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Earlier versions of this article were read at the Tonal Structures in Early Music Conference
held at the University of Pennsylvania,29-30 March 1996; and at the Seventh Biennial Con-
ference on Baroque Music at the University of Birmingham, U.K., 7 July 1996. I would like
to thank Professors Harold S. Powers and Jessie Ann Owens for their comments and sug-
gestions.
1. See, among others, Dennis Libby, "Interrelationships in Corelli," this Journal 26
(1973): 263-87: "Very often one feels that the music is similar to something used elsewhere
because it is the underlying harmonic progression and the way that it fits into the overall tonal
format that reallyinterests Corelli much more than the surfacecharacterof the music. Corelli's
tendency to systematization and self-limitation in his tonal and harmonic procedures, as in
others, helps to make this all very evident in the music. However, it was in this very system-
atization, while many of his contemporaries were casting about more experimentally in var-
ious directions, that Corelli created the basis of his later historical standing as one of the
'realizers'of tonality" (p. 267).
[Journalof theAmericanMusicological
Society1998, vol. 51, no. 2]
? 1998 by the AmericanMusicologicalSociety. All rights reserved.0003-0139/98/5102-0002$2.00
Example 1 Arcangelo Corelli, Sonate d tre, Op. 1 (Rome: Mutij, 1681), Sonata quarta,
fourth movement
(a) Mm. 1-10
Presto
Violino .
primo
Violino
secondo
VioloneO6'd
Arcileuto
.ifl .
Organo
6 6 6 6 5 6 7 6 7 6 7 6
7 6 7 6 6 7 6 6
Example 1 continued
(b) Mm. 31-end
31
6.r.Id
6
1 b
6
616
6 4 4 #
35Adagio
64
f
e -- f
6 6 6 6 1
l ?--I? -
i#4
-0
,1
P'
I
7.1,
2. Giulio Cesare Arresti, Sonate a 2, et a tre, Op. 4 (Venice: Gardano, 1665); and Gio-
vanni Maria Bononcini, Sonateda chiesa,Op. 6 (Venice: Gardano, 1672). Full bibliographic
listings of all known prints of seventeenth-century Italian instrumental music are compiled
in Claudio Sartori,Bibliografiadella musicastrumentaleitaliana stampatain Italiafino al 1700,
2 vols. (Florence: Olschki, 1952-68). Sartori's entries include transcriptions of title pages,
dedications, prefaces, and tables of contents. The listings for Arresti'sOpus 4 and Bononcini's
Opus 6 in Sartori'sBibliografiaare 1665e and 1672a.
124 Allegro
Violino
primo i
Violino
secondo ___.."
AltoViola 7
Violone
___--
Tiorba
o _: _
Contrabasso _. Ia
n 4 3
Orgno o I. I" 4 3
I
128 Finale
p I 6 I #6 6
[
6 6
t#6
to Bononcini'sandArresti'ssonatas,however,somegeneral
proceeding
willserveas a usefulguidein theensuingdiscus-
on terminology
remarks
sion.
of theseicentomostoftenreliedonthesingletermtuono(ortono)
Theorists
to describeseveraldistinctnotionsof tonalorganization.By contrast,I use
threetermsin thisstudyto referto one or anothermeaningof tuono:to-
nality, churchkey,and mode.Tonality, such as E-tonality or G-tonality, most
simply describes a tonal center, or final, and a collection of related pitches
as indicated by a key signature. It largely coincides with our term key, ex-
cept that tonality here connotes a broader idea: key, used by itself, implies
one of the twenty-four major/minor keys, whereas tonality signifies an or-
ganization of pitches and a tonal procedure not necessarily pertaining to
the modern tonal system.
The church keys comprise a collection of tonalities - that is, a set of tonal
centers plus key signatures--that were enumerated in treatises throughout
the century.3 Although known as tuoni among seventeenth-century theo-
rists, church keys are not modes: they originated in a specific musical prac-
tice, not in theory as did the twelve modes; they are eight in number, not
twelve; and they do not conform to the rules of polyphonic modality,
such as the proper use of a particularspecies of perfect fourth and fifth in
each mode. Instead, the church keys arose as tonalities meant for the poly-
phonic setting of the psalm tones, which became more and more prevalent
throughout the seventeenth century in Catholic offices, particularlyin lav-
ish Vespers settings.4 Drawing on the only availabletheory that described
3. The use of the term church key originates with Joel Lester, "The Recognition of
Major and Minor Keys in German Theory: 1680-1730,"Journal ofMusic Theory22 (1978):
65-103. That articleand his "Major-MinorConcepts and Modal Theory in Germany: 1592-
1680" (this Journal 30 [1977]: 208-53) have since been combined and expanded as Lester's
BetweenModes and Keys: German Theory,1592-1802 (Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon Press,
1989); there he explains that the term is a translation of Adriano Banchieri's "Otto Tuoni
spettanti al canto fermo ecclesiastico,"which refers to the eight psalm tones of sacred psalm-
ody (pp. 78-79).
