Early Music

VOL XXXl/2 MAY 2003

BOOK REVIEWS

FOUNDED BY J. M. THOMSON EDITOR TESS KNIGHTON

David Humphreys counterpoint Thomas McGeary century Howard Schott . Michael Fleming Graham Dixon

Interpreting Bach's 275 No apologies for the 18th 276 Una cosa rara 280 281 283 284 287 288 289
290

ACTING EDITOR: JOHN MILSOM

Michael F. Robinson

Clavicordio V The Italian viol lives Monteverdi at San Marco

JohnMilsom Editorial
SIGNS 8c SOUNDS

163

Jeremy Montagu BojanBujic' Jeremy Llewellyn

Cheshire fiddlers and pipers 285 Fauvel's performing turns Sweelinck studies Communicating the Bach

Music for the Duke of Urbino

Barry Cooper Beethoven's appoggiaturas: long or short?

ARS SUBTILIOR IN PERFORMANCE

165

Howard Schott Graham Dixon tradition

MUSIC REVIEWS

Anne Stone Self-reflexive songs and their readers in the late 14th century Donald Greig Ars Subtilior repertory as performance palimpsest
VIOLINISTS

180 196

Ian Spink

William Lawes vocal works Nancy Storace's arias Baroque chamber music Italian seasoning

293 297 298 301

Emma Kirkby Peter Holman Elizabeth Roche

Michaela Freemanovd and Eva Mikanova 'My honourable Lord and Father ...': 18th-century English musical life through Bohemian eyes Warwick Lister 'Suonatore del Principe': new light on Viotti's Turin years
PERFORMANCE CONTEXTS

RECORDING REVIEWS

210 232

Philip Weller Varieties of the seconda prattica 303 Fabrice Fitch Postscript 307 Lucy Robinson Alison Bullock
REPORTS

Knock'd on the head? Angelic voices?

308 309

H. Diack Johnstone
OBSERVATION

Handel at Oxford in 1733 248

Paul Comeilson Dinko Fabris

Mozart in Ithaca

312 314

Roger Bowers Five into four does go: the vocal scoring of Ockeghem's Missa L'homme armi 262
REVIEW ARTICLE

Festival Lodoviciano, Viadana

CORRESPONDENCE

Alejandro Enrique Planchart Masses

Early English
266

Beverly Jerold, Klaus Miehling Bute mechanical organ Eric Altschuler Bach's singers

Tempos on the 316 318

Cover. Johann Joseph Zofiany (1733-1810), Concert ofstrolling musicians ( 1993 Photo SCALA, Florence; Galleria Nazionale, Parma; courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Attivita Culturali)
Editors TessKnighton Editor JohnMilsom Acting editor David Roberts Assistant editor Fabrice Fitch Review editor, recordings Sally Ehinkley Text editor Helen Price Editorial assistant Consultant editors NealZaslaw USA Manuel Carlos de Brito Portugal Juan Jose Carreras Spain PetrDanek Czech Republic DinkoFabris Italy Clemens Goldberg Germany Nicoletta Guidobaldi France Andres Mustonen Estonia Teruhiko Nasu Japan Jan Nuchelmaro Netherlands CezaryZych Poland International editorial advisers Margaret Bent David Fallows Nicholas Kenyon Graham Sadler Howard Schott Editorial board Malcolm Bilson Bonnie Blackburn Kate Bolton Tim Carter Laurence Dreyfus Emma Kirkby Daniel Leech-Wilkinson Christopher Page Bruce Phillips Curtis Price Joshua Rifldn Advertising JaneBeeson Advertising manager Production Jeanne Fisher Music origination David Roberts Text origination 162 EARLY M U S I C MAY Editorial office 70 Baker Street, London wiu 7DN phone +44 (0)20 7616 5902 fax +44 (0)20 7616 5901 e-mail earfymusic@oupjournals.org Advertising office Jane Beeson, Rose Cottage, Brigg Road, South Kelsey, Market Rasen LN7 6PQ phone/fax +44 (0)1652 678230 e-mail em.adverts@btopenworid.com Subscriptions office Journals Marketing Department, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0x2 6DP phone +44 (0)1865 267907 /ax+44 (0)1865 267485 e-mail jnlorders@oup.co.uk Annual subscriptions UK and Europe Personal rate 47 Personal rate: ist-time subscribers 37 Student rate 29 Institutional rate 103 USA and rest of world Personal rate $88 Personal rate: ist-time subscribers $68 Student rate $48 Institutional rate $177 Please add sales tax to prices quoted. All enquiries about subscriptions and back issues should be made to the subscriptions office. Proposals for articles, which as a rule should not exceed 5,000 words, are always welcome. A recent issue of the journal should be consulted for style, bibliographic citation and general approach; detailed guidance may be obtained from the editorial office. 2003 Early music is published quarterly in February, May, August and November by Oxford University Press. Annual subscription price is US$177. Early music is distributed by Mercury International, 365 Blair Road, Avenel, NJ 07001, USA. Periodical postage in the US is paid at Rahway, NJ, and additional entry points. US Postmaster. Send address changes to Early Musk, c/o Mercury International, 365 Blair Road, Avenel, NJ 07001. Abstracted and indexed by America: History and Life British Humanities Index, ISL Arts & Humanities Index, Research Alert, Current Contents/Arts and Humanities, RUM Abstracts ofMusic Literature, The Music Index. Printed by Information Press, Eynshatn, Oxford O2003 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the Publishers, or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by the Copyright licensing Agency lid, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, wu> 9HE, or in the USA by the Copyright Clearance Center, 22 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923.
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Editorial
Conferences often focus on the life and work of a single composer, the recent Mozart symposium at Cornell University, on which we carry a report in this issue, is typical of them; but I have just come home from a conference that most unusually addressed two composers simultaneously. Called 'Beyond contemporary fame: reassessing the art of Clemens non Papa and Thomas Crecquillon', this event at Utrecht University gave us three days to ponder those two prolific but still underinvestigated composers of the mid16th century, whose motets and chansons loom so large in the publications of Tylman Susato and Pierre Phalese. Some speakers tackled biographical issues, others mused on sources, genres and instrumental adaptations. But I left the event wondering if we'd in fact largely missed our special chance of tackling one of the most germane of issues. Musically speaking, what if anything distinguishes between these two remarkably sound-alike composers? Ought we take more pains to leam how to tell composers apart? That issue came to a head at the Conference Concert, when the Hemony Ensemble sang us an hour's worth of pieces by Crecquillon and Clemens. Concerts of this kind are often revelatory, demonstrating in sound what the speakers have argued in words; and, having in my own paper suggested that analysis almost certainly can help us locate the distinctive fingerprints of each composer, I was keen to hear if the ear could be as sharp an arbiter as the eye. But alas, not at all (or at least, not mine); without the concert programme or prior familiarity with specific pieces, I'd have been hard pressed to say which man wrote which work. Perhaps the more music by Clemens and Crecquillon we actually hear, the easier it will be to them apart from the broad sweep of their sound. Meanwhile, attention does probably fall on the tiny brushstrokes of each man, to find out how they differ in technique. And as it happens, a strong demonstration of how that might be done was given on the last day of the conference, when Stephen Rice (who works mainly on Gombert) pinpointed clear differences in dissonance treatment between Gombert and Clemens, using a dazzling array of statistics to prove his point With results like this, it does seem possible that the business of fingerprinting the 'no-name' generation of Renaissance composers (to use Allan Atlas's provocatively disparaging term for it) could indeed be achieved, by those who have the skill, patience and time to work on it I mention the Crecquillon/Clemens dilemma partly because it is now a full year since this journal published its colloquy on the Gloria that has recently been attributed to Handel. In our May 2002 issue Anthony Hicks took Hans Joachim Marx to task for attaching Handel's name too readily to the piece, and reached his own somewhat more dispiriting view: that the piece's true composerprobably German, probably older than Handel, probably working around 1705was unlikely to come quickly to light, at least on the basis of present evidence. In the wake of that colloquy, we had hoped for a further rash of correspondence arguing both for and against Handel's authorship, based on reactions either to the music's broad sweep (the Gloria has been recorded several times) or to its tiny brushstrokes of technique (the score is in print). But no; all has gone quiet Evidently Handel and his contemporaries still confound us. What hope, then, for the speedy resolution of the Crecquillon/Clemens dilemma? Brushstrokes of a different land are the subject of the first article in the current issue. Barry Cooper looks closely at Beethoven's appoggiaturas, and he argues that we have been playing some of them incorrectly, for as far back in time as there are recordings to prove the point It will be interesting to see whether performers take heed of his startling conclusions, and adjust some of the most familiar works of Western music. Cooper's study is followed by our second instalment of Ars Subtilior articles; like those in the February issue, they have accompanying soundclips recorded for us by the Orlando Consort, available on the Early music website. We have also included relevant pages from contemporary manuscripts in these two articles and this time taken special care to ensure that the pictures appear on the correct pages. (Readers of die February issue will with luck quickly have spotted that the page of die Chantilly Codex reproduced on p.6 ought to have been the one shown on p.30, and vice versaand that our two Salerooms pictures on p.152 were again swapped by mistake. Sincere apologies for that) We should also like belatedly to acknowledge the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) for generously supplying us widi the magnificent images of the Chantilly Codex, not only in die February issue but also in the present one. This time our Chantilly pages have had to appear in monochrome. But we do include a full colour facsimile of Sumite karissimiby Antonio Zacara da Teramodie piece once described by Willi Apel as 'die acme of rhythmic intricacy in the entire EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 163

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> SIGNS & SOUNDS

Barry Cooper

Beethoven's appoggiaturas: long or short?

ERFORMERS frequently encounter the problem of how to interpret Beethoven's appoggiaturassingle notes of smaller size written immediately before a full-sized main note. Yet, when they turn to the literature on the subject, satisfactory explanations are not readily found. Eva BaduraSkoda, for example, has stated;

detailed discussion by William S. Newman, who raises the problem of how to distinguish long from short appoggiaturas, and adds:
Beethoven certainly gives no help in his notation, for he uses the eighth or sixteenth note quite indiscriminately, with or without a stroke across the stem, leaving editors even more nonplussed than with his dots and strokes for staccato ...3

... we cannot regard all problems involving appoggiaturas as solved. In Beethoven's early works we find short as well as long appoggiaturas notated with the same sign, just as in Mozart's works. It is sometimes difficult to choose the proper execution ..."

In a few modern editions of Beethoven's music, editorial suggestions are made for particular ornaments, but these suggestions show a lack of unanimity, and it is often far from clear whether there is any historical-theoretical basis for them. Meanwhile some editors comment on the ambiguity and inconsistency of Beethoven's own signs for appoggiaturas. B. A. Wallner's Henle edition of the piano sonatas one of the most widely used todayasserts that
Notes witn and without a stroke through the stem were employed haphazardly by Beethoven to indicate a short appoggiatura which, as such, is indicated only by a small note, the time value of which is not counted in the rhythm of the bar.1

This seems to contradict Badura-Skoda, for the implication here is that all Beethoven's small-note appoggiaturas should be played as very quick notes taking up almost no time-value, regardless of how they were notated: the inconsistency supposedly lies in the notation, not the execution. The claim that Beethoven's notation of these ornaments was haphazard and inconsistent is mentioned also in a more

It comes as something of a surprise, therefore, to discover that Beethoven's notation of his small-note appoggiaturas was actually not at all haphazard, but followed a logical, consistent system throughout his life. Moreover, once this system is understood, the traditional modern way of playing some of these ornaments is called into question, for the evidence suggests that certain appoggiaturas have been played incorrectly in most or all recordings of the last hundred years. The first misconception to be dismissed is the claim that Beethoven used both crossed and uncrossed quavers, i.e. quavers with or without a stroke through the stem. Examination of a large number of his surviving autographs, early and late, indicates that he probably never used a crossed quaver at all. And there is good reason why not In the late 18th century the crossed quaver had a very different meaning from now: it was simply an alternative way of writing a semiquaver. Where some scribes and engravers used a modern-style semiquaver with two parallel flags, others used a crossed quaver. Mozart, for example, habitually wrote his single semiquavers as crossed quavers, whether they were small-note ornaments or full-sized main notes. Haydn was more variable, sometimes making the

Barry Cooper is Professor ofMuskobgy at the University of Manchester. He was written or edited six books on Beethoven, the most recent being the biographical study Beethoven in the Master Musicians series (Oxford, 2000).
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 165

second flag cross the stem of the note, and other times making it nearly parallel to the first flag. Beethoven, in contrast, always wrote both smallnote and full-sized semiquavers with two roughly parallel flags. The crucial feature of semiquavers in notation of this period was that there should be two flags, and it was immaterial whether they were parallel or intersected. The principle applied equally to demisemiquavers: these could be written as doublecrossed quavers, or crossed semiquavers, or modern-style demisemiquavers, the essential point being that there were three strokes to the main stem. It was not until about the 1830s that crossed quavers became widely adopted as a means of indicating a short appoggiatura (one with virtually no timevalue), by which time the use of small notes fof long appoggiaturas was dying out/ Although Beethoven himself appears never to have used crossed quavers, they can be found in some manuscript copies and early editions of his music. Copyists and engravers who habitually used this form of notation would not have thought twice about changing a semiquaver to a crossed quaver, since it was widely known that both meant the same thing.5 The change could equally occur in reverse: when the publisher Simrock copied Nageli's original edition of Beethoven's piano sonatas op.31 (for which no autograph survives), he replaced Nageli's crossed-quaver ornaments with ordinary semiquaver ones. (It is possible that this change was instigated by Beethoven himself, but this seems unlikely.) Not surprisingly, copyists and engravers sometimes made errors over these small notessubstituting, for example, a crossed quaver for an uncrossed onebut such errors are infrequent. Some modern editors are aware of this situation already. Wallner states, 'In Beethoven's day, the short stroke through the stem of the note indicated, according to Viennese engraving practice, a shortening of the value of the note by one half.'6 In other words, a crossed quaver indicated a semiquaver. The natural logic of this conclusion is that, where the

autograph is missing, modern editors should restore Beethoven's presumed semiquaver ornaments wherever the surviving sources show a crossed quaver, as some editors have actually done.7 Once the crossed quavers are eliminated from the picture, one finds that Beethoven normally uses three types of single-note ornamentquaver, semiquaver and demisemiquaver (and very occasionally a crotchet). As early as 1753 C. P. E. Bach noted that many composers now used such differentiated notevalues to indicate the real length of the ornament, whereas earlier they had used only quavers.8 He provides several examples, with ornaments ranging from semibreve to hemidemisemiquaver, and in each case the ornament is to be held for its written length, while the main note shows the total duration of ornament plus main note. Bach's account is echoed by several later theorists, and provides a clue to interpreting Beethoven's appoggiaturas.

turas shows that they can be divided into three categories: those whose written values are less than half of the main notes they precede; those that are half of it (discounting any dot or tie after it); and those that are more than half. These will be referred to as short-note, normal and over-long appoggiaturas respectively, and their use is far from indiscriminate, since they occur in different contexts with a striking level of consistency. In the first category, the ornamental note is most often a quarter of the main note, e.g. a small semiquaver before a crotchet. Sometimes its relationship to the main note is shorter stillan eighth or even a 16th of it. Other proportions can be found too if dots and ties after the main note are included. Wherever the ornament is followed by an upward leap Beethoven almost invariably writes a short-note appoggiatura. Thus, in the third movement of the 'Pastoral' Symphony he consistently writes a semiquaver before a crotchet, every time the figure occurs (ex.1).9 The same applies in the third movement of

XAMINATION of Beethoven's own appoggia-

Ex.1 Beethoven, Symphony no.6 ("Pastoral"), iii, bars 1-8

1

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166 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

J71J

Ex.2 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.no, iii, bar 116

Ex.3 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.109, iii, bars 17-18

mi r
Ex.4 Beethoven, Romance (Hess 13), bars 2r-4 (compare illus.i)

the Seventh Symphony." In bar 116 of the finale of the Sonata op.110 the autograph score shows a demisemiquaver ornament before a dotted quaver tied to another quaver (ex.2), again giving a ratio of 1:4, or 1:6 if the dot is included, or 1:10 if the tied note is also included. A few bars later, a demisemiquaver precedes a dotted crotchet (a ratio of 1:8 or 1:12). And when Beethoven wrote out a second score of this movement, he used precisely the same ornaments." In the finale of the Sonata op.109 the ratio between small note and main note is even greater, with a demisemiquaver before a minim (ex.3), giving a ratio of 1:16. In each case there is great precision over the value of the ornament These sonatas illustrate Beethoven's notational practice in the 1820s, but what about in his early works? Few autograph scores of his major works composed before 1800 survive, but two sketch miscellanies, the 'Kafka' and the 'Fischhof, provide ample autograph material to study his notational habits." These show the same picture as the later autographs. Where there is an upward leap, the appoggiatura is always short, with ratios to the main note ranging from 1:4 (semiquaver-crotchet, e.g. 'Kafka' Miscellany, f.i46r, stave 1) to 1:16 (semiquaver-semibreve, e.g. 'Kafka' Miscellany, f.ioiv, stave 5). The principle applies as far back as Beethoven's

earliest manuscripts, such as the fragmentary concertante movement in E minor of c.1786 (Hess 13: 'Kafka* Miscellany, f.74v), where there are upwardleaping appoggiaturas in bars 3 and 4, both of them carefully written as demisemiquavers (illus.i, ex.4). The same principle also holds generally in printed sources where the autograph is missing, which proves that engravers tried to copy Beethoven's ornament note-values accurately (as is indicated also where the autograph and first edition survive). A particularly striking case occurs in the first movement of the Sonata op.2 no.2, where the middle voice of the polyphonic texture has to be written as ornaments to the top voice because the wide span required would otherwise make the music almost unplayable (ex.5). Since the top voice has quavers, the ornaments must be written as demisemiquavers to indicate that they are very short, and these demisemiquavers are dearly engraved in the original edition, even though demisemiquaver ornaments are not needed elsewhere in op.2. In all the above cases of upward-leaping appoggiaturas, the ornament is written as a shorter note than normal and should dearly be played very short Its written notevalue is presumably intended to show its actual duration, though in a few cases it might be played even shorter, as in op.2 no.2, where the ornament

1 Opening of Beethoven, Romance (Hess 13), in the 'Kafta' Miscellany (London, British library, Add. Ms.29801), P.74V. Compare ex.4. (by permission of the British Library) EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003 167

Ex.5 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.2 no.2, i, bars 181-3

should surely be as short as possible in order to preserve the part-writing. A similar time-relationship between ornament and main note also occurs where Beethoven wanted a snappy effect from the note below the main one. Again the value of the ornament is generally a quarter or eighth of the main note. A good example occurs in the coda of the first movement of the Sonata op.79 (ex.6),'3 where semiquaver appoggiaturas give extra bite to the first four notes of the main theme. Performing these as long appoggiaturas would surely sound absurd. Short-note ornaments are also used in similar contexts among Beethoven's earliest manuscripts, appearing, for example, on the first note of Hess 13, where again a semiquaver ornament appears a semitone below a crotchet main note. The care and precision with which such ornaments were notated is well illustrated by a two-note slide in bar 4 of op.110 (ex.7). This appears with four beams in the autograph, but in the manuscript copy corrected by Beethoven the fourth beam has been carefully erased, presumably by him, to indicate he wanted a measured slide instead of a rapid one. Ex.6 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.79, i. bars 184-5

HORT-NOTE appoggiaturas are relatively unusual in Beethoven's music, and are largely confined to the two contexts indicated. His most usual sort of appoggiatura, and also the sort most often shown in theoretical treatises of the period, has the ornament written as half the value of the main note. In such cases the ornament is normally one note above (occasionally one note below) the main note. Since Beethoven was very capable of indicating a short appoggiatura where he wanted one, by using a 1:4 or 1:8 ratio, his use of a 1:2 ratio implies he wanted something different, in other words a long appoggiatura, lasting half the value of the main note. This is in line with what theorists of the day indicated:

The theory, promulgated by Tartini, Quantz, Leopold Mozart, C. P. E. Bach, and others in the mid-eighteenth century, that an appoggiatura should normally take half of a binary main note and two-thirds of a ternary main note, was widely repeated by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors. Some ... however, taught that before a ternary note the appoggiatura should only take a third of its value.14

Ex.7 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.110, i, bar 4

Ex.8 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.10 no.3, i, bars 53-5

Wherever Beethoven uses the 1:2 ratio, one would expect the ornament to take its written value and the main note to take what is leftin this case half of its normal value. There is plenty of other evidence to support this interpretation, even though many such ornaments in Beethoven's music are customarily played much shorter today. In op.10 no.3 there appears a quaver appoggiatura to a main-note crotchet (ex.8); Czerny, who apparently studied the sonata with him, later stated: "The little note is a long appogiatura [sic] and must therefore be played as a quaver.'" This is a specific assertion that Beethoven's small notes are not always to be played very short, for there are circumstances where they are normal appoggiaturas. And the implication is that the same rule would apply in similar contexts. This combination of quaver appoggiatura and crotchet main note also occurs in the third movement of his F minor Sonata, op.2 no.i. Here it is immediately followed by the same motif with written-out pairs of quavers (ex.9). Donald Tovey asserts that "The grace-notes are proved to be short by the fact that they are contrasted with full-sized quavers',16 but this reasoning is far from watertight, and the argument can easily be reversed: Beethoven intended the same effect both times, but notated

168

EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2 0 0 3

Ex.9 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.2 no.i, iii, bars 19-25

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Ex.10 Beethoven, 'Feuerfarb', bars 3-5 (compare illus.2)

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piano right hand

them differently to emphasize that in the first case the auxiliary note is decorative, whereas in the second it is motivic, forming part of a motif that is promptly developed in the ensuing bars. Had Beethoven wanted a short appoggiatura, he would surely have written a semiquaver ornament, as he so often did with rising appoggiaturas. (No autograph survives for either op.2 or op.10, but usually Beethoven's printed sources follow the same pattern as his autographs; hence these two cases of quaver appoggiaturas are surely authentic.) Beethoven's assumption that 'normal' (1:2) appoggiaturas should be played long is also evident in certain vocal works. For some reason, appog-

gjaturas were more often written as small notes for voices than for instruments, and so the voice is occasionally given an ornament while a doubling instrument has the note written out at full size. A good example occurs in the later autograph of Beethoven's song 'Feuerfarb' of c.1794 ('Kafka' Miscellany, f.i2ov). Here a small semiquaver appoggiatura to a main quaver appears in the voice, doubled by two semiquavers in the piano (illus.2, ex.10). Four bars later a similar relationship occurs, with a quaver appoggiatura to a crotchet in the voice, and two full-sized quavers in the piano. At other times in the song the piano part, too, has the appoggiatura written as an ornamentwhich suggests that

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2 Opening of Beethoven, 'Feuerfarb', in the 'Kafka' Miscellany (London, British Library, Add. Ms.29801), f.i2ov. Compare ex.10. (by permission of the British Library) EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003 169

Ex.11 Beethoven, Overture Leonore no.3, bars 468-72

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pianists, like singers, fully understood this notation. The meaning of such appoggiaturas in Beethoven's notation did not change in later years. As late as 1819, in the folksong setting "The Miller of Dee', the voices have an ornament quaver to a main crotchet, while the piano doubles in octaves with the two notes written out as quavers.17 A similar situation occurs in a few of Beethoven's other folksong settings. He must have assumed that everyone would be familiar with the convention that 1:2 appoggiaturas should be performed as two equal notes. Another interesting example that indicates how Beethoven expected 'normal' appoggiaturas to be played occurs in his overture Leonore no.3. I Q bar 10 of the overture, and also in Florestan's aria in the opera, a semiquaver ornament appears before a dotted quaver. It should therefore occupy one-third of the total time-value (or possibly even two-thirds, though this seems less likely). When this same theme appears later in the overture, the tempo is much faster, and so the note-values are four times as long. Since Beethoven after about 1800 never used smallnote appoggiaturas for such long note-values, the ornament is written out as a full crotchetexactly the right length for a normal appoggiatura (bars 468-72: ex.11). The semiquaver ornament in Florestan's aria, and in the orchestral introduction to it, as well as in the same theme in all three Leonore overtures, must therefore represent a real semiquaver. Indeed, it is usually performed as such in modern recordings. There are also some cases where the notation is changed from ornamental to written-out form between sketch and final version, even though the sound intended is apparently a long appoggiatura in both cases. One example occurs in the main theme of the finale of Beethoven's 'First' Piano Concerto in C. In the sketches the first chord of bar 1 is written as a semiquaver ornament to a quaver main note, implying two equal semiquavers in performance (ex.12).18 Ornamental chords, however, look confusing, for small-note notation was almost invariably confined to single pitches. Presumably for this rea170 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

son, in the final version the theme was renotated with two ordinary semiquavers. Later on in the movement, where the ornament is a single pitch, it is still sometimes notated as a small note (notably bars 276-89), but the same effect as before was surely intendedthere would have been no difference in the notation in the sketches. Nevertheless, in this particular movement the main note is marked staccato, and so the ornament should probably be played somewhat shorter than usualgiving two slightly rushed semiquaversto allow time for the staccato effect to be heard. This recommendation is supported also by Czerny.19 If Beethoven had wanted these and'similar ornaments to sound as very quick notes, why did he not write them with more flags, as he did consistently with upward-leaping appoggiaturas? In the first movement of the Seventh Symphony a small-note rising ornament precedes a crotchet or dotted quaver over a hundred times, and on every one he laboriously drew three flags. Why did he bother, when the interpretation as a short ornament was fairly obvious? It was because he wanted to make his intentions unambiguous. His care and attention to detail in these ornaments make it almost inconceivable that he would want similar short ornaments for falling appoggiaturas, yet consistently fail to indicate them in the notation when he had a simple means of doing so. Thus the arguments for playing all his 1:2 appoggiaturas as pairs of roughly equal notes, with the ornament taking its actual written value, seem unanswerable. One possible objection to this conclusion comes in the writings of certain theorists. Notable among these is Daniel Gottlob Turk, who in his Klavierschule identified a number of contexts in which he believed a very short appoggiatura should be Ex.12 Beethoven, sketch for Piano Concerto, op.15
A

