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Ricardo -> RE: If falsetas are supposed to carry the cante melody (Nov. 5 2025 12:28:06)
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quote:
Is my conclusion correct?
Yes but be more careful with the use of "major" and "minor" cadences, because the later thinking that he says "collides with Renaissance thinking" is due to the collapse of the mode system, into TWO modes, either "major" or "minor", and these become the two KEYS. The proper translation is the SECOND interval is resolving via MAJOR 2nd or MINOR 2nd to the finalis or "tonic". So you wanted elaboration on that bit 7:30 on.
What that means for the "soft" or "mi" cadences, whether they occur F-E or Bb-A melodically, is they get compartmentalized into DOMINANT FUNCTION of their related MINOR KEYS, later on, historically. Either "A minor" or "D minor" embrace those cadences in a bigger frame work and call them "Phrygian half cadences", or just "half cadences" as they would be "unresolved" under the context of a parent key, and since the "Phrygian" aspect or nature gets lost, these cadences arise with alterations (augmented 6ths, once not permitted aesthetically, think of G# instead of G at 5:57 for the 7:00 example) and therefore NEW THEORETICAL LABELS were applied (italian6, French 6 etc., tritone sub in jazz, neoplitan chords etc.). These new applications are historically disconnected from the SOFT cadences of the Renaissance, that USED TO define the Phrygian mode itself as a PRIMARY CADENCE, and you would hear them at the CONCLUSION of the motets and in important textual locations in the pieces that were based on that mode.
(I am putting forth our flamenco has preserved mainly these soft cadences in both tenor [Bb with G string open to A] and soprano versions [Gm-A like siguiriyas, tangos etc], and the plagal basizan version [Bb/D resolve to A], but avoiding the type in the example Gm-D with voice on A note final).
As you can clearly see in the plagal example given at 7:00, the Bb-A cadence of the tenor is the MAIN MELODY, that means the piece that might use this cadence would have to be the A phrygian mode, called mode 3, or 4, depending on the full range/tessitura that the entire melody uses from start to finish. As en extraction this example could be from mode 1 D dorian for example and this might have been a half-cadence in the middle somewhere, but if this example was proper Phrygian all along, the composer would rarely or NEVER end a motet with this cadence, this type of plagal would occur as a sort of "deceptive" cadence before the final ending. Instead they would more often avoid the parallel octave move G-A in the bass by
1. not doubling G but have D in the Bass move down to A, or
2. adding a step to this, G-D-back to A somehow like walk up the bass or something (D-E-F-G-A, or like tangos move under the resolved A's with C-F,G-A). Also they might
3. not use G in the soprano, but put a D up there to C#, letting the bass do the G-A, making a "soprano" cadence, as he called it. Or
4.that tenor Bb-A would sustain that A note for several more measures so that a proper F-Gm-A major sequence could be realized by the other voices as it sustains.
There are several ways to do it, but the important issue is to be able to IDENTIFY the "tenorizans" as he calls it, no matter what voice it happens to be in, because THAT defines the mode, regardless what the other voices are doing. Also keeping in mind that the tenorizan melody, or "cantus firmus" is the starting place for ALL the music back then.
If you also watch their video on the "Romanesca" you see how at the same time you have this melodic driving force for all the musical settings, there are harmonic structures that become repetitive and set the stage not only for later classical harmonic progressions, but even our modern pop cliches like "I-V-vi-IV" etc. So when he says "harmony was the consequence of voices" where as later voices arise from the harmony, I am saying the seeds for this inevitability were already planted at the same time.
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