Purcell, Bach, Handel

The Baroque is on the slightly frightening edge of many modern conductors’ experience. Not many will feel confident to tackle the very early Baroque composers, such as Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Schütz, or Lully where, in any case, original instruments are probably more convincing than modern. By all means look for information if you are drawn to these composers, as I was; there’s plenty of material around. On the other hand Bach and Handel, even Purcell,  can work quite well with modern ensembles, if we can master the necessary stylistic information.

The term Baroque is used for the immense period from 1600 to 1750,- 150 years. (By contrast the Classical and Romantic periods lasted only about 80 years each). It is technically known as the era of the Basso Continuo, but characterised by the dominance of the Court and the Church, by the musical primacy of the voice with its parallel creation of opera. Also by the expectation of spontaneous decoration, and the absolute centrality of Dance.

Because of the financial power of the court and the church it was these institutions that promoted serious music in the Baroque, giving it  often a solemn, festive air. One sometimes feels that people were listening to it in full dress, and no doubt they often were. But in the market place and the tavern there was always another kind of music going on. Much of it was not written down and probably relied on aural traditions. But this popular music surfaced when it was taken up by the court for dancing. We can hear it in the Moresca in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607), in Handel’s Pifa in Messiah (1751), in Rameau’s Rigaudons in Les Boreades, and in Bach’s Gigues in his orchestral suites.

The importance of dance in the Baroque era can hardly be overstated. It’s true that a kind of music could adorn speech in Plainsong or Recitative; but all other modes of playing and singing were inspired by dance. And of course a Bach or Handel Suite consists entirely of all the current examples: the Minuet, the Gigue, the Sarabande and so on.

Outside church people’s personal experience of music, and their chief entertainment, was dancing. You could almost say that they were used to listening to music with their feet. They danced at home, in taverns, and in palaces. Dance was the television of the 18th century. Each dance had its own ideal speed, which in 17th century France was metronomised in great detail, using a pendulum. If you can get to see historically informed groups  dancing, preferably in costume, it is very helpful. The tempi are important. So is the phrasing which makes the music , and the dancing, flow.

Let’s look at my Six Ss Matrix:

In the Introduction to this course I talked about a sort of matrix that I use to examine any piece of music, from whatever period: the so-called “Six Ss”:

Sources, Size, Seating, Sound, Speed, Style.

Let’s have a look at the Baroque era from these points of view:

S for SOURCES

Purcell  would have been used to John Playford’s The English Dancing Master (1650), and his Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1654); indeed he added chapters to it himself after Playford’s death. Purcell was very much a 17th , not an 18th century composer. 

In the late Baroque era of Bach and Handel there are very numerous treatises.But we can learn a lot from Joachim Quantz’s book on Playing the Flute (1752), which includes not just flute playing but a great deal about general performance matters: how to play in an ensemble, and how to direct it; what tempi to choose and so on.

S for SIZE

In the Early and Middle Baroque eras music was often played and sung one to a part. Few ensembles had more than a handful of musicians. Even at the very end of the Late Baroque Bach still regularly employed one singer and one instrumentalist to a part in his numerous church Cantatas. In this era we need to think small; to start with small numbers before feeling our way outwards.

In the opera house larger string numbers were usual. Purcell’s orchestra in the Dorset Garden Theatre was no doubt quite small, (with no double basses by the way), but Handel’s in Covent Garden seems to have had 8-12 first violins, though with rather small numbers of accompanying instruments. One of his performances of Messiah in the Foundling Hospital had 7.7.6.3.2 strings, with 4 oboes and 4 bassoons. The continuo section would have included organ, harpsichord and possibly Theorbos.

If one accepts to play such music in large modern halls of course, creative adjustments  have to be considered. I conducted Bach’s B Minor Mass in London’s 5000-seat Albert Hall for the Proms, on the 250th anniversary of his death. I decided on 8.8.6.4.4 Strings and a chorus of 40, numbers quite unknown to Bach, though not perhaps to Handel. In the solo numbers, which also often have obbligato instrumental parts, I reduced right down to a solo players around the centrally placed chamber organ.

I was a little concerned that people would accuse me of betraying the historical approach I was known for. But each venue requires its own thinking through, and the results seemed to please everyone. Provided the tempi are convincing and the phraseing plentiful size does not have to be a problem. Later I followed exactly the same procedure with both the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras.

S for SEATING

Early Baroque groups were rarely conducted. They were small, and often stood in a circle around the harpsichord or organ. The bass instruments would gravitate  to the bass end of the keyboard, often playing from the same score.

One can easily play the Bach Brandenburg Concertos like this two hundred years later. I always felt uneasy when asked to conduct these delightful pieces: they really are large chamber music.