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played.20 Many of these are where Beethoven customarily wrote a short small note, but some are n o t Of particular concern is Turk's suggestion that a very short appoggiatura should be played 'before a note (particularly a short one) after which several of like duration follow one another', as in ex.13.11 There are two reasons, however, for believing that this advice may not apply to Beethoven. One is that Turk was working in Halle, a great distance from Vienna, where conventions may have been different. More significantly, in his illustration he notates the ornaments as demisemiquavers to main-note quavers, a proportion of 1:4, which directly suggests a quick grace-note, whereas Beethoven in similar contexts uses a semiquaver, suggesting a long one. So Turk is actually confirming implicitly that the written length of the ornament is an indication of its approximate duration in performance. (Indeed, he regularly adds extra flags to indicate very quick ornaments, just like Beethoven.) A striking example of Beethoven using a semiquaver before a group of quavers occurs in the second movement of the 'Pastoral' Symphony, where the figure shown in ex.14 appears repeatedly, always with the small note written as a semiquaver. Had he wanted a quick appoggiatura, he needed only to draw another flag or two to the ornament each time, as in op.2 no.2, to avoid possible ambiguity. But he did not Every time the figure appears, the ornament is a semiquaver. He must therefore have intended and expected performers to play a full semiquaver, as in the very similar context in 'Feuerfarb' (ex.10 above), where his indications are explicit in the piano part Then why is this ornament in the 'Pastoral' Symphony never played as a long appoggiatura in modern performances and recordings? One reason is that performing traditions can change over a Ex.13 Turk, Klavierschule (1789), p.220

long period, even when they seem continuous. This has become obvious over the last few decades, for recordings from the early 20th century reveal a very different general performing style from recent ones, and one can perceive gradual changes in playing and singing styles during that period. The present-day performance of Beethoven's ornaments is by no means certain to be the same as it was in his day, even though the works themselves have never dropped out of the repertory. Another factor is the assertion of modern writers on the subject that Beethoven's appoggiaturas are to be played short Sandra Rosenblum, for example, maintains that Beethoven used small notes 'primarily to indicate short appoggiaturas';" but she gives no theoretical or historical justification for this viewpoint, and does not address the question of the variable written note-lengths. A third factor in the present case is that Beethoven's notation has been changed from a semiquaver to a crossed-quaver ornament in several widely used editions,13 and the modern understanding of such an ornament is a very short note of virtually no time-value. Present-day performers using these scores will automatically assume that this was Beethoven's intention. Once this interpretation has become embedded in the collective consciousness, it is likely to be reproduced every time the work is played. Sometimes, of course, the tempo of the music is so fast that it makes little difference whether the ornament is played long or short, and, indeed, whether it is played on the beat (as almost all theorists indicate) or fractionally before. The finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony provides a well-known example (ex.15). Even if long appoggiaturas are played, as the semiquaver ornaments imply, their actual duration is less than a tenth of a second (using Beethoven's Ex.14 Beethoven, Symphony no.6 ('Pastoral'), ii, bars 13-14

V
Ex.15 Beethoven, Symphony no.5, iv, bars 10-12

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EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 173

prescribed speed of J = 84), and is made shorter still by the staccato on the main note. In practice it would therefore be hard to hear whether each ornament was being played short or long, and whether on or just before the beat. Very occasionally Beethoven did use short-note appoggiaturas on falling figures, where the situation was in some way exceptional. A good example occurs in the 'Kafka' Miscellany, f.sov (ex.16), where there are two such appoggiaturas in quick succession. In the first, it makes good sense not to have two equal-sounding notes; had Beethoven wanted that, he would probably have written two full-sized crotchets. The next appoggiatura is a semiquaver to a crotchet main note, which again is unusual but is presumably designed to match the ornament in the following bar. Similar cases can be found in Mozart, such as the opening theme of his String Quartet K575 (ex.17). Here again there are long main notes that require relatively short ornaments; long appoggiaturas would sound (and look) somewhat bizarre. Exceptions prove the rule, and these exceptions prove the rule that Beethoven (and Mozart) usually wanted a long appoggiatura on a falling figure, and used the 1:2 notation to indicate this. Exceptional circumstances required, and were given, exceptional notation. ^ into the third category of Beethoven's JL appoggiaturas are the over-long ones. Sometimes a small-note quaver is used before a main-note quaver, semiquaver or demisemiquaver, giving note-value relationships of 1:1, 2:1 or 4:1. Similarly, a small-note semiquaver might appear before a fullsized one. If normal (1:2) appoggiaturas take half the value of the main note, it seems hardly likely that over-long ones should take any less time, especially

as there was already adequate notation available for such an effect. Yet the ornaments cannot be played to their full written value, since that would leave no time (or less than no time) for the main note. So it is likely that over-long appoggiaturas also, like normal ones, indicated an ornament occupying half the main note. This suggestion is supported by the fact that both sorts occur in similar contexts and even in the same context. There are three reasons why Beethoven might in certain places have used an over-long appoggiatura instead of a normal one. First, it was a means of emphasizing, even overemphasizing, that the ornament should be played long. Second, semiquaver or demisemiquaver ornaments might conceivably be misinterpreted by some performers as very short appoggiaturas with almost no time-value, since this is what they represented in contexts such as that of op.2 no.2 (ex.5 above). And third, there was no real necessity to draw two, three or four flags on the ornament when a single one would suffice to show it was long. The shorter the main note, the more likely Beethoven seems to have been to write an over-long appoggiatura, so as to avoid drawing large numbers of flags. Demisemiquaver main notes were always, or almost always, ornamented by a quaver (e.g. Sonata op.26, 1st movement, bar 4; Fifth Symphony, 2nd movement, bar 106). Where the main note is a semiquaver, the auxiliary note is usually a quaver, but occasionally a semiquaver. Where the main note is a quaver, the auxiliary may be either a semiquaver or a quaver. It is these contexts that gave rise to the above-mentioned allegations of inconsistency in Beethoven's notation. There is, however, no real inconsistency: whether he wrote a quaver or semiquaver ornament in such contexts made no practical difference, since both apparently indicated the same.

Ex.16 Beethoven, 'Kaflca' Miscellany, f.s

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174 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

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Ex.17 Mozart, String Quartet K575, i, bars 1-5

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This is confirmed by the fact that the same passage may be notated in different ways in consecutive appearances. A particularly striking case occurs in the slow movement of the Violin Sonata op.30 no.3. Here the main theme contains a semiquaver appoggiatura to a quaver in bar 5 (ex.18). The theme returns eight times in the course of the movement, and in every case except one the semiquaver is replaced by a quaver, although the context is identical. In the sketches the figure is sometimes written with a quaver ornament, but more often it is actually written out with four full-sized semiquavers.24 Clearly the same execution was intended every time. Another piece of evidence comes from Beethoven's copyists. In the slow movement of the Fifth Symphony, bars 55, 57 and 59, and again in the slow movement of the 'Pastoral' Symphony, bars 28 and 100, Beethoven as usual wrote a quaver ornament before a run of semiquavers. When the first copies were prepared, his copyists changed all these ornaments to semiquavers.25 Beethoven then looked through these copies, making numerous corrections, but left these ornaments unchanged. This was because he obviously knew that they could be notated either way and that both ways meant the same thing. Sometimes, however, when Beethoven's smallnote ornaments were changed during preparation of copies, it did affect the implied sound. One example has been given already (the use of crossed quavers in some editions of the 'Pastoral' Symphony). There are other noteworthy cases. In the above-mentioned Violin Sonata, Beethoven repeatedly used a smallnote quaver not only in the main theme but also in a motif in a subsidiary theme (ex.19). In the Beethoven collected edition published in the 1860s, however, whereas the small notes in the main theme were Ex.18 Beethoven, Violin Sonata, op.30 no.3, "> bars 4-6

printed as semiquavers, those in the subsidiary theme were altered to crossed quavers.26 Assuming that this edition has formed the basis for several later editions used by performers, one is hardly surprised that nearly all modern performers play a very short ornament here, whereas Beethoven clearly intended a long one, i.e. a full semiquaver, as in the similar figure in Leonore. The same figure also appears, in doubled note-values, in the String Quartet op.18 no.6, in bar 47 of the first movement (ex.20). This is how the figure appeared when the music was first printed. Although the autograph score is lost, the printed version matches what one would expect Beethoven to have written in this context The printed page in question, however, was rather untidily engraved in general, with some overlap between consecutive lines. It was therefore re-engraved shortly afterwards. At this stage the quaver ornaments were changed to crossed quavers, either through careless observation by the engraver, or through a misguided attempt to make the page look neater by printing all small-note ornaments the same. (There are crossed quavers, representing Beethoven's presumed original semiquavers, in bar 1.)27 Unfortunately it was this later state of the first edition that formed the basis for modern editions. Consequently, most performers, if not all, play very short ornaments here, instead of the long ones that were evidently intended. *~T* HUS there seems to be no sound basis for the J. received wisdom that Beethoven normally intended his small-note appoggjaturas to be played as very short notes. Rosenblum's argument that his frequent use of full-sized appoggiaturas implies that any written as small notes must denote short ones is fallacious, as shown above. Nevertheless, it does raise the question of why Beethoven used small notes Ex.19 Beethoven, Violin Sonata, op.30 no.3, "> bars 22-4

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Ex.20 Beethoven, String Quartet, op.18 no.6, i, bars 45-8

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PHILIPPUS DE MONTE
AND THE HABSBURG COURTS
23-31 August 2003 Artists in residence: Rinaldo Alessandrini & Concerto ttafiano Interview, workshops & master classes Rmaido Alessandrini, Dirk Snellmgs, Wim Becu, Ludy VrijtJas, Stratton Bull, Renee Kartodirdjo, (Sophie Watillon & Alison Crum) Concerts Concerto Itaiiano, 6 a Ilia rd Consort, Ottremontano, Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam, Caprlla Ramenca, Doron David Sherwin, Jan Van Outryve, Kns Verhelst. Ensemble Romanesque, A Sei Voci. Maitrise des Pays de la Loire, Bllndman Kwartet, Marnix De Cat. Egidius Kwartet, Maria Luz Alvarez, Capella Currende, Currende Consort, Mez*a Luna, La Venexiana, The Seven Saints, Fala Musica, Huelgas Ensemble, Uber unUsualis, Weser Renaissance, Camus Colin Introductions to the evening concerts & Round-table conferences International Young Artist's Presentation-Historical Wind lastrunwHls Coach: Barthold Kuijktn Colloquium of the Alamire Foundation Summer course "Circles"

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instead of full-sized ones in the places where he did. Three reasons can be adduced- First, it was a commonly used and widely understood (if occasionally misunderstood) means of notation in certain contexts. Second, the ornament conveys more than a full-sized note would, for it indicates something of the expression of the note, with extra emphasis followed by a quieter main note. (At least, this is the case with falling figures; there is more disagreement among theorists concerning rising figures.) The small note signals to the player that it is not part of the main melodic line or harmonic scheme, and it is usually a dissonance. In ex.18 above, for instance, Beethoven tried both means of notation in his sketches, but in the end opted for a small note (quaver or semiquaver) in the autograph score, as it better conveyed his expressive intentions. The third reason why a small note was used was that in many contexts the figure as a whole is easier to read in this form. Figures such as those in ex.21 are slightly confusing at a glance, and liable to be miscopied, whereas if written as a small-note ornament followed by a group of four demisemiquavers or a dotted quaver and semiquaver they give a much dearer impression of the overall rhythm. However much Beethoven used full-sized appoggiaturas elsewhere, he never does so in these contexts; indeed, the two rhythmic patterns shown in ex.21 are extremely difficult to find anywhere in his music. Beethoven's use of small-note appoggiaturas is therefore entirely logical, and follows a dear pattern that did not change significantly throughout his life (except for the disappearance of small-note crotchets after about 1800). Since he never used a crossed quaver, modern editions of his music should not do so either, and should substitute semiquavers for any found in early sources. If he wanted a quick appoggiatura, he seems invariably to have used a short note-value in relation to the main note (1:4 or more). Nearly all such appoggiaturas occur on rising figuresmost often with leaps. If he wanted a long appoggiaturausually on a falling figurethere
Ex.21 Written-out versions of typical ornamental figures

were two possibilities: either a 1:2 relationship, as illustrated in many theory books of the time, or a quaver if the main note was short, to prevent the ornament being misunderstood as a very quick one. Except in the case of these over-long appoggiaturas, the written value of the small note indicated its actual durationa practice also adopted in general by many others, including Mozart, Turk and Clementi. Where the main note is quick, however, no matter what its written value, the difference between a very quick ornament and one that occupies half the main note is infinitesimal. Most significant for modern performers are places where the main note is relatively slow and the appoggiatura is notated as half or more of the main note. Here Beethoven intended and expected the appoggiatura to occupy half the time of the main note (exduding dots and ties), as is confirmed by Czerny's advice on op.io no.3 and by several songs or folksong settings both early and late, as well as by other evidence. This makes a considerable difference to passages such as exx.14 and 20 above, and also in places such as the slow movement of the Sonata op.2 no.i (ex.22), where the small note should be played as a full semiquaver (accented) at the start of beat 2, not as part of the turn figure at the end of beat 1, nor as a modern crossed quaver, nor as an unaccented (but on-the-beat) demisemiquaver, as recommended severally in three different editions from the 20th century.28 Nothing has been found in sources of other music from the period, during this study, to undermine the above conclusions or suggest that Beethoven's notation was abnormal. Nevertheless, we should be cautious. Even if it can be proved logically that his normal and over-long appoggiaturas must be played long, we can never be absolutely certain of his intentions. Musical notation is not always logical, and he made no explidt statement on the matter. Nor is there any certainty that these appoggiaturas were always played the same way at the time. Even if they were, modern performers would not be obliged to
Ex.22 Beethoven, Piano Sonata, op.2 no.i, ii, bars 1-2

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play long appoggiaturas, and many may continue to play them very short, as they always have done, even if they become aware of contrary evidence. Tradition dies hard. Nevertheless, those performers who aim to come as close as possible to Beethoven's intentions will be well advised to experiment with long appoggiaturas wherever he used normal-length or

over-long small notes, since there is little doubt that this is what he intended with this notation. It may feel strange or 'unmusical' at first, but, as with many performance practices of the 18th century and earlier, the original sounds need to be rediscovered afresh, and the weight of anachronistic 20th-century traditions laid aside.

1 E. Badura-Skoda, 'Performance conventions in Beethoven's early works', Beethoven, performers, and critics: the International Beethoven Congress Detroit, 1977, ed. R. Winter and B. Carr (Detroit, 1980), p.64. 2 Beethoven: Klaviersonaten, ed. B. A. Wallner (Munich, 2/1967 [date of preface]), p.5. 3 W. S. Newman, Beethoven on Beethoven: playing his piano music his way (New York, 1988), p.224. 4 See C. Brown, Classical and Romantic perform ing practice, 1750-1900 (Oxford, 1999), pp.462-3. 5 See, for example, J. Del Mar, Beethoven Symphony no.7 in A major op.92: critical commentary (Kassel, 2000), p.51, where several sources, including the autograph, use semiquaver ornaments in bars 1-2 of the third movement, while in several others these are 'reduced' (Del Mar's term) to crossed quavers. 6 Beethoven: Klaviersonaten, ed. Wallner, p.5. 7 A notable example is P. Hauschild in his edition of Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonaten ftir Klavier (Vienna, 1997-). 8 C. P. E. Bach, Essay on the true art ofplaying keyboard instruments, trans, and ed. W. J. Mitchell (London, 1951), p.87. 9 See Beethoven Symphony no.6 in F major 'Pastorale' op.68, ed. J. Del Mar (Kassel, 1998), p.57. 10 See Beethoven Symphony no.7 in A major op.92, ed. J. Del Mar (Kassel, 2000), p.55, and Del Mar, Critical commentary, p.51.

11 The autograph score is in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung, Artaria 196. The fair copy is in Bonn, Beethoven-Archiv, SBH 564. 12 The 'Kafka' is in London, British Library, Add. Ms.29801; facsimile and transcription in Ludwig van Beethoven: autograph miscellany from circa 1786 to 1799, ed. J. Kerman (London, 1970). The 'Fischhof is in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung; most of this is transcribed in D. Johnson, Beethoven's early sketches in the 'Fischhof Miscellany: Berlin Autograph 28 (Ann Arbor, 1980), ii. 13 Autograph in Bonn, BeethovenArchiv, SBH 556. 14 Brown, Classical and Romantic performing practice, p.464. 15 C. Czerny, On the proper performance of all Beethoven's works for the piano, ed. P. Badura-Skoda (Vienna, 1970), p.32/42. 16 Beethoven: Sonatas for pianoforte, ed. H. Craxton and D. F. Tovey, 3 vols. (London, 1931), i, p.12. 17 Autograph in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung, Beethoven aut. 29.11.1. 18 See Johnson, Beethoven's early sketches, ii, p.66. 19 Czemy, On the proper performance, P95/1O520 Daniel Gottlob Turk, Klavierschule (Leipzig, 1789), trans. R. H. Haggh as School of clavier playing (Lincoln, NE, 1982).

21 Turk, Klavierschule, in, 21 (p.2ao). See Brown, Classical and Romantic performing practice, pp.460-62. 22 S. P. Rosenblum, Performance practices in Classical piano music (Bloomington, 1988), p. 226. 23 For an indication of the main editions that have made this change, see J. Del Mar, Beethoven Symphony no.6 in F major op.68: critical commentary (Kassel, 1998), p.36. 24 See Ludwig van Beethoven: Kesslersches Skizzenbuch, ed. S. Brandenburg (Bonn, 1976-8),ff.72-75.Beethoven's written-out version in the sketches directly contradicts Turk's recommendation for such figures (Klavierschule, p.225), thus confirming that their views were not identicaL 25 See J. Del Mar, Beethoven Symphony no.s in C minor op.67: critical commentary (Kassel, 1999), p.48, and Symphony no.6: critical commentary, p.36. 26 Ludwig van Beethoven's Werke: Vollstiindige kritisch durchgesehene Uberall berechtigte Ausgabe (Leipzig, 1862-5), Series 12/8, pp.9-13. Also, the curious staccato on the dot was normalized. 27 Thefirst-violinpart of both versions is reproduced in S. Brandenburg, 'Beethovens Streichquartette op.i8\ Beethoven und Bdhmen, ed. S. Brandenburg and M. Gutirrez-Denhoff (Bonn, 1988), pp.294-5. 28 The three editions are respectively, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonaten: Sonates: Sonatas, ed. A. Weinberger (London, 1908); 32 Senate per pianoforte, ed. A. Schnabel (Milan, 1949); Sonatas for pianoforte, ed. Craxton and Tovey.

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VANCOUVER EARLY MUSIC PROGRAMME & FESTIVAL

an acclaimed series of summer courses (& concerts jointly sponsored by Early MUSK Vancouver and the School of Music, University ofBritish Columbia July 27-August 8 Mediaeval Programme a two-^xteek advanced-level course for singerstfinSrumentaJisTs "Heirs of the Troubadours: Courtly Love in the 14th Century'" FACULTY Eric M e n t z e l course diretlor & voice Crawford Young lute & instrumental ensembles Baroque Vocal Programme .ii umed- level coursefor singers August 10 - August 22

"The Theatre of Musiclc Seventeenth Century Music for the Stage" F A C U L T Y Ellen Hargis voice Ray N u r s e course director, voice, lute, performance Steven Adby gei7ure, dance &ilage movement M a r g r e t G r i e s harpsichord, coach-accompaniii Doreen O k e harpsichord, coach-accompaniB Baroque Instrumental Programme a two-ioeeJt advanced-level coursefor milmmentaJisls "Les Gouts Reunis: Music from the Late Baroque" FACULTY Jacques O g g course direffor, harpsichord Marc Destrube violin, Viola de Hoog violoncello Frank de Bniine oboe, Wilbert Hazelzet/Wc 1 ,ute \\'orkshop Music Directors: Stephen Stubbs & Paul O'Dette Stage Directors: Roger Hyams & Eleanora Fuser Costume & Set Designer: Robin Linklater cast includes Suzie LeBlanc (Poppea), Laura Pudwell (Nerone), Ellen Hargis, Matthew White, Harry van der Kamp, Colin Balzer, Tyler Duncan, Tyrsa Gawrachynsky, Marc Molomot, Nell Snaidas, Vicki St. Pierre, Catherine Webster & others instrumental ensemble includes Tragicomedia, La Cetra, & members of Concerto Palatino Early Music Workshop 7rishopj'ot nsirumento/iffs of various levels August 3 - August 8 praSite

CLAfDIO MONTEVERDI

The Coronation of Popper

EARLY BAROQUE OPERA IN A FULLY STAGED PRODUCTION -

Lsfugust j , 7 & 8, 2003 Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

The Vancouver Early Opera Trojeft: Ray Nurse, AniiTic Director; Jose Verstappen, Production Director

the one-voeet Lute Society ofAmerica't Summer Workshop West, boiled by the Vancouxvr Early Music Programme & FeSHval FACULTY Robert Barto,Jacob Heringman, Ronn McFarlane, Pat O'Brien, with Grant Tomlinson associate faculty and with the participation of Rxy Nurse, Paul O'Dette, Stephen Stubbs & Crawford Young

F A C U L T Y Deborah Jackson workshop dire8or Sonja Boon, Karen Epp, Liz Hamel, Alison Melville, Peggy Monroe, Herbert Myers, Jonathan Quick, Norah Rendcll, Valerie Weeks, Nathan Wilkes July 27 - August 17 Vancouver EarlvMusic Festival an outstanding series of summer concerts featuringfaculty members &gueff artiils, including an appearance of the Ensemble CUment Janetfuin of France. Festival Vancouver August 3 - August 15

For more details dr ticket

information, a superb series of performances, including Early Music Vancouver's fidry-Haged produBion ofMonteverdi's open "The Coronation of Poppea" on AuguB 5.7 & 8.
preliminary ichedule, tubjefi to dnngct

or to request a copy of the Festival Vancouver brochure:

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EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2OO3 I 7 9

B a d e Cordicr, Toutpar compac (Chantilly, BiblioWque de M & Condt, his.564 fen) (digital image taken by the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music)
MAY

180

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* ARS SUBTILIOR IN PERFORMANCE >

Anne Stone

Self-reflexive songs and their readers in the late 14th century

Soundclips to accompany this article may be found at the Early music website: http://www.em.oupjournals.org NE of the most active areas of medieval scholarship in recent years has been the exploration of the first-person voice in vernacular poetic texts: the identity of the poetic persona elaborated therein, the ways in which that persona is communicated, and the degree to which that persona corresponds to the work's 'real' author.1 A question that is often asked is what happens to the first person poetic voice when poetry is transmitted in writing rather than orally.2 Although transmission was predominantly oral at the beginnings of the troubadour lyric tradition, by the 13th century manuscript collections of vernacular lyrics had begun to appear, some with musical settings. In the 14th century, writing was integral to making poetry, both narrative and lyric, and both with and without musical accompaniment The new centrality of writing in life was echoed by a new attention to writing in art Guillaume de Machaut's careful attention to the manuscript preservation of his works, and his attendant creation within those works of a protagonist identified as a writer, is one well-studied example of the effect of written transmission on the poetic imagination.3 When a lyric poem is transmitted in writing, rather than through performance, it changes the audience's perception of who the poetic speaker is. Without writing, songs are immediate in a way that conjures what might be called 'autobioloquacy' the speaking of one's life story, as opposed to its

writing (autobiography). In what I imagine to be the normative oral transmission of a song, a singer sings a poetic text in the first-person voice, and the audience is inclined to attribute to the singer the feelings communicated by the poem, thereby conflating the flesh-and-blood singer and the abstract poetic speaker into a single persona: someone who is lovesick, happy or moralizing, according to the text's subject, and who has taken to song to express his or her feelings. This conflation relies on the orality of the song, and lingers even after that orality is challenged by writing; even when the singer is performing from written music (suggesting that the real author is someone else, or at least detracting from the illusion of immediacy that a performance creates), or when the listening audience has access to a written version of the song, the fiction of orality is integral to the audience's perception of the song. But when the audience reads a poem or song rather than hearing it, its perception of author and poetic speaker changes significantly. The poetic speaker is no longer embodied in the performer, and so becomes abstract, residing in the imagination of the audience (who are now readers). The reader of the song does not hear the song performed, but takes in the written text (and music) by performing it himself aloud or silently. The author of the text and music often takes advantage of the written status of the work by including aspects of poetic expression