4. Michael R. Dodds ("Tonal Types and Modal Equivalence in Two Keyboard Cycles by
Murschhauser,"in Tonal Structuresin EarlyMusic, ed. Cristle Collins Judd [New York: Gar-
land, 1998], 341-72) provides a clear and succinct explanation of how the church keys came
to assume their standardized form in the early seventeenth century: "The church keys origi-
nated in the alternatim performance of psalms and canticles in Catholic offices, especially the
office of Vespers. In this performance tradition, the psalm or canticle, preceded by an anti-
phon and followed by an antiphon or antiphon substitute, was performed in verse-by-verse
alternation between two contrasting performance styles. These could be plainchant (with or
without accompaniment); polyphonic organ versets; and monodic versets for one or more
soloists. In order to bring the psalm tones into a comfortable tessitura for the choir, musicians
over time developed more or less standardtranspositions for certain of them. In addition, they
generally treated the psalm tones' last pitch as the final--a pitch class different, in some cases,
from the final of the corresponding mode" (p. 342).
5. Giovanni Maria Bononcini, Musicoprattico, Op. 8 (Bologna: Giacomo Monti, 1673;
facs. ed., Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1969), 121: "I1trattarede i Tuoni, 6 Modi e materia assai
difficile per la diversita dell'opinioni, tanto nel numero loro, quanto nel nome."
With respect to Bononcini's use of the terms modoand tuono,it should be pointed out that
late seicento theorists used them interchangeably.Under the heading "Nomi diversi di tuoni;
6 modi" ("Diverse names of the tuoni or modi"), Angelo Berardi (Miscellaneamusicale [Bo-
logna: Giacomo Monti, 1689], 174) explains the various names given to the modes: "Altri
l'hanno chiamati Armonie, alcuni Tropi, e diversi l'hanno nominati Sistemati" ("Others have
called them Armonie, others Tropi, and others have designated them Sistemati"). Lorenzo
Penna (Li primi alborimusicali [Bologna: Giacomo Monti, 1672; facs. ed., Bologna: Forni,
1969], 128-32) does not use the term modo,but refersto the same theory of modal categories
by using the term tuono (p. 128): "Questi Tuoni sono chiamati Armoniali, formati di un
Diapente, cioe di una quinta, e di un Diatesseron, cioZ di una quarta, quali insieme formano
un Diapason, cioe un ottava. .... Questi Tuoni dunque Armoniali, prima furono quattro; poi
otto; e finalemente sono stati ampliati al numero di dodici" ("These Tuoni are called Armo-
niali, being formed by aDiapente, that is, a fifth, and by aDiatesseron,that is, a fourth, which
together form a Diapason, that is, an octave. ... These Tuoni or Armoniali were originally
four, then eight, and then were finally amplified to twelve").
6. Berardi,Miscellaneamusicale, 174: "Non bisogna maravigliarsi,se detti modi furono
chiamati diversamente, mentre sono stati differentemente considerati, e rivoltati dal grave
all'acuto, & e contra."
7. SeeUrsulaBrett,MusicandIdeasin Seventeenth-Century
Italy:TheCazzati-Arresti
Po-
lemic,2 vols. (New York: Garland, 1989). There is, in fact, little to learn about modal theory
in the polemic that arose between Cazzati and his colleague Giulio Cesare Arresti, since each
participant exploited the differing theoretical opinions to his own advantage.
8. MaurizioCazzati,Risposta dal SignorGiulioCesareArrestinellalet-
alleoppositionifatte
tera al lettorepostanell'operasua musicale(Bologna: Per gli HH. del Dozza, 1663), 1: "Molti
Autori discorrono sopra li tuoni, & in particolare il Zarlino nella Quarta parte del suo libro
cap. 28. car. 320. espressamentedice esservene dodici. II Zagoni pure nel suo Libro intitolato
PRATICA DI MUSICA lib. 4. cap. 12 car. 199. afferma anch'egli esservene dodici. Pietro
Pontio nel suo Ragionamento Terzo car. 99. dice esservene solo otto. L'Angleria anch'egli
nella sua Regola di Contrapunto cap. 22. car. 8. tiene la medema opinione, che otto solo sijno
li tuoni,e diceche moltihannoscrittodellaformatione, de'tuoni,mdI'unodall'altro
e cognitione
confusamente, eperquestomoltinonintendano di chetuonosia unaCantilena,in vederla,e manco
in sentirlasolamente."
9. Angelo Berardi (IIperchi musicaleoverostaffettaarmonica [Bologna: Giacomo Monti,
1693], 37-44 and 53-55) includes two brief chapters devoted to the modes: one furnishes
examples of clausulae in each of the twelve modes; the other explains modal transpositions.
His earliertreatise,Miscellaneamusicale,contains a more thorough presentation of the modes,
including a discussion of their history (pp. 168-94).
10. While Brett (Musicand Ideas) provides an account of and commentary on the Cazzati-
Arresti polemic, she does not touch on the sonatas of Arresti's Opus 4.