As orchestras gradually grew a little larger it became common to separate the first and second violins, which give some pleasing effects of dialogue. But as string numbers increase we have to be careful to give the wind players enough physical prominence. Handel was clearly aware of balance issues with his use of 4 oboes and bassoons.

S for SOUND

In the last fifty years we have gradually got used to the idea that continuous heavy vibrato was developed only in the early years of the 20th century. We are much more fortunate than musicians active before 1960, because we can hear Baroque music on the radio any day of the week, beautifully played on instruments of the period.

Since 1960 we have not only had 200 years of music added to our regular repertoire, but a whole new world of sound from gentler instruments, playing with Pure Tone. In the baroque era vibrato was used for an expressive effect, not as a continuous trembling. To me the resultant clear sound gives the music honesty and innocence, whether played or sung.

S for SPEED

During the Baroque period tempo was rarely prescribed. Metres were shown (C, ¾ etc) and, during the 17th century at least, these sometimes implied tempo zones. But we often look in vain for any further suggestions of speed. Composer/Directors could rely on their players knowing traditions that we have to rediscover, or guess. Unfortunately when we try to learn them we are faced with a multitude of contradictory sources. When the music is setting a text we can get a feeling for the prevailing mood. But when it isn’t we are left with guesswork, and what they used: Metre, Tactus, and Note Length. Here’s what they thought:

Metre

C= Quarter beats

C with line through= Minim beats (Alla breve)

3/2= Steady

3/4= Move along

3/8= Faster

Tactus

Measurable by heart beat

Thought to be between 40 and 80!

Take your pick!

Note Length

The size and number of the smallest units were considered an important guide to tempo. A lot of sixteenth notes, for instance, would imply a slower speed.

Italian names

In an effort to be more helpful, Italian words began to be used for tempo. At first this was only  to suggest mood (Allegro= Happy), or to modify traditional tempi (so called “Tempi Ordinarii”) derived from metre. Handel’s Andante Allegro in Messiah is not in fact a contradiction in terms; it just means “Move along happily”.

An Example

Arguably the most towering work of the Late Baroque is Bach’s B Minor Mass. It has 27 separate numbers, yet only three of them have any trace of tempo indication.

Luckily there was one other secret weapon: relatable dance speeds.

When I was a student people often opted for slow, magisterial speeds. As we became more familiar with Baroque style, and inspired I happily acknowledge by my colleague Nicholas Harnoncourt, we adopted a more lively approach. But it was an approach made far easier by our growing awareness of the underlying primacy of dance. The Devil need not have all the best tunes. Even in a High Mass a musician in 1750 could feel

the Kyrie Eleison  as a March,

theGloria as a Gigue or a Forlane,

the Laudamus or the Domine Deus as a Pavane,

the Qui tollis as a Sarabande,

the Quoniam as a Court Minuet,

and so on and on.

With this tradition they could fall into a suitable tempo quite easily.

HEMIOLA

One very typical characteristic of the Baroque was the Hemiola, the charming “contraction” of two measures in triple time into one, as in: “I wanna be in A-mer-i-ca”. It could be useful in word setting, and particularly when linking a new tempo with an old. Even in the 16th century it was used for the words “Jesu Christe”.

Bach uses it in the Gloria of his B Minor Mass. When he wants to run the dancing 3/8 of Gloria in Excelsis into the gentler Et in terra pax he makes the last two bars of the 3/8 into one hemiola and uses the resultant tactus to continue quietly on. None of this is shown in the score but would have been self-evident to his contemporaries.

Doubtless Baroque tempi, including dance tempi, varied from country to country, from place to place, from musician to musician. We have lot more choice in the Baroque than in the succeeding Classical period. It’s a joy to make those choices as appropriately as possible.

S for STYLE

As I mentioned in the Introduction to this course, this term encompasses a lot of small, but very important details are:

Bowing,

Note Length,

Articulation,

Slurring,

Phrasing, and

Decoration.

BOWING

Because strings were dominant in the Baroque orchestra, and because they can only play down or up, string playing style and notation gets a lot of attention from theorists.

Baroque musicians felt the down bow to be naturally stronger than the up, because it had gravity to help it. The French sign for a down bow is an n for Noble (masterful), and the sign for an up bow is V for Vile (servile). The down bow was the master of the up bow. The French carried this to such an extreme that they let it affect the rhythm, the down bow sometimes being played longer than the up. They called it “inégalité”, and it spread to some extent outside French borders.

Purcell, much influenced by the influx of French musicians from Paris with Charles II, probably expected inégalité on occasion. But this is getting into rather specialist territory, which I promised to avoid in this series.

The hierarchy of beats in each bar was important to Baroque musicians. Up beats were played lightly, down beats more firmly. The hierarchy of beats in the bar would normally be, in ¾ time:

STRONG, WEAK, STRONGER

And similarly in 4/4 time:

STRONG, WEAK, STRONGER, STRONGER

giving a rise and fall of natural phrasing throughout the music.

