Download `Sing We At Pleasure` Thomas Weelkes

‘Sing We at
Pleasure’
Thomas Weelkes
Lesson 1: Context, Forces &
Structure
Learning Objectives
• To be able to identify the contextual
features of Renaissance Music
• To be able to analyse the structure of a
madrigal
Thomas Weelkes
Thomas Weelkes
• Was probably born in Sussex in 1576.
• Died in 1623 (London).
• Was a leading English composer of madrigals (and also an
important composer of English church music).
• Was organist of Winchester College (1598), singer and
organist at Chichester Cathedral (c.1602).
Context & Forces
• English Madrigal – musical setting of a poem for several voices, usually
unaccompanied but sometimes supported by a plucked string instrument,
such as the lute.
• Madrigals originated in 16th century Italy.
• Spread to England where Italian culture was fashionable.
• Romeo & Juliet (published in 1597) is just one of Shakespeare’s many
plays set in Italy.
• Amateur music making became popular, helped by the invention of
music printing earlier in the century.
Context & Forces
• Madrigals were usually published as a set of part books and the different parts
were printed at right angles so that the book could be read by all singers sat
singing around a table.
• First collections of madrigals were mainly translations of Italian madrigals
• English composers started to produce a substantial catalogue of English
madrigals, which led to the glorious age of English madrigals in the late 16th and
early 17th century.
• Thomas Weelkes was one of and perhaps the greatest of the English Madrigal
composers.
• Sing We at Pleasure was first published in 1598.
• This type of madrigal is known as a ballet, characterised by a dance-like style
and fa-la-la refrain, influenced by the Italian balletto.
Context & Forces
• The verse text is anonymous.
• Published London, 1598 – when Weelkes was still in his early twenties –
in Balletts and Madrigals to Five Voyces. This volume was dedicated to the
courtier Edward
• Darcy, which suggests that the contents may have been sung at the court
of Queen Elizabeth I .
• The original singers sang from separate part-books (rather as orchestral
players do today) not from a score. Typically for the late 16th century there
were no bar lines.
•
Context & Forces
•
A madrigal is usually a secular song about love, particularly in a rural setting.
•
Madrigals are mostly for unaccompanied voices, and can be substantial and
serious in tone (e.g. Weelkes’s own My tears do not avail me (1597)).
•
A ballett = a lighter madrigal, two main sections, each ending with a passage
based on the syllables ‘fa-la’. (‘Ballett’ with two t’s is Weelkes’s own spelling, and
avoids any possible confusion with ‘ballet’.)
•
Ballett = late 16th-century Italian origin, mostly homophonic, could accompany
dancing.
•
Thomas Morley played a major part in introducing the ballett into England, where
it was often developed into something longer and more sophisticated than the
earliest Italian type. Note the plentiful use of counterpoint in Sing we at pleasure.
Sing we at pleasure can be termed a madrigal, but a more accurate term is ballett.
Performance Context
•
•
•
In five parts but for 5 soloists rather than for a choir.
Secular so almost certainly sung by a mixed ensemble of women and men (not men and boys as sacred music).
In the anthology the five voices are labelled:
Soprano 1 (Cantus): ‘Cantus’ is Latin for ‘song’. Often the cantus is the highest part, but here cantus and quintus take
it in turns to be on top. Range: from F sharp to G a 9th above (see note heads after the treble clef in bar 1).
Soprano 2 (Quintus)
‘Quintus’ is Latin for ‘fifth part’. Five-part writing was common, but four types of voice were often involved, So here
soprano 2 has exactly the same overall range as soprano 1 and (as noted above) often crosses above it.
When the third line of the poem is repeated (bar 53: ‘Sweet Love shall keep the ground…’), the two soprano parts
swap for sake of variety, with soprano 1 singing what soprano 2 sang at bar 22, and vice versa.
·Alto
Probably for a woman’s voice rather than a male alto or countertenor. Range: middle C to C an octave above (the
lower note head in bar should be C).
Tenor Range: from D below middle C to G an 11th above
Bass: Range: from low G to D a 12th above. Top D is reserved for places where Bass imitates Tenor in unison.
Structure
• Binary structure – two repeated sections, each ending in a fa-la-la refrain.
• Section A (bars 1-22) repeated unchanged
• Section B (bars 22-53) repeated in modified form in bars 53-85
• Section B is longer because it contains 4 lines of text before the refrain
rather than 2.
• The repeat is written out in full because the sopranos exchange parts for
the second time in this section.
Structure
• SECTION A: Bars 1–22 (first-time bar)
Sing we at pleasure,
Content is our treasure.
Fa la.
• Bars 1–8 a single rhyming couplet – with imitation, but enough straight
crotchets for there to be some feeling of homophony.
• Bars 8–22 the fa-la – mostly contrapuntal.
• SECTION 1 again: Bars 1–22 repeated exactly.
•
Structure
SECTION B: Bars 22 (second-time bar) –53
Sweet Love shall keep the ground,
Whilst we his praises sound.
All shepherds in a ring
Shall, dancing, ever sing.
Fa la.
•
Bars 223–432 the two new rhyming couplets quoted above. The setting of the
first line is homophonic; the setting of the second line is contrapuntal.
•
Bars 43–53 the fa la (contrapuntal). Shorter than the fa la of Section A,
presumably so that Section B, with its two rhyming couplets, can be
considerably longer than Section A, but not too long.
•
SECTION B again: Bars 533–742 = bars 223–532, but with soprano parts reversed.
