Lecture 11: Baroque Music III

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PART 3: Video Intro LECTURE 11: Baroque Music III

LISTENING TO BAROQUE MUSIC

"Abstract" music: music without words.

Listening to abstract music is like using ASL (American Sign Language). At first you learn the alphabet and a basic vocabulary of words, and you concentrate hard to put together meaning. After a while though, you understand without effort. This is when things get to be fun because you can take your mind off the logistics of communicating and just concentrate on the message. The more you practice listening to abstract music the easier it will become, so that what was once an effort will soon be effortless.

You know already that the Renaissance was the first period to start developing purely instrumental music; in the Baroque era this trend toward "abstract" music really began to take off. It's an important point, because listening to music with words is a very different experience from listening to music without words, as I'm sure you'll agree. Words give you the meaning of a piece directly. In instrumental music, though, you have to interpret the sound you hear to make a judgment about its meaning. When words are repeated, as in a refrain, it automatically gives you a sense of shape and a clear idea of where you are in the music (you say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I love this part!"). In instrumental music listening for the landmarks of the shape is a bit harder—sometimes they're obvious and sometimes they're not. But Baroque instrumental music developed its own clear vocabulary and syntax, so that people were more able to follow the meaning of a piece and enjoy it without the aid of words. It became a major musical genre.

During this lecture we're going to get in some practice listening to abstract music. Specifically we're going to focus on the differences between French and Italian Baroque style. That may sound esoteric, but by the end of this lecture you'll be able to tell them apart and will have acquired some rather sophisticated listening skills!

Before we begin I want to introduce you to a handy-dandy little listening guide. It can help you direct your listening and make sure that you are analyzing the music from as many angles as you can. You can use it for any music in any style and you can use it in any situation. Use this method while you've got the car radio on, or when you're seated in a concert hall. It is called SHMRG.

Yes, SHMRG (pronounced "SHMRG"-- or maybe "Shmerg"). SHMRG is an acronym for a system put together by a prominent musicologist at New York University named Jan La Rue.

S=Sound. Listen for the instrumentation, the color, the texture of the music, and the size of the performing forces.

H=Harmony. What do you notice about the harmony? Does it use a lot of dissonance? Does the harmony make use of a lot of repetition? Is it major, minor, or other?

M=Melody. Is the melody short or long? Does it have a large range? Does it move primarily by step or does it have a lot of leaps? Is it balanced in some way (i.e., antecedent/consequent)?

R=Rhythm. Is there a rhythmic motif dominating the piece? Is the rhythmic profile strong? Is the rhythm regular or irregular? What about the meter?

G=Growth. Growth stands for form. In other words, how does the piece unfold? What shape is it in? Are the dimensions large? Is it made up of smaller sections? What kind of techniques does the composer use to "grow" the piece?

SHMRG is a great "quick-list" to run in your head any time you listen to music. For instance, I recommend you run a SHMRG analysis when you're listening to music in your car. It's a great way to study for this course while you're away from the computer. The idea is to make sure you're listening to all the major elements in a piece of music. What's interesting is that some pieces will emphasize one element over another (some composers and some cultures emphasize one over the over), or you might find that there is more to say about one element than all the others.

Below you will have two examples, one by Francois Couperin ( 1668-1733) and one by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759).

Couperin is a famous representative of the French Baroque style. If you've ever seen 18^th century French paintings you know that elegance and a smooth demeanor were prized, and the music of this country reflects that. The style in both painting and music is sometimes referred to as rococo.
At left is a detail from a well-known rococo painting by Fragonard (1732-1806) called The Swing.

I'm using Handel as a representative of the Italian style, which may surprise you, especially given his name. He was indeed born in Germany, but he lived in Italy for a while and brought the Italian style to London; there he popularized it and became so famous in general that the English actually claimed him as one of their own. Handel was one of the few composers who was truly international in his life and music! The piece below is indistinguishable from what a native Italian composer would have written and makes a good contrast with the Couperin work.

What I'd like you to do is to SHMRG these two pieces. Make two columns for yourself--one for Couperin and one for Handel, and jot down your observations for both composers in each category. Don't look below until you've finished writing your own observations. Then we'll compare them.

