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Re: Mozart Concerto

Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2019-04-22 20:12

William wrote:

>> There are different ways of doing the two bars, some of which are much more likely to represent common 18th century practice than others, ... >>

My view would put the matter differently. I ask myself not, "how common 18th century practice would do the two bars," but rather, "what Mozart had in mind when he wrote the two bars – or, one bar; or even one note."

That way of looking at it disallows the modern view that there is an entity called 'what's written' – and then 'we' have the job of interpreting that entity, sometimes by writing in extra dynamics, expression marks and so on.

Rather, Mozart's notation has an implicit flexibility of a particular sort built in: namely that a NOTE comes away 'more or less'; a BAR has a hierarchical structure that is represented 'more or less' (notice, William, not necessarily "clearly emphasized"); and a SEQUENCE OF BARS participates in a hypermetre, shown 'more or less'.

You might say that there is no difference between what you said and what I just said. But I say there is a difference of emphasis. A timpanist who has internalised the notion that the hierarchy of their bars makes a major contribution to the orchestra – 'cellists have a similar power – will have the ability to inflect the first four notes of the Beethoven concerto so imperceptibly as to give life to the motif without seeming to make an obtrusive gesture.

Then the equal hammer blows of the four notes in the full orchestra – notice, NOTATED equal – have increased effect.

Liquorice wrote:

>> Why do singers not apply these principles? Of course they also follow the texts, but generally seem most concerned about "carrying the vocal line". Do you know ANY singers who apply these principles to classical music? >>

I imagine that they're never taught such things. No, I don't know any such singers.

But they do have the words and their meanings to add into the mix.

I wrote somewhere about the clarinet beginning of "L'amor è un ladroncello" but I can't find the post. We're marked forte, but the natural inclination is to crescendo through the bar. Worrying about this, I decided to follow the bar hierarchy instead, and found the problem solved.

Tony

Post Edited (2019-04-22 20:29)

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