Bovicelli’s Regole, passaggi di musica is structured into four parts. After an introduction in which he reflects on the close relationship between art and nature, and humbly acknowledges different views of others, he provides advice in the first part on the correct placement of text under the notes—still a challenging task today when performing Renaissance vocal music.1
In the second part, he gives general advice on creating and performing passaggi (virtuosic melodic embellishments that break long note values into quick, flowing sequences of shorter notes). In this part he considers the musical context that will be ornamented and offers guidance on the performer’s choices. This to ensure that the melodic line is not overly altered and that the contrapuntal interactions with the other parts remain undisturbed. These two first chapters, unfortunately, are not perfectly written.2 His explanations often assume a fair amount of prior knowledge from the reader, which leads to incomplete and confusing descriptions. Additionally, the text contains errors, misprints, and incorrect terminology at key points.
In the largest part, the third, Bovicelli showcases numerous ways of making ornaments on intervals, long notes and several cadential figures.1 In this research, I will solely focus on these examples in the third part.
Last, in the fourth part Bovicelli offers a practical demonstration of everything he explained so far in the book, meaning, he showcases how to ornament a vocal part. But, as I just mentioned, in this research, I will focus solely on the third part, where Bovicelli's examples of ornaments can be found.
In the table below (No. 1), you will find an overview of the intervals and formulas Bovicelli uses in this chapter to demonstrate how to ornament them.
Looking at table above, there is a clear progression. Bovicelli starts with ornaments for a second and gradually increases the interval step by step, up to a sixth. He then covers a run upwards and downwards, a single note, and finally three cadential figures. Two of these cadential figures start with a rest. It is evident that Bovicelli aimed to provide as much context as possible for creating ornaments.
Bovicelli does not only make use of the standard C clef (soprano clef), but also the G clef. These two clefs refer to the first voice of two different standard sets of clefs used in the 16th century: chiavi naturali with the C clef for the first voice, and chiavette with the G clef for the first voice.3 These clefs were used to facilitate easy transpositions for instrumentalists and to avoid the use of ledger lines.
The note values that Bovicelli uses can largely be linked to our modern system. However, there is an exception: the coloured/black semibrevis. In this case, the filled note means that it loses a quarter of its value.4 Translating this note to our modern way of thinking and notating, this note is equal to the value of a dotted minima.
Modern performers may notice the lack of tempo indications for ornaments, which is unsurprising. In 16th-century music, tempo was guided by the time signature or ‘mensuration’.5 While Bovicelli includes mensurations in part four of his work, he intentionally leaves them out in part three, as these examples serve as adaptable models for pieces with varying mensurations. This absence allows performers to practice at their own pace and adjust the examples to pieces with different mensurations.