Dear Stewart,
Sorry for changing the title but I don't think being Polish has anything to
do with playing in time.
Thank you very much for your analysis. Yes, obviously Robert Donington "The
interpretation of early music" is a great source of knowledge for all of us.
It's very handy for me, because I don't need to search originals even if
they stand next to Donnigton on my book shelve in order to write short email
for a mailing list.
Anyway, back to the subject. What gave you an impulse to write was playing
with "sloppy rubato all over the place" as you say, by the lute player from
Contrabellum ensemble. I have to stress, this is not a defence of this type
of playing.
We can see two extremes in modern lute playing:
1/covering technical problems with ritardandos, rubatos etc.
2/keeping rigid, metronomic time no matter phrasing, style, mood or
whatever.
Unfortunately we can hear more and more boring performances of the second
type not only by some lute players of the first rank, but few early music
ensembles as well which remind me of Midi samples so popular in the
internet. People listen to machine-made music and their senses respond. They
start to like some mechanical qualities.
Now, I have to say I wasn't pointing at you Stewart, so I can't see any
problem of accepting both versions of time perception. This is the problem
of terminology rather. So what does it mean to play in time? Well, it
depends. I think we should avoid generalization. Playing in time ricercare,
fantasia, toccata or prelude would be something absolutely different from
playing in time Courante, Menuet, Boure or Gige for instance. If you dislike
Donnington I will cite straight from facsimile edition of Musick's Monument
which I have on my desk at the moment:
(page 128) "The Prelude is commonly a Piece of Confused-wild-shapeless-kind
of Intricate-Play, (as most use it) in which no perfect Form, Shape, or
Uniformity can be perceived; but a Random-Business, Pottering, and Grooping,
up and down, from one Stop, or Key to another; And generally, so performed,
to make Tryal, whether the instrument be well in tune, or not."
(Sorry for lengthy citing but I can see you don't like shortening them).
Anyway, no problem with free forms. Now, if we talk of more strict or dance
like forms, we can not discuss time without mentioning the PULSE. Many
people think - pulse means accent. And they like regular accents because
they can tap their feet. This is what Donnington writes about pulse and
accent (I have to cite him :(( He is just so good):
(page 420)"Pulse is not the same as accent, though the two may often
coincide. In renaissance polyphony, the accentuation follows only the
natural shape of the phrase, not the underlying pulse. The accents in the
different parts seldom come together, and there is no such thing as a
regular accented beat. Follow the rhythm of the words, not the barring - is
usually good practical advice."......."In baroque music, the accentuation is
likely to coincide with the pulse much more frequently; yet there are a
great many passages in which this appears to be the case, but is not. The
accentuation still goes by the phrase and not merely by the bar."
Then he cites Francesco Geminiani (1751) from Art of playing on the violin:
"If by your manner of bowing you lay a particular Stress on the Note at the
Beginning of every Bar, so as to render it predominant over the rest, you
alter and spoil the true Air of the Piece, and except where the Composer
intended it, and where it is always marked, there are very few instances in
which it is not very disagreeable."
Donington tries to show the likeness of the music and the poetry. This is
not a new concept however. Mace talks about " a Comparison betwixt Musick,
and Language" - (page 152 Music's Monument): I speak thus much for This End,
and Purpose, that it may be more Generally Noted, that there is in Musick,
even such a Signification to the Intelligible, and Understanding Faculty of
Man; and such a wonderfull-varios-way of Expression, even as in Language,
Unbounded, and Unlimited.......;and show as much Wit, and Variety, as can
the Best Orator, in the way of Oratory."
The earlier music the smaller correlation between the accent and the pulse.
This is why some people think polyphony music is boring because they can't
tap foot.
Now, what about variations of tempo? This is a very wide topic, not for a
mailing list, but reading Donington chapter XL page 425 is absolute must.
"Having decided on basic tempo, we have to apply it with the necessary
flexibility."......."One of our most harmful reactions against
over-romanticising early music has been the sewing-machine rhythm! No music,
not even music based mainly on sequences, will stand a completely rigid
tempo. Most baroque music needs considerable flexibility." etc,etc.....
He talks latter about ways of doing it: by borrowing time and by stealing
it. Absolutely indispensable chapter.
How about some dance tempos? If you criticize Nigel North playing Melancholy
Galliard you would have done better to look at page 129 in Music's Monument
concerning the most popular types of pieces. Nr 6 is Galliard:
"Galliards, are Lessons of 2, or 3 Strains, but are perform'd in a Slow and
Large Triple-Time; and (commonly) Grave, and Sober."
Best wishes
Jaroslaw
-----Original Message-----
From: Stewart McCoy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 5:03 PM
To: Lute Net
Subject: [LUTE] Playing in time (olim Polish, anyone?)
Dear Jaroslav,
Thank you very much for these observations, which you have presumably taken
from Robert Donington, _The Interpretation of Early Music_ (London: Faber &
Faber, new version reprinted 1975), p. 425.
The first passage you quote, which Donington took from Thomas Mace, p. 147,
is incomplete. The full text given by Donington is:
"Many Drudge, and take much Pains to Play their Lessons very Perfectly, (as
they call It (that is, Fast) which when they can do, you will perceive
Little Life, or Spirit in Them, meerly for want of the Knowledge of This
last Thing, I now mention, viz. They do not labour to find out the Humour,
Life, or Spirit of their Lessons."
