274

CHAPTER FIVE

INCIPIENT FUNCTIONAL HARMONIC TONALITY IN SEVENTEENTH-

CENTURY GUITAR TUTORS

The relationship between strummed guitar and functional harmonic tonality

has been sketched out in various degrees of detail by scholars before me. In 1970

Richard Hudson noticed the similarity between early alfabeto passacaglias and

functional harmonic progressions, and made a case for influence on the basis of

chronology and correlation. He basically argues that because guitarists were playing

I-IV-V-I patterns before the theorists had theorized them, guitar practice must have

influenced theory. On this premise Hudson suggests a “concept of mode” specific to

the strummed guitar repertory “that led eventually to fully developed major-minor

repertory.” 1 Hudson’s work, which relies almost completely on the observed

similarities between chord progressions, has been criticized for attributing causal

effect to what could be chance similarities. Warren Kirkendale faults Hudson for

applying his chord patterns to repertories beyond the guitar, and Maurice Esses

suggests that chord progressions divorced from other musical parameters are not the

most reliable means of describing the dance-song repertory imparted by alfabeto

chord symbols.2

Nevertheless, the striking similarity between chord progressions as strummed

on the guitar in the early seventeenth century and functional tonal progressions as

1 Richard Hudson, “The Concept of Mode in Italian Guitar Music during the First

Half of the 17th

Century,” Acta Musicologica 43 (1970): 163. 2 Warren Kirkendale, Aria di Fiorenza, id est Il ballo del Gran Duca (Florence:

Olschki, 1972), 18 n. 2; Maurice Esses, Dance and Instrumental Diferencias in Spain

during the 17th

and Early 18th

Centuries (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1992),

571-72.

275

theorized in the early eighteenth century has continued to elicit comment. Many

authors have mentioned the peculiar way that the strummed guitar repertory seems to

highlight a gap between practice and theory. Being intended for amateurs, the earliest

five-course guitar sources largely avoid standard notation or theoretical language and

yet manage to foreshadow the theoretical structures of the eighteenth century. Neil

Pennington recognized Spanish guitar tutors as the first to represent chords by means

of a circle of fifths, writing that “the Spaniards were in the forefront of seventeenth-

and eighteenth-century theory.”3 Maurice Esses expanded Hudson’s Roman Numeral

approach into a concept of “harmonic-metric schemes” for the Spanish dance-song

repertory. Esses notes that these harmonic-metric schemes tend to fix triads around a

tonal center, even though there was no contemporary theoretical recognition of the

triad in terms of harmonic function. Citing the notational innovations of guitar and

harp notation, Esses writes: “during the late 16th and early 17th centuries in Spain a

wide gulf developed in the realm of harmony between instrumental practice and

general music theory.”4 Silke Leopold also ties strummed guitar accompaniment to a

new harmonic ideal, which more closely prefigured later developments than did the

more “serious” contemporary genres of opera and cantata. Referring to the songs

collected by Remigio Romano, whose printed accompaniments consist solely of

alfabeto symbols, Silke Leopold writes “these little songs are in some ways a step

ahead of recitative monody,” and she suggests a gulf between theory and practice in

3 Neil Pennington, The Development of Baroque Guitar Music in Spain, Including a

Commentary on and Transcription of Santiago de Murcia's “Passacalles y obras”

(Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981), 123. 4 Esses, Dance and Instrumental Diferencias, 572, 577.

276

this repertory as well: “theory says nothing about the canzonets – they were sung, and

not discussed.”5 Roark Miller describes alfabeto song as a close, although possibly

accidental, approximation of the ideal solo song as proposed by the humanists such as

Vincenzo Galilei: “how ironic it is that Galilei’s ideas were closely realized not

through recourse to theoretical principles derived in Florentine academies, but due to

practical expedience.”6

All these authors acknowledge a discrepancy between guitaristic practice and

harmonic theory, a discrepancy that is obscured by the apparent similarity between

musical practice on the guitar and the abstracted chord progressions of harmonic

theory. And yet this gap between theory and practice cannot be surmounted by the

simple statement that strummed practice on the guitar contributed to the development

of functional harmonic tonality—a sweeping declaration that at once says everything

and nothing. As Dahlhaus has pointed out, the appearance of I-IV-V-I patterns in

sixteenth-century cadences does not indicate a theoretical framework based on chord

progressions. In their earliest appearances, these progressions arise from a

coalescence of various harmonic formulas. In Dahlhaus’s assessment, the I-IV-V-I

progression in tonal harmony is a theoretical model rather than a cadential formula,

but this stage of theoretical abstraction is the last step in a long-term historical

5 Silke Leopold, “Remigio Romano’s Collection of Lyrics for Music,” Proceedings of

the Royal Musical Association 110 (1983), 51, 57. 6 Roark Miller, “The Composers of San Marco and San Stefano and the Development

of Venetian Monody” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1993), 335.

277

process.7 To understand the role of the guitar at any given point in this process, an

effort must be made to pin down this apparent transition from practice to theory and

to acknowledge the conceptual space between these two aspects of musical thought.

As this chapter will demonstrate, the Italian guitar sources from the 1620s to the

1680s reveal a process whereby practical, visually based guides for amateur guitarists

gradually took on two important attributes of functional harmonic tonality, namely

the association of a group of chords with a tonic pitch and the organization of scales

into two groups (which would eventually be absorbed into the categories “major” and

“minor.”)

The most complete explication of the five-course guitar and the rise of

functional harmonic tonality has been essayed by Thomas Christensen, whose

primary focus is on Rameau and Enlightenment theory. Christensen has done more

than other scholars to point out the details of the relationship between the guitar and

functional harmony, and his work provides a foothold in the slippery terrain between

harmonic practice and harmonic theory. In a 1992 article Christensen covered the

history of the five-course guitar, making special reference to the scale harmonizations

in Italian guitar tutors. Like previous scholarship, this essay is ultimately based on

observable similarities between Italian and French harmonic plans.8 He does,

however, provide much more detail on those similarities, and includes an important

7 Carl Dahlhaus, Studies on the Origin of Harmonic Tonality, trans. Robert O.

Gjerdingen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 105-6. 8 Thomas Christensen, “The Spanish Baroque Guitar and Seventeenth-Century

Triadic Theory,” Journal of Music Theory 36 (1992): 1-42.