Table lb Giovanni Maria Bononcini, Musico prattico, Op. 8 (Bologna: Giacomo Monti,
1673)
*Interval species:
primotuono:
nellesuecorde
naturali110
untuonopiuibasso
allaterza bassa
settimotuono:
una quarta
piii basso
undecimotuono:
un tuonopii alto t
1 11 C - -
2 12 F b J P5
3 11 Bb H
bb M2
4 11 D ## t M2
5 8 A ## t M2
6 10 e # 1 P4
7 9 b ## tM2
8 8 G - -
9 1 d - -
10 1 c bb 1 M2
11 2 g 6 t P4
12 12 Eb bb t m3
Key
Tuono Final signature Transposition
1 d -
2 g b tP4
10 (replaces modes 3 & 4) a - -
11 (replaces mode 5) C - -
12 (replaces mode 6) F , P5
J
9 (replaces mode 7) d b P5
8 G - -
Table 4a Giulio Cesare Arresti, Sonate a 2 et a tre, Op. 4 (Venice: Gardano, 1665)
1 1 d -
2 2 g
3 3 a
4 4 e
5 5 C
6 6 F
7 7 D
8 8 G
9 9 d ,
10 10 A ##
11 11 E ###
12 12 c b
Table 4b The Modes of Dodecachordal Theory Represented as Tonalities (cf. Table 4a)
1 d
2 d
3 e
4 e
5 F
6 F
7 G
8 G
9 a
10 a
11 C
12 C
15. In contrast with Bononcini's use of a minor-third tonality for mode 7, Arresti used a
major-third tonality. This particular difference between the two composers reflects the un-
usually diverse set of tonal criteriaused by seicento theorists and composers to representmode
7. See Tables 5 and 6, for example, which show five different types of mode (or tuono) 7.
1 d - d - d - d - d -
2 g b g b gb g b g b
3 a- a- a- a- a-
4 e- e- e- e- e-
5 C- C- C- C- C-
6 F b F b F b F b F b
7 db db db e# e #
D#
e #
8 G - G - G - G - G -
Nor is this similarity between the two modal theories fortuitous: nu-
merous sonata prints and theoretical schemes use the same set of tonalities;
that is, they conform to identical or similar arrangementswhen compared
to the finals and key signatures of Arresti's first eight modes and Bonon-
cini's practicableseven. Table 5 shows the tonalities (finals and key signa-
tures) of octonary systems in five treatises that span the seventeenth and
early eighteenth centuries: Adriano Banchieri's Cartella musicale (1614);
Lorenzo Penna'sLiprimi alborimusicali(1672); Bartolomeo Bismantova's
Compendiomusicale(1677); ZaccariaTevo's II musicotestore(1706); and an
anonymous manuscript treatise from the first half of the eighteenth cen-
tury, Regoledel contrappunto.These treatises, representativeof nearly a cen-
tury of eight-mode systems, all describe the set of tonalities common to
Arresti and Bononcini. Only Banchieri's Cartella musicaleexplains their
use in psalmody; the others--those by Penna, Bismantova, Tevo, and the
anonymous eighteenth-century theorist-simply define these eight tonal-
ities as the modes (in some cases distinguishing them from the system of
twelve modes),16 thereby contradicting both Banchieri's implied distinc-
16. Penna (Liprimi alborimusicali, 128) refers to competing theories that espouse twelve
modes, but he rejects them, saying that "in order to follow the use of the church I would say
that the Tuoni are eight in number, no more, no less" ("per seguire
l'uso della Chiesa, dir6,
esser li Tuoni in nomero otto ne piul ne meno"). ZaccariaTevo (II musicotestore[Venice:
Antonio Bortoli, 1706; facs. ed., Bologna: Forni, 1969]), whose information on the numer-
ous accounts of the tuoni exceeds most other publications, lists the eight modes of the Me-
dieval church (p. 262), the twelve modes of Glarean (pp. 264-65), and then the eight modes
of his contemporaries, called "li otto Tuoni delli Moderni" (pp. 268-69, 292-95, and 327-
32), which are given in Table 5.
1 d- 1 d- 1 d - 1 d d-
2 2 g 2 g 2 g 2 g 2g
3 3 a- 3a- 33 a- 3 a- 3 a-
4 4 e- 4 e- 4 e# 4 e- 4 e-
5 5C- 5C- 5C- 5C- 5c b,
6 6 F 6 F 6 F 6 F 6 F
7 7 d 7 D ## 7 D ## 7*E ## 7 d
8 8 G - 8G - 8 G- 8 G- 8 C-
- 9 D ## 9 Bb b 9 Eb 11 9 d -
- 10 C- 10 A ## 10 b ## 10 B6 bb
11 c bb 11 a -
-- 12 Eb bb 12 a -
--
Sources: Tarquinio Merula, II quarto libro delle canzoni da suonare a doi & a tre ..., Op. 17 (Venice:
Alessandro
Vincenti,1651);GioseffoMariaPlacuzzi,Suonate
a duoi,a tri, quattro..., Op. 1 (Bologna:
GiacomoMonti, 1667); PietroDegli Antonii,Sonatea violinosolo,Op.a4 (Bologna:GiacomoMonti,
' '
1676); Giovanni Battista Degli Antonii, Ricercate violino, e violoncello clavicembalo,Op. 5 (Bologna:
Giacomo Monti, 1690); Domenico Galli, Trattenimentomusicalesoprail violoncello,no opus (MS, 1691,
BibliotecaEstense,Modena,shelf-number
Mus. C. 81).
tion between modes and psalm tones and Bononcini's notion of seven prac-
ticable modes reconciled with the traditional twelve.
