Getting a Handel on Baroque Performance Practice

What did music of earlier times sound like? Before Thomas Edison invented

the phonograph in 1877, it was not possible to preserve sonic history for the next

generation. In addition, modern instruments and contemporary editions of early

music often present many problems and anachronisms. Modern-day musicians who

seek to recreate the sounds of earlier times must seek out extant instruments and

period treatises in their quest for historically informed performance. Using George

Frederic Handels Suite for Trumpet, Strings, and Basso Continuo in D Major,

published in 1733, a variety of resources can be explored to find instruction on the

performance of early music.

A suite is a defined as a collection of dances, each with their own stylistic

characteristics. Handels Suite is comprised of an overture, gigue, minuet, bourre,

and marche. In order to perform these dances with the stylistic intentions of the

composers, primary resources, such as treatises published by Quantz, C.P.E. Bach,

Rousseau, and Tomlinson must be combed for detail. For example, Quantz instructs

that a gigue (the second movement of Handels suite) is to be played with a short

and light bow stroke. Tomlinsons essay on The Art of Dancing provides both

written instruction as well as diagrams to suggest that the minuet (the third

movement) is a dance in six, even though it is typically written in three. These

details are not provided with the piece, as music of this time period typically did not

include articulations or stylistic instructions, but this information is crucial to the

performance of early music. There are dozens more nuances (sound, tempo, spirit,
dynamics, articulation, rhythm, and ornamentation, etc) provided within the

treatises that give musicians light into the minds of the composers of early music.

Performance practice exists to seek out these hidden treasures of instruction.

It is all too common in the music profession that performers pick up a piece of music

written in the baroque or classical eras with little to no instruction on how to play

such music. This would be the equivalent of showing a chef a picture of a delicious

meal that he is to cook while concealing the recipe; he has all the necessary tools

(though even these are not always accurate, for many performers play baroque music

on a modern trumpet rather than the baroque trumpet) and has an image of what he

would like to produce, but with no pathway to achieving the desired result, leaving

room for error in his finished product. That being said, the chef will be able to

produce something, and the meal might be absolutely delicious! However, it might

not be exactly what the chef had originally intended. Similarly, an uninformed

modern-day performer can equally produce a beautiful piece of music, even though

it is not stylistically correct in the eyes and ears of those who have done research.

Performance practice exists to seek out these details in order to broaden the horizons

of modern-day performers in hopes that we may recreate early music in the manner

the composer intended on the day of its premiere.

Please note: this lecture would be accompanied by practical examples of

modern and baroque styles of trumpet playing, modeled by myself on both modern

and baroque instruments.

Brief Bibliography
J. S. Bach Clavier Bchlein (1720)
C.P.E. Bach Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (1762)
Franois Couperin Lart de toucher le clavecin (1716)
Mary Cyr Performing Baroque Music (1992)
Jacques-Martin Hottetterre Principes de la flte traversire, de la flte bec, et du
hautbois
Johann Mattheson Das neu-erffnete Orchestre (1713)
Leopold Mozart Versuch einer grndlichen Violinschule (1755)
Georg Muffat Florilegium secundum (1698)
Frederick Neumann Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music: With
Special
Emphasis on J.S. Bach (1983)
Johann Joachimm Quantz On Playing the Flute (1752)
Pierre Rameau Le matre danser (1748)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Dictionnaire de musique (1768)
Kellom Tomlinson The Art of Dancing (1735)