Carol Dell Newman, Ph.D. 1981

Advisor: James W. Pruett

Dissertation Title: Keyboard Dances and Variations in Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS. Foà 8

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Dissertation Abstract

MS. Foà 8, the sixteenth volume of the Turin keyboard tablature, contains seventy-three compositions: dances (single-section and multi-sectional), variation sets, and imitative works. Over two-thirds of the pieces are anonymous; works by known composers include Frescobaldi partitas, Sweelinck variation sets, and unica ascribed to Samuel Scheidt, Hans Leo Hassler, Johann Staden, Valentin Dretzel, and Francesco Turini. The musical style and structure of these pieces are the central issues of the dissertation, which consists of two volumes: the first examines the repertory of Foà 8, and the second (Supplement) presents transcriptions of all unpublished pieces along with a complete thematic catalog. Although questions of provenance and concordances are dealt with to some extent, full answers to such questions are reserved for future research. In particular, the postulation of the manuscript’s having been compiled by a German in Venice remains to be confirmed.

The repertorial study of Foà 8 focuses on the unpublished dances and variations in the context of all seventy-three compositions. In addition to traditional analysis of musical elements, special attention is paid to factors that define individual pieces. In the majority of dances and variations, a musical style of textural variety and harmonically conceived figuration coexists with modal flux and tonal/modal ambiguity. Despite tonal/modal ambiguity, cadential harmony often assumes tonal focus. Furthermore, variation technique is the principal means of achieving structural length- -the longest dances contain strain variations, and lengthy structures are all multisectional dances or sets of variations. The dances in Foà 8 (single-section and multi-sectional) demonstrate three styles in the history of the keyboard dance: (1) the oldest display predominantly chordal, strict textures that reveal sixteenth-century consort influences; (2) the majority show uses of idiomatic keyboard texture such as harmonically conceived figuration, repeated-note passages, wide leaps, and sequentially repeated scales; and (3) a few short dances in the middle of the manuscript not only incorporate idiomatic keyboard texture, but also show a considerable degree of stylization in the use of the lute-inspired stile brisé.

Comparisons of multisectional dances (dances with variation sections) with variation sets (designated collections of variations on special subjects) reveal that (1) multisectional dances retain a melodic/harmonic subject–with a defining strain and cadential structure, melodic contour, and harmonic outline–whereas variation sets rarely treat the subject as a complete melodic/harmonic statement within itself; (2) melodic/harmonic procedures characterize multisectional dances, whereas structural procedures for variation sets include cantus-firmus, continuous bass/harmonic, sectional bass/harmonic, as well as melodic/harmonic plans; (3) the subjects of variation sets are generally less distinguished by internal pauses; (4) the breadth of variation treatment contributes to both the greater length of variation sets and the greater distance from the original subject; and (5) multisectional dances and variation sets share a common vocabulary of variation techniques: melodic embellishment, harmonic variation, retention of melody with changes in other voices, elaboration of cadential connections and upbeats, and interaction of patterns, repetitions, or melodic/rhythmic figures.