That's a terrific question for which there is no easy answer. Here's a few basic starting points: 1. It is different at different times--don't conflate the different genres 2. Inegal is the most misused and most misunderstood. Read the original sources, don't rely on secondary sources. At a minimum,Distinguish between coule & pointe, and distinguish rhythmic inegal from articulation inegal--this is where it always goes wrong. 3. Read up on the "gout" 4. Learn all the agreements. Most people know 2 or 3, some know half a dozen, few know them all. You need to know at least a dozen, to put an arbitrary number on it. 5. Learn the three parts of the trill--the starting note, the repetition, and the escape. Most people don't play their trills right, or play them "evenly". 6. Use the 2/3rds rule for grace notes and the first note of the trill as a starting point--the grace note is the long note, not the other way around 7. Distinguish between the weight of medial and final cadential trills and ornaments, the lighter ones are often at the end, not the other way around. 8. At a minimum, read Monteclair on the agreements, especially for the port de voix, the ornament which is most often performed backwards (enough here for a separate post) 9. Also read the following which describes the actual ornaments used in Rameau's time:
Author: MCGEGAN, Nicholas; SPAGNOLI, Gina Singing style at the Opera in the Rameau period. (Paris: Champion; Geneve: Slatkine, 1986) Music. In French. See RILM 1987-00887-bs. Collection: Jean-Philippe Rameau 10. You are right about the language, lots to investigate there. 11. Listen to a few recordings of unmeasured preludes for harpsichord, then arrange them for lute. A new take on stile brise. dt At 12:35 PM 6/19/2008, you wrote: >I'm wondering: what is it that makes up the "French style" of >Baroque music? I don't mean particularly stile brise, notes inegall >etc. Those are obvious, and to me insufficient explanations to >convey the French Baroque. It seems to me there's more to it than >that. Are there, for example, considerations in the French style >that have to do with the cadences and general kinds of rhythms of the >French language itself? What things does one need to understand / >appreciate in order to make effectively rhetorical music in the >French style? > >Anybody got any ideas on this? > >Best, > >David Rastall >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > >-- > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
