BAROQUE REVOLUTION

Historically informed performance requires no secret code, argues Baroque violin professor Walter S. Reiter. The information is out there for the taking, and modern music colleges need to get ahead of the game

Walter Reiter leads Oslo-based period ensemble Barokkanerne in 2012

Afrequent response to my confessing that I play the Baroque violin goes something like this: ‘Oh, so you play without vibrato?’ Another reaction is supposedly more positive: ‘How wonderful… you mean Vivaldi and… er…’ But neither phrase does any justice to the intensive research involved in the interpretation of a sonata by, for example, Pandolfi Mealli (‘Who?’) based on information gleaned from historical sources with regard to the stylus fantasticus, mid-17thcentury instrumental technique, rhetoric, authentic organology, appropriate pitch used (in Innsbruck) in the 1660s, affect, the quirks of musica ficta and tempo relationships (if any). Neither do these responses recognise the meticulous accumulation of information based on the study of music by the myriad composers who preceded Bach, the one Baroque composer most of us do play – even though he himself copied out their works,and without their influence he would not have been Bach as we know – or think we know, or do not know – him.

The names of many of the Baroque composers I most revere do not even appear in the old 1920s edition of Grove’s Dictionary slumbering in my local library, for their music lay on dusty shelves in church and court archives or in state libraries until the Baroque revivalists lovingly gathered it up and set it free to move and inspire us once more. How much astonishing variety there is: a century and a half of rich repertoire, sacred and profane, spiritual and uplifting, from the Venice of Monteverdi (right) to the Vienna of Mozart via the Versailles of Mondonville (‘Who?’), with styles shifting from decade to decade and from city to city – not to mention ‘world Baroque’, such as the music of the Chiquitos, who composed Baroque-style Masses deep in the Bolivian jungle until the late 1800s, without even realising that Beethoven had come and gone!

It is now time to recognise what the historically informed performance (HIP) revolution has achieved over the past half-century, for it has radically altered the way we hear and perform music from the Baroque and Classical periods, and indeed from the Romantic era, shining new light even into the nooks and crannies of the early 20th century. For us violinists, it has brought to light a cornucopia of captivating music and with it the instruments whose sounds transport us back into a distant world. For some musicians, accepting the very concept of HIP is still the musical equivalent of converting to another religion; yet HIP today is no longer the unique domain of specialists, for soloists, conductors, chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras the world over are exploring music in this new–old way, both on original and on modern instruments.

In spite of this trend, however, the early repertoire remains largely off limits to many of today’s students. Why? Granted, one cannot audition for a symphony orchestra with a sonata by Biber or any of the Concerts royaux of François Couperin le grand (above right), but is that justification for students graduating from our conservatoires having never played a single note of 17th-century music? Surely not: indeed, I would argue that the HIP approach to Baroque repertoire has opened up new horizons and possibilities for the emerging 21st-century musician and that its study should be included in the mainstream curricula of today’s conservatoires, no longer exclusively limited to specialised ‘historical performance’ departments.

A CREATIVE, HOLISTIC APPROACH TO INTERPRETATION

There are many significant benefits to the study of early repertoire. The further back in time we travel, the fewer instructions there are as indicated by composers. The interpreter has thus to examine the musical text and use their ingenuity and imagination to make decisions in a way not required for later repertoire, where scores are awash with instructions as to tempo, dynamics, phrasing, bowings, accents, exact rhythms, lengths of notes and so on.

Another essential aspect of HIP is the need to take into account the cultural context from which the music being studied sprang. One cannot simply play 17th-century French music the way one instinctively feels it: French composers had their own tables of ornaments – little formulas known as agréments, which were to be executed correctly and tastefully. This formality of ornamentation corresponds to the formal etiquette of contemporary French society, in particular to the culture of Versailles under Louis XIV. The Italians, on the other hand, took a more improvisatory approach, priding themselves on their skill at ornamenting seemingly simple lines so as to bring them to life at the moment of performance. Some composers, such as Jean-Marie Leclair, combined the Italian and French styles in their compositions, so that knowledge of both styles is needed for a convincing interpretation.

INTERPRETING THE MUSIC AS A WHOLE

Merely paying lip service to stylistic considerations will not result in a convincing performance. Interpreting a Baroque sonata involves an in-depth observation of the musical text as a whole, hunting for clues as to the emotions, or affects, and deciding on phrasing, dynamics, the hierarchy of good (essential) and bad (less important) notes, articulations (the quality of each note and its place in the phrase) and other details, none of which is indicated by the composer. To practise one’s part in isolation is not an option, for it is impossible to make interpretative decisions without taking the bass and the harmony into account. For this reason, all sonatas were printed with the top part and the figured bass together. The opportunity for growth in the experience of the student as a result of this complex interpretative process is evident.

