Romanesca

The pattern, which is found in an endless collection of compositions labeled romanesca, perhaps named after the Roma, is a descending descant formula within a chordal progression that has a bass which moves by 4ths.

Documentation of the term is seen for the first time in Alonso Mudarra's Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela (Romanesca, o Guárdame las vacas) in 1546 and in Carminum pro testudines liber IV by Pierre Phalèse.

[3] The romanesca can be found in collections of 16th-century Spanish instrumental music, where it was exclusively associated with O guárdame las vacas ("O let us put the cows to pasture" or, "look after the cows for me",[1] occasionally known as Seculorum del primer tono in reference to the similarity between the a g f e d melody line and that of the chief termination, "Seculorum, Amen", of the first psalm tone).

The metric variants on the identical melody in both countries were likely due to the simple practice of accommodating the romanesca formula to fit different texts (and languages).

16th-century romanescas often display clear, ternary rhythm, while those found in the 17th century seem to be notated in duple metre (though there remains some rhythmic ambuiguity in these compositions).

[3] A romanesca is composed of a sequence of four chords with a simple, repeating bass, which provide the groundwork for variations and improvisation.