A passus duriusculus is a chromatic step or a chromatic passage. It seems that Christoph Bernhard (1628–1692) —a German pupil of Heinrich Schütz, singer, composer, kapellmeister and author of three handwritten treatises on composition— was the first and only author to use the term passus duriusculus. (So, it doesn’t stem from rhetoric but is meant […]
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This essay deals with the first verset (i.e. short partimento) in C minor by Stanislao Mattei (1750–1825), which is the 61st verset in the collection and is numbered as such in the Wessmans edition. The versets by Mattei are a remarkable collection of pedagogical pieces intended to be realized in three parts at the keyboard
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This essay deals with the second verset (i.e. short partimento) in C major by Stanislao Mattei (1750–1825). The versets by Mattei are a remarkable collection of pedagogical pieces intended to be realized in three parts at the keyboard with great concern for contrapuntal quality. Moreover, instead of focusing on just one realization, students had to
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This essay is the first of a series devoted to how the versets (i.e. short partimenti) by Stanislao Mattei (1750–1825) can be realized at the keyboard. The versets by Mattei are intended to be realized in three parts with great concern for contrapuntal quality. Typically, instead of focusing on just one realization, students had to
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The 100 versetti —versets— by Stanislao Mattei are a remarkable collection of short partimenti as part of his treatise Pratica d’accompagnamento. While the length of many partimenti can be intimidating, Mattei’s versets are so concise that they are easily accessible and memorizable. The 100 versets by Mattei are probably intended to be realized in three
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The Monte is a widely used schema in the 17th and 18th centuries and exists in many variants. In this essay, I will focus on the schema’s characteristics. Just as a Fonte, a Monte is a sequential schema in which each segment constitutes a cadence, often a ⑦–① cadence or clausula cantizans as well. However,
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I have already explored the voice-leading pattern that Robert Gjerdingen calls a Prinner to some extend in four essays (The Traditional Prinner, Variants of the Prinner (Part 1), Variants of the Prinner (Part 2): Sequential Prinners and Variants of the Prinner (Part 3)). To that series I will add another essay, although from a structural
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In my previous three essays (Diatonic Moti del Basso that Rise Stepwise, Diatonic Moti del basso that Descend Stepwise and Chromatic Moti del Basso), I dealt with conjunct moti del basso, both diatonically and chromatically. The topic of this essay is disjunct moti del basso, which are characterized by a sequential progression: a model that consists of
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In my previous two essays (Diatonic Moti del Basso that Rise Stepwise and Diatonic Moti del basso that Descend Stepwise), I dealt with the moti del basso that rise and descend stepwise. The topic of this essay is chromatic moti del basso, both rising and descending. There are 3 such basic bass progressions. Two of
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In my essay Diatonic Moti del Basso that Rise Stepwise, I explain that each note of a diatonic ascending moto normally has minimum two sonorities per bass note. (There are of course alternative settings for the ascending RO with one sonority per bass note; see my essay The Rule of the Octave in Three Parts.)
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