Performing Baroque Music

Mary Cyr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351554640
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Listeners, performers, students and teachers will find here the analytical tools they need to understand and interpret musical evidence from the baroque era. Scores for eleven works, many reproduced in facsimile to illustrate the conventions of 17th and 18th century notation, are included for close study. Readers will find new material on continuo playing, as well as extensive treatment of singing and French music. The book is also a concise guide to reference materials in the field of baroque performance practice with extensive annotated bibliographies of modern and baroque sources that guide the reader toward further study. First published by Ashgate (at that time known as Scolar Press) in 1992 and having been out of print for some years, this title is now available as a print on demand title.

1

Performance Practice and Baroque Sound

Musical notation by its very nature is inexact. The symbols represent merely an approximation of the duration, volume, pitch, and rhythm of musical sounds. Some features, such as how an instrument is tuned or the pitch at which it plays, are taken for granted and may not figure in the notation at all. Others belong to style or convention and may not be explicit, such as the length of a fermata or the pauses between movements. Performers must rely to a considerable extent upon experience and intuition whenever they transfer music from notation into sound, for much is left to the individual’s discretion. Many composers of the twentieth century have attempted to indicate their intentions more precisely than composers of the past did, but the performer still has much to interpret.

To perform music of any age or culture, we must be able to identify the traditions and conventions that belong to it. Performers use this knowledge to provide a stylistic context within which a personal interpretation of the music develops. The farther back in time one goes, the greater are the difficulties in interpreting the notation, not only because aspects of the symbols may be imprecise, but also because the meanings of some marks have changed through centuries of use. By recognizing features common to music composed in a given period, in a particular place, or by an individual composer, we can begin to define the stylistic characteristics that help us interpret the notation. If we are successful, this knowledge eventually becomes part of our intuitive perception of style. Without it, the musical language of the past would lose its subtle shades of meaning and expression.

If we seek to perform music as we think the composer imagined it would sound, we must embark upon the study of performance practice. This ever-widening field attempts to interpret the written musical document and to create an appropriate sound based upon that interpretation. The materials for the study of performance practice therefore reach beyond the music itself. The task is similar in some ways to that of the restorer of a painting, who painstakingly recreates colors, shades, and textures that were changed or lost over time.

The field of performance practice, or Aufführungspraxis, is only about a century old. Early investigators such as Arnold Schering (1877–1941) and Hugo Goldschmidt (1859–1920) documented important repertories and studied how their notations are to be interpreted. These writers were among the first, since the eighteenth century, to discuss authentic interpretations of the figured bass, dynamics, and ornamentation, and to identify the types of indications that are often missing from baroque scores, such as instrumentation.

Recreating a correct musical text became the first aim of performance practice, and from the middle of the nineteenth century onward, the monumental collected editions of major baroque figures were issued: the Bach-Gesellschaft in 1851, and those for Handel (1858), Purcell (1878), Schütz (1885), Rameau (1895), and Monteverdi (1926). In general, the editors presented the works in these volumes with few emendations and retained the original note values, ornaments, and other aspects of the notation. Some editions also include comments about the physical appearance of the sources, but usually the performer has little opportunity to study the variants in different sources, since the editors present only one reading. More recent editorial thought has moved toward providing as much information from the extant sources as possible, either in the edition itself or in supplementary critical notes. Given access to such information from the original manuscripts and prints, one can study the evidence, review the editor’s choice, and consider the various possibilities. New collected editions, such as the Neue Bach Ausgabe (1954-) and the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe (1955- ), include critical commentaries with information about chronology, performance matters, and a list of variants for each work. These editions are still underway, and others have begun more recently, such as those for Buxtehude, Lully, and Rameau. For some composers, such as Marais, Telemann, and Vivaldi, a significant number of instrumental works has been published, but a comparatively small amount of their vocal music is available. Much editorial work, therefore, still remains to be done.

With the efforts of Arnold Dolmetsch (1858–1940) and others, the music also began to be heard once again using old instruments. Along with increasing interest in historical performance came new questions and problems of interpretation. Research into the playing techniques of early instruments and the design of the instruments themselves has raised an important new issue, that of authenticity. As a concept, authenticity can have several meanings. We can speak of an authentic source as one whose attribution is not in question, or as one that is known to originate with the composer, and is not a version or arrangement by someone else. When applied to musical performance, authenticity may be regarded as an attempt to perform within a context of historical faithfulness, either by adhering closely to the composer’s wishes (if they are known), or by considering the conventions and historical circumstances of performances associated with the composer. Because it carries the connotation of “right” or “correct,” however, the word authentic is sometimes mistakenly regarded as a way of limiting the boundaries within which good performances may fall. A historically informed approach should have the opposite effect; it may even expand the interpretive boundaries for modern performers by leading them to explore techniques no longer in use today.

