The Ornamental Twiddles Of A Baroque Orchestra
Sunday, December 14, 2014
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| John Eliot Gardiner - CBC Studio 1 - 1981 |
Below you might find relevant information on what a baroque orchestra is. It might help you enjoy more this Sunday's Early Music Vancouver production at the Chan of Bach's Christmas Oratorio.
I distinctly remember
May 13, 1980. I was at the Orpheum at noon with my two young daughters. We had
brought brown bags with lunches. We were there for a program presented by the
CBC Vancouver Orchestra called A Little Lunch Music. Admission was very cheap.
Our host, the Musical Director of the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, was a wiry bespectacled English man called John Eliot Gardiner. He proceeded
to explain to us what the baroque sound was all about. Most of it went over my
head. He told us that the pitch of the orchestra had been brought down from the
modern A440 Hz to A415Hz. Gardiner then demonstrated on two different violins, a
modern one and a baroque one. He told us the string instruments used gut strings.
I believe that the
average person on the street here in Vancouver
might not know of the difference. That day at the Orpheum, the difference in
sound was clearly evident.
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| Programme designed by Ray Mah |
Wikipedia has a clear
explanation of this. But let me lightly attempt to enlighten.
The violin bows and
the violins of the 18th and 17th century were different
from the ones that were adopted by the end of the 18th. The change
came about in that music was increasingly being played for larger audiences in
concert halls and not so much in the chambers of kings. The French Revolution
may have been a reason. These instruments, in fact all string instruments, had
to be louder. So the wonderful Stradivarius, Amati and Guarneri had to be
beefed up, their necks modified to take the increased pressures applied by
musicians to get that louder sound. Bows were modified for the same reason. Few
original baroque instruments have remained so the paradox is that the best
modern string instruments (the really valuable ones) are 17 or 18th century
instruments that have been modified. A few of the, very few, were “un-beefed”
to original standards. This means that in many baroque orchestras the
instruments are modern reproductions.
On that day back in
1980 the sound of that baroque violin seemed to be sweeter and more subtle.
When in doubt I go to
experts. Violinist Marc Destrubé (leader of the Smithsonian-based Axelrod
Quartet who play with exquisite Stradivarius instruments (beefed-up) donated by
the tropical fish expert Herbert R. Axelrod and for the local Microcosmos
String Quartet) is an expert in all the details of his craft. He was a member
and concertmaster of the now defunct (alas) CBC Vancouver Orchestra. This is
further explanation on that day at the Orpheum.
He told me that
besides changing the pitch he had the world-renowned violin bow maker, Ken
Millard (now lives on Mayne
Island) make baroque bows
for the whole orchestra. The baroque violin in which Gardener demonstrated
would have been his wife’s. She is Elizabeth Wilcock Gardiner. According to
Destrubé she would have been invited to play that afternoon.
The Ken Millard bows
were then donated to the UBC School of Music and with joint sponsorship with
Early Music Vancouver a Baroque Mentorship Orchestra is currently using those
bows. While making a bow for Destrubé, Millard became allergic to the woods
used and had to stop making them.
In this Sunday’s Early
Music Vancouver presentation at the Chan of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio a few
concertgoers might be slightly confused at what they are seeing. To begin with
Musical Director Stephen Stubbs will not be playing his very large Theorbo (a
baroque lute sometimes called an archlute which is a lovely sounding
predecessor to the guitar). He will be standing up or perhaps sometimes sitting
at a harpsichord which he is also playing. The piano, we know is a percussive
instrument in which tiny hammers hit strings. In the harpsichord the strings
are plucked.
The violins and violas
will all be (probably) modern reproductions of baroque violins with gut strings
and no chin rests. Chin rests, invented by Beethoven contemporary Louis Spohr
gave the violinist more leverage and a firmer grasp. You might note that tuning seems to take longer and it happens with more frequency. Gut strings are affected by room temperature and humidity more so than the modern violin's metal strings.
The two cellos will
have no spike. This means that they are indeed baroque ones. There will be another
strange instrument, not quite a cello, called a violone. If you count the
strings you might end up with six. The double bass and or the violone may or may not have frets. The transverse flute
(played with the instrument on the side like the modern ones) is made of wood
like the oboe and a variant called oboe d’amore.
You will also note a
small squarish organ, made in Quebec
in the 90s. This is called a baroque-style chamber&continuo organ. That
complex sounding word continuo just means that in a baroque orchestra some
instruments, the organ, the harpsichord, the cellos, the double bass, a bassoon
(yes!) and the violone play a bass line.
Of special note will
be the presence of the timpani (lots of noise in the beginning of the first
Cantata and the last cantata) and three trumpets. They do not have valves but
do have a few finger holes. These instruments are glorified bugles and are
extremely hard to play.
