Two fauxbourdon pieces (mp3 links)

Hello, everyone, and it's a pleasure to post a couple of pieces in a
style called fauxbourdon, very popular in Western Europe around the
early 15th century, and used as a textural resource in certain
passages by various 16th-century composers also.

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/InHoraObservationis.mp3>
<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/OElsa.mp3>

Typically, as in these two settings, there are three voices, with the
upper parts moving mostly in parallel fourths, and forming chains of
thirds and sixths with the lowest voice within phrases, cadencing to
stable sonorities with fifths and octaves (and upper fourths).

_In Hora Observationis_ has a style with some moderate melodic and
contrapuntal decoration: the mode is the medieval/Renaissance European
Phrygian, with a descending semitone leading to the final or note of
repose E in an untransposed version.

_O Elsa, ductrix mea_ is closer to the style of a pure or simple
fauxbourdon, with the voices mostly in unadorned note-against-note
texture. Here the mode is Dorian, with an untransposed final of D, and
some accidental inflections following the guideline that thirds
expanding to fifths, or sixths to octaves, should be made major if
they are not already so naturally.

Before getting into the intonational specifics of these performances,
which I'll do in another post soon, maybe I should give people a
chance to listen and draw your own first impressions.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@...

Cool!

I always find the "angularity" (for lack of a better word) of early
polyphony tunings really bracing, like a splash of cold water compared
to the subleties of later temperaments or even extended JI.

Do you have scores?

-Chris

On 1/12/06, Margo Schulter <mschulter@...> wrote:
> Hello, everyone, and it's a pleasure to post a couple of pieces in a
> style called fauxbourdon, very popular in Western Europe around the
> early 15th century, and used as a textural resource in certain
> passages by various 16th-century composers also.
>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/InHoraObservationis.mp3>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/OElsa.mp3>
>
> Typically, as in these two settings, there are three voices, with the
> upper parts moving mostly in parallel fourths, and forming chains of
> thirds and sixths with the lowest voice within phrases, cadencing to
> stable sonorities with fifths and octaves (and upper fourths).
>
> _In Hora Observationis_ has a style with some moderate melodic and
> contrapuntal decoration: the mode is the medieval/Renaissance European
> Phrygian, with a descending semitone leading to the final or note of
> repose E in an untransposed version.
>
> _O Elsa, ductrix mea_ is closer to the style of a pure or simple
> fauxbourdon, with the voices mostly in unadorned note-against-note
> texture. Here the mode is Dorian, with an untransposed final of D, and
> some accidental inflections following the guideline that thirds
> expanding to fifths, or sixths to octaves, should be made major if
> they are not already so naturally.
>
> Before getting into the intonational specifics of these performances,
> which I'll do in another post soon, maybe I should give people a
> chance to listen and draw your own first impressions.
>
> Most appreciatively,
>
> Margo Schulter
> mschulter@...
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

--
"... free speech is meaningless if the commercial cacaphony has risen
to the point that no one can hear you." -Naomi Klein

> From: Chris Bryan
> Date: Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:02 am

> I always find the "angularity" (for lack of a better word) of early
> polyphony tunings really bracing, like a splash of cold water compared
> to the subleties of later temperaments or even extended JI.
> Do you have scores?

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/InHoraObservationis.mp3>
<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/OElsa.mp3>

Dear Chris,

Thank you for your feedback that I got a period quality of
"angularity" -- or the "lithesome tension" that Mark Lindley describes
for thirds and sixths in fauxbourdon. Here I went for this kind of
flavor by using remote modal transpositions in a special kind of
circulating 12-note modified meantone tuning where the eight fifths in
the range of F-C# are tempered narrow at 2/7-comma (~6.14 cents),
Zarlino's famous temperament, while the other four are equally wide
(about 6.42 cents). Here's a link to a Scala file for this tuning:

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/zarte84a.scl>

Please let me hasten to emphasize that some variety of Pythagorean
intonation would have been the historically appropriate period choice,
in contrast to this frankly "neo-medieval" rendition. However, for the
setting of _O Elsa_, this modified meantone version does parallel, and
indeed exaggerate, a nuance of the kind of Pythgorean keyboard tuning
evidently in vogue around 1400-1450, as explained below.

An ASCII score of _O Elsa, ductrix mea_ is available at:

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/OElsa.txt>

Please let me candidly confess that I am still considering how best to
notate the rhythm for some of the passages of _In Hora Observationis_;
I'd like to get it into a good score, with the audio file a kind of
record in the meantime.

Anyway, while the nearer regions of my modified meantone variation on
Zarlino's 2/7-comma temperament of 1558 are meant for music in a
Renaissance/Manneristic style, the remote region offers thirds and
sixths in a Pythagorean-to-septimal range for the kind of "bracing"
intonation we're discussing in these fauxbourdon settings.

