Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Recent titles:
PART I
Tools of (Historical) Performance Practice17
PART II
Scholars and Performers in Dialogue83
PART III
Institutional Endeavours131
PART IV
Cultural Barriers and Embodied Knowledge181
Index217
Examples and Tables
Examples
1.1 L uca Conforto, Breve et facile maniera d’essercitarsi a far
passaggi (1593), 3v, with extrapolated outcomes 20
1.2 Luca Conforto, Breve et facile maniera, 3v, with extrapolated
outcomes22
1.3 Diego Ortiz, Trattado de Glosas (1553) 23
1.4 Giovanni Maria Artusi, L’arte del contraponto (1598), 33 25
1.5 Gio. Maria e Bernardino Nanino, Regole di Contrappunto, Ms.
in fol., di carte 78, fol. 22v 25
1.6 Gio. Maria e Bernardino Nanino, Regole di Contrappunto, fol. 22v 26
1.7 Giovanni Battista Chiodino, Arte pratica, 38 27
1.8 Giovanni Battista Chiodino, Arte pratica, 16 27
1.9 Chiodino, Arte pratica, 45 27
1.10 Francesco Rognoni, Selva di varii Passaggi (1620), Part 1, 26 28
1.11 F rancesco Rognoni, Selva di varii Passaggi, Part 1, 30, with
realisation29
1.12 Francesco Rognoni, Selva di varii Passaggi, Part 2, 43, with
transcription29
1.13 Riccardo Rognoni, Il vero modo di Diminuire, (1592), Part 2, 10 30
1.14 G.B. Bovicelli, Regole… (ed. Glenton, 2018), 10 31
1.15 Bovicelli, diminutions on Io son ferito, bars 140–end 31
1.16 Adrianus Petit Coclico, Compendium musices (Nürnberg, 1552),
gathering H-4v 33
2.1 Table of diminution in Ganassi’s Fontegara (1535, fol. 10v) 46
2.2 Matteo Pagano (1515–1588), Doge’s procession in Piazza San
Marco on Palm Sunday (detail) 47
2.3 Fontegara, Table of finger positions 53
3.1 The harmonic series showing the ranges of cor basse and cor alto66
3.2 Telemann, Concerto in D for Horn, TWV 51:D8 (1708–14),
Vivace, bars 11–20 68
3.3 Concerto ex Dis-dur, Lund no. 11, Allegro, bars 21–24 70
3.4 Concerto ex D-dur, Lund no. 13, Adagio bars 30–36 71
viii Examples and Tables
3.5
Concerto ex D-dur del Sig. Gehra, Lund no. 17b, Allegro Molto,
pickup to bar 48–69 72
3.6
Beethoven, Piano Concerto no. 5, op. 73 (1809–1811) first
movement, bars 393–402 73
3.7
Beethoven, Symphony no. 7 (1811–1812), op. 92, second
movement, bars 114–122, wind parts only 74
3.8
Beethoven, Symphony no. 8, op. 93 (1812–1813) third
movement, bars 52–56 74
3.9
Beethoven, Overture to Fidelio, op. 72, (1814), bars 49–59,
clarinet and horn parts only 75
3.10
Beethoven, Leonore Overture no. 1, op. 138, (1807),
bars 181–190; horn three and four and clarinet parts only 75
3.11
Beethoven, Symphony no. 9, (1823–1824); third movement:
fourth horn in E, bars 82–98 76
3.12
Beethoven, Sonata op. 17 in F major, 1st movement, bars 160–162 77
4.1
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 1–11 87
4.2
Debussy, “La Cathédrale Engloutie,” bars 16–19 88
4.3
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 84–85 89
4.4
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 17–22 92
4.5
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 26–32 92
4.6
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 45–52 93
4.7
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 91–95 93
4.8
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 29–40 96
4.9
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 45–52 97
4.10
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 61–83 99
4.11
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, first unit of the cadenza 100
4.12
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, second unit of the cadenza 100
4.13
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, third unit of the cadenza 100
4.14
Chopin, Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1, bars 84–101 101
5.1
Nocturne I, system 1 109
5.2
Nocturne I, system 2, beginning 111
5.3
Nocturne III 112
5.4
Violin calls 114
5.5
Scrape gesture in piano (Nocturne I, system 4) 115
Lorca, Nocturno del hueco, Part II
5.6 116
5.7
Nocturne IV, systems 3–4 117
5.8
Nocturne IV, systems 1–2 118
5.9
Ligeti, Étude Book 1 No. 1 “Désordre,” ending. 121
6.1
Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 1–16 137
6.2
Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 17–18 137
6.3
Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement, bar 17 138
6.4
Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 23–32 138
Examples and Tables ix
6.5 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 43–45 138
6.6 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 57–64 139
6.7 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 60–61 (based on a sketch). After Gajewski 1988 139
6.8 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 57–67 (Paris: Brandus, [post 1858]). Reproduced from
