At 4:32 PM -0400 10/8/07, Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
On 10/8/07, dc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Could you post an image?
Yes:
http://www.bytenet.net/kpclow/finale/praetorius.jpg
What was interesting was to actually look at Praetorius' vocal music,
and I was a bit taken back out, how "thin" it looks compared to what I
hear on CD performances-- especially the CD that Paul McCreesh
recorded "Praetorius: Mass for Christmas Morning" on DG-Archiv, which
was performed with so many exotic instruments, winds, trumpets and
percussionists. A quick glance at the music scores for these pieces
just listed groups of instruments, with nothing specifically notated.
I suppose subsitution is allowed, but I was a bit disheartened to find
that the percussion that I love so much, was not in the original
sources.
Regarding the notation, my guess would be that bar lines were not
present in the original, but those strokes served the same function.
(I have not seen the original, just the same Collected Works edition
of Terpsichore that you took that example from.) Anyone playing
dance pieces would have known the dances, and therefore understood
the note groupings. The Volte or LaVolte was a sort of galliard, so
it moved in a moderately fast triple time in spite of the confusing
(to us) time signature. It was the steps themselves, including
grasping the lady by the bottom of her busk and swinging her around
vigorously, that differed from the galliard. (Paintings of that move
look HIGHLY questionable, but the busk or bodice was so thoroughly
stiffened with whalebone that it was virtually a solid object and not
just fabric.)
As to orchestration/performance practice, you have to understand that
in the early 17th century it was really never prescribed by the
composer or arranger, but was understood to be left to the discretion
of the choir or band leader to use whatever was available, and
combine them as he saw fit. Some places had a tradition of not
mixing voices and instruments (the Sistine Chapel, for one), while
other places mixed them all the time (St. Marc's in Venice). In fact
Praetorius himself, in explaining the new Venetian polychoral style
to the South German choir directors who were his main customers,
described how to divide your forces into two or more choirs, place
them around your church, and give each in turn a phrase of the piece,
finally bringing them together at the end of a section. And then in
one sentence he reveals how common it was, to him, to interchange
voices and instruments: "Make sure that at least one part in each
choir is sung, so that the words are not lost"!!!
To put this in perspective, remember that music was never written for
publication, but for immediate performance by ensembles well known to
the composers. The guys writing polychoral pieces for the big
festivities at St. Marc's in Venice, when they did publish those
works, look as if they are asking for specific orchestrations, but in
fact they were just indicating how THEY did the music with the forces
they had available. Once published, they would have expected anyone
else to orchestrate their music according to the forces HE had
available.
Note that in the "Volte du Tambour," in spite of the title no drum
part was notated. Arbeau had earlier described how it could be used
in a galliard. But using percussion in a sacred piece I would find
very questionable. I don't mind stretching performance practice, but
that's a little strange. On the other hand, pictures of 15th century
Burgundian dancers with their small dance bands never show the use of
drums, in the very situation where WE would assume they were
necessary and used.
John
--
John R. Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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