_Shrew_ I, ii, 16.
_Petr._ 'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll _wring_ it:
I'll try how you can _sol, fa_, and _sing it_.'
[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.
Here is a pun on 'wring' and 'ring'; and 'sol-fa' is used as an
equivalent for 'sing.'
More important still is 'the gamut of Hortensio,' _Shrew_ III, i, 72.
[Gam-ut was the name of the Ut of lowest pitch, corresponding to the
low G on the first line of our present bass staff, and was marked
specially with a Greek Gamma, hence Gam-ut. The word became a synonym
for 'the Scale.']
In this passage the names of the notes are simply those to be found in
all instruction books of the 16th and 17th centuries.
'Gam-ut I am, the ground of all accord,
A-re, to plead Hortensio's passion;
B-mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,
C-fa-ut, that loves with all affection:
D sol, re, one cliff, two notes have I:
E la, mi, show pity or I die.'
Here Hortensio puts in his love-verses under the guise of a
musicmaster's Gamut.
The lines may be taken separately as fantastic commentaries on the
syllables themselves, as well as having their ulterior meaning for
Bianca.
For instance, Gam-ut the _lowest_ note then recognised in the scale,
is called 'the _ground_ of all _accord_.' A-re, I suppose, represents
the lover's sigh 'to plead his passion.' B-mi, may be twisted into 'Be
mine,' by the light of the remaining words in the line; while 'D sol
re, one cliff, two notes have I' obviously refers to Hortensio's
disguise. The 'cliff' is what is now called a 'clef,' or 'key,'
because its position on the staff gave the 'key' to the position of
the semitones and tones on the various lines and spaces. The six notes
here mentioned are the G, A, B, C, D, E, in the bass staff. They could
only be written (as they are yet) in _one_ clef--namely, the F clef.
The expression 'two notes have I,' as applied to the D, means that, in
the key of G, D is called Sol; while in the key of C it would have the
name Re; just as Hortensio is Hortensio, and at the same time
masquerades as a singing-master.
It has been mentioned that the art of adding an extempore counterpoint
to a written melody was called 'descant.' The written melody itself
was called the 'Plain-song,' and hence the whole performance,
plainsong and descant together, came to be known by the term
'Plain-song,' as opposed to the performance of plainsong with a
_written_ descant; which was known as 'Prick-song.'
Morley gives us a clear idea that the extempore descant was often a
very unsatisfactory performance, at any rate when it was attempted to
add more than one extempore part at a time to the plainsong. As he
says--'For though they should all be moste excellent men ... it is
unpossible for them to be true one to another.' The following passage
will be more clear on this light.
_H. 5._ III, ii, 3. Fight at Harfleur.
_Nym._ Pray thee, corporal, stay: ... the humour of it is
too hot, that is the very _plain-song_ of it.
_Pistol._ _The plain-song is most just_, for humours do
abound.
* * * * *