Franchomme’s personal copy 140
6.9 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 78–80 140
6.10 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 94–107 141
6.11 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 110–111 141
6.12 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 110-112. Friedrich Grützmacher (ed.), Fr. Chopins
Sämtliche Violoncell-Werke. Leipzig: Peters, [ante 1918] 142
6.13 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 168–178 142
6.14 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement, bar 223 142
6.15 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 219–223. (Paris: Brandus, [post 1858]). Reproduced from
Franchomme’s personal copy 143
6.16 Chopin, Sonata for Piano and Cello, op. 65, first movement,
bars 224–228 143
6.17 Representation of cadential and passing tones in taksim
transcriptions according to Aydemir 144
6.18 Rast Perde on the G staff 146
6.19 Phrase without and with Çarpma 147
6.20 Notating glissandi147
6.21 Phrases notated according to their rhythmic groupings 147
6.22 Groupings annotated on metric phrases 148
6.23 A pitch contour as represented in Sonic Visualizer 148
6.24a A makam scale map 149
6.24b The contour of Example 6.23 projected on the makam scale map 149
6.25 Double melodic curve 150
6.26 Complementary staff score and melodic contour 151
6.27 Transcription of the phrases from 0ʹ20ʺ to 0ʹ28ʺ of Ercüment
Batanay’s taksim improvisation on makam Hüseynî156
6.28 Transcription of the phrases from 5ʹ21ʺ to 5ʹ25ʺ of Ercüment
Batanay’s taksim improvisation on makam Hüseynî156
6.29 Transcription of the phrases from 3ʹ19ʺ to 3ʹ24ʺ, and from 5ʹ21ʺ
to 5ʹ25ʺ of Ercüment Batanay’s taksim improvisation
on makam Hüseynî156
x Examples and Tables
Tables
4.1 Communicative/expressive effects in Chopin’s Nocturne,
op. 27, no. 1 91
7.1 Time table of the study lab 171
7.2 Scores for use of reflection and the 20 + 5 schedule immediately
and one year after finishing the SL 172
7.3 Scores for the assignments stimulating the use of an external
focus of attention immediately and one year after finishing the SL 173
7.4 Imagery assignment scores, immediately and one year after the
SL (2016: n = 5) 173
7.5 Scores for the general questions about the SL, both immediately
and one year after finishing the SL. (n = 12) 173
7.6 Performance assessment by the main teachers (only in 2016: n = 6) 173
Contributors
Kathryn Zevenbergen’s skills on both the historic and modern horn keep her in
high demand as an orchestral and chamber music player. She holds two master’s
degrees, one in Horn Pedagogy from the Zurich School of the Arts, and one in
Early Music Performance from the Amsterdam Conservatory. She studied with
Nigel Downing, Glen Borling, and Teunis van der Zwart. Kathryn performs
regularly with La Chapelle Ancienne (Switzerland) and Solomon’s Knot (UK)
while living and teaching in Germany.
Teunis van der Zwart is one of the leading historical horn players of his gen-
eration. He is an internationally renowned specialist in historically informed
performance practice and active as a soloist, chamber music player, teacher,
and speaker. Van der Zwart is a principal subject teacher and Head of the Early
Music Department at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague.
Preface
just towards the objects of research but also towards the ways in which scholars
go about practising their métier—in other words, how they perform their research.
As indicated in this book’s subtitle, a central aim of this volume is to explore the
manifold collaborations, but also the possible confrontations, that such research en-
genders. In contrast to other studies in music performance research, this volume as
a whole will highlight the complex interactions and negotiations between scholarly
and performative modes of discourse, whether they are expressed through multiple
individuals or embodied within one and the same person. In doing this, it allows for a
kaleidoscope of perspectives and discursive voices: such “voices” can be heard and
seen not only through the diverse musical topics on offer but also through the many
divergent approaches to writing, performing, and “researching” more generally.
Music Performance Encounters consists of four main parts, with a total of nine
chapters: (I) Tools of (Historical) Performance Practice; (II) Scholars and Per-
formers in Dialogue; (III) Institutional Endeavours; and (IV) Cultural Barriers and
Embodied Knowledge. Each main chapter (with the exception of Chapter 9) is
multi-authored and involves the collaboration of a scholar, a performer, and/or a
performer-scholar.
