Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century

Saracini’s Da te parto (“I part withthee,” Fig. 19-7; Ex. 19-5), from his Seconde Musiche (second
songbook) of 1620, is another hermit song, spectacular both for its chromaticism and for its gorgia—two
“noble” expressive avenues that by 1620 were becoming rather welltrod paths. The opening progressions
actually pit major and minor thirds against one another: the bass makes its minor–major inflection in
advance of the voice, which, prodded by the changed harmony, is probably meant to slide slowly from
natural to sharp on the crest of an esclamazione (Ex. 19-5a). The notated effect and the one unnotated are