RHYTHM AND TEMPO AS EXPRESSIVE DEVICES

Rhythm in Baroque music is an art, an expressive device governed not by any strict obedience to theoretical laws, but ever flexible in the service of the music, with an element of spontaneity to allow the music to breathe and the performance to live. Lengthening or shortening a note for reasons of expression was normal practice until roughly the time of Beethoven, when the literal realisation of the text became mandatory. In certain styles, tempo is also subject to living fluctuations: exploring the creative possibilities of rhythm and tempo is another advantage to working on this repertoire.

THE RHETORICAL NATURE OF BAROQUE MUSIC: LEARNING TO SPEAK WITH THE BOW

It is significant how many students, when reducing their vibrato to a minimum, are left bereft of the lively ‘speaking bow’ described in the historical sources: time and time again I ask students to relinquish their dependence on vibrato and focus instead on the expressive potential of the bow, the true creator of sound. Much Baroque music may be seen as a mosaic made up of individual rhetorical fragments. Identifying the inner meaning, the emotional symbolism in each of these fragments is a vital part of the process that leads to a convincing performance. In this pursuit, one is obliged to take into account contemporaneous ways of thinking about what music does and how it does it. The opening sentence of Geminiani’s 1751 book The Art of Playing on the Violin is a good place to start: ‘The Intention of Musick is not only to please the Ear, but to express Sentiments, strike the Imagination, affect the Mind, and command the Passions.’ By the ‘expressing of sentiments’ he was referring to such things as specific intervals evoking specific emotions. Thus we may find a major 7th described as ‘supplicative’ or a descending 4th as ‘doleful’ – subjective information, certainly, but such thinking contributes towards an understanding of what that oft-used word ‘interpretation’ actually meant in bygone times.

The connection between rhetoric, the art of persuasion and music is well documented from the time of the ancient Greeks. Bach himself studied Aristotelian rhetoric at school and among the books he left in his will were several on that subject. In his solo violin and cello music, there are few movements that can be said to be purely melodic: the rest are either dances or dance-inspired, or they are based on rhetoric.

Mistaking the rhetorical narrative for a coherent melody, in which the fragments are ironed out by a singing legato bowing and smothered in a continual vibrato, is to diminish the intensity of the music and its power to ‘affect the mind and command the passions’ of the listener. Rhetorical music therefore needs to be played in a rhetorical way: not to do so is to mistake the recitative for the aria!

Geminiani’s 1751 violin treatise

MAIN IMAGE LINDA PERILLO

PLAYING WORDS: THE DECONDITIONING OF THE RIGHT ARM

No mention is made of actual bow strokes in the historical sources. Players would constantly and imaginatively conjure up sounds from the plethora of available articulations, from the shortest to the longest, from the stressed to the deliberately underplayed. Bow technique on the ‘modern’ violin is broadly based on methodical practice and application of abstract bow strokes categorised by Viotti (right) and others in the early 1800s. One such is détaché, a vague term but one too often taken to mean a stroke so even, smooth and regular that relatively little rhetorical subtlety is possible.It is significant to what extent students find it challenging to replicate the nuances of spoken language, yet it is here that the secret of rhetorical bow technique is to be found.

TIME AND AGAIN I ASK STUDENTS TO RELINQUISH THEIR DEPENDENCE ON VIBR ATO AND FOCUS ON THE EXPRESSIVE POTENTIAL OF THE BOW, THE TRUE CREATOR OF SOUND

Walter Reiter conducts the Orchestra of the Lyceum Mozartiano in Havana, Cuba, in 2016

EXAMPLE 1 Opening bars of Corelli’s Violin Sonata in D major op.5 no.1 (1700) as printed in Estienne Roger’s 1710 edition. The middle stave shows Corelli’s original composition; the top stave is a version with ornaments printed ‘as Corelli played them’

EXAMPLE 2 Opening of Bach’s G minor Sonata for solo violin BWV1001 (1720). The harmonic structure is linked by Bach’s own written-out ornamentations

As an exercise, I get the student to speak a word such as ‘Michelangelo’ or a phrase like ‘Kyrie eleison’ in the manner of an orator, observing its elusive rhythms, stresses, consonants and expressive vowel sounds. The challenge is to replicate their voice (once it has become convincingly theatrical) with the bow, on an open string. The tendency is usually to downgrade the rhythm to one that is easy to identify, thereby stripping it of its subtle nuances. A vowel will always have some degree of dynamic scheme inherent in it, something that will keep the sound alive and expressive.Singers do this naturally. Try singing ‘Kyrie eleison’ yourself: you will find that every syllable has some degree of swell (<>). This expressive swelling of the sound, well documented throughout the Baroque period, continued to be applied in string playing until the fashion for a continuous vibrato took over in the 20th century.