In Part I, three contributions from the area of historically informed perfor-
mance practice will centre around both the physical and conceptual “tools” that
give rise to performance-related questions, such as musical instruments, histori-
cal treatises, diminution practices, or the interaction with other artforms. Part II
zooms in on scholars and performers collaborating at the individual level. Devoted
to the musical nocturne, each chapter involves two individuals grappling with per-
formance and a nalytical issues in a single piece of music: respectively, Frédéric
Chopin’s Nocturne op. 27, no. 1 in C minor, and George Crumb’s Four Nocturnes.
Also divided into two chapters, Part III takes a look at scholars and performers
undertaking research on behalf of supporting institutions in the Netherlands: in
one case, by bringing together musicians within a single institution (Codarts Rot-
terdam) to explore what it means to “learn from an absent teacher”; in the other, by
bringing the insights from sports psychology to bear on the study and performance
of music, in a collaboration involving multiple institutions (the Conservatorium
van Amsterdam, the VU University, and the Amsterdam University of Applied
Sciences). Finally, the two chapters of Part IV explore issues of power, prestige,
and embodiment between different cultures, and demonstrate techniques that ex-
pose musicians to new types of physicality in their performances of contemporary
composition.
Because this volume brings together such a wealth of musical traditions, cul-
tures, practices, and methodological perspectives, we felt it necessary to provide
the readership with more of the critical context surrounding each individual con-
tribution, and to elaborate on some of the underlying themes of the volume as
a whole—that is, beyond what a preface or introduction might offer. We there-
fore precede each of the four parts with a “Critical Interlude,” as a way of both
contextualising more deeply the contributions offered in each part and offering
a critical comparison of those chapters vis-à-vis the others. While other recent
Preface xvii
one kind of voice over another, but instead allowed for (and indeed encouraged)
a productive disparity between the various modes of expression and articulation
from the authors. We hope that the reader too will appreciate such a diversity of
approaches and voices.
This, we believe, is what will distinguish Music Performance Encounters from
many other volumes on musical performance—it is, in a word, a more “grassroots”
and eclectic approach to the topic. Thus, rather than attempting to streamline the
methodology between the contributions, or to create a volume in which individual
authors weigh in on a particular topic, we wish to confront readers with a more
diffuse and heterogeneous assortment of musical identities, backgrounds, and as-
pirations, with the aim of providing a space for practitioners, educators, and schol-
ars to express their voices in a multitude of ways: through words, images, bodily
movements, and of course sounds. We thus firmly believe that such a volume will
provide an important contribution to the ever-growing community of musicians
and scholars concerned with performance and artistic research. And while it was
not a deliberate choice of the volume, many, but not all, of the contributions are
from performers and scholars operating within the Netherlands. In this way, the
volume partially documents the variety of performance-related research practices
coming out of this country.
In the end, this book is intended for anyone interested in the intersection of
academic and performance research: scholars, teachers, students, and practising
musicians. Given the diversity of topics, repertoires, cultures, and strategies, we
hope that the book will be of use for a wide range of people and for both research
and educational purposes. If anything, it aims to offer a space in which the many
modes of music performance research can interact with one another.
John Koslovsky
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
31 August 2022
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this book for their productive
critical remarks. Without these, the volume would not have taken the form it has.
We would also like to thank the senior editor of the music division at Routledge,
Heidi Bishop, for her interest and unwavering support for our project, as well as
Kaushikee Sharma and Tassia Watson for their logistical support. John Rink was
generous to provide advice to us at various stages of this project—we are grateful
for the many fruitful conversations we have had with him. Institutional support has
also proven vital to the completion of this work: first and foremost from the Con-
servatorium van Amsterdam, which helped us organise the 2017 symposium and
provided the necessary space and funding for the realisation of this book volume;
and the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, the VU University Amster-
dam, and the Amsterdam Orgelpark, all of which contributed to the organisation
of the symposium. Finally, we would like to thank all of the contributors to this
volume for their commitment to seeing this publication to completion and for the
talents and expertise they have brought to the world through this work.
Introduction
“Who Are You?”: On Performers,
Scholars, Masters, and Pupils
DOI: 10.4324/9781003295785-1
2 Michiel Schuijer and John Koslovsky
skills this community maintained, but the broader relevance of this body and its ca-
pacity to inform other fields, like psychology, sociology, and educational sciences.
