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Greensleeves (two​-​voice)

from Carol Colors by Rudi Seitz

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Before researching Greensleeves for this album, I hadn't known that it is based on a musical form called the romanesca. The romanesca is basically a melodic outline consisting of two descending phrases, together with standard way of harmonizing them. Greensleeves doesn't follow the template exactly -- there are some subtle variations -- and scholars might discuss how parts of the tune adhere to the romanesca form while others parts adhere to the closely related "passamezzo antico." What mattered to me was knowing that there's a very solid and standard harmonic basis for this tune, and that I should work with it before attempting my own experiments. In this two-voice arrangement I structured the bass line so that it would outline the exact harmonies of the romanesca while also contrasting melodically with the tune. Ornaments are used to provide "sparkle" and also to prevent the bass from fading away in places where I felt that could happen. Rhythmic contrast is employed in a number of ways, and you may notice that certain phrases in the bass line come to rest a beat before the tune comes to rest -- that's a way of avoiding conjunctions that sounded to me too predictable. Because the Romanesca is such a tight or highly optimized template, and the bass line here was developed from that template, this piece came away feeling to me like one of the more "perfect" pairings of tune and countermelody that I had achieved in the album.

There are different "flavors" of Greensleeves out there. The tune is sometimes played in the natural minor mode, sometimes in the Dorian mode, and sometimes using the raised pitches of the melodic minor mode in both an ascending and descending context. The version here is of that last kind. The raised pitches in the tune create some challenges in writing the countermelody if one seeks to avoid cross-relations between voices, and also avoid augmented intervals in the countermelody, and those were things I did seek to avoid.

This is the second version of Greensleeves I wrote; although the other version on the album is also based on the romanesca form, I took that one in a much more dissonant harmonic direction. I decided to write this second version when a family member mentioned to me that Greensleeves is one of her favorite tunes -- I hadn't known! -- and that my original version was a bit too harsh for her ears. I wanted to write something she might enjoy.

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from Carol Colors, released December 15, 2014

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Rudi Seitz Boston, Massachusetts

Rudi draws upon his passion for the counterpoint of Bach and Renaissance masters, his delight in the expressive poignancy of Schubert and Chopin, and his fascination with jazz and the musics of North and South India to craft compact works in which every note counts. Along with composing, he sings and plays guitar. Rudi lives in Boston, MA. ... more

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