Doric notation

As Dorian listing , Dorian notation or Doric preliminary drawing is called a standard in the early 18th century listing of minor keys with ♭ -Vorzeichnung in which the Generalvorzeichnung a ♭ missing: D minor is therefore listed unsigned minor g with a ♭ , C minor with two, the F minor with three, which was still very rare at this time. The missing accidentals are added in front of the respective notes in the course of the musical text. Similarly, the terms Lydian notation , Lydian notation or Lydian preliminary drawing for major keys have been coined. Since there is no historical reference to Lydian and at best a loose reference to Doric , the terms “Lydian notation” etc. are usually placed in quotation marks, “Doric notation” etc. Modern editors often tacitly adapt the original key signature to current usage.

"Doric notation"

In his organ arrangement (BWV 596) of the 11th concert from Antonio Vivaldi's L'estro armonico (1711), which was made by 1717 at the latest, Johann Sebastian Bach converted the original D minor preliminary drawing into a “Doric notation”.

First page of the autograph of Bach's Concerto in D minor after Vivaldi (BWV 596). All parts are notated in the alto clef , as is typical of the time .

BWV 596: Bach's original notation, but translated into modern keys. Accidental characters only apply to a single note. Organs at that time did not have a d ³ , which is why Bach notes an octave lower and stipulates a 4 'registration .

BWV 596 in modern notation

Page 44 of the first print by Georg Philipp Telemann's Faithful Music Master : Beginning of the bassoon sonata in F minor TWV 41: f 1 in “Doric notation”. Five ♭ are drawn in advance : those for bb and a flat are repeated on the lines one octave lower; the accidental for the is missing (cf. the 7th measure).

The causes of this notation habit are not entirely clear. The modern key system gradually began to supplant the earlier modes around 1700 . In the “Doric notation”, therefore, a memory of the 17th century Doric is certainly preserved, which could occur with the keynote d without a general signature or transposed with the keynote g and a simple ♭ signature. In the course of the 17th century it had largely lost its characteristic outlines (such as the typical melody from the fundamental to the fifth to the minor seventh); traditional 6th level (h or e) and lowered 6th level (b or es) were used next to each other, so that a difference to the later D minor and G minor was less and less noticeable. It is therefore not surprising that relics of the original Doric appear at best by chance in “Doric notated” compositions of the early 18th century.

On the other hand, there seems to have been a need to reduce the general preliminary drawings, which are still unfamiliar to many musicians. Major keys also appear with a reduced preliminary drawing. In the first edition of Georg Philipp Telemann's Kleiner Cammermusic (1716), for example, only two ♭ are sketched out in Partita 6 in E flat major . In analogy to the “Doric notation”, this not uncommon phenomenon is sometimes called “Lydian notation”. A relation to the Lydian of the 17th century is impossible; this key is mainly a since the Renaissance ♭ mapped out and therefore was very similar to today's F major; the once characteristic excessive 4th stage was practically forgotten. Occasionally there are also compositions in sharp keys whose general signature lacks an accidentals, such as Arcangelo Corelli's Trio Sonata in E major op. 4 No. 6, which is notated with three sharps in the first edition. A construction of the term “Mixolydian notation”, however, never seems to have been attempted.

The extent to which the “Doric notation” was a widespread but temporary phenomenon with no structural significance for the composition is shown in the earliest version of the first part of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (before 1722): there are only the prelude and fugue in C minor Notated in “Doric”, but neither the pieces in D minor and G minor nor those in the more unusual keys of F minor, B flat minor and E flat minor. In the autograph of the final version (1722), the C minor pieces also appear in modern notation with three bb.

In the second half of the 18th century there are still isolated compositions notated in Doric, such as Joseph Haydn's C minor sonata Hob. XVI: 20 (1771), or the trio in C minor from the minuet of his string quartet C- Major op.9 No. 1 (Hob.III: 19, approx. 1770).

supporting documents

1. ↑ See Bernhard Meier, Alte Tonarten: depicted on the instrumental music of the 16th and 17th centuries . Kassel etc. (Bärenreiter) 1992 ISBN 3-7618-1053-9 , v. a. P. 52 ff., 62 f.
2. ↑ Cf. New Bach Edition Series V Volume 6.1 The Well-Tempered Clavier I , pp. 130–133
3. ^ Joseph Haydn, Complete Piano Sonatas. Critical Notes, edited by Christa Landon . Vienna 1982 (Wiener Urtext Edition) p. 42
4. ^ Joseph Haydn, Works , Series XII, Volume 2: String Quartets “op. 9 "and" op. 17 ” , published by Georg Feder (Henle Verlag) 1963