António Novóa, an eminent Portuguese educational scholar and administrator, has
explained what paradox this created. When teaching elevated to the status of a pro-
fession, this led to a division between university-based educational scholars on the
one hand, and highly skilled practitioners in the classroom on the other, resulting
in a “de-legitimation of the latter as producers of knowledge.”2
In this respect, engineers fared better, especially in Germany, where technical
colleges (Technische Hochschulen) fought a long battle for their societal recogni-
tion. The rapidly growing industry in the German states from 1850 onwards and
the need for a robust infrastructure to support it made the supply of engineers emi-
nently important. Yet, in Germany’s rigidly stratified class system, graduates of the
technical colleges did not hold the same status as those of the university. Therefore,
in 1899, emperor Wilhelm II conferred the right on these colleges to award the doc-
toral degree for original research, which was until that time the prerogative of uni-
versities. There has been debate about whether the colleges have brought technical
education under the rule of science—to the detriment of the craftsmanship and tacit
knowledge of earlier generations of engineers—or instead succeeded in uniting
engineering practice and scientific theory.3 But this debate itself has become po-
larised between academic engineers and graduates from nonacademic engineering
schools, who often found themselves competing for the same positions.4
These two examples show how professionalism could arise in various occu-
pational fields and help raise their societal prestige. Meanwhile, institutional
structures continued to separate the “thinkers” from the “doers,” hampering their
conversation.
As for this rising professionalism, music, it must be said, was a slow starter. The
music conservatories mushrooming in nineteenth-century Europe did not make a
similar dent in professional society as the teacher institute or the technical col-
lege. In their founding acts and annual reports, some compared themselves to a
university, like the Royal College of Music in London (founded in 1883)5 and the
Amsterdam Conservatory (founded in 1884).6 Others mentioned the “scientific”
status of the music profession (Leipzig, 1843). Still, it was unclear what that meant
for the practice and study of music.
For example, in Leipzig, the conservatory founders (Felix Mendelssohn was
one of them) stated that “theoretically and practically, its instruction covers all
branches of music, considered a science and art.”7 Rebecca Grotjahn has argued
that it was not so much the university as the German gymnasium that served them
as a reference point. The new institution provided budding musicians a place for
their Bildung.8 Judging from the continuation of the proclamation, it offered a com-
prehensive program of general learning, including harmony and composition, in-
strumental and vocal performance, and “lectures on musical literature, aesthetics,
and other parts of the science of music [Musikwissenschaft].” Unfortunately, this
ambitious program didn’t fulfil its promise, partly because of an over-permissive
entrance policy of the conservatory, resulting in a highly uneven student-teacher
ratio and a total lack of supervision, and partly because of a rather exclusive and
Introduction 3
them to combine two studies or accumulate them one after the other. Here, the 1992
Further and Higher Education Act brought change. It introduced a single funding
structure for universities, polytechnic schools, and a select number of independent
colleges.20 Under the terms of the Act, polytechnics could adopt the title of uni-
versity. Consequently, their music departments could apply for research funds and
award the full range of academic degrees to philosophiae doctor. The same held for
independent professional music schools, although offering a PhD required a liaison
with a university in most cases.
Today, similar arrangements have emerged throughout Europe and beyond:
art academies with university status, whether or not renamed “universities of the
arts” or “universities of music and performing arts,” like in Germany, Austria,
and Finland; conservatories amalgamated with universities, like in Australia and
New Zealand; music and other art academies that have created doctoral programs
in partnership with one or more universities (France, Belgium, the Netherlands);
and research universities offering artistic doctoral degrees beside scholarly ones
(Sweden). These arrangements reflect a trajectory of higher education in the past
decades towards greater accessibility and comparable levels of achievement across
domains. But they also speak to the role of research and experimentation in mod-
ern art practice itself, in its constant search for meaning and value.21 By furthering
“artistic research”—or “(artistic) practice as research,” as it is called in Britain—
they carved out a space for the creative and performing arts to contribute to pro-
fessional society as well as to artistic culture.22 Thus, like teachers and engineers
before them, artists could define, claim, and develop, within the academy, a domain
of knowledge hitherto deemed mainly “practical”—a domain, moreover, that had
been valued precisely because of its qualities resisting academisation.23
It would seem that multiple avenues for the professionalisation of musicians and
their involvement in scholarly practices are now available. Have they helped dis-
solve barriers between music scholars and musical performers at long last? Have
they led to more integration between their métiers? The answer is not an unequivo-
cal yes or no. Such barriers still exist, despite the avenues passing over them. They
involve not only institutional cultures and practices but also professional identi-
ties. And with the latter come special skills, research interests, modes of learning
and communication, and definitions of achievement. There are performing artists
whose work is explorative and breaking new ground but who are wary of having to
meet standards of academic accountability. And there is formal scientific research
that can be highly relevant for musical performers without requiring their exper-
tise. (Performance psychology is a case in point here.)
