Dance Music from 1597 (The Frog Galliard by John Dowland) | ContraPlays

"The Frog Galliard" by John Dowland, transcribed for keyboard by John Wilbye

[ContraPointsLive]

This melody is from a breakup song called “Now, O now I needs must part, ” published by English composer and lutenist John Dowland in 1597. The instrumental version is called “The Frog Galliard.” A galliard is a Renaissance era dance that was enjoyed by Queen Elizabeth I. Why is it called “The Frog”? According to my research, no one knows.

I chose this piece because I wanted to use the buff stop on the harpsichord, basically a lever that presses leather dampers against the strings, creating a muted lute-like sound.

I’ve also been experimenting with different historical tuning systems. Here I’m using something called 1/6-comma meantone. That means, uh—so basically, tuning is a social construct. There’s this idea that music is sacred mathematics, and that’s kind of true, but when you get into the details it turns out that harmony is really kind of at odds with physics. Pitch is frequency, and a note that sounds an octave higher than another is vibrating at exactly twice the frequency. That part is convenient. The problem is that if you want to create a musical scale, there’s no mathematically elegant way to divide up the frequencies within the octave. “Pythagorean tuning” attempts to do this by tuning a series of pure perfect fifths (a 3:2 frequency ratio). But after going through the cycle of 12 fifths, you end up with a C that’s slightly different (sharper) than the C you started with. So this method produces no pure octaves. Standard modern tuning is called “equal temperament, ” which solves the problem by simply dividing the octave into 12 equally spaced semitones. Our ears are used to the sound of this, and it’s useful for chromatic music, but the downside is that every non-octave interval is a nightmarish irrational number frequency ratio that causes Pythagoras to cry and vomit. For much of the history of European music, the preferred tuning system was “meantone temperament, ” which is similar to Pythagorean tuning except that each fifth is “tempered” (flatted slightly) so that the octaves come out pure. Unlike equal temperament, meantone temperaments produce some pure intervals, particularly thirds. The most common meantone temperament is 1/4-comma meantone, and I tried that tuning, but this caused the F-sharps in this piece to sound really out of tune, possibly because I’m just not used to the sound, or possibly because I don’t know what I’m doing. So I tried the more understated 1/6-comma meantone and liked that better. So here we are.

[omaralonsolopez]

I love that Natalie is getting her money's worth for that harpsichord, and feeding us while doing so no less

[ImPyroChad]

It breaks my heart that with this video I can't say Natalie is "Just like me frfr" anymore as she has become too cool for me to ever possibly be like her 😔

[TheMissing]

Got this live! So soothing, like being at a banquet.

[ElenaPolIsHere]

I love the way you shot this piece!!! It made the music feel so vivid 🥰

[highclass_lady]

I could listen to this all evening, & you do such a fantastic job playing!

[Zyrada]

as someone with a degree in music theory, I feel qualified to say that Dowland's Final Fantasy IX vibes were off the charts

[andrewdavey]

I watched this twice and now my home page on youtube is filled with Clavinets, Fortepianos, cembalino and other weirder period keyboard instruments. It's one of the better gifts Contrapoints has given me as a fan.

[guybrush_bbm]

Always a delight hearing you play Natalie

[sweetest-mia]

thank you for blessing our ears and hearts once again ❤❤❤

[NeelLLumi-AnCatDubh]

One of my favourite YouTubers performing a piece by one of my favourite composers on one of my favourite instruments, delightful

[realmartinshort]

Damn composer was def in his feels with this one

[WhiteTreeRightful]

love your playing! might i suggest one of the de la guerre harpsichord sonatas? she was a fantastic composer and nobody really plays her music anymore despite her success in her lifetime

[josephdashney]

Okay this is so cool, I have always loved how elegant the harpsichord is and I love all of the ornamentation and rolled chords <3 <3

[cheerijessie]

So awesome and so beautifully done too!

[danielsaan]

Christ, Natalie, you get classier with each passing day.

[pestoriusj]

I stopped watching contrapoints in 2019 but the harpsichord content is enticing me to return

[jimmack]

These are so cool, thank you for posting them!

[Marcus-]

I didn't even know i loved this kind of music. That sound is amazing.

[Theonixco]

We asked for more and she delivers! Beautiful.