COUPERIN: Allemande	HANDEL: Allegro
SOUND: The instruments used are two violins playing the melodic lines with continuo accompaniment of lute and viola da gamba. Just this instrumental combination itself tells you a lot, because the French preferred softer instruments in general and loved the viola da gamba in particular. The sound world is therefore rather muted, and the continuo instruments in particular have a dark blend.	SOUND: Same as the Couperin in the upper parts (two violins). But the continuo accompaniment is harpsichord and cello. Both the harpsichord and cello are more incisive and louder than the lute and viola da gamba. The Italians did not care for muted colors but preferred brighter sounds.
HARMONY: French harmony is, in a word, piquant. The French loved to use very rich harmonies, meaning that the music was very chromatic and made use of unusual chords like 7ths and 9ths. Look for lush harmonies in French music.	HARMONY: Italians preferred diatonic harmonies, meaning that they stuck around the notes of the scale and eschewed notes that were not part of the scale (i.e., chromatic notes). Diatonic harmony is kind of like plain vanilla—it doesn't have the razzle-dazzle of French-mocha-cherry-caramel-swirl but it's still the favorite flavor of most people. And it's very versatile, too. We will see how this basic kind of harmony, even though it was simpler than the rather sophisticated harmonies of the French, became the foundation for the next two centuries of music-making.
MELODY: This is probably the most distinctive trademark of the French Baroque style. Their melodies were very meandering and asymmetrical. You start to follow them as if they would lead you to a cadence and they twist and turn and lead you elsewhere. In addition to being unpredictable, their melodies are usually made up of short motifs.	MELODY: Here's an important point. It is the melodic construction in the Italian style that was rather revolutionary and that led to the pre-classical and classical style of the later 18th century. Italian melodies were more symmetrical in design and had a feeling of satisfying proportions. They were very diatonic (not chromatic) as well, and in this sense were also leaning in the direction that later styles would follow.
RHYTHM: Rhythmic motifs are short and the rhythm is very subtle. This is not exactly toe-tapping music. It has an underlying beat, but it is not prominent in the musical texture.	RHYTHM: The direct, no-nonsense, toe-tapping, head-bobbing rhythm is a characteristic of Italian style. And the bright, rhythmically precise articulation underlines the bright sound that we spoke of before.
GROWTH: This piece is in binary form, but the meandering melodies and chromatic harmonies make it more challenging for the listener to locate exactly where they are in the shape.	GROWTH: This piece is in binary form also, but the clear melodies and the feeling of direction in them make it easier for the listener to locate their place in the form of the piece.

Now try a few examples on your own. In the following two examples of Couperin (French) and Sammartini (Italian), you will find many of the same national characteristics we found above. One of the elements that stylistically separates the two is that the Sammartini is a very virtuosic piece, which means that it is technically difficult to play (not that the person playing it is virtuous!) Virtuosity was another characteristic of Italian Baroque music—and one which the French found obnoxious and tasteless.

Couperin: First Courante from "Les Nations"

Sammartini: Presto from Sonata No. 5

One fascination of mine is the field of organology, which is the study of musical instruments. Throughout history there have been instruments which were used and then forgotten, such as the Baryton, which Haydn wrote more than 100 pieces for! Sometimes the skill needed to play a particular instrument has been lost, as in the little clarino trumpets which, according to some specialists, take a whole lifetime to learn to play reliably. In some cases instruments have gone out of style, or have been replaced by updated versions. This latter is particularly true in the instruments we see below.

Here is a sprinkling of some interesting Baroque instruments:

I mentioned above that the French preferred the viola da gamba over the cello because of its subtle, muted sound. The gamba looks somewhat similar to the cello, except that it has a flat back, sloped shoulders, six strings instead of four, and a fingerboard with frets. The frets are movable so that you can change the tuning. The gamba is bowed with the hand in "underhand" position (like the double bass) and has no pin to hold it up (the player holds it between the legs).
The viola da gamba comes in a variety of sizes from treble to bass, and you may remember that a "chest of viols" was a favorite sonority of the Renaissance.
One advantage that the viola da gamba holds over the cello is the ease with which the player can manage what are called "double-stops"-- that is, multiple notes at the same time (chords).

In the Sammartini example above you heard a Baroque oboe, which is different from the oboe played nowadays. The Baroque oboe is a bear to play! Not only is it hard to play in tune but it's even hard to make a nice tone on it. There are oboists who have left off playing the modern oboe to devote themselves to learning to play this instrument. They tell me that the rule of thumb is that you practice Baroque oboe for 10 years before you can give your first public performance. Baroque oboes were made generally of boxwood and were not the engineered affairs with multiple keys that we find today. When played well the instrument has a pleasant if pungent sound. When played badly it sounds like an angry moose!