Moreover, music scholarship itself has been divided all along. Besides the study
and interpretation of documented legacies of music and musical thought, it has
spawned other methods of knowledge acquisition: methods that concern oral mu-
sic traditions (ethnographic field study and participant observation) and methods
tailored to the study of music perception and cognition (experimentation in labora-
tory settings). This division of labour and expertise has long prevented musicology
from discussing music as performance more generally. Ethnomusicologists were
better equipped for this than historical musicologists and music theorists, who, as
6 Michiel Schuijer and John Koslovsky
inspire generations of critical cultural and social theory, described the matter in a
brutishly straightforward fashion:
My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all space
and to extend its force (—its will to power:) and thrust back all that resists
its extension. But it continually encounters similar efforts on the part of other
bodies and ends by coming to an arrangement (“union”) with those of them
that are sufficiently related to it: thus they then conspire together for power.
And the process goes on—25
To begin with, there are tangible forms in which the master-pupil relation plays
out in this volume. Many of the authors, for instance, once shared some form of
direct teacher-student relationship, which has now evolved into a collaboration on
genuinely collegial grounds. These include the chapters by Zevenbergen and van
der Zwart (Chapter 3), by Theurer and Leong (Chapter 5), by Cholevas and Abra-
movay (Chapter 6), and by Titus and Vranckx (Chapter 9). This was an unexpected
bonus to the volume, as it highlights how a relationship between a former teacher
and a pupil can develop over time, whereby the original roles played by each pro-
tagonist can shift seamlessly. These relationships offer a prime example of how
research ideas can emerge from “the ground up.”
But even for those co-authors who never shared a formal relationship as teacher
and student, there is still a sense in which each contributor in one moment plays
the role of master, but in the next moment becomes the pupil of the other. A good
example includes the contribution by Marconi and Malferrari (Chapter 4): both are
professionals in their own right, and had different professional paths before their
collaborative project. But, when coming together, they had to negotiate a space in
which each played both master and pupil with one another. As we describe in more
detail below (Critical Interlude 2), the manner by which each of these protagonists
plays out his respective role is indicative of the ways in which a traditional binary
between scholar and performer can still lead to new insights, even if those insights
(and their consequences) need to be teased out (i.e., performed) by the reader.
And then there are the more intangible (but no less pertinent) forms of the
master-pupil relation, in which the interlocutor (the “author” of the essay) searches
for a place within a vast, discursive matrix that brings together both textual and
non-textual forms of knowledge: on the one hand, playing the role of pupil to those
who have come before and absorbing the knowledge imparted by them; on the
other, seeking to become the master of the material studied in order to impart a new
form of knowledge (oftentimes, but not always, with the aim of superseding one’s
predecessors). Motuz and Meléndez Peláez (Chapter 1), for instance, take their cue
from the contrapuntal masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in order to
gain new mastery over the improvisation of historical diminutions. As pupils of an
impressive assortment of theorists from centuries past, Motuz and Meléndez Peláez
consolidate their knowledge not only through detailed reasoning, but in fact show
the consequences of their deliberations through improvised performative acts.
Another example comes from Atalai and Nagy (Chapter 2), each of whom ab-
sorbs various ideas from Silvestro Ganassi’s La Fontegara in order to highlight the
emergence of an interdisciplinary ethos in sixteenth-century Venice: Atalai through
the medium of voice; and Nagy through that of painting. As committed pupils to
Ganassi’s treatise, Atalai and Nagy (each in their own way) master the material of
La Fontegara in order reveal some of its underlying premises: not just as an exercise
in critical exegesis, but as a means of making audible (through performance) the
consequences of their textual mastery. So it is that Atalai and Nagy can each reflect a
new aspect of the master-pupil relation, in both learning from Ganassi’s text but then
refocusing it in order to impart a broader, audible, and interdisciplinary knowledge.
Introduction 9
Sometimes the role of master and pupil is deliberately reversed, whereby the
ones we would initially perceive to act as masters in fact take on the role of pu-
pils in order to learn from the pupils themselves. Such is the case in the chapter
by Bakker, Kouwenhoven, Martín, and Oudejans (Chapter 7). Described in more
detail below (Critical Interlude 3), their collaborative contribution is aimed at iden-
tifying the learned expertise of musicians and in sharpening the ways in which such
expertise can be honed under live performance situations. Such an example shows
how the master-pupil relation can begin to break down when experts from various
domains begin to collaborate, regardless whether one is a student at a conservatory
or a professor emeritus at a research university.
In Part IV, “Cultural Barriers and Embodied Knowledge,” the intertwinement
of the master-pupil relation takes on a new focus (and perhaps finally begins to
deconstruct the distinction altogether). In “Knowing the World through Music”
(Chapter 8), Titus, Vranckx, and Fermie take part in a dialogue with music-making
in a globalised economy: Titus in her research into South African Maskanda prac-
tices; Vranckx in her encounters with the San community of Namibia; and Fermie
through his “Practical Approach To Enhancing Musical Performance Abilities”
(Patempa), an embodied view towards musical knowledge production. Indeed, all
three of these contributions implicitly aim to leave behind any distinction of “mas-
ter” and “pupil,” though we believe that such a distinction remains inherent in their
multilayered engagements with various cultures and their own, complicated role
as scholars and musicians operating within a European context (a role they fully
acknowledge).
