FALSO BORDONE. - Name given to a primitive form of polyphony, characterized by the exclusive use of thirds and sixths as well as by parallel motion in all its parts.
The f. b. resembles the two other principal primitive forms of polyphony, namely "organum" and descant, in that the theme accompanied vocally is taken from Gregorian melodies, and it treats each note with movement of the parts added below or above. It differs from them in that "organum" (and its variant, "diaphonia") as well as descant employ exclusively the consonances of the fifth and fourth, at least for the "organum" of Hucbald, whereas the f. b. uses these consonances only at the beginning and at the end.
The f. b. was sung "alla mente" without any need for it to be written down. Written down, it would have appeared as a succession of chords of a third and a fifth in root position, where the given chant lay both in the middle and in the upper part. Sung, the f. b. was heard as a succession of chords of thirds and sixths, since the note written apparently as the bass (bordone, from the French bourdon) was transposed by the singer to the upper octave and thus became a sixth, no longer a true "bordone," but a "f. b." It seems that in some cases not only the bass but also the third was transposed to the upper octave, and then the f. b. sounded to the ear almost like a succession of chords of the fourth and sixth. These different manners of performing the f. b. were called sights (Gulielmus monachus, Chilston).
Historically the f. b. is recognized as a form of English origin. In 1450 Gulielmus monachus still speaks of it as a peculiarity of the great Island: "...nota quod ipsi (Anglici) habent unum modum, qui modus Faulxbourdin nuncupatur." While the first traces of polyphonic singing go back, likewise in England, to the time of Scotus Eriugena (d. 886 - De divisione naturae, V, 4), the appearance of the f. b. may date from the beginning of the 13th century: the first allusions to this form of composition are found, according to Riemann, in John of Garland (d. 1240). The oldest treatises on the f. b. are from the 15th century and are due to the Englishmen Lionel Power and Chilston.
The f. b. represents an evolution of a simpler two-voice form, the glymel, "cantus gemellus," of Scandinavian origin according to Lederer, in which the cantus firmus is accompanied by a third above or below, which can be transposed to the upper octave, so that for the ear there results a succession of harmonic intervals of a sixth or a tenth. This polyphony of parallel two voices is indicated in the Descriptio Cymbriae of Giraldus Cambrensis, who would be the first theorist of this genre; an Uppsala manuscript of the end of the 13th century preserves an ancient example by him on the hymn to St. Magnus "Nobilis, humilis, Magno martyr subtilis."
The f. b., an embryonic polyphony of popular character, has the great merit of having opened new paths to learned polyphony, struggling on the practical ground against the claims of the theorists who excluded the harmonic intervals of thirds and sixths as dissonances: these dissonances, called by some "imperfect consonances," received in England, besides the consecration of use, also theoretical legitimation: Walter Odington was the first to attempt in his De speculatione musices to give a mathematical account of these intervals condemned by the wise Pythagorean traditions. With the practice of the f. b. one was moving toward the concept of the inversions of chords.
Without doubt the f. b. influenced enormously the age and the very work of Dufay: a certain number of his
[pages] are entirely notated in f. b. As long as a preponderant part in the development of contrapuntal writing was attributed to Dufay, consequently much importance was given to the polyphonic form of the f. b. Instead, after more recent studies demonstrated the influence of the Ars nova (v.) of the Florentine madrigalists on the evolution of musical technique in the 14th century, the role of the f. b., as well as of the English musicians, has been reduced to more just proportions. The flourishing of polyphony did not cause the f. b. to disappear: it is found again in Josquin des Prés (mass "Mater Patris"), in Brumel (mass "Quoniam Tu solus"), in Palestrina (mass "Improperia"). The term f. b. also refers to another form of polyphonic singing where each note of the given chant likewise receives a harmonic treatment, but no longer with the obligatory parallel motion of all the parts (Miserere of Allegri, for example). It is no longer a counterpoint "alla mente" according to fixed rules: fantasy has its part and one moves toward an original composition.
Finally, in our own day there remains in use a form of f. b. that goes back to the great masters of the 16th century: the psalm verses are recited in four or five voices with florid counterpoint only for the median and final cadences; the reciting tone of the respective voices changes from the first to the second part of the psalm verse. The first f. b. of this kind are due to Viadana (published in 1506). There are known and still performed f. b. composed in this manner by Victoria and by Palestrina.
Bibliography5 works
Pietro Thomas