Hi Don
Can anyone shed any light on this?
It seems to be an important point that the natural sign occures only at the f. I can think of an explanation based on the renaissance scale system. The result is simply that Storace uses the natural sign in front of these specific fs as it was normally only used in front of the b when there was a flat in the key: to turn this b into a natural one, making it one half note higher. The explanation for why he is probabely doing so and not just putting f sharp as he does elsewhere could be that he wants to show the (structural) difference to a note which has been accidentally shifted by one half note.
The full explanation is a bit involved and I've no idea if it is correct, but it seems to me that it is something likely.
In renaissance, scales were described in hexachords c-a (naturalis), f-d with b-flat (mollis) and g-e with natural b (durus). The names of the second and the third hexachord come from the used b-mollis or b-molle (b flat) and b-durus or b-quadratus or b-quadro (natural b). Therefore the only possible sign to be found as signature at the key was a single flat. When changing the hexachord from mollis to durus, a natural sign was put in front of the b, respectively a flat for changing from durus to mollis. This concerns the composed and written down music, called "res facta".
Opposed to that, performers could add accidentals at will and following some rules which was called "musica ficta". Later on, composers tended more and more to write down also the ficta, because it became substantial part of the music. This is where the ("composed") sharp sign came in, used with the opposite effect of the flat. Flat and sharp were also used to indicate cancelation of each other in cases of doubt, as you describe in your mail. But I've seen the latter only later in the 17th.
The position of a note within a scale (hexachord) was described by the corresponding name: do/ut re mi fa sol la. In the natural hexachord these names correspond to the "latin" note names being still used today in roman languages. In the other hexachords these names shift to the corresponding notes f=ut, g=re, a=la etc. respectively g=ut, a=re, b=mi etc. These names have a function which is of some importance: between mi and fa there is always a halfnote, all other steps are full notes.
Now to the piece: on one hand, Storace's recercar shows some indications of the phrygian mode. In a classical modal piece it would have been more probable that the tenor or soprano would have started the piece with the soggetto in the authentic mode, beginning with the fifth e-b and using the "repercussio" c right afterwards. This happens here as "response" in the tenor. The leading alto voice readily shows the typical notes of the corresponding plagal mode, again finalis e, but repercussio g here, and the sequence e-bn-g. But now the f is in the way. Here we see that on the other hand and in terms of scales, Storace's composition shows the character of a transposed aeolian mode (as modern [e-] minor). For this, a transposed hexachordum durus has to be established upon d and there the f sharp is needed, with the function of a mi. And in analogy to the b-flat->b-natural change by a b-quadratus-sign (changing a fa into a mi), a mi in the hexachordum durus within a different key signature has to be assigned by a natural sign.
Appartently, Storace wants to differenciate the f sharps which originate from ficta, thus could be in principle left away (although this possibility was no more of practical consequences at his time) and those ones which originate from the mode. For a contemporian listener, this could very well have made a difference. In our times, probabely only few people would hear such kind of things without having seen the score. Thus, in an edition, I would make an annotation but put these notes all as f-sharps.
- two possible typos bar 5, third note in tenor: c sharp? bar 13, last note in the bass: a?
a happy new year Bernhard
Bernhard Lang | Physical Chemistry Departement, Sciences II 21, Avenue du Denantou | University of Geneva; 30, Quai Ernest Ansermet CH-1006 Lausanne, Suisse | CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland TEL/FAX: +41(0)21 601 3657 | TEL +41(0)22 379-6535, FAX -6518 bernhard.lang at gmx.ch
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