The final core contribution to the volume, by Andreas Borregaard (“Performing
Jennifer Walshe’s SELF-CARE,” Chapter 9), is similarly engaged with issues of
embodiment in musical performance: not only that, but given his musical material,
Borregaard’s performative commitments extend to the limits of the physical realm
(described in more detail in Critical Interlude 4). And even though he is a “sole”
author, his contribution also invokes the metaphor of master and pupil. In his case,
however, he is both master and pupil of his performative capacities, and in this
way he engages in deep self-reflection in order to uncover the limits to which his
embodied musicianship can be taken.
Notes
1 Bianchi (2017, 73).
2 Novóa (2000, 52).
3 Wengenroth (1997, 148–50).
4 For more detail, see Gispen (1990, 160–86).
5 See Brightwell (2007, I: 93ff).
6 Conservatorium der Afdeling Amsterdam van de Maatschappij tot Bevordering der
Toonkunst, “Bericht van het vierde schooljaar 1887–1888” (November 1888, 15).
This and other annual reports from between 1884 and 1970 have been collected
and bound in seven volumes, which are kept in the library of Conservatorium van
Amsterdam.
Introduction 11
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Critical Interlude 1
John Koslovsky
The first three essays to this volume all draw their inspiration from what has by
now become a veritable tradition, namely “historically informed performance”
practice (or HIP, for short). The title to Part I suggests that historical performers,
as researchers, draw upon various “tools” in order to conduct their work. But the
tools they use do not only have to be of the physical sort, they can also derive from
a more conceptual need. So it is that Motuz and Meléndez Peláez, a trombonist
and cornetist respectively, make use not only of their instruments for which they
conduct their research—they also explore the ways in which counterpoint training
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can supply performers with the neces-
sary tools for the execution of diminutions. To this end, their chapter, titled “Che
hanno contrapunto,” offers a detailed investigation of the ways in which Italian
and Spanish treatises from that time assumed a thoroughgoing knowledge of strict,
improvised counterpoint as the basis for performing diminutions. They then adapt
the knowledge they acquired to their own performing practices (rendered in a re-
cording session).
In the second chapter, by Atalai and Nagy (“The Italian Imitative and Interdis-
ciplinary Musical Ethos of the Sixteenth Century”), the performance of historical
diminutions remains an underlying concern. However, in this case the tool is not
of many but of a single sixteenth-century author, Silvestro Ganassi, whose 1535
treatise Opera Intitulata Fontegara provides the starting point for an “interdiscipli-
nary” approach to historical performance practice. For Atalai, Ganassi is the quin-
tessential “Renaissance man” who helped elevate the status of instrumental music
to the level of a liberal art by drawing links between the recorder and the human
voice; for Nagy, Ganassi’s emergent interdisciplinary attitude is evoked through his
painterly sensibilities and even through his choice of specific vocabulary, notably
the word “prontezza.” Their renditions of select sixteenth-century music, which ac-
company this volume, bring together various colleagues of the ensemble Seconda
Prat!ca and thereby bring the interdisciplinary ethos of Ganassi’s ideas to life.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003295785-2
16 John Koslovsky
Finally, Zevenbergen and van der Zwart pick up on the performance of another
historical instrument, the Cor Alto and Cor Basse. Unlike the first two chapters, their
focus here is not on creating improvisations or diminutions, but rather on locating
an “ideal sound” of the historical horn. And, instead of drawing their knowledge
from a treatise or from another artform, the tool that becomes most readily apparent
in their knowledge acquisition involves the length of just a couple of millimetres
or so, the horn’s mouthpiece. But the almost microscopic difference of mouthpiece
size proves to take on macroscope proportions in the various colours and timbres
that result from cor alto and cor basse. Zevenbergen and van der Zwart’s chapter
is similarly informed by their historical research into one of the most renowned
hornists of the late eighteenth century, Giovanni Punto (1746–1843). To be sure,
their engagement with Punto, alongside their technical concerns, leads them to
consider their own historically informed performance of Beethoven’s music, both
in his orchestral music and specifically in his Horn Sonata, op. 17. Their rendition
from the 2017 RPPR symposium, performed with their fortepiano colleague Olga
Pashchenko, demonstrates the sounding result of such a technical and historical
research project.