278

link between Italian guitar tutors and Rameau’s theories; namely, the regle de

l’octave (“rule of the octave”) set out in the 1681 treatise of François Campion.9

According to Christensen, Campion’s règle is the most complete

representation of functional harmonic tonality in a purely practical state, prior to its

theoretical assimilation by Rameau, and was greatly influenced by Campion’s

experience as a guitarist.10

The règle, rather than being an abstract verbal description,

consists of musical examples in the concrete; specifically, a series of scales in all

major and minor keys, ascending and descending, with figures showing the chord

unique to that scale degree in each key (Fig. 5.1). Each scale represents an “octave,”

and to follow the “rule,” one uses the unique harmony proper to each scale degree in

the context of that “octave.” Having memorized these scale harmonizations, an

accompanist can find an appropriate chord for any bass line that moves by step.

These tables thus straddle the dividing line between practical examples and

theoretical formulation; they might even be described as a theory of functional

tonality waiting to happen. Rameau disparaged the règle as a waste of time, because

anyone understanding his (Rameau’s) theories could come up with the proper

9 François Campion, Traité d'accompagnement et de composition selon la règle des

octaves de musique (Paris: Estienne Roger, 1716); Thomas Christensen, “The Regle

de l’Octave in Thorough-Bass Theory and Practice,” Acta musicologica 64/2 (1992),

91-117. 10

Christensen, “Spanish Baroque Guitar,” 33-34.

279

Figure 5.1: “Rule of the octave” Charts from François Campion, Traité

d’accompagnement (Paris: 1716)

harmony for any scale degree without needing to memorize all of Campion’s scales,

and because so many bass lines demanded exceptions to Campion’s Rule.11

Rameau’s criticism of the rule underscores the fact that his theoretical model was,

among other things, a replacement for and improvement on Campion’s practical

guide. As Christensen put it, “To a degree not attained since Zarlino’s Istitutioni

11

Jean-Phillipe Rameau, “Observations sur le méthode d’accompagnement pour le

clavecin qui est en usage, & qu’on appelle Echelle ou Règle de l’octave,” in Mercure

de France (February, 1730), 235-54, quoted in Christensen, “Regle de l’Octave,” 105.

280

harmoniche of 1573, Rameau was able to integrate practice and theory into a coherent

whole.”12

Christensen’s work thus provides a foundation for a more complete

investigation of the Italian guitar tutors that preceded Campion’s règle. Christensen

has defined a transition from a guitaristic practice based on specific musical context

to an abstract, harmonic theory based on simple rules that can be applied universally.

He has situated this transition in terms of Campion (guitaristic practice) and Rameau

(harmonic theory). The relationship between Rameau’s theories and musical practice

is of course a complex one, as the work of Christensen himself attests. But the focus

of the present discussion is backwards from Campion to the Italian guitar treatises

that influenced him, and for these purposes this basic dichotomy between practice and

theory is a useful one. Having established Campion’s 1716 treatise as the final

expression of guitar-based practice, we may investigate the earlier tutors from a new

standpoint.

How did rasgueado guitar, with its idiomatic and uniquely practical system of

notation and performance practice, take on the attributes that would eventually

accommodate it for assimilation into Campion’s règle and, from there, into the

abstract theories of functional harmonic tonality? The scale di musica that appear in

many seventeenth-century alfabeto songbooks provide an Italian, guitaristic precedent

for Campion’s règle. The scale di musica usually consist of two ascending bass clef

scales, one in “b quadro,” that is, with no key signature, and one in “b molle,” with a

12

Thomas Christensen, Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993): 31.

281

Figure 5.2: Scale di musica from Milanuzzi, Primo scherzo (Venice: Magni, 1622),

with Transcriptions. Note: I have assumed a guitar strung with bourdons on the

fourth and fifth courses here.

flat in the key signature (see Fig. 5.2). An alfabeto symbol appears above each note,

and an intabulated left-hand fingering is given below. These scale do seem to offer a

282

direct precedent to Campion’s règle, as Christensen points out. 13

But Christensen’s

discussion, being limited to a single article, does not explain the mechanics of the

transition from the alfabeto scale to functional tonality. For one thing, many

elements of the scale do not fit Campion’s major/minor organizational scheme.

These and other unresolved ambiguities suggest that the scale have more to offer us

in terms of the history of harmony and the details of seventeenth-century performance

practice. No discussion of the development of functional harmonic tonality would be

complete without taking the scale di musica into account, and yet a full understanding

of their use and meaning must recognize their initial independence from the

major/minor harmonic scheme outlined by Rameau.

“CHIAVE” AND “KEY”: CONCEPTS OF TONALITY IN ITALY AND

ENGLAND

To fully appreciate the dynamics of the relationship between chordal

accompaniment on the guitar and functional harmonic tonality in the theory books

one must understand the conceptual discrepancy between seventeenth-century Italian

harmonic practice and French/English harmonic theory. As the following examples

will demonstrate, the change from the chiave molle e quadro found in Italian treatises

into “major and minor keys” (or “ton majeur et mineur” in France) was a conceptual

transformation rather than an progressive development. Due to this conceptual

tension between Italian versus French and English ideas on harmony in the

seventeenth century, there is no unified, coherent Italian equivalent to the English

term “key,” which translates literally into Italian as “chiave.”

13

Christensen, “Spanish Baroque Guitar,” 34.

283

The format of the Italian scale di musica for guitar is largely a product of the

way chiavi are presented Italian continuo treatises, where the chiavi have a different

function than the English concept of key. The English term “key” encompasses

harmonic relationships as well as sets of pitches, and a triadic, major/minor

orientation towards harmonic thought was well underway in England and France in

the seventeenth century. As Jessie Ann Owens writes, “English music sounds tonal

and English music theory uses concepts associated with tonality well before either

happens on the continent.”14

In Italy, however, the chiavi are discussed solely in

terms of transposition of the hexachordal gamut. They designate the cleffing and key

signature rather than indicating a tonal center. Figures 5.3A and B reproduce a guide

to chiavi from Lorenzo Penna’s 1679 treatise and a similar chart from Banchieri’s

1605 L’organo suonarino. Both of these writers instruct the performer to envision a

clef in B quadro or B molle as an aid to solmization when reading clefs with more

sharps or flats. In other words, the addition of accidentals to the chiave is considered

to be equivalent to a change in cleffing, and the accidentals merely signify a change

in the placement of the mi-fa semitone relative to the lines of the staff. Like the guitar

14

Jessie Ann Owens, “Concepts of Pitch in English Music Theory, c. 1560-1640,” in

Tonal Structures in Early Music, edited by Cristle Collins Judd (New York: Garland,

1998), 184; see also William Atcherson, “Symposium on 17th century Music Theory:

England,” Journal of Music Theory 16/1 (1972), 11; Christopher Lewis, “Incipient

Tonal Thought in Seventeenth-Century English Theory,” Studies in Music from

Western Ontario 6 (1981): 24-47; and Harold Powers, “Is Mode Real? Pietro Aron,

the Octenary System, and Polyphony,” Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis

16 (1992): 9-52.

