Pastorale

What it means

The pastorale is a piece of music depicting rural shepherd life. The name goes back to the Latin pastor, “shepherd.” What is meant is less a fixed form than an expressive type with recurring features.

These include a rocking rhythm in compound time, usually 6/8 or 12/8, sustained drone sounds in the bass recalling bagpipes and shawms, a plain melody often led in thirds or sixths, and a calm, peaceful character. The pastorale often stands in major.

It is to be distinguished from the barcarolle, which likewise stands rocking in six-eight time but evokes the image of water, and from the musette, which is more closely bound to a particular instrument.

In church music the pastorale has a particular tradition: as Christmas music recalling the shepherds in the field.

In the notation

The pastorale usually stands in 6/8 or 12/8 time, often with a pedal point in the bass that remains held over many bars. The melody moves in plain, rocking figures. The designation stands as a movement heading or as a performance marking.

Musical use

The pastorale has been widespread since the Baroque, in Christmas music, oratorios, and concertos as well as in organ and chamber music. In the nineteenth century, the depiction of rural nature becomes a significant theme of instrumental music, and pastoral features appear in symphonies and programme music.

The pastorale depicts rural life, often with drone basses, rocking rhythms, and woodwinds imitating the shawm and shepherd's pipe. In the Christmas music of the Baroque it is widespread, because it recalls the shepherds of Bethlehem, for instance in Corelli and Bach. Beethoven's sixth symphony carries the epithet Pastorale. It often stands in 6/8 or 12/8 time. Handel gives this name to the Pifa in Messiah.

Performance practice

Keep the rocking rhythm even and light. Let the drone bass carry calmly, without accenting it. Play the melody plainly and in a song-like manner. And take the tempo calmly — a pastorale depicts peace, not motion.