The Italians were great champions of the violin and a whole bevy of instrument builders in Cremona at this time(men with names like Stradivarius and Guarnerius) became world famous and eventually historical figures for the unmatched excellence of their work. The instruments that date from this period are among the most prized in the entire world and well-known performers still use them in concert today. What is little known, however, is that the beautiful "Strads" we hear today are not the same instruments that Antonio Stradivari made! Almost without exception, every Strad played today was altered in the 19th century to bring them into conformance with more modern performance styles and repertoire, and above all, to make them sound louder. The angle of the neck was changed, the fingerboard was lengthened, they were outfitted with steel strings (in the 20th century) and newly-designed bows were used to play them. In addition, old players never used chinrests or shoulder-rests, which are commonly used today and which support a different position and posture on the part of the player.

Trumpeters and Drummers belonged to a separate guild and were musicians of great stature and privilege. Trumpets (and drums) were used in battles and for fanfares at court. They often sported long brocaded tassles in the royal colors.

Then... THE HORN and Now...

The horn started out as a hunting instrument used outdoors. During this period it began to come indoors and appear in opera houses, at first just to recreate an outdoor setting, or to enhance a hunting scene! Like the oboe, the 18^th century horn is beastly difficult to play. Modern valves have ironed out technical problems in playing the horn.

The flauto traverso, or transverse flute was a wooden flute which was held in the same "transverse" position we use today with silver flutes. It was so called to distinguish it from the recorder, which was held vertically. This wooden flute had a very breathy, soft sound. It is lovely when played in duet with a harpsichord or lute, but the lack of volume and the bad intonation (meaning that it had notes that were out of tune) were always a problem. There was quite a lot of experimentation with flute design and construction during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and one sees beautifully painted porcelain flutes and even flutes made of glass (don't trip when you walk out of stage!)

Here's an example of some Baroque flutes accompanied by harpsichord and viola da gamba. It is Bach's Trio Sonata in G Major.

Then...

THE FLUTE The pitch that a flute is tuned to is in direct relation to the length of the pipe. Since the note "A" was not standardized in the Baroque period, it was possible to go to one town and find that people used a rather high A, while in another town they might use a very low one. (In France the "A" was almost a whole step lower than it is today!) To be able to accommodate these different "A's" flute builders developed a modular design where a player could put various pieces of tube together to achieve the right length to match any A.

and Now...

One French instrument that developed quite a following in the 18^th century was the musette, which was a bagpipe. It was made out of the body of a goat, which was hollowed out and treated. Since these bags were hairy and smelly they were covered with rich brocade, and pipes of ivory were inserted for blowing. The musette was cultivated among the aristocracy—but they used it mainly to play out their bizarre fantasies about how romantic pastoral life was. Louis XIV kept sheep roaming around Versailles just to add a little "pastorale" color and look to the place. (Of course he also had servants running after the sheep to clean up after them—can't be too pastoral, afterall!) Even noble women had fun dressing up (or should I say "dressing down"?) to look like sweet peasant girls. You can see an example of this odd fixation with poor shepherds and shepherdesses in the movie I mentioned in an earlier lecture, Jefferson in Paris. Here, as a special treat, is an excerpt of a work for musette, viola da gamba and harpsichord by the French composer Hotteterre.

There is an enormous field of musicians who specialize in the performance of "early music" played on either antique instruments or replicas of antiques. The United States has been in the forefront of fine replica building, and the people who devote themselves to this type of work are not just excellent craftsmen but scholars as well. They know the history of their instrument backwards and forwards, and have studied originals in museums, by drawing, photographing, and even X-raying them! There are also people who provide materials for antique instrument builders—people like Damion Dlugolecki, who specializes in handmade gut strings for violins, violas, gambas, cellos, and basses, and Malcolm Rose who makes "antique wire" strings for harpsichords (based on elaborate chemical analysis of originals). It is a fascinating field made up of fascinating people!

Do yourself a favor and, the next time you can manage it, visit one of the great instrument collections such as the one at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., or The Shrine to Music . You will not be disappointed! These are world-class collections with instruments from around the world. You can also take audio-cassette tours of the exhibits so that you can hear the instruments you see.

Then...	THE HORN	and Now...
	The horn started out as a hunting instrument used outdoors. During this period it began to come indoors and appear in opera houses, at first just to recreate an outdoor setting, or to enhance a hunting scene! Like the oboe, the 18^th century horn is beastly difficult to play. Modern valves have ironed out technical problems in playing the horn.

Then...
THE FLUTE	The pitch that a flute is tuned to is in direct relation to the length of the pipe. Since the note "A" was not standardized in the Baroque period, it was possible to go to one town and find that people used a rather high A, while in another town they might use a very low one. (In France the "A" was almost a whole step lower than it is today!) To be able to accommodate these different "A's" flute builders developed a modular design where a player could put various pieces of tube together to achieve the right length to match any A.
and Now...