minstrel: Re: Pastime with Good Company

[Stephen Fryer]

Martha Krieg wrote:

> I didn't see it either --- until I looked in the modern notation!

Ah, yes!  Sorry about my confusion.

The sharp in the modern transcription is a case of "musica ficta" where 
the leading tone at a cadence is raised a semitone, but wasn't notated 
because "everybody knows that's what you do."  Of course I have seen a 
lot of disagreement over when and how such a rule should be applied in 
15th and early 16th century music.

For earlier, Medieval music where it is somewhat doubtful that such 
rules were in effect, playing them with an unraised leading tone sounds 
"wrong" to a lot of people.

-- 
Stephen Fryer
Lund Computer Services

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The more answers I find, the more questions I have
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