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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000027.txt from 2004/05
From: "Eduardo" <e_rodriguez@-----.ar>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Accents
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 08:22:39 -0400
About this topic I'd like recomend two books:
Meter in Music, 1600-1800 Perfomance, Perception and Notation by George
Houle (Indiana University Press)
and
Música y Retórica en el Barroco by Rubén López Cano (Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México)
if you can't read Spanish he wrote also some articles in English (I found
several in the net).
and about Phil message
>With double reeds, and maybe other winds as well, a sforzando is rather
>complex. Not only does one blow harder, but one has to compensate just >the
right amount for the rise in pitch that accompanies the rise in air
>pressure.
Arthur Weisberg's book "The Art of Wind Playing" explain all about the
technique of playing accents and so on without change pitch.
Greeetings from the Argentina
Eduardo
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Peaceman" <MPeaceman@-----.de>
To: <doublereed@-----.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 5:00 PM
Subject: [DR-L] Accents
> Hello Phil,
>
> It occurs to me that the use of the word accent possibly needs further
> definition. Is an accent just a sharp attack at the beginning of the
> note? Is it more than one thing? Are there different types of accents?
> Yes, my questions are rhetorical but I do also have some answers of my
> own. One major difference between a keyboard, plucked or percussion
> instrument and a bowed or wind instrument is that the winds and strings
> can add accents 'after the fact' so to speak, by swelling, either slowly
> or quickly to a point in time after having begun the note. This
> certainly expands the meaning of the word accent for me... and the
> possibilities. The larger one wants his or her declamatory palette to
> be, the more refined and varied the techniques need to be. One of the
> most poignant aspects of Early Music, that which makes the music
> 'speak', is in fact, the relationship between language and music. This
> relationship is not abstract. We can read very specific remarks in
> treatises by Quantz, Mattheson etc. about this relationship. You only
> have to try speaking a sentence in a monotonal manner to realize just
> how much importance the accentuation of syllables, words and punctuation
> have for the meaning and effect that those words can have or not have. A
> simple example: Read the sentence "I like you" five times. Once
> accentuating 'I', once accentuating 'like' and once accentuating 'you'.
> Once softly and accentuating no word more than the others and once
> shouting, accentuating no word more than the others. Of course you can
> take this further using whispers, shouts, oratorical and living room
> dynamics. You can add regional inflections, change the rhythm of these
> same three words, thus affecting a further change in the meaning. Does
> this add a little dimension to the topic?
>
> Though instrumental music might in fact, have fewer possibilities than
> langauge, still, there are many more than one might think. You ask for
> some musical examples. There is a wonderful recording of JB Lully
> orchestral works with lots of instrumental variation (oboes and bassoons
> too!) recorded by Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations on AliaVox No.
> AV9807 (Amazon has it). There is nothing like well played French baroque
> music to give one some ideas about accentuation, tone color etc. Jazz
> and Blues musicians probably don't think about it. They just do it. Why
> should't classical musicians be able to within the parameters of the
> various styles of music we play?
>
> I'll stop :-)
>
> Matthew
>
> --
> Email: mpeaceman@-----.com
> Web: http://www.mpeaceman.com
>
>
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 13:14:34 -0400
> > To: doublereed@-----.org
> > From: PhilFrei@-----.com
> > Subject: Rhythmic Accents
> > Message-ID: <57C1F8E7.57F1EE45.007E62D3@-----.com>
> >
> > Just musing (after a Ray Still master class):
> >
> > On a piano or guitar or even a string instrument, playing an accent is
intuitive: to play louder one uses more force.
> >
> > With double reeds, and maybe other winds as well, a sforzando is rather
complex. Not only does one blow harder, but one has to compensate just the
right amount for the rise in pitch that accompanies the rise in air
pressure.
> >
> > I sometimes play and improvise on keyboards and guitar, and had noticed
that I use a lot of accents in my melody lines, but when I tried to play the
same lines on the oboe, they don't translate very well, but seem rather
flat. Now I am realizing that this was due to a tendency to make everything
flow evenly on the oboe, and that to put in some accents is going to take a
bit of work, both to pull off without losing the pitch and to remain
oboe-like.
> >
> > I was listening to Coltrane (playing with Duke Ellington) play "In a
Sentimental Mood" and that seems like a good example of where a wind player
uses accents in a very lyrical and beautiful way. Is it fair to say
saxophone players before Coltrane were smoother, less rhythmic? Or am I just
betraying my lack of exposure to their work?
> >
> > I'm curious also which instruments tend to go out of pitch the most when
played with an accent. I suspect it is not so much a problem with flute
because I've heard lots of flute playing with interesting accent patterns
(Hubert Laws, Nestor Flores). Trumpet solos, too. It seems reeds (single and
double) are the ones less likely to use accents, but I would love to hear
some good counter-examples.
> >
> > Phil Freihofner
> > Oakland
> >
>
>
>
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