Update: remainder of first section below as well; text underlay copying error corrected; two intonation markings corrected. I have received comments like “I can’t hear the difference”. First, it’s likely to be your equipment. Music can be enjoyed even if half-heard, in the car, say. But you need to have a reasonably good sound output and a quiet environment. Ask yourself, if this is you, if you can hear the four voices clearly. If not, that’s a pre-requisite to hearing the tuning.
Update 2: complete score and recording now.
Phrase one of the Byrd gave me some trouble. But when I finally figured it out, the solution was elegant: a kind of raising of the Host in intonational form. Did Byrd intend this?
Intonation for Byrd Ave verum Corpus
Please see the pdf and listen from a soundcloud link. https://soundcloud.com/williamcopper/byrd-ave-verum-corpus-tuning
It is a synthesis. I have in mind trying to match the expression in the Sixteen recording, while keeping the tuning perfect.
In Phrase 2, Byrd does the intonational elevation again, this time not a full comma, but a few twists along the chain-of-fifths: at “on the cross”.
Another update: the remainder of the first section. Will Byrd lower the overall intonation in a parallel for “esto nobis”? He will! New recording, same link. New score showing intonation through the first section, link above.<
Earlier posts had the symbol definition reference.
Adam W kind enough to provide a link to a recording that sounds to me as if they agree: the sixteen
Yet another update: on “unda fluxit” I felt it necessary to correct the Es in the alto and bass to E natural. On the Sixteen recording, the alto sings a very high Eb (tuned to the C above) then has to slide around to find the low D (tuned to the Bb above). I believe it more natural to use a low E natural, which is, in fact, not too much sharper than the high Eb. I put an asterisk in the revised score. Footnote to come. If you care to compare by ear, it is at about 01:14 in my current recording, and about 01:23 in the Sixteen video. Another approach is by the Tallis Scholars . I don’t like their tuning at all at any point in the piece: here, (01:15) they sing the Eb low as if it were a modern seventh of a dominant seventh.
Simon W pointed out that my markings imply Bb as tonal center. No, it’s overall g minor. I don’t yet have the right vocabulary to describe how my markings should be used: but if I were to mark G as tonic, then the comma-high markings (up-pointing open arrow) would need to be two-comma high markings. I’ll keep working on how to indicate intonation in a minor key context.
I do these analyses from time to time. On this series of posts, Mozart’s and now Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus. Earlier, Josquin’s Ave Verum Corpus, imo the best of the three, with the most spine-chilling effects. It’s in three parts, they are somewhere down in my soundcloud account, with scores referenced in the notes. Direct link to full score http://www.hartenshield.com/Josquin_Ave_verum_corpus_a5.pdf
