The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-Bass: As Practiced in the XVII and XVIII Centuries, Volume I
512
The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-Bass: As Practiced in the XVII and XVIII Centuries, Volume I
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| ISBN-13: | 9780486171562 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 12/26/2012 |
| Series: | Dover Books On Music: Analysis , #1 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 512 |
| File size: | 41 MB |
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THE ART OF ACCOMPANIMENT FROM A THOROUGH-BASS
By F.T. Arnold
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1965 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-17156-2
CHAPTER 1
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BASSUS CONTINUUS AND FIGURED BASS
§ 1. Viadana's 'Cento Concerti'.
It used to be commonly stated that the method of notation known as a 'figured Bass' (Basso numerato, Basse chiffrée, bezifferter Bass, &c.) was the invention of Lodovico Grossi (1564-1645), generally known by the name of his birthplace as Lodovico da Viadana.
The incorrectness of this assumption has, however, long since been recognized, for, in the first place, there are figured Basses of Peri, Caccini, and Cavalieri, of a date slightly anterior to the publication of that work of Viadana on which his claim as an inventor is based, and, in the second, Viadana's Basses do not exhibit a single figure, the nearest approach thereto being an occasional [??] or [??] above the Bass note, generally denoting its sharpened or flattened Third, but with a further significance which will be explained in due course.
The work in question was entitled Cento Concerti Ecclesiastici, a Una, a Due, a Tre, & a Quattro voci. Con il Basso continuo per sonar nel Organo Nova inventione commoda per ogni sorte de Cantore, & per gli Organisti di Lodovico Viadana Opera Duodecima. In Venetia Appresso Giacomo Vincent MDCII.
Only fifty-nine compositions were included, the whole work being completed by the second book of Concerti Ecclesiastici, which appeared as Op. 17 in 1607, and the third book, which appeared as Op. 24 in 1609.
There were later reprints in Venice, and the work was published as a whole by Nicolaus Stein at Frankfurt in 1613 under the title of Opera omnia concentuum 1, 2, 3, 4 vocum cum Basso continuo et generali Organo adplicato; novaque inventione pro omni genere et sorte Cantorum et Organistarum accomodata Auctore excellentiss: Musico Dn. Lodovico Viadana Italo, huius novae artis Musices inventore primo, with the addition of Latin and German translations of Viadana's Italian preface to the original publication of 1602.
In this preface, which ends with the twelve famous rules,-or recommend-tions, to be given in § 4, Viadana sets forth his reasons for composing and publishing the Concerti, which were as follows:
Organists were often placed in a difficult position by the absence of some of the singers necessary for the performance of a polyphonic composition.
It might happen that, in a composition of six, seven, or eight parts, several of the parts remained unrepresented. In such a case the singers who were present were liable to have rests in their parts, while cardinal elements in the composition (imitations, closes, counterpoints, and the like) were being omitted, owing to the absence of the singers in whose parts they occurred; thus very little was left. The only way to patch up the performance, though Viadana does not specially mention it, was for the Organist to fill the vocal gaps as best he could. Sometimes, in all probability, wind or stringed instruments were available to perform the parts of the absent singers, but, in any case, the continuity of the words, which Viadana evidently regarded as important, was lost.
By supplying compositions for a single voice (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, or Bass), thus introducing Monody into the music of the Church, or for any possible combination of two, three, or four voices, Viadana provided for every contingency, short of the absence of all the singers!
Those pieces which were set for Cantus, Altus, Tenor, Bassus are all marked à voci pari, a term which has been often misunderstood and taken to refer to four deep voices, as being more equal in pitch than the normal combination.
§ 2. Diego Ortiz.
That the practice of improvising an accompaniment over a given Bass was known nearly fifty years before the publication of the figured Basses of Peri, Caccini, and Cavalieri, or of the Cento Concerti of Viadana, is revealed by the Tratado de glosas sopra clausulas y otros generos de puntos en la musica de violones ("Treatise on the ornamentation of cadences and other kinds of notes in the music for the Bass-Viol") of the Spaniard Diego Ortiz, published at Rome in 1553, and reprinted, with a German translation, by Professor Max Schneider (Berlin, Liepmannssohn, 1913) from the sole extant copy, preserved in the Royal Library (now the State Library) in Berlin.
In the second of the two books into which the work is divided Ortiz enumerates three ways in which the Violone (by which he means the Viol da Gamba or BassViol) can play with the Cembalo:
1. Both players improvise.
2. A melody is played in an ornate form upon the Viol, while the Cembalo provides an accompaniment (over a given Bass) consisting of chords and also counterpoints suitable to the melody in question (acompañandole con consonançias y alcun contrapunto al proposito de la Reçercada que tañera el Violone).
3. A Madrigal or Motet or other piece for several voices (the examples given are in four parts) is put into 'short score' and played upon the Cembalo, while the Violist makes variations ('divisions') upon one or other of the parts, or even improvises a fifth part. The very significant recommendation is added that, if the Violist selects the Soprano part as the basis of his 'divisions', this part is best omitted on the Cembalo.