Turning from treatises to actual music, I list the tonalities of five prints
of sonatas in Table 6 in the order in which their contents appear. I have
chosen these collections of instrumental music because their individual
pieces adhere to the same arrangement of finals and key signatures as do
the octonary schemes of the treatises. In my study of late seicento instru-
mental music, moreover, I have found no other consistent arrangement
of tonalities comparable to that of Table 6. It is clear, therefore, that when
composers chose to arrangetheir sonatas according to finals and keys sig-
natures, they consistently organized them along lines identical or similar to
those of the octonary sets in the treatises of Table 5, Arresti'ssonatas 1-8
(Table 4), and Bononcini's seven practicable modes (Table 3).
Of the five prints listed in Table 6, only Tarquinio Merula's sonatas, like
Bononcini's Opus 6 and Arresti'sOpus 4, bear designations of tuonogiven
by the composer. The other prints, though they use no such modal des-
ignations, nevertheless follow the same plan of finals and key signatures in
their ordering of the individual sonatas. Moreover, these prints, taken as
a whole, cover a wide range of instrumental genres for various kinds of
ensemble: trio sonatas (Merula), sonatas for ensembles of three to nine
players (Gioseffo Maria Placuzzi), sonatas for solo violin with continuo
Given the practice of the latter half of the seventeenth century, then, we
should recognize the essential validity of Bononcini's observation that
only seven modes were in use in his time, but we must also take issue with
his explanation of them in terms of traditional modal theory. The eightfold
scheme of tonalities in the various prints reveals a recurrent organizing
principle in seicento music; it is not, however, compatible with modal the-
ory. Bononcini, by asserting an equivalence between these eight finals and
key signatures (reduced to seven in his treatise) and the modes, takes a large
and misleading step: none of the tonalities in Tables 5 and 6 are modal,
transposed or otherwise. Instead, they originate in ecclesiasticalpsalmody.
That is, this system of tonalities -often described as modes by the theorists
and widely used by composers for various instrumentalgenres, both secular
and sacred--consists of the church keys that originated in the accompani-
ment of psalms on the organ.'7
In separate studies of recent years that treat these church keys, also
known as psalm tone tonalities, Joel Lester and Harold Powers have traced
paths laid out by French, German, and Italian treatises back to Pietro Pon-
tio's Ragionamentodi musica (1588) and Adriano Banchieri'sCartella mu-
sicale (1614).18 As Powers notes, Pontio first demonstrated the distinction
17. See note 3 above.
18. Harold S. Powers, "From Psalmody to Tonality," in Tonal Structuresin EarlyMusic,
ed. Judd, 275-340; and Lester, BetweenModes and Keys, 77-82. Powers's article is devoted
to the history of the psalm tone tonalities. It offers a far more comprehensive treatment of the
church keys than Lester's book, which touches on them in a larger context.
between modes and psalm tones, and Banchieri first set the psalm tones
down schematically as finals and key signatures, the form in which they
were transmitted throughout the seventeenth century. Banchieri's psalm
tone tonalities (the church keys), according to Powers, take their finals
from the last note of specific psalm tone differentiae,and they derive their
key signaturesfrom a system of transpositions designed to reduce the range
of the different reciting tones of each psalm tone.19
In short, the various octonary sets of tonalities of seventeenth-century
treatises emanated not from modal theory, but rather from psalmodic
practices, as Powers makes clear.20Therefore, the eight tonalities that also
permeate the instrumental repertory were first explained by Banchieri in
Cartella musicaleas tonalities used for the polyphonic setting of the psalm
tones.21 Bononcini's set of seven finals and key signatures originates in
thesepsalmtone tonalities,not in the modes.22His rationalization
of them
in terms of modal theory does follow the lead of a numberof theorists
(including himself)whosoughtto reconcile
Banchieri practices
psalmodic
and modal theory.23
Despite the complexitiesof Bononcini'sdetailedmodal theoryand its
prehistory,his collectionof seventonalitiesstandsat the centerof seicento
compositionalpractice.Furthermore,as both Bononciniand Berardiat-
by meansof keysignatures
test,transposition a crucialpartof
represents
the musicalpracticefromthe late seventeenth A particularly
century.24
cleardemonstrationof both the core set of tonalitiesandtranspositionsof
this set comes from GiovanniBattistaDegli Antonii'sVersettiper tutti li
19. Powers, "From Psalmody to Tonality," 291, 296, and his table 4.
20. Ibid., 301-3.
21. Ibid.; and Powers, "Mode," 415, ex. 23.
22. See especially table 5 in Powers, "From Psalmody to Tonality," 302-3.
23. Powers, "Mode," 414. An early example of this kind of reconciliation may be found
in Adriano Banchieri'sCartella musicale(3d ed. [Venice: Giacomo Vincenti, 1614; facs. ed.,
Bologna: Forni, 1968]), in which he describes each of the twelve modes in terms of the eight
tuoni ecclesiastici(pp. 112-36). Bononcini employs the same procedure, but in the reverse
order: he explains his seven practicable "modes" in terms of the dodecachordal system.