Part I
Tools of (Historical)
Performance Practice
1 “Che hanno contrapunto”
Counterpoint Training and the
Performance of Diminution in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries1
One might have complained twenty years ago that, since most of the ornamentation
treatises of the Renaissance and Early Baroque had already been rediscovered and
studied, it would be difficult to add substantially to our knowledge about the art of
making passaggi.2 But while scholarly editions and close and comparative readings
of the treatises of Diego Ortiz, Girolamo Dalla Casa, Giovanni Bassano, Riccardo
Rognoni, Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Francesco Rognoni, and others have been
invaluable to reviving the art,3 the work of performers in the last two decades in
putting treatise material to active, performative, and regular use has been a driving
force in pushing our understanding of historical ornamentation to a higher level.
Among the developments during this time has been the revival of the skill of coun-
terpoint as a practical art. Counterpoint has been transformed from a written-out
practice to a performance practice, to be parsed or even created in real time. Barto-
lomeo Barbarino is one of many who writes of the necessity for virtuoso musicians
to be skilled in counterpoint, writing that those who “have counterpoint” (che hanno
contrapunto) are able to improvise diminutions rather than just execute them.
But what does it mean to “have counterpoint”? What does it change in how we
go about performing music from the Renaissance and Early Baroque? While it can
be demonstrated in writing why musicians need some understanding of counter-
point in order to ornament well, these and other practical questions must be ad-
dressed through practical experience and performance.
The present authors attempt to answer these questions from the perspective of
performance research. We understand “performance” not only as what happens on
stage, but also in the context of music making in practice rooms and teaching stu-
dios. Because we are discussing historically informed performance practice (HIP),
we also draw on treatises from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ultimately
it is our practical experience working with these sources on a regular basis and
bringing them into performance that leads us to our conclusions.
While close reading of diminution treatises can give a scholar an overview of the
practice of making diminutions in various styles, using a pedagogical treatise for
regular practice and teaching provides a much more comprehensive understanding.
For example, multiple authors have described what we call the “copy-and-paste”
approach to making diminutions.4 The simplest approach to this method relies on
tables of ornaments organised by melodic motion and rhythmic value, such as those
DOI: 10.4324/9781003295785-4
20 Catherine Motuz and Josué Meléndez Peláez
found in nearly every diminution treatise. The player, ornamenting a single line of
a polyphonic piece, chooses a melodic interval on which to add an ornament, picks
an ornament from the table based on the melodic interval and rhythmic values, then
replaces the simple version with the ornamented one. Luca Conforto provides the
clearest indication that this approach is a historical one and indeed the purpose of
providing such extensive tables: “And if you wish to embellish any musical piece,
it will be enough only to consider the quality of the note, and the proper place to be
embellished, and then according to their values, from those take a copy.”5 He goes
on to explain how to adjust ornaments to different rhythms by doubling or halving
the note values of the ornament.
We have found the “copy-and-paste” method indispensable, not only for learn-
ing to ornament ourselves, but also for teaching diminution technique: by copying
ornaments from treatises into real pieces, the student slowly builds a repertoire of
ornaments. However, is it not long before it is clear that just matching melodic
intervals and rhythmic values is not always enough to make a satisfying and cor-
rect ornament.6 In some cases, knowledge of counterpoint is also required. For
example, on the very first line of his treatise, Conforto offers a rising step (in seven
different clefs and with a “C” time signature) followed immediately by a choice of
ways to ornament it: the reader must choose a path through the crotchets he gives
(Example 1.1a). If we imagine this example in a polyphonic context (in this case
by adding a lower counterpoint), we note that the unornamented step might be ac-
companied by any number of intervals with the bass, such as from a third to a fifth
(Example 1.1b) or a sixth to an octave (Example 1.1c), but if we choose a path
through all of the topmost crotchets, then it works well over the first bass (Example
1.1d), but not the second (Example 1.1e), which contains a harsh contrapuntal er-
ror: a leap to a ninth on the second crotchet.
Example 1.1 Luca Conforto, Breve et facile maniera d’essercitarsi a far passaggi (1593),
3v, with extrapolated outcomes.
This example brings up two questions: is Example 1.1e actually wrong, in the
context of improvising diminutions?; and if so, how could it be avoided in im-
provisation? As we will show, while sixteenth-century writers normally allowed
certain contrapuntal errors to be introduced in making diminutions, nevertheless
they condemned those that caused acoustic harshness or that obscured the clarity
Counterpoint Training and the Performance of Diminution 21
of the counterpoint. As to how to avoid errors, some treatise authors offer foolproof
strategies or even specific ornaments that work in any polyphonic context, but they
make it clear that these do not always provide the most elegant divisions. To im-
provise passaggi as a virtuoso, or as Francesco Rognoni put it, con arte e maestria
(with art and mastery),7 professional singers and instrumentalists relied on a strong
grounding in counterpoint, which allowed them to hear the other voices and avoid
errors accordingly.