Figure 5.3:

Figure 5.3: Italian Transposition Charts. Italian Transposition Charts. A,

A, above, from Lorenzo Penna, from Lorenzo Penna, from Lorenzo Penna, Li primi albori musicaliLi primi albori musicali (Bologna: Monti, 1679).

(Bologna: Monti, 1679).

284

(Bologna: Monti, 1679).

284

284

285

Figure 5.3: Italian Transposition Charts. B, above, from Banchieri, L’Organo suonarino (Venice: Vincenti, 1605).

Reproduced from Freiberg, Der frühe italienische Generalbass (Hildesheim: Olms, 2004), 44-45.

285

286

scale, Banchieri’s chart treats molle and quadro as the basic categories, designating

the various other combinations as “accidental.” There is also a distinction between

practice and theory implied in Penna’s commentary:

But it should be known, that the modern composers now create many

compositions in the chromatic style, making them with sharps or flats, and as

not to spread them throughout the compositions, which would be a great

nuisance, they put in the beginning, immediately next to the clef, at the start of

the staff, a sharp, or flat, or two or three, fitting the nature of the

composition.15

The “natura della Composizione” thus governs the composer’s choice of

accidentals in the signature. About this “nature,” which would seem to involve the

theoretical tonal conception used by the composer, be it church tone, mode, key, or

something else, we are told nothing. As performers, we need only mentally move the

clef in order to be sure of proper semitone placement, and this is done in terms of

hexachordal solmization, without mention of modes. And while Penna’s chart is

oriented towards singers of polyphony, the very need for these multiple transpositions

arose from the increasing use of keyboard instruments in accompaniment, as Harold

Powers has explained.16

Penna’s treatise exemplifies the conceptual background of molle/quadro that

gave Italian guitarists both a promising model for practical examples and a

15

“Perche si deve sapere, che li Moderni Compositori oggi dì formano molte

composizione sul stile Cromatico, fabricandole sù li Diesis ##, ò sù li bb molli, quali

per non seminarli dentro la Composizione, che farebbe di molto impaccio, pongono

nel principio dopo la Chiave immediatamente, e sul principio delle Rigate un #, ò b

molle, ò due ##, ò bb, ò ###, ò bbb, conforme alla natura della Composizione.”

Lorenzo Penna, Li primi albori musicali (Bologna: Monti, 1679). 16

Harold Powers, “From Psalmody to Tonality,” in Tonal Structuures and Early

Music, 277-78.

287

problematic basis for theoretical formulation. There is little attempt, in Italian

treatises, to accommodate the molle/quadro categories into an overall theoretical

framework. Penna, for example, presents his practical guides (the transpositions

given above, as well as his continuo realizations) in a different section of his book

than his theoretical observations, and he makes no attempt to categorize the various

chiave in terms of their relationship to the modes. His work is an example of the lack

of solid information on seventeenth-century tonal theory relative to the abundance of

information on seventeenth-century tonal practice. Campion’s règle, which is at heart

a guide for performers rather than a theoretical work, springs from this Italianate,

practical orientation, and was then absorbed into what would become the theoretical

model for a later generation of composers.

SCALE HARMONIZATIONS IN FIVE-COURSE GUITAR TUTORS

As with the basic alfabeto system, the origins of the scale di musica go back

to Joan Carles Amat, whose Guitarra española contains what was probably the first

printed system for symbolic representation of guitar chords as well as the first attempt

to associate these chords with specific bass notes.17

Amat’s book appears to provide

a method of attaching a particular triad to any given bass note in the context of a tonal

center, the same thing achieved by François Campion a hundred years later. This

progressive nature of Amat’s book has been remarked on by many. Neil Pennington,

as cited above, puts Amat at the forefront of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century

17

Joan Carles Amat, Guitarra española (Lerida: Anglada and Llorens, 1626 [1596]).

288

theory.18

James Tyler notes that Amat’s “harmonic approach, while familiar to

modern readers, was unheard of in 1596.”19

Craig Russell calls Amat’s book

“notable for its forward-looking concept of harmony,” and Richard Cohn singles out

Amat as an example of a “new chordal autonomy” that predated theories of triadic

invertibility found in later thoroughbass treatises.20

But Amat’s system does not quite measure up to the functional ideal of

Campion’s règle. A closer look at Amat’s system reveals that vital elements are left

to the ear of the performer. In other words, the choice of chords is ultimately made

on a practical rather than a theoretical basis. In Amat’s system left-hand chord shapes

on the fretboard are designated by number. A circular chart gives tablature-style

designations for each number; significantly, the chords indicated by each left-hand

shape form a circle of fifths. This is over a century before Heinichen’s 1711 circle of

fifths chart (Figs. 5.4A and B compare the two). But Amat, who was a doctor of

medicine by profession, was not proposing a theoretical system for the composer or

scholar of music.21

His chart was designed for the amateur guitarist who needed to

transpose a set of chords to any pitch level to suit a singer. The numerical

18

Pennington, Development of Baroque Guitar Music, 123. 19

James Tyler and Paul Sparks, The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to

the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 148. 20

Craig Russell, “Amat, Joan Carles,” New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Musicians 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 2001), 443; Richard Cohn, “Harmony,” New

Grove Dictionary of Music, 873. 21

For biographical information on Amat see Monica Hall, Introduction to Joan

Carles Amat: Guitarra española: Complete Facsimile Edition (Monaco: Chanterelle,

1980); José Vilar, “Juan Carles Amat,” Revista ilustrada jorba 17/186 (1925): 209-

11; and Emilio Pujol, “Significación de Joan Carles Amat (1572-1642) en la historia

de la guitarra,” Analecta musicologica 5 (1950): 125-46.

A)

C)

N [naturales]

1

E

B [b mollados]

1

Em

Figure 5.4: Musical Circles in Amat and Heinichen.

Amat,

Chanterelle, 1980).

und gründliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000).

chord table with modern chord symbols

7N)

designations, in combination with the circle

be done by simple addition or subtraction.