24. Writings from this period that are relevant to transposition are Berardi,Il perchi mu-
sicale,53-54; Berardi,Miscellaneamusicale,176-78; and Bononcini, Musicoprattico,137-47
and 154-55. Unlike Berardi, who presents various modal transpositions without comment,
Bononcini discusses transpositions either in the context of the seven practicablemodes (and
how these relate to the modes of the dodecachordal system) or in the context of how one
might recognize the mode of a composition. Bononcini also mentions an affective aspect of
transpositions, though he does not relate it to the seven practicable modes: "Per rendere il
Canto pihi allegro, 6 pidimesto li trasportano tutti ordinarianmente una voce pidi alta, 6 pidi
bassa per mezo di questi segni b# ... senza variar luogo alle Chiavi, le quali non si traspor-
tano" ("In order to make the song happier or sadder, it is transposed usually up or down a
whole step by means of these bt... without changing the position of the clefs, which are not
transposed") (p. 146).
tuoni, Op. 2 (1687) (see Table 7a).25 The title of the print indicates both
"natural"and transposed tuoni among the versets; the table of contents
further specifies untransposed versions and whole-step transpositions
(both downward and upward) for each of the eight tonalities--except for
the fourth and seventh, which occur only in untransposed form. Degli An-
tonii's eight tuoni, untransposed, employ the same set of tonalities as those
in the octonary schemes in treatises by Banchieri, Penna, and others (see
Table 5); the instrumentalworks of, for example, Merula and Placuzzi (see
Table 6); Arresti's toni 1-8 (Table 4a); and Bononcini's seven commonly
used "modes" (Table 3). Degli Antonii further expands these eight tonal-
ities into a larger set of sixteen through upward and downward transpo-
sitions of a whole step (see Table 7b).
Thus, Bononcini's explication of a fundamental set of tonalities and its
expansion into a more comprehensive system by means of transposing key
signatures provides an invaluable source for our understanding of seicento
tonalities. A blueprint for seventeenth-century tonal practice, his Opus 6
sonatas augment the seven practicable "modes," the core set of tonalities,
to a greater number by transposing several of the original seven to various
pitch levels. This means that the finals and keys signatures of all composi-
tions ought to agree either with what may be considered the "primary"or
core set of tonalities--the church keys or their rough equivalent in Bonon-
cini's seven commonly used "modes"-or with transpositions of them.
To explore the applicability of these primary tonalities and their trans-
positions to a broader sample of instrumental prints, I have combined Bo-
noncini's practicable modes and the octonary sets of church keys into a
composite set of tonalities that may be tested against a representative se-
lection from the late seicento sonata repertory: the sonatas of Bononcini,
Corelli, and Giuseppe Torelli. Tables 8a through 8c list the tonalities of
Bononcini's Opus 6 and those used by Arcangelo Corelli and Giuseppe
Torelli, arranged-or rearranged in Bononcini's case-according to the
composite set of tonalities and their transpositions. Bononcini's rearranged
Opus 6 (Table 8a) furnishes a useful point of departure,for it uncouples his
practice from his theory. Corelli and Torelli, two of the best-known com-
posers of instrumental music from the late seicento, may be taken here as
models of the compositional practice of the period (Tables 8b and 8c).
The composite set and the tonalities to which its categories apply are
shown in Tables 8a-c under "tuono"and "primarytonality." On the one
hand, the categories used in the composite set follow Bononcini's plan by
combining modes 3 and 4 into a single category; on the other, they alter
his scheme by substituting a D-tonality with two sharps for his D-tonality
25. Table 7a provides a full bibliographic listing of Degli Antonii's Opus 2. Organ versets
like Degli Antonii's, as explained in Dodds, "Tonal Types and Modal Equivalence" (p. 342;
quoted in n. 4 above), were used as substitutes for psalms in the Catholic offices.
Table 7a Contents of Giovanni Battista Degli Antonii, Versettiper tutti Ii tuoni tanto nat-
urali, cometrasportatiper I'organo,Op. 2 (Bologna: Giacomo Monti, 1687)
Table 7b The Tuoni of Giovanni Battista Degli Antonii, Versettiper tutti li tuoni naturali,
cometrasportatiper I'organo,Op. 2
1 d - *e ? c bb
2 g *a - f bbb
3 a- b ## *g b
4 e
5 C - D Bb 66
bb
6 F 6 *G - *Eb bb
7 d 6
8 G - A # *F b
Table 8a GiovanniMariaBononcini,Op. 6
I P4 or TP5
Primary &
Tuono tonality 1P5 or TP4 1 M2 & TM2
1 d - c
2 g b
3&4 [a -]* e b #
5 C- Bb bb
6 F b Eb 66t
7 D
8 G- A 0#
Tonus [d ]*
peregrinus
I P4 or T P5
Primary &
Tuono tonality 1 P5 or T P4 M2&& M2 m3 & T m3
Table 8c GiuseppeTorelli,Opera1-6
IP4 or TP5
Primary &
Tuono tonality 1P5 or T P4 1 M2 & TM2
1 d - (6)* c bb (5)
2 g (7)
3&4 a- (7) e # (6) b 00 (3)
5 C - (5) Bb bb (1)
6 F b (6) Bb b (2)
7 D ?? (8)
8 G- (6) A 00 (8)
*Numbersin parentheses
indicatethe numberof timesthattonalityoccursin the composer'sentirepub-
lishedoeuvre.
