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Text File | 2019-04-13 | 7.5 KB | 102 lines

<WHOLE.NOTE> This last class covers some topics specific to classical music.
We'll talk briefly about baroque ornaments, discuss a great source for
contemporary information on how baroque music was actually performed, and then
discuss some things you can do to add drama and excitement to your SID files by
deviating from the exact notation in the sheet music. (Is't that blasphemy???
We'll see!)
   Let's start off with ornaments.  All those wiggly lines and squiggles over
some notes in classical music can appear a bit un-nerving, but they really are
quite simple once you get the hang of them.  As I seem to say constantly
through these classes, there are pretty flexible rules and lots of exceptions..
and this is the case again.  I suppose ornaments were popularized with the
early keyboard instruments.  Before the piano was invented the keyboard
instruments played at the same volume, more or less, no matter how hard you hit
them.  Other ways had to be found to give drama and emphasis than using
dynamics.  Part of the genius of the  composers of that time was to utilize
certain note combinations that, because of the harmonics and interference
effects, would appear louder.  Another method adopted on some harpsichords was
to introduce stops, or multiple keyboards, that played different sets of
strings that were muffled.  Of more direct interest to this discussion is the
use of ornaments.  The little trills, rapid flutterings of notes, accented
those notes and made them stand out.  They were executed in various ways by
different artists and at different stages of the Baroque Era.   They appear
frequently in some pieces, and infrequently in others... but it is probably
safe to say that in performance they were much more numerous than the scores
in print would indicate.  Sheet music always has been merely an indication of
the music.  Many of the famous baroque composers took great shortcuts with the
printed verions.... Handel's wonderful Passacaglia from the G minor suite only
shows the themes repeated for the first few in the urtext (urtext = exact
copy of the original published text).  It doesn't mean that the others
shouldn't be repeated, they SHOULD, it's just that Handel knew the performer
would know that and didn't feel like writing in the repeat signs!  Well.. the
addition of ornaments was a common way that the performed tailored the music to
his level.  Frequently the ornaments were kept simple on the first playing of a
passage that repeated, and then the second playing was done more elegantly.
   I'll give another example from Handel: It is said that he was about the
finest harpsichordist of his time... (Mind you, Handel, Scarlatti and Bach were
all born in the same year!)  One would imagine from studying his keyboard
pieces that he HAD to be adding more than what is shown in the printed scores,
for most of his pieces, although not easy, I am told are quite playable...
EXCEPT one!  The Air from the D minor suite III, (1720).  It is said that this
piece Handel wrote out in full.  I have worked a bit on this and it is terribly
complex.. often two ornaments per measure, even dotted 32 trills.  My point is
just that ornaments were added as a matter of course in baroque times, and if
we feel the urge to add one, we oughta feel pretty comfortable to do so! :)
    I've gone on a lot about ornaments without really defining them.. and it is
hard to do that in a pure text environment, such as this file is.  You need to
SEE the symbols, and the best  place to SEE them is a place where they are also
defined!  Find a copy of Bach's table of ornaments.  Alfred Publishing includes
it in the music to Fantasia in C minor.. or you should be able to find it in a
library.  Alfred has another good table of them in "Handel, An Introduction to
his Keyboard Works".  I'm sure you can readily find a table.  Now sometimes you
will find different definitions for them.. well.. yeah.. that happens! ;D   In
part, it depends on tempo.. in slow tempos you will may prefer the sound of
longer notes in the trill.  In faster, you want to use 32nds or triplets.
Often to get the very short durations, you need to use utility durations even.
We talked about doing that in  an earlier class as well as treatments of the
envelopes to maintain the sound.
     Another remarkable source of information on how music was played in
baroque times is "On Playing the Flute" By Johann Joachim Quantz.  It was
originally published in 1752 and is currently in print from Schirmer Books.  It
talks about much more than simply the playing of the flute and is wealth of
information for playing styles of the era.  I recommend it highly!
     The last thing I'd like to discuss is deviating from the sheet music
durations to give the music a more lifelike character.  Often musicians that
have heard my SIDs have complained that it is too "mechanical".  I couldn't
really get them to define what the problem was precisely... or how to avoid it.
By studying MIDI transcripts of actual keyboard performances I began to see a
way to minimize this and although I haven't really done it very often on SID,
it's effect is most noticable.
     I'll merely explain by giving some principles you can try and see how you
like the effect.  First, when there is a long string of ascending notes, the
musician may very well not play them all to the same duration, rather instead
elongating the duration of the first and then slowly accellerating as the scale
is climbed.   However, you have to keep ALL the voices in time with these
changes.  It can be done with the very careful application of UTL's.. but it is
much easier to use either TEMpo changes or JIF's.  This way all the notes will
stay together. BUT be sure to have the same note value between the JIF's on
EACH voice, even if you have to break up notes and use tied fragments, or else
it will get out of synch.
     Conversely, descending runs of notes often get slower as the musician
reaches the bottom of the string... and almost surely if the string ends with a
chord being played.  This deceleration provides anticipation and drama before
the chord is heard.  I don't know of any good examples of this particular
aspect that are available, but I am using it in one I am working on now.  You
can find  a clear example of using the JIFs to accelerate and decelerate in
an otherwise unremarkable SID called "bacarolle" on the Miami SIDFest Classical
album. Voices 1 and 2 are the notes - 3 is ONLY there to play the JIFs to
change the tempo.  A king of "rolling", even "hypnotic" effect is the result.
Using this technique carefully can bring expression and drama to a SID and
raise it far above the norm. (Now barcarolle isn't far above, by a long shot)
I was just experimenting in that one... but try Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue
online here.. it has a few places where you can notice the effect, and it adds
much above the uniform rendition of the scales).
     Arranging SID music can be rather formidable for a beginner. I hope that
these classes have helped some of you to get over some of the rough spots.
I suppose the things that I have stressed the most often were to not take the
"rules" too seriously, there are always lot's of exceptions (ALMOST always..
this exception recognizes the exceptions to THIS rule! ;) ... and to
experiment..try things.. listen and then try again.  There are millions of
combinations of the voice parameters.. keep experimenting and you will
continually find new combinations to keep your music interesting and vital.