equality found in Baroque music.

The lourer represents a practice of

lengthening the first of two slurred notes and shortening the second. In a
couler there are two slurred notes, the second of which is dotted. In this
figure, the first note is shortened and the second is lengthened. How much
the long note is lengthened is a matter of musical taste. Finally, there is the
issue of when to use inequality. Both Robert Donington and Mary Halford
in her introduction to Couperin’s L’Art de Toucher le Chavecin nicely sum-
marize rules guiding the use of inequality. Halford argues that inequality
is permitted in the following circumstances: stepwise notes with time val-
ues shorter than the lower figure of the time signature, notes falling in
pairs, melodies which would be made more elegant, groups of notes unin-
terrupted by a rest or other notes with greater time values, notes that are
slurred, and pickup notes to inequality-eligible notes. Inequality is forbid-
den where the musical phrase consists of broken, leaping, repeated notes
(Quantz 1966, 123); with triplets and syncopated notes; in very slow or fast
tempi, making the phrase too sluggish or the rhythm indistinct (Quantz
1966, 123); in mixed grouping of notes; in slurs over three or more notes;
where dots or strokes are added above or below the notes (Quantz 1966, 123;
Couperin 1974, 49); and in allemandes or marches (Couperin 1974, 11).3
What implication does inequality have for the tied notes in measure
145 of Bach’s B-Minor Mass (the Gloria)? Spitta believes that Bach was
thoroughly familiar with the French style and Francois Couperin, and
Bach copied the French style pieces of N. Grigny and Charles Dieupart
(Spitta 1951, I: 202). In so copying, Bach would have been familiar with the
French ornamentation and compositional practices—to include the use of
slurs to indicate inequality. Should these two sets of slurred notes be
played unequally? The timpanist should be prepared to play this figure in
one of three ways. First, play it as written because to play it with inequal-
ity would make the final two beats of the measure less eloquent. One could
play the first note as usual. The second note is an A and will naturally proj-
ect less. The next three notes could be executed as a diminuendo: effec-
tively emphasizing the A, giving less weight to the d, and finishing with a
phrase-ending quieter note. This would achieve what Bach intended: a
stressed first note and an unstressed second note. Second, play this part as
a lourer because it meets the Halford’s test for playing an unequal pair of
notes. While this might fit the rhythm of the music, it certainly makes the
line more impetuous and less pleasing. Third, play this as a couler. This is
recommended by Ormrod; however, this author does not believe that the
tied eighth notes were written as a couler; played as a couler, the figure
would not fit well with the rhythm in the voices and strings (Ormrod 1997,
56–57). See the companion Web site for a marked timpani part.
Early Baroque music is typically underphrased. Articulation as a form
of phrasing is not compositionally important to seventeenth-century music,
but musicians used performance practices of the day in playing a part. It
becomes more critical in the High Baroque and a growing number of com-
posers ornament their scores with articulation markings. Leopold Mozart
notes that dashes and dots are used to clearly articulate notes in a score.

Interpretation of Baroque Music 71