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Chapter
12
The Rise of Instrumental Music
Outline
  1. Introduction
    1. After 1450, more instrumental music was written down.
      1. Indicates that music without voices was considered worthy of preserving
      2. Indicates musical literacy of instrumentalists
    2. New instruments and genres developed.
      1. Dance music and instrumental versions of vocal music continued to be composed.
      2. New genres were not dependent on dance or vocal models.
      3. For the first time, instrumental music was as interesting and challenging as vocal music.
  2. Instruments
    1. Books in the vernacular described instruments and offered instruction.
      1. Musica getutscht und ausgezogen (Music Explained) by Sebastian Virdung, Germany, 1511, was the first.
      2. Michael Praetorius's Syntagma musicum (Systematic Treatise of Music, 1618-20) includes woodcut illustrations of instruments (HWM Figure 12.1).
    2. Haut and bas (high and low) continue as designations for loud and soft.
    3. Consorts
      1. Instrument families were built in sets of different sizes, covering a wide range.
      2. Mixed consorts were also used.
    4. Wind and percussion instruments
      1. Instruments from the Middle Ages: recorders, transverse flutes, shawms, cornetts, trumpets
      2. New instruments: the sackbut (early form of trombone) and crumhorn, an instrument with an enclosed double reed (see HWM Figures 12.1 and 12.2)
      3. Percussion instruments were more refined and diverse than in the past, but parts were never written out for them.
    5. String instruments
      1. Lute
        1. The most popular household instrument (see HWM Figures 12.3, 11.2, 11.4)
        2. Lutes have six courses of strings and a round back.
        3. Closely related to the lute, the vihuela was a guitar-like Spanish instrument with a flat back.
      2. Viola da gamba (leg viol) or viol (see HWM 12.4)
        1. Has frets and is bowed underhand
        2. The viol has six strings tuned in fourths, with a major third in the middle; the tenor viol is tuned G-c-f-a-d'-g'.
      3. Violin
        1. A bowed, fretless instrument tuned in fifths
        2. First appeared in the sixteenth century with three strings; used for dancing
        3. The violin, viola, and cello displaced the viol family in the seventeenth century in part because of their brighter tone.
    6. Keyboard instruments
      1. Organ
        1. Large church organs, similar to today's, were installed by 1500.
        2. Pedal keyboards were used only in Germany.
        3. Builders added more stops (ranks of pipes).
        4. The portative organ was still popular (see HWM Figure 12.2).
      2. Clavichord (see HWM Figure 12.2)
        1. Soft-sounding solo instrument for small rooms
        2. Tone is sustained until player releases the key.
        3. Player can control volume and can create vibrato.
      3. Harpsichord
        1. The harpsichord family includes the virginal (England), clavecin (France), and clavicembalo (Italy).
        2. Louder than clavichord but without the nuances of dynamics or vibrato
        3. A second keyboard attached to two sets of strings produced a louder sound for contrast.
        4. Strings are plucked, so the pitch is not sustained.
  3. Types of Instrumental Music
    1. Dance music
      1. Social dancing was important for people of "breeding" (see HWM Music in Context, page 271).
      2. Instruments at first used vocal models for music.
      3. Musicians improvised, as in the Middle Ages, but composed music in improvisational style was printed in books.
        1. Composed for ensemble, lute, or keyboard
        2. Embellishment of melodic line was a common technique.
        3. Adding one or more contrapuntal lines to a bass line
      4. Works for lute or keyboard became stylized, not meant for actual dancing.
      5. Each dance has a unique character, defined by meter, tempo, rhythmic pattern, and form.
      6. Form usually consisted of repeated sections of four-measure phrases.
      7. Basse danse (low dance)
        1. The most popular dance of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries
        2. A stately couple dance marked by gracefully raising and lowering the body
        3. It featured five different kinds of steps in various combinations.
      8. Tielman Susato, La morisque (The Moor) from Danserye (NAWM 62a)
        1. Published in Antwerp in 1551
        2. Duple meter with two repeated sections
        3. The repetitive four-measure phrases are balanced with a lively rhythmic character.
      9. Dance pairs (see HWM Figures 12.5 and 12.6)
        1. Dances were often grouped in pairs or threes.
        2. Favorite combination: slow duple and fast triple
        3. The two dances were often on the same theme; the second dance was a variation of the first (see HWM Example 12.1).
        4. Example: Pavane and Galliard La dona (NAWM 62b and c) from Danserye
        5. The Italian dances passamezzo and saltarello were another popular pairing.
    2. Arrangements of vocal music
      1. Instruments frequently doubled or replaced voices in polyphonic compositions.
      2. Instrumental ensembles played from vocal parts, adding embellishments.
      3. Petrucci's Odhecaton was primarily a collection of vocal works without texts, suggesting instrumental performances.
      4. Arrangements for lute
        1. Intabulations: arrangements notated in tablature
        2. Because plucked instruments could not sustain pitches, arrangers adapted pieces to the idiomatic qualities of the instrument.