A)

C)

N [naturales]

2

E A

B [b mollados]

2

Em Am

Figure 5.4: Musical Circles in Amat and Heinichen.

Amat, Guitarra española

Chanterelle, 1980).

und gründliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000).

chord table with modern chord symbols

7N).

designations, in combination with the circle

be done by simple addition or subtraction.

3 4

D G

B [b mollados]

3 4

Dm Gm

Figure 5.4: Musical Circles in Amat and Heinichen.

Guitarra española

Chanterelle, 1980). B, Circle of fifths from Johann David Heinichen,

und gründliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000).

chord table with modern chord symbols

designations, in combination with the circle

be done by simple addition or subtraction.

5 6

C F

5 6

Gm Cm Fm

Figure 5.4: Musical Circles in Amat and Heinichen.

Guitarra española (Lerida: Andreu Llorens, 1626 [1596]); reprinted Monaco:

Circle of fifths from Johann David Heinichen,

und gründliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000).

chord table with modern chord symbols

designations, in combination with the circle

be done by simple addition or subtraction.

B)

7

F B

7

Fm Bm

Figure 5.4: Musical Circles in Amat and Heinichen.

(Lerida: Andreu Llorens, 1626 [1596]); reprinted Monaco:

Circle of fifths from Johann David Heinichen,

und gründliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000).

chord table with modern chord symbols (Amat’s table contains a misprint on chord

designations, in combination with the circle-of-fifths layout, allowed this process to

be done by simple addition or subtraction.

8 9

E A

8 9

Em Am

Figure 5.4: Musical Circles in Amat and Heinichen. A, Chord table from Joan Carles

(Lerida: Andreu Llorens, 1626 [1596]); reprinted Monaco:

Circle of fifths from Johann David Heinichen,

und gründliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000).

t’s table contains a misprint on chord

fifths layout, allowed this process to

10

C#

10

m C#m

Chord table from Joan Carles

(Lerida: Andreu Llorens, 1626 [1596]); reprinted Monaco:

Circle of fifths from Johann David Heinichen, Neu erfundene

und gründliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General-Basses

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000).

t’s table contains a misprint on chord

fifths layout, allowed this process to

289

11 12

F# B

11 12

F#m Bm

Chord table from Joan Carles

(Lerida: Andreu Llorens, 1626 [1596]); reprinted Monaco:

Neu erfundene

Basses

(Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1711; reprinted Basel: Bärenreiter, 2000). C, Amat’s

t’s table contains a misprint on chord

fifths layout, allowed this process to

289

Bm

Chord table from Joan Carles

(Lerida: Andreu Llorens, 1626 [1596]); reprinted Monaco:

Neu erfundene

Amat’s

290

The “progressive” aspect of Amat’s guide for the beginner is especially

evident in another chart, labelled “Tabla” in the 1626 reprint (and, possibly, in the

1596 original) and reproduced here as Figure 5.5. This “Table,” which is designed

for the accompaniment of polyphonic vocal music, works by providing a chord for

each note of the lowest voice part. It is intended to be used in conjunction with

Amat’s chord chart, again without the necessity of learning the pitch content of any of

the chords. The guitarist is instructed to solmize the bass line and match the

solmization syllable to the chord number of the appropriate column. The twelve

columns represent twelve “keys” (“modos”), apparently a system of twelve tonalities,

fully interchangeable in everything save absolute pitch.22

Amat would almost seem to have theorized functional tonality then and there,

were it not for some significant omissions. Although the chart claims to designate a

chord proper to each bass note in a seven-note diatonic scale, there is no indication of

chord quality or inversion. While the chart does have a clever alphabetical nexus

with which inversions can be found, the decision to use an inversion is left to the

performer’s ear:

When the chord that is given for the bass does not fit with the other voices,

then one must run to the top line, and look, for the chord which has the bass

note, which letter is next to it, and running down the Table look at all the

chords that have the same letter, and try one by one which will fit.23

22

For a full explanation of Amat’s system, along with transcriptions of the charts, see

Monical Hall, “The Guitarra espanola of Joan Carles Amat,” Early Music 6/3 (1978):

362-73. 23

“Quando el punto que fe dà al baxete no conviene con las otras vozes, entonces han

de correr à la mas alta linea, y miraràn el punto que tenia el baxete, que letre le està

encima, y corriendo por la Tabla abaxo miraràn todos los puntos que tienen la misma

letra, y provaràn de uno en uno qual conviene . . .” Amat, Guitarra Española, 33-34.

291

Figure 5.5: Amat’s “Tabla,” from Guitarra española (Lerida: 1626).

Each number in his “Table” represents a chord, and the alphabetical symbols above

each number match chords that contain common tones: the “d” in the first square, for

instance, is matched with the chord “1” (E major or minor). If that chord doesn’t fit

the other voices, the player needs to try all the other chords that are given the “d”

symbol. These turn out to be “2” (A major or minor) and “10” (which has the refined

292

alphabetical symbol “db,” meaning “bemol,” therefore C-sharp minor). About chord

quality in other situations, however, Amat is silent altogether. His “Table” does not

predict the likelihood of one chord choice over another, it only limits the choices of

chords to be tried by ear. In order to profitably use his chart, one would need to be

able to guess about the likelihood of inversions and chord quality. Such a guess

would be based on practical experience, and Amat’s system probably represents a

widespread semi-improvisational accompanimental practice. But a theoretical

formulation that would have obviated this cumbersome cross-referencing of numbers

and alphabetical symbols does not seem to have been available. Although at first

glance Amat’s charts resemble abstract formulations, they are actually pedagogical

examples, based on his practical experience, and mostly divorced from the terms and

concepts of compositional theory. Despite Amat’s attempt to integrate solmization

into the process of assigning triads to a polyphonic piece, the performer is forced into

trial-and-error in choosing chord quality and recognizing inversions. Amat’s system

is based completely on the demands of the instrument and oriented solely towards the

performer, and therefore remains firmly in the realm of practice.