Anne Stone, Assistant Professor at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, specializes in the music of14th- and 15th-century Italy and France. She is the author of forthcoming studies of two Ars Subtilior manuscripts that will accompany colour facsimiles, Modena, Biblioteca Estensa oc.M.5.24 (Libreria Italiana Muskale) and, with Yolanda Plumley, Chantilly, Musie Condi 564 (Minerve).
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 l8l

Diagram 1 Schema of author-reader-performer-listener relationship in a song implied author [composer and/or poet]

poetic speaker

-*- narratee/inscribed reader implied reader

A'
YA
performer-

within text

reader

v listener

that are only perceptible to a reader. A common example of this tendency in literature is the anagram, which becomes popular in French poetry of the 13th and 14th centuries.4 It is common in both oral and literate traditions for lyrics to encourage the conflation between singer and poetic speaker by self-reflexively referring to the act of singing (or composing) within the text There are numerous examples of this among medieval songs, from Bernard de Ventadorn's Non es meravelha ('It is no wonder that I sing better than any other singer') to Machaut's Pour ce que tous mes chansfais ('Because I make all my songs of sorrowful sentiment'). This kind of self-reflexive poetic opening is, of course, not unique to the Middle Ages; it is present in the entire history of the lyric. (For a modern example, just think of Carly Simon's 'You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you'.) But it presents something of a paradox to read one of these self-reflexive openings, rather than hearing it. To open a book and find a lyric that begins 'Chanterai pour mon courage' ('I will sing to keep up my courage') tempts one to reply. 'You're not singing, you're writingand who are you, anyway?'5 The verbal gesture of such an opening reminds us that the text we are reading was 'meant' to be heard, constituting what Walter Ong calls 'oral residue'.6 Its status as a written text is clearly posterior and subordinate to its intended orality, and its removal from 182 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003

the oral context makes the question of who is the 'singing I' an urgent one. In this essay I will engage the problem of interpreting the first-person voice of a self-reflexive song by examining it from the reader's point of view, borrowing some terminology and concepts from reader-response criticism. Self-reflexivity in literature is a rhetorical mode that, in the words of Susan Suleiman, 'questions and makes explicit the assumptions' behind the creation of a text.7 This state of textual questioning has obvious ramifications for the reader, whose task becomes more complex when the text being read is self-reflexive; in addition to the 'normal' activity of reading, the reader is asked to question the process by which the text has come into existence, as well as to reflect upon his own role in construing its meaning. A reader-centred approach to self-reflexive texts thus has the potential to be a powerful and appropriate analytical tool for addressing the following question: how does the selfreflexive nature of a song text influence the reader's perception of the song's poetic speaker? The reader of even a simple literary text mentally assembles a large cast of characters that make the reading work, and I have schematized this in diagram 1, freely borrowing and adapting terminology and concepts from reader-centred literary criticism. Whether or not the real author is known, the reader creates a mental image of the author by virtue of the

attitudes expressed by the text; this author is what Wayne Booth has called the 'implied author'.8 The song's text is discursive, and the reader imagines a poetic persona or speaker, as well as what some critics have named a 'narratee' or 'inscribed reader', a persona widiin the text who is being addressed by the poetic speaker.9 In diagram 1 the speaker and the narratee are linked using solid one-way arrows to indicate that an act of communication is taking place. Finally, the reader infers from the text what Booth calls the 'mock reader', renamed the 'implied reader' by Susan Suleiman: a reader positioned in such a way as to perfectly comprehend the outlook of the implied author as represented in the text. The implied reader is an interpretative construct that represents an ideal interpreter of the text; the actual reader, according to Booth, must take on the point of view of the implied reader as part of the act of reading in order to perfectly comprehend the text10 This model of reading was developed for the novel, and the reading situation of a song is dearly somewhat different Most obviously, the 'actual reader' of a literary text is assumed to be reading something written. In the case of songs, while the reader can be someone reading the song in its written form, it is more common to 'read' a song by listening to its performance. I will use the term 'audience' when I want to refer collectively to both these possibilities, and will specify 'listener' and 'reader' when I want to distinguish between the two. The listener receives the song via the performer (reflected in the solid one-way arrow in diagram 1); the reader obviously reads it from the written text The dotted double arrow between performer and reader is intended to indicate the likelihood of conflation between the two. I would suggest that a reader is always a performer, even if the performance takes place in his or her head. A performer, though, does not have to be a reader, since he or she might have learned the song orally (and therefore as a listener). HE late 14th-century song repertory known as 'Ars Subtilior' is a good place to explore the relationship between self-refiexivity and writing, for many of the songs have self-reflexive texts, and many use music writing in a special and self-conscious way. There are songs that polemicize about musical

notation, songs drawn in pictorial format to reflect the text's subject, and songs whose texts are canons explaining how the notation is to be interpreted. The tendency to refer specifically to its own notation or graphic presentation, over and above its creation or performance, is in fact one of the principal attributes that marks a song as belonging to the stylistic category of Ars Subtilior. Important studies of subgroups of these works have been published by Ursula Giinther, who has examined songs whose texts reveal information about performance practice, and by Virginia Newes, who has studied the self-reflexive genre of retrograde canons." But neither of these authors has considered the self-reflexivity of the works they studied as a subject of interpretative investigation; for both, the self-reflexive texts are of value only as a source of factual information about how a given song is to be performed- No one has yet considered how self-reflexivity contributes to the meaning of individual worksan omission, I suggest, that has led to a great deal of misunderstanding of the role of notation in Ars Subtilior music. Since many songs of the Ars Subtilior were created to be seen as well as heard, and their self-reflexivity engages not only the verbal text but the musical notation, their writtenness becomes a part of the work's meaning, so that only a reader can have access to the entire meaning of the song; in other words, the 'implied reader' of the song is, peculiarly, not a listener, but a reader. In some of these written self-reflexive songs, it would suffice to look at the notated work while listening to grasp that work's meaning. For example, in the well-known canon Tout par compos by Baude Cordier (illus.i), the layout in a circle provides a visual counterpart to the text 'I am composed all around the compass', and a listener who was lucky enough to hold the Chantilly manuscript in his lap while listening could appreciate the song's point. But in other songs the demands placed on the implied reader are more strenuous: he must in fact be engaged in reading the notation of the work to fully comprehend the text, which broadly speaking includes the poetic text, the musical notation, and the sounding music. A straightforward case of this kind of song is Jacob de Senleches's Je me merveil, a double ballade scored for two cantus voices and a
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

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2 Anonymous, Sej'ay perdu (Oxford, Bodleian library, Ms. Canonid misc.213, t.ii4r) (by permission of the Bodleian library, University of Oxford) 184 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

Texti Sej'ay perdu toute ma part text after CMM ai/4, with emendations; trans. Sarah Melhado and Anne Stone 1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Sej'ay perdu toute ma part, Ce n'est pas pour mon mal ne faut, Mais est pour ce diabolique chaut Qu'en cest pais a mis sa part Cest chaut pas ensy ne se part, Car la moitie' pert et sy vaut. Se j'ay perdu toute ma part, Ce n'est pas pour mon mal nefaut Helas, dolent, et en quel part Doy je aler puisque tel saut [MS: sant] Ne puis oster, don't fort me chaut, Le voir je dy se dieux me gart Sej'ay perdu toute ma part, Ce n'est pas pour mon mal ne faut, Mais est pour ce diabolique chaut Qu'en cest pais a mis sa part. If I have lost everything, it is not because of my evil or fault, but it is because of this devilish heat which has taken power in this land. This heat is not thus disentangled [divided], for half is lost and yet it has value. If I have lost everything, it is not because of my evil or fault. Alas, woe is me, and where should I go, since I cannot avoid such a leap [difficulty?], which concerns me greatly, I speak the truth, so help me God. If I have lost everything, it is not because of my evil or fault, but it is because of this devilish heat which has taken power in this land.

tenor. The text is in the voice of a composer, who laments that too many incompetent people are trying to compose songs; they just copy the works of better composers. The refrain, 'Puis que chascuns se melle de forgier' ("because everyone is taking up forging'), is set in exact imitation between the two cantus voices, using different notation to notate the same music (illus.4, see p.193).12 A more complex example of self-reflexivity that embraces both text and musical notation is the anonymous rondeau Se j'ay perdu, transmitted uniquely in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici misc.213, f.u4r (illus.2). I should like to spend a bit more time with this song, and my analysis will consist of enacting a reading of its opening from the point of view of a performer reading from the original notation. You, the reader of this essay, will be asked to play several different roles: first (if you have access to the accompanying soundclips) I should like you act as a listener and listen to a portion of the song's refrain armed simply with the text. Next, you will play the role of the reader and look on while the Orlando Consort performs the opening of the song, one voice-part at a time. Finally, you will hear the polyphonic opening again while looking at a modern transcription. Needless to say, the success of this experiment depends entirely on your willingness to use the soundclips while you read the analysis. What I hope will happen is that you, my reader, will

be thrust into three successive and disruptively non-homogeneous positions relative to the song: the listener who has access to no notation; the performer who is reading and deciphering the original notation; and, finally, the reader who has access only to a modern transcription. The point of this exercise is to show that the song's meaning is dramatically different depending upon which perspective its audience holds, and that ultimately a reader of the song's notation is the only audience that is able to understand the song's self-referentiality. Sounddip 1the first hah'' of the refrainshould now be heard, following lines 1-2 of the song's text (see text 1). The subject of this song is unusual in that it takes the weather as its principal topic the speaker complains that he has lost everything because of the 'diabolical heat', and laments that he doesn't know what to do or where to go. Plenty of lyric poems in the period invoke the weather and the seasons in a variety of contexts, including amatory, pastoral and moralizing. But here the concept of 'the heat' does not obviously refer to another less opaque topic, and the text remains hermetic and obscure. The poet has taken good advantage of the repetitious structure of the rondeau form in constructing the poem: four of its lines (lines i, 4, 5, 9) end with the word 'part', and in each case the word means something different. If we include the repetitions of the refrain, the word 'part' ends seven of the 16 lines of the EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003 185

poem. I imagine that the effect of these multiple reiterations is to reinforce the poetic speaker's tone of desperation and madness: he is so overcome by the heat that he is beginning to babble. A reader versed in late 14th-century notational practice would, of course, understand a self-referential double intention in lines 5 and 6: 'the heat is not thus divided/disentangled, for half is lost and yet it has value'. As we shall see, the loss of one half refers to the notation, which must be read per medium. Thus, before looking at the music, a knowing reader would be prepared to expect some special interaction between text and musical notation. Illus.2 shows Se j'ay perdu as it appears in the Oxford manuscript. The notation presents the reader with some initial problems to sort out. First, each voice-part begins in a different mensuration, and the parts change mensuration with varying frequently during the course of the piece. Second, all three voices have coloration at or near their openings, and the coloration's interpretation depends upon the mensuration. Third, the mensural interpretation is governed by a canon, written below the tenor's first line: 'sub una mensura totum, sed per medium; quodlibet circulorum minimas equaliter cantabis' ('you will sing the whole [song] under one

mensura, but per medium; sing minims equally under each circle'). This canon at first reading seems paradoxical. The 'mensura' is most often equated with the breve, and works whose canons stipulate singing 'sub una mensura' do so in order to override minim equivalence. But the apparent contradiction between minim equivalence and 'mensura' equivalence is resolved when we take into account the diminution, which calls for reading note shapes down one level: the 'mensura', which is typically the breve, is here transferred upward to the value of the long. Written minims serve as functional semiminims, and it is these functional semiminims that are equivalent13 Our collective reading begins with the tenor, the voice that typically acts as the mensural anchor in complex pieces. Ex.ia shows its opening as it appears in the manuscript; this should be followed against soundclip 2. This voice-part begins in G mensuration, so in modern transcription its opening would look something like ex.ib, in which each perfect breve is transcribed as a measure of 9/8. (Follow ex.ib against soundclip 2.) However, this ignores the diminution called for by the canon: in order to sing per medium, as the canon instructs, we must put two breves rather than one in each modern measure, as

Ex-i Sej'ay perdu, tenor, opening (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici misc2i3, f.114, detail) (a) *

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186 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

in ex.ic (which should be followed against soundclip 3). Note how this changes the metre of the transcription from 9/8 to 6/8.1 am not trying to suggest with this double transcription that singers would have read the notes first undiminished, then diminished, but rather to approximate the cognitive disjunction that arises when one diminishes at sight; the singer saw something like ex.ib, but performed something like ex.ic. Diminution was uncommon enough a practice in the period that there must have been some kind of mental transposition that went on; otherwise there would be no reason to use i t Turning to the contratenor, it begins (ex.2) in perfect time with minor prolation (O), but changes after a few breves to D. (Follow ex.2a against soundclip 4.) In order to calculate the proportional change at D, the performer must change his pulse from triple (i.e. groups of three semibreves) to duple (groups of two breves), and must also apply diminution so that three semibreves in O are equal to two breves in D. Without the instruction for diminution, the reader of this part would perform the contratenor's opening as shown in ex.2b (which should be followed against soundclip 4). Diminution does not change this relationship all that much, but it would be easier to calculate the proportional change as notated in

ex.2C, which uses a breve rather than a semibreve pulse, so that the modern measure is divided in half both before and after the mensural change. (Follow ex.2c against soundclip 5.) Unsurprisingly, it is the cantus part that is the most rhythmically challenging of the three voices. It begins (ex.3) in D, but within a few breves has moved through all three of the mensurations used in the piece. (Follow ex.3a against soundclip 6.) The coloured breves near the opening are initially a puzzle. Although by far the most common purpose of coloration used in groups like this is to effect a hemiola while keeping the minim unchanged (as is the case with the contratenor part's opening), here the coloured notation cannot work in that way, and must be interpreted as proportional: three coloured semibreves within the time of two void ones. To get from one mensuration to the other, the performer must change the beat that he uses to make the calculation. The breve is constant between D and O, and the minim is constant between O and O; but the black semibreves in D just before the change to O act as a kind of metric modulation; because they are diminished by 1/3, they have the same value as the minims in O. Thus the minim can be used as the constant pulse throughout this opening.

Ex.2 Sej'ay perdu, contratenor, opening (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici misc.213, f-ii4. detail) (a)

21

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EARLY MUSIC

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Ex.3 Se fay perdu, cantus, opening (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici misc.213, 114, detail) (a)

Ex.3b represents the undiminished transcription (and should be followed against soundclip 6). When we apply diminution to these durationsnoting that the passage in 0 has to be doubly diminished the rhythmic organization changes to that of ex-3c (which should be followed against soundclip 7). The crucial moment, of course, comes when the three voice-parts are put together. Although through our study of the cantus part we have already calculated all the proportional changes that occur in this song, it is a different problem to calculate those mensurations simultaneously. When we considered the parts one by one, the different mensurations were transcribed into different modern 'translations'. For example, in the contratenor part the mensuration O was transcribed in 6/8 (as shown in ex.2c); but in the cantus part (ex.3c), O followed 0 , and, calculated from it, was conceived as a triplet within the 2/4 metre. Likewise, although the tenor's opening (ex.ic) and the contratenor's opening (zc) are both transcribed in 6/8, they are in fact in different mensurations, and those 6/8 bars cannot be equivalent. The point here is not that the transcriptions are faithful representations of an 'authentic' conception of the rhythmic relationships within the piece. But they do serve to point up a problem with 188 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3

those relationships: there is not one obvious overarching pulse or metre that organizes and makes sense of all three of the mensurations taken together. At the opening of the song, with all three parts in different mensurations, it is not at all clear what beat the singers should use collectively to perform the piece. (That is, if they are tapping on each others' shoulders, what should they tap?) This problem is illustrated in diagram 2, which shows the mensural relationship between all levels of the beat in the three mensurations (D, O and O). It represents one collective metric period, after which all three mensurations start again with a 'downbeat'. The numbers to the left of the table indicate how many breves, semibreves and minims of each mensuration occur during this period. From these numbers it is easy to see a pattern of relationships. At each of the principal mensural levels, each mensuration has one equal mensural relationship (1:1) and one hemiola (3:2) relationship. Thus, at the highest level (i.e. longs in D, breves in O, breves in 0 ) there are two 3s and a 2; at the middle level, two 6s and a 9; and at the lowest level two 18s and a 12. (One lower subdivision is represented by minims in D, which only appear once as an ornament in the cantus part.) Whichever beat-level is chosen, there will always be

FONDAZIONE ITALIANA PER LA MUSICA ANTICA

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Detailed brochure available on request. For more information, please contact Luc BADOUX 3 Pare Elisabeth B-4900 SPA Belgium tel/fax +32.87.77.48.82 fa0O6347@skynet.be Cornelis KYLL Aventijnhof 6 b NL-6215ES MAASTRICHT Netherlands tel/fax +31.43.326.24.24 cor.kyU@tiscali.nl Jean-Pierre BOULLET Artistic director 4 rue de Herme> B-4680 OUPEYE Belgium tel/fax +32.42.64.48.13 jpboullet@swing.be

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MAY 2 0 0 3

189

Diagram 2 Mensural schema of three voices together

6
n o

A 1111i A 1A 111I 1A A A I i A 1i1

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and delightfully self-reflexive than it actually is. The attractiveness of Reaney's erroneous inventiona complex song whose text decries its own diabolical naturepresumably led the Medieval Ensemble of London to select it for their anthology of Ars Subtilior songs recorded in 1983. For the title of this beautifully performed disc, the performers chose (of course) 'Ce Diabolique Chant'. In a review of that disc published in Early music in the same year, David Fallows pointed out the error, but admitted 'bitter regret' over having to do so.M It is easy to see from a palaeographical point of view how such a misreading as Reaney's could occur, as Fallows points out, in early 15th-century handwriting the letters u and n are easily mistaken for one another. In fact the scribe himself seems to have made such a mistake in this very work; in the text residuum (shown enlarged in illus.3), 'saut' is written as 'sant', despite the mismatch of the rhyme word 'chant' with the prevailing 'aut' end-rhymes. That he missed this is a function of the song's remarkably unstable textual setup, which serves to disorient its reader. Had the text's meaning not been so opaqueif'the heat' had a clearly explained context within the poemReaney might have understood that it was chaut being discussed, and not the chant

one mensural 'odd man out*one voice that must sing in a hemiola relationship to the beat. Ex.4 is a transcription of the first half of the refrain (lines 1-2 of the text), taking the period shown in diagram 2 as the modern measure or bar. What we see is a rhythmic structure that is quite far removed from that of any of the individual parts transcribed in exx.i3. In fact, this transcription, by privileging the collective mensura, masks the rhythmic identity of the individual mensurations in each voice. This tension between individual and collective mensuration is fundamental to the rhythmic structure of the work. Note, however, that it is a tension that only the performer can appreciate. Ex.4 should now be followed with sounddip 1. This tension, I suggest, provides a musical corollary to the opaque text, and will affect the reader's interpretation of that text.

HERE is an amusing chapter in this song's modern reception. The edition published by Gilbert Reaney in vol.11 of Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae includes a telling textual misreading: in lines 3 and 5 of the text, Reaney read 'chant' for 'chaut', so that the 'diabolical heat' that causes the text's speaker such distress becomes a 'diabolical song'. Thus Reaney interpreted the work to be even more overtly

190

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MAY 2 0 0 3

3 Sej'ay perdu, text residuum (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonid misc.213, f.114, detail)

Conversely, had the notation not been so complex, he would not have been primed to misread the text, and to adhere to his misreading despite the problems of poetic structure it causes. Fallows's regret at pointing out the error is understandable, because 'chant' arguably makes more sense than 'chaut' within the context of the work as a whole. Although it is tempting to suggest that the composer hoped for such a misreading when he designed the song, I will resist that temptation. I do think, however, that the way the song is set up makes the reader closely associate the chaut and the chant. The

conjunction of text and notation encourages the reader to conflate the speaker of the text with the implied author of the song, and even more specifically with the notator of the song. The text's speaker describes being overwhelmed by the unbearable heat, and the readers of the musical notation feel his pain as they variously interpret the canon, employ diminution, and reconcile their seemingly unreconcilable mensurations. It is as if the notation is a witness to the speaker's suffering. Had it not been so hot (the reader is tempted to think), the speaker would have notated the song in a more orthodox

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192 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3

song, and the naratee a reader of the notation. So the 'implied reader' of this songthe reader perfectly situated to understand the point of view of the implied authormust be a reader, as opposed ~T> Y way of conclusion, I should like to return to the to a listener. .Dmodel of reading established at the beginning of Se fay perdu is one of a number of self-reflexive this study. Referring back to diagram 1, the configu- songs from the late 14th century that represent a ration of the arrows does not account for the reading fascinating moment in the history of music-writing, situation that emerges with this song. The fictional when graphic control over musical sounds was cast of characters that the reader creates is different developed to the point where songs could question from that imagined by the more traditional listener, their own creation in writing. By taking account of who would likely take the text literally and imagine the reading process in our analysis of these songs, the poetic speaker to be one citizen of the overheated we greatly enrich our understanding of them, and 'pais' speaking to another. This interpretation does we avoid the common musicological take on the not get the listener very far down the path of inter- music of the Ars Subtilior, in which the notation is preting the song. But a reader of the text who is considered to be a mechanical problem to be solved also engaged in the act of reading the notation will and no more. The often articulated idea that the understand that there is a relationship between notation is more complicated 'than it has to be', or text and notation whose most overt due is the self- is complex 'for its own sake', misses a great deal referential musical allusion to the phrase 'half is about how that notation functions in an interpretalost'. The notation causes an ironic chasm to open tion of the musical and textual whole. This comup between the speaker of the poem (ostensibly a plaint arises when we consider a musical work's townsperson complaining about the weather) and essence to be independent of its written preservathe implied author, who is the composer and notator tion, as if its written form were accidental to its of the song. The reader of the notation will supply content. But I hope to have shown that it is prea musical context for the dialogue between speaker cisely the participation of the written representation and narratee, in which the speaker becomes the of sound in the songs of the Ars Subtilior that composer (and, more important, notator) of the makes them so rich.

fashion. From the point of view of the reader, then, the 'diabolique chaut' is responsible for the disorienting written condition of the 'diabolique chant'.

Gnw I :

qnf

nufnms At mcilc ir

fag

rlmrcfr nrfTcClircHo nc>iu:i6 nwir rditvdm:rmrn>--s-r n.../~

4 Jacob de Senleches, Je me merveiU Toy plusieurs foys, conclusion of the two cantus voices, where the same music appears at the words 'Puis que chascuns se melle de forgier', though using different means of notation (Chantilly, Bibliotheque de Musee Cond, Ms.564, f.44v; digital image taken by the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music)

EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2OO3

193

This article was completed in a fellowship year at the Villa i Tatti, Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies, whom I thank for their support. 1 Recent book-length studies of poetic subjectivity in the French and Italian literature include P. Zumthor, Essai depottique mtdievale (Paris, 1972); K. Brownlee, Poetic identity in Guillaume de Machaut (Madison, Wl, 1984); M. Zink, Subjectiviti litteraire au moyen &ge (Paris, 1985), trans. D. Sices as The invention of literary subjectivity (Baltimore, n.d.); S. Kay, Subjectivity in troubadour poetry (Cambridge, 1990); and L. de Looze, Pseudo-autobiography in the fourteenth century: Juan Ruiz, Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, and Geoffrey Chaucer (Gainsville, 1997).

trouveras": a new look at the anagrams studies', Johannes Ciconia: musiden of Guillaume de Machautthe de la transition, ed. P. Vendrix (Paris, enigmas, responses, and solutions', forthcoming). Romanic review, lxxix (1988), pp.537-57. 5 Raynauds no.21.