FINDING NEW PHYSICAL FREEDOMS

For those who choose to study the Baroque violin, or who wish to simulate the sensation on a modern instrument, there are physical benefits that can also help their modern violin playing. Playing without a shoulder rest or chin rest can be a daunting task at first, but it greatly enhances the freedom of the upper body, shoulders and neck. The violin is held on the E string side, not the G string side: this is a more natural position and reduces strain as the violin is now in front of the body, not pointing out to the left. The head is no longer used as a clamp against the violin but is free to float, and the violin is able to move with a freedom impossible under modern conditions.

FINDING NEW MENTAL FREEDOMS

In the Baroque repertoire, a basic ability to improvise and ornament is essential. It is, however, a skill that can trigger anxiety attacks in many of today’s students who have been taught from childhood to obey the composer’s text to the letter and never to deviate from it. The teacher’s task here is to eliminate the concept of failure and to encourage informed spontaneity. Fortunately, there are many manuals on ornamentation from the Baroque period which can be profitably studied, such as early ones by Giovanni Bassano (1585) and Francesco Rognoni Taeggio (1620) and later ones by Tartini (c.1750) and Quantz (1752). Improvisation and ornamentation involve awareness of the harmony and a constant assessment of what is essential and what is decorative within the written text, an asset to all musicians.

INTERPRETING BACH IN A HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The study of Bach’s music is universally required in conservatoires, but as he is virtually the only Baroque composer on the curriculum, it is difficult for students to contextualise his music. They tend to view him as an isolated phenomenon, quite apart from the mainstream repertoire, and for this reason, they are at a loss as to how to approach his music. Students who have studied the music of Bach’s predecessors have no such problem, for they rightly view him as the culmination of the Baroque journey they have laboriously undertaken. Those who have worked through a sonata by Corelli with its flowery ornamentation (example 1) will approach Bach’s written-out ornamentation in the Adagio from the G minor Sonata BWV1001 in the same spirit (example 2). Similarly, having studied the music of Couperin le grand, as Bach himself did, they will be familiar with the French idiom and play the Loure from the E major Partita BWV1006 very differently from those who have not had that enriching aesthetic experience.

EXAMPLE 3 Bach’s Loure from the E major Partita BWV1006, with Muffat’s bowings applied

Many musicians remain passionate about the basic concept that the deep, personal convictions they hold should not in any way be tampered with, restrained or in some way ‘corrected’. When confronted with clear evidence by great authorities of the past as to the characteristics of a dance such as the abovementioned Loure, they dismiss it as simply not to their taste, an irrelevance or an unwarranted assault on their freedom of expression (‘I don’t play Bach the Baroque way’). Perhaps they fear that HIP and individual artistry are mutually exclusive, but that is far from the truth: taking into account clear instructions from historical sources will guide us back in time to a very different view of the Loure, one in which the personal, subjective feelings of the player share the interpretative journey with a more objective, historically informed reality.

The loure is described by historical sources as a slow French gigue, and indeed it has exactly the same dotted rhythm. Luckily for us, Georg Muffat (1653–1704) documented Lully’s bowings for a danced loure (1698), and we can use these as a basis for the bowings we apply to Bach’s Loure (example 3) – and what a difference that makes! Furthermore, Quantz wrote: ‘The quavers that follow the dotted crotchets in the loure […] must not be played with their literal value, but must be executed in a very short and sharp manner. The dotted note is played with emphasis, and the bow is detached during the dot.’

Exploring music from the Baroque period requires no secret code, nor is there anything esoteric about it. There is enough easily accessible information for any interested teacher or student to begin to enjoy the surplus of riches left to us by 150 years of vibrant musical culture. My hope is that more students in our conservatoires and colleges will be encouraged to make that journey along the corridor that separates the historical performance department from the rest of the institution, for that journey can only enrich their musical and spiritual experience and prepare them more fully for their life in music.

EXERCISES TO IMPROVE BAROQUE PLAYING

Taken from The Baroque Violin & Viola: A Fifty-Lesson Course (2020) by Walter S. Reiter

Activating emotions on demand (See figure 1)

1. Play the following notes with a minimum of emotional input.

2. On your ‘emotional keypad’, switch on each of the emotions listed below in turn. When you are satisfied that you are intensely feeling the selected emotion, play the figure again.Observe to what extent the different emotions you are experiencing influence tempo, dynamics, bow speed, articulations etc.

• Joy

• Anger

• Sorrow

• Pity

• Love

• Doubt

• Exuberance

• Anxiety

• Regret

Ensuring that the bow is speaking clearly (See figure 2)

1. Play through bars 48–64 of the Gavotte from Bach’s E major Partita BWV1006 on a single open string, reproducing the bowings, rhythms, nuances and stresses – everything in fact, except the actual notes. Ensure that your bow is speaking clearly. Highlight the good notes and underplay the bad ones, enunciate the consonants, sing the vowels and shape the dynamic contours.Your aim is to narrate the story line of the episode convincingly.

2. When the bow is speaking to your satisfaction, play with the notes as written. Ensure that the speaking of the bow is in no way diminished by the addition of the real notes.

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2