In comparison to Amat’s tutor the early Italian scale harmonizations seem to

take a step closer to Campion’s règle. This is especially apparent given that these

scale di musica use the format of chords over a continuo-style bass, while Amat’s

system uses solmization syllables pertaining to the lowest voice of a polyphonic

texture. It is this mutual use of continuo-style bass that led Christensen to declare

Campion’s règle “a tonal refinement of the scale triads presented in 17th-century

293

guitar primers.”24

But there is an unacknowledged conceptual gap between the scale

and Campion: while Campion’s règle itself is a practical guide, it is based on French

and English tonal thinking, which already tended towards a “major/minor”

arrangement. This conceptual background left Campion only a short step away from

Rameau’s theoretical formulations. By contrast, the early scale di musica, such as

those found in Milanuzzi’s 1622 songbook, are based on Italian conceptions of

harmony and are thus farther removed from Rameau’s theories. These scale betray

their practical orientation both in the way they present their chords and in the

particular chords they present. Italian alfabeto provided a system of chords largely

independent from considerations of voice leading just at the time that Italian treatises

were struggling to codify the use of harmonies over the single notes of a continuo

bass. To integrate alfabeto into continuo practice, however, the different notational

systems had to be reconciled. Scale di musica like Milanuzzi’s represent an early

stage in this process.

The scale per musica found in Milanuzzi’s Primo scherzo are typical for the

alfabeto songbooks of Alessandro Vincenti and Bartolomeo Magni. An analysis of

typographical errors suggests that these printers shared a template and took an interest

in the utility of the scale. As Figure 5.6A shows, Milanuzzi’s first scale chart, printed

by Magni, contains typographical errors on the chords “G” (F major) and “E” (D

minor). In each case a fingering number is off by one fret. In Milanuzzi’s second

book, which was printed by Vincenti, the scale charts are reproduced exactly,

24

Christensen, “Spanish Baroque Guitar,” 34.

294

A) Milanuzzi, Primo scherzo, (Venice: Magni, 1622); Errors on “G” and “E”

B) Milanuzzi, Secondo scherzo, (Venice: Vincenti, 1622); Identical Errors

Figure 5.6: Typographical errors in Venetian Scale di musica (cont. on next page).

295

C) Miniscalchi, Arie libro secondo (Venice: Vincenti, 1627); Error on “G” Corrected,

Error on “E” Remains

D) Ziani, Primo libro di canzonette (Venice: Vincenti, 1641); Both Errors Corrected

Figure 5.6: Typographical errors in Venetian Scale di musica (cont.).

296

including both misprints (Fig. 5.6B). But Vincenti, or whoever was responsible for

proofing the alfabeto charts, seems to have been paying attention: in a 1627 print one

of the errors has been noticed and corrected (Fig. 5.6C), and by 1641 both errors had

been corrected (Fig. 5.6D). This attention to detail suggests that the scale di musica

were part of the practical editorial approach to guitar accompaniment that is on

dislpay in the songs themselves.

Given this careful editing it becomes harder to ignore certain anomalous

harmonies in the scale that might otherwise be attributable to editorial carelessness.

These chords make it difficult to describe the scale in terms of a major/minor tonal

scheme. The scale chords are given with modern designations in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1: Typical scale di musica with Modern Chord Symbols.

Scala di Musica per B. Quadro

Bass note G A B C D E F G A

Chord GM Am GM CM DM EM FM GM Am

Scala di Musica per B. Molle

Bass note F G A B C D E F G A B

Chord FM Gm Am BM CM Dm EM FM Gm Am BM

At first sight, the quadro scale seems well set up for G major: the I, IV, and V chords

are all present. But then E major and F major appear, neither of which fits G Major.

In fact, these two chords are not common to any diatonic key (excepting A harmonic

minor). The molle scale could be a candidate for diatonicism in F major, but the E

major chord appears there also, looking even more out of place. Can these anomalies

be ascribed to carelessness, to the simplicity of the repertory, or to printer’s errors

297

(several of which do occur in the chart)? A better question asks to what degree these

chords should be considered “anomalous” at all.

These scale need to be understood as practical guides. When interpreted in

light of the canzonetta repertory for which they were designed, most of these

“anomalous” chords make sense. For example, the presence of E Major in both scale

represents the most frequent use of the pitch E in the bass, which is as the penultimate

chord of an E-A cadence. The F major in the scala per B quadro allows for an F

major–E major Phrygian cadence, not proper in terms of voice leading but common in

the solo guitar repertory.25

At the same time, a piece in B quadro would likely

contain a cadence to G, necessitating a D major chord, which is one of the most

common uses of the note D in the continuo in any case.

The relatively small number of final pitches per clef in this song repertory

makes such predictions possible. In accompanying song, guitarists seem to have

relied on various chord progressions that were commonly used in certain harmonic

contexts. The guitar dance-song repertory, which has been investigated in the

preceding chapters, can be described in terms of a set of “tonalities” based on the

final chord of a piece, each of which involve a limited number of small-scale

harmonic progressions proper to that “tonality.” These “tonalities” are best

exemplified by the alfabeto solo passacaglias, which outline I-IV-V-I progressions

starting on each chord in the alfabeto system. The relationship between such small-

scale progressions and the “tonalities” of the alfabeto song repertory is multifaceted,

25

See the discussion of the Phrygian cadence in Chapter 4, above, pp. 253-58.

298

for these progressions derive partly from the repertory of strummed Spanish dance

music, partly from their accessibility on the guitar, and partly from the theoretical

background of the composers whose songs are being accompanied. Since the

continuo lines are primarily unfigured in this song repertory, the composers had

certain expectations about what would happen in any given context. The alfabeto

scale show that those expectations cannot be completely explained by reference to

existing theoretical structures. Instead, the alfabeto editors and the guitarists they

catered to seem to have relied on various commonly understood cadential

progressions. It is no accident that the scale rely on the first eight alfabeto symbols

(A-H), which are the chords most commonly used in the strummed tradition and the

harmonies that would most naturally be chosen by a guitarist familiar with that

tradition.26

MODIFICATIONS TO THE SCALE DI MUSICA

The major difference between the scale di musica discussed above and the

règle de l’octave concerns the conceptual status of the notes presented in the bass. In

Campion’s règle, the ascending and descending bass line represents the “octave” of

the title. Campion refers to changing from one octave to another, a maneuver that we

would call modulation. His “octaves,” therefore, have a status equivalent to the keys

of functional harmonic tonality. To eighteenth-century theorists, as Christensen puts

it, “the règle de l’octave was seen as the most fundamental expression of

26

For more on the format of the alfabeto system see Chapter 2, above, pp. 107-11.

299

modulation.”27

The function of one harmony leading to the next in succession is vital

for this use of the règle, and this is exactly what is missing from the early scale di

musica. The scale are not meant to be played as a scale: certain chords in the scale

are there for the sake of cadential function, but the chord of resolution only follows

them in an actual musical context, not in the scale itself. However, certain

modifications to the scale began to appear as the century progressed, and had the

effect of gradually accommodating the scale to a functional conception of harmonic

motion such as that displayed by Campion’s règle.

