Performance Practice of Early Music: February 2019

Early Recordings for 3-page paper

V Bellini: Norma: Casta diva score

Adelina Patti sings Casta Diva

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Handel: Ombra mai fu score with recit

Dame Clara Butt sings Ombra mai fu 1917

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Gounod Ave Maria score

Alessandro Moreschi sings Gounod: Ave Maria

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Grieg: Solveig's Song arr voice and piano

Kruszelinicka sings Grieg Solveig's Song 1903

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J S Bach: Sonata for violin solo in G Minor BWV 1001: Adagio

Joseph Joachim plays Bach Adagio BWV 1001 (rec. 1903)

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J Joachim Romanze in C Major (1855) score

Joachim plays Joachim Romance in C (rec. 1903)

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J S Bach: Air BWV 1068 arranged in C for the G string by A Wilhelmj

Jan Kubelik plays Bach Air BWV 1068

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Chopin Nocturne in E-flat Op 9 No 2 arranged for viola and piano

William Primrose viola plays Chopin Nocturne in E-flat Major Op 9 No 2

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G Marie La Cinquantaine score

W H Squire cello and H Harty play Gabriel Marie La Cinquantaine

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score to Popper Gavotte No 2 Op 23

W H Squire and H Harty play Popper Gavotte No. 2 Op 23

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Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue excerpt piano arrangement

Rhapsody in Blue 1927 recording Mischa Spoliansky cond, J Fuchs Orchestra, part one

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W A Mozart: Flute Concerto in D KV 314: Adagio non troppo

W A Mozart: Adagio non troppo from Flute Concerto in D KV 314. John Amadio, flute

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Performance Practice Seminar Spring 2019

3-page paper

Guidelines

Select a short (2-5 minute) performance originally recorded before 1930, preferably a recording on an instrument or voice-type similar to your own.

If possible, find a score online that is similar to the one used in the performance. Use the score to assist your listening experience.

In three pages (double-spaced, 12 point), do three things:

First, note your impressions when listening to the recording the first few times.

Second, analyse the early 20^th-century performance by comparing the performance characteristics you notice in the recorded performance with your expectations based on your own experience as a performer. Be as detailed as possible while staying within the constraint of a three-page discussion. Possible points for observation include the relationship of soloist and accompanist; intonation; vibrato; tempo and tempo modification; tone production; recording technique.

Third, revisit the recording a day or two after having completed your analysis, and describe how your perception of the recording after the analysis compares with your initial perceptions.

Glenn Gould on playing the harpsichord (1972)

"On the harpsichord, it's very easy to achieve the sort of secco, pointillistic détaché line that I've always tried to produce on the piano, with varying degrees of success. On the other hand, having achieved it, you can't influence [the harpsichord] dynamically and you're left, so to speak, beholden to the generosity of the ear which is sometimes prepared to read dynamic implications into rhythmic alterations. But this introduces another set of problems, because, on the harpsichord, you have a choice between rhythmic inexorability and its converse, which is infinite rubato, a kind of sound world which really never comes to rest on any bar-line. I was determined to try and find a way around that problem. And I thought, well, the best solution would be to pretend that I'm not playing the harpsichord at all."

Glenn Gould (1972)

Columbia M 31512/glenn Gould/handel Suites For Harpsichord Nos. 1-4 (1972)

Eaton's Auditorium, Toronto, Canada (1972-03-26&1972-04-30&1972-).

Playlist including early recordings

Brahms: The 1889 recordings (& Joachim 1903 recording)

Violinist Jan Kubelik Plays J S Bach: Air in D BWV 1068

Why Counting Counts

Why Counting Counts

(R Hill Feb 2019)

How you count has a big impact on how your musicianship presents to others.

There are many, many ways to count.

Counting is not keeping time, counting is organizing time.

It is easy to imagine that you are counting twice as slowly as you actually are counting (i.e., you think you are counting in quarters, but you actually are counting in 8ths).

The slower the unit of counting, the more intuitively the space between pulses has to be filled.

It is possible, with practice, to count in two different ways at the same time (think, for example, counting four against three).

There is no need to assume that we must be consistent in the way we count. Therefore, how we count is contextual.

How musicians habitually count is most probably culturally determined.

The 18th-century pocket watch

'There was no device for keeping accurate time at sea until John Harrison, a carpenter and instrument maker, refined techniques for temperature compensation and found new ways of reducing friction. By 1761, he had built a marine chronometer with a spring and balance wheel escapement that kept very accurate time. With the final version of his chronometer, which looked like a large pocket watch, he achieved a means of determining longitude to within one-half a degree.'

(https://nrich.maths.org/6070)