During the time I attended Philharmonia Baroque concerts back in the 90s, Nic McGegan was fond of programming a Handel oratorio to open their season. I remember a moment during one such performance. Some of the singers had rather loud "instruments" and sang in what I would characterize as an operatic style. Suddenly a simple part emerged from the chorus, sung by one of the college students that populated Philharmonia's adjunct vocal ensemble. What a refreshing sound her beautiful but relatively unschooled voice made! With its natural quality and lack of heavy vibrato, it was a much better match to the gut strung violins played in period style.
Thus was sharpened my interest in the question of what is an appropriate early music voice. I have sought, without success, information on the training of singers in the Baroque era. Was filling a large room of the same importance it is for modern opera practitioners? Not likely until the 18th C. What of vibrato? While the ideal of many early music buffs who heard her is the voice of Emma Kirkby in her prime, she had the rarest of the rare, a light tone with no vibrato. Yet her counterparts may have been scarce, historically. Some early organs have a stop in which pipes are slightly mistuned to produce a mildly wavering sound. This stop was called the Vox Humana!
Happily, we have singers today who have a beautiful tone not excessively thick or loud, and who are not only schooled in Baroque ornamentation but know how to use vibrato itself as an ornament, much as period violinists do. So why do we sometimes hear a more operatic voice paired with some of our finest Baroque ensembles? An insider once mentioned to me that there may be some horse trading going on. The conductor responsible for the hiring of soprano Clotilda Clodstomple may find himself engaged to conduct Ms. C. at a summer festival, after she put in a good word with the festival's Executive Director. Or some such. You didn't hear it from me.
Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, something less sinister may be involved. The old-boy-and-girl network will always be with us, in all domains, as long as there are people, and language, and culture. If you are not a purist and take modern instrument gigs, which you may need to do economically, you meet mainstream classical people, become friends with some, and you may find yourself playing period performances with the same people.
Rest assured, though, that BCOC is committed to presenting guest artists that we think will fit in well with BCOC's sound and mission. By "we" in this context, I mean primarily Frank. Yes, we have our own old-girl network too, and a variety of people have Frank's ear in this regard. But he makes the final decisions
All that said, I know that Frank is pleased to present, this month, soprano Amanda Baliestrieri for your approval. And if this post augments your listening pleasure, and your thinking about the question of what an early music singer is, it will have served its purpose.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Baroque (not) - with addendum
Baroque (not) - with addendum
With BCOC performing Haydn this upcoming weekend, this is a good time to reflect on the range of periods appropriate for a Baroque orchestra.
As we have argued earlier, "Baroque" in the term "Baroque orchestra" is a code word meaning (a) the use of period instruments the composer would have recognized and called for, and (b) the study of historical treatises and immersion in stylistic conventions of the period - allowing the claim that performances are historically informed.
Period performances of music from the Classical period and even beyond are trendy in Europe, and many American period ensembles are venturing in this direction also. And there is a practical reason too - if an orchestra carries a lot of players of 18th C. winds, doing a couple of programs a year with a lot of Classical content gives these folks more to do.
BCOC, on the other hand, is totally string-centric. This affords the flexibility to delve into the 17th C. without having to tell any wind players to take the weekend off. A string orchestra core can be augmented with other instruments from the 17th, 18th, or even 19th C. as appropriate.
But ... BCOC attempts to capture the 'spirit of the Baroque," with its emphasis on improvisation and the energy of the dance. So what does it mean for BCOC to perform Haydn, as they will this coming weekend, in the form of a Haydn organ concerto? As a Baroque addict, my reaction to a lot of Classical music is twofold:
* There are a lot of bombastic dynamics used for effect/affect, particularly in the later Classical. This is largely absent from Baroque music.
* The relation of melody and harmony is different. In the Baroque we still have the interplay of melodic lines that is, perhaps, a holdover from the Renaissance (though even in the early Baroque, Renaissance polyphonics was referred to as the stile antico). And the harmonic movement seems more complex. In the Classical there is a sense (maybe an illusion?) of simplicity, both melodically and harmonically.
So what will I find in the Haydn? I'm sure there will be a lot of interesting musical material, but will it engage me the way Baroque music does, even performed with the characteristic energy and panache of BCOC? We shall see ...
-----------------
A glorious closing weekend to BCOC's third season has come and (sadly) gone, and with its departure comes an opportunity to reflect upon the program. The Bach Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor will be forever etched in my memory, for the passion and artistry of its rendering as much as for the sheer audacity required to attempt a live performance of it. But happily the Haydn was not found wanting in any way ... it was not the odd guest that makes you wish the party would have ended hours ago. Granted, this was an early Haydn work, and for me it had more in common with the writing of the sons of Bach (at least, those not named Karl Phillip Emmanuel). For Haydn at this time, the Baroque era was still visible in the rear view mirror, and the cliches and mannerisms that must have so delighted the middle Classicists had not yet developed.