26. The D-tonality with bb originated as the tonality for the polyphonic setting of the
seventh psalm tone transposed down a fifth into cantus mollis, while the more common
D-tonality in cantus durus (no flat in its key signature) was that used for the first psalm tone
(see Powers, "From Psalmody to Tonality," 291, 296, and his table 4). For an account of the
replacement of the D-tonality with bb by the D-tonality with two sharps, first attested and
illustratedin French organ music and accompanying theory, see Powers, "From Psalmody to
Tonality," 305-12. Tone 7, in fact, has the most variantsof all the church keys, including an
E-tonality as well as the D-tonalities discussed here. See Tables 5 and 6 for different tonalities
associated with that tonal category.
27. Corelli uses a D-tonality with a single flat only once, and Torelli never uses it (see
Tables 8b and 8c). Nor does Bononcini use this tonality in his Opus 6, even though he pre-
sents it as one of the seven modes in common use.
28. Penna, Liprimi alborimusicali, 123. Note that G. C. Arresti uses a D-tonality with one
flat for the ninth sonata of his Opus 4 (see Table 4).
29. Giuseppe Torelli, Sonate d tre stromenti,Op. 1 (Bologna: Micheletti, 1686), Sonata
terza in E/one sharp includes one movement in B/two sharps. Similarly, his Opus 1, Sonata
settima comprises movements in A/no signature except for one in E/one sharp. Torelli, Con-
certigrossi,Op. 8 (Bologna: Silvani, 1709), Concerto terzo in E/three sharps includes an inner
movement in A/two sharps.
modern perspective: the tonalities used in the late seicento largely accord
with those used in later centuries, but the apparent idiosyncrasies of the
earlierpractice reveal a system wholly at variancewith that of major-minor
tonality.
30. Even Bononcini's carefully rationalized Opus 6 sonatas include an anomalous key
signature. The last sonata of the print, although described as an instance of mode 12 trans-
posed up a minor third, uses a key signature of two flats, not three (see Table 2). From his
writings, moreover, we know that Bononcini himself considered such examples to be anom-
alies. In his treatiseMusicoprattico (pp. 154-55), he lists a number of exceptions that con-
tradict the rules of transposition set out immediately beforehand: mode 1 transposed up a
major second = E with one sharp (not two); mode 8 transposed down a minor third = E
with two sharps (not three); mode 11 transposed down a major second = Bb with one flat
(not two); and mode 12 transposed up a minor third = Eb with two flats (not three), as in
his Opus 6, no. 12.
Bononcini provides no explanation for the missing accidentals of certain key
Although
signatures, he does give advice for determining the transposition (and thus the mode) of a
composition in such cases (pp. 154-55): "I detti segni si ritrovano poi collocati tri la Com-
posizione nelle corde, ove doverebbero essere posti nel principio; per il che si deve ancora
riguardarealle cadenze regolari, mediante le quali non si potra errare"('"Theabove-mentioned
signs are to be found among the notes of the composition, instead of placed at the beginning
as they should be; for which reason one must still look to the regular cadences, by means of
which one cannot err").
chieri's Cartella musiiale (1614), present both the chant melody for tones
8 and 4 and Banchieri's guidelines for composing polyphonic music on
these psalm tones. Let us first consider tone 8 (Ex. 4a). The last note of the
principaldifferentiaof tone 8 is G, and this is taken by Banchieri and others
as the final for polyphonic settings of that psalm tone. An additional detail
of this tonality, a G-tonality, derives from the reciting tone of tone 8 on C.
As seen in Example 4a, Banchieri includes C along with G and D as prin-
cipal degrees (corde)of tone 8.
The importance of C in tone 8 carriesover to its derived G-tonality: two
excerpts in this G-tonality from Arresti's Opus 4, no. 8 (1665) illustrate
various methods for giving prominence to C, which may be traced to the
original psalm tone itself (Exx. 5 and 6). As seen in Example 5, Arresti
includes the designation ottavotono at the beginning of this piece, which
belongs to his print of"modally" ordered sonatas. The first movement (Ex.
5), despite a long pedal on D (mm. 19-24) before the final cadence, grav-
itates toward the fourth degree, C, severaltimes (cf. mm. 3, 8, and 10). The
second movement (Ex. 6) again features C prominently, making its mid-
point cadence (markedby the double bar after m. 21) on that scale degree.
