Meine Seele erhebt den Herren by J.S. Bach
Not a Duck--but sure can quack!
There's this funny little tune with a funny little name: 'Tonus Peregrinus', or 'Wandering Psalm Tone'. This type of tone lies outside the classical system of eight psalm tones, and is peculiar because its 'reciting tone'--the pitch which is sung repeatedly in each phrase--is different for the first and second half of each two-phrase verse.
You can find out more information here, and at the link (if you scroll down a bit) you'll see the tone in notation. Notice all those repeated 'A's in that first line, and compare with the repeated G's in the second line. That's what's unusual about this renegade psalm tone. In all the other notes, that note--the reciting tone--is the same in each phrase.
Sing it a few times to get the feel of it.
Because the pitch 'wanders' (always downward, by the way; wandering apparently leads to degradation), it earned its name fair and square. As is the case with the other tones, each verse of a psalm or Magnificat can be sung to the tune, which is repeated for each verse, with the varying number of syllables accommodated on the reciting tone.
What's so important about this particular Tonus Peregrinus (there are actually a number of them)? Somewhere in the early days of Lutheranism, this wandering tone became standard for the singing of the Magnificat in German, so we hear it a lot in that context. And then, simple as it is, it did what many tunes are wont to do: It became untethered from its original mooring and began to be used in divers situations, both vocal and instrumental.
Wanting to grow up and be a chorale, it just started quacking.
It's an eye-opener to scroll through the many chorale tunes available at this link (yes, I actually do this), and come across this one. Somehow it doesn't seem long enough, or song-like enough, to be a chorale. But it sure can serve (as chorales do) as basic melodic fodder for any number of musical structures!
Note: I am purposely not providing scores for the pieces below.
The idea is to use your ears (with the help of certain hints) to find the tune in its many guises. It'll be fun!
Take Bach's Cantata 10: 'Meine Seele erhebt den Herren', a German versified version of the Magnificat (with certain added glosses, observations and exegesis). In this piece, we hear the Tonus Peregrinus three different times,
in three different guises:
--As a long-note soprano melody over faster-moving lower parts, accompanied by what amounts to a concerto grosso;
--As a long-note trumpet melody which adorns an alto-tenor duet like a crown;
--As a melodic line on top of a more-or less homophonic texture--in fact, a 'Bach chorale'.
The tune appears again in Bach's Magnificat, played by the trumpet in the early version over the ethereal treble trio.
(The trumpet, by the way, with its time-honored regal association, reminds us that that the promise of a King shall now be honored.)
Here's the tune on top of the texture again in independent chorales BWV 323 and BWV 324.
And check out what Bach does with it in two organ pieces:
--BWV 648, which, along with the more famous 'Wachet auf' (performed here by our friend Rodney Gehrke), is one of the Schübler chorales which Bach arranged from cantata movements--this one from BWV 10:5, see above;
--BWV 733 for 'organo pleno', in which the tone is heard in the manuals at the outset, divagates through the texture, and then is heard dramatically in the pedals here.
So there's some musical-Easter-egg hunting to occupy your time between doom-scrolling
and catching up on episodes of 'Friends'!
Coming up tomorrow (or, as it may turn out, Saturday): The Strange Adventures of Allegri's Miserere.
Not a Duck--but sure can quack!
There's this funny little tune with a funny little name: 'Tonus Peregrinus', or 'Wandering Psalm Tone'. This type of tone lies outside the classical system of eight psalm tones, and is peculiar because its 'reciting tone'--the pitch which is sung repeatedly in each phrase--is different for the first and second half of each two-phrase verse.
You can find out more information here, and at the link (if you scroll down a bit) you'll see the tone in notation. Notice all those repeated 'A's in that first line, and compare with the repeated G's in the second line. That's what's unusual about this renegade psalm tone. In all the other notes, that note--the reciting tone--is the same in each phrase.
Sing it a few times to get the feel of it.
Because the pitch 'wanders' (always downward, by the way; wandering apparently leads to degradation), it earned its name fair and square. As is the case with the other tones, each verse of a psalm or Magnificat can be sung to the tune, which is repeated for each verse, with the varying number of syllables accommodated on the reciting tone.
What's so important about this particular Tonus Peregrinus (there are actually a number of them)? Somewhere in the early days of Lutheranism, this wandering tone became standard for the singing of the Magnificat in German, so we hear it a lot in that context. And then, simple as it is, it did what many tunes are wont to do: It became untethered from its original mooring and began to be used in divers situations, both vocal and instrumental.
Wanting to grow up and be a chorale, it just started quacking.
It's an eye-opener to scroll through the many chorale tunes available at this link (yes, I actually do this), and come across this one. Somehow it doesn't seem long enough, or song-like enough, to be a chorale. But it sure can serve (as chorales do) as basic melodic fodder for any number of musical structures!
Note: I am purposely not providing scores for the pieces below.
The idea is to use your ears (with the help of certain hints) to find the tune in its many guises. It'll be fun!
Take Bach's Cantata 10: 'Meine Seele erhebt den Herren', a German versified version of the Magnificat (with certain added glosses, observations and exegesis). In this piece, we hear the Tonus Peregrinus three different times,
in three different guises:
--As a long-note soprano melody over faster-moving lower parts, accompanied by what amounts to a concerto grosso;
--As a long-note trumpet melody which adorns an alto-tenor duet like a crown;
--As a melodic line on top of a more-or less homophonic texture--in fact, a 'Bach chorale'.
The tune appears again in Bach's Magnificat, played by the trumpet in the early version over the ethereal treble trio.
(The trumpet, by the way, with its time-honored regal association, reminds us that that the promise of a King shall now be honored.)
Here's the tune on top of the texture again in independent chorales BWV 323 and BWV 324.
And check out what Bach does with it in two organ pieces:
--BWV 648, which, along with the more famous 'Wachet auf' (performed here by our friend Rodney Gehrke), is one of the Schübler chorales which Bach arranged from cantata movements--this one from BWV 10:5, see above;
--BWV 733 for 'organo pleno', in which the tone is heard in the manuals at the outset, divagates through the texture, and then is heard dramatically in the pedals here.
So there's some musical-Easter-egg hunting to occupy your time between doom-scrolling
and catching up on episodes of 'Friends'!
Coming up tomorrow (or, as it may turn out, Saturday): The Strange Adventures of Allegri's Miserere.