Here Mace is arguing for music to be played expressively, to capture the
mood of a composition. He says that many players think you just have to get
the notes right and play the piece up to speed, the faster the better. This
does not really counter what I have been saying about lutenists playing out
of time. You would have done better to look seven pages further on (p. 432),
where you will find another passage taken from Mace (p. 81):
"[Beginners must learn strict time; but] when we come to be Masters, so that
we can command all manner of Time, at our own Pleasures; we Then take
Liberty, (and very often, for Humour [i.e. "mood", not "wit"], and good
Adornment-sake, in certain Places), to Break Time; sometimes Faster, and
sometimes Slower, as we perceive, the Nature of the Thing Requires."
In my earlier e-mail, I quoted the passage on p. 124 of _Musick's Monument_:
" ... you cannot fail to know my Mistress's Humour, provided you keep True
Time, which you must be extreamly careful to do, in All Lessons: For Time is
the One half of Musick."
At first sight, Mace seems to be contradicting himself with these three
passages, yet I believe he is spot on. I think he means that he wants music
to be played in time, not with sloppy rubato all over the place for its own
sake, but neither does he want it to be played mechanically with no regard
for the mood of the piece. To capture the essential character of a piece of
music requires some freedom of interpretation, but done subtly, and in such
a way that the music appears to keep good time. I would suggest that Paul
O'Dette does precisely that. He can play a piece of dance music so that
one's foot taps in sympathy, but he doesn't play mechanically. There may be
a little give and take to capture the spirit of a piece, perhaps a breath
between sections, without him resorting to the sort of arrhythmic playing I
so dislike.
-o-O-o-
As with Mace, you would have done better to choose a quotation seven pages
on for Frescobaldi, where Donington gives the following (p. 432):
"First, this kind of playing must not be subject to the beat, as we see done
in modern Madrigals, which, in spite of their difficulties, are made easier
by means of the beat, taking it now slowly, now quickly, and even held in
the air, to match the expressive effects, or the sense of the words."
In this passage, and in the one you quoted, Frescobaldi is talking
specifically about the performance of his toccatas for keyboard, and clearly
wants a very free performance. I would suggest that some of the early lute
ricercars might be approached in a similar way. If there is any irregularity
in the rhythm, it has to be for a purpose though, not just for its own sake.
The meaning of the word "ricercar" can give us a clue - searching out,
research, discovery, exploration - it is as if the performer is trying to
discover something through the music, almost as if he is playing the piece
for the first time. It is an experiment in music, as he tries now this, now
that, in a succession of different moods. Likewise, I think French
unmeasured preludes would also qualify for some freedom of rhythm, as they
set the scene for the dance pieces to follow.
Although I believe the exploratory sort of ricercar invites some rhythmic
freedom, I would not extend this to all pieces which happen to be called
ricercar. Some are more polyphonic in character, and a strict tempo is more
suitable. I have on my lap a facsimile of Annibale Padovano's Libro primo di
Ricercare a 4 Voci (1556). The music is in score for four instruments (or
keyboard playing the lot). If you were to perform these pieces on four
recorders or viols, you would expect them to be in pretty strict time. If
there was anything more than just a slight give or take from any of the
players, the others would lose their place. Now, the second of these
ricercars was arranged for solo lute and included by Galilei on page 4 of
_Il Fronimo_ (1584). Is there any reason why a lutenist should perform this
piece in a completely different way? Should the liberties he takes be any
greater than those taken by a consort of viols, and if so, why?
-o-O-o-
In his latest Dowland CD, Nigel North includes Melancholy Galliard. He plays
this slower than other galliards on the CD, understandably because of the
title. I tried to measure with a metronome what the difference in speed is
between the galliards. With the faster ones, it was possible to come up with
an approximate figure, but it was impossible to measure Melancholy Galliard,
because the piece kept changing speed. The word "Melancholy" might well
suggest slowness, but the word "galliard" should suggest a dance rhythm,
however slow that may be. To quote Donington (p. 383):
"A slow movement may gain more poignancy from being kept well in motion than
from being dragged under the illusion of making the most of it."
Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jarosław Lipski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Lute'" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 5:47 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Playing in time (olim Polish, anyone?)
>
> Actually Bream is not "old fashioned". This is rather modern attitude - a
> need for steady rhythm and sharp accents. In baroque period breaking
> chords
> was absolutely common practice and thought of as embellishment.
> G.Frescobaldi, Toccate 1615 :
> "The openings of the toccatas are to be taken adagio and arpeggiando; it
> is
> the same with suspensions or discords, even in the middle of the work, one
> breaks them together, so as not to leave the instrument empty; which
> breaking is to be performed at the discretion of the performer"
>
> As far as rhythm is concerned flexibility was the rule:
> 1/Th. Mace Musick's Monument
> "Many Drudge, and take much Pains to Play their Lessons very Perfectly,
> which when they can do, you will perceive Little Life, or Spirit in them.
> They do not labour to find out the Humour, Life, or Spirit of their
> lessons."
> 2/Jean Rousseau, Traite de la Viole 1687
> There are people who imagine that imparting the movement is to follow and
> keep time; but these are very different matters....."
> 3/Joachim Quantz, Essay 1752
> "The performance should be easy and flexible. However difficult the
> passage,
> it must be played without stiffness or constraint."
> Obviously it involves the problem of borrowing or steeling time. However
> whatever we do, the question is not- should we do it- but rather -is it
> tasteful. And a Good taste is really precious for me.
>
> Jaroslaw
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