Holborne- Pavane and Galliard

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Texture

  • five part polyphonic, with imitation between the parts but no complete series of imitative entries like a fugue or fugato
  • the parts rarely cross over, but it does occur in bars 35-36 and 41-42 where the tenor viol goes higher than the treble viols
  • imitation can be seen in bar 1 beat 2 where the first bass viol imitates the first treble viol
  • In the third strain, the same five note figure is used extensively here; also the suspension figure from the first section is shown in bar 42
  • In bar 17, the tenor viol imitates the first treble viol at a distance of one beat, while the first bass viol begins a descending scalic passage
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Structure and Tonality

  • The pavane goes through the main keys of G, A and D major. (D, A, D) and concludes with a perfect cadence
  • Each movement has three repeated sections (or strains)
  • the first strain is 16 bars, the second is 17 bars, and the third is 26 bars
  • The galliard also has three strains, each 8 bars long.
  • the first strain is mainly in Dorian Mode (the seventh is sharpened - the final chord is tierce de picardie)
  • The second strain has a tonal centre of D major but as a phrygian cadence in D minor
  • The third strain actually starts ambigously in F major, briefly moves to C major (21-22) before returning to D minor at bar 23 for the final cadence
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Harmony

  • The harmonic character of the music is largely created by the polyphonic movement of the parts, though at times there is a strong sense of logical harmonic structure, shown mainly at the cadence points
  • Harmonic devices such as accented passing notes e.g bar 1 in the pavane with C# in the first treble viol, unaccented in the Galliard with a D in bar 1
  • In bar 5 of the pavane, the second treble viol part, the G has been prepared at bar 4, beat 2 creating a 4-3 suspension
  • Some tied notes produce unexpected harmonic effects without producing dissonances. An example of this is the F# in the tenor viol part at bar 3 beat 1 where the expected chord of A and E is delayed until the second crotchet beat
  • A false relation in bar 11 (tenor C#, treble viol C)
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Melody

  • The melodic writing is largely conjunct, but particularly so in the 1st treble viol where this is only one non-conjunct interval in the first strain of the Pavane and one two in the second
  • Where there are melodic leaps, there are never bigger than a perfect 5th except for the occassional use of an octave - the writing is declamatory 
  • The second bass viol part is similar to baroque bass lines with more use of pedal points and leaps of 4ths and 5ths (in the Pavane)
  • There is use of inversion of melodic figures; this can be seen in the Pavane in the first strain after the descending lines of the opening bass viol part has a rising scale form bar 6 which is then picked up by the first bass viol in bar 8 and the tenor viol in bar 10
  • The melodic shape of the first treble viol part from 29-32 is also the shape of the cadence figure (it's similar) at bars 7-8 and 22-24 of the Galliard
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Rhythm and Metre

  • The pavane is in 2/2 (duple) and the galliard in 3/2 (triple)
  • In the pavane, the top four parts move smoothly, with combinations mainly of crotchets, minims and dotted minims
  • The galliard has extensive use of dotted crotchet-quaver rhythms in the first strain
  • The galliard has in bars 1-2 and 5-6, examples of very close rhythmic imitation which give the feel of syncopation (first treble and bass parts)
  • Bars 6-7 of the Galliard are typified by use of a hemiola pattern (three bars of duple time rather than two of triple time) 
  • Hemiolas occur at the end of each of the other two strains
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