Klarinet Archive - Posting 000209.txt from 2006/10

From: Margaret Thornhill <clarinetstudio@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: ornamentation/improvisation sources
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:39:52 -0400

Tim wrote:

I am wondering, how do we know this? Are there documents that
describe
it? Is it an oral tradition passed down from teacher to pupil
over two
centuries? Are there performance transcripts with the
ornamentation
written out?

Tim asked a legitimate question that Dan only partially answered. While
there's no "book on improvisation" per se, many famous
performer/teachers or composer/teachers of the 18th century wrote
extensively on the performer's role in interpreting music-- including
ornamentation, the proper treatment of rhythm, cadenzas, and in some
cases, outlining what constiuted bad taste (also a kind of "performance
practice' when you think about it.) Anyone considering doing free
ornamentation in classical music should at least look at some of these;
those to get an idea of what the performers of the time considered
desirable--those considering doing a lot of this will read more.

Some of the big names here are: Quantz, CPE Bach, Leopold Mozart and, my
favorite, Daniel Turk, who was a contemporary of Mozart and a very
influential teacher. Modern teacher/scholars of this period like Robert
Donington and Frederick Neumann and even Paul Badura-Skoda have also
written helpful stuff. In the course of assembling some links (below) I
also found a couple of new things I haven't investigated.

Mozart wrote at least one letter to his father discussing how he
bypassed the "bad taste" issue by writing out his own ornamentation in
one of his piano concerti (remind us, Dan, which one) You can get a
pretty good idea of the ornamentation that Mozart might have liked by
looking at the more elaborate writing that he did for his main
instrument, the piano, in the sonatas and fantasies.

As for evidence that people actually did this stuff, there's also plenty
of press mentions in the major papers of the time.

Some Sources:

Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments--CPE Bach
http://www.amazon.com/Essay-True-Playing-Keyboard-Instruments/dp/0393097161

On Playing the Flute--Johann Quantz
http://www.flutehistory.com/Players/Johann_Joachim_Quantz/index.php3

A recent book coparing the two by Kris Palmer
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2493/is_1_52/ai_90307744

A treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing--Leopold Mozart
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treatise-Fundamental-Principles-Violin-Playing/dp/019318513X

A new book I don't know but am going to buy
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classical-Romantic-Performing-Practice-1750-1900

Klavierschule by Daniel Gottlob Turk (1750-1813), a contemporary of
Mozart and renowned piano teacher and theorist (English translation by
Haggh, Univeristy of Nebraska press)
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/mozart/score/Turk_Exercises.htm

Happy reading!

Margaret Thornhill

Artist/Teacher of Modern and Historical Clarinet
http://www.margaretthornhill.com

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