13 How complex is this? This song is not an 'impossible' piece to perform (nor are many pieces from this period), but it stacks up familiar difficulties 6 Ong, Orality and literacy, p.115. canon, diminution, proportional changesin such a way as to make its 7 The reader in the text: essays on interpretation challenging. To put the audience and interpretation, ed. song's notational complexity in perS. Suleiman and I. Crosman spective: in French repertory circulat(Princeton, 1980), p.4. ing in the major sources dating from around the turn of the 15th century, only 12 have conflicting mensuration 8 W. Booth, The rhetoric of fiction signs in all voices at their openings, (Chicago, 2/1983), pp.67-77. and of these, four maintain an equal minim between the mensurations and 9 The reader in the text, ed. Suleiman are therefore rhythmically unproblemand Crosman, p.13, referring to atic Of the remaining eight, only two G. Genette, Figures MI (Paris, 1972), other worksCordier's Tout par 2 The classic study is W. J. Ong, compos (Chantilly, Bibliotheque de Orality and literacy: the technologizing pp.265-7. Musee Cond, Ms.564, f.12), and the of the word (London, 1982). For a more anonymous Amans, ames secretement recent and nuanced approach to the 10 Booth, The rhetoric offiction, (Oxford, Bodleian library, Ms. oral/writing dichotomy, see the essays PP-i37~44i The reader in the text, Canonici misc.213, f.123)share the collected in Vox intexta: orality and ed. Suleiman and Crosman, pp.811. proportional complexity of Sej'ay textuality in the Middle Ages, ed. A. N. perdu. In fact, this affinity between Doane and C. B. Pastemack (Madison, 11 U. Gtlnther, 'Fourteenth-century Cordier's rondeau and the two anonyWI, 1991). music with texts revealing performance mous works was such that Reaney practice', Studies in the performance of tentatively attributed both anonymous 3 For Machaut, see Brownlee, Poetic late medieval music, ed. S. Boorman works to Cordier. Another song, identity, more general accounts include (Cambridge, 1982), pp.253-70; S'aincy estoitby Solage (Chantilly, S. Huot, From song to book the poetics Bibliotheque de Musee Cond, Ms.564, of writing in old French lyric and lyrical V. Newes, 'Writing, reading and memorizing: the transmission and 36), has a mensural structure narrative poetry (Ithaca, NY, 1987) and resolution of retrograde canons from strikingly similar to this, although the O. Holmes, Assembling the lyric self, the 14th and early 15th centuries', mensural relationships are notated authorship from troubadour song to Early music, xviii (1990), pp.218-34. using numbers instead of signs. Italian poetry book (Minneapolis,
2000).

4 For a stimulating account of literary anagrams, see L de Looze, * "Mon nom

12 For a fuller analysis of this song, see A. Stone, "The composer's voice in the late fourteenth-century song: four case

14 D. Fallows, recording review, Early music, xi (1983), pp.557-8.

194

EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2 0 0 3

M. MOLEIRO + T H E A R T OF PERFECTION
BOOK OF HOURS OF LOUIS OF ORLEANS
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Year: c. 1490. Size: 215 x 147 mm. 232 pages and 90 fascinating miniatures.

The illuminations in this extraordinary manuscript are quite exceptional. The elaborate illustrative layout with sumptuous floral margins, especially in the series of biblical themes, is a trait rarely found in most Books of Hours. The marginalia are often divided into sections with grotesques, birds, animals and other motifs. --The reference to Saint Louis, the autograph of Louis of Orleans (later King Louis XII) and the portrait on f. liv. seem to indicate that the manuscript belonged to Louis XII. trst, untque am

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l The opening of Antonio Zacara da Teramo, Sumite karissimi (Modena, BibUoteca Estense e Universitaiia a.M.5.24, (Latino 568; olim iv.d.5), f.uv; reproduced by permission from the forthcoming Libreria Italiana Musicale facsimile, courtesy of Biblioteca Estense, Modena). The cantus part begins on stave 1, the tenor part two-thirds of the way through stave 4, and the contratenor part at the start of stave 7. The opening is transcribed as ex.i. 196 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3

ARS SUBTILIOR IN PERFORMANCE

Donald Greig

Ars Subtilior repertory as performance palimpsest

Sounddips to accompany this article may be found at the Early music website: http://www.em.oupjournals.org HE first time the Orlando Consort performed Ciconia's short mensuration canon Le ray au soldi was at a concert recorded by the BBC in the York Festival some years ago. Becausethe piece lasts less than a minute and is difficult to grasp at one hearing, we decided to perform it twice in succession. Afterwards, of the people who came up to us to talk about it, half were convinced that the first performance was 'wrong' and that we had got it right the second time, half were convinced that the opposite was true. In fact, both performances were equally 'correct', in the sense that we performed accurately the rhythmic instructions of the score. For our part, we were concerned that our performances were perceived so differently when the quantitative differences were in fact so very small (as confirmed by the recording). What was it about Ars Subtilior repertory that led to such contrasting perceptions? This essay attempts to address that issue. It begins with an outline of the purely technical difficulties of performing music from the Ars Subtilior repertory. It then goes on to consider performance as an act of communication. The first part is thus a snapshot of one performance approach, while the second part attempts to broaden into a discussion of a model of communication that has relevance to all repertories, but which addresses something of the singularity of the music of the Ars Subtilior. f-pHE Ars Subtilior repertory certainly poses a JL real challenge to. performers. Its highly intricate and rhythmically complex musical style marks

the apogee of invention and elaboration within medieval notational systems, to the extent that the music might at first sight seem almost to lie beyond performance. Willi Apel, writing in 1953, expressed his doubts thus:
Frequently these elaborations of notation are mere tricks of affected erudition, since the effects desired could be represented in much simpler ways. In other cases they are indispensable, leading then to a product of such rhythmical complexity that the modem reader may doubt whether an actual performance was ever possible or intended.1

Others have taken a different line. 25 years after Apel's pronouncement, Richard Crocker wrote:
It is essential to observe ... that this complexity is nowhere near as important as it has been made out to be ... it is more apparent to the performer (or modern transcriber) than to the listener, who merely hears normal progressions through a delightful haze of ornamentation.1

Clearly Crocker had heard this music in performance. Apel, I suggest, probably had not. Today there are plenty of recordings available to compare and contrast, some of them playing on the haze that Crocker mentions, others preferring to foreground its intricacy. In short, the music now exists again as sound. And performing and listening to that music aids our understanding of it The role of notation in this repertory is unquestionably important, more so than in most other idioms of music, medieval or otherwise. A glance at the manuscripts that include Ars Subtilior pieces is enough to reveal that their notation is not merely a set of instructions to the performer. Visual and acoustic display seem to be related concerns.

Donald Greig is a founder member of The Orlando Consort and a former lecturer in Film Studies and Semiology. EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 197

Whatever its importance, however, the notation becomes far less of an issue for both singers and audience as a work is learnt through repeated performances and hearings. Scholarly studies of Ars Subtilior pieces tend to focus on the notation, and often assume that the written symbols always remain the primary source for the performer in performance. This is a myth (albeit an understandable one, promulgated not only in study of this repertory), and it stems from an over-simplified model of transmission: that an edition or facsimile of the music is the starting-point of the performance, the source from which the musicians work, converting its instructions into sound. That narrative is reductive but nonetheless seductive. The music may, for instance, be memorized. And even then, the singers' primary source will not merely be the memory of previous performances. Instead, during performance the singers work on what might be called the 'rehearsal text', which is a combination of the (annotated) notation (memorized or actual), the memory of previous performances, the physical experience of prior performances ('muscle memory'), and a whole set of clues and cues, both personal and general, regarding (for instance) harmonic structure, word-sense, and impressionistic notions like 'the bit that sounds like the theme from M*A*S*H', or 'the bit where singer x sounds demented'. The rehearsal text is thus a displaced and condensed variation of the original notation, and as such it lies virtually beyond analysis.3 However, it is still possible to describe something of its development. What follows, then, is an account of a rehearsal process, with a focus on some of the general issues with which the performer of Ars Subrilior repertory is confronted. In what follows, I do not presume to speak for all performers, nor indeed even for my colleagues in the Orlando Consort I have chosen Sumite karissimi by Antonio Zacara da Teramo as my example partly because of its reputation as an extreme example of the genre,4 a piece that demonstrates most of the characteristic difficulties associated with this repertory.5 In addition, Zacara's song has recently been the subject of a provocative article by Anne Stone, and some of the ideas she raises are revisited below.6 My main concern is with the realization of the work in sound, not with editorial issues such as variant readings, musica
198 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

ficta and text-underlay, even though discussion of those matters might form a major part of rehearsals. I believe that three primary difficulties arise in this piece (as within this repertory in general), and that they are the same for all fluent readers, whether they sing from the original notation or from a transcription of the piece into modern notation. The first difficulty is that of comprehending the durations of the notes. (The pitching of notes is rarely troublesome.) A moment of quiet contemplation is usually neededwhether of the mensural changes occurring in the original notation, or of the arcane note-values of the modern transcription before the singer can launch into a performance of the voice-part. (Modern transcription tends to strain against the logic of equal bar-lengths, and to produce seemingly ridiculous subdivisions of the beat.) This is not music for sight-reading, though it would provide excellent music for a sight-reading test.7 This first difficulty, that of reading the rhythm, leads to the second difficulty, that of realizing it which is to say, passing beyond the prescription of the notation to an unlaboured performance, and singing the voice-part in a convincing, phrased manner. The danger here is that the intention to sing complicated rhythms often has the effect of sounding too deliberate, too much like dictated freedom. The effort to re-create exactly what is on the page in modern notation often sounds exactly like thatan effort.8 The performer confronts the code, not the intended 'feel' of the musical phrasing. The result can be accuracy at the expense of expression, exactness at the expense offluency,9to the extent that (as David Fallows puts it) 'only the musically literate can gather more than a glimmer of what is happening'.10 The third difficulty is that of ensemble. Having mastered the complex rhythms of his or her own part, each singer must now set that line against often distracting counter-rhythms in the other voices. This can be seen and heard in the opening of Sumite karissimi (ex.i, soundclip 1). There are two rhythmic ideas here. The first is the basic cross-rhythm played out principally between canrus and contratenor, which operates throughout the piece. Both voices accord with an underlying broad pulse, but their subdivisions of it are differently ordered (two against three). A sense of tactus would have helped the

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EARLY MUSIC

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Ex.1 Antonio Zacara da Teramo, Sumite karissimi, opening (after French secular compositions of the fourteenth century, ed. W. Apel, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, liii/3 (Rome, 1972), p.216, reproduced by permission of the American Institute of Musicology Inc., Middleton, WI)
Cintiu

Contrstenor

J' P I

T 7 J 1 I J.

original singers, where a pulse may have been tapped by each performer on another performer, creating a self-monitoring, shared beat, but the modern conventions of the concert hall replace tactus with conducting or, more commonly in small groups, with physical movement." The second rhythmic idea is the complex syncopation that operates against the broad pulse, such as occurs in the cantus at bar 5 (and elsewhere). There are two possible approaches that the singer of the cantus might take in bar 5. One is to trust his or her internal metronome and sing the rhythms exactly as notated. The other is to use the other voice-parts as a guide, and sing the rhythms relative to those other parts' movement. The former method is more virtuoso and potentially the more accurate, but given the relative nature of each singer's internal metronome, it is also the more risky." The first approach is suggested by the original notation (illus.2), for the mensural change insists upon the relative independence of the voices, and the layout of the parts separately on the page encourages independence (illus.i). A modern edition, with its spatially aligned transcription of the temporal relationship between the voices, may encourage the
200 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003

second approach, where rhythmic realization can be achieved relative to the other voice-parts. Yet neither approach is wholly beyond the reach of either performer. The singer reading from original notation may discover that the g' in bar 5 comes the merest split second after the hah0-way point of the tactus (or 'bar'); a quick check would confirm that the tenor marks that point with a change of note, a moment that could then become an aural guide. Conversely, the performer reading from a modern score might ignore spatial alignment, and rely instead on the internal metronome. Either wayreading from original notation or from modern transcription the performer shapes the approach through rehearsal, and the success or otherwise of the result may be judged by its intangible feeling of style and grace.13 However the music is learnt, be it from original notation, modern notation or by rote, the original notation can sometimes serve as an important interpretative tool for the modern performer. Anne Stone, as part of a broader argument, suggests that the complexity of the cantus line in bars 4 and 5 may be the result of a simple syncopation, a process reminiscent of coeval discant practices.M When

Ex.2 Antonio Zacara da Teramo, Sumite karissimi, opening transcribed in 6/8

Su

m i - te

r
Ex.3

\r

forced into modern score and expressed within a rigid 6/8 bar-count, the logic of the line (and its local phrasing) disappears, instead confronting the performer with a problem of rhythmic rendition (ex.2). The original notation (illus.2), however, reveals two hierarchically ordered and independently coherent phrases (exx.3, 4). With that realization come implications for articulation: the most important notes are the descending b[i]'-a'-g' (ex.4), and the phrase that precedes it becomes a lazy decoration (ex.3). The / ' that ends bar 5 becomes in effect an appoggiatura. The singer can now conceptualize the phrase as two discrete units with a more obvious rhythmic pattern. (Exx.3 and 4 are not 'to scale', and the relative mensural relationship must be applied: a ratio of 2:3, or a crotchet in the first phrase is equal to a dotted crotchet in the second.)

At this point the movement of the other voices can aid the cantus. The aim is to achieve a coincidence between the highest note in the cantus phrase (the c") with the tenor's movement to c' in bar 4. From there on, the perverse ambition is to ensure that there is no synchronous movement with the other parts until the downbeat at the start of bar 6. The overall effect is hopefully one where the cantus appears as effortless as a swan gliding across the water, even though it is paddling like crazy beneath the surface. This is not necessarily the only solution to the problem (and the phrasing of ex.3 is still up for grabs: two mirrored rhythmic phrases, or one symmetrical unit?). A good internal metronome combined with a mathematical ability to think a relationship of 2:3 helps. By the time the performance takes place, the movement has been internalized and learnt, and the purely intellectual process has ended.

A/W*?

^AwAfi:v

imft \^<x irfli -mi quc muficv

Ca

2 Detail of iDus.i, showing the opening of the cantus of Antonio Zacara da Teramo, Sumite karissimi EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 201

AH this suggests an interpretation of the music in which phrasing is more important than rhythmic complexityalthough this is only one of several possible approaches, one that advances the broader structures of harmonic progression rather than the music's denning rhythmic complexity.15 The tenor and contratenor can support this approach by aligning their phrasing with the same points of opening and closing as the discant line; thus they conceive their parts as a three-bar phrase followed by a twobar phrase. Certain techniques can be used, the most obvious of which is a very gentle crescendo towards the middle of the phrase, and a correlative decrescendo towards the end of the phrase. A legato performance also helps to integrate the parts. In concert, the performers can also provide visual cues that play a part in semantic closure for the audience: one of the singers conducting can help guide the ear to an underlying structure, as can body movement, gesture and facial expression.16 Sounddip 2 demonstrates this approach, reinterpreting the music of ex.i. It can be contrasted with sounddip 3, where each voice-part works for itself, at the expense of homogeneity. Here the lower voices add 'front' to each note, an easy option even on an open vowel, where the singer can apply a slight glottal. By emphasizing the logic of phrasing within each voicepart and operating independently of any broader design, the singers draw the listener's ear away from ensemble, and instead towards what may seem to be perversely independent parts. The process described here applies a series of performance codes to the notation in order to 'make sense' of the music to the listener. The trace of these performance codes is not only audible: many performers today will mark their copies using their own system. This is a further example of the process of overwriting the original manuscript to produce a palimpsest of sorts.17 In certain cases, such as when the performer alters the beaming imposed by the modern transcriber, those instructions are in effect erased. All this underlines the fact that notation as seemingly exact as that found in the Ars Subtilior repertory may, in fact, in some respects be extremely inexact; if it were clearer, we would not be raising questions about the attack of each note, the required tone, issues of phrasing and comparative dynamics.
202 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

The notation is compromised, then, not just because it is open to interpretation, but because of its own imprecision. Studies of this music that take account of coeval discant treatises and accounts of the training of performers point to a further problem common to much medieval music. This is the role of improvisation in the development of the composition, and the performers' grounding in extemporization. The written version of the song can then be seen as a palimpsest of an original, possibly more simple set of instructions, overlaid through a process of elaboration and notational game-playing. The resultant manuscript represents a 'finished' version, but there remains the possibility that it may have been further and alternatively decorated by performers.1* The degree to which such licence might be granted to the modern performer depends upon a number of issues. If we perform exactly what is written, then we are clearly on safe documentary ground. The development of the performance and reception of medieval music since the more experimental 1970s has, with a few obvious exceptions, been inclined towards this positivistic approach, particularly in Britain, and it is sanctioned by current recording practices where the producer is presented with scores at the outset; the aim of the recording session is the faithful rendition of the score in acoustic form. The counter-argument to such a notationally exact approach would be that the musicologically minded early-music ensemble should be guided by the spirit of the creation of this music, rather than merely remain faithful to its reproduction from notation.19 Should we, then, decorate Ars Subtilior pieces still further? Looking at the rest of Sumite karissimi, there seems to be little space left for elaboration, so dense is the 'writing'. The tenor line, as might be expected, provides the strongest rhythmic anchor. When combined with the cantus line, it also creates the harmonic foundation. Indeed, these two voice-parts can quite satisfactorily be performed alone as a duet, omitting the contratenor part.20 The contratenor follows the same broad tactus as the tenor line, though it generally prefers duple to triple rhythms. In that sense, the tenor and contratenor in combination can also be viewed as a discrete unit Both the

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contratenor and the cantus are, then, the decorative parts, the cantus with its syncopated rhythms (as discussed earlier), the contratenor with its preference for duple time against triple. In general, the cantus and the contratenor avoid simultaneous ornamentation; but on occasion such moments do occur, and the result is the organized chaos that distinguishes so much Ars Subtilior music. The piece is, then, a dearly designed composition, and might seem to require no further elaboration. But one moment stands out in this piece: the section from bars 36 to 42 (ex.5, sounddip 4), where for the first time all three voices largely coindde in rhythm. This alignment may well signal the importance placed on the text here20 syllables are declaimed during five bars, a high ratio in a piece that otherwise favours melisma. For the reader of the work, the focus here becomes the (relatively) dense lyrical information, particularly important in that it contains a key moment of Zacara's hidden game of self-promotion. The full text of the song is as follows; the section set in ex.5 is shown in bold: Sumite karissimi capud de REmulo patres, caniteque musici idem de coNsule fratres.
Et de iuMENto ventrem, de gurgiDA pedem, de nupTiis ventrem, capud de Oveque, pedem de leoNE, milles cum in omnibus ZACHARIAS sates. Take, most dear fathers, the head of REmulus, and sing, brother musicians, the same from CONSUI. And from iuMENtum the belh/, from gurgiDA the foot, from nupnae the belly, and the head of ovis, the foot of leoNE, when in the whole, Zaccaria, you salute.21

The hidden message here is 'RECONMENDATIONE Zaccaria', wherein Zacarain a suitably self-referential manner, typical of Ars Subtilior repertory recommends himself to his fellow musicians. The message is not to be too well hidden, or the point will

be lost, concealed by cleverness. Notational display might well divert attention away from the text, but what is obscure to the eye is not necessarily lost on the ear. As soundclip 5 shows, the singer of the cantus line can, in this relatively straightforward passage, reshape the phrase to underline the hidden word [RECON]-MEN-DA-TI-[O], giving the insider wink to the listener by clearly signposting MENDA-TI with rhythmic stress. If such a moment can be seen as an opportunity for elaboration in the top part, what about the other parts? Elsewhere in the piece the contratenor is often given complicated rhythms that play against the other two voices. One might expect that such a performer was a spedalist, and very much in demand. One might also expect that such a singer could have had some input into the realization of the piece, perhaps using improvisatory skills to suggest an alternative performance of a notated part, perhaps singing duplets instead of triplets, and vice versa. Sounddip 6 shows what might be done." Such suggestions are, of course, speculative; I can offer no evidence that this practice ever took place, other than the rather dubious argument that singers today experience precisely such yearnings, and are sometimes chastised for having them.13 Nevertheless, I think it is quite possible that such a performance may once have taken place. The abstruse nature of the Ars Subtilior repertory may seem to demand a slavish adherence to the notation, calling for exactness and accuracy. But as I have tried to show, although such notation may well denote control, it may also in fact connote freedom. OR all the technical aspects of performance outlined above, there is always a further dimension of which the performer cannot fail to be aware: the

Ex.5 Antonio Zacara da Teramo, Sumite karissimi, bars 36-42

de iu - MEN-to

ven-trem,_de gur - gi- DA_ pe-dem,_ de nup-IT-is

ven - trem, ca - pud

P1

vr 1 vr

P' "

'

I
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presence of and interaction with an audience. Music is always an act of communication, and any account of the performance of music must address the role of the audience in that act. The difficulty of the performance of Ars Subtilior repertory alluded to by Apel, and its often self-reflexive nature (which suggests a particular awareness in the audience), are but aspects of the peculiar nature of this repertory that invite consideration of it as an act of communication. What I have described up to this point is popularly known as the performer's interpretation of the work; it relates to the degree of control that performers have over the music with which they are presented. The performer is free to impose upon the music a series of additional performance codes, ones that are often (and inevitably) drawn from his or her own musical culture, rather than from the culture in which the music was created. Even then, however, certain key aspects of the work remain beyond the control of the performer. Such aspects relate to its intrinsic properties. All music in performance is communication, a message passed from the addresser (the performer) to the addressee (the audience). Communication is never quite so straightforward, however; for example, in the concert situation, when applause is offered, the simple equation of performer/addresser and audience/addressee is unsettled. In the case of Ars Subtilior repertory, we are dealing with a highly sophisticated form of communication in which words and music constantly engage different levels of address and self-referentiality, as noted by Anne Stone in her article elsewhere in this issue. My concern here, however, is not the various levels of readership outlined by Stone, but rather the music itself. The extreme complexity of Ars Subtilior music has been referred to repeatedly. Together with this complexity comes a correlative demand for accuracy, most clearly articulated in pronouncements that this music cannot be performed. A more refined version of this stance was Willi Apel's assertion that it could be performed only with the help of electronics.14 ApePs dream has perhaps been answered by musical computer software, specifically the invention of MIDI, a dream made manifest in websites devoted to Ars Subtilior repertory that contain
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sound-files of key works.15 But the demand for accuracy can be played out in reverse as well. Complicated music of any kind always begs the question of what it will look like on paper. Modem classical music, for exampleto which Ars Subtilior repertory is so often compared16shares the same sort of dialectic in its development of new forms of notation. Similarly, the transcription into modern notation of the dense, improvised saxophone solos of Parker or Coltrane demands the kind of rhythmically complex exactitude that is so characteristic of so many Ars Subtilior cantus lines. The question of what the music is doing (in, say, the case of complicated cross-rhythms or highly decorated phrases) brings with it immediately the question of its encoding. What then emerges is an engagement with the space between the sonic event and the symbolic substitute of the score.17 The same dialectic is at work in accounts of Ars Subtilior music that suggest that notation was beginning to become a part of performance, a moment of shared exchange between audience and performer. It thus becomes a semiotic fascination elevated to the status of a communication function. The score is now an additional visual locator that allows its reader to follow the inherent musical logic. This process can also operate in reverse, and describe the experience of the modern literate audience for whom the acoustic experience of the music is transcribed into an imagined score. In all these processes, what is taking place is a metalinguistic process, as outlined by Roman Jakobson in his classic analysis of verbal communication.1* Jakobson sought to 'define [the place of the poetic function] among the other functions of language' from a strictly linguistic perspective.29 He reduces any speech event to six language factors, as summarized in the following schema:
context message addresser contact code addressee

According to Jakobson, 'The addresser sends a message to the addressee. To be operative the message requires a context referred to ..., seizable by the

be orientated towards the remaining three linguistic functions, the poetic, the phatic and the metalinguaL That music is only ever about itself is a common enough idea, most obvious in descriptions of music as 'spiritual' or 'abstract', or where music is viewed as a universal language. It is thus forever skewed towards the poetic, concerned with itself as message. The fifth of Jakobson's functions, the phatic, has a small role in the study of Ars Subtilior repertory. It context refers to forms of contact (such as the person on the referential other end of the phone saying 'Uh-huh'). A contactmessage based analysis of performance practice would therepoetic addressee addresser fore focus upon the physical relationship and the amative emotive codes of exchange between the performers and contact phatic the audience/congregation.32 code It is the sixth function, the metalingual, that dismetalingual tinguishes Ars Subtilior repertory. Music is rarely Each linguistic event can involve several of these about the code.33 But music from the Ars Subtilior functions simultaneously, and the character of the period is all about codes, be it the written score, the utterance is determined by the emphasis placed use of direct musical quotation, or the imaginary upon those functions. When the emphasis is upon process of encoding undertaken by the listener in the addresser, the result is an emotive event; but when response to musical complexity. In the 21st century, the orientation is towards the message itself, we are precisely because of the musicological context which in the realm of the poetic; and so on. Jakobson thus has defined the music and set its own agenda, the creates a typology of speech events, and a model performance of a piece addresses the issue of its for their explication. This model, when transposed exactness, of the extent to which the acoustic rendito the musical event, provides a typology of musical tion accords with an actual score. The exchange forms. More importantly here, the application of between the audience and the performer in the 14th this model also sheds light on important aspects century is similarly all about verification of the code, of the performance situation which, in their own particularly if the shared code is displayed before the way, make a contribution to performance practice performance itself.34 It is this constant assessment of studies.30 the relationship between the sonorous fact and its The message within this model is the music itself, symbolic substitute that marks out the privileged which remains the same for all performances space of the metalingual function in the perfor(though presumably there is a point beyond which a mance of this repertory. performance of a piece renders its identity impossible to confirm). However, music itself is not denotaOTH musicology and performance sometimes tive, does not have a context which can in turn be enter the dangerous but always engaging world verbalized (unlike the poetry of the songs). Music is of conjecture and fantasy.35 I conclude with such a able to invoke cultural codes (a fanfare connotes the moment Du Fay, in 1427, arrives in Bologna, commilitary, for example), but it cannot denote them. In positions in hand, and meets with the local singers. written and spoken language, the primary function He gives them his elegant, nostalgic chanson Adieu is the referential function, designed to convey infor- ces bons vins de Lannoys. They appear excited by its mation and ideas clearly,31 but in the performance of simplicity, for them, the piece offers a chance to music there is no denotative, no specific information demonstrate their skills, among which is, of course, to convey. By virtue of its non-denotative status, as their improvisational talent Sounddip 7 hints at opposed to written or spoken language, music must what Du Fay might have heard .. .*

addressee, and either verbal or capable of being verbalized; a code fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser and addressee (or in other words, to the encoder and decoder of the message); and, finally, a contact, a physical connection between the addresser and addressee, enabling both of them to enter and stay in communication.' Each of these six factors relates to a linguistic function:

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Many thanks to Daniel LeechWilkinson, Yolanda Plumley and Anne Stone for encouragement and criticism of earlier drafts. 1 W. Apel, The notation ofpolyphonic music, 900-1600 (Cambridge, MA, 1953). P-4O32 R. Crocker, A history of musical style (Berkeley, 1966), p.138. 3 My use of the concepts o f condensation' and 'displacement' deliberately invokes the Freudian model of the dream work, underlining the role of unconscious personal associations in the production of the rehearsal text. 4 This piece may be said to represent the acme of rhythmic intricacy in the entire history of music'; W. Apel, The notation ofpolyphonic music, p.431. 5 The track is recorded in its entirety by the Orlando Consort in The Saracen and the dove: music from the courts of Padua andPavia around 1400 (Archiv Produktion 459 620-2). 6 A. Stone, 'Glimpses of the unwritten tradition in some ars subtilior works', Musica disdplina, 1 (1996), pp.5993. 7 The role of the notation for the original performers is uncertain. Undoubtedly some of the performers would have been completely familiar with the complex notational systems employed in the Ars Subtilior repertory, since they were also the composers of the music (notably the composer-performers employed in Avignon, such as Matheus de Sancto Johanne, Haucourt and Hasprois). This does not mean, though, that all were readers of music in the modern sense. Indeed, the prevalence of solmization (as with tonic sol-fa today) suggests learning by rote, and the most important quotidian skills for such performers would have been improvisation and the performance of memorized chants.

