Klarinet Archive - Posting 000947.txt from 1999/09

From: "Steven J. Goldman" <sjgoldman@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Improvisation, a reply to Lelia.
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 11:35:23 -0400

This post is more musicological than clarinet based so if this type of thing
doesn't interest you hit delete now.

Lelia is only partially correct in her interpretation of why certain
composers wrote out their ornaments. She is looking at specific composers
(Bach and Couperin) rather than the musical environment they were immersed
in. One could write a whole dissertation on this (and many have), but a
quick and dirty summery is what follows.

Two schools existed during the late Baroque period (of which certain ideas
continued to hold sway through the 18th C.). They were usually divided into
the "Italian" school and the "French" school, although as time passed there
was much cross pollination between the two.

Embellishments at the time were of two types, melodic and harmonic, the
melodic stemming from what was called a "division" (roughly adding more
notes to the melody), while the harmonic served the purpose of accents,
adding harmonic tension to help "bring out" one of the written notes.

The Italian school used both these techniques, and left much of the decision
to the performer (sometimes VERY much - particularly in the slow movements).
The composer basically sketched out the structure and the performer filled
in the gaps. Thus, a performer was not just an interpreter of a piece, but
was intimately involved in the composing process.

The French school, on the other hand, wrote out ALL melodic ornamentation,
and much of the harmonic as well. When they did not write out a harmonic
ornament, it was usually because the proper one(s) would have been obvious
to one trained in that style.

Couperin, while he aimed at something of a synthesis of the two schools, was
writing for performers trained in the French school, so it is not at all
surprising that he wrote out most of his ornaments - so did all his
contemporaries. If he didn't the notes wouldn't get played! (as time went on
the French did begin to allow melodic ornamentation)

Now it's more complicated with Bach. First, the Germans tended to swing from
one of the above schools to the other (Italian until everyone began aping
Louis XIV's court, then French, then when Vivaldi was all the rage,
Italian). Of course it's not as clear cut as that, and in the end you tended
to have a mixture of both - sort of an international style which is what
makes up the German High Baroque. Some of Bach's written out ornamentation
is seen because he is consciously writing a piece in the "French" style.
Also, many of the pieces that have come down to us were being used for
didactic purposes or for the amateur musicians of the Collegium (at least in
the form they have come down to us since many of his concerti had earlier,
now lost, forms). So Bach may have written out much of this ornamentation to
teach those who were not fluent in proper ornamentation. Tellemann did the
same thing although it is more obvious since he personally published these
pieces and also gave you the unornamented version. And of course there may
be times that he just didn't want anyone to screw around with his music (of
the little we know of the man, we know he wasn't shy or particularly
humble).

As the Baroque melted into the Classical, both types of ornamentation
survived, although in a more and more reduced form. When you hit the sea
change of Romanticism where part of the purpose of music was to show people
the psychological state of the composer at the time he wrote a piece,
melodic ornamentation disappeared (from the performers perspective), and
harmonic ornamentation (what was left of it) was carefully notated. The
performer became a conduit for the emotions of the composer, not a partner
in the creation of them.

This is a very Readers Digest type of review and I can probably be taken to
task on some of the statements, but I think it to be a good generalization.

Steve Goldman
Glenview, IL

sjgoldman@-----.com

-----Original Message-----
From: LeliaLoban@-----.com]
Subject: [kl] Improvisation, Marcellus, etc.

I also prefer to hear performances by musicians who respect the composer's
musical tradition (to the extent that we understand it) rather than impose
modern concepts on old music, but in a discussion of Baroque improvisation,
J. S. Bach can serve as an example both for and against improvising on
Baroque compositions.....

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