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 dichotomous schema that features a ➌–➋…➍–➌ treble line and can be set with several counterpoints in the bass.
To facilitate the reading of this essay, I use Robert Gjerdingen’s black-circled figures to indicate scale steps in an upper part (e.g. ➍–➌) and white-circled figures to indicate scale steps in the bass (e.g. ⑦–①). And I add an accidental to a figure when the specific designation of a diatonic or a chromatically altered scale step is required, although this symbolized notation can differ from the actual one. The list below should suffice to make the system of indications clear. Regardless of the mode,
♭③ always refers to the scale step a minor third above ①
③ always refers to the scale step a major third above ①
♭⑥ always refers to the scale step a minor second above ⑤
⑥ always refers to the scale step a major second above ⑤
♭⑦ always refers to the scale step a major second below ①
⑦ always refers to the scale step a minor second below ①
Term and Interpretation of the Pastorella
The term and interpretation of the Aprile come from Robert O. Gjerdingen. He defines a Pastorella as a proposta schema that comprises two dyads, as does the Meyer and the Aprile. In fact, the Pastorella and the Meyer share the second dyad with a ➍–➌ treble line, but have a different first dyad. While the Meyer has ➊–➐ treble line in the first dyad, the first dyad of a Pastorella consists of a ➌–➋ treble line.
Often, but not always, a third voice is added in parallel thirds below the treble line, producing the Aprile treble.
Like the Meyer and the Aprile, the ➌–➋…➍–➌ treble line of the Pastorella can
- include suspensions during stages 2 and/or 4
- have several counterpoints in the bass.
The Pastorella with a ①–⑤…⑤–① Bass Line
The treble line of a Pastorella can be accompanied with a ①–⑤…⑤–① bass line. Such a Pastorella occurs twice in succession as the second theme of the Allegro section from the Overture in D major op. 4/1 by François Martin (1727–1757):
(Martin was a Parisian cellist and composer, and one of the pioneers of the French symphony.)
While Martin has the first and second violins play the melody in unison, he could have written the second violin a third lower, producing the treble line of the Aprile:
These parallel thirds are explicit in the first example that Gjerdingen gives in his book Music in the Galant Style (p. 118) to illustrate this schema, an example that doesn’t include suspensions during stages 2 and 4:
(In my essay The Aprile, I illustrate that the treble lines of the Aprile, of the Meyer and of the paired Do-Re-Mi can all three sound simultaneously above a ①–⑤…⑤–① bass line.) A setting of a Pastorella with the treble line of an Aprile in the middle voice and double suspensions during stages 2 and 4 occurs for instance in the Credo of Mozart’s Missa longa in C major KV 262:
Indicated by the blue arrows, stages 2 and 4 each include two suspensions, the first one creating a cadential 6/4 chord, the second a 9/4 suspension. As a matter of fact, these are the same suspensions as those of a three-part Meyer with two suspensions during stages 2 and 4. The following example shows such a Meyer:
(This example is discussed in my essay The Meyer.)
The Pastorella with a ①–⑤…⑦–① Bass Line
The second dyad of a Pastorella can also be set with a ⑦–① bass line. As such, the Pastorella concludes with a clausula cantizans instead of a clausula basizans. Les Sauvages from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin by Jean-Philippe Rameau opens with such a Pastorella:
(Note the questionable voice leading in bar 2, resulting not only in parallel octaves but also in a prominent doubling of the leading note.)
The Pastorella with a Pedal Point on ①
In his article C.P.E. Bach’s “art” and “craft”? Galant Schemata and the Rule of the Octave as Markers of Convention in Selected Keyboard Sonatas and in the Versuch, Gilad Rabinovitch mentions, en passant, the following Pastorella written by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach:
Describing it simply as a “Pastorella …— one of Meyer’s original ‘changing-note schemata’”, Rabinovitch doesn’t give more information about this specific variant (Rabinovitch, 2017: 94). As the example above illustrates, the Pastorella melody occurs here on a pedal point on ①, with the second and third stages set a 7/4/2 chords.
Further Reading (Selection)
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).
Rabinovitch, Gilad. C.P.E. Bach’s “art” and “craft”? Galant Schemata and the Rule of the Octave as Markers of Convention in Selected Keyboard Sonatas and in the Versuch, in: Musicologica Brunensia 52/1 (2017), 89–100.