Example 5 Giulio Cesare Arresti, Sonate a 2, et a tre, Op. 4 (Venice: Gardano, 1665),
Sonata ottava, first movement
(a)Mm.1-11
Ottavo Tono
Violino.I
Violon-
cello "-I
Basso0
Continuo
At
.-IM-"i
. I
I
f~~~~~~e~r Iw i
~l.,i x i n"lI "I
,F i II F r) iI -op-
-" .-6
r-I IN
...m
r i
10II F:-
Example5 continued
(b) Mm. 18-end
18
r- - f
',F-,, .. .
21
FE I 4
.
. . . .3 F,
VI?7 . I I ]
Violino K
Violon- =,F 1
cello
,IF
Basso
Continuo o* "-
L01
degree again represents a response to the psalm tone's reciting tone, which
is A in tone 4.
The tonality descended from the psalm tone, neither major nor minor,
instead evinces "Phrygian"characteristics:Examples 9 and 10 show move-
ments from two sonatas that begin and end in E, but seem from a modern
perspective as if they were written in A because of the Phrygian half ca-
dences on E that end these pieces. In this they resemble Examples 1 and 2,
which would be even more easily categorized as A-minor compositions, if
not for the emblematic Phrygian ending on E that concludes each of them.
In short, all of these pieces (Exx. 1, 2, 9, and 10) illustrate the tonality
derived from the tone 4, which we must recognize as distinct from the later
and more familiar E minor and A minor.
Half a century after Banchieri'stime, such Phrygian pieces presented an
enigma to the theorist-composer Bononcini, who attempted to paper over
the unique features of the Phrygian E-tonality by merging it with tone 3,
a minor-third A-tonality (see Table 3). Although he rationalized all of the
psalm tone tonalities (or church keys) in terms of long-standing modal cat-
egories, Bononcini's consolidation of tones 3 and 4 revealsa distinctly non-
modal perspective: since dominant harmonic relationships were becoming
the determinants of a tonal center in Italian music, Phrygian pieces that
ended on E, as approached either from A or from F, were heard by Bo-
noncini as A-tonalities that end on their dominants (and not as distinct
E-tonalities). The E-tonality that Bononcini himself used included an F# in
its key signature, indicating that he interpreted it only as a transposed
Example6 continued
(b) Mm. 16-24
1620
f Ik I Z. I
e-. II -
Ir
.. I~2 . l I 'f
iow
: I LjI
Me-
- ,_. " - '"
31. In fact, Bononcini categorized the E-tonality with one sharp in his own Opus 6, no.
6 as mode 10 (the replacement for modes 3 and 4) transposed down a perfect fourth (see
Table 2).
32. Lester (BetweenModesand Keys, 124) reports Johann Kuhnau's reservationsconcern-
ing Johann Mattheson's scheme of twenty-four major and minor keys. Kuhnau's doubts
hinge, in part, on the question of Phrygian tonalities.
Violino- .
secondo
Organo
-KM4 6 6
I I I
I.I
2=6
44
26
r
6 I I2 6
4534
Largo
(complete)
Violino
primo
Violino
secondo
Violon-
cello
Organo I i
4 3 7 6 7 7 7 7
I 6 4 3
Example8 continued
(b) Fifthmovement
Allegro,allegro
(complete)
II
A.. Po..
o-l -.r J
I6
5
.. 4.3 . ..
l- I* ih
,
F
7t69 b-- ! i 43I ? ? 6 ? v
AeA-
~ ~" ~ I
ij
) " I ? i I - I
, _ ,'I, .. . .
6
.........3 . . . .bo.
" -
IIJEW 'M
me
- ':
iw 'ir
",.-.
,,,,,i
.
i
_
| - i ,,
l 7
W
"Q
-d .I
- F
Violone
OrganoII.
oll
- OP
._fm F.-
jj
II-
r II I I
on E.
ing. They elucidate the direct link between the tonalities used in the sonata
33. Bononcini, Musicoprattico, 140-41.
Example9 continued
(b) Mm. 21-end
21
i
F:
I I P,"p1I i-'- FiIF-IF
I
F-,-.
65 # 5 #
264
waId--I
Iti I
6N
isR mo -L i 6Im 99 KI
6 6 06 6 7 6 6 06 #
b 5 #
5#
# '6
literature and the church keys that originate in liturgical psalmody. With-
out an understanding of this relationship--attested by the correlation of
the theoretical literaturewith the practice--we cannot hope to account for
the tonal properties of seventeenth-century music. Studies that assume
some vague form of modality to be in effect during this period and that do
not ground their findings in the treatises of the period misunderstand both
modal theory and its relationship to musical practice.34
34. Robert Wienpahl, for example, assumes a simple evolutionary path between various
"modal"scale patterns (Dorian, Mixolydian, etc., which he takes to constitute modality) and
the major and minor scales. He then posits an intermediary category of tonal organization,
"monal" music, which demonstrates both modal and tonal characteristics (Robert W.
Wienpahl, "Modality, Monality and Tonality in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,"
part 1, Music and Letters52 [1971]: 407-17, and part 2, Music and Letters53 [1972]: 59-
73). None of his reasoning, however, draws on the theoretical literaturefrom the period of his
study, nor does it account for the practice seen in my examples.
