Didactic Duos as a Model for Improvisation
Presentation at Lausanne Improvisation Festival, Gael Liardon Scholarship, 08/2021
In Italy between 16th and 18th Centuries, there was a long tradition of duos intended for didactic purposes, not only for performing, but also as models for composition and improvisation. They are not just ‘easy pieces’, but intended to convey in a concise form the essence of good musical style. Banchieri, in Cartella musicale (1614), recommends studying the duos of Gero, Lupacchino, Zarlino, Lassus, Metallo, and himself. He suggests, that after singing and playing these works, the student can then begin to compose duos by taking a line from an existing piece by a well-known musician (such as de Rore, Lassus, Palestrina or Marenzio), and creating a new counterpoint to it. After duos, the student can then move to trios, by taking a duo, and creating a third voice. Banchieri's method is to take material from other composers, and then learn from it by transforming it into something new, and the ‘didactic’ duos are also models of this transformation process. Many are based on- or are even arrangements of- existing pieces in more parts. Others use existing material in the form of an ‘obbligo’ (a task or limitation), such as using only one theme or rhythm throughout the composition, or a technique such as canon.
In this research, I analyse some of these duos in relation to existing material, explore melodic and contrapuntal ‘devices’ which enable two voices to interact together in improvisation, and experiment with transformations of an existing polyphonic piece by Palestrina.