Falsi Bordone for Sunday Vespers
  • ossian1898ossian1898
    Posts: 142
    Hello all - I am looking for some falsi bordone settings for the Sunday Vespers psalms. My schola is going to be singing Vespers on the last Sunday of every month beginning in September and so we would like to include some of these settings. I have been able to find a few on JMO's site and of course I have several from the Colloquium (though they don't match the Sunday tones). I have also seen Bud's tonale, the Lassus, and the Viadana...but they are not arranged.

    If anyone has settings that match Sunday Vespers would you be so kind as point me in the right direction? I don't have a ton of money to buy Sibelius or Finale so something pre-done with the verses inserted would be nice. Currently I use MuseScore because its free, but it doesn't handle non-metered measures so well.

    Thanks!
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    I am assuming you are using the 1962 form as in the Liber Usualis; would you be interested if I were to write some? Since doing the vespers with Dr. Mahrt's choir at the colloquium, I have thought that this would be a project I would like to do. Also, do you need all the psalms, or just certain ones?
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    I've only seen faux bourdons in collections in libraries. They are not arranged. If, indeed, Vespers that alternate between chant and four-parts exist, I'm sure a lot of folks would be interested in such music.
  • jpal
    Posts: 365
    I don't presently have access to actual music, but there are several falsobordone settings each by Zacharia, Josquin (sometimes under "Juan de Perez" in the sources, I believe), Paulo Isnardi, Antonio de Cabezon, and Anchuelo, to name a few. Perhaps someone else could list editions; now that I'm not a student anymore I don't have easy access to that info.

    Also, Bernhard Ycart has some thrilling Magnificat falsobordoni, which can be found in the Faenza Codex.

    No idea how helpful that is to you. Good luck!

    Jon
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    If I recall correctly falsobordoni are melodic models in the same way as psalm tones are; thus the pointing in the Liber Usualis should be all that is necessary.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    I don't think it's that easy (and I'm the guy who thinks that everything is easy).It's hard to read text with one eye and polyphony with the other (watching the conductor with the third?) I'm sure they did it "back then", but they did it all the time and had better-trained memories. There's not a lot of pre-set FB out there; after all, the point was to be as flexible as possible. Your best bet would be to find settings and texts you like, have somebody make them into an edition, then share the edition on cpdl. Speaking of Mahrt's Spanish (and wasn't that cool?), there are a number of falsobordones in Douglas Kirk's edition of the "Duke of Lerma Book", which was used by early-17thc Spanish church instrumentalists.
  • ossian1898ossian1898
    Posts: 142
    I actually found some relatively easy quasi-falso bordone settings in the St. Basil's Hymnal which I have begun to adapt. But anyone who wants to develop some settings with alternating psalm tones that match the antiphons for Sunday (EF) Vespers, please do!
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