These modifications were themselves rooted in practical necessity. Over the

course of the seventeenth century strummed guitar was incorporated more widely into

the written repertory, and the range of harmonic contexts for alfabeto became

broader. As a result, alfabeto editors and guitarists began to expand and modify the

scale to reflect this wider musical context. The earliest evidence of this trend is the

addition of chromatic bass notes to the scale, as seen in Marc’Antonio Aldigatti’s

Gratie et affetti amorosi (Venice: Magni, 1627) (Fig. 5.7). Aldigatti’s chart treats

chromatic bass notes as chord thirds, thus providing information on when to treat the

bass note as a leading tone to the next harmony. In short, the chart assigns a

dominant function to certain chords in the context of an ascending bass line. But

Aldigatti’s scale still mix together “dominant” chords from a variety of tonal centers.

A complete guide to assigning harmonic direction to any chord in the bass would

require more than the two categories of molle and quadro. In its ultimate expression

27

Christensen, “Règle de l’octave,” 115.

301

But in the meantime Italian guitarists continued to expand the scale, and the

implication of tonal function for chords within each scale became more pronounced.

Figure 5.8 reproduces two more guitar scale, one from Giovanni Battista Granata’s

1659 Soavi concenti and one from Francesco Corbetta’s 1643 Varii capricii. These

two guitarists adapted the basic alfabeto scala, taking it a step closer to Campion’s

règle. I have added modern chord symbols to Granata’s chart (in brackets). In both

books these scale are also supplemented by abstract chord tables, which give, for

example, suggested harmonies for sharp bass notes, flat bass notes, and so on. For

this reason the scale themselves no longer represent an attempt to support every

harmonic eventuality for each key signature, as do the chromatic scale from Aldigatti.

Also, some of the “anomalous” chords found in Vincenti’s scale, which were there to

provide dominants, have been relegated to the other chord tables in Granata and

Corbetta, leaving sets of chords in the scale that more closely resemble diatonic scale

harmonizations.

Granata and Corbetta’s scale hint at small-scale harmonic function from one

scale degree to the next, the very thing that the early scale lack in comparison with

Campion’s règle. Campion’s scales in the règle show harmonizations in the context

of ascending and descending bass lines, and therefore fix each specific harmony in

the context of a tonal center. As discussed above, it is this function that makes the

règle such an obvious precursor to functional harmonic tonality. Granata and

Corbetta also create this harmonic function at certain points in their scale, and they do

so by exploiting a timbral characteristic unique to the guitar. Full strummed chords

A)

B)

“per b quadro”

C)

D)

“Scala per b quadro”

Figure 5.8: Scale Harmonizations with

A) Scale di musica

B) Corbetta’s

“per b quadro”

C) Scale di musica

D) Granata’s

“Scala per b quadro”

Figure 5.8: Scale Harmonizations with

“per b molle”

Accompagnamento natural per b mol.

Scale di musica from Corbetta,

Corbetta’s scale transcribed

“per b quadro”

Scale di musica from Granata,

Granata’s scale transcribed

“Scala per b quadro”

Figure 5.8: Scale Harmonizations with

“per b molle”

Accompagnamento natural per b mol.

from Corbetta, Varii capricii

transcribed

Granata, Soavi concenti

transcribed

Figure 5.8: Scale Harmonizations with

Accompagnamento natural per b mol.

Varii capricii

Soavi concenti

Figure 5.8: Scale Harmonizations with Punteado

Accompagnamento natural per b mol.

(Milan: publisher unknown, 1643)

(Bologna: Monti,1659)

unteado Additions (Shown in Boxed Areas).

(Milan: publisher unknown, 1643)

(Bologna: Monti,1659)

Additions (Shown in Boxed Areas).

302

(Milan: publisher unknown, 1643)

Additions (Shown in Boxed Areas).

302

Additions (Shown in Boxed Areas).

303

on the guitar tend to obliterate any sense of chordal inversion, especially given the

octave stringing on the bass strings. But a punteado performance, where individual

strings are plucked, has the effect of bringing out those plucked notes, especially in

the context of an overall strummed performance. And Corbetta and Granata both take

pains to indicate certain scala chords in punteado tablature rather than alfabeto, and in

each case the result is a clear leading tone to the next chord. In Corbetta’s scale per b

molle this tablature substitution happens over the bass note E (see Fig. 5.8A, lower

stave, and the transcription in Fig. 5.8B).28

The tablature above this note consists of

the numbers 2, 1, and 3. The tablature 2 on the fourth course (the fourth line up)

indicates the note E, which functions as a leading tone to the following F major

chord. The use of punteado notation in the scala is a sign that the function of the

chord symbols was changing. Corbetta’s notational choice reflects his conception of

how the harmony on E functions in b. molle, which gives a specific function for a

specific bass note in the context of a key signature: a theoretical designation, in other

words, wherein the b. molle chiave takes on an abstract significance with

consequences for the interaction of the harmonies built on its scale degrees. This

theoretical conception of the key signature is a shift from the practical role b. molle

plays in Milanuzzi’s chart, where it was a merely an organizational convenience.

The same phenomenon is found in Granata’s scala per b quadro on the bass

note B (see Figures 5.8C and D, “scala per b quadro”): the 2 on the fifth course, that

28

Corbetta also uses punteado notation to provide a triadic version of the “L” chord

in addition to the standard chord shape; for more on the “L” chord see Chapter 3,

above.

304

is, the top line of the tablature, represents the note B, which stands out more as a

punteado intabulation than it would as a member of the strummed alfabeto G major

chord. Granata’s scala per b mol also includes intabulated chords for the bass notes

A and E. The A serves as a leading tone to the ensuing B-flat chord, and is

intabulated as a first-inversion F major, and the E serves as a leading tone to the F

major chord, being intabulated as a first-inversion C major chord. These two chords

underscore the transitional nature of these scale harmonizations. The categories of

“quadro” and “molle” are becoming more like “major” and “minor,” but they are not

yet identical. When seen in terms of diatonic harmony, Granata and Corbetta’s molle

scale present an odd hybrid of F major and A minor. The hybridized “tonality”

suggested by these scale are another example of the dynamic between small-scale

harmonic progression and large-scale harmonic context (as indicated by clef, key

signature, and final pitch) that characterizes the Italian guitar tradition.

