Morley - Phillis I faine wold die now
LAM 04 Page 7
This page was last edited on 16/01/06
TOPICS TO RESEARCH [Revision points are marked with *]
- Morley
- Madrigal - Italian origins + English Elizabethan
- Late Renaissance secular vocal music
- Polychoral Music
- * Antiphony
- * False Relation
- * Tierce de Picardie [see how it is often contradicted in LAM 4]
- * Consonant 4th Cadence [Important!]
- * Dorian Mode [It is transposed to G in LAM 4 and 7th is often sharp, while 6th is flat. This suggests G minor to us.
- * Hence, know about emergent Diatonic Tonality
A few notes
This is a long work and revision of it may be daunting. You cannot know everything, but you should try to understand the main points.
- 7 voices, 3 = high for Phillis, 4 = low for Amintas.
- You need to be aware of the two meanings of the word "die".
- Note the mock-tragedy of some passages.
- The 2 choirs are kept apart while the characters flirt and argue, but they come together (no pun intended) in the 7-voice homophonic at the end.
- In your revision you should look at the way the words fall on the metrical accents in some places, but not in others.
- Note syncopation, dance-like effects, and the contrast of note values between the two lovers.
- There is a lot of step-wise melody, leaps are treated in a conventional way. [Do you know what that means?]
- The bass part is a foundation for the harmony.
- Try to understand/remember the use of root chords or first inversions and be ready to know which notes they are built upon.
- Find some dissonances (2nds, 4ths and 7th) and note that they are used as suspensions.
- Obviously, the use of different textures is significant in this piece and you ought to know how these relate to the text.
Questions
1. Define and precisely illustrate each of the following:-
| a | False Relation (Musica Ficta) |
| b | Consonant 4th Cadence |
| c | Tierce de Picardie |
| d | 7-6 Suspension |
| e | Antiphony |
2. Identify and illustrate key features of this madrigal which indicate it to be a late
Renaissance work.
3. Describe Morley's treatment of dissonance in the cadence in bars 54 - 74.
Give the bar numbers in which a similarly dissonant cadence occurs on page 14. [1991]
4. Show how, by means of contrasting textures and dissonance, Morley expresses
the meaning of the text. [1991
5. Comment upon the relationship between the music and the text. What musical devices
(other than those you have mentioned in Question 3) does Morley employ to illustrate
and evoke the sentiments expressed?
6. Describe the way in which Morley uses imitation.
7. What use does Morley make of suspensions?