Passamezzo moderno
The passamezzo moderno, or Gregory Walker was "one of the most popular harmonic formulae in the Renaissance period, divid into two complementary strains thus:"
For example, in C major the progression is as follows:
The progression or ground bass, the major mode variation of the passamezzo antico, originated in Italian and French dance music during the first half of the 16th century, where it was often used with a contrasting progression or section known as ripresa. Though one of Thomas Morley's characters in Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke denigrates the Gregory Walker, comparing unskilled singing to its sound, it was popular in both pop/popular/folk and classical musics through 1700. Its popularity was revived in the mid 19th century, and the American variant evolved into the twelve bar blues.
Examples
Listed in :- several in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
- "Up and Ware Them A Willie"
- "Jimmie Rose"
- "Darling Nelly Gray"
- "Wreck of the Old 97"
- Woody Guthrie's "There is a House in This Old Town"
- Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"
- The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women"
- Carole King's "You've Got a Friend"
- Hans Neusidler's Gassenhauer
- "Oxstedter Mühle"
- Diego Ortiz' Recercada Prima / Segunda / Tercera sobre el Passamezzo Moderno.
- Iron & Wine's "A History of Lovers"
- Ed Rush and George Cromarty’s "Plastic Jesus"
American Gregory Walker
The American Gregory Walker, popular in parlour music, is a variation in which the subdominant chords become the progression IV–I.For example, in C major this variation is as follows:
Examples
Listed in :- "Jesse James"
- "The Titanic"
- "My Little Old Sod Shanty"
- "Cottonfields"
- Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In"
Other variations
On original progression
- Second strain's first I becomes I–I7 :
On American variant
- IV–I is reversed, becoming I–IV or I7–IV: