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Scan 37
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1910
29 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 17. See the scan on archive.org.
1taken to Rome on the return of the Papal Court after its seventy years' absence from that city. Hawkins (History, ch. 56) mentions an English MS. tract, by one Chilston, preserved in the 'Manuscript of Waltham Holy Cross,' most likely of the 14th century, giving rules and directions 'for the sight of descant . . . and of Faburdon.' Gaforius (1451-1522), who is justly considered the father of the artistic music of the great school which culminated in Counterpoint à la Palestrina, as also Adam da Fulda, about the same period, are among the earliest writers who speak of this kind of harmony. M. Danjou discovered, in the library of S. Mark, Venice, treatises by Gulielmus Monachus, from which it is plain that in the 15th century the faux-bourdon was held in equal honour in England and in France.
3The English term Fa-burden is evidently a corruption from the French and Italian. Burden, or Burthen, is used both for the refrain of a part-song or chorus, and for a vocal accompaniment to dancing—
5Foot it featly here and there,
6And let the rest the burden bear.
8The word Bordone, and Bourdon, in its primary sense, is (in both languages) a pilgrim's staff; hence, from similarity in form, the bass-pipe, or drone, of the bagpipe; and thence again simply a deep bass note. As the earliest Falsi bordoni of which we have specimens are principally formed, except at their cadences, by successions of fourths and sixths below the plain-song melody, such an accompanying bass, to those who had hitherto been accustomed to use the low octaves of the organum, and to consider thirds and sixths inadmissible in the harmonised accompaniment of the Gregorian chant, would sound false; and this application of the meaning of the falso and faux seems a more rational derivation than that sometimes given from falsetto and falsette, as implying the combination of the high voices with the low in Falso Bordone harmony.
10The following example, from a MS.1 copied from authentic sources at Rome,2 will give a better idea of the nature of this kind of Counterpoint than any verbal description. It is a Faux-bourdon, of the 15th century, on the second tone (transposed from D to G); originally written for three voices with the canto fermo in the alto part; and with a soprano part, ad libitum, added by Baini:—
12Glo – ri – a Pa – tri et Fi – li – o
141 'Octo Melodiae octo Modorum harmonice factae ut modulabantur saeculo VII., ad praescriptum Adami de Fulda, et Franchini Gaforii.'
152 For this and similar specimens of harmonies to other tunes, see 'Accompanying Harmonies of Plain-Song,' by Rev. T. Helmore, Brief Directory, p. 7.
17The same harmony (in four parts) is given by Alfieri (1840) a fifth higher. A Faux-bourdon on the same tone (transposed into F#) is given by M. C. Frank, Paris, 1857:—
19Et ex – ul – ta – vit Spi – ri – tus me – us
20in De – o sa – lu – ta – ri me – o.
22Falsi bordoni by Vittoria, Bernabei, de Zachariis, and Viadana will be found in Proske's Musica Sacra, tom. iii., Liber Vesperarum. T. H.
24The treatises by Gulielmus Monachus referred to in the above article are printed in the third volume of Coussemaker's Scriptores, at pp. 273, 290, and 299. He speaks of Faux-bourdon as a peculiarly English form of counterpoint (288b, 292a), sung by three voices, treble, alto, and tenor. The following is his example:—
26Here the open notes on the lower stave represent the plain-song melody, which was not sung. The open notes above represent the tenor part, the upper row of black notes are the alto part, and the lower row of black notes the treble, which was of course sung an octave higher. The actual notes to be sung are therefore:—
28Thus we see that in faux-bourdon the canto fermo, or an embellished form of it with syncopations and cadences introduced, is to be found in the treble part: the alto sings at the fourth below, and the tenor sings at the sixth below, taking the octave on the first and last notes and at any intermediate cadences. The unadorned plain-song melody was usually set out at the beginning of the composition. The alto part was not, as a rule, written, but was left to the extempore skill of the singer. If this be borne in mind, the apparently involved language of Gulielmus Monachus and of Chilston
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