[SCA-Dance] Accidentals in Horses' branle

Alexander Clark alexbclark at pennswoods.net
Thu Jul 8 20:00:27 EDT 2010


I'm working on music notations for my Known World Handbook article, and have
found that I have a little problem with the Horses' branle. Arbeau's flats
don't seem to follow a regular pattern--the second strain has one B that is
marked as a flat where it would seem (by modern convention) to be
unnecessary, while there is no flat shown for the corresponding B in the
second half of the strain. And there's a B near the end of the first half of
the strain that is printed without a flat.

Should I assume that B is flat all the way through the second strain, or
that it is natural just before the end of the first half where the next
occurrence of B is explicitly flat? And BTW, should I consider an option of
using F sharps in the first strain as the New York Renaissance Band did?

For context, Arbeau's only options for key signatures are that B can be
natural by default, or flat (no ficta in the signatures), and his only
accidentals, which appear only rarely, are B flat, B natural (using the same
symbols as for a sharp), F sharp, and E flat.

If not convinced otherwise, I will probably go with B flat all through the
second strain, and no G sharp except for the penultimate note.

-- 
Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark


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