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN THE FALSE CONSONANCES OF MUSICK

The importance of Nicola Matteis’s continuo tutor has been stressed in the

preceding chapter. Matteis, an Italian violinist and guitarist who moved to England in

the early 1670s, provides a link between the Italian guitar tradition and Campion’s

règle. In 1680 Matteis published a treatise on continuo playing, in Italian, entitled Le

false consonanse della musica, which was rewritten and published in English as The

False Consonances of Musick in 1682. Matteis’s work, which focuses on the guitar,

is “progressive” in relation to the development of functional harmonic tonality in that

his “molle” and “quadro” categories are directly translated into “major” and “minor.”

305

This translation is both literary and musical; that is, the Italian terms “molle” and

“quadro” from the 1680 book appear in English as “major” and “minor” in the 1682

book. Matties uses the English word “key” to replace “tuono,” “chiave,” and “modo”

at various points in the translation.29

His continuo realizations are almost entirely

congruent with Campion and Rameau’s treatises, although neither existed at the time.

But there is a “conservative” aspect to Matteis as well, for his treatise is

fundamentally rooted in the Italian, practical conception of harmony, and the basic

discrepancy between Italian practice and French/English theory still informs his

treatise.

Much of Matteis’s book is devoted to providing sample continuo realizations,

and it is here that his Italian musical style blends most seamlessly with major/minor

tonality. Figure 5.9 reproduces the first two pages from a section of short continuo

realizations, which Matteis prefaces with this information:

That you may learn easily and perfectly I have sett down a little example upon

every key of Musick that you may know in what place the naturall Six ought

to be given the aforesaid Sixt being markt with a Star. This example is very

convenient on any instrument to play ye thorough base in good order.

30

The examples cover eighteen major and minor tonalities, in the following order: G

major, G minor, A major, A minor, B minor, B major, B-flat major, C major, C

29

I made the comparison by reference to the manuscript copy of Le false consonanse

delle musica at Sibley Library, Rochester NY, call number ML 96.M435. 30

The False Consonsances of Musick (London: J. Carr, 1682), facsimile edition ed.

James Tyler (Monaco: Chanterelle, 1980), 48.

306

Figure 5.9: Matteis’s Examples “upon every key of Musick,” Excerpts with

Transcriptions. Note: in making these transcriptions I have assumed a guitar strung

with a bourdon only on the fourth course.

307

minor, D minor, D major, E minor, E major, E-flat major, F major, F minor, F-sharp

major, and F-sharp minor. At the end of the book are further examples in E-flat

minor, B-flat minor, A-flat major, and C-sharp minor, bringing the total up to twenty-

two. Matteis observes that in order to play these last on a keyboard, “tasti spezzati”

are needed (these being “broken” keys for playing notes that would be too far out of

tune on a standard keyboard.)31

At first sight Matteis’s examples seem as firmly

situated in the realm of functional tonality as Campion’s scales. As with Campion, he

covers (almost) all the major and minor keys and provides appropriate chords for bass

notes in each. One might even see Matteis’s examples as more useful than the règle,

since Campion’s examples only cover conjunct bass note movement, while Matteis’s

examples, short as they are, incorporate leaps and cadential patterns.

And yet the underlying discrepancy between chiave and “key” still remains in

Matteis tutor. His continuo realizations are tied completely to specific musical

contexts, and there is no attempt, in that section of the treatise, to present abstract

formulations that can be applied to any musical context. But a later section of the

book, the “Universal scale,” does attempt to present harmonic information in the

abstract. It is here that the conceptual disparity between molle/quadro and

major/minor becomes apparent.

The fourth part of the Matteis’s treatise contains a “Universal scale, where

you may easily find all the markes of accords and discords which in Musick may be

31

For a good summary of the relationship between various tuning systems at this time

period, see Ross Duffin, How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You

Should Care) (New York: Norton, 2007).

308

found.”32

The “Universal scale” is actually ten pages of intabulated harmonies on the

guitar. Each note of the scale is given a page wherein Matteis attempts to intabulate

every harmony that might be used over that bass note, arranged according to

increasing intervals above the bass (the first two pages are reproduced as Figs. 5.10A

and B). Chromatic bass notes are incorporated into the “scale” for the corresponding

diatonic note, as in the g-sharps in Figure 5.10A. As Christensen points out in his

discussion of Campion, such tables of chord figures arranged by increasing interval

sizes are commonplace in eighteenth-century sources.33

An early example can be

found in Denis Delair’s 1690 treatise. A look at Delair’s book, however, shows

something much simpler than Matteis’s ten pages of chord figures (Figure 5.11).

Delair is content to show examples of each interval using an empty signature; his

examples are given in a narrow context of 4 to 9 measures, and cadence on the

pitches F, C, E, A, or D.

By contrast, Matteis’s “Scale” is an attempt to present each harmony in

context of a key signature and bass note, but completely outside the context of motion

from one bass note to another. Unlike Campion and Delair, the chords in Matteis’s

“Scale” are not meant to be read from left to right. Instead, they are to be consulted

as an abstract table for individual harmonies, which are grouped according to

“maggiore” and “minore” key signatures. In other words, Matteis supposes that the

performer will know whether his piece is in “maggiore” or “minore,” and will then be

able to consult the appropriate page of the “Universal scale.”

32

Nicola Matteis, The False Consonances, 81. 33

Christensen, “The ‘Regle de l’Octave’,” 94.

313

Figure 5.11: Continuo Realizations Arranged by Interval in Delair, Traité

d’accompagnement (Paris, 1690) (cont. on next page.)

314

Figure 5.11: Continuo Realizations Arranged by Interval in Delair, Traité

d’accompagnement (cont.)

Unfortunately, the only way to make this work would be the application of a

theoretical framework, such as Rameau’s, in which harmonies can be arranged

hierarchically around a tonic. Instead, Matteis’s “Scale” mirrors the format of the

earlier Italian scale di musica, replacing molle and quadro with “maggiore” and

“minore.” Since Matteis’s chord charts are also arranged by ascending bass note,

each page winds up divided into two “keys.” In Figure 5.10B, for example, the charts

are labeled “In Alamire,” (for the bass note A) “maggiore” and “minore.” His

adoption of the English major/minor concept is also explicit in his introduction to the

Scale, which states that “When you play upon a key that has a third Major you may

use ye first two lines . . . and when you play upon a key that has a third Minor you

315

must use ye two second lines.”

34 In this his “Universal scale” mirrors the set up of his

continuo realizations, which are also explicitly labeled as being in a major or minor

key, with “key” referring to the key signature in combination with the final harmony.

