A2 Music (Edexcel) - Holbornes Pavane

Please note that the superscript (that would usually refer to beat number) isn't very clear. The superscripted numbers are a bit smaller, so try to not to get confused with b.1 beat 3 and bar 13!

Context

A pavane is a moderately slow dance, in duple time. It was stately and processional, and was danced by couples. The title of this piece, 'The image of melancholy', may represent the grief suffered by Holborne’s patron, who lost 3 family members in one year. This extract is an example of chamber music, which was performed at home for listening to (not dancing!!) for entertainment rather than in public.

Forces

The music wasn't written to be idiomatic. This means that the music was written so any group of instruments could play it- to maximise the amount of people who bought the sheet music. It is idiomatic as it uses a minimal tessitura, and it doesn’t use instrument specific techniques or markings on the music. On this recording it is a consort of viols, but it could be equally played on recorders or flutes.

Melody

The melody is mainly conjunct; which means that the music moves by step. The stepwise descent from tonic to dominant represents the 'melancholy', for example in bar 1-2¹ in part 1. The opening of section B is adapted from the opening of section A-…