Holborne Pavane 'The image of melancholy' and Galliard 'Ecce quam bonum'

Holborne Pavane 'The image of melancholy' and Galliard 'Ecce quam bonum'

1. Texture

   • Five-part polyphonic
   • imitation between parts
     • Bar 1, beat 2: first bass viol imitates first treble viol
     • Bar 18, beat 1: second treble viol imitates first treble viol
   • The five instruments mainly keep to their own tier within the texture
     • Exceptions are in bars 35-36 and 41-42 of the Pavan, where the tenor viol part goes above both the treble viols.
   • Bar 17 of Galliard, the tenor viol imitates the first treble viol at a distance of one beat, while the first bass viol begins with the descending scale, and then has the leap of a fourth and descending scale in bar 18.

2. Structure and Tonality

   • Each movement has three repeated sections (or 'strains')
   • Pavan

3. 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 a logical harmonic structure, particularly at the cadences
   • Linear approach
   • Accented and unaccented passing notes
     • accented in the Pavan, bar 1 with the C sharp in the first treble viol
     • unaccented in the Galliard, bar 1, with the D in the first treble viol
   • Suspensions
     • Pavan Bar 3, 7-6 suspension in the first treble viol part
     • Bar 5, 4-3 suspension in the second treble viol part
   • False relation occurs in the Pavan at bar 11 (tenor viol C sharp beat 1, first treble viol C natural beat 2)

4. Melody

   • Stepwise
     • Intervals are never wider than a perfect fifth except for the occasional use of an octave
       • Vocal in character
         • In the Pavan, the first treble viol part has an overall compass of a ninth. In the Galliard, this is even narrower - a seventh.
   • Some inversion of melodic figures.
     • Bars 17-19 (first treble and tenor viol) and 24-26 (treble, tenor and first bass)
   • Conjunct melodic writing.
     • In the first treble viol part, there is only one non-conjunct interval in the first strain of the Pavan and only two in the second

5. Rhythm and Metre

   • Pavan in duple time and Galliard in triple
   • Rhythmic character of the two movements differs considerably, reflecting the very different moods of each one
   • Within each part, rhythmic patterns are rarely repeated from one bar to the next
   • resembles writing for voices
   • Galliard has extensive use of dotted crotchet-quaver rhythms in the first strain
   • Bar 13 of Galliard all five parts have the same rhythm (homorhythm).
   • 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 Galliard typified by use of a hemiola pattern. Other examples include bars 14-15 and 22-23