2009 will mark the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, and BCOC will be celebrating. But I expect the party pieces will be as well-chosen as last weekend's. I can't wait to see how Frank and Cynthia meet this challenge!
With BCOC performing Haydn this upcoming weekend, this is a good time to reflect on the range of periods appropriate for a Baroque orchestra.
As we have argued earlier, "Baroque" in the term "Baroque orchestra" is a code word meaning (a) the use of period instruments the composer would have recognized and called for, and (b) the study of historical treatises and immersion in stylistic conventions of the period - allowing the claim that performances are historically informed.
Period performances of music from the Classical period and even beyond are trendy in Europe, and many American period ensembles are venturing in this direction also. And there is a practical reason too - if an orchestra carries a lot of players of 18th C. winds, doing a couple of programs a year with a lot of Classical content gives these folks more to do.
BCOC, on the other hand, is totally string-centric. This affords the flexibility to delve into the 17th C. without having to tell any wind players to take the weekend off. A string orchestra core can be augmented with other instruments from the 17th, 18th, or even 19th C. as appropriate.
But ... BCOC attempts to capture the 'spirit of the Baroque," with its emphasis on improvisation and the energy of the dance. So what does it mean for BCOC to perform Haydn, as they will this coming weekend, in the form of a Haydn organ concerto? As a Baroque addict, my reaction to a lot of Classical music is twofold:
* There are a lot of bombastic dynamics used for effect/affect, particularly in the later Classical. This is largely absent from Baroque music.
* The relation of melody and harmony is different. In the Baroque we still have the interplay of melodic lines that is, perhaps, a holdover from the Renaissance (though even in the early Baroque, Renaissance polyphonics was referred to as the stile antico). And the harmonic movement seems more complex. In the Classical there is a sense (maybe an illusion?) of simplicity, both melodically and harmonically.
So what will I find in the Haydn? I'm sure there will be a lot of interesting musical material, but will it engage me the way Baroque music does, even performed with the characteristic energy and panache of BCOC? We shall see ...
-----------------
A glorious closing weekend to BCOC's third season has come and (sadly) gone, and with its departure comes an opportunity to reflect upon the program. The Bach Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor will be forever etched in my memory, for the passion and artistry of its rendering as much as for the sheer audacity required to attempt a live performance of it. But happily the Haydn was not found wanting in any way ... it was not the odd guest that makes you wish the party would have ended hours ago. Granted, this was an early Haydn work, and for me it had more in common with the writing of the sons of Bach (at least, those not named Karl Phillip Emmanuel). For Haydn at this time, the Baroque era was still visible in the rear view mirror, and the cliches and mannerisms that must have so delighted the middle Classicists had not yet developed.
2009 will mark the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, and BCOC will be celebrating. But I expect the party pieces will be as well-chosen as last weekend's. I can't wait to see how Frank and Cynthia meet this challenge!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Some Definitions
Original Instruments - or, as often seen on recordings, "On original instruments." This could possibly be true, if strings alone are used. For groups with winds, the phrase "on period instruments" would be more precise, as period instrument groups almost universally use copies of historical winds. There are difficulties in restoring historical winds to playing condition and keeping them in working order without destroying their value as antiques.
Period Instruments - original instruments and copies thereof.
Authentic Performance - "Authenticity" in the performance of old music is a term with intuitive appeal, but because of intellectual attacks it is out of favor ... more on this later.
Historically Informed Performance (HIP) - self-explanatory (I think ... if you disagree please comment). The somewhat unfortunate acronym is not intentionally smug (usually).
Early Music (EM) - often a synonym for use of period instruments or historical techniques. More date-focused usage always includes pre-Baroque music, but may omit the Baroque period. The Classical period (roughly coincident with Mozart and Beethoven) is more often omitted.
The preceding terms can often be used quite interchangeably.
Baroque - in music, roughly 1600 to 1750. One Internet wag was more precise, opining that the Baroque dawned on Jan 1, 1600 local time.
Classical - familiarly used to denote Western art music generally. The Classical era, though, is generally regarded as the period from 1760 to 1820, roughly the span from Haydn through Beethoven.
Baroque Orchestra - code word for a group using period instruments, larger than a chamber group, and with instrumentation generally suitable for many works from Biber (and earlier) to Bach. Why do so many Baroque orchestras eschew 17th C. music in favor of Mozart and Beethoven? That's a topic for a later post.
