Re: Meantone keyboard music -- What is _in quarto tono_?

Hello, there, Graham Breed and everyone.

Please let me hasten to explain that a Renaissance/Manneristic title
like _in Quarto Tono_ is overwhelmingly likely to refer, not to
quartertones or the like, but to "the Fourth Tone" or "Fourth Mode,"
namely E Phrygian in its plagal form, with a characteristic range
placing the final or note of repose E at the fourth step of the octave
B-B.

Similarly, a piece _in Septimo Tono_ or the Seventh Tone or Mode would
be in G Mixolydian in its authentic form, with the final G as the
starting note of the octave range G-G.

While this is hardly a substitute for a good summary of the modes in
16th-century polyphony, I would explain that the eight traditional
medieval/Renaissance modes have finals on D (Modes I/II), E (III/IV),
F (V/VI), and G (VII/VIII), with odd numbers showing authentic forms
and even numbers plagal forms.

The term "tone" can sometimes more specifically refer to a Psalm-tone,
a kind of melodic formula used in the recitation of the Psalms, and
often used as a basis for either a vocal or keyboard setting in
polyphony.

Although the "authentic/plagal" distinction between forms of a tone or
mode may be clearer in monophonic plainsong than in polyphony,
nevertheless the _confinal_ or "co-final," a note often getting
emphasis comparable to that of the final, differs between these forms,
a difference often reflected in the scheme of polyphonic cadences. In
the Psalm-tones, the notes of termination may also differ, so that
keyboard settings in the Third Tone often conclude on A, and in the
Fourth Tone on E.

Again, practice is flexible: thus while the confinal for Mode I
(authentic D Dorian) is A, and that for Mode 2 (plagal D Dorian) is F,
internal cadences on both F and A might often occur in a piece set in
Mode I, for example.

As happens, the Fourth Mode is one of my favorites, maybe my favorite
of them all for this kind of music, and Spanish and Portuguese
composers certainly make the most of it. The descending cadential
semitone to the final F-E (or Bb-A in the most common transposition
using Bb) gives the mode its special quality.

The English expression "to set the tone" may derive from this sense of
_Tonus_ as a musical mode, and in fact some keyboard pieces in a
16th-17th century liturgical setting serve precisely to introduce the
mode for some vocal piece.

Here I say "overwhelmingly likely" because someone just might come up
with an example somewhere where someone in this era does refer to
quartertones in such a manner, but I'm not aware of such a usage. The
French composer Anthoine de Bertrand, who uses Vicentino-like dieses
in one of his French settings, does refer to these _dieses
enarmoniques_ in the French introduction to his collection of 1578 as
altering a note by a _cart de ton_, so the idea of a "quartertone" is
not itself totally alien to the period, although "fifthtone" seems to
me more common as well as precise if we assume a tuning like
Vicentino's.

For sources of fifthtone music from this era, one starting point might
be my list of references from October of 1999; I give links for all
four archicembalo postings in another message I'm about to send, but
maybe a redundant link (like a redundant key on some generalized or
regularized keyboards) is more user-friendly than otherwise:

/tuning/topicId_5670.html#5670 (Pt. 4 -- notes)

Unfortunately, apart from Bertrand's chanson _Ie suis tellement
amoureux_, the main sources of which I'm aware are the treatises of
Vicentino (1555) and Colonna (1618), both available in full, as I note
in my references. Also, there's a Portuguese keyboard piece discussed
and transcribed by Hoyle Carpenter, "Microtones in a Sixteenth Century
Portuguese Manuscript," a journal article for which I am indebted to
Johnny Reinhard of the American Festival of Microtonal Music. I can
try to track down this reference, unless you have at hand, Johnny.

This keyboard piece has a style in some ways like that of Colonna,
including the use of fifths or fourths impure by a diesis, and is in
the Phrygian mode -- the final cadence maybe suggesting to me the
Fourth Tone.

For direct chromaticism and various forms of adventurous accidentalism
not involving direct fifthtones, there are lots and lots of sources: I
recall that Trabaci published a volume specifically for chromatic
harpsichords or _cembali chromatici_ with 19 notes per octave, and
that this may be reflected in the title of the collection.

Glenn Watkins discusses various contemporaries and followers of
Gesualdo, and maybe more of this music is available in modern editions
now than when he wrote some 25 years back.

One question I can answer: Gesualdo does indeed use direct melodic
leaps of diminished fourths, with Watkins providing an example,
_Gesualdo: The Man and His Music_, p. 200, ex. 53(c) from _Mille volte
il di_ (Book VI). Giaches de Wert and Claudio Monteverdi also do it,
the latter drawing criticism from the theorist Giovanni Battista
Artusi in his dialogue on _The Imperfections of Modern Music_ (1600),
although Artusi generally praises Wert for his style.

Most respectfully,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@value.net