‘Sing We at
Pleasure’
Thomas Weelkes
Lesson 2: Rhythm, Harmony &
Tonality
Learning Objectives
• To be able to identify the rhythmic
features of ‘Sing We at Pleasure’
• To be able to analyse the tonality and
harmony used in an English Renaissance
madrigal
Rhythm
• Dance style brought out by syllabic word setting
• Lively triple-time rhythms (mostly dotted) – immediately
repeated in another voice part
• Rhythm made more exciting with use of syncopation (alto
parts bars 7 and 12) and hemiola (bars 20-21).
• Hemiola give the effect of the music moving into duple metre.
Rhythm & Metre
•
In the 1598 edition time signature is C3. Barlines are editorial, music is, in simple triple time or 3/4.
•
Emphasis on dotted crotchet, quaver, crotchet rhythm as heard in soprano 1 at the start.
•
Rhythmic variety = alternation of crotchets and minims at the start of each couplet in Section B
•
The frequent quavers at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’ may be intended to reflect joy and praise.
•
Strings of quavers in the second fa-la (in tenor and bass) bring Section 2 to a livelyc onclusion.
•
·Hemiola at the end of each fa-la (bars of ¾ are divided into three sets of two beats).
•
Straightforward triple-time rhythms with an obvious beat often with a dance-like quality
Harmony & Tonality
• Consonant style where all of the chords are in root-position or
first inversion (most of them major)
• Only on beat discords are suspensions or unprepared tritones.
• Suspension: some in crotchets (alto bar 52) and some in
quavers (alto bar 7/3). Both are associated with syncopation and
give a sense of energy to the dancing rhythms of the piece.
• Unprepared triton between outer parts (end of bars 10. 13
and 16) which are characteristic of Weelkes’ style.
Harmony & Tonality
• Lack of key signatures, but both consonant and dissonant
chords emphasise the key of G major.
• There are suggestions of passing modulations of D Major
(bars 9-11) and C major (bars 15-17).
• However, modulations to related keys were still new in this
period, so the influence of modes is still present in the piece (e.g.
triad of F Major on last beat of bar 14).
• Mixolydian mode in G: G, A, B, C, D, E, F (natural), G
Harmony
·Root-position triads
• e.g. at ‘Sing we at pleasure’: in terms of roman numerals in G major the
chords are: I I V | I I V | I I
First-inversion triads
• e.g. at ‘Content is our treasure’ each of bars 5–7 begins with B in the
lowest sounding part, the chord in full being B–D–G (G major, first
inversion).
Cadences
• Almost all are perfect (V–I).
• First rhyming couplet ends with VIIb–I (substitute for an ‘ordinary’ perfect
cadence).
• First line of third couplet (‘All shepherds in a ring’) ends with chords G and
D major (imperfect in G major).
‘Sing We at
Pleasure’
Thomas Weelkes
Lesson 3: Textures & Melodic
Features
Learning Objectives
• To be able to analyse the texture of ‘Sing We at
Pleasure’
• To be able to identify melodic features of a
‘ballett’
• To be able to recall the features of a madrigal
through performance
Textures
• Five parts, which sing together all the time (except for
occasional rests in individual parts)
•Each vocal phrase has its own characteristic melodic shape either in imitation or a brief homophonic passage (bars 22-25, 3035 and 61-65)
• Sometimes these phrases overlap – ‘sing we at pleasure
overlaps’ with ‘content is our treasure’ on the third beat of bar 3.
• Some cadences mark a change in the texture (bar 22 when
counterpoint of the refrain ends and first homophonic passage
begins.
• Fluid textures – opening is treated imitatively in soprano parts
and other parts provide homophonic
Textures
Generally parts have different rhythms:
o employing a freer homophonic style than in chordal or
homorhythmic writing, as at the end of the first ‘fa-la’
o but more frequently in counterpoint.
· Counterpoint commonly involves imitation, usually in sopranos 1
and 2 and/or tenor and bass.
· The two sopranos usually imitate at the unison – i.e. both parts
are at the same pitch – as at the start of the piece…
· …but Tenor and Bass are sometimes an octave apart (again as at
the start).
· The alto ‘fills in’ except at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’ and at the
end of the first fala.
· Imitation can be sufficiently prolonged and exact to allow the
term canon – or canonic imitation – to be used. See for example
‘Shall, dancing, ever sing’ (from b. 34) and ‘Whilst we his praises
sound’ (from b. 56).
Melody
• Much conjunct (stepwise) movement
o including scalic passages, especially at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’)
• Leaps of a 3rd
o in particular the descending 3rds first heard at ‘Content is our treasure’.
• Leaps of a 4th or 5th
o notably where the bass outlines perfect cadences and other chord
successions with roots a 4th or 5th apart.
• A few larger leaps (almost all octaves)
o e.g. the falling octave in soprano 1 at ‘Sing we at pleasure’ – which would
be even more striking if it were not obscured by the entry of soprano 2.
o rapid octaves in the bass of the second fa-la add to the liveliness and vigour
of this closing passage.
Melody
Balance between ascending and descending movement: for
example, a leap in one direction is often countered by stepwise
movement in the other.
Alto part has much less melodic interest than the other four parts.
The three-note figure first heard at ‘Content is our treasure’
reappears prominently in the first fa-la and in the second =
melodic unity unusual in Renaissance.
Note also that the opening soprano 1 phrase ‘Sing we at pleasure,
at pleasure’ consists of two balancing stepwise ascents a 5th apart
(see Example 1).
This phrase is the basis of soprano 1’s closing phrase in the first fala – refrain (bars19-21)