resemblance between the chord sequence of the Quadro Pavan and "Bile dem cabbage down". So if Garry goes off to frail the Quadro Pavan on his banjo, he could as well pluck (thumb-inside, of course) "Bile them cabbage down" on his renaissance lute. Here is "Bile dem cabbage down" arranged for a lute in F double # with metal frets: |\ | |\ |\ |\ |\ |\ |\ | |\ |\ |\ | |\ | | |. |\ | |. | _e__e__e__e____f____e__e__c__a____c____c___ _a___________|_c__|_a___________|_a______|_ _____________|____|_____________|_a______|_ _c___________|____|_c___________|________|_ _____________|_a__|_____________|_c______|_ _____________|____|_____________|________|_ |\ | |\ | | | _e__e__e__e____f__f__f__f___e__a__c__c___a_____ _a___________|_c__________|_a_____a____|_a__||_ _____________|____________|_______a____|_c__||_ _c___________|____________|_c__________|____||_ _____________|_a__________|_______c____|____||_ _____________|____________|____________|_a__||_ Chorus: Bile dem cabbage down, Bake dem oat cakes brown. The only song that I can sing is Bile dem cabbage down. [NB: "Bile" = "Boil".] There are many verses, of which the following is my favourite: 'Twas on the bridge at midnight, My heart was all a-quiver. I undid her suspender, And her leg fell in the river. Those particular lyrics might not have been quite what Thomas Morley had in mind when he wrote his hard and difficult introduction to theoretical music, but as far as the harmonic sequence is concerned, he could have happily jammed away for hours on his organ, improvising countless divisions on Bile dem cabbage down, yet believing all the time that he was playing the Quadro Pavan. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Schall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lautenliste" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 10:34 PM Subject: Re: Subliminal message - please read > Am Die, 2004-05-25 um 21.27 schrieb Garry Bryan: > > > > > Garry ( off to play the quadro pavin on the banjo again ) > > > > ... which is worth discussing. Is playing the quadro pavin on a Banjo > lute-related? <grin> > > Thomas > > (having tried to distinguish between the "et" and "con", the "x" and > "r", the "g" and "et" in Sixt Kargel which is so frustrating that I > wouldn't bear any politics anymore - can one "dislearn" german tab? I > never had such problems reading it) > > > > --