To illustrate the second of these three ways, which here alone concerns us, Ortiz gives, as Bass, a canto llano (plain chant), consisting entirely of breves (except the last note, which is a semibreve), over which he gives, in turn, six Recercadas for the Viol. The first of these begins as follows:
§ 3. Early Organ Basses.
The terms 'Thorough-Bass' (Basso continuo, Bassus generalis, &c.) and 'Figured Bass' (Basso numerato, &c.) have come to be regarded as synonymous, but, strictly speaking, they are not so. The figured Basses of Peri, Caccini, and Cavalieri, already referred to, which are probably the earliest extant instances of the use of figures as a method of indicating the harmony, are incidentally Bassi continui in the sense that they constitute an unbroken accompaniment to the voice part; but a figured Bass is not necessarily a 'Continuo', any more than a 'Continuo' is necessarily figured.
The true Bassus continuus, the earliest examples of which were not yet known by that name, and were unfigured, undoubtedly had its origin, mainly, in the polyphonic music of the Church.
If we were to figure the vocal Bass of a composition for several voices, and to use it as the basis of an Organ accompaniment which would, therefore, cease whenever the vocal Bass was not in operation, it would be a 'figured Bass', but not a true 'Thorough-Bass' or 'Basso continuo'. On the other hand, if, during the pauses of the vocal Bass (and perhaps other parts as well), we either supplied a Bass on the Organ, or incorporated into our Organ part whichever voice part in the composition happened at the moment to be the lowest, and therefore the real basis of the harmony, the result would be a continuous part, pervading and supplying a foundation to the entire structure—in other words a Bassus continuus, or, to use the old English term in its original and correct sense, a 'Through-Bass' or 'Thorough-Bass'.
Before the term Basso continuo was introduced by Viadana, that which it denoted was already in existence, in the shape of Organ Basses (Basso per l'organo), some time before the close of the sixteenth century.
These Organ Basses often served as the foundation of two, or even more, harmonic groups or choirs. In such case the Organ part—Partitura or Spartitura, so called because it was generally 'partitioned' or barred, while the vocal parts were unbarred—sometimes consisted of the vocal Basses, printed one above the other on separate staves, from which it behoved the Organist to extract a single Bass, as he went along, by always selecting the lowest note, as being the foundation of the aggregate harmony. In other cases this was done beforehand, and an extract from the vocal Basses—in fact a 'general Bass'—was presented on a single stave.
How they managed to play the right chords is another question (cf. note 4).
According to Kinkeldey (Orgel und Klavier in der Musik des 16. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1910, pp. 1967), who has made an exhaustive study of the material bearing on the question, the earliest printed examples of Organ Basses belong to a collection of 8-part Motets by Giovanni Croce: Spartidura [sic] delli Motetti a otto voci da Giovanni Croce Chiozzotto. Novamente poste in luce Venetia MDXCIV, and to Adriano Banchieri's 'Concerti ecclesiastici a 8 voci', Venetia (Vincenti), 1595: Spartitura per sonare nel organo accomodate al Primo Choro nei Concerti di D. Adriano Banchieri, &c.
Both works are preserved in the library of the Lyceum at Bologna. The two Organ parts differ in the following particulars. The Motets of Croce, like the Concerti of Banchieri, are for two choirs, and in his Spartidura the two Basses are given, one above the other, with an occasional # or [??] over the notes (to denote that the Third of the chord is major or minor), but no figures. Banchieri's Spartitura, on the other hand, gives the Bass only of the Primo Choro, adding the Cantus part (also of the Primo Choro) on the stave above it, which was, of course, an enormous help to the Organist in determining the harmony. The words 'à 4', 'à 8' are occasionally added to indicate whether both choirs are singing, or only the Primo Choro. The omission of the Bass of the Secondo Choro was to be rectified, according to a note (apparently by the publisher) addressed A gli sig. organisti, by simply adding to those portions of the printed Organ part marked 'à 8' the highest and lowest part (Cantus and Bassus) of the Secondo Choro.
It is evident that, in playing from an unfigured Bass of this sort, the organist was chiefly dependent on his ear as a guide to the correct harmony, though his task was, of course, incomparably easier when the Cantus part was printed over the Bass. As an alternative, he could, if he chose to take the trouble, prepare either a full score or an Intavolatura for his own use.
In some cases the Organ part (Partitura) contained full scores alternating with Basses similar to those already described, the full vocal score being given for the most part only when the parts employed were not so numerous as to make it too complicated, as well as costly, to print. Kinkeldey (Orgel und Klavier, p. 198) describes, as follows, the Organ part to a collection of 8-part Masses and Motets by Quintiani: Partitura de Bassi delle Messe et Motetti a otto voci di D. Lucretio Quintiani, Maestro di Capella di S. Ambrosio maggiore di Milano. Libro primo. In Milano appresso l'herede di Simon Tini, & Francesco Besozzi. 1598.
"In it two staves (as in the work of Croce) are employed. When one of the two choirs begins alone, its highest vocal part is given on the upper stave till the entry of the second choir [when it makes way for the Bass of the latter]. The Crucifixus and Benedictus are mostly in four parts, and here the 4-part score is printed in full in the Organ part. The Mass 'Ego roga-bam', the last of the three Masses which the work contains, is printed in full 8-part score. The Motets which follow are again restricted to the two Bass staves."
