This is a follow-up on my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1). (To refresh what a Leaping Romanesca is, please visit my essay The Leaping Romanesca (The Pachelbel Pattern): The Basics.) In this essay, I propose harmonically alternative, two-part settings of the Leaping Romanesca and explore ways to embellish both suspension chains as sole counterpoint to the Leaping Romanesca bass. As is the case in my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1), my embellishments are grounded in German and Italian 18th-century repertoire and pedagogical sources.
If one wants to transform a schematic, two-part Leaping Romanesca into an accomplished musical gesture, one can do so, amongst others, by including local key changes and/or by embellishing a suspension chain. As such, harmonic variation and artful embellishment result in eloquence and persuasion.
In this essay, I will show first how certain chromatic alterations of the skeletal notes of the Leaping Romanesca can result in temporary key shifts. Secondly, I will illustrate how to embellish both suspension chains. In this section of the essay, I will also demonstrated how to embellish embellishments.
Temporary Key Changes
In my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1), I show the following elementary two-part realization of a Leaping Romanesca set with only consonances:
During Fenaroli’s counterpoint lessons, students were presented a number of alternative settings of this realization with regard to tonal focus. In the following example, the fourth and fifth stages do not belong anymore to the key of A major but focus briefly on the key of D major. Note the modified indications of stages 4 and 5: the melodic snippet G♮–F♯ functions as ❹–❸ in D major above a ➆–➀ bass. (Whether the last stage sounds again in A major or rather stays in D major depends on what follows):
Q&A Moment
Shouldn’t a diminished fifth be prepared? Fenaroli explains that a diminished fifth as well as a minor seventh are to be considered ‘false consonances’, meaning that they can enter freely but still should be resolved correctly. (For more information on Fenaroli’s view on consonances and dissonances, see my article On Fedele Fenaroli’s Pedagogy: An Update from 2018.)
The idea of shifting key can also be applied to stages 2 and 3, resulting in a two-stage snippet in F sharp minor:
Because of the two ‘red’ notes in the example above, two local ➆–➀ cadences emerge, the second of which is a third lower than the first. (The historical term for such a cadence is a clausula cantizans. Robert O. Gjerdingen speaks of a Comma.) As such, a rudimentary version of a Fonte-Romanesca —a label coined by Vasili Byros— is embedded in this version of the Leaping Romanesca.
Q&A Moment
What is a Fonte? A Fonte is a schema that typically consists of two consecutive ➆–➀ cadences, the first one in the local key of ➁, the second one repeating that cadence a step down in the main key:
For more information on the Fonte see my essays The Fonte: The Basics, Extending the Fonte and The Fonte in Other Keys.
Q&A Moment
What is a Fonte-Romanesca? A Fonte-Romanesca is a schema that typically consists of two or three consecutive ➅–➆–➀ cadences, with each subsequent cadence being a third instead of a step lower than the previous one:
Note that Gjerdingen calls a ➅–➆–➀ cadence a Long Comma.
Another tonal focus for stages 4 and 5 of the Leaping Romanesca was taught by Fenaroli. Interpreting stages 2 and 3 as a deceptive cadence (in A major), it stands model for stages 4 and 5, becoming a deceptive cadence in F sharp minor. Note that the crucial note to this purpose, the E♯ (in red), occurs in the implicit middle voice of the example below. (The technique to embellish the upper voice here is arpeggiation/compound melody. For more information on this type of embellishment, see my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1).)
Embellishing The Suspension Chains
As one can see in my essay The Leaping Romanesca (The Pachelbel Pattern): The Basics, a Leaping Romanesca is often set with a chain of suspensions. Below you find the two standard possibilities, one chain starting on ❸, another on ❶:
Note that this discussion on how one can embellish the suspension chains is far from being thorough. I merely touch upon the most important techniques here.
With Repeated Notes
As I explain in my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1), repeating the skeletal notes is a straightforward yet effective way of embellishing. Let us apply that technique to the two suspension chains:
(Again, I refrain from giving a fully written-out realization to enable you to internalize these examples.)
With Arpeggiation/Compound Melody
Arpeggiation is another solution to embellish the suspension chain starting on ❸. As such, melodic descending thirds appear in that voice, the bottom notes of which belong to the suspension chain starting on ❶. (When the same motives are used to embellish the suspension chain starting on ❶, the bottom notes are of a different type of embellishment; see the next paragraph.)
With Incomplete Neighbour Notes
When one transposes the upper voice of the example above diatonically a third down, the embellishment that comes after each suspension becomes an incomplete neighbour note. (See my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1) for an explanation of what a neighbour note is.)