The application of "neo-modal terminology" to seventeenth-century music illustrates an-
other form of the same problem: here again, the issue centers on an analytical approach to
early music that has no basis in the theory chronologically or geographically closest to the
repertoryunder consideration. In her "Concepts of Pitch in English Music Theory" (in Tonal
Structuresin EarlyMusic, ed. Judd, 183-246), Jessie Ann Owens argues for a more sensitive
approach than the "neo modal," which she describes as "a modern hybrid that reduces Glar-
ean's twelve modes to five transposable scale-types: Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, Aeolian,
and Ionian. It eliminates Lydian, which in practice is nearly always found with a B-flat and
thus duplicates the Ionian; in some formulations, it eliminates a distinction between authentic
and plagal" (p. 186).
Although neo-modal terminology has almost nothing to do with music theory of the Ba-
roque era, instances of its use are not rare in studies of Baroque music. For example, in his
Violino - -
primo
Violino . _
secondo %-
Violone4
.
Basso r 7
Continuo
7 i3E6 E 7 6 5 7
7 6 3 7 6 7 6 5 5 6 7 #6
assessmentof the music of Maurizio Cazzati, John Suess writes that "one need only look at the
use of accidentals,cadence patterns, and the thematic materialsfor a clearunderstandingof the
modal practice. Canzona No. 2, 'La Turca' ..., provides a useful illustration. This canzona
hasg as its tonal center, but only one flat is present in the 'key'signature. The omission of the
e-flat allows the composer to provide cross-relations between the aeolian and dorian modes
through the use of e-flat or e-natural"(John Suess, "The Ensemble Sonatas of Maurizio Caz-
zati," Analecta musicologica19 [1979]: 146-85, 148-49; emphasis mine). The danger
here lies in the assumed "clearunderstanding of the modal practice":the mention of specific
Greek-named modes in this case connotes a perception of the music that is grounded in the
theoretical ideas of the period, which is simply not the case.
Other scholars fall into the trap of dividing seventeenth-century music between the un-
defined "modal" and the familiar tonal. In his detailed study of Italian trio sonatas, Peter
Allsop, for example, observes the same features as those explained here of G-tonality compo-
sitions (see my Exx. 5-8), noting "the characteristicambiguity between tonic and subdom-
inant which occurs to such an extent as to obscure the actual tonic" (Peter Allsop, TheItalian
"'Trio"Sonata [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992], 131). Beyond his perception of this impor-
tant detail, however, Allsop can only attributethis ambiguity vaguely to "the survivalof modal
practices" (ibid.; emphasis mine). He similarly attributes the characteristicsof the Phrygian
E-tonality--seen here in Examples 1, 2, 9, and 10--to their "distinctivemodal features"with-
out probing further into the matter (ibid., 151). As I demonstrate, psalm tone characteristics,
not modal features, shaped these tonalities.
Example 10 continued
(b) Mm. 24-end
24
I
-
mI I . ..E .
9 1
6 4
9- 1
29
AK?
"
7 6 6 t5
I PlagaleJ
90
iisi
M a i r- E-7
.,.
which must be read mi,fa, sol [the Phrygian modes], since this is not applied
rigorously by present-day composers with its original structure.35
The second citation, from an anonymous eighteenth-century theorist, ven-
tures an even more facile summation of the "modes":
On the modes:I supposethatthe studentof musicalreadyknowsthe church
modes,of whichthereareeight, andthatupon theseeight modesarebased
the psalms,antiphons,hymns,[and] introitsfor singingin the church....
In our modern music we have modes that are distinct from the above-
mentionedchurchmodes.... But becausethese [lattermodes] have been
Example 11 continued
(b) Pp. 140-41
DuodeldecimoTuono
nellesueproprieCordenaturali,
cheservein luogodelquarto
"
.v
II'1II
altered and mixed with one another, I have set down only two: one is au-
thentic, the other plagal. The authentic has the majorthird; the plagal has the
minor third.36
The assessments of these two theorists accurately describe both the out-
look and the practice of their time: in their treatises, modal terminology-
for centuries the only means for describing tonal organization in music--is
still put to use in describing major and minor keys. With this in mind, we
may understand the language of tonal organization spoken by the theorists
and recognize how the practice of late seicento sonata composers and the
theoretical literature contemporary with this practice are abundantly and
mutually revealing. The findings of this study should therefore spur our
further efforts, not to discover the earliest evidence of major/minor tonal-
ity, but instead to understand the conception of tonal space held by mu-
sicians of the seventeenth century. Scholars have long dwelt on Corelli, for
example, as a harbingerof the modern tonal era, while paying less attention
to the music-theoretical tradition out of which his tonal idiom emerged.
In short, we must turn our attention toward precisely those features of
seicento music that defy the precepts of modern tonality. By ascertaining
the meaning of such features through a study of the theory closest to that
music, we might recapture a perspective that seicento theorists and com-
posers brought to their works. We may then appreciatethe music of Corelli
and his contemporaries, not only as a point of departure in the history
of modern tonality, but also as the legacy of a rich musical and theoretical
tradition.
Abstract