Passamezzo moderno

The Gregory Walker or passamezzo moderno ("modern half step"; also quadran, quadrant, or quadro pavan) was "one of the most popular harmonic formulae in the Renaissance period, divid[ing] into two complementary strains thus:"

| I | IV | I | V |

| I | IV | I-V | I |

(Middleton 1990, p. 117)

For example, in C major the progression is as follows:

| C | F | C | G |

| C | F | C-G | C |

The progression or ground bass, the major mode variation of the passamezzo antico, originated in Italian and French dance music during the first half of the 1500s, where it was often used with a contrasting progression or section known as ripresi. Though one of Thomas Morley's characters in Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke denigrates the Gregory Walker, comparing unskilled singing to its sound, it was popular in both pop/popular/folk and classical musics through 1700. Its popularity was revived in the mid nineteenth century, and the American variant (below) evolved into the twelve bar blues. (van der Merwe 1989, p.198-201)

Examples

Listed in Peter van der Merwe, Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 198-201:

• several in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
• "Up and Ware Them A Willie"
• "Jimmie Rose"
• "Darling Nelly Gray"
• "Wreck of the Old 97"
• Woody Guthrie's "There is a House in This Old Town"
• Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"
• The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" (1969)
• Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" (1971)

Listed in Anna Helms, Otto Ilmbrecht, and Heinrich Dieckelmann, Die Tanzkette, Frankfurt am Main: Hoffmeister Verlag, 1954:

• Hans Neusidler's "Gassenhawer" (Nuremberg, 1536)
• "Oxstedter Mühle" (folk dance from Lower Saxony) (B section)
• Diego Ortiz' Recercada Prima / Segunda / Tercera sobre el Passamezzo Moderno (three-part didactic composition in Tratado de Glosas sobre cláusulas y Otros Generos de Puntos en la Música de Violones, 1553)

Others:

• "Bile Them Cabbage Down", American folk-song
• Stephen Foster's "Swanee River" (verses)
• "Home on the Range" (verses)
• Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" (1972) (verses and A chorus)
• Iron & Wine's "A History of Lovers" (2005) (verses; chorus and interludes follow ripresi IV-I-IV-V progression)

American Gregory Walker

The American Gregory Walker, popular in parlour music, is a variation in which the subdominant (IV) chords become the progression IV-I.

| I | IV-I | I | V |

| I | IV-I | I-V | I |

(Middleton 1990, p. 117)

For example, in C major this variation is as follows:

| C | F-C | C | G |

| C | F-C | C-G | C |

Examples

Listed in Peter van der Merwe, Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 201-202:

• "Jesse James"
• "The Titanic"
• "My Little Old Sod Shanty"
• "Cottonfields"
• "Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In" (1929)

Others:

• "New Britain," best-known melody for "Amazing Grace" (first attestation 1829) (basic setting; many variations a) replace I at start of one or each strain with I-I7 and/or b) replace I at start of one or each strain's second half with vi)

Other variations

• Bluegrass variation: The first strain's change from I to IV and back is omitted, the second strain's first I often becomes I-I7 (for a stronger "lead-in" to the upcoming IV), and the second strain sometimes progresses from IV directly to a full measure of V, displacing its second (half-measure) I. The resulting progression is ||| I | I | I | V || I(-I7) | IV | (I-)V | I |||; examples include:
  • "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (traditional)
  • "Yakety Sax" (The Benny Hill Show theme) by Boots Randolph and James Q. "Spider" Rich
  • "Free Little Bird" (David Holt and Doc and Merle Watson; not to be confused with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird")
• Miscellaneous:
  • Second strain's second I is omitted:
    • "Kiss The Girl" (Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, 1989) from Disney's The Little Mermaid (chorus; verses follow standard 12-bar pattern)
    • "Three Little Speckled Frogs" (traditional children's song)
  • Vamp/ostinato of first strain until closing line of song:
    • "Mbube" (Solomon Linda, 1939), imported into English as "Wimoweh [uyimbube]"/"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
  • American variant's IV-I is reversed, becoming I-IV or I7-IV:
    • "Tennessee Waltz" (Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King) (verse and second strain of chorus)

External links

• Musica Viva: The Encyclopedia of music: Passamezzo

Sources

• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
• van der Merwe, Peter (1989). Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-316121-4.
• Anna Helms, Otto Ilmbrecht, and Heinrich Dieckelmann (1954). Die Tanzkette, Frankfurt am Main: Hoffmeister Verlag.