Renaissance SHEET

instrumental music
activities J4
Summary
Through these activities, pupils will: Activity 1 could comprise a single 1-
1-hour
lesson, or be extended to form two
Become familiar with the concept of a ground bass and lessons. If pupils embark on activity 2
listen to musical examples. having completed activity 1, they should
Compose melodies over a major-key passacaglia ground be able to complete it within a one-
one- hour
bass. lesson.

Work together to make one longer piece from the

melodies they have composed.
Follow the same principles to compose melodies over a
minor-key passacaglia ground.
Activity 1: Ground bass composition
Contemporary accounts of visitors to Portuguese Goa
make reference to Western musical instruments that
settlers had brought with them. As well as small
organs and harpsichords, writers mention hearing
the lute and the vihuela, a plucked stringed
instrument rather like a guitar that was popular in
Spain and Portugal during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. It is quite likely that other
instruments such as viols, violins, recorders, cornetts
and trombones were also brought to India.
As well as playing pre-composed music, players of
these instruments may have performed their own
improvisations. They might have followed the
popular practice of sixteenth- and seventeenth-
century Europe, by improvising melodies over a
Before embarking on these activities, it is
advisable to read sheet J1, summarising
the styles of Medieval and Renaissance
music they Portuguese missionaries might
have brought to Goa.
ground (a repeating melodic figure, with or without
a sequence of chords, usually played by a bass
instrument). This musical style probably developed
from dance music. Renaissance music for dancing
often has a simple harmonic structure, which
reinforces the rhythm of the dance and helps dancers
to keep in step. To add interest and variety
instrumentalists invented more and more florid
melodies over the simple bass line. We can get a
flavour of what these improvisations might have
sounded like by listening to examples of
contemporary compositions over a ground bass. This
link leads to reasonably priced, downloadable mp3
files of many different examples of this type of music:
www.amazon.co.uk/Ostinato/dp/B001FZ0GLM

What to do ...
1. Listen to track 4, the lively Passamezzo Moderno from Diago Ortizs 1553 treatise on the viol. Ask the
pupils to listen to the repeating bass line, and to the decorations or divisions that the viol player
performs. A passamezzo was a kind of dance. It is easy to hear how the bass line would help keep the
dancers together, while the melody adds excitement.
2. Explain that there were many recognised forms of ground bass. One, the Romanesca, grew out of the
bass line and harmonic structure of the Tudor Greensleeves melody. Tracks 7 and 17 are two examples
of this ground.
3. Explain that another very well-known
ground was the passacaglia, also
known as the chaconne. There are
two versions of this ground, one in the
major and one in the minor. Many
passacaglia grounds are made up of a
descending tetrachord (four
consecutive notes) harmonised with
three simple chords (I, IV and V). The
major version, for example, went like
this:

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 Renaissance SHEET
instrumental music
activities J4
4. Give the pupils the task of composing melodies key). Explain that, to write a melody that fits
that can be played over this ground. Use with the harmony of the ground, they need to
keyboards, tuned percussion instruments or other choose notes from each chord as the framework
melody instruments that the pupils play to work of their melody. Handout J4a contains a copy of
out some ideas. (Bear in mind that transposing the table below.
instruments will need to work in the appropriate

G major D major C major D major

GBD D F# A CEG D F# A

5. The table shows which notes work well with each
chord. Ask the pupils to compose a melody that
moves in crotchets. Explain that this means they
need to choose two notes for each note of the
bass line. Pupils who are fluent readers of staff
notation can write this melody on the staff on
handout J4a. Pupils who are not can fill the
letter names of the notes in the table. Below is
an example in both versions.

Crotchet melody G B A F# E G F# A
Bass line G F-sharp E D

6. Invite some of the pupils to play their These do not have to be notes from the chords
compositions to the group. Explain that the (see example below). Demonstrate an example,
melodies can be made more interesting if they and then ask the pupils to decorate their own
are decorated with notes of a shorter duration. melodies.

Melody G A B A G F# E F# G F# G A
Bass line G F-sharp E D

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instrumental music
activities J4

7. Again, invite some pupils to play their
compositions. Now suggest that pupils
experiment with writing a melody that does not
always have a note from the chord on the second
crotchet beat of each note of the ground (see
example below). Recommend, however, that
they keep a note from the chord on the strong
beats (which sound at the same time as the bass
notes). Demonstrate an example, and then ask
the pupils to compose their own melodies.

8. Ask each pupil to come up with two 2-bar
melodies that they are happy with (one of these
could be one of the versions they have already
composed). All these melodies can be played one
after the other to make one long set of divisions.
Alternatively, two or more melodies can be
played simultaneously, making the composition
sound more complicated.
9. Divide the pupils into groups of 5 or 6. Each
group should, if possible, include one pupil who
can play the bass line and/or harmonies (such as a
guitar player, or a keyboard player). Ask the
group to work together to make one
composition using the melodies they have
composed. Ask them to think about how their
piece should end. They will probably work out
that it sounds finished when the piece ends on a
G major chord (the first chord in the sequence).
Go round from group to group and offer help
where required. Invite the groups to perform
their final pieces, and/or make a recording of
them.
10. Pupils with prior experience of harmony may like
to think of other ways in which the four-note
descending ground can be harmonised, and to
compose melodies that work well with different
harmonisations.

Extension activity
If time permits, listen to track 3 (Pasacalle by Andrea Falconiero) on the CD. Ask the pupils if they can spot
the one significant difference between this track and their own compositions. (This piece is in triple time).

Track 5 (Ciaccona, also by Falconiero) uses a jazzier bass-line rhythm.

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instrumental music
activities J4
Activity 2: A passacaglia in the minor
A minor-key passacaglia uses a descending passacaglia it falls between the first two). This is
tetrachord, but, this time, the semitone is between usually harmonised with different chords.
the last two notes of the ground (in the major

Follow the principles outline in activity 1, this time Claudio Monteverdi also used the motif as a ground
composing a minor passacaglia. It may be helpful to bass in Lamento della Ninfa (http://
use handout sheet J4b. www.amazon.co.uk/Madrigals-Madrigali-guerrieri-
amorosi-libro-amorosi/dp/B001J5YKZG/ref=sr_f2_8?
Ask pupils to think about how it differs from the ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1233244690&sr=102-8).
major passacaglia. During the seventeenth century,
the descending 4-note bass line melodic figure
became representative of grief or weeping. It was
famously used by John Dowland in his Lachrimae
pavans and in the lute song Flow my
tears (www.amazon.co.uk/Flow-my-tears/dp/
B001LACDBW/ref=sr_f2_2?
ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1233244495&sr=102-2)

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