[SCA-Dance] A few more random thoughts about the Volta

[Katherine Davies]

--- Del <del at babel.com.au> wrote:
> I find that William Byrd's tune "La Volta" is just
> about the perfect
> tune for the volta.  

Yep! "dum dum dum wheeee, dum dum dum WHEEEE". It
helps me to refrain from actually saying "wheee" when
the music does it for me.

I was about to assert that this pattern, delightful as
it is, is peculiar to Byrd's tune, and not a feature
of Voltas in general. Then I had a look at a bunch of
Dowland Voltas, and a bunch of his galliards. VERY
TENTATIVELY (I scanned through the tab, but haven't
actually played most of them, let alone done a close
comparison) it looks like the galliards tend to more
dotted rhythms and more rhythmic variation (hemiola
etc.). The voltas have a pretty marked tendency to the
the rhythm 1 2 3 4-5-6, or 1 2 3 4-5 6, especially in
the first few measures (I mean, in the first case,
that counts 1, 2, and 3 get separate notes, but that
the same note is held over 4, 5, and 6, as in the
beginning of Byrd's volta).  Often, and more often
than in the galliard, the long note on 4 is higher
than the preceeding notes (giving that "wheee"
effect). When Dowland uses 1 2 3 4-5-6 in galliards
it's usually a strong cadence, so has a feeling of
completion, not a feeling of whizzing through the air.


Has anyone looked more seriously at this? At other
voltas/composers/countries?

Katherine