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Chelys, vol. 7 (1977), article 1
A song of Mr. Parsons is the only one of the pieces to survive in a
single source-Add. MS. 31390. The shortest of the composer’s surviving
instrumental works (discounting those pieces thought to be spurious), the
piece is free of any cantus firmus, being based on a series of imitative
points and ending with the fragmentary writing so characteristic of the In
nomine a5. Although on a small scale, the contrapuntal technique is much
more assured. It is, however, only in the two remaining large-scale pieces
that Parsons demonstrates his ability to sustain musical interest for long
periods of time without the aid of a cantus firmus. The title of the piece is
probably the result of convention rather than an allusion to a vocal model.
[15] Parsons’s The song called trumpets a6 is found in several
sources and under several different titles. In Christ Church Oxford, Mus.
MSS. 979-83, no. 158, it appears under that title; in St. Michael’s College
Tenbury, MS. 389 the piece is called Lustie gallant, although there is little
evidence to connect it with the popular tune of that name; 26 in New York
Public Library, MSS. Drexel 4180-5, the title Cante cantate (sic) is given;
in British Library, Add. MS. 31390 (probably the earliest of the sources),
the piece is simply called Mr. Parsons his song. The Cambridge sources
for the piece are also labelled Cante Cantate and the version in MS.
Dd.5.21 (a ninth higher) may have formed part of a mixed consort version.
It is of course possible that the reference to `trumpets’ may have something
to do with the arpeggio writing in the latter part of the piece.
Like a pavan and galliard, the piece is in two halves-the first in duple, the
second in triple metre-which nevertheless use the same basic material and
form a complete whole. The second section is written in ‘coloured’ notation
for the most part in all the sources, with the mensuration symbol C 3.1. The
resulting proportional relationship between the two halves may be
interpreted in the light of Morley’s description of so-called Tripla
relationships. 27 As Morley points out, this proportion, as used by English
composers and performers of the time is in fact that of Sesquialtera.
Ex. XIII
26 C. M. Simpson : The British Broadside Ballad and its Music, (New Brunswick, 1966),
p.477
27 T. Morley; A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, (London, 1597);
modem edition by R. A. Harman, (London, 1952), p.50, 133f.