8 This situation will be all too familiar to anyone who has been involved in a recording session, where a pop singer suggests that a note should be 'pushed'. A classically trained singer might then ask if by that he means that an anticipatory triplet semiquaver note should be tied to the note in question. Such exact prescription almost inevitably leads to a stilted performance. 9 The same issue is confronted in D. Leech-Wilkinson, 'Articulating Ars Subtilior song', Early music, xxi (2003), pp.6-18): the singer who focuses intently upon the exact length of a minim rest may fail to see its function as a phrase-marker, and therefore become a slave to the rhythm. 10 D. Fallows, The end of the Ars subtilior', Basler Jahrbuch fur historische Musikpraxis, xx (1996), p.22. 11 A celebrated marginal decoration from the Chantilly Manuscript, reproduced as the cover illustration of the previous issue of Early music, xxxi/i (Feb 2003), seems to show the use of tactus to regulate performance of a group of singers engaged in performing an Ars Subtilior item. 12 In my experience of conducted and non-conducted ensemble performance, it is quite clear that no one has a perfect internal metronome. Musicians have a tendency to speed up or slow down. This is most obvious on a small scale in the response to a dotted note: some will be slow off the dot, others fast (and this tendency can in turn be affected by slow or fast tempos). The only consistent feature of the internal metronome is the fact that every singer thinks that his or hers is accurate. 13 This statement confronts a very real problem: the lack of an agreed terminology for the analysis of musical performance. I am struck by the prevalence of studies from the perspective of cognitive science in thefieldof musical performance, and the correlative lack of a semiotics of musical performance.

As noted in M. de Marinis, The semiotics ofperformance (Indiana, 1993), p.47, the performance text is 'an extreme example of textuality', and its analysis a daunting task. However dull it might be, a taxonomy of the subcodes of performance (kinesics, wordstress, accent, phrasing etc) would undoubtedly aid such a discussion. 14 Stone, 'Glimpses of the unwritten tradition'. Her argument draws upon counterpoint treatises and the improvisatory tradition of cantus fractus, frolidatus orfiguratus. There are several techniques described, the most important of which in this context are displacement of a (plainchant) phrase by a beat, the rendition of phrases in contrasting metres, and elaboration of simple lines by decorative formulae. For a discussion of syncopation that invokes jazz and Stravinsky as the closest contemporary parallels, see also W. Apel, The notation ofpolyphonic music, pp.414-18. 15 I note that this interpretation supports Crocker's view of this music rather than Apel's, though this was not my original aim. 16 Regarding this point, see Y. Plumley, 'Playing the citation game in the late 14th-century chanson', Early music, xxxi (2003), p.31, 17 Other peoples' markings can be surprisingly distracting and often confusing, hence the convention that givesriseto another state of palimpsest: the use of pencil that can easily be erased. 18 For further examples of improvisation during the medieval period, see R. Wegman, 'Singers and composers in Flemish urban centres: a social context for Busnoys and Obrecht', Antoine Busnoys method, meaning and context in late medieval music (Oxford, 1996), pp.174-214, and R. Wegman, 'From maker to composer improvisation and musical authorship in the Low Countries, 1450-1500', journal of the

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American Musicological Society, xlix (1996), pp.409-79. 19 I am following here an 'authentic' model of early-music performance, perhaps still the dominant ideology within the early-music movement, and the 'standard' against which many reviews are set According to this model, the performer balances the instructions of the extant sources with a knowledge of performance practice, and tries to 'filter out" modern instincts. (To be accused of being '19th-century' in approach remains one of the strongest insults in some rehearsal spaces.) 20 In rehearsal, it is often helpful first to isolate the cantus/tenor duet, then to add the potentially disruptive contratenor voice. n My thanks to Leofranc HolfordStrevens for permission to use this translation. 22 Much the same is suggested in H. M. Brown, 'Improvised ornamentation in the fifteenth-century chanson', Quadrivium, xii (1971), p.242: 'Perhaps performer-composers were often challenged to improvise a Contratenor against a pre-eristentand self-contained two-part framework of Superius and Tenor". 23 It is fairly common practice for low basses to put in octaves below the notated part on the final chord in Renaissance music On one occasion, a critic chastised the performer for the action on the grounds that it could not have been notated at the time. 24 'Sumite Karissimi represents the ultimate degree of syncopation, and today could be performed only with the help of electronic equipment': Willi Apel, quoted in U. GOnther, 'Problems of dating in Ars nova and Ars subtilior', in L'ars nova italiano de Trecento (Certaldo, 1975), p.294. 25 See, for example, http^/www. pacincneLnet/~garyrichysubtilior/

26 See for instance David Fallows's remark (The end of the Ars Subtilior', p.21) that 'the music of this late fourteenth-century tradition is in many ways more intricate and harder to perform than any other music before the twentieth century"; or, from another perspective, Fred Lerdahl's comment that 'I can think of only one period in the Western tradition where the [large poietic-aesthesic] gap has ever been remotely comparable to that of [the 20th] century: the late 14th century, with its isorhythmic techniques and complicated surface rhythms': 'Composing and listening: a reply to Nattiez', Perception and cognition of music, ed. I. Deliege and J. Sloboda (Hove, 1997), p.424. 27 I borrow the definition of notation as 'the symbolic substitute for the sonorous fact' from J.-J. Nattiez, Music and discourse: toward a semiology of music (Princeton, 1990), p.72. 28 See R. Jakobson, 'Closing statement linguistics and poetics', Style in language, ed. T. A. Sebeok (Cambridge, i960), pp.350-77. 29 Jakobson, 'Closing statement', P-35330 Jean-Jacques Nattiez dismisses Jakobson's schema in so far as it is not a dynamic model and takes little account of the various contexts of message exchange. From Nattiez's perspective he is correct the model belongs very much in the tradition of the early Structuralist school, the so-called first semiology. The limits of Jakobson's model are clearly demonstrated by Anne Stone's article in this very issue. Her argument draws upon the socalled second semiology, which rejects linguistic formalism and develops a more complex model of communication premised on the theory of enunciation. The key figures in the development of the theory of enunciation are Tzvetan Todorov, Gerard Genette and Roland Barthes (particularly in his work on the text in the 1970s), and all

draw on the work of Emile Benveniste and Roman Jakobson himself in the field of linguistics (most notably in their work on shifters). For all that, Jakobson's model remains a valuable tool in the singularly undeveloped area of performance-practice studies. 31 Jakobson, 'Closing statement', p.353: 'an orientation toward the context... is the leading task'. 32 See for example my own account of the shift from voices placed out of sight in the Sistine Chapel to modern performances by early-music groups that draw on 19th-century concertgiving conventions: D. Greig, 'Sight readings: notes on a cappeUa performance practice', Early music, Triii (1995). pp.124-48, esp. pp.131-6. 33 Raymond Moneile is doubtful it can ever be about code. See R. Moneile, Linguistics and semiotics in music (Chur, 1992), p.12. To be precise here, Moneile is talking about primary codes. As music does not 'mean' anything, it cannot be about its own codes, but there are a whole set of secondary musical codes which are learned and with which music can 'play'. 34 Jakobson, 'Closing statement', p.356: 'Whenever the addresser and/or the addressee need to check up whether they use the same code, speech is focused on the code: it performs a metalingual (i.e., glossing) function'. 35 For a further discussion of this issue see D. Greig, 'Performance Practice and Fantasy", Mittelalter Sehnsucht?: Texte des interdisziplin&ren Symposions zur musikalischen Mittelalterrezeption an der Universitit Heidelberg, April 1998, ed. A. Kreutziger-Herr and D. Redepenning (Kiel, 2000), pp.265-80. 36 Compare this with the 'straight' version as sung by the Orlando Consort on Food, wine and song: music and feasting in Renaissance Europe

(Harmonia mundi USA HMU907314), track 12.

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i Portrait of Count Vincent Ferrerus Waldstein (by courtesy of Mnichovo Hradiste stately home) 210 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

VIOLINISTS

Michaela Freemanovd and Eva Mikanovd

My honourable Lord and Father ...': 18th-century English musical life through Bohemian eyes

p HE Bohemian violinist and composer Antonin -L Kammel lived in London from 1765 until his death in 1784. During this period he conducted an extended correspondence with his employer, Count Vincent Ferrerus Waldstein. Writing in a curious mixture of German, Italian, Latin, Czech and later also English,1 Kammel described his experience of music and private life in a country that at the time was viewed from the Continent as 'so different from all the other states of Europe, in the form of its government, its laws, its customs, its manners, and the mode of thinking and of acting adopted by its inhabitants, that it seems rather to belong to some other globe than that on which we live'.2 In this article we shall examine Kammel's epistolary testimony concerning musical life in England. Kammel came to England as both a musician and a salesman; he was an agent selling wood from the Waldstein estates for ships' masts. His trade mission was not successful, but, helped by his friend and supporter Johann Christian Bach, he established himself in London as a sought-after violin player and music teacher. Over a period of nearly 20 years he acquired a number of patrons in high society, though he never rose to the status of a royal household musician; one of the decisive reasons for this might have been the fact that he was to the end of his life a Roman Catholic.3 Although he prospered in England, he always longed to return to Bohemia, where he hoped to live and die on the Waldstein estate. Kammel was born in Beied, close to Kfivoklat

Castle in Central Bohemia; at his baptism, registered on 21 April 1730, he was given the names Johann Anton. His father, Jan Jif i Kammel, was a forester on the Waldstein estate, and here Antonin Kammel gained his knowledge of forestry. From 1746 to 1751 he studied at the Piarist college in Slany\ near Prague, and then probably philosophy for three years; after that he studied law at Prague University. It is not known when and where he first met Count Waldstein, the owner of the large Mnichovo Hradistg (Miinchengratz) estate in north-east Bohemia (illus.2). But from his letters written on 6 and 25 July 1759 from Padua, where he studied the violin with Tartini, it is clear that he must already have been in the count's service at that time; he promised to return to the count as soon as possible, as he was just waiting for letters to come from Maestros Tartini and Ferrandini/ Count Waldstein (illus.i) was himself a music lover, a gifted cellist and possibly also a lute player, who had a large music collection. He supported the young Josef Myslivecek, whose early symphonies were first performed in the Waldstein Palace in Prague; he helped the composer travel to Italy and initially financed his stay there. Myslivedek dedicated some of his works to him. The count also organized theatre performances at his country estates, and wished to build a theatre at the Waldstein Palace in Prague, which would be the second in the city, the town council, however, would not agree to this. Prince Auersperg wrote a letter in early 1787 to ask

Michaela Freemanovd worked for a number of years for the Museum of Czech Music, Prague; today she is a musicologist with the Czech Academy of Sciences. Eva Mikanovd worked at the Litomyil Museum and at the Musicology Department of Charles University, Prague, and was a member of the Music History Department of the Academy of Sciences for more than 25 years.
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2 The Mnichovo HradiSte' estate viewedfromthe east and west, a mid-18th-century engraving by F. B. Werrner (by courtesy of Mnichovo HradiStS stately home) the count, as a music connoisseur, to help Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during his first stay in Prague; later that year the count's daughter Caroline wrote to him in Dresden, describing the preparations and anticipation in connection with the Prague premiere of Don Giovanni. This, though, was not the count's first encounter with Mozart's name; he had heard about him and his family much earlier, in one of Antonin Kammel's letters from London.5 Returning from Italy, Kammel lived on the Waldstein estates, and performed at the various residences of the Waldstein family all over Bohemia. He also taught music; among his pupils was Count Pallavidni,6 to whom he gave violin lessons in 1764 at Litomysl, the estate of Johann Georg Waldstein. Early in 1765 he left on another trip abroad. While in Regensburg on 7 February he asked the count for financial support to the extent of 420 guldens; he also informed him that he would continue through Wurzburg and Mannheim, giving performances as well as trading in wood on the count's behalf. In March he reached London, via Rotterdam and The Hague. His letter to Count Waldstein records the difficulties he had met during his passage, as well as his first impressions and successes (illus.3):
212 EARLY M U S I C MAY 2003 London, March 29th, 1765: [... ] After considerable danger to body and soul, I came here on the 29th hujus C:, this huge town of London almost surprised me, as in the whole of my life I never saw such a large town, one even feels like entering some other world. On the 20th hujus I travelled from The Hague, with an Italian cellist whose name is Zappa,7 in the company of a certain Milord Buckingham,* who is the Ambassador to Russia, to Helleverts-Schluss,' but as the wind was very adverse, we had to wait there several days, but as all hope for better weather was in vain, we sailed off, the Lord's mercy be upon us, me and the others, we were all frightened and in distress, and had to call to God for help, to all his Saints, as we heard the roaring of the sea, and because we also saw how three cargo boats sank, and so, as we were only just able to guess where the masts were, we all had to work the water-pumps, everybody working like lumberjacks, but the strong wind was greater than us, and covered half the packet-boat with water, so that all the luggage was swimming in water, because of it I lost all my suits, my linen is rotten, Summa sumarum, to tell the truth in front of the Lord, I arrived here like a poor sinner taken to the gallows, one jacket, one shirt, one handkerchief and one hope. To my great good fortune, I had still 130 golden ducats which I earned in WOrzburg and Rotterdam. Now, to be able to keep up to the status of your Excellency, as my most honourable Lord and Master, I have already had made two new suits, which cost 75 ducats, and six new shirts including cuffs. Everything here is so incredibly expensive, I have to spend

J'AC hn&f

3 Anton Kammel'sfirstLondon letter, from 29 March 1765 (Waldstein family papers, Prague, Central Stote Archives, RAVDoksy deposit, inv. no.3936, shelfmark vi-4/3, no.io)

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6 fl [guldens] a day, even if I live thriftily in the company of Mr. Zappa, who is a very honest man. Your Excellency, the whole town of London knows that I am in the service of your Excellency, and, mind you, as an honest man I must also declare, that the English people do not like to see a Virtuoso come to earn money for two or three months, and then take it out of the country, first of all one must make acquaintances amongst them, and play several times, before they start offering to one [any] presents, they want to know the composition, whether it is good or bad, and once the performance and the work are appreciated, than one performs for a great reward. If one gets [the work] published, each piece would cost one guinea, which is a great deal of money, one must be patient here and wait till the time is ripe, I will not leave before I have 500 or 600 guineas in my pocket. However, if it pleases your Excellency, my dearest Bach received me with great pleasure, he also told the Queen, who is his pupil, that I arrived, I shall have my first performance there, I hope in God, that it will go well, because I have to struggle against many who are of my profession, Italian, French, but not a single Bohemian. Write to me, Your Excellency, whether I could dare to dedicate my Trio to my most honourable Lord, or to somebody else. [The printing] would certainly cost 70 ducats here. But it would make the name of Your Excellency well known in the world, and I feel it my first worldly duty to dedicate it to Your Excellency, and as I do not know as yet how soon my trading with the English will start, I beg your Excellency in all my allegiance, as my gracious Father, to take good care of me, and to send me, according to your most gracious [financial] possibilities, a bill of exchange, I assure Your Excellency here, once God would help me, which I do not doubt, I shall put all thinkable effort in replacing it by something from here whenever your Excellency would command: for example: a horse or other things, it would be a privilege for me, as your Excellency's most obedient servant, to give your Excellency a present. [...] [...] My address is: To Sir Kamml Kings Square Court Soho a Londres10 After overcoming a sudden illness Kammel reported in his next letter about his trading on behalf of the count, dealing with the English wood merchants about trees from the Waldstein Bohemian estates, to be turned into ship's masts in Britain. It seems that the count provided him with the relevant addresses, and also letters of recommendation addressed to some members of the English nobility ('Milor' Malton, 'Milor' Hamilton, Miss Chudley), and the Austrian ambassador to London, Count Sailern." Later, as can be seen from his letters and also the dedications of his compositions, Kammel acquired powerful patrons himself, such as Lords Rivers and Thenham, Sir William Young, the Earl of 214 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

Aylesford, the Duke of Dorset, the Duke of Devonshire, Count Spencer and others. u In addition to his public benefits, he also performed privatelyas can be seen from the correspondence and diaries of another of his supporters, James Harris, which mention Kammel's 1770 and 1772 appearances at the concerts organized by members of high society themselves, namely Sir Robert Throckmorton and Thomas Anson (see below).13 In his second letter Kammel expressed his wish to stay in London as a musician as long as possible, and described his meeting with the Mozart family: London, April 30th, 1765: [... ] TheTe is only one thing I would like to humbly beg from your Excellency, to just give me permission to stay here longer, as I had to get on my feet, to give the Englishmen enough [opportunity] to feel satisfied, now I have written 12 sonatas in the English style, which required much hard work, one can't play anything difficult to them, because they do not like to sweat together with [a musician] who plays difficult [pieces], and sweats doing it, I can assure Your Excellency that I begin to be much appreciated, and everybody says I should stay here for the next winter, when they could arrange many benefit concerts for me, one such concert always brings 100 to 200 guineas. Now there is nothing to do, until the winter time, because most of the Milords are already in the country, and so the music in London is buried, now there is nothing else to be done besides composing and publishing. [...] to go away from here without any profit is a very difficult thing [to do] [...] I have also met here Mr. Mozart [...] Your Excellency should well hear the wonder of the world, [that is] his son, who is 8 years old, plays the instrument in a very virtuoso manner, composes like an angel, plays even the most difficult pieces prima vista, and apart from it he has the intelligence which one always associates with a man of 40 or 50 years [of age]. The father, mother, daughter and the little Kapellmeister send their respects to your Excellency, The merits of Mr. Mozart and his whole family really urged me to strike a special friendship with them. [...] Kammel's appreciation of the young Mozart was probably greater than any of the nobility and gentry for whom Leopold Mozart's London advertisements were intended. According to the custom of his time, he presented his children to the public on the level of curiosity exhibits; the language of his advertisements does not differ from similar ones published as late as the 1780s on behalf of a Dr Katterfelto's magic black cat and her kittens, an overdeveloped one-year-old infant, and a stone-eater, to whom a famous Bohemian horn player was later compared; this was

things other than wood from the Waldstein estates could be sold in Britain, such as the semi-precious stones for which Bohemia was famous'what is small in Bohemia, makes big money here in England'. As time passed, Kammel grew more troubled by his trade negotiations. In his letter of 30 November he wrote that the count should already know from his previous report (a lost letter, dated 5 November) that the British Admiralty did not want to pay the same price for the masts as for those from Riga and St Petersburg. His anxiety was multiplied by the fear of eventually being arrested ('if you do not keep to your words here, they arrest you immediately, which in this case could happen very easily'). He is staying in the house of his new patron, Mr Taylor ('who gives me food, drink, lodgings and services for free and likes me as his own son').17 He also mentions that he had wished to give the count's best regards to Miss Chudleigh, but as the Duke of Cumberland had died three weeks previously, it had not been possible'the whole town was in mourning, which also forced me to buy a couple of black suits with everything which goes with it, which cost me much money, because a virtuoso must make a good figure here, as if [he would be] a Cavalier, and if he does London, August 7th, 1765: not do it, then he is not valued at all.' [...] just in the last 8 days I have paid in London 87 ginee to Kammel's business anxieties deepened in 1766 the tailor, shoemaker and other people [... ] here a virtuoso (letters dated 31 January and 11 March), when he must be very clean, concerning his clothes and everything found that the masts had already come to William de [else], as I quite often have the honour of dining with Dukes, Lords and other important G[entlemen], and have enjoyed Drusina, who was to deal with them.18 Kammel felt the same treatment as these important people; but I also had that this failed business lost him a great deal of his to prove my merits; on the whole I am very strongly valued credibility with English high society, and the profit here; one begins to prefer me to Giardini and I hope quod victor ero. When I play the adagio one could hear the ladies would go to the merchant rather than to the count, while he and Johann Christian Bach did not expect sigh, God loves me especially, as there came other great Virtuosos here, [like] Christiani from Spain, who made 400 to gain any advantage from the sale. He still hoped to guineas in debts here, and had to leave without the slightest interest the Admiralty or the West India Company, profit. Please, do not think that the ginees are raining down or, at worst, any suitable English merchant, in the here. There is much more to it [...]" wood, but to no availthe masts were of the wrong Kammel's deep interest in and anxiety for the lengths and shape, and all the deals resulted in much count's affairs, together with his concern for the liv- lower prices than originally expected. He was also ing conditions of his own family, brothers and homesick, and again ill. However, he observed that elderly father, also shows in his next letter, dated 21 melancholy was an English fashion, which inclined September, in which he worries about the state of the the people towards suicide, though he hoped percount's finances. He suggests that the money from sonally to avoid this. He expected to marry a rich selling masts should be used for purchasing items bride (whom he hoped to bring to Bohemia, to live that could make a profit at home, and also that together in a forester's cottage on the Waldstein Jan Vaclav Stich-Punto, who enchanted England by his playing in the 1770s and 1780s.14 Despite his bad health, which was to trouble him for most of the coming years, Kammel dedicated himself fully to his work for the count; Johann Christian Bach also became involved. In his next letter, dated 8 May, Kammel described the problems concerning the selling of the Bohemian wood in England, where it would meet with much other foreign competition, mainly from Prussia, Denmark and Sweden. There was nothing to do musically, he urgently needed some money. The same concerns are reflected in his following report, where he mentions Count Waldstein's own acquaintances ('Miss Chudley and Miss Batt'), and also two of his new patrons, Lord Thenham and Esq. Solis ('who is a Baron to whom I give lessons').15 He seriously warned the count against trusting some of the people around him, and assured him that he and Johann Christian Bach, together with their patrons and friends, would do their best for the count's business affairs. But he did not have the necessary money to cover the tax on the imported wood, and other related expenses: he urgently needed money for himself again:
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3
21

estateproviding they could be remarried by the local Catholic priest). He also enjoyed his first public success, most probably at Bach and Abel's subscription concert:
London, March nth, 1766 [...] Several weeks ago I played in my first public concert with such applause which I had not expected, Giardini and others were beaten, my work goes well [...] if I would be allowed to stay here one year more, I could have a benefit concert in the next year, which would certainly bring me 100 pounds sterling, that is almost 10.000 guldens, after that I would return home again with pleasure, and work as a musician [there] [...]

