Four Sample Baroque Drafts
with an added fifth score for Carillon, a
composition by
.
Frank Percival Price:
Three
of Four Pieces
Without Expression
for Carillon [or
for Keyboard(s)]
Transposed from their original keys for performance on a carillon with
lighter bells
Notes
Presented here is a set of sequential variations on a simple harmonic ostinato, appropriate for
generic keyboard instruments. The following PDF booklets of photocopied pencil pages
dating from 1966 constitute several contrapuntal scores to be added
piecemeal, starting sequentially in January 2026. These samples were class
projects for an upper division Baroque Counterpoint course, offered by the
University of Michigan School of Music's theory department. This example begins
with four separate iterations of a free four-measure ostinato in three- and four-voice counterpoint; the original score is in
pencil and neatly rendered here, unlike other scores from so called
working (i.e. 'rough') copies. The four other Baroque scores will offer
additional structures: a fugue in three voices, presented in a rough pencil
draft, combined with a derivative version in four voice counterpoint, notated in
a clean hand copied pencil score; a chaconne in four voices (or passacaglia);
and a sinfonia (i.e. three voice fugue, ending with a four voice three measure
conclusion in frei-stimmigkeit
.
The music professor who taught the course guided a select gathering of advanced
theory students for a full semester of study. He was a gentle, soft spoken
individual, Dr. Wallace Berry (1928-1991), a music theorist and composer who
served as a member of the university faculty; in later years he taught at the University of
British Columbia.* As a class offering, the assembled students were assigned
sequential formal structures to emulate, one by one, after due study of classic
examples, as found in Johann Sebastian Bach's Two Part Inventions and Three Part
Sinfonias for clavier . . . and elsewhere.
.
In the coming weeks, FMP will post five PDF hand written, or scribed documents dating from 1966, each one
as
an example of a generic manuscript formatted within three detailed categories:
2-voice counterpoint; 3-voice couterpoint; 4-voice (and beyond). Each score will
be either a pencilled rough draft; clean pencil; clean ink, and/or
beyond. Structural forms will
include invention, fugue, chaconne, passacaglia, and beyond. The 21st Century
has since outdated hand copied music: the remedies offered by computer
notation simplify the process, while at the same time presenting more
challenging obstacles for music copyists in particular. Neither hand nor
computer generated scores are prepared without determination – and also a
patient dedication of oneself.
.
A fifth document will offer a score prepared while as a student of
Percival Price, the university's illustrious carillonneur. These three of four Pieces Without Expression
composed by him were hand copied with
instructions to transpose each one to a higher or lower tonic key to match
lighter or heavier instruments, as dictated by sizes and weights of bells
designed to fit in any given bell tower. The inked music notation dates from an early
attempt to prepare fair copies by hand, especially with a nibbed penpoint and
dropper fed quill. All of the five copies presented here were prepared with more
modern pencils, pens and/or tips.
.
The 21st Century has outdated hand copied music, but software or electronic
transfer remedies can both simplify and/or present challenges for music copyists
in particular: neither hand nor computer generated scores are prepared without
determination – and also a patient dedication of oneself to a noble challenge.
*See:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wallace-berry-emc
.
Select from
the listings provided below
.
First booklet:
Four 18th Century Baroque Ostinati a 3 & 4 (in a clean pencil copy)
Second booklet: a) Fugue a 3 (in rough draft format),
and a derivative: b) Fugue a 4 (in a clean pencil notation)
Third booklet: Chaconne a 4 (in
a clean pencil copy)
Fourth booklet: Sinfonia a 3
(in a tightly condensed pencil copy)
Fifth booklet: Frank Percival Price: Three of Four Pieces Without
Expression, for Carillon or Keyboard(s),
copied in ink while studying in Burton Tower, and offered here in transposed
versions as assigned by the composer.
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