      5. Luys de Narvàez (fl. 1526-49), intabulation of Mille regretz (NAWM 63a)
        1. Lute arrangement of Josquin's chanson (NAWM 43)
        2. Preserves four-voice texture
        3. Adds runs, turns, and other figures to enliven the work
    3. Settings of existing melodies
      1. Chanson melodies
        1. Frequently set for instrumental ensembles in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries
        2. Played as background music for other activities or by amateurs for pleasure
      2. Chant settings for organ (organ verses or versets) to alternate with choir (HWM Example 12.2, based on NAWM 3b, Kyrie) as part of an "organ mass"
      3. Organ chorales
        1. Published after the 1570s but likely improvised earlier
        2. Use various techniques
      4. In Nomine settings
        1. A popular cantus-firmus theme, derived from the Sanctus of John Tavener's Missa Gloria tibi trinitas
        2. Tavener transcribed his mass for instruments.
        3. Hundreds were published, especially for viol consort.
    4. Variations
      1. Presenting a theme and then continuing with an uninterrupted series of variants on that theme demonstrates the imagination and skill of composers and performers (when improvised).
      2. Variations on dance themes
        1. Petrucci published collections as early as 1508.
        2. Forms that used repeating sections would be varied in the repetition.
        3. Variations on repeating baselines (ostinatos), e.g., passamezzo
      3. Romanesca and ruggiero
        1. Standard airs in Italy
        2. Featured spare melodic outline over standard bass progression
      4. Guárdame las vacas (see NAWM 63b and HWM Example 12.3)
        1. Published in the collection Los seys libros del Delphin (The Six Books of the Dauphin), which contains the first published sets of variations (1538).
        2. Has four variations (differencias in Spanish) of the melody
        3. Narvàez states the bass clearly but varies the melody from the start.
        4. Each variation uses its own figuration throughout.
    5. English virginalists
      1. The variation enjoyed a great flowering in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries with English virginalists, named after their instrument.
      2. Parthenia (1613, see HWM Figure 12.7)
        1. First published book for the virginal
        2. Contains music by William Byrd (see chapter 10), John Bull (ca. 1562-1628), and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
        3. In addition to variations, the collection has dances, preludes, and fantasias.
      3. Emphasis on melody distinguishes English from earlier Spanish and Italian composers, who focused more on bass patterns and bare melodic outlines.
        1. Dances or familiar songs served as themes.
        2. Themes were simple and regular in phrasing.
      4. Variation techniques
        1. Themes could remain intact throughout the set, passing at times from one voice to another.
        2. More commonly, the theme is broken up by decorative figurations.
        3. Each variation typically uses one type of figuration.
        4. Typically, each variation increases the rhythmic animation.
      5. Byrd's Pavana Lachrymae (NAWM 61)
        1. Based on Dowland's Flow my tears (NAWM 61)
        2. The second of each pair of phrases is more active than the first.
    6. Abstract instrumental music
      1. Improvisation and vocal models inspired new, purely instrumental genres.
      2. Performers and composers used expressive effects (see HWM Source Reading, page 277).
      3. Ensemble works
        1. Composers in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries wrote pieces in a similar style to vocal works but without a known vocal source.
        2. Featured imitation mixed with free counterpoint, as in the chansons
        3. These works are the first body of instrumental music that was independent of dances and song melodies.
      4. Johannes Martini (ca. 1440-97), La Martinella (see HWM Example 12.4)
        1. Martini was a contemporary of Isaac and Josquin.
        2. Piece unfolds in a series of phrases, most featuring two-part imitation.
        3. The opening figure returns in various guises throughout.
      5. Introductory and improvisatory pieces
        1. Keyboard and lute players often improvised the introduction to a song.
        2. In the early sixteenth century, collections of freely composed compositions in improvisatory style began to appear in Spain and Italy.
