Note-Naming, Galant Schemata, and the "Thread" of Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins, Op.3 No.10 (RV 580)

Abstract

Part I of this article surveys the language code applied to the theory of galant schemata, building upon Gjerdingen's 2007 study of "stock musical patterns" in the eighteenth century. These schemata are determined primarily by "contrapuntal skeletons" between descant and bass and are defined by scale degree numbers drawn from seven-note scales. However, to describe galant melodies in these terms is anachronistic, and it may give rise to connections and hierarchies that would not have occurred to an eighteenth-century mind. In Italian-style music, melody was governed by the hexachordal solfeggio learned in the first years of musical apprenticeship; it was never described with scale degrees. The article asks what happens if we apply the old hexachords to the stock patterns of galant music, including commonplace voice-leading patterns normally excluded from the in ventory of schemata. Might they offer alternative, more historically grounded readings? The article's second part addresses these questions through a case study on the first move ment of Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins (RV 580), exploring the claim that hexachordal syllables, as known and understood by the original performers of the work, can grant further insights into the musical discourse. Part III concludes by presenting an analysis of the overall "thread" of the movement, taken to mean the syllabic patterns that underlie its melody.