While Bach's Christmas Oratorio will feature most of the musicians sitting (with the exception of the singers and in some instances Musical Director Stephen Stubbs who will play the harpsichord sitting down, I hope!) generally baroque orchestras play standing up (not the cellos, the viola da gambas, the basses, bassoonists, etc). The only explanation for this was given to me by Marc Destrubé who told me just like in rock bands the guitarists and bassists play standing up, the string players of a baroque orchestra can interact more with an audience in this way. Judging by the way Destrubé moves when he plays his violin I would add that sitting down perhaps constricts his style.
While Bach's Christmas Oratorio will feature most of the musicians sitting (with the exception of the singers and in some instances Musical Director Stephen Stubbs who will play the harpsichord sitting down, I hope!) generally baroque orchestras play standing up (not the cellos, the viola da gambas, the basses, bassoonists, etc). The only explanation for this was given to me by Marc Destrubé who told me just like in rock bands the guitarists and bassists play standing up, the string players of a baroque orchestra can interact more with an audience in this way. Judging by the way Destrubé moves when he plays his violin I would add that sitting down perhaps constricts his style.
Some may wonder why
there is this obsession for playing with period instruments. And yet we
understand why vintage electric guitars and basses of the 60s and 70s are so
much in demand. John Eliot Gardiner beautifully explains this in his beautiful
book ( lent to me by EMV Musical Director Matthew White) Music in the Castle
of Heaven – A Portrait of
Johann Sebastian Bach. This happened when the young Gardiner around the late
60s was the Musical Director with the London-based Monteverdi Choir and he was
experimenting with the baroque sound.
Over the next ten
years (1968-1978) I was fortunate in being able to recruit a top-notch modern chamber
band to work alongside the choir – the Monteverdi Orchestra – comprising some
of the very best freelance chamber musicians of the London scene. The players showed me extraordinary
trust through their willingness to experiment, undertaking not just travels to
the wilder shores of the Baroque by means of oratorios and operas which were
then virtually unknown, but also stylistic explorations involving the use of outward-curved Baroque bows, notes
inégales, mordents, inverted modents, coulés and ornamental twiddles of all
sorts. Then suddenly we hit a brick wall. The fault was neither theirs nor
mine, but that of the instruments we were using – the same as everyone else had
been using for the past hundred and fifty years. However stylishly we played
them, there was no disguising that they had been designed or adapted with a
totally different sonority in mind, one closely associated with a late-nineteenth
– and early-twentieth century (and therefore anachronistic) style of
expression. With their wire or metal-covered strings they were simply too
powerful – and yet to scale things down and hold back was the very opposite of
what this music, with its burgeoning, expressive range calls for. To unlock the
codes in the musical language of these Baroque masters, to close the gap
between their world and ours, and to release the wellspring of their creative
fantasy meant cultivating a radically different sonority. There was only one
thing for it: to re-group using original (or replica) Baroque instruments. It
was like learning a totally new language, or taking up a new instrument but
with practically no one to teach you how to play it. It is hard to convey what
ructions, disappointments and excitements this entailed. Some felt it to be a
terrible betrayal; to others, including most of the singers in the Monteverdi
Choir, it was an inexplicably backward step. But a few brave souls took the
plunge with me: they bought, begged or borrowed Baroque instruments, and we
became the English Baroque Soloists.
My friend Marc
Destrubé can indeed add to that. I once asked him what he would do if he unknowingly
showed up at one of his Microcosmos String Quartet concerts featuring the music
of Béla Bartók with his Baroque violin. He answered, “I would have to go home
to retrieve the modern violin. I simply could not play the Bartók with the
other.” And in a passing note of useless but important information Destrubé
informed me that known to him (he cannot prove this) violin bows are made from
the tail of male horses. It seems that the urine of female horses affects the strength
of the individual hairs. As for that Baroque pitch set at A415Hz Destrubé says that this is sort of a modern standard as there would not have been one during Bach's time.
There are interesting details about Bach's Christmas Oratorio written by JoAnn Taricani a scholar from the University of Washington. Taricani mentions that Bach re-worked royal cantatas composed a year before in 1733 for the royal family at Dresden. Not mentioned is the fact that Bach wrote a secular drammi per musica called Hercules at the Crossroads (BWV 213) for the son of Friedrich the Elector of Dresden. No fewer than six movements from Hercules turned up at the end of 1734 in Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248)!
CBC Studio 1
Why Bach?
The Spirituality of Bach - A Sermon in Music
There are interesting details about Bach's Christmas Oratorio written by JoAnn Taricani a scholar from the University of Washington. Taricani mentions that Bach re-worked royal cantatas composed a year before in 1733 for the royal family at Dresden. Not mentioned is the fact that Bach wrote a secular drammi per musica called Hercules at the Crossroads (BWV 213) for the son of Friedrich the Elector of Dresden. No fewer than six movements from Hercules turned up at the end of 1734 in Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248)!
CBC Studio 1
Why Bach?
The Spirituality of Bach - A Sermon in Music