In late May Kammel was taken to the country by Mr Taylor, and spent part of that summer recovering from a three-month illness at Bournplace, the country house of his main supporter at that time, Horatio Mann, Esq., a nephew of Sir Horace Mann, British envoy to Florence.19 To his wife, Lady Lucy Mann, who was one of his leading patrons at that time, Kammel dedicated the composition that he had obviously wanted originally to dedicate to Count Waldstein, the Set Trii Di Violino e Basso, Op. I, printed by John Welcker in 1766 (illus.4). In 1769 John Welcker, who in these years was Kammel's main publisher, issued A Second Sett of six SON A TAS for two Violins & a Bass Humbly Dedicated To his Excellency Count Vincent of Waldstein BY Antonio Kammell, Op. III.30 From Horatio Mann's house Kammel wrote to Count Waldstein about his continuing doubts about solving the wood trade problems; he believed that if the count should come to England he would not recognize him as a musician any more, but a welltrained tradesman. Music also had its problems:
Bournplace, July 5th, 1766 [...] I have so much trouble with music and other things, and I must struggle terribly against the other virtuosos; nevertheless, I have done for German and Bohemian virtuosity so much honour, as nobody else here in England was able to do; the Englishmen say that I am the saviour of all Bohemian and German virtuosi; but, as Giardini already won a lot, I can't beat him, because he also has many good friends, and to tell the truth, he plays very well; I made much money here already through my old violin, [and] also lost a lot of it, as I must pay for everything very dearly [... ]

of Music'21 he travelled incognito under the name Marchese Carmellino to Scodand (or possibly Ireland^see the confusing heading to the letter quoted below). He was full of optimism and looked forward to the future cheerfullyalso because of the prospect of marrying into a rich family. His future wife was worth 70,000-80,000 gulden, but did not wish to leave the country. Kammel liked England, which he described as a 'land of freedom, money, generosity and kindness', but all the time assured the count that he wanted to return. He was still much concerned for the masts, but showed signs of tiredness, caused by dealing with so many people who wanted to make their own profit, and getting nothing for me count himself. Apart from lovely women, music was still his greatest pleasure:
Edenbourg in Irland, October 20th, 176611 [...] Concerning music, I find more and more beautiful thoughts in my composing, not long ago I composed a whole Pantomime, which begins with a Symphony, followed by 12 Andantes and 12 Allegros including a concluding allegro, I assure Y[our] E[xcellency] that through this Pantomime I amazed everybody, all the Ladies and Lords and Gentlemen say that they haven't heard anything similar in their lives. 52 solos for the Violin, which, to tell the truth, are very beautiful, and 6 for the Viola da gamba, which start in a very decorative way. [...J23

In 1767 Kammel still tried to sort out the problems of dealing with the masts: he hoped to be able to sell them as building wood, to which, it seems, the count did not consent. Otherwise he missed neither friends nor money; everything went according to his wishes. The only problem was his future wife, who did not want to leave Britain, but was 'a pleasant 60.000 guldens worth'. He still believed that he would bring her back with him the following year. In January Kammel visited Cotesmore,14 and during his stay gave a public concert in Stamford:
Cotesmore, the Januar[y] [?] 1767 [...] Last Saturday I was in Stamford, which is a small town, for example as Jungbuntzlau [= Mlada Boleslav, in East Bohemia]. In a public concert 1 played 2 solos and the dapping was such as I never had in my life; [there was] Mann himself, young and old ladies and Misses' [...], all of them in love, and I made them even more loving through my old violin, and [I myself] was the second day very much in love with one young lady [...]

In autumn 1766 Kammel's health improved. With a 'certain Mr. Nouelle, who is a great lover 216 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003

In January 1768 Count Waldstein's cousin,

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4 Tide-page and dedication of Kammel's Set trii (London, 1766) (London, British Library, shelf-mark 242(12), primo)

Emanuel Philibert Waldstein, came to London. He visited the most famous places (including Windsor, Oxford and Cambridge), the Trudy Lane', HayMarket and Covent Garden theatres, where he listened to Piccini's La buonafigliuolaand, in performances of the False Delicacy, Macbeth and Cymbeline, saw some of the most important English actors of the time. He looked at either the Tower Zoo or another menagerie (Brooke's?), and left rather abruptly after being threatened and robbed by some highwaymen.29 The newspapers of the time comment on many such events, one of them also concerning Johann Christian Bach.1* Several times in his later letters, Kammel regretted that 'my Dear Traveller Count Emanuel, who, I hope Remembers our Travelling in England, and the Robbing of the Haywaymen with long Pistols' left so soon, as the highwaymen in question were caught, recognized by him, andfinallyexecuted. In the Public Advertiser of 1 March Kammel announced hisfirstpublic concert:

For the Benefit of A N T O N I O KAMMELL. At the Thatch'd

House Tavern, St James's Street, on Thursday, March 24, will be a great Concert of Vocal and Instrumental MUSIC, By the most capital Performers. Tickets, Half a guinea each to be held at Welcker's Music Shop, Gerrard Street, Soho. Where may be had, composed by Mr. Kammell, Six Sonatas for two Violins and a Bass, and six Duetsfortwo Violins. Price of each 10s. 6d. [Two pages from the Six Duetts appear as illus.5]

On 12 March he informed his patrons that the concert was to be postponed to 29 ApriL Later it was moved to 6 May, and the venue changed:
For the Benefit of Mr. KAMMELL. At ALMACK'S Room,

This Day the Sixth of May will be a Grand Concert of vocal and instrumental MUSIC under the Direction of Mess. Bach and Abel. The Music entirely new. One of the Ouvertures composed by her Highness the Princess Dowager of Saxony. Tickets to be had at Almack's, PaU Man, and at Welcker's Musk shop, Gerrard Street, Soho, at Half a guinea each.

As Kammel reported to Count Waldstein in his next letter, the concert was a success: EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 217

*10

VlOLINO , All? mod*

PRIMO

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5 Pages from the partbooks of Kammel's Six Duetts (London, ?i768), showing the opening of Duetto 5 218 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

VIOLINO
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Allegro Mjijerato

(London, British Library, shelf-mark g.276.d, vol.i, p.io, vol.2, p.io; by permission of the British Library) EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3
2 1

London, May 10th, 1768 [...] My Concert is over [and] it defeated all the other concerts [given] here, my profit from it was 400 gineas. I am very well, but it is pretty hard work. [...]

Kammel gives further information on this event and his life in his following letter, he also expresses his concern for the state of the count's affairs at home; but in none of the surviving letters of that time does he mention his marriage to Ann Edicatt on 20 January 1768 in St Marylebone Church.28
London, July 21st, 1768 [...] It is true that I make each year more than 6 to 7,000 guldens, but the expenses are very high, everybody appreciates me, everybody likes me, and this is why I have such a quantity of good friends, which I can't fully describe to your Excellency. [...] my Concert[...] was the best one, I had there more than 500 friends, my profit was 350 guineas, I have never seen so much money together in my life. [...]

On 9 and 17 November Kammel appeared as a leader and soloist, together with the oboist Johann Christian Fischer and flute player Carl Weiss, in Mr Simpson's Great Room in Bath, in concerts directed by Thomas Iinley, several of his works were performed.29 o correspondence between Kammel and Count Waldstein survives from the following three years. It seems, however, that Kammel wrote to the count and also received his lettersthe Waldstein family papers record his current addresses, some of which are also to be found in the advertisements for his concerts: in 1769 'A Monsieur Kammell Virtuoso de Musique (a Londres) In the florent Caffe hause in the King Street by Princesse Street' and 'To Mr Kammell at George Pitt Esqr in Hall=Moon Street Piccadilly London'; in 1770 'Monsieur Kammel in Little Carrington Street Mai Lain Piccadilly London' (Carrington-Street, May-Fair). In 1771 Kammel lived at the 'Corner of Great Tichfield and Margaret Street, Oxford Market'; and in the same year, he finally moved to his own house, in Half-Moon Street, Piccadilly. Kammel's musical activities at this period can be followed mainly through the advertisements for his concerts, and his works. Between February and April 1769 he took part in several benefit concerts for his colleagues, together with other famous London 220 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003

musicians of the time. His own benefit, shared by Johann Christian Fischer, took place at Almack's Great Room on 20 April; the orchestra was led by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel. Kammel's music also enjoyed success outside London. John Marsh's Journals mention one of his duets being played in August 1769 at 'the annual concert at Southampton'. On 14 December Kammel again appeared in Bath, at Mr Gyde's Grand Room, where several of his works were performed, among them a Quartettoperhaps the same one as was played on 27 April that year in London, at the benefit concert of Giacomo(?) Merchi, a virtuoso on the 'Colisoncino' and 'Liutino moderno, a new Instrument, invented by him'. This was the first recorded London quartet performance.30 Kammel's 1770 benefit concert, directed by Bach and Abel, was to be at Almack's on 7 May. On 1 May the Public Advertiser published an apology typical of the time, when the performer depended fully on noble patronage:
Mr. CAMMELL'S Benefit at Almack's, which was to have been the 7th of May, is obliged to be put off to Thursday the 17th on Account of the masquerade at Soho, being the same Night.

Kammel's 1771 benefit concert was at Hickford's Room, 9 May. In the same year he appeared at the Salisbury and Winchester festivals, to which he returned as a soloist and orchestra leader also in 1772, 1774.1775.1776,1778 and 1782. In 1773,1774 and 1776 he gave concerts at Blandford Forum. The title of his Six Dancing Minuets in Three Parts for two Violins and a Bass Composed by Antonio Kammell For a Select Assembly at Newberry, published by John Welcker c.1775 (illus.6), suggests that he also performed elsewhere in the provinces.31 Kammel's 1772 benefit concert took place at Hickford's Room on 7 May. Another of his letters survives from October of that year, probably a reply to the count's account of a rather difficult time. Kammel was very apologetic for his long silence. Many times he wished to return home, but he was kept by his English friends, and also lost more than 1,000 probably in investments; from his description of the events it seems that he became one of many victims of Alexander Fordyce's banking affair.31 Even so, he expected to enjoy 5,000-8,000 guldens annual

income in the future from his West Indian investments, and to come home for good. He was ready to help the count, and hoped to see him in England; despite his financial problems, and the fact that he did not marry a lady of means, but a penniless beauty, he was still doing well socially:
London, October 23rd, 1772 [...] Your Excellency knows well my good and open mind which made the whole of England into my friends and the English call me the King of Performers! that is the King of all Musicis, whether my violin or my composing contributed a lot to it, but also the interpretation and good mind did quite a lot for it [...] The whole of my house is to your service, which your Excellency certainly will find suitable, just the furniture cost me over 1000 Gineas, and I pay over 700 [guldens?] tax yearly. [...] the music is highly esteemed, in almost every house music is played, such circumstances are very good for me and other virtuosos. (...)

In his June letter that year Kammel expressed his low feelings: for six weeks he was very ill, and still weak; however, he asked for his father to be told that he was doing well. He wished to go back to Bohemia to take a cure in Carlsbad (and also to see the count), but that was not to be; he hoped to come next year with many of his patrons, and his old friend Bach. He recommended Carlsbad to everybody in England, where people suffered so much from 'Low Spirit commonly Calld Blue Devills'. He was waiting for the return of Sir William Young from Dominica; his aim was to sell his American land, and send all the money to the count He also commented on the count's news of his trip to Dresden:
London, June 23rd, 1773 [...] [Gaetano] Besozzi is a very good oboe player, but there is one here whose name is [Johann Christian] Fischer, born in Freyberg, who was many years in the services of the Prince of Curlandthis one is the world's best player. There are very good oboists here, but he is the king of all of them. My dear old good friend Mr Anson the brother of the Admiral Anson, who defeated so much the Spaniards, died two months ago. I do not like to loose good friends, his death contributed a lot towards my illness, in his testament he left me 50 gineas yearly for the time of my life, my friend George Pitt, when he saw me so distressed after Anson's death, he also gave me by the law 50 gineas yearly, now I have 100 gineas yearly which I can spend as I wish [...]*

Kammel's hopes to profit from his American lands were in vain. In his next letter, dated 29 February 1774, he wrote of his unhappiness and frustraLondon, March 2nd, 1773 tion; he had lost 1,500, for which he had worked [...] Now is the time when everybody is in London. I work hard, having given it, two years earlier, to Sir from early morning to the nightsometimes up to 12 p.m. or even 1 a.m. In the morning I have [my] pupils, from William Young to buy him land in America.35 Kamwhom I have half-a-Guinea for one lesson, in the afternoon mel felt that he should rather sell all his possessions, there are concerts, the people from whom I have no money as his only money was 600 safely invested with 5 per must take the tickets for my benefit, which will take place on cent interest If the government would sell the land April 26th, these cost 3 gineas; but, if the people have not money enough, I play [for this sum] per example 2 times or 3 in America, he would probably get not more than a times at one place; I am greatly favoured by myfriends,they quarter of the money bade 'the English are such take over 50 or 60 tickets, in this way I am paid twice and horrid people, good and bad, changing like the April three times. I...]33 weather'. He hoped to send the count 1,000 in the Kammel's 1773 benefit was mentioned by the Pub- next year, when he wished to come home; at present lic Advertiser as taking place at Hickford's Room on he felt helpless. The only thing he was able to 26 April. It was postponed, and on 7 May Kammel promise was to send seeds of American trees and shared it with Carl Weiss; most of the other partici- Macuba tobacco (a present from Sir William Young, pants were leading London musicians of the time 'which here in London costs one Ginea and half pro 3 but, perhaps the greatest attraction was fan Vaclav pound') to Prince Filrstenberg; * his only hope was a benefit concert, which he was 'forced to have this Stich-Punto.
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 221

KammePs next letter (probably an answer to the count's request for money) never reached Bohemia. The following one was much less cheerful: he had lost almost everything, except for 600, which was tied for three years by an investment scheme. He was not able to send anything home, and, at a time of spreading bankruptcies on the Continent, a loan was also out of the question. He was thinking of selling the house and all his possessions, but from a social point of view it was not a good move. His only hope was future money from America, which would also help the countproviding there was no war.

Price 1 \ "Printed and Sold%JoHN"WELCKBRN?5.HayMar]cet.acingfheOperaHoufe. 6 Title-page and p.i of Kammel's Six Dancing Minuets in Three Parts (London, ?i775) year'he, and all his noble English friends, believed that it would go well. The benefit concert in question took place at Hickford's Room on 29 April; Kammel shared it again with Carl Weiss; many other prominent London musicians appeared. 'By particular Desire' Kammel was to play a solo on the viola. But, according to his next letter, his rheumatic illness caught up with him before the concert: for two months he was unable to move either hands or feet, but was getting better slowly, he was sure that all his problems contributed to the onset of the illness; instead of going to Carlsbad, which would be much more pleasant for him, he went for a cure to Bath. He was ready to return home during the next summer, to sell all his belongings, take his 600 capital from a bank, and 'send to hell his American land for a middle price* (that is, a quarter of its original value). All this should bring him a income of 600 or 700 ducats per 222 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3 year. For the moment, music-making was out of the questionhe had to make his living through composing:
London, June 18th, 1774 [... ] My benefit concert was also not the best one, as I hardly was able to walk, and was not able to play myself, I had to leave somebody else to lead, and almost a]] I gained was devoured by 3 pigtailed doctors wigs. [...] Now I shall work hard, that is, compose, I have a contract with a music pubUsher, who has to pay me 100 gineas for one opera, that is 6 Trios, Quartetts, Symphonies, etc; [...]

In 1775 (and 1774) Kammel seems to have organized his own private concert series (or might have been acting as a professional manager for the private concert series of the nobility, inaugurated in 1773),37 and also appeared in several benefit concerts of other London musicians. His own was to be on 21 April; later it moved to 5 May. Again he played the viola. His next letter to Count Waldstein, from 16 July 1775,

" 5

Viol. 2
A ii

(London, British Library, shelf-mark b.55.fj by permission of the British Library)

was a reply to sad news f^bm homeboth Count Emanuel and Kammel's father were dead. He himself was not able to send any money back home. His long illness was very expensive, his health not the best His land in America was unsaleable because of the war. All his negotiations, started on behalf of the count, finished in a disastrous wayhe 'should have stuck to the music instead'. Kammel's 1776 benefit was to take place on 29 April, in Hickford's Room. It was postponed until 15 May, and the venue changed to Bach and Abel's New Assembly Rooms in Hanover Square. Kammel shared the benefit with Johann Christian Bach's wife, Cecilia Grassi; many other leading London musicians took part, including Felice Giardini, Kammel's biggest rival as a violin player. Here Kammel played a violin concerto; his abilities to perform, however, were probably already diminished by his illness. John Marsh heard him in

Salisbury, during the St Cecilia Festival, and was greatly disappointed:

I went [...] in the evening [...] to the 1st performance at the Rooms being a grand Miscellaneous Concert led by Kammell, in whom (having heard much of him as a composer of duetts, trios etc.) I was rather disappointed, as he by no means as a performer seem'd to rank above mediocrity, our own leader Tewksbury as well as many gentlemen performers being indeed equal & some superior to him. By a way of a solo, he play'd a piece so very tame & little interesting, & displaying so small a degree of execution, that Dr Stevens was, I remember, much disconcerted at it & said it was an insult to the audience [...J3*

In 1777 Kammel's annual benefit, shared with Carl Weiss, was at the Hanover Square Rooms on 9 May. Again he was supported by several outstanding London musicians. On 5 lune he himself gave the same service to Felice Giardini. Kammel's last surviving letter to Count Waldstein was taken to Bohemia by Count Esterhazy, together
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 223

with his 6 Divertimenti per La camera, e Sei Duetti, Li quali Sono presentemente publicati; e una Sorte di Musica, la quale piace Universalmente in Londra, e piu a Parigi; non e musica difficile, pure facile, e va essere Sonata bene, e con molta Espressione ('newly published 6 Chamber Divertimenti and Six Duets; music which is generally liked in London, and even more in Paris; not difficult, rather the opposite, could be played well, and with a lot of expression'). It seems that, before that date, Kammel wrote several times to the count, without reply. Even if he wished to hear something about his dear native country, he hoped to come during next summer to Carlsbad, perhaps with Lord Rivers, 'who used to be Mr. Pitt', and see the count againeither there, or in London; his whole house was at his disposal. His own life was not good; because of the war he had lost all his American investments for ever. However, he saved enough to live well with his growing family:
London, February 2ist, 1778 [...] I have now 3 children alive, 2 boys, and one girl, my wife's sister is living with us, she is 17 years old, she is a beauty and sings like an angel, what a pleasure it would be for Your Excellency to see and hear her. She is my pupil."

Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich AbeL An article about him, published in 1780 in the satirical encyclopedia A.B.C.Dario Musico, suggests that he might have needed the attraction of the others to help him: his illness might have crippled him considerably:
KJvtVLL. A German, formerly (he says) an officer in the Prussian service. He has published several works, which Mr. Bach has, with great good-nature, assisted him in, as he has done for others. As a performer on the violin, his talents are below mediocrity, and though he has composed for the harpsichord, we know his talent for that instrument is on a par with his violin performance.10

ROM 1778 Kammel's life can only be followed through newspaper advertisements and other documents. His 1778 benefit concert took place on 8 May at Pasquali's Room. Several of his works were performed, and several leading musicians appeared as guests. Kammel's sister-in-law, Lydia Edicatt, also sang; at that time, and also later, she took part in several London concerts. (On 1 April 1783 she married Charles Christian Besser, who was one of the witnesses of Kammel's last will, in St George's, Hanover Square.)40 In September 1778 Kammel led the orchestra at the Winchester Musical FestivaL41 In 1779 Kammel seems again to have organized his own subscription concerts and took part in private music entertainments, as well as several benefits of his London colleagues; his own was on 6 May, in the Tottenham Street Rooms, where several of his compositions, among them two symphonies, were performed.41 His 1780 benefit was to take place at Pasquali's Room on 5 May, it was postponed first to 11 May, and again to 19 May. Several of his famous London colleagues supported him, among them

In 1781 Kammel's benefit concert was on 11 May at Pasquali's Rooms; Johann Christian Bach took part. Kammers last benefit concert, shared with Frederick Nicolai, and, as always, supported by colleagues, was arranged for 10 May 1782 in Carlisle House.44 Kammers last two years remain obscure in many ways. It seems that during 1783 he neither gave a benefit concert nor took part in any other public event. Perhaps he performed privately; but it is also possible that he became too ill to play at alL He still had the income from his bank investments, and was able to keep his house in Half-Moon Street; his financial situation was reflected in his last will (illus.7), which he wrote in March 1784:
In the Name of God. Amen. I Anthony John Kammell of half Moon Street in Piccadilly in the Parish of Saint George Hanover Square in the County of Middlesex Musician do make my Will as follows. Item I give and bequeath to my Dear Wife Ann Kammell all my Household Goods Plate & China and the Sum of one hundred Pounds Item I give and bequeath to my Daughter Elisabeth Rosana three hundred Pounds four per Cent Bank Annuities and I order the same to be transferred to her on her Day of Marriage provided she Marries with the Consent of my said Wife Ann Kammell But in Case my said Daughter shall Marry without the Consent of her Mother then and in such Case I revoke the said Legacy and Order the same to sink into the residuum of my Personal Estate Item I order and direct my Executors hereinafter named as any of my Sons shall attain the Age of fourteen Years to place them out apprentice to such Trade as my said Wife and Executors shall think proper and to give such Sum with them as they shall think fit not exceeding the Sum of Fifty Pounds each All the rest residue and remainder of my Personal Estate I give and bequeath to my Executors hereinafter named Upon the Trusts and to and for the uses intents and purposes following (that is to say) Upon Trust to pay the Interest Dividends and Proceeds thereof as the same

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?- , 7 Anton Kammel's will, PROB 10/2960 (Kew, The Narional Archives) EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3 225

shall become due and payable from time to time unto my said Wife Ann Kammell for her own use and benefit for and during the Term of her natural life and from after the decease of my said Wife Ann Kammell then in Trust to pay and Transfer all the said rest residue and remainder of my Personal Estate to my four Children Elisabeth Rosana, George Anthony, John Christian and Henry Kammell equally share and share alike, or to such of them as shall be then living. Item I do hereby nominate constitute and appoint Charles Reeve of half Moon Street aforesaid Charles Christian Besser of Germany and Benjamin Starling of James Street Covent Garden Executors of this my last Will and Testament lastly & so hereby revoke and make void all former Wills by me at any time heretofore made and declare this to be my last Will and Testament In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and Seal this eighteenth Day of March One thousand seven hundred and eighty four Anthony Kammell Signed Sealed Published and declared by the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the Presence of us: Tho1 Reeve half Moon Street Piccadilly W": Iindeman N0.459 Strand Proved at London the 15th day of Oct 1784 before the worshipful George Harris D* of Laws and Surrogate by the Oaths of Charles Reeve and of Benjamin Starling two of the

Executors to whom Admon was granted having been first sworn duly to adm power reserved of making the like grant to Charles Christian Besser the other Extor when he shall apply for the same.45

Antonin Kammel died on 5 October 1784. No record of his burial exists. Up to 1791 the members of the Catholic Church in England were buried in secret, usually at night. He might have been buried by his fellow Freemasons (he was initiated in London's Pilgrim Lodge on 22 January 1780), or he may have died on the Continent more will perhaps be revealed by future research.4* His letters offer a fascinating view of the hie of a late 18th-century Central European musician driven into the peripetias of a foreign lano1his rise in fame alternating with losses caused by war and fraud, his success marred by illnesses and constant longing for the lost paradise of his native country. It was this land, however, which, after he adopted it, offered him, despite all its problems, a safe musical and social haven, which he knew he would be unable to find anywhere else.

Note
Kammel's letters were discovered by Eva Mikanova in the Waldstein family papers surviving at the Waldstein family home in Mnichovo Hradiste' (MOnchengratz), East Bohemia. Today they are housed in the Central State Archives, Prague (RAVDoksy deposit, shelfmark vi-4/3). The documents concerning Kammel's London stay were researched in England by Michaela Freemanova, using period documents and publications, as well as the available biographical and music dictionaries, and other relevant materials. Earlier research into Kammers life was undertaken by Tomislav Volek and the late ZdeAka Pilkova (the author of the Kammel article in New Grove; her London research partner was Sylva Simsova). All the original letters and documents (concerning also Kammel's stay in Italy and Germany) will be published in the near future by the National Library, Prague. The following people made important contributions to this work: from Britain, Donald Burrows, Timothy H. McK. Clough, Oliver Davies, the late Gordon Dodd, Kenneth E. James, Betty Matthews, Brian Robins, Stephen W. Roe and Simon McVeigh; from the United States, Graydon Beeks; from Germany, Urte Hartwig; from the Czech Republic, Petr Maiek. Thanks for support should also go to the Rt. Hon. Viscountess Campden (Exton Park, Oakham), Rosamond 226 EARLY M U S I C MAY 2 0 0 3 McGuinness (London), Ruth Harris (London), C. Richard F. Maunder (Cambridge), Philip Olleson (Nottingham), Thelma Stollar (London) and Dirkjan Horringa (Utrecht). The following organizations and firms considerably helped to extend the authors' knowledge: Bank of England (London), Bath City Council and Bath Reference Library, British Library (London), Dorset Record Office (Dorchester), Hereford Cathedral Library, Edinburgh Central Library and City Archives, Christie's (London), Goldsmiths' Hall (London), Greater London Record Office (London), Guildhall Library (London), HM Customs and Excise (London), Library and Museum of the United Grand Lodge of England (London), National Archives (Dublin), National Library of Ireland (Dublin), National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh), National Maritime Museum (Greenwich), Phillips (London), Public Record Office (Kew), Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland (Wigston Magna), Royal Archives (Windsor Castle), Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London), Rutland County Council Libraries and Museums (Oakham), Salisbury Reference Library (Salisbury), Sadisische Landesbibliotheke (Dresden), Staffordshire Record Office (Stafford), Shropshire County Council (Shrewsbury) and Wells Cathedral Library.

