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‘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)