Thanks Lex,
If I understand aright you suggest that the requirements of fixed
alfabeto chords frequently (usually?) dictated the harmonies Marini and
Co felt able to write. I can't agree - I think the thesis that they
fitted tunes to alfabeto rather than the other way round is, if I may
say, rather putting the cart before the horse. Of course, well known
chordal sequences were (and continue to be) a rich seam to tap
for creating florid divisions both instrumental and vocal (D'India's
exquisite 'Piangono al pianger mio' set to the Romenesca is a good
example) but I don't think we're discussing this form here - rather
newly set songs (mainly in strophic form).
Noting - that Marini wasn't overbothered at passing dissonances (see
earlier) resulting from having to fit a limited set of chords to
melodies which presumably they'd have avoided if fitting a song to the
generally available alfabeto chords; that some songs don't have
alfabeto; that some of the alfabeto is incomplete; that many composers
(the large majority surely) didn't actually play the guitar - I
suggest the songs were usually conceived first, from whence the
harmonies flowed, and to which the guitar alfabeto was finally attached
as best as could (if time and marketing preferences allowed).
rgds
M
--- On Thu, 21/4/11, Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl> wrote:
From: Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl>
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Marini - was Grenerin
To: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>, "Martyn Hodgson"
<hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thursday, 21 April, 2011, 11:11
Thanks for your remarks, Martyn
> I think I need to part company with Mr Dean (and his dissertation)
here
> - if only because of his faulty logic. In short the passage 'It
> follows, therefore, that the adoption and adaptation of alfabeto
> symbols in Italian canzonettas reflects an ongoing, mutual
influence
> between an orally transmitted performance practice' does not
> necessarily follow at all.
I assume you've read his whole dissertation?
> One can equally well conceive of an art song
> form which embraced the new possibilities of alfabeto quite
divorced
> from Dean's preference for an 'orally transmitted performance
> practice' (whatever that means - is it some sort of claim for
populist
> 'folk' like roots? - such may be very fashionable today but maybe
not
> in 1622).
I think I agree with him that there has existed a widespread unwritten
practice of strumming chords (sometimes wildly inappropriate) to songs.
Some composers have found ways to make the alfabeto fit into a genre
which was essentially contrapuntal (with a treble and a bass), by
prescribing alternative alfabeto chords (inherently triadic; minor and
major harmonies) in places where non-alfabeto harmonies would have been
asked for (ii instead of vii/dim, for instance). I don't think this
would necessarily originate from 'folk' traditions, as Dean seems to
suppose, I'd sooner think this was a clever way of composers trained in
music theory, to overcome the drawbacks of alfabeto, as a system with
completely uniform minor and major chord patterns.
Still, his analysis of the frequent use of the 'standard progressions'
of the early passacaglia (such as I-IV-V-I) into song accompaniment is
striking.
> Dean is also hardly the first person to suggest that the key rooted
> harmonies of the guitar may have had some effect on the development
of
> tonality (I remarked earlier that this had been suggested by
others),
> but are you (or Dean) now suggesting that Marini and others
actually
> composed their works whilst strumming the guitar a bit like
Stravinsky
> at the piano?
I am not saying that alfabeto harmony has been of great inluence on the
rise of tonal harmony. What seems more convincing in his thesis is the
idea that the harmony in the solo villanella/scherzo genre was to a
certain extent driven by the wish to create an acceptable guitar
accompaniment. And not only the other way around. These alternative
chords were probably seen as adequate for the situation.
So, yes, I think that they have taken into account what the result
would be, of the alfabeto accompaniment. Some editions (Obizzi, Berti,
Milanuzzi, but also Marini) are completely practical, to strum at the
piano.
best, Lex
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