Schemata

The Folia originated in late 15th-century Portugal and Spain, and by the 17th and 18th centuries had become a widely used framework all over Europe with a number of guises. In this essay, I focus on the so-called ‘late Folia’, which I will refer to simply as ‘the Folia’. The Folia is a minor-mode schema […]

This essay is the fourth and last of a series devoted to changing-note schemata, a type of dichotomous schema with a treble and/or a bass whose melodic shape look like a gruppetto or a musical turn (~). In this essay, I will discuss the schema that Robert O. Gjerdingen has labelled the Jupiter. A Jupiter

This essay is the third of a series devoted to changing-note schemata, a type of dichotomous schema with a treble and/or a bass whose melodic shape look like a gruppetto or a musical turn (~). In this essay, I will discuss the schema that Robert O. Gjerdingen has labelled the Pastorella. A Pastorella is a

This essay is the second of a series devoted to changing-note schemata, a type of dichotomous schema with a treble and/or a bass whose melodic shape look like a gruppetto or a musical turn (~). In this essay, I will discuss the schema that Robert O. Gjerdingen has labelled the Aprile, after the Neapolitan-trained soprano

This essay is the first of a series devoted to changing-note schemata, a type of dichotomous schema with a treble and/or a bass whose melodic shape look like a gruppetto or a musical turn (~). In this essay, I will discuss the schema that Robert O. Gjerdingen has labelled the Meyer, after Leonard B. Meyer

A dichotomous schema consists consists of a question segment and an answer segment. The question segment has a harmonically and melodically open ending, while the answer segment has a (rather) closed ending. Examples of dichotomous schemata are: the paired Do-Re-Mi, the Meyer, the Aprile and the Pastorella.

In my essay The Indugio (Part 1), I explain that an Indugio —a term by Gjerdingen— is essentially a pedal point on ④, set with a sixth chord or a 6/5 chord used to delay the conclusion of a cadence. In this essay, I address a variant that Gjerdingen also discusses but didn’t give an

A term of Robert O. Gjerdingen, named after the comic character of the commedia dell’arte. The Pulcinella exists in two versions. The (Complete) Pulcinella The (complete) Pulcinella is a cadential gesture with a ③–④–⑤–① snippet in the bass that ignores the usual sixth chord or 6/5 chord on ④. Instead, the bass of a Pulcinella

This essay is the first of two exploring a schema that Robert O. Gjerdingen has labelled Indugio (Italian for the act of lingering). An Indugio is essentially a pedal point on ④ set with a sixth chord or a 6/5 chord used to postpone the conclusion of a cadence. To facilitate the reading of this

A term of Robert O. Gjerdingen. An important ornament in the melody of a Converging Cadence is what Gjerdingen calls a High ➏ Drop. Instead of setting ④ with ➋ (a vertical sixth), it is set with a high ➏ (a vertical third), interrupting the stepwise descent. As such, the snippet ➋–➊ is pushed back