Connected with this principle, the “Rule of Down Bow” expected each bar to start “down”. This resulted in many equalising strategies as for instance, in ¾:

DOWN, UP, UP or

DOWN,DOWN,UP

And in 4/4 when a slur connected beats 2 and 3:

DOWN, D-O-W-N, UP

Such repeated downs were very characteristic of the style, when Baroque bows were shorter and lighter than today, and of course shaped like real shooting bows.

NOTE LENGTH

As with tempo, very little is shown on the page in the Baroque. Occasional dots over notes imply a staccato quality no doubt; otherwise context must be our guide, and most notes were played cantabile.

ARTICUATION

Dotted figures were played with separate bows,- slightly harder with a modern bow, but not impossible. It was quite common to double dot (“over dot”) especially in French Overtures, such as the opening of Handel’s Messiah.

SLURRING

A slur over two or three notes always implied more than just a bowing. It meant a slight diminuendo with a shortening of the last note.

With repeated notes of the same pitch it could also mean “Very Smooth”. Look at the first Recitative in Messiah; four notes under one bow. The technical term for this is Portato, and it continued to be used as a very useful marking throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, though now with dots over the individual notes. You’ll find it in Mozart and Beethoven and Brahms and Mahler, but unfortunately it is nowadays not taught or even understood. Don’t think of it so much as a bowing as a smoothing. Read the slur, not the dots. Don’t stop the bow. On a wind instrument don’t tongue the dots. instead alter the bow pressure or the breath intensity. It’s a very special sound.

PHRASING

By phrasing we usually mean louder and softer don’t we? It’s an odd word to use since in written language it only refers to the length of parts a sentence. But it’s the same in all major European languages: Phraseggio, Phrasé, Phrasierung. Surely we should use the word Gesture instead.

Be that as it may, the rise ad fall of phrasing is extremely important. Music was expected to move you. Whether externally in dance or internally in the emotions, it’s affected not just by the notes but by phrasing.

At the most local level a slur over two, three, or four notes implied a diminuendo. At a wider level the standard hierarchy of the bar that I talked about just now is another built-in phrasing. But additional imaginative crescendos and diminuendos are essential to  create the energy which propels a dancer forward, or allows an emotion to blossom. Always look out for the stronger notes and harmonies. This longer phrasing is the crescendo towards, and diminuendo away from them.

DECORATION (includes the following 6 subsections)

Baroque performance was more allied to composition than later music. In the Classical era more was laid down, prescribed, and by the Romantic era everything was. In the Baroque period orchestras were discouraged from decoration, but soloists were expected to decorate especially the repeated sections of Sonatas or Concertos,  and improvise cadenzas.

CADENZAS

They were always for show, but in the Baroque era rather simpler than later on.

In theory they were fairly short (the equivalent of one breath for a singer) and didn’t change key. The fermata sign was the usual cue for either a full cadenza, or a short “connecter”.

APPOGGIATURAS

They mean “leaning notes” in Italian.

They start ON the beat and can last half the main note or more. Lean on them.

ACCIACATURAS

They mean “crushed notes” in Italian.

They are quick, but still usually start ON the beat.

TRILLS

Think of them as by-products of an appoggiatura. They should begin with a distinct appoggiatura, which gradually turns into a lazy trill, not necessarily fast or showy. Trills were regularly added at cadences.

RECITATIVE

An important characteristic of recits is that they should sound life-like. The music should follow the words, which in turn should be entirely natural, like speech. Slow, ponders recits in Oratorios are such a bad idea.

At temporary and final cadences, where two

notes are printed the same, the first must always be replaced by an appoggiatura. This can be the second or the fourth above, or below, depending where the melody has come from.

In those days of basso continuo composers did not write out the appoggiatura, because if they had done so the accompanying keyboard player would have harmonised it, thus eliminating the required discord.

Handel appears to have truncated his many final cadences by playing the final two consulting chords already on the last two soloist’s notes.

Other Appoggiature van be added for extremes of emotion at the will of the performer. But those mentioned above are not a matter of taste, they are obligatory. Although unwritten they are an essential part of the score.

VIBRATO

A gentle, quick vibrato was sometimes used by solo singers and players as a decoration, to warm the sound here and there. It was discouraged in groups because it upset the natural harmonics of your instrument,- and your neighbour’s.

LANGUAGE

If dance is central to rhythm in the Baroque era, gesture is central to its intention. Manual and vocal Gesture used in oratory was known as Rhetoric. Baroque musicians liked to think of their work as a rhetorical language, which could move listeners the way a great speaker could. Rhythmic energy, loud and soft, faster and slower, sudden pauses, unexpected changes of key, were all used in the service of Rhetoric. We must learn to use them too.