Angels Carried Me Away
Angels Carried Me Away: choral style improvisation with the guitar = pain in the ass.
Figure 1: “Angels Carried Me Away” Motif
This was the first improvisation, that “started it all”. As if all this “early music improvisation” concept hasn’t been years in the making… When it comes to more specific improvisation technique, this piece relies both on scale-degree schemata (or partimento) building blocks, but equally on weaving counterpoint.
To preview the track (then go grab the album for “name your price” in Bandcamp!):
After the motif descends in the melody, which I’ll now call the soprano voice, the bass hops in to create an implied 7-6 suspension chain, as the middle voice fills in the harmony. In the 0:10 mark, it is bass voice’s turn to state the (soprano) motif. As upon the motif in the bass starting, the dyad leaves open whether the harmony is a predominant ii or a dominant V43 already, but becomes a dominant thereforth. In the 0:16 mark we hear a converging cadence. In the 0:37 mark we hear a fonte, albeit to my ear in a rather sly or sleek, unobvious manner. The 1:03 mark, instead of closing the piece, introduces a quiescenza or final fall, depending on the reading. Admittedly, since I take the bass to scale degree 4, it dilutes the schema a bit. Whatever.
Here’s the recording session video of the piece: