- Hi, I'm Gareth Green, and in this video,
we're going to have a think about
a little musical device, known as the nota cambiata.
So it's quite useful to know about,
nota cambiata is Italian for "Changed note."
Now it's interesting because in English
we know that this is a "Changing note,"
but just to make it clear,
that the Italian literally means "Changed note,"
and it has a sort of context this
it's a melodic pattern,
if you have a look at this melody here
you'll see exactly what I mean.
A Melodic pattern where the line
skips downwards a third
followed by a step in the opposite direction,
so you see from this B-flat to the G
where it comes skipping down a third,
and then we're taking a step in the opposite direction,
so that's how it actually works.
And if you know about species counterpoint,
the use of the nota cambiata
in species counterpoint
comes with much tighter restrictions,
but I'm not intending to get bogged down
with that at this point,
it's just to introduce what is a nota cambiata,
so if you see one you'll know what it is,
it quite often comes in Renaissance music,
but it hangs around in music of later periods as well.
So just in case you see one, well,
you know what it is,
or maybe you want to include some
writing of the nota cambiata, in your composition.
But the reason for mentioning species counterpoint
is that species counterpoint really relates
to music of the Renaissance period.
That period before the Baroque,
when we're talking about sort of 1450 to 1600,
that's where the cambiata comes from.
So let's just unpack the full picture
as to how a nota cambiata works.
So I'm just going to present this
in kind of four steps, and step one is this
that you start with a consonant note.
So you see I've got this C here,
tied over from the bar before,
it doesn't have to be tied over
from the bar before but quite often it is,
but here's the step one note
that C that's still sounding here
is consonant with this C in the lower part.
So start with a consonant note.
Step two is to move down by step,
so you can see that this B-flat
is just a step down from the C.
Now the interesting thing is,
is that a dissonance or a consonance?
Well, actually if you're analysing this in sort of
Roman numerals in a sort of with hindsight really,
looking back on an earlier style,
you'd say, well, this is simply the seventh
of a dominant seventh chord.
We look as if we're in F major
and it's going V, that makes it V7,
and then it's resolving to I,
so it doesn't sound dissonant to our ears.
However, back in its original state,
that seventh would have been regarded as dissonant,
but it's okay because it's happening
in the context of a nota cambiata.
So anyway, step one,
start with a consonance with this other part,
then step two, move down by step.
Okay, step three, we're going to skip down a third.
And that must be in the same direction as step two,
So, because we've moved down in step two
we must move down again.
But this time we're skipping down by a third.
And then step four, is to move up by step.
And then that must move on to a harmony note
so it must belong to this chord,
so you see we've effectively got a chord
in the first half of this bar,
and a new chord in the second half of the bar.
So that's consonant that step there,
this is consonant, this is consonant,
this is the note that would originally
in the Renaissance have been seen as a dissonance,
but post Renaissance, actually,
we don't particularly see that as a dissonance anymore.
If you're thinking in more modern terms,
of this essentially being chord V
followed by chord I and you're thinking,
well, this B-flat that was originally seen as a dissonance,
but this B-flat in a more modern understanding is just
making this into a V7.
You might be saying, well,
hang on a moment when you have a V7,
surely that seventh has to resolve downwards
by step that's normally how we deal with it,
when you have a V7,
then the seventh falls by step,
and the third normally rises by step.
Well here, in fact, this seventh does fall by step
because the B-flat resolves onto the A
and it's just that this G is a slight
interruption in that resolution,
but there is a resolution from B-flat to A,
with the G, which could be a kind of decoration.
That's quite interesting in itself because later on when we
use suspensions and we use
four-three suspensions, sometimes we decorate those.
So they become four-two-three suspensions,
well, it's sort of what's happening here.
If you look at those three notes
in relation to the F it's kind of
going four-two-three.
So it's a kind of formula that's
well tested and in fact would have existed
even back in the Renaissance period.
So that's how a nota cambiata actually works.
In Renaissance music you'll often find that
sort of formula coming at cadence points.
So it will be a very familiar sound to those of you who
perform Renaissance music or listen to Renaissance music.
But it's just a little device worth knowing about,
It causes a little bit of confusion,
if you're looking at Renaissance music thinking,
well I don't understand this
because I don't understand why the seventh is dissonant,
but it gets used like this,
that's because in this particular case,
it's being used in this context of a nota cambiata.
So you see what we're doing,
we've got a note there's consonant,
we moved down a step, then we skipped down a third
and then we step back the other way.
So what does this example of a nota cambiata
actually sound like, well, here it is.
I'll just play that again.
So useful little device to know about.
So if you've never met it before,
welcome to the nota cambiata.