Mikanova, 'Neznama mozartovska bohemika' ['The unknown Bohemian Mozart sources'], Hudebnlrozhledy, xli/4 (1988), pp.181-5; E Mikanova, 2 Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz, A 'Obermayeruv ufitel v Italii' ['OberPicture of England: containing a descrip- mayer's Teacher in Italy'], in S. tion of the Laws, Customs and manners Bohadlo, Josef Myslivdek v dopisech of England (London, 1789), i, p.i. [Josef Myslivecek's letters] (Brno, 1989), pp.21-43; E. Mikanova, 'Antontn 3 Concerning the social status of Kammel v Londyni' ['Anton Kammel Catholics in late 18th-century England, in London'], Colloquium musica ac see Archenholz, A Picture of England, ii, sodetas (1740-1815), Brno 1989, ed. P. pp.1634: T o obtain any employment Macek (Brno, 1994), pp.139-44. under the government, it is necessary to take oaths of supremacy and alle6 Perhaps Giancarlo (Carl) Pallavicini giance; but as catholics either cannot or (1739-89), member of the Austrian will not take them, they are deprived of branch of the Pallavicini family, which many advantages, and excluded from a owned the Jemnice estate in South number of offices [...]'. The informaMoravia (this information we owe to tion on Kammel not being a royal Petr Masek). household musician, as previously 7 Francesco Zappa (b Milan; thought, was supplied by the Royal /Z.1763-88), lived in London 1765-7. Archives, Windsor Castle. None of the period London directories mention 8 John (Hobart) 2nd Earl of BuckingKammel as a royal musician; he ham (172393) had been British appears as such only in later sources, Ambassador to Russia until January such as the music dictionariesfor 1765; he had returned to London by example Gerber, Choron, Dlabacz, March 1765. Sainsbury, Fetis and Eitner. It seems that the mistake originated in the 1790 9 Hellevoetssluiss, a small harbour edition of Gerber's Historischtown, situated on the Haringvliet (one Biographisches Lexicon der Tonkuenstler of the branches of the Rhine estuary), (i, col.706), copied by Dlabacz for the 50 km south of The Hague. (This first time in Riegger's Materialen zur information we owe to Dirkjan Horalten und neuen Statistik von BBhmen, ringa, Utrecht) xii (Prague, 1794). Dlabacz, however, 10 At that time, Kammel stayed with must have done his own research, Johann Christian Bach and Carl because in his Kammel articles, there Friedrich Abel. appears the information on Kammel's marriage to a rich English lady, which 11 Miss Chudley was probably Elizaprobably came from Kammel's own beth Chudleigh, Countess of Bristol; letters to Count Waldsteinsee n.2 Count Waldstein might have met her above, Kammel's 1766 and 1767 letters, during her sojourns in Germany, and n.27 below. where, according to the period English press, she was favourably received (see, 4 Probably Giovanni Battista Ferranfor example, The Stamford Mercury, 23 dini (1710-91), Italian composer in the October 1766). The Austrian Ambassador to London, Count Sailern, service of the Munich electoral court, replaced in 1771 by Count Belgioioso, who, for reasons of health, lived in was most probably Christian August Padua from 1755. von Sailem und Aspang (1717-1801); 5 Count Waldstein's interest in music see Historisch-heraldisches Handbuch is shown by many period documents, zum genealogischen Taschenbuch der such as his correspondence with the grifischen Httuser (Gotha, 1855). composer abW Josef Gelinek-Cervetti [Gelineck, Jelinek], and others, and 12 Kammel's music can be found, for also by the Kammel article in Johann example, in the British Library Royal Gottfried Dlabacz, AUgemeines hbr Manuscripts Collection (including one torisches KQnstlerlexikon fur Bdhmcn autograph). For Kammel's music in the und zum Theil auch MShren und collection of the 3rd Duke of Dorset, Schlesien (Prague, 1815-18). See E. see W. K. Ford, 'Music at Knole', 1 The English translation of Kammel's letters was prepared by Michaela Freemanova and David Freeman.

National Trust Studies, 1979 (London, 1978), pp.161-79. Purchases of Kammel's music, are recorded in the accounts of the 1st Earl Spencer for November 1773:
13 N o b r For K t r a m d j Trioi o 10 6 30 For K e m m d j N o t t u m e n [ric) 0 7 6

(This, and some other information on Kammel's noble patrons and the dedicatees of his compositions, was supplied by Oliver Davies.) Kammel is not mentioned in any other document or correspondence in the Althorp Papers, (now in the British Library, London), or in the correspondence of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (now in the British Library, London, and the Bodleian Library, Oxford). 13 See D. Burrows and R. Dunhill, Music and theatre in Handel's world: the papers of James Harris and his family, 1732-1780 (Oxford, 2002), pp.587,666. 14 The advertisements mentioned (including those of Leopold Mozart) were printed by the Public Advertiser. For Jan Vaclav (Johann Wenzel) StichPunto's comparison to a stone-eater, see S. McVeigh, Concert life in London from Mozart to Haydn (Cambridge, !99J> 1995)) P-78; for his appearance at the private concert in Thomas Anson's house in 1772, see Burrows and Dunhill, Musk and theatre, p.666. Kammel's letter was published in T. Volek and I. Bittner, Mozartovski stopy v tcstych a moravsky'ch archivech [The Mozartiana of Czech and Moravian archives] (Prague, 1991), pp.14-16; for the Mozart advertisements in London periodicals, see O. E. Deutsch, Mozart: die Dokumente seines Lebens (Leipzig, 1961), pp.33-47. Leopold Mozart mentions "Mr Kammel Violinist' in his travel diaries; see O. E. Deutsch and W. A. Bauer, Mozart Briefe undAufzeichnungen, i: 1755-1776 (Kassel, 1962), P-19515 For Miss Chudley see n.11 above. 'Esq. Sous' was probably John Cochaine Sole, Esq., a dedicatee of Kammel's Six trios for two Violins and a Violoncello With a Thorough Bass for the Harpsichord, op.xvi, published in London by John Preston in 1780. Other dedicatees of KammePs compositions were, for example, Lady Lucy Mann (see later), George Pitt Esq. (Six MAY 2 0 0 3 227

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Quartettos, op.iv), Thomas Anson Esq. (Six Duets, op.v), Lady Young of Delaford (Six Notturnos, op.vi), Countess Spencer (A Second Sett of Six Quartettos, op.vn), Richard Ottley Esq. (Six Solos, op.vm), Miss Ottiey (Six Sonatas, op.ix), the Duke of Devonshire (Six Overtures, op.x), Sir Gregory Page Turner (Six Divertimentos, op.xiv), the Earl of Ayiesford (Six Duets, op.xv), Lady Banks (Six Divertimentos, op.xvii), Sir William Young (Six Notturnos, op.xix). 16 The violinist Felice Giardini (1716-96) flourished in England 1750-84 and in the early 1790s. The Spanish musician Christiani is not listed by any of the available early or modem music dictionaries. The diary of George William Harris notes a concert of a violinist Christiani, probably in James Harris's house, on 12 December 1764 (see Burrows and Dunhill, Music and theatre, p.437). 17 The identity of this supporter of Kammel remains undisclosed. Parts of the autograph of Kammel's violin sonata in the British library's Royal Manuscripts Collection, R.M.oi.ii6, are signed by Henry Taylorthis may be the same Mr Taylor to whom Kammel's letters refer; the sonata might have been composed for him in return for his hospitality. 18 According to the period London directories, William de Drusina Esq. lived in Jefiry's Square, St Mary ax.; in the 1780s the firm changed its name to De Drusina & Ridden, and moved to Stable Yard, America Square. None of Kammel's trading, and later banking, is sufficiently dear; there are no records of Waldstein goods coming to England^not in the Public Records Office, Kew, nor the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (where our research was helped by Gordon Dodd), nor the archives of HM Customs and Excise, nor at Goldsmith's Hall (for the importing of semi-precious stones). Kammel's bank account at the Bank of England was opened in 1777 with 1,575 (in government stock4 per cent annuities), and dosed in 1793 with 300 (this information was supplied by the Bank of England); he had another account in 1773 (see n.45 below).

19 Horatio Mann was the son of Sir Horace Mann's younger brother Galfridus. Boumplace is described in Leopold Mozart's travel diaries from 25-30 July 1765: 'Zu Canterbury die hauptkirch, und von Canterbury sind wir 4 meil auf die country to Mtn Man at Burn plas gegangen, dieses war ein sehr schones Landgutt.' See Deutsch and Bauer, Mozart Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, i, p.199. Recently we were supplied with more information about the house by T. H. McK. Clough. Hudson's stately homes (reprint 2000) associates Mozart's visit with Highland Court near Bridge, in Kent (in the neighbourhood of Bourne Park). 20 Both sets of violin sonatas are in the British Library, op.i under the shelfmark g.242.(i2.), op.3 under the shelfmark g.222.h.(i,). The first edition of op.i had a dedication, omitted in the later editions: 'IlLma Sig. Essendo Stata VS HI1 la prima e la prindpale mia Protettrice al mio comparire in questa Capitale, il dovere non meno die il genio m' obbligano di pubblicare queste miefetichesotto i di Lei auspicij, onde dare una publica dimostrazione della indelebile mia gratirudine per i tanti favori, che La Sua benignita si e compiaciuta compartirmi non meno che di quello umilissimo ossequio, con cui sono e 1 sard sempre Di VS* 1 1 1 umil e dev0 Serv.re Antonio Kammell Londra 15 Marzo 1766'. 21 The 'certain Mr. Nouelle' was probably a relation of the owner of the Cotesmore manor, Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough, whose second daughter was Lady Lucy Mann (we owe this information to T. H. Mck Clough, Curator of the Rutland County Council Libraries and Museums, Oakham). There are no surviving documents which would disdose the identity of 'Mr. Nouelle' We are grateful to the Rt Hon. Viscountess Campden, from Exton Park, Oakham, the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, Wigston Magna, for their research and help. Our thanks also go to Pouinger Ltd for granting the access to the Lovelace-Byron Archive, containing the Noel papers, at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

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22 There is no mention of Kammel giving a concert in Edinburgh in the local 1766 periodicals (in the National Library of Scotland, The Edinburgh Central library and City Archives and the British Library, London; our manks for help go to Irene G. Danks from the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh). 23 The pantomime mentioned by Kammel is probably identical with A third sett of trios or Ballo consisting of two Acts with a short introductory Overture to each Act and a collection of Airs &c Compos'd by Antonio KammeU, published by John Welcker in 1774 (British Library, g.27o.v.(2.))24 For Cotesmore see n.21 above. There are no documents which would shed more light on Kammel's concert in Stamford. It seems that his public appearance was not a part of the subscription series. (The January assembly took place at the town hall on Tuesday 27 Januarysee The Stamford Mercury, 22 January 1767.) 25 Emanuel Philibert Waldstein was a member of the Duchcov (Dux, North Bohemia) branch of the Waldstein family; his diaries survive in the Waldstein papers (today in Central State Archives, Prague). Brooke's Menagerie was near Gray's Inn (see The Public Advertiser, 13 April 1768). 26 An item concerning Johann Christian Bach being robbed of a guinea, a gold watch and chain and seals, from The Gazeteer and New Daily Advertiser, 15 June 1775, is quoted in An eighteenth century journal, being a record of the years 1774-1776, ed. J. Hampden (London, 1940), p.185. (This information we owe to Gordon Dodd.) 27 The'Princess Dowager of Saxony' was Maria Antonia Walpurgis, Electress of Saxony (17241780), who, in addition to composing, also sang, played the lute and wrote poetry, her manuscript and printed works, together with her music collection, are today in the Sachsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden. (We owe this information to Urte Hartwig from the Library's Music Department.) In 1776 possibly the same work which was mentioned by Kammel's concert advertisment was published by Kammel in the Six Over-

tures in Eight Parts, printed by John Welcker; other compositions in this volume being by Stamitz, Vanhal, Myslivecek and Haydn (wrongly attributed; British Library, g. 474.(7.)). 28 The marriage was entered as no.1392 in A Register-Book for Marriages in all Parish Churches and Chapels, 1760-1768 (Greater London Record Office, London). See also Z. Pilkova, 'Kammel, Antonln', New Grove I. 29 Johann Christian Fischer (17331800) gave his first London public concert in 1768; he then lived in England up to his death. Carl Weiss flourished in England, i768-9o(?). Thomas Linley (1733-95) directed Bath concerts from the mid-V50s to the mid-i77os. For Kammel's concerts in Bath see K. E. James, Concert life in eighteenth-century Bath (PhD diss., London, 1987). Kammel's possible appearance in Wells is mentioned in G. Melville-Mason, "The music and musicians of Bohemia in Great Britain in the second half of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries', Czech music (London), xvi (1990/91), p.i6n.; we were unable to confirm this information in any of the relevant archives. 30 See John Marsh's Journals, iv (1769), p.291 (Bodleian Library, Oxford). Period popularity of Kammel's music is also documented in W. Gardiner, Musk and friends (London, 1838-53), i, p.45. For Kammel's benefit and quartet performances, see McVeigh, Concert life in London, p.105. The Quartette in question might have been one of the Six Quartet's by KammeU, published by John Welcker in May 1770 as op.rv. (for the dedication see n.15 above). Giacomo Merchi was the brother of Joseph Bernard Merchi, who lived in Paris, 1750-9331 In 1773 Kammel had a benefit concert in Blandford, where he appeared with Johann Christian Bach and Jan Vaclav Stich-Punto. The information on Kammel's appearances in Salisbury, Winchester and Blandford was kindly supplied by Betty Matthews. See also Burrows and Dunhill, Music and theatre, pp.651, 684,735,851, 994.

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32 Alexander Fordyce's banking speculations led to a crisis of the British financial market in 1772. 33 Kammel's teaching wages, mentioned in this letter, were equal to these of Johann Christian Bach. (This information was kindly supplied by Stephen W. Roe.) 34 The last will of Thomas Anson, Esquire, from 27 February 1772, left 'An annuity of fifty pounds a year to M r Kammel] and the same to Mr Kent for their lives.' The identity of Mr. Kent remains undisclosed. (See Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Wills and Admons, Public Record Office, Kew, PROB 10/2611the original will.) Kammel is not mentioned in any document in the papers of the Anson family, Viscount Anson and Earls of Lichfield, or in the papers of the Pitt-Rivers family (we are grateful to the Staffordshire Record Office, Stafford, and Dorset Record Office, Dorchester, for their research and help). 35 Sir William Young was the

Governor of Grenada, the Grenadines, Dominica, St Vincent, Tobago and other British West Indian colonies. In 1773 he resigned and returned home. In his papers in the Public Record Office, Kew (shelf-marks c.0.71/4; c.0.72/1; 00.72/8; c.0.76/9) mere is no record of Kammel being an owner of a plot in America. 36 TheWaldsteinsandtheFurstcnbergs intermarried. 37 The correspondence and cash books of the members of the Harris family suggest that in January 1774 and 1775 they paid for Kammel's concerts, which were not his annual public benefits; see Burrows and DunhilL, Music and theatre, pp.760,795. 38 John Marsh, Journals, vi (1776), pp.549 ff. (quoted from a copy, held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford). He continues later. 'I also here for the 1st time heard Giardini's Trios for a Violin, Tenor 8c Violoncello, one of wch. was played this Evg. by Kammell, his pupil Blake on the Tenor, & Crosdill*. This quotation we owe to Brian Robins

and also Graydon Beeks (from the Huntington Library, San Marino, California copy of the Journals). On 8 May 1779 Marsh mentions 'Miss Banks of Sarum at Mr Kammel's, where she was staying on a visit, who (as Mr Harris had also done) told me of Sacchini's new opera of Enea e Lavinia being done that evening & advis'd me to go & see it, which I did'. (Miss Banks was a daughter of Benjamin Banks, a noted Salisbury violin maker; this quotation and relevant information we owe to Brian Robins.) 39 By 1778 in the record of baptisms in the parish of St George's, Hanover Square, five children were registered under the surname Kammell (Kammel, CammeH): William (born 4 November, baptized 29 November 1770), Elisabeth Rosana (born 16 October, baptized 30 November 1772), Marcia Mary (born 17 July, baptized 29 July 1774), George Anthony (born 18 July, baptized 2 September 1775), and Henry Christian John (born 27 November, baptized 21 December, 1777). Two of

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Kammel's children were born in 1779, Horace Christopher (born 27 February, baptized 30 March) and in 1780, Henry James (born 22 October, baptized 12 November). See die rates, birth, marriage and death registers of the parish of St George's, Hanover Square (Westminster Archives, London) 40 For Lydia Edicatt's marriage, see the record of marriages in the parish of St George's, Hanover Square, V0L17, no.154, (the witnesses were Ann Kammdl and Henry Noel). 'Miss Edicatt (Edicott)' appeared as a soloist 1778-83 only in six concerts, three of mem being KammelTs 1778,1779 and 1780 benefits; see Burrows and Dunhill, Music and theatre, pp.1028-9. 41 See n.31 above. 42 See n.37 above. Elizabeth Harris mentions in her correspondence a 'Shah Rab' held in January 1779, in which Kammel took part; a payment for Kammel's subscription concert was entered in James Harris's London account book; see Burrows and Dunhill, Music and theatre, pp.1006,1012.

43 A.B.C.Dario Musico (Bath, 1780), pp.31-2. 44 Violinist Frederick Nicolai (Nicolay) wasforseveral decades a member of the royal household from the 1760s; later he acted as one of the music directors of the Royal Society of Musicians. 45 Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Wills and Admons, Public Records Office, Kew, M t Sign. Prob. 10/2960 the original will; PROB 11/1122, p. 312 ff., PROB 12/156administrative copies. Kammel's will was found by M. Freemanovi in 1988 and its existence and contents first mentioned in her paper 'Antonin Kammel v London? ['Anton Kammel in London'] at the Colloquium Musica ac Sotietas, Brno, Czechoslovakia, 1989 (published in Hudebnlvtda [Muskology], xxxi/4 (1994). PP-399-4O2). The will was published in Z. Pilkova and S. Simsovi, 'Nilez zaveti Antonina Kammela (1730-1784?)' [The last will of Anton Kammel'], Hudebnl vtda [Musicology], xxx/4 (1993). PP-382-8) and in T h e will of Antonfn Kammel', Czech

musk (London), xix (1995/6), pp.8794. On 12 December 1787 Ann Kammel married Richard Tanner (see the record of marriages in the parish of St George's, Hanover Square, V0L18, no.658), According to Z. Pilkovi and S. Simsova, the rest of Kammel's money deposited in the Bank of England (see n.18 above) was transferred in 1793 to E. R. Gilbert, who could have been Kammel's daughter, Elisabeth Rosana, married Gilbert. 46 The information on Kammel's membership in the Freemason's Pilgrim Lodge no.516 (now no.238), London, we owe to the Library and Museum of the United Grand Lodge of England. For the secret burials of Catholics see D. J. Steel and E. R. Samuel, Sources to Roman Catholic and Jewish genealogy andfamUy history (London, 1974), pp.875-80.

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l Portrait presumed to be of Giovanni Battista Viotti; anonymous oil painting, late 18th century (Paris, Collection Musee de la Musique; photo: Jean-Marc Angles). This picture previously belonged to the Andre Meyer collection; according to its catalogue, CoUection musicak Andri Meyer (Abbeville, 1961), the following words are on the bade'Viotti di Fontanetto. Vercellese, 1783.' This reveals a certain familiarity with local geography (Fontanetto belonged to the diocese of Vercelli), which might indicate that the artist was Italian, and further, that the portrait could have been painted in or near Fontanetto when Viotti was there in the summer of 1783.

232

EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2003

VIOLINISTS

Warwick Lister

'Suonatore del Principe': new light on Viotti's Turin years

HEN Leopold Mozart visited Turin with his son, 14/15-30 January 1771, he made an entry in his travel diary, in the form of a list of 20 or so names of persons they had met, mostly members of the Turinese nobility and musical luminaries of the court.1 This is the only known record of their sojourn in the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia; there are no relevant newspaper reports, diary entries or documents in the archives of the Teatro Regio,2 Turin's famous opera house, where Wolfgang and his father surely heard a performance of Paisiello's Annibale in Torino,3 conducted by the composer, whose name is among those on Leopold's list Leopold also recorded the names of two, possibly three, personsPugnani, Celoniat and the Marchesa di Vogherawho played decisive roles in the early life and art of Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824), the most influential violinist of his day. Gaetano Pugnani's role as Viotti's principal teacher is well known. He had taken Viotti as a pupil probably sometime in the previous 16 months, after returning from a trip to England.4 Nine years later, when the two violinists undertook a European concert tour, culminating in Viotti's dbut in Paris in March 1782, the younger man was still known as a 'pupil of the illustrious Pugnani'. As for Celoniat, we cannot be sure which of the several musician-members of this family the Mozarts met. Eibl, followed by others, suggests that it was probably ('wahrscheinlich') Ignazio.5 The orchestra of the Teatro Regio which Leopold and Wolfgang would have heard numbered no fewer

than seven Celoniats among its members: six violinists, including Ignazio, and one double bassist6 One of the violinists had been Viotti's teacher, before Pugnani. In 1766 the Marchesa di Voghera (1723-1802) had taken the 11-year-old Viotti into her palace as a kind of musical companion to her only son, Alfonso, Prince Dal Pozzo della Cisterna (1748-1819), the 18year-old scion of one of the richest and most prominent families of Turin.7 She was 47 when the Mozarts met her, widowed for 16 years. Leopold remembers her as 'Conte Caron e la sua bella Sig.ra Principessa [recte 'Marchesa'] di Voghera8 e le sua [recte 'sue'] figlie'.9 The marchesa had four daughters, the three eldest in their mid-to-late 20s at the time of the Mozarts' visit, all married; the youngest, Maria Anna, was 18 years old, as yet unmarried. From 1761 until 1768, when he attained his majority, Prince Alfonso was placed under his mother's guardianship, and his patrimony under her administration, for which detailed accounts were kept These recently examined account registers, six in number, housed in the Archivio di Stato in Biella, Italy,10 as well as a number of other documents in this archive and in the archives of Turin, provide a more detailed picture of Viotti's formative years in Turin than hitherto possible. Doubtless, they could also provide a valuable insight into the daily workings of a princely Italian household of the ancien regime, though that is beyond the scope of the present article except for a few elementary notes relevant to our subject

Warwick Lister is an independent researcher, recently retired from 18 years as a violinist in the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Previously he played in the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Lenox Quartet, and taught music history and the violin at Ithaca College, New York.
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3
2

33

?**

2 G. B. De Gubematis, Palazzo della Cistema seen from the rear, with the garden covered in snow (February, 1830), watercolour (Turin, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna; by permission). The wing on the left, refurbished in the 1770s, contained the apartments of the Prince Dal Pozzo della Cistema on the piano nobile. The portion on theright,by 1850 somewhat decayed, was completely reworked in the late 19th century. It is not known where in the palace Viotti was lodged.