If performance practice seeks to recreate the music as the composer wanted it to sound, should our goal be authentic performance? Although a performer may look for some authentic solutions to the problems of interpretation, one cannot usually achieve a fully authentic performance for at least two reasons. First, circumstances for a composer were rarely ideal, and baroque composers often based their choices upon the particular performers available to them and may even have been forced to alter their conception of a piece because of a given set of circumstances. Second, we cannot attempt merely to recreate musical performances as they were in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Our concerts are events of the twentieth century, and it is rare that a totally authentic performance can even be attempted. Nevertheless, the study of such factors as the original size and balance of an instrumental group or choir may help us to understand certain stylistic features of the music and how its notation can be interpreted.

Our study of baroque performance practice will therefore focus upon the written evidence in the musical document as well as the many unwritten conventions and styles which contribute to interpretation. Performance practice has broadened today to encompass all music of the past and to bring scholars and performers together in search of a common goal: to understand the composer’s intentions as they have come down to us in musical manuscripts and other documents, and to direct our knowledge toward an effective and enjoyable performance. In seeking answers to the problems of performance practice, we are attempting to define not the single authentic performance but the boundaries within which good performances fall. A primary aim in any performance is to interpret the music in a moving or expressive manner; authenticity is not a goal but a means to this end.

The role of the performer in baroque music

Musical performance, having as its aim a moving or enjoyable communication to an audience, has two elements: the musical score (the actual document, usually written down in some form), and the performer’s interpretation. The balance between these two elements varies greatly in different centuries and even with different composers. In the baroque period, the performer’s interpretation was considered at least as important as the written score, and in many cases it was considered more important. It is easy to see, then, why musical scores from the period do not provide all the indications that belong to the creative responsibility of the performer, such as slurs or articulations, dynamics, and ornamentation.

Since performance practices varied according to place, time, and individual circumstances, we may well ask whether it will be possible to study them together as “baroque,” even though they are spread over more than a century and separated geographically. There will be some common elements in baroque interpretation which, though not bounded firmly by the dates 1600 and 1750, do make it possible to consider the period as a whole. These common elements can be traced to three important characteristics of musical interpretation during this period: (1) the importance of the voice as a model for instrumental performance, (2) the significance of the words and their expressive delivery in all types of music, and (3) the use of a basso continuo in nearly all ensembles as a foundation or harmonic support. Because these features are common to most baroque music, some matters of interpretation will remain constant as well, while other conventions will change according to the demands of individual composers and musical characteristics.

The sources and tools for studying baroque performance

The tools for the study of baroque performance practice are numerous, and it is important to consider as many different ones as possible when studying a particular style or notation. If one is using a modern edition, the task will be to identify its sources and determine how closely they may reflect the composer’s intentions. The first, and perhaps most important, document is the composer’s own score, if available, or other manuscripts and early printed editions. If we do not have the composer’s autograph, we may have to accept one or more other sources as the best surviving copies. Usually the most important sources will be the ones that can be traced most closely to the composer’s family or pupils, or to a somewhat wider circle including a known copyist or a particular geographical region.

Other tools that may aid the study of performance practices are treatises or instruction books on how to play early instruments, and theoretical works on composition and harmony. Peripheral types of written documents that may prove useful are concert reviews, memoirs, payment lists, libretti, and the like. Visual documents, such as engravings, drawings, and paintings may help to explain or confirm other written evidence and may be particularly helpful in documenting playing techniques. Finally, the instruments themselves can provide us with considerable information about timbre and balance in the baroque ensemble.

Baroque sound

In attempting to play or listen to baroque music, one usually begins with a concern for the sound, a feature by no means easily described, but nevertheless a crucial one as a basis upon which to build other matters of style. As a result of the opportunity to hear performances on both modern and baroque instruments—obviously, an opportunity that eighteenth-century musicians never had!—we are often tempted to compare them. In applying descriptive appellations to the differences we hear, some listeners may observe that, for example, the baroque violin has a thinner, more penetrating sound than its modern counterpart, whose tone to our accustomed ear is full and warm. Many writers and listeners have fallen i...