THE BERGAMASCA

By Settecentista:(commentary)

The harmonic progressions I – IV – V – I and I – ii6 (or 6/5) – V – I served in the eighteenth century not only for cadences but also for non-cadential melodic phrases. These phrases often fail to conform to any of the voice-leading schemata introduced by Robert Gjerdingen in his book Music in the Galant Style, suggesting that this harmonic pattern deserves its own place in the schematicon. Indeed, in several schematic analyses of the music of colonial Brazil and Mozart (listed below) the Brazilian pianist, composer, and theorist Ernesto Hartmann refers to this harmonic progression as a voice-leading schema. He has named it the Bergamasca, after the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dance that typically features the progression I – IV – V – I. According to Hartmann, an ascending line 5 – 6 – 7 – 1 is typical of the way the Bergamasca is realized melodically. But perhaps just as common (or even more so) is a melodic line that divides the schema into two stages, the first ending on 6 and the second ending on 3. Often the arrival on these two scale degrees is delayed (and consequently emphasized) by appoggiaturas. Several of the excerpts on this video exemplify the paired arrivals on 6 and 3. The excerpts also suggest that eighteenth-century composers found the Bergamasca particularly effective as the framework for the presentation phrase of a melodic sentence. It might thus be added to the "presentation schemata" listed on the website "Open Music Theory" (see "Galant Schemata – Summary"). Articles by Ernesto Hartmann introducing the Bergamasca as a galant schema (accessible online): “O conceito de Schemata musical e seu emprego na construção da Abertura em Ré do padre José Maurício Nunes Garcia,” Opus: Revista eletrônica da ANPPOM (Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Música) 24 (2018), 216–244 “A Sinfonia Fúnebre (1790) do Padre José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767–1830): Análise com o conceito de Schema Musical de Robert Gjerdingen,” Mirabilia 27 (2018), 222–253 (with Aline Mendonça Pereira as co-author) “A Sonata para Violino e Piano K304 em Mi Menor de Mozart (1756–1791): Relações temáticas e formais das schemata,” Mirabilia 28 (2019), 592–633 Other examples of the Bergamasca: José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Overture in D, beginning of fast section: https://youtu.be/oJUo0XXw0Q0?t=82