The Palazzo della Cistema (illus.2)11 was about a five-minute walk from the royal palace (Palazzo Reale), with its chapel, and from the Teatro Regio (see illus.3). As we shall see, these two institutions loomed large in the lives of both the prince and Viotti. In the 1760s and 70s the marchesa and her children were attended by a retinue of 25-30 persons: the prince's tutor, a 'medico di casa', a secretary, a major-domo, and kitchen, domestic and stables staff. The prince, besides the instruction of his regular tutor, whose yearly salary of 360 lire (L.360) included 'offerings for the Masses', enjoyed an array of lessons in special subjects. The registers show payments of varying regularity throughout this period to maestri of writing ('piuma francese'), dancing, drawing, fencing, equitation, German and violin." 234 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

Dancing and writing lessons were given to the prince's sisters as well, but, as the eldest were married off from 1762 to 1765, these payments decrease correspondingly, leaving only Maria Anna, who also received harpsichord lessons. The fee was the same (L.16 for a month's lessons) for all the maestri except for the writing instructor (L.24) and the German instructor (L20). The household boasted two harpsichords, the cost (L.250) of a new one with two registers 'for the use of the children' having been entered on 1 January 1762;13 semi-annual payments were made for tuning and maintenance. There are occasional payments for music copying and binding, and on 18 April 1763 and 21 February and 30 October 1767, 'suonatore venuti ad un concerto in casa' were paid L.24, L.84 and L.24

3 Detail of an Explanatory map of Turin wtth numbers indicating all the owners of the houses, identification of the churches with letters and descriptions of the quarters, squares and principal places in 1796 (Turin, Biblioteca Reale, Incisione iv 70; by permission). The Palazzo deOa Cistema (no.818) is three blocks below (east of) the Piazza San Carlo. The Teatro Carignan is about half-way between the Pza. San Carlo and the Pza. di Madama, on the north-east corner of which is the Teatro Regjo (803). The Palazzo Reale, with its chapel, is directly to the right (north) of the Pza. Reale. respectively. (Players were usually paid L.5-10 for accompanying balls at court Assuming a comparable fee for a private concert, we may conjecture that these concerts involved approximately three or four and ten or 12 paid musicians respectively.) There are also yearly payments for seating rental ('fitto palchetti', Lioo-150) at the Teatro Regio, two permanent tickets Cbiglietti perpetui', L.39 each) for the opera season, one for the marchesa, one for the prince, and numerous tickets for individual opera performances for the marchesa, her daughters, palace dependants (e.g. servants and the secretary's two daughters) and, very often, for the prince, usually with his tutor or his friends ('per il Sign Principe e sua compagnia'), for as many as eight or ten performances of the two carnival operas, reminding us that in Turin, as elsewhere, going to the opera was a social as much as an aesthetic occasion. We must now try to picture Viotti as a boy of 11, a small-town blacksmith's son, entering this household, and, if we are to believe the only near-contemporary account, entering with no more than a day or two's notice.14 It was not unusual for musically talented boys from modest families to be 'adopted' by wealthy benefactors, and since Fontanetto Po was scarcely a day's ride away, it was perhaps not an especially traumatic break for Giovan Battista. It was probably late in 1766 that this momentous event in his life occurred.15 Our first glimpse of his presence in the palace comes with an entry of 29 April 1767 in one of the account registers, under the rubric 'Expenses: Clothing': 'to the merchants Gajotti and EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 235

Ferraris for cloth and muslin for a gift, namely for Viotti resumed lessons in January 1768 (entry of 3 the wardrobe of the little musician ['piccolo suona- February for one month's lessons for 'Viot' and the tore'] living in the home of His ExcellencyL.19'.16 prince), and continued more or less regularly (entry The secretary seems unsure of Viotti's namean of 12 March for one month; in this and the remainindication, perhaps, of how recently the boy had ing entries 'Viotto' is the spelling) with a gap of at arrived. least two months, then an entry on 21 June for one There are four other similar entries for 'il suona- month, and finally, on 30 July, L.56 for one month's lessons for the two pupils plus two bows and strings. tore Viotto' in the clothing expenses section, all in 1768: for muslin for cuffsL.3; for three handker- On his 20th birthday, 10 October 1768, the prince came into his inheritance and the account registers chiefsL.y.i; for muslin for a shirtL.2:io; and, on l July, 'for an apron for the suonatore Viotto's kept for his mother were discontinued. mother, ordered by the prince'L.445. (This was not To sum up: Viotti, aged 12-13, took about 24 Giovan Battista's natural mother, who had died on weekly lessons from Celoniat (if indeed they were 22 April 1763. Within a few months his father, Felice weeklythere is no precise indication as to their fre(c.1715-1784) had taken a new wife, the 21-year-old quency, though there must have been at least two Theresa Maria (later Maria Theresa) Muzzetti lessons per month, namely 'one month's lessons for (Musetti), from the nearby town of Trino.)17 Do we the prince'). These took place from early June 1767 to detect the hand of the marchesa behind this heart- July 1768, with a five-month hiatus during warming gesture of the apron? August-December 1767. Though we have no record, By the time of Viotti's arrival in the Palazzo della he probably continued with Celoniat until Pugnani Cisterna the prince had been studying the violin for took over. If he did arrive in the palace in 1766, it is not clear why he did not begin lessons until June more than five years. His teacher was Signor Celoniat, maestro di violino, who first appears in the 1767. In any case, the prince did not have violin account registers on 21 June 1762, his predecessor lessons during the first five months of 1767, though having been a Sig. Canavesi, whose fee had been he did have lessons in other subjects, and Celoniat L.8only half of Celoniat's. 'Sigr. Celoniat, suona- continued to accompany the dance lessons. tore di violino' (presumably the same Celoniat, The phrase 'suonatore del Principe' is not to be though we cannot be absolutely sure) was also paid understood as someone whose function it was to L.6 per pupil per month to accompany the dancing play for the prince, but a musician under the prince's lessons of the prince and his sisters. Viotti first protection. We may well suppose, however, that appears as a pupil with the entry for 1 August 1767: 'al Viotti would have been expected to play an occaSigr. Celoniat suonatore per lessioni di violino al sional sonata with Maria Anna, indeed that he would Sigr. Principe ed a Vioto suonatore del Vo. Principe, have been happy to, that he and the prince would inclusi vari esposti in copiatura di suonate come have played duets together, and that he would have da Nota e ricevuta8o:io'.18 This figure indicates participated in house concerts such as the ones given two months of lessons at L.16 per month per pupil in February and October 1767. (= L.64) plus Li6:io paid to Celoniat for music Unfortunately, none of the entries for Celoniat copying, or possibly L.16 for a third month for one gives his first name or even an initial (doubly fruspupil plus 10 soldi for copying. The higher figure for trating since the first names of other maestri are copying is perhaps the more likely, reflecting the given). The existing literature, including the 'Viotti' need for new 'suonate' for the newly arrived pupil. articles in MGG, New Grove, New Grove II, and the We may therefore assume that Viotti began lessons 'Celoniat' article in MGG 2, gives (Carlo) Antonio as with Celoniat sometime around early June 1767. Viotti's teacher (and therefore as the prince's), but to Inexplicably, from this entry until early in 1768 my knowledge this attribution has no basis other Viotti's name does not appear, though the prince than that given by Remo Giazotto in his monograph continues his lessons (payments on 3 September for on Viotti of 1956, namely the citation of what I can one month and on 18 November for two months). only believe to be a fictitious letter.19 For reasons of
236 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

age and of position in the musical establishment of the court, the choice as to which Celoniat it was narrows down to three: Ignazio, Carlo Lorenzo or Carlo Antonio. All three were members of the first violin section of the Teatro Regio orchestra. Carlo Lorenzo was in the first violin section of the royal Capella, the other two in the seconds. Ignazio had perhaps the widest reputation of the three, having composed two operas for the Teatro Regio, one in 1762 and one in 1769, and he was often given the task of directing the orchestra for the carnival balls and extra concerts. On the other hand, Carlo Lorenzo was consistently placed ahead of him in the two orchestras; he had several published compositions to his name, and it was he who, on Ignazio's death in 1785, replaced him in the important task of accompanying the royal family's dancing lessons. Carlo Antonio does not seem to have distinguished himself particularly. I do not think that it is possible to be more precise than this with the available information. That the registers for the period after October 1768 were maintained is confirmed by the several one- or two-page account summaries in the Biella archive, some of them probably intended as year-end memoranda for the marchesa or the prince. These are scattered and discontinuous, some are undated, some appear to have been excised from volumes; in only three of them was I able to find a direct reference to Viotti:20 1 A hastily written, undated memorandum:
Money to be allocated each month to the servants of His Excellency the Prince della Cisterna for bread and wine ... To the manservant SanGennano L.11: 5:To the suonatore Viotto, and for him to the said manservant who serves him bread and wine 8:15:To the footman Flambon 11: 5:To the cook 15: To the scullion including his salary, bread and wine 12:10: To the coachman 15: To the groom 15: To the valet 15:

spelling 'Viotto' points to an early date for this memorandum, certainly before 1772 (by which time 'Viotti' had been settled upon, see below), as does the relatively small expenditure for Viotti, who, as a boy, would have consumed less wine, if not less bread than the others. The inclusion of Viotti's name with the prince's servants may simply represent a bookkeeping convenience, there being no existing register category for him. He may well have eaten with the servants, at least at this early stage, almost certainly not at the prince's table, the provision for which is considered separately in the accounts. Similarly, we cannot tell from the existing 18th-century architectural plans whether Viotti was lodged on the piano nobile of the palace, where the marchesa and the prince had their apartments, or on the floor above, where the servants lived. 2 'Statement of Expepditures made in the years 1772 and 1773 for the household of His Excellency the Prince della Cisterna'. This two-page summary divides expenses into five categories, the second of which is 'Personal ['Particolare'] Expenditures for the prince', consisting of 'money allocated to the prince for the maintenance of his house in supplies, for his clothing, purchase of horses, payments to workmen for the carriages and equipment reserved for his use, and expenditures made for Viotti'. Since there is no itemization within the categories, it is impossible to know How much was spent on Viotti. 3 'Summary of Account Register 1784'. This is a more detailed statement of income and expenditures, which at the same time is a table of contents, or a copy thereof, for a complete account register, now lost, with a page number indicated for each item. The final item on the list of expenditures is 'Expenditures for extra persons ['Spese per Terze persone'] Viotti etcpage 225L.3281.0.6'. This is a large sum of moneymore than eight times Viotti's last combined Capella and Teatro annual salaries. The page number suggests a fuller description in the register itself, in the absence of which we may surmise that there were other 'terze persone' enjoying the prince's philanthropy, indicated by the secretary's hieroglyph for 'etc' after Viotti's name. However, the fact that Viotti's is the only name
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 237

The memorandum goes on to other categories of expenditure. This list appears to identify, for accounting purposes, those servants assigned specifically to the service of the prince, as distinct from the marchesa's servants and the rest of the staff. The

mentioned suggests that his was the lion's share. The prince is known to have been the patron of the painter Giorgio Agostino Robotti, who executed several decorative commissions for the prince in the 1780s, and the Biella archive contains a letter from Domenico Cimarosa, 21 January 1785, thanking the prince for a favour.11 Two or three other yearly summaries contain references to 'terze persone', which, while not giving Viotti's name, probably indicate his presence. The date of this document constitutes perhaps the most surprising piece of information in the entire archive as regards Viottithat he was still receiving disbursements, or at least material assistance of some kind, five years after he had left Italy, and more than two years after he had established himself as the first violinist of Europe. According to the Negri biographical note,12 Viotti bought a farmhouse near the town of Salussola (a few miles north-west of Fontanetto Po) in the summer of 1783; we may conjecture that he was helped by the prince. The 'Summary' for 1785 does not contain 'terze persone'; perhaps the prince learned of Viotti's having obtained the patronage of the Queen of France in 1784, rendering further disbursements inappropriate. It is regrettable that the complete registers for the years after 1768 have not survived. They would have told us much about the 18 years during which it now seems Viotti enjoyed the prince's protection: precisely when he began lessons with Pugnani, for example, and what fee Pugnani was paid (to judge by their respective salaries at court it would have been much higher than Celoniat's); details about Viotti's education, both musical (Was he given lessons in composition by Pugnani? What about keyboard lessons? Opera tickets?)23 and extra-musical; for how long Viotti remained resident in the Palazzo della Cisterna, whether he was affected by the extensive renovations made on the palace beginning in 1773 and lasting several years,14 and whether the prince's patronage changed when Viotti began earning a salary in the same year. Further, it is commonly thought that Viotti introduced Stradivari violins to Paris in the early 1780s. Though violins by Stradivari did not yet command the price that they would at the time of Viotti's death in 18x4 (he mentions his
238 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

instrument in his will), it seems unlikely that he could have afforded one in the 1770s without the prince's help. This purchase would certainly have been entered in the accounts. It is difficult to know what Viotti's position was in the household hierarchy. It seems to have been something less than that of a family member. The evidence is scarce: the memorandum cited above in which he is listed with the servants, the paucity of clothing purchases and the absence of other expenditures in his name23 in contrast to the abundant, often very expensive clothing purchases and other outlays for the family members (e.g. pocket money, hairdressing costs, tips to coachmen and the like), and the fact that he is not shown as receiving lessons from the tutor or from the teachers of subjects other than the violin, at least until October 1768. For the prince, violin lessons were a part of his grooming as a courtier in the Castiglionian mould. In 1771, the year of the Mozarts' visit, he became a Gentleman of the Table (gentiluomo di bocca) and second equerry to the kingthe beginning of a distinguished court and cavalry career. For the blacksmith's son from Fontanetto Po, the violin lessons were something else altogether. Whatever his position in the household, it was the marchesa and her son who enabled Viotti to participate, through Pugnani, in the great tradition of Italian violin playing stemming from CorellL Leopold Mozart does not mention Viotti in his Turin travel note. We are thus denied an irresistibly attractive scenario of the two 15-year-olds (Wolfgang celebrated his birthday in Turin), brought together by the marchesa or by Pugnani, perhaps even in the Palazzo della Cisternathe prince and his mother would have had more reason than almost anyone else in Turin to welcome the Mozarts into their home for an informal accademia*6of the two gifted boys taking to one another, of Giovan Battista perhaps accompanying Wolfgang in a sonata (he would have been given the newer harpsichord, of course), or even, to amuse themselves, of their improvising something together ... No, Leopold does not mention Viotti. The years 1766 to late 1775 a r e terra incognita in the Viotti literaturesufficient reason, I trust, to record here that in 1773 he entered the orchestra of the

4 Seating plan of the orchestra of the Teatro Regio, c.1791,fromFrancesco Galeazzi, Elementi teorico-pratici di musica con un saggio sopra Vartc di suonare il violino (Turin, 1791-6). Key: A the orchestra director [Pugnani], raised above the others; b first violins; c second violins; d oboes; e clarinets; f horns; g violas; h bassoons; I first cellos; Lfirstdouble basses; m basses (that is, cellos and double basses); n other horns; o timpani; p trumpets; q first violinist for the ballets; r harpsichords. Viotti's position was third chair in the second violins. (By permission of the British Library, 4123.I1.5) Teatro Regio.17 The orchestra of the Teatro was considerably larger than that of the royal chapel (62 players, with 28 violins in 1773, as opposed to about 30 players, with 13 violins), though their memberships overlapped considerably. Viotti's position was third chair of the second violins, which in Francesco Galeazzi's orchestra plan of c.1791 (iUus.4)1* would place him quite near the watchful eye and the authoritative bow of Pugnani, the first violinist and 'direttore dell'orchestra'. His beginning salary was L.120, raised to L.150 two years later, and to L.200 for the 1777/8 season. (Pugnani's salary during this period was L.800.)19 Viotti continued in this orchestra for six years, remaining in the same chair, his last season being that of 1778/9. The main opera season (apart from productions for special occasions) took place during carnival and consisted of two operas, one in late December-January, the other in January-February. It may be of interest to record the rehearsal schedule for the first opera of the 1773/4 season, J. Myslivecek's Antigonm10
15 December 16,17, 18,19, 20 21, 22 23 24 staging music music and costumes dress rehearsal ballet dress rehearsal

Viotti's first experience in an orchestra of even remotely the size and quality of this one, in fact, in one of the great orchestras of Europe.31 The first of 20 performances was on the 26th. The rehearsal schedule for the second opera, G. Masi's La disfatta di Dario, was recorded in greater detail, giving us some idea of what was in store for Viotti and his colleagues:31
14 January 18 19 20 21 extras and grooms at 3 o'clock after lunch and music rehearsal at 5:30 with extras extras as above. In the evening music rehearsal, and ballet in the Teatro staging and distribution of costumes to the grooms and extras dress rehearsal of music with extras and ballet dress rehearsal of the ballet in the evening, and after lunch of the extras and horses

The 16th, then, was the date of the 18-year-old

The first of 22 performances was on the 22nd. Royal marriages afforded opportunities for the musicians of the Teatro Regio to earn extra money. On the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Piedmont, Carlo Emanuel, to the Princess Clothilde of France (the House of Savoy was inclined to marry its sons and daughters into the Bourbon dynasty), there were 18 days of festivities, beginning on 30 September 1775 with the 'Entree solomnelie de la
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39

invented from whole cloth such an important and such a recent event Extraordinary too is the reference to Viotti's composition(s). We have no certain knowledge of Viotti's youthful compositions, though one early biographer asserts that he composed his first violin concerto (no.3) at the age of 14.40 That Viotti's compositions (a violin duet or a string trio seems more likely than a concerto) had apparently been heard as early as 1774 is news indeed. The Biella Archivio di Stato contains a document that powerfully evokes the status of a court musician as, in the first instance, a servant of the crown.45 It is the Act of Appointment of Viotti to the king's 'Capella e Camera' dated 5 March 1776 (after he had served for two months as a supernumerary). With it is the printed text of the oath that Viotti was twice required to pronounce, once for the Camera on 28 March, 'before noon', and again for the Capella, after considerable delay, on 3 December, 'after noon'. (The presence of this document in the della Cisterna family archive suggests that Viotti was still living in the prince's palace in 1776.) The text of the oath, too long to quote in its entirety, is primarily a detailed undertaking of fealty and submission to the kinguncompromising, even alarming in its severity:'... with all my ability, vigilance, and loyalty to fulfil my assigned duties, and to execute all that is required of me by my superiors in the service of His Majesty, and to have my subordinates perform likewise, even at peril of life, indeed to lose it rather than ever to conduct myself, or to consent directly or indirectly in any way to anything against the interests of the Person, the House, the Territories, the honour or the Administration of His Majesty..." On both occasions Viotti's oath-taking was certified in the hand of the presiding court official as follows: 'Having personally presented himself, Sigr. Gio. Batta. Viotti, who, with head bared, his right hand on the Sacred Evangelists, without sword [this phrase is omitted for the Capella], and kneeling, has sworn ..." Viotti took the oath for the Capella 'in Torino in a room of the residence of His Excellency Monsgr. Francesco Rora, archbishop of Torino'. This was none other than the 'discoverer' of Viotti, the man who had interceded on Viotti's behalf with the

Marchesa di Voghera ten years earlier after being charmed by the boy's playing and comportment at a dinner concert It is pleasant to think of the archbishop's continuing personal interest in the 21 yearold violinist, who had come so far. Could he have imagined how much further he would go? Viotti almost certainly played the viola, not the violin, during his first year in the orchestra of the royal Chapel and Chamber. The Act of Appointment refers to him as a 'suonatore di violino', but stipulates that 'he must play those other instruments at which he is proficient when ordered to by those in authority'. The man whom Viotti replaced, one Giovanni Toso, though also referred to as a violinist in the same document, played the viola in the orchestra. All four of the quarterly orchestra stipend lists for 1776 in the registers of the Administration of the Royal Household clearly show Viotti as one of two players in the viola section.*1 Beginning in the first quarter of 1777 he appears in the last (seventh) chair of the first violins, which place he occupied until he left Italy in December 1779. His salary remained at L.200, by far one of the two or three lowest in the orchestra. With the sole exception of the 1774 booklet, the existing documentation of Viotti's Turin years might well lead one to believe that he was destined for an unremarkable career as a rank-and-file orchestral violinist And yet, in Geneva, the first stop on Viotti and Pugnani's tour of 1780-81, the 24-yearold pupil was reliably reported to be a better player than his teacher.43 It is highly unlikely that Viotti could have sprung thus fully armed without some previous solo experience. I think it is safe to assume that in the 1770s he had played concertos and sonatas in and around Turin, in churches and in private concerts in palaces such as those of the Prince de Carignan, the Archbishop Rora and the Prince della Cisterna. The Biella archive contains one other Viottirelated document that has escaped the notice of music historians, though it has been published.44 It is a letter he wrote on 30 June 1798 from his exile in Schonfeld, near Hamburg, to Prince Alfonso Dal Pozzo della Cisterna. No other correspondence between them has survived.45 Written in French, it is a cri de cceur, protesting his innocence of the charges
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 243

of the English Alien Office against him (for alleged Jacobin activities), echoing the sentiments of his autobiographical Pr6cis of a few months earlier,4* but couched in more personal, more passionate terms. Viotti's tone is deferential but not obsequious; he is at pains to justify himself and to have the esteem of the prince more than that of anyone else. Most distressing of all, the letter is a bitter rejection, thrice iterated, of music and its profession: 'O, my Prince, would that you had granted me your protection to be a good peasant, instead of to acquire a skill! My gratitude and your benevolence would have been the same, and my suffering so much less ... It is once again this miserable talent that is the cause of my present disgrace ... I almost never concern myself with music because it has caused me too much pain . . . ' What must the prince have felt as he read these

lines? He would in any case have had little time for regrets; his own political difficulties were upon him. In 1799 he was exiled to Dijon on the orders of the French Republic, as were several other Turinese noblemen. The prince returned from exile in 1800 to his palace, his wife and children, and his career. Viotti, too, was able to return to England by 1800 or 1801, but not to his careerhe withdrew almost entirely from public performance for the rest of his life. It would be wrong, however, to attribute the cause of this to his having been exiled, since in his Precis he says that he had already been 'vexed by the pursuit of his talent' and that he had decided to renounce his musical career to become a wine merchant. Viotti died on 3 March 1824, in debt, and to judge from his last will and testament, broken in spirit. The 'suonatore del Principe' outlived his prince by less than five years.

Thanks to Michael Barbourfor his many 6 For the orchestra list, see ASCT, Collezione DC, Conti, vol.55, tranhelpful suggestions. scribed in Storia del Teatro Regio, ed. 1 Mozart Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, A. Basso, i: M.-T. Bouquet, II teatro di corte dalle origini al 1788 (Turin, 1976), ed. W. Bauer, O. Deutsch, and J. Eibl p.351, n.101. (Kassel, 1962-75), i, p.416. 7 A genealogy of the family is included 2 If Wolfgang had given a perforin M. Cassetti and M. Coda, La mance in the theatte the relevant famiglia deiprincipi Dal Pozzo della deliberations of the directors would Cistema e il suo archivio (Vercelli, have been recorded 1981), esp. pp.77-8. For a brief 3 On 2 February Leopold wrote to his biography of Prince Alfonso, see wife from Milan, having just returned M. Cassetti and B. Signorelli, Palazzo from Turin 'wo wir eine recht dal Pozzo della Cistema e L'Isola Prachtige opera gesehen': Briefe, i, dell'Assunta (Turin, 1994), pp.118-21. p.416. The prince was related to Cassiano Dal Pozzo (1588-1657), the great collector, 4 He was in England until at least 23-5 connoisseur and patron of Poussin in August 1769, when he led the orchestra Rome. in concerts in the Salisbury Music Festival (B. Matthews, 'Salisbury and Win8 In Briefe, v, p.292, 'Conte Caron' is chester addenda and corrigenda', identified as Conte Francesco Teodoro RMA research chronicle, viii (1970), Carron di Brianzone, appointed a pp.23-33, at p.27), and he led the senator in 1771. The same source is orchestra for the first opera of the unable to identify the 'Principessa di Teatro Regio 1769/70 carnival opera Voghera'; 1 have corrected what I preseason, the rehearsals for which began sume to be Mozart's mistake. Mozart's in mid-December 1769. Turin, wording suggests a close relationship Archivio Storico Comunale di Torino between the two persons, about which (hereafter ASCT), Carte sciolte, I have no information. no.6188: 'Capitolazione deU'Orchestra 9 Though Leopold's Italian may have per le Opere nel Reg. Teatro ...', been imperfect, there is little doubt 1769-70. that by 'figlie' he meant 'daughters', thereby excluding Alfonso. Elsewhere 5 Briefe, v, p.292. 244 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

in his travel diary he uses the masculine form correctly. 10 Biella, Archivio di Stato, Famiglia Dal Pozzo della Cistema, Btni efeudi, Beni diversi, mazzi 21-26: Conti di tutela del Principe della Cistema 1761-1766 [recte\768]. u It is now the seat of the Province of Turin, Via Maria Victoria, 12. The structure was thoroughly renovated in the late 19th century, though one wing remains much as it was in Viotti's time. 12 Beni diversi, mazzi 22, 24, 26, under the rubric 'Spese diverse', except for the equitation lessons, which I infer from a reference in a summary of the prince's expenses for 1764/5 ('maestri di cavalerizza'), mazzo 27, fasc.6. 13 Beni diversi, mazzo 22, rubric 'Spese Riparazione di Stabili e Mobili ed accompr.a d'essi'. 14 A manuscript biographical note of Viotti's early years, shown by R. Raina ('Nuovi document! biografici su Giovan Battista Viotti', Nuova rivista musicale italiana, xxviii (1994), pp.251-6, at pp.254-5) to have been written in 1810 by G. B. Negri, the deputy mayor of Fontanetto Po, Viotti's home-town. My recent search of the parochial archive of Fontanetto, where this manuscript was long

housed, faikd to uncover i t It is transcribedinfull,notwithoutmorsof transaiption, in R GiPzotto, Giwm! BoffirtP V i (Milan, 1956). p p . 2 3 2 4 15 Ibasetbisonanacceptmceofthe year 1766 and of the prince's age as 18, as givcn in Negri's biographical note and in G.DeGrcgori, lstoria dcllo vercellac lcttcmhaa ed urn' (Turin, i 8 1 ~ q )iv, , pao. which names both NegriondtheprinceassourcesF4tis claims to have had his information on Vitti's early years cfirectly from the prince (who he says died in about DeGrrgori, in p h 18301, but fonow~ almost word for word. I am indebted to Rofessor Peter Bloom of Smith College, Northampton. MA, for sharing his Imodedge of FCtis in a private communication 16 This and the following entries Bmi dimsi,maao 26, 'Indumenti', K57rdor. 17 Not Turin, as stated in Raina, 'Nuovi documenti'. H a birth certificate (u May 1742) is in Trino. Archivio Parmcchialