Dear friends



> On Aug 27, 2009, at 12:21 PM, Antonio Corona wrote:
> 
>> "They must be played with a somewhat fast air [so much for the slow  
>> pavan]

Dana: well, perhaps the tempo can be varied enough to get that certain peacock
and his retinue thru the line as quickly as possible; perhaps at a wedding
when the priest is visibly impatient for whatever reason.

Which leaves the matter of the rythmic structure unaccounted for. At any rate, 
we cannote provide a reasonable hypothesis for certain facts of performance 
pratice by summoning the whims of a priest.



>> 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.

Dana: it is entirely possible that the copy given to the
publisher/printer/compositor contained a suite of pavan and gaillarde
which were not annotated as such, and slipped thru.  Unfortunatly, I do
not have the music available as I write this (most of my music is packed
up, and the university music library is on inconveniant summer hours),
further, I didnt explore all of the pavans some decades ago, only those I
had recordings for (Yepes mainly).

Milan states (full quotation): "These six fantasias that follow, as I mentioned 
before, resemble in their air and composition the same pavans that are played 
in Italy, and, since they are so much alike in everything, let us call them 
pavans. The first four are my invention, the melody of the two that follow was 
composed in Italy and the compositon over them is mine. They must be played 
somewhat fast, and they should be played twice or thrice, and the first pavan 
that follows belongs to the first and second mode" (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. Las cuatro primeras son inventadas por mi; las dos que después se 
siguen la sonada de ellas se hizo en Italia, y la compostura sobre la sonada de 
ellas es mía. Devense tañer con el compás algo apresurado, y requieren tañerse 
dos o tres veces, y esta pavana
 que primeramente sigue anda por los terminos del primero y segundo tonos). I 
believe, from this quotation, that it is most unlikely that Milan might have 
given a pavan-galliard pair to the publisher.

Furthermore, the rubric to the sixth pavan states: "This pavan has the 
proportion of three semibreves [each] bar, and moves in the same mode as the 
past pavan, and the value of all the breves you may find alone will be a bar" 
(Esta pavana es a proporcion de tres semibreves [por] compas, y va por los 
terminos de la pavana pasada, y todos los breves que hallareis solos valgan 
ahora un compas). Thus, Milan makes it quite plain that he considered his 
ternary piece a "pavan", and rules out the possibility of a galliard slipping 
past unnoticed or by mistake. Milan even stats that all breves found alone are 
perfect, in accordance to the mensural theory.


Best wishes,
Antonio


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