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Scan 21
Harvard Dictionary Of Music(1950), 1950
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1ACCOMPANIMENT
3condemning them to complete slavery in questions of interpretation, of tempo, of dynamics, etc. This situation is the more dangerous, since the possession of an outstanding voice and vocal technique is no guarantee of musical taste and artistic discrimination.
5The modern church organist as well as the leader of a choir is frequently confronted with the problem of providing suitable accompaniment for the singing of the congregation or the chorus, either improvised or written out. Following are a number of books on this subject: J. F. Bridge, Organ Accompaniment (1886); D. Buck, Illustrations in Choir Accompaniment (1877); C. Forsyth, Choral Orchestration (1920); W. Hickin, Pianoforte Accompaniment; A. H. Lindo, The Art of Accompanying (1916); Ch. W. Pearce, The Organist's Directory to the Accompaniment of the Church Service (1908); A. M. Richardson, Modern Organ Accompaniment (1907). See also *Vamp.
7II. References to instrumental accompaniment of songs are not infrequently found in the Bible (harp-accompaniment is suggested by the remark "on eight strings," given with Psalms 6 and 12) and in the writings of the ancient Greeks. Pictorial reproductions and literary documents of the Middle Ages show the use of harps, fiddles, bells, small drums, trumpets, etc., in connection with the monophonic songs of the troubadours and Minnesinger, and in conjunction with dance music. Neither in ancient nor in medieval music was this improvised type of accompaniment ever of a harmonic nature; it was merely a unison- (or octave-) doubling of the voice part, with occasional *heterophonic elements. The same type of accompaniment is to be found with the Oriental nations, especially in *China, *India, *Arabia. While the polyphonic music of the 9th to the 13th centuries (organa, motets) does not admit the separation of the polyphonic fabric into parts of greater or lesser importance, such a separation takes place in the French secular compositions of the 14th and early 15th centuries (ballades, virelais by G. de Machaut and his successors, see *Ars Nova; chansons of Dufay and his contemporaries, see *Burgundian School). It disappears again with the rise of Flemish sacred music and of Flemish counterpoint (Ockeghem, Obrecht), which is essentially opposed to any distinction between principal and auxiliary parts. The instrumental doubling of vocal parts, such as was occasionally practiced in this period, can scarcely be considered an accompaniment. In the 16th century the renewed shift to secular things immediately led to a revival of accompanied melody, e.g., in the lute-songs of the German Schlick (1512), of the Spanish Valderrabano (1547), and of the English Dowland (1597).
9III. A new era of accompaniment began with the period of thorough-bass (Baroque period, 1600–1750), which calls for a harmonic accompaniment to be improvised upon the notes of the bass. Moreover, the growing interest in florid and singable melody brought about a gradually increasing separation of the musical substance into a predominant melody with subordinate accompaniment (e.g., in the aria). Whereas, throughout the Baroque period, the written-out accompaniment (and, consequently, the improvised one, too) shows many traits of contrapuntal and harmonic interest, it degenerated, in the second half of the 18th century, into a stereotyped pattern of plain chords, arpeggios, *Alberti-bass figures, etc. As a curiosity it may be mentioned that, about 1760, sonatas were frequently written for the "pianoforte with the accompaniment of a violin or flute" (Mondonville, 1734, see *Editions XXIV, 9; Schobert, see DdT 34), that is, with the violin or flute merely duplicating the upper part of the pianoforte. In this connection it is interesting to note that Samuel Wesley speaks of J. S. Bach's "Six sonatas for harpsichord with an obbligato violin accompaniment."
11IV. About 1780 Haydn and Mozart evolved a new type of accompaniment known as accompanimento obbligato, characterized by a greater individuality
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