As printed in the Poulton edition, The fifths and direct octaves cross the bar, from G to D in the lowest sounding voices to E flat to B flat in the lowest sounding voices.
Of course, since you can realize the polyphony in so many ways, there are just as many ways to look at it. In that case, you can just say, well Dowland drops in a third, the other sources have an open fifth, and that is that (see also Pipers pavan). Where I hear parallel fifths, someone else might simply hear a different voice leading. There is an additional fifth following which only sounds in a four part realization but is avoided if a voice is momentarily disappeared, meaning that a voice has to be dropped, which happens in lute music, of course, but not always. In addition, there is no third in the E flat chord on the down beat so you have a "5-6" with no third. You could argue that the fifths are not "real", extra voices could be implied that soften them up a bit, but I hear them as parallel. The weight of the parallel is amplified by the lack of the third in the chord, of course. Any open fifth in that position is quite striking in sound. All of these problems go away when Dowlands voice-leading is used, which replaces the B flat above the E flat with a G in the tenor. The chord has a third, the consecutive fifths disappear, the hidden fifths following disappear. The alto voice is suspended in a 7-6 instead of disappearing. If you just play the two lowest sounding voices in both versions, and nothing else, you can see that Dowland uses a classic cadential formula to approach the fifth from below. Just like Byrd, Lassus, etc. You can of course compare this to the voice leading in the lute song version which is quite clear on this point. By comparing the lute song version you can see that the alto voice should be suspended over the bar going into bar 2 in a 7-6, instead of ascending to make a direct octave approached by skip in the bass. Note that crossing from bar one to bar two in Poulton No 8, Piper's Pavan, the extreme lengths that the copyist went to to get the third in the right place on the downbeat with the monster bar chord. Comparing those two pieces reveals exactly how the process works. The easy way out is to use a simplified chord without considering the voice leading. Dowland of course would have picked the monster bar chord, just like the monster bar chord in Dowland's adew--the printed one, not the simplified one. There are many such examples. One can hear blocks of fifths sounding in the lowest parts or not--that sort of depends on how you hear things, lute music isn't exactly like motet writing. Different people hear fifths differently in polyphony. I happen to hear them quite strongly. There are also different weights of parallels, parallels beginning bars, half bars, and so on. Gastoldi and Monteverdi use cascades of "avoided fifths", which sound heavy, but the reason there are so few parallel fifths by the classic composers is that there is an instant change in the sound--they just pop out of the texture. But it doesn't matter how I hear them, what is interesting is how Dowland avoids them, which he does. For some of his arrangers, the counterpoint just wasn't as important. Whether one considers technically the fifths "avoided" or "parallel", the counterpoint is the key to Dowland's compositional style. Dowland often uses the "best compromise"--he uses a system wherein the most voices possible are presented in the best counterpoint, knowing that perfect counterpoint is not always possible. Dowland's imitators routinely use easier chords at the expense of the counterpoint. That is why they are always easier to play, and easier to add divisions to. Although the augmented second would seem to breaking the rules, it was part of the wave of chromaticism and augmented intervals in fashion in Italy, you see Italian composers using those intervals, but not writing consecutive fifths. It certainly would have seemed even more daring in England, but of course there was a big market for Italian prints at that time. dt At 03:12 AM 2/23/2010, you wrote: >I agree with David van Ooijen, If the b-flat is not held over there is a = >fifth indeed. However I cannot make coffee out of what David Taylor = >writes. Surely the b-flat has to be kept sounding untill the high c in = >the second measure. It needs a bit of practice but it can be done = >easily. > >Lex van Sante >Op 23 feb 2010, om 10:19 heeft David van Ooijen het volgende geschreven: > > > On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 1:04 AM, Daniel Winheld/dt wrote: > >>> somehow I have a blind spot: I still dont see the fifths!). > >>=20 > >> I think going from the last chord in the first measure (low open G, > >> still providing bass note from 3rd beat with open 2nd course d) > >> -moving to first chord of 2nd measure, E-flat b-flat e chord. G-d to > >> E-flat-b-flat are parallel fifths. Never quite liked the sound of it > > We must have gone to different counterpoint classes. ;-) > > Poulton edition. Monospaced font. > > -a--------------d---|-----f-d-r----- > > -a-----d-b-a----a---|-b---------e--- > > -b-----a---b-d------|-b-------d-f--- > > -----r--------------|-----------e--- > > --------------------|-d---------r--- > > -a---------a--------|--------------- > > I read > > Measure 1 > > 3rd quarter: G - d' (fifth) > > 4th quarter: G - b-flat' (third) > > Measure 2 > > 1st quarter: e-flat - b-flat' (fifth) > > I don't hear the parallel fifth from measure 1 3rd quarter to = >measure 2 > > 1st quarter. I hear the third on the 4th quarter being held into the > > fifth. > > And how is it corrected in LoST or the song, for that matter)? I see > > the same sequence, transposed up a tone. > > How I hear this spot > > The b-flat on the 1st quarter note of measure 2 is held over from > > measure 1 (3rd finger, play the E-flat chord with a barre and 2nd > > finger on the 5th course), I always try to play the chord softly so = >the > > melody is clearly sustained. I hear harmonic tension from bass note > > e-flat (with passing a' on top: tritonus!) to d in measure 2, I hear > > middle voice rising all the way from g halfway measure 1 to halfway > > measure 2, joining the top voice on the final f-sharp'. Added = >interest > > in new middle voice in measure 2 b-flat rising to d'. Such a rich > > writing; all of that in just the two opening measures! > > David - sorry, still blind (deaf?) spot > > -- > > ******************************* > > David van Ooijen > > [1][email protected] > > [2]www.davidvanooijen.nl > > ******************************* > > -- > >=20 > > References > >=20 > > 1. mailto:[email protected] > > 2. http://www.davidvanooijen.nl/ > >=20 > >=20 > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