Kinkeldey describes at the same time another work, an Organ part to a collection of the Motets and instrumental Canzonas (as well as a Mass) of Joseph Gallus, prepared and edited by one Aurelius Ribrochus—according to his own description a 'nobleman of Tortona': Totius libri primi sacri operis Musici alterius modulis concinendi Partitio seu quam praestantiss: Musici Partituram vocant. Auctore M. R. D. Josepho Gallo, Mediolanensi Religionis Somaschae. Studio tamen et labore R. D. Aurelii Ribrochi, Nobilis Derthonensis in gratiam Organistarum in lucem edita. Mediolani apud haeredes Francisci & Simonis Tini. 1598.
This Partitura includes several full scores, as well as Basses (the vocal Basses of the two choirs on separate staves as in-Croce's Spartidura), and it presents the particularly interesting feature that Ribrochus has marked with a all the notes in the upper parts which for the moment lie below the vocal Bass and, therefore, temporarily assume the functions of the true Bass. This was a great step in the development of the Basso continuo.
Kinkeldey quotes several other Organ parts of a date anterior to the publication of Viadana's Concerti in 1602. Of these it will be enough to mention the 'Bassi per l' organo' to Giovanni Bassano's Motets in 5-12 parts, published in 1598 by Tini and Besozzi of Milan, and a collection, published in 1599 by Vincenti of Venice, entitled Motetti e Salmi a otto voci, composti da otto eccellentiss: Autori, con la parte de i Bassi, per poter sonarli nell' Organo.
In both cases the Organ Bass is on a single stave, and therefore presents a true Continuo part which, in other cases, the Organist was obliged to construct for himself as he went along, by selecting the deepest notes from the Basses, given on separate staves, of two, or even three, choirs.
§ 4. Viadana's Rules.
The term Basso continuo was, as has already been mentioned, first brought into general notice by Viadana, though it is evident that he cannot be regarded as the inventor of the thing itself. His Basses, however, differ in character from those described in § 3. In none of the cases there mentioned did the Organ Bass, though it supported and connected the whole structure, bring into it anything that was not there before. It was itself derived from the vocal Bass (or Basses), or any other part which happened at the moment to be the lowest, while the chords played by the Organist represented the vocal harmony. It served to keep the music together, but the music was, in itself, complete without it.
Viadana's Basso continuo, on the other hand, is, in many cases, an integral part of the whole, without which the rest of the composition would be incomplete.
The Concerti for a single voice, though differing in character from the Recitative of the Monodists, are comparable with it in their dependence on the Bass and the harmony founded thereon.
In a proportionately lesser degree this is also the case with the Concerti for two and three voices. It is in those written 'à voci pari' (Cantus, Altus, Tenor, Bassus), some of which could well be sung unaccompanied, that Viadana's Basso continuo comes nearest to the Organ Basses mentioned in § 3,
But, even here, the B. C. is sometimes independent of the vocal Bass. Viadana was therefore unquestionably a pioneer, though his immediate object, as we have seen (cf. § 1), was not so much to introduce an innovation in the matter of accompaniment, as to provide a stock of pieces which could be adequately performed, however small the available vocal resources might be.
Of paramount interest are the twelve rules or recommendations which he formulated as a guide to the proper performance of his Concerti, and particularly of the Basso continuo.
Viadana tells his readers that they cannot "disdain to read the directions given below, which, in practice, will be of no small service".
They are as follows:
N.B.—The first and eleventh rules concern the singers only, but are too interesting to omit. The original Italian version is given at the end of the section (App. I).
(1) "Concertos of this kind must be sung with refinement (gentilmente), discretion, and elegance (leggiadria), using accents with reason and embellishments (passaggi) with moderation and in their proper place: above all, not adding anything beyond what is printed in them, inasmuch as there are sometimes certain singers, who, because they are favoured by nature with a certain agility of the throat (un poco di gargante), never sing the songs as they are written, not realizing that nowadays their like are not acceptable, but are, on the contrary, held in very low esteem indeed, particularly in Rome, where the true school of good singing flourishes.
(2) "The Organist is bound to play the Organ part (Partitura) simply, and in particular with the left hand; if, however, he wants to execute some movement with the right hand, as by ornamenting the cadences, or by some appropriate embellishment (passaggio, cf. note 3), he must play in such a manner that the singer or singers are not covered or confused by too much movement."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE ART OF ACCOMPANIMENT FROM A THOROUGH-BASS by F.T. Arnold. Copyright © 1965 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Copyright Page,
Dedication,
INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION,
PREFACE,
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS,
CHAPTER I - THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BASSUS CONTINUUS AND FIGURED BASS,
CHAPTER II - THE PRINCIPAL TREATISES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ON ACCOMPANIMENT FROM A THOROUGH-BASS,
CHAPTER III - THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF A FIGURED BASS ACCOMPANIMENT,
CHAPTER IV - ON CERTAIN NICETIES OF THE ACCOMPANIMENT,