Period Instruments - original instruments and copies thereof.
Authentic Performance - "Authenticity" in the performance of old music is a term with intuitive appeal, but because of intellectual attacks it is out of favor ... more on this later.
Historically Informed Performance (HIP) - self-explanatory (I think ... if you disagree please comment). The somewhat unfortunate acronym is not intentionally smug (usually).
Early Music (EM) - often a synonym for use of period instruments or historical techniques. More date-focused usage always includes pre-Baroque music, but may omit the Baroque period. The Classical period (roughly coincident with Mozart and Beethoven) is more often omitted.
The preceding terms can often be used quite interchangeably.
Baroque - in music, roughly 1600 to 1750. One Internet wag was more precise, opining that the Baroque dawned on Jan 1, 1600 local time.
Classical - familiarly used to denote Western art music generally. The Classical era, though, is generally regarded as the period from 1760 to 1820, roughly the span from Haydn through Beethoven.
Baroque Orchestra - code word for a group using period instruments, larger than a chamber group, and with instrumentation generally suitable for many works from Biber (and earlier) to Bach. Why do so many Baroque orchestras eschew 17th C. music in favor of Mozart and Beethoven? That's a topic for a later post.
Monday, January 14, 2008
The Historical Mindset
Common sense tells us that a certain percentage of the period performance audience simply likes the different sounds they're hearing, though some are (also) responding to spirited (and technically excellent) performances, regardless of the media utilized.
But beyond that, is there a segment of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) fans looking for something else? Such as TRUTH? (I wanted the word "truth" to pulsate, in addition to the rainbow rendering, just to emphasize the irony, but blogspot has limits). There are intellectual difficulties (which we'll get into in later posts) in trying to arrive at "absolute truth" about music of the sufficiently-distant past. But right now I want to share an anecdote.
An aunt by marriage, let's call her N, and her daughter, both modern cellists, visited our house one day, and I gave them a little harpsichord demonstration. N asked, "Where did you get all those ornaments?" I delivered a brief stock spiel about (a) minor differences in 17th vs. 18th C. keyboard ornamentation, as well as regional variations, (b) how scores frequently omitted ornaments, but musicians of the time were expected to know standard ornaments and provide them appropriately, and (c) how the 18th C. French school went the other direction and expected their copious ornamentation to be played as written ... blah blah blah.
I concluded by offering to photocopy an extensive table of ornaments for N from an anthology of Howard Ferguson's. "No, that's all right," N demurred.
N did not have an historical mindset. This incuriosity is certainly not representative of all mainstream classical musicians (and I believe it is less and less typical, if only because historical practices are often needed for survival these days), but there are still the incurious among them. And N was (for she has since passed) a respected cello teacher, well trained in the mainstream tradition, and a member of a variety of symphony orchestras for most of her career.
Yet I could not begin to get her to drink the historical Kool-Aid. There's an old joke: The world is divided into two kinds of people: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don't. I don't know if that's even funny, but I do know the world can be divided into those with the historical mindset, and those without.
But beyond that, is there a segment of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) fans looking for something else? Such as TRUTH? (I wanted the word "truth" to pulsate, in addition to the rainbow rendering, just to emphasize the irony, but blogspot has limits). There are intellectual difficulties (which we'll get into in later posts) in trying to arrive at "absolute truth" about music of the sufficiently-distant past. But right now I want to share an anecdote.
An aunt by marriage, let's call her N, and her daughter, both modern cellists, visited our house one day, and I gave them a little harpsichord demonstration. N asked, "Where did you get all those ornaments?" I delivered a brief stock spiel about (a) minor differences in 17th vs. 18th C. keyboard ornamentation, as well as regional variations, (b) how scores frequently omitted ornaments, but musicians of the time were expected to know standard ornaments and provide them appropriately, and (c) how the 18th C. French school went the other direction and expected their copious ornamentation to be played as written ... blah blah blah.
I concluded by offering to photocopy an extensive table of ornaments for N from an anthology of Howard Ferguson's. "No, that's all right," N demurred.
N did not have an historical mindset. This incuriosity is certainly not representative of all mainstream classical musicians (and I believe it is less and less typical, if only because historical practices are often needed for survival these days), but there are still the incurious among them. And N was (for she has since passed) a respected cello teacher, well trained in the mainstream tradition, and a member of a variety of symphony orchestras for most of her career.
Yet I could not begin to get her to drink the historical Kool-Aid. There's an old joke: The world is divided into two kinds of people: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don't. I don't know if that's even funny, but I do know the world can be divided into those with the historical mindset, and those without.
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