Without clefs and key signatures, there would appear to be no basis for rationalizing music on the printed page. But would it be possible to determine which clefs and key signatures are in force without their actual inclusion in the score? I believe so.
Schubert wrote hundreds of dances for solo piano throughout his life. One of these miniature gems, an ‘Ecossaise’, appears above. We can assume that the clefs are either bass below treble, two trebles or two basses inasmuch as most two-staff music is written for either a keyboard instrument or the harp. Trying out the bass/treble combination first would reveal that the music is in one of these four keys: A flat major, A flat minor, A major or A minor. The two minor keys can be ruled out because they would require an accidental to indicate the leading tone at least. As for A flat major and A major, there is no evidence on the first system in support of either one, but on the second system, four accidentals appear - A natural, A flat, G flat and E natural - clearly revealing the tonality to be A flat major.
The three [not four] chromatic pitches in this piece are all structural: A natural is part of the dominant of ii, G flat is part of the dominant 7th of IV, and E natural belongs to the dominant of vi. The A flat is obviously a cancellation of the preceding A natural, but its inclusion here is appropriate even though the A natural occurs two measures earlier and in a different octave register.
This is obviously not a complex example. In subsequent posts, I will put up excerpts in two, three, four, five and more staves.
Upcoming posts: a Bach autograph, Transposition of Vocal Music, Music Critics, Fixed vs. Moveable Do, Rhythmic Grouping: Bar Line Displacement
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