Note that the incomplete neighbour note above ➅ requires to be raised chromatically (E♯ —in red— instead of E). The reason for this is as follows. When ornamenting a triad or sixth chord, one mostly thinks of these chord as if they establish a new key. In other words, during the first half of bar 2, one thinks in F sharp minor when ornamenting the upper voice.
With Escape Notes
Another way of embellishing the suspension chains is by inserting eighth-note escape notes. (See my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1) for an explanation of what an escape note is.)
Performance Guideline
When practising/performing this version, make sure to slur well the suspension and the escape note (as I do in the audio file).
With Anticipations
To achieve a similarly sighing quality in the upper voice, the introduction of anticipations is a good choice as well:
Performance Guideline
When practising/performing this version, make sure to slur well the suspension and the anticipation (as I do in the audio file).
Embellishing The Embellishments
More sophistication can be added to a composition or improvisation by embellishing the embellishments. Below you can find a number of examples that further embellish the version including compound melody, resulting in passing-note motives. Note that these versions also relate to the version with anticipations.
The same ornamental gestures can be included in the voice starting on ❶ as well. In this case, however, one must again raise the last ornamental note of stage 3 (E♯ in red).
Below you find similar embellishments added to the version with repeated notes (or escape notes).
Making The Segmentation More Prominent
As I explain in my essay The Leaping Romanesca: Two Part Embellishment (Part 1), one can also differentiate in ornamentation between the uneven and the even stages. As a result, one will able to distinguish the individual segments of the pattern better. Below you find a typical example of this embellishment option:
Tips for Practising
In order to well acquainted with the harmonically alternative settings of the schematic Leaping Romanesca, I suggest practising them in all major keys at least up to four accidentals. I recommend that you do the same thing for all the embellished versions of the two suspension chains. It is equally important to combine the harmonically alternative settings of the schematic Leaping Romanesca with all the embellished versions of the two suspension chains.
Further Reading (Selection)
Primary Sources
Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO PER BENE ACCOMPAGNARE LIBRO 1, Partimenti, Critical edition, ed. Ewald Demeyere (Ottignies, 2021).
Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO PER BENE ACCOMPAGNARE LIBRO 1, Critical Comments, Critical edition, ed. Ewald Demeyere (Ottignies, 2021).
Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO PER BENE ACCOMPAGNARE LIBRO 2, Partimenti, Critical edition, ed. Ewald Demeyere (Ottignies, 2021).
Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO PER BENE ACCOMPAGNARE LIBRO 2, Critical Comments, Critical edition, ed. Ewald Demeyere (Ottignies, 2021).
Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO PER BENE ACCOMPAGNARE LIBRO 3, Partimenti, Critical edition, ed. Ewald Demeyere (Ottignies, 2021).
Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO PER BENE ACCOMPAGNARE LIBRO 3, Critical Comments, Critical edition, ed. Ewald Demeyere (Ottignies, 2021).
Fenaroli, Fedele. REGOLE MUSICALI PER I PRINCIPIANTI DI CEMBALO, A Comparative Edition (V1.0), compiled and edited by Ewald Demeyere (Ottignies, 2021).
Fenaroli, Fedele. The Parma Manuscript — Partimento Realizations of Fedele Fenaroli (1809), ed. Ewald Demeyere (Visby: Wessmans Musikförlag,2021).
Secondary Sources
Byros, Vasili. Mozart’s Vintage Corelli: The Microstory of a Fonte-Romanesca, in: Intégral 31 (2017), 63-89.
Demeyere, Ewald. On Fedele Fenaroli’s Pedagogy: An Update, in: Eighteenth-Century Music 15/2 (2018), 207-229.
Gjerdingen, Robert O. Music in the Galant Style (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Gjerdingen, Robert O. Child Composers in the Old Conservatories — How Orphans Became Elite Musicians (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
IJzerman, Job. Harmony, Counterpoint, Partimento: A New Method Inspired by Old Masters (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Paraschivescu, Nicoleta. Die Partimenti Giovanni Paisiellos — Wege zu einem praxisbezogenen Verständnis (Basel: Schwabe Verlag, 2018).
Paraschivescu, Nicoleta (Translator: Chris Walton). The Partimenti of Giovanni Paisiellos — Pedagogy and Practice (New York: University of Rochester Press, 2022).
Sanguinetti, Giorgio. The Art of Partimento — History, Theory, and Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Schubert, Peter & Neidhöfer, Christoph. Baroque Counterpoint (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006).