Division (
diferencias or
glosas in Spain,
double in France,
passaggio in Italy,
diminuce in the Czech Republic) is a form of embellishment or variation of a melodic line, where a long note is divided into shorter values and the intervals in the original melody are filled/wrapped by these shorter notes. The heyday of division practice falls in the second half of the 16th century, when it is documented in a number of treatises dealing with the technique: Silvestro di Ganassi dal Fontego:
Opera intitulata Fontegara (1535), Diego Ortiz:
Trattado de Glosas (1553), Girolamo Dalla Casa:
Il vero modo di diminuir (1584), Giovanni Bassano:
Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie (1585) etc. In the period 1580 - 1620, a number of compositions were created and published from polyphonic chansons and where one or more melodic lines were embellished with divisions. The authors of the original chansons were famous composers of the High Renaissance - Th. Crecquillon, J. Clemens non Papa, R. de Lassus, G. P. da Palestrina, J. Courtois, etc. Compositions with divisions were intended for various instruments - recorders or transverso, cornetto, violas (viola la gamba, viola bastarda) and others.
Note
Basso continuo: Martin Perkins (courtesy of the artist)
Sheet music sources
Crecquillon:
Modern edition:
Divisions on Chansons I
IMSLP:
Un gay bergier
Clemens non Papa:
Modern edition:
Divisions on Chansons I
IMSLP:
Frisque et gaillard
Palestrina:
Modern edition:
Vestiva i colli settings
IMSLP:
Vestiva i colli 