The problem with the “Universal scale” is that Matteis confounds the idea of

sharp intervals above a bass note with the idea of a major key. Any major or minor

key, of course, contains harmonies with both major and minor intervals above the

bass. But taking Matteis at his word would mean choosing the upper stave of his

scale when playing in a major key even if the bass note requires a minor interval in

that key. For instance, when presented with an A in the bass in the key of C major,

one should look at the “Alamire maggiore” staff to find the chord, because, according

to Matteis, when playing in a major key the upper staff of the Scale should be used.

There one finds harmonies with major thirds and sixths above the note A, which

should in fact be minor to match the key of C major. Matteis’s “Universal scale” is a

striking example of the state of harmonic practice in England just as the theoretical

concepts of functional harmonic tonality were taking shape. Although the idea of

organizing chords according to major and minor keys is clearly evident in his tutor,

the actual choice of harmony is still subject to immediate harmonic context, and

Matteis’s attempt to create a universal, abstract reference tool fails in the absence of

an all-encompassing theory of chordal function.

In one sense, Matteis’s work is the last expression of the Italian guitar

tradition before its assimilation into major/minor tonality. The False Consonances is

34

Matteis, False Consonances, 81.

316

a large-scale example of the polarization between practice and theory that

characterized the five-course guitar tradition. Matteis’s continuo realizations, which

are like small pieces of music, clearly present a practical, diatonic method of

accompaniment on the guitar in almost every major and minor key. And yet his

“Universal scale,” which attempts to present harmonies outside the boundaries of

concrete musical examples, is a confusing assemblage of chords in which harmonic

function is not reflected by the organizational scheme. Campion escaped this

dilemma by keeping his règle firmly in the realm of the practical. Like Matteis’s

continuo realizations, Campion’s scales are to be read from left to right, and each

chord obtains a harmonic function in relation to the succeeding chord. Campion’s

scales therefore exist in the practical realm, a series of notes on the page, to be played

like any other piece of music. And yet, having chosen the scale as the basis of his

practical examples, Campion pointed the way toward the scale as a harmonic

abstraction, underlying and ordering the relationships among all its constituent

harmonies. It would fall to Rameau, however, to formulate the abstract theory that

would bridge the gap between practice and theory, allowing the scale to function fully

as an abstraction, which in combination with the key signature, could be presented as

a system of fundamental principles rather than as a list of examples.

CONCLUSION

I do not intend to represent Matteis’s “Universal scale” merely as a failure to

achieve functional diatonic harmony. To do so would miss a fundamental truth about

the seventeenth century; namely, that harmonic practice was not only in a constant

317

state of flux but also in a constant state of balance. For any given repertory, in any

given performance context, there was a mutual relationship between composition and

performance practice. Composers made choices about notation with specific

expectations about how that notation would be interpreted, and performers responded

to notational innovations by adapting their performance practices accordingly. Just as

in the natural world, “evolution” in musical practice is not a progression towards a

goal but evidence of a constantly changing environment in which at any given time

various opposing forces stand in perfect balance against each other.

Certainly, anomalous or obsolete musical and theoretical sources can suggest

an imbalance in history, where theory seems to have temporarily outpaced practice, or

vice-versa, and composers, pedagogues, or theorists in turn can seem to be faltering in

their attempts to “catch up.” But this is a distortion stemming from our historical

perspective. When musical notation exhibits irregularities that cannot be explained

according to an existing framework, we are seeing notated evidence of pressure on

one side of the equation. The historian’s task is to hypothesize the balancing forces

on the other side of the equation. After all, the actual musical environment of the past

was not unbalanced or corrupt, but existed exactly as it was at the time, always

slightly out of reach of the modern eye.

For example, the “guitar villanellas” from Naples and Rome present certain

problems in their notation: the alfabeto is impractical, unwieldy, and does not seem to

match the composer’s intentions. From our point-of-view the notation is a step

behind the performance. But the symbols in these early sources are evidence of the

318

role of the guitar as it intersected with the role of the printed score in that particular

social context. When seen in this light, the guitar villanella alfabeto symbols are a

specific and exact representation of that particular relationship. Alfabeto symbols in

these books reflect an interest in the guitar which was itself symbolic; the practical

issue of strummed accompaniment to three-voice canzonettas is hinted at but not

directly described by this notation. The actual performance practice must be

hypothesized by the historian, and a complete understanding of the role of alfabeto

notation in all its impracticality is part of that process.

Thus, seemingly problematic or imprecise aspects of guitar notation can be

turned into historical tools, levers for prying open the otherwise unseen realm of

orally transmitted performance practice. The idiosyncrasies of alfabeto notation

reveal a period of great ferment in the relationship between composition and

performance. Semi-literate guitarists did not affect musical composition by evolving

into more perfect beings, learning to read music and applying the rules of

counterpoint to their craft, but by playing contrapuntally conceived music according

to their own assumptions and heritage. Composers responded by adopting certain

musical markers for a whiff of the popular in their pieces. The mid-seventeenth

century canzonetta repertory reflects a shifting cultural and musical landscape, but

each canzonetta is a snapshot of that changing environment, a stable cross-section of

an unstable mixture of musical practices. Certain strata appear more or less clearly in

the surviving songs: the dilettante singer/guitarist, the trained harpsichordist or

theorbist, the noble patron, the paying consumer of printed music—all these leave

319

their mark on the printed page. And the relative importance of each will wane or

grow in the light of historical perspective, as the surrounding structures of opera,

cantata, and harmonic theory cast their shadows on the mix.

Therefore the extent of the guitar’s influence on functional harmonic tonality

is not the only question, or even the main question. Having established that the

seventeenth-century, from a modern perspective, can be described in terms of the

development of functional tonality, how can we apply that description towards a

better understanding of musical practice at any given point in that development?

Here sources like Matteis’s “Universal scale,” the hybrid scale di musica of Granata

and Corbetta, and Palumbi’s idiosyncratic numerical alfabeto symbols take on their

true importance. The process, rather than the outcome, is the only true subject of

historical research; after all, we never really “get there,” only to another stage in

another process. Like so many other aspects of the Western classical musical

tradition, functional harmonic tonality developed as a mixture of practices, practices

rooted in social and cultural relationships between musicians and repertories. With

this in mind, we may return to Sancho Panza’s barber, as he strums and sings his

passacalles, and greet him as the unlikely herald of the august theoretical structures

that dominate the common practice repertory.