This brings us back to the question, what does it mean to “have counterpoint,”
i.e., what does a strong grounding in counterpoint mean to a historical performer?
In order to understand this, we must understand the background or education in
counterpoint that expert improvisers possessed. Close readings and analyses of
treatise examples present the reader with partial answers to this question but, like
many aspects of historical performance, the remaining gaps can only be solved by
practising and performing, putting treatise material to use in improvised contexts.
The simple version is for those who don’t have the ability to sing diminutions,
and for those who have the ability to sing diminutions and know counterpoint
22 Catherine Motuz and Josué Meléndez Peláez
(che hanno contrapunto), who can do themselves diminutions and all other
ornaments that are required for the proper way of singing. The diminished
version then, for those who, having the ability to sing diminutions, but not
knowing counterpoint (che havendo dispositione, non hanno contrapunto),
don’t have the capacity to make diminutions according to the rules.11
Conforto is also less demanding than Zenobi. He introduces his treatise as an ex-
pedient for those who, growing up far from cities and courts, had to learn their
art painstakingly through imitation rather than instruction.12 Conforto understands
that these singers, although they eventually became professionals, may have had
varying levels of training in counterpoint. He goes on with an example of why this
is important: the restrictions on a melodic leap of a fourth or a fifth in a passaggio
are not worth trying to explain to “those who have no understanding of the conso-
nances” (che non hanno cognizione delle consonanze), but those who do will know
that leaping up a fourth from a fifth over the bass will make an octave.13
Understanding that melodic leaps are the most risky for producing errors such
as those discussed in Example 1.1, Conforto helpfully writes a little cross (una
crocetta) next to passaggi that work with an octave, tenth, or twelfth from the bass,
and instructs that these be learned first. We can find this cross in his first example
after the first crotchet, showing that the singer who follows the path (again in so-
prano clef) through G–A–F–G–A or G–A–B–G–A will be safe from creating harsh
dissonances against any normal bass in whole notes, beginning on an octave, tenth,
or twelfth (and also a sixth, though Conforto does not recognise this). Example 1.2
demonstrates the possibilities.
Example 1.2 Luca Conforto, Breve et facile maniera, 3v, with extrapolated outcomes.
The resulting vertical intervals for the first possible path (Examples 1.2b–e)
include leaps to and from dissonances, but this figure is a recognised idiom, called
a double-neighbour.14 While Peter Schubert specifies that the figure is to be used in
Counterpoint Training and the Performance of Diminution 23
cadences, he notes that evaded cadences allow a variety of bass motions.15 The sec-
ond possible path is unproblematic except for the version that begins on the twelfth
and ascends to the fourteenth (i.e., from the fifth to the seventh, plus an octave,
Example 1.2h), but examples from fully ornamented pieces by Maffei, Dalla Casa,
and others show that this interval pattern is common in diminution repertoire.16
Like Conforto, Diego Ortiz writes failsafe examples of diminutions, explaining
that by returning to the original note at the end of each ornament, it is impossible to
introduce contrapuntal errors.17 One example is offered in Example 1.3.
Girolamo Diruta and Aurelio Virgiliano also recommend returning to the origi-
nal note at the end of an ornament, but the latter adds that one should also play it in
the middle if it is convenient.18 Ortiz and Diruta specify that this way of ornament-
ing is the simplest approach, although Ortiz concedes that following this rule will
not produce the most beautiful flourishes. Clearly, Virgiliano does not expect this
rule to be followed every time either—if so, he would not need his next rule, which
states that one should maintain the same direction of travel from one note to the
next as in the unornamented version (soggetto).
Like many authors, Ortiz considered counterpoint a fundamental skill, at least
for professional musicians,19 but distinguished it from composition, a more ad-
vanced skill. Most of the exercises he provides in the second book of his Trattado,
making ornamentations of polyphonic models or improvising on a ground, require
his readers to be fluent in counterpoint, but to add a fifth voice to a four-voice
piece “presupposes ability in composition on the part of the player to do it.”20 Ortiz
differentiates between the basic skill of counterpoint and grasping the multiple
contrapuntal relationships of a four-part piece. But by introducing a compositional
skill into a manual about improvisation he is blurring the line between written and
oral practices.
Turning back to historical authors, the need for constant practice in order to train
this “thesaurus” is summed up elegantly by the Master in Morley’s A Plaine and
Easie Introduction to Practicall Musick (1597):
Author: R. H. Mottram
Language: English
By
R. H. MOTTRAM
Author ofTHE SPANISH FARM
and
SIXTY-FOUR, NINETY-FOUR!
LONDON
CHATTO AND WINDUS
1926
Printed in Great Britain