        3. Titles varied: prelude, fantasia, ricercare
        4. Pieces often established the tonality of the following song (e.g., Luis Milán's [ca. 1500-1561] El Maestro collection of vihuela music).
      6. Toccata
        1. Chief improvisatory keyboard genre
        2. Name derives from the Italian toccare ("to touch")
      7. Claudio Merulo (1533-1604), Toccata IV in the 6th Mode (HWM Example 12.5)
        1. Exploits the organ's ability to sustain tones, especially in suspensions
        2. Uses a variety of textures, figurations, and embellishments
        3. A contrasting middle section (HWM Example 12.5b) uses imitation.
        4. The third and final section slows the harmonic progression while increasing the liveliness of the figuration, leading to a dramatic climax.
      8. Ricercare
        1. Evolved into a motetlike succession of imitative sections
        2. Successive themes, each developed imitatively and overlapping
        3. The earliest are for lute, possibly the origin of the name (to "seek out" the tuning of the instrument).
        4. By 1540, the genre could be composed for keyboard or ensemble as well.
      9. Canzona
        1. The earliest were intabulations of imitative French chansons (canzona in Italian).
        2. By the midcentury the songs were reworked, much as the sources for imitation masses were.
        3. By 1580 original compositions in this style appeared.
        4. They were light, fast-moving, strongly rhythmic pieces.
        5. The typical opening rhythmic figure was a half-note followed by two quarter notes.
  4. Music in Venice
    1. Venice
      1. An independent state run by several important families, with an elected leader called the doge ("duke")
      2. One of the chief ports of Europe
      3. Controlled territories in surrounding areas
    2. Patronage of the arts
      1. The government spent lavishly on public music and art.
      2. Through the arts, the city could maintain the illusion of greatness despite wars and misfortunes that diminished its position in the sixteenth century.
    3. Church of St. Mark
      1. The private chapel of the doge
      2. The location of great civic and religious ceremonies (see HWM Figure 12.8)
      3. The position of choirmaster was the most coveted musical post in Italy.
        1. Willaert, Rore, and Zarlino held the post in the sixteenth century.
        2. Monteverdi held the post in the seventeenth century.
      4. A permanent ensemble was instituted in 1568.
        1. Cornetts and sackbuts were the core.
        2. Violin and bassoon were also included.
        3. For major feast days as many as twenty-four instrumentalists might be added.
      5. Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1555-1612)
        1. Worked for St. Mark's from 1585 until his death (see HWM biography, page 284, and HWM Figure 12.9)
        2. Composed for multiple choirs
        3. Composed the earliest substantial collections for large instrumental ensemble
        4. Works include about one hundred motets, over thirty madrigals, and almost eighty instrumental works.
      6. Polychoral motets
        1. Works for two or more choirs (up to five in Gabrieli's music)
        2. Divided choirs, cori spezzati, had been common.
        3. Forces could be placed in the two organ lofts of St. Mark's, one on each side of the altar, and another on the floor.
      7. Ensemble canzonas (NAWM 65)
        1. Instrumental version of divided choirs
        2. Gabrieli's Sacrae symphoniae (Sacred Symphonies, 1597) uses two groups of four instruments, with organ accompaniment.
        3. The form is AB CB DB E, with B as a refrain.
        4. The groups alternate stanzas and join together for the final stanza.
        5. Instruments are not specified, but they would probably have been cornetts and sackbuts.
        6. The organ doubles the lowest note in the ensemble (basso seguente).
      8. Sonatas (Italian for "sounded")
        1. Closely related to the canzona, the sonata consists of a series of sections each based on a different subject or variants of a single subject.
        2. Like the canzona, it could be used in the mass service.
      9. Gabrieli's Sonata pian'eforte from Sacrae symphoniae
        1. Among the first instrumental works to designate specific instruments
          1. Choir one: cornett and three sackbuts
          2. Choir two: violin and three sackbuts
        2. Another innovation: indicating dynamics
  5. Instrumental Music Gains Independence
    1. In the sixteenth century, instrumental music began to be cultivated for its own sake, not for dancing or related to vocal music.
    2. Abstract forms developed in the sixteenth century continued to be used in the Baroque period and even into the nineteenth century.
    3. Although some sixteenth-century music continued to be played in the seventeenth century, it was not until the late nineteenth century that scholars revived it.
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