Mid-Sixteenth-Century Venetian Keyboard Intonations and Toccatas: Towards a System of Improvised Embellishments

Abstract

The development of psalm-based Venetian keyboard intonations and toccatas in mid-sixteenth century was mainly propelled by the evolution of keyboard-specific embellishment techniques. Despite the apparent homogeneity in embellishment style observed among surviving repertory of this genre no codification of the presumably prevailing method of improvised embellishments either in the sixteenth century or in current time is found. In this dissertation the author proposes a method of keyboard-specific improvised embellishments applicable to the improvisation on the cantus firmus in a four-part setting. The proposed rules of embellishment are built upon the prescriptive examples in embellishment treatises (e.g. Ortiz 1553 Bassano 1585 Diruta 1593 Bovicelli 1594) and notated embellishments in surviving repertory (e.g. BERTOLDO1591 DIRUTA1593 GABRIELI1593 PADOVANO1594). The efficacy of the proposed method is tested by its application to various structural points along a given psalm tone.