A few more thoughts on the passacaglia.
I spent a bit more time looking at Foscos passacaglie and of course he does
make a distinction between the passacaglia which is in a minor key and
ciaccona which is in a major key. The same distinction is made by Corbetta
in his 1643 book although it is not so clear as the pieces aren't
individually titled. Gallot - who copied most of them does rather
inconsistently label them either passacaglie or ciaccona. Bartolotti just
refers to all his as Passacaglie on p.1 apart from the Ciaccona on p. 49.
Not sure what that proves but it seemed interesting.
Cheers
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Walsh" <s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
To: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2010 11:02 AM
Subject: [VIHUELA] Foscarini Passacaglio
On the ning site Monica wrote: 'Passacalles literally means "pass through
the streets".' Interesting. And so you could be passing through the
streets purposefully or perhaps just meandering about.At the beginning of
his book (his collected works, as it were) Foscarini gives the 'Passacalli
sopra tutti le lettere' which seem to be just four bars with four chords
(not starting on first beat of bar). And, more or less, that's how most
passacalles I've ever seen are structured: a four bar scheme endlessly
repeated. (Some in the Gallot MS don't always fit, though)
But Foscarini's own examples of the passacalles don't fit this at all.
They really do seem to just meander about, always hinting at a typical
passaccalles but never quite being it. Monica has had a go at an edited
reconstruction of one in E minor. *http://tinyurl.com/y8mvxfd (page
17) -Passacaglio Variato sopra l'+*
//
There is no (easily discernible) repeated four bar structure and no
(easily discernible) direction to the music. And it's in two parts! After
57 bars the first part ends and second part sort of carries on in more or
less the same way for another 64 bars. And it's as if Foscarini really
liked the sound and feel of certain chord changes - especially E minor at
second position to B minor with a g in the melody on top.
I've had a go at the first part. Technically it is not difficult piece but
I always manage to make a pig's ear of one bit or another and my guitar
runs out of tone in bars 16-19; it's like squeezing an orange with no
juice left. But I suspect a good player could make something of the piece
and the Part 2 would go yet deeper into the strange little world. Maybe
the use of repicco and trillo would spice it up a bit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XiJS0GVT5A
Stuart
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