_In Hora Observationis_ uses the seven basic steps of a C Phrygian
mode plus Gb (equivalent to Bb in untransposed E Phrygian), with steps
here shown in rounded cents:

575
Gb
C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C
0 71 287 504 696 779 996 1200
71 217 217 192 83 217 204

Cadences generally have intervals in a Pythagorean-septimal range, and
often feature compact semitones at 71 or 83 cents, the former the just
25:24 chromatic semitone of Zarlino's 2/7-comma, located at C-C# and
F-F# as expressed in a regular meantone spelling (or here C-Db, F-Gb).
Illustrative are an internal cadence on the second step of the mode Db
(equivalent to F in E Phrygian), and the final cadence on C, with
vertical and melodic intervals shown in rounded cents:

C +71 Db Bb +204 C
(504) (492) (492) (504)
G +83 Ab F +192 G
(913,408) (1200,708) (925,434) (1200,696)
Eb -217 Db Db -71 C

While the cadential sonority Eb-G-C at 0-408-913 cents is not too far
from a regular Pythagorean sonority with 81:64 major third and 27:16
major sixth (0-408-906 cents), Db-F-Bb in the final cadence at
0-434-925 cents approximates a just septimal sonority of 7:9:12
(0-435-933 cents). It remains an open question whether some
14th-century performers following an approach to cadences advocated by
Marchettus of Padua in his _Lucidarium_ (1318) may have arrived at
more or less septimal sonorities of this kind -- although the
tempering of fifths and fourths by more than six cents seems more of a
neo-medieval element.

In _O Elsa_, when the original D Dorian is transposed to Bb Dorian in
the modified meantone, we get this scale, including relevant
accidentals:

587 779 1092
E Gb A
Bb C Db Eb F G Ab Bb
0 204 275 492 708 900 983 1200
204 71 217 217 192 83 217

While the unaltered steps and intervals retain a Pythagorean-septimal
flavor overall, the final cadence on Bb brings about a special
intonational effect with a likely 15th-century precedent. In this
formula, as expressed in untransposed Dorian on D, a sixth sonority of
F-A-D leads to the penultimate E-G#-C#, resolving to D-A-D with
expansions of major third to fifth and major sixth to octave. Here is
the transposed version in our temperament:

Bb -108 A +108 Bb
(492) (504) (492)
F -121 E +121 F
(925,434) (887,383) (1200,708)
Db -71 C -204 Bb

While the antepenultimate Db-F-Bb at 0-434-925 cents is close to a
just 7:9:12, the penultimate C-E-A at 0-383-887 cents is Zarlino's
regular meantone approximation of a just 12:15:20 (0-386-884 cents),
with the major thirds Db-F and C-E differing by a full 50 cents!

Interestingly, a parallel although not quite so exaggerated contrast
occurs in a typical early 15th-century Pythagorean keyboard tuning
where most or all written sharps are rendered as Pythagorean flats, so
that cadences involving these written sharps have altered sizes of
thirds and sixths very close to the 5-based ratios later made the
standard in meantone. Thus in untransposed D Dorian, we might have:

D -114 Db +114 D
(498) (498) (498)
A -114 Ab +114 A
(906,408) (882,384) (1200,702)
F -90 E -204 D

Here the regular Pythagorean third and sixth in F-A-D (0-408-906
cents) are followed by what are called "schismatic" variations in
E-Ab-Db (0-384-882 cents), with the Pythagorean diminished fourth and
seventh only a 32805:32768 schisma (about 1.95 cents) from their pure
5-based counterparts at 5:4 and 5:3 (386 and 884 cents).

Maybe it's a question of "something old, something new..."; anyway,
thanks for your encouraging response, and for any patience you may
have with this crude attempt to sketch out some of the math without
totally losing view of the music itself.

Peace and love,

Margo

I must admit, I don't have the time right now to delve into the math
enough to understand it in detail! But I've appreciated all of the
settings of historical music you've posted.

I was just thinking it would be neat to compile a tuning resource for
"early music" performance groups; with a small amount of theoretical
verbage, but more importantly rendered versions of several
characteristics pieces (with a few choices of tuning for each piece),
to help performers' ears and minds begin to make intelligent tuning
decisions. The prof. of my early music course would try sometimes to
approximate Pythagorean or Marchetto's 5th-tones, but the approaches
you've outlined for these versions are on a much deeper level of
engagement with the material, something which the non-technical
performer might benefit from...

Thoughts?

> Maybe it's a question of "something old, something new..."; anyway,
> thanks for your encouraging response, and for any patience you may
> have with this crude attempt to sketch out some of the math without
> totally losing view of the music itself.

--
"... free speech is meaningless if the commercial cacaphony has risen
to the point that no one can hear you." -Naomi Klein

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 Margo Schulter wrote:
>
> Hello, everyone, and it's a pleasure to post a couple of pieces in a
> style called fauxbourdon, very popular in Western Europe around the
> early 15th century, and used as a textural resource in certain
> passages by various 16th-century composers also.
>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/InHoraObservationis.mp3>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/OElsa.mp3>

[snip]

> Before getting into the intonational specifics of these performances,
> which I'll do in another post soon, maybe I should give people a
> chance to listen and draw your own first impressions.
>
> Most appreciatively,
> Margo Schulter

Most appreciated, Margo! Very enjoyable. It's such
a spare texture, which makes it possible to hear every
little nuance of the harmony, which I love.

Does the term "fauxbourdon" necessarily imply a
vocal performance? Lovely though the instrumental
texture is, these pieces seem to me to be crying out
for voices to sing them with, and for words for those
voices to sing. But perhaps you have the words, too?
Your titles suggest that you have indeed some very
specific words for each note. I would love to hear
these pieces sung.

It's hearing music like this that reminds me why I
joined this mailing list!

Regards,
Yahya

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