Howard,
Alright, so next time I'll should ask people if they did not hear me as a
discrete component, but rather as a subconsciously perceivable part of the
composite tonal aggregate? Frankly, I'm not a believer in this way of thinking
for baroque music. There's no evidence that baroque composers thought of
blending tone colors into "new sonorities" or Klangfarbenmelodie in the manner
of Ravel or Schoenberg.
Yes, bassoons double cellos and basses and oboes and violins play the same
line in tuttis, but his rather goes to show how little regard baroque composers
had for the actual colors of the instruments: "If the part fits your register,
play it for all I care." I don't expect to be heard much in tuttis but in
arias, I want to do more than play and not be heard! If Bach didn't have an
oboist on a particular day for an obligato part, he had no qualms about
re-writing it for traverso or violin, transposing if needed. How many times
must this sort of thing have happened on the fly, with nothing being written
down? ("We've got a great virtuoso guest chalumeau player with us today, Herr
Bach." "Well, I ain't got nothin' fer chalumeau, but tell him to take the
traverso obligato on the third aria.") I don't think Handel or Telemann or
either one of the Grauns ever thought, "This harpsichord is doing the job fine
on its own, but it is a little thin
sounding. Let's get a theorbo in here to warm it up, stat! And tell the guy,
even though it really goes without saying, that although the theorbo player CAN
play to be heard, he needs to be a part of the musical texture without actually
being noticed as a discrete sound. ...Ach, Gott, how long before they invent
the synthesizer and GarageBand so that I can do this stuff on my own?" ;-)
Chris
Christopher Wilke
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
--- On Mon, 10/18/10, howard posner <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: howard posner <[email protected]>
> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute volume
> To: "Lute List" <[email protected]>
> Date: Monday, October 18, 2010, 6:41 PM
>
> On Oct 18, 2010, at 5:52 AM, Christopher Wilke wrote:
>
> > I've been told this by several different directors,
> too. (Theorbo: toy class. Stringing: synthetic
> and gut). Never believe them! After every
> concert where I've been asked to hold back, I've asked
> people from the audience whether they could hear me.
> Comments ranged from "in a few spots" to "not at all."
>
> I think you were asking the wrong question. Of course
> they could hear you. They just couldn't hear you as a
> discrete sound. You weren't there to be noticed, but
> to be part of a musical texture. So the conductor and
> the audience members were applying different criteria.
>
>
>
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