Lorenzo Penna: The Fundaments of Playing Upon a Part (1672) [PIE vol. 5]

FOOTNOTES

1. [01:10] In our episode about the anonymous treatise from the same time - Regole di canto figurato, contrappunto, d'accompagnare [PIE vol. 1] - we explained that the term canto figurato was perceived to be the opposite of canto fermo - plainchant. These were seen to be a dichotomy, as canto fermo was monodic and mostly unmeasured, while canto figurato was polyphonic and always measured. Thus, normally, canto figurato concerns everything one must know in order to read mensural music - which is what we are dealing with most of the time. 

2. [02:00] Penna refers to this fact in his introduction to the third book: “and I could be charged with the error of excessive negligence, were this third book of Primi Albori, which teaches the foundations of playing the organ, harpsichord, spinet and such instruments above the part, not to have been preceded by the light of counterpoint … For who does not know that counterpoint is the theory of music, and playing the organ above the part its practice; thus before studying the practice it is therefore necessary, even though not easy, to learn the theory.” p. 4 of the new edition. 

3. [03:10] Francesco Bianciardi, Breve Regola per imparare a sonare sopra il Basso (Siena, 1607) [PDF]. We presented a summary of Bianciardi’s rules in our episode The rule of the octave [YouTube, 14:54]. 

4. [03:22] Francesco Gasparini, L´Armonico Pratico al cimbalo (Venice, 1708) [LINK]. 

5. [04:30] More about cadences in our episode Cadences in the 16th and 17th centuries [YouTube]. 

6. [08:45] More about parallels intervals in keyboard realizations: see our episode Tutorial: intabulating vocal music into keyboard notation [YouTube, 10:40], and footnote 12 of that episode [LINK]. 

7. [09:23] Penna first mentions this technique in ch. 1, rule 9. Otherwise, the technique of employing parallel 10ths is documented in the context of improvisation/cantare super librum; we mentioned and demonstrated it in our episode on the subject [YouTube, 11:50 and in the footnotes page appendix ii.c]. Among the writers who mentioned it are Zarlino and Lusitano, who describe it as an easy way of adding voices; see blog post by Tim Braithwaite [LINK]. A later similar comment is found in Pietro Cerone, El Melopeo y maestro, tractado de musica theorica y pratica (Naples: Ivan Bautista Gargano and Lucrecio Nucci, (1613), p. 593. 

8. [11:14] Interestingly, Penna comments on what we call plagal cadences: “these cannot really be named cadences, but we nevertheless refer to them as such.” 

9. [12:04] See our episode Temperaments - Historical and Technical Overview [YouTube]. 

CREDITS:

Created by Elam Rotem, May 2023.

Special thanks to Anne Smith.