Dear Friends, > Quite right, Dana, but if memory serves Milan introduces the 6 Pavanas > by saying that the next six fantasias are pavanas. The there's the > problem of pavans being generally in duple and some of the Milan > pavanas are in triple.
Dana: I am away from my copy of milan, so I cant confirm your memorys yea or nay; but no matter, the issue is one of performance practice. I can confirm that Milan states in quite certain terms that "the six following fantasias, as I said above, in their air and composition are alike to the same pavans that are played in Italy, and, since they resemble them in everything, let's call them pavans". (Estas seis fantasias que se siguen, como arriba os dije, parecen en su aire y compostura a las mismas pavanas que en Italia se tañen, y pues en todo remedan a ellas, digamosles pavanas). I believe we should be wary of considering these pieces as typical examples of pavans just from Milan's loose quotation which, besides, makes it clear that, in his view, they were first and foremost fantasias, to which we can add the fact that the sixth one (whose tune is not by him: "las dos que se siguen [i.e. the last two] la sonada de ellas se hizo en Italia" ) cannot be construed in any way as responding to the structure of a pavan (it has, in fact, the typical structure of a galliard). Dana: All renaissance 'artists' had to contend with the conservative nature of the church; anything 'new' was risque (just ask copernicus or galileo). The natural result was constant references to antiquity, and thematic borrowing from the works of your contemporaries to an extent that startles moderns who are used to the constrictions of copyright. The quodlibet form seen at the end of the 15c takes this to an absurd level which is seen in many of the works of PDQ Bach and also in musical medleys. This is not the case with Milan, he was a self-recognized amateur player and composer, moving in the circle of the court of Germaine de Foix, widow of Ferdinand, and composing and playing strictly within this aristocratic entourage, as it can be shown by his autobiographical book "Libro del Cortesano" (nothing to do with Castigione's). Dana: Pavanna are dances, they are slow dances with the steps taken on the tactus, typically one step per modern measure. Lots of time for slow graceful showing off by the strutting peacocks. No matter if the tactus is subdivided triply or duply. As I stated above, the sixth "pavan" is by no means such a dance. As far as I can recall, I have never seen a pavan in triple time with the characteristic hemiola of the galliard. Speed has nothing to do with rythmic structure. Dana: Fantasias in various forms are to be expected, forms are a useful compositional restriction, guidelines to work within. But the essencial freedom of a Fantasia lies in its theme(s), original matter, treated whimsically; showing all the the art of the composer (hopefully sufficient art to leave room for the performers art). Not necessarily for Milan, who stated that fantasias are called thus because they proceed from the author's fancy. From this perspective, if Milan composed the pieces in question, they indeed proceed from his fancy, including the polemic sixth pavan, whose tune is not by him, but "the composition over it" (la compostura sobre la sonada de ellas es mia). Dana: Dances often have structure, with sections needing repeat here, but not there because of the choreography. The use of the bar is very irregular in this music from its inception, section marking is often unclear, even well into the editions of Playford; having a choreography is an immense help to decideing what sections need repeats; sometimes a lyric will serve the same purpose. Again, Milan´s indications leave no room for doubt: "They must be played with a somewhat fast air [so much for the slow pavan] and it is required that they be played twice or thrice" (Debense tañer con el compas algo apresurado, y requierense tañer dos o tres veces). Milan does not say "you may", he states "you must". Dana: Accidents of history deny us complete knowledge of the choreographies for all dance music, in some cases we have worthy choreographies begging for suitable music (eg, Mdm Sosilias Allemande). In some cases we have the challenge of reconciling music to choreography where typos are suspect (Arbeau Bransle de la guerre, over the page turn an obvious pick-up note is not composited on the preceding page where is should have been but instead leads off the next and produces one-too-many notes and much confusion for all). Dana Emery Again, I must stress that we cannot be too dogmatic and should consider each case from the point of view of the available evidence concerning each piece, composer, etc. In this particular case, I would be hard pressed to explain how slow pavans with the structure of a galliard could be played somewhat fast in general usage. We must take into account the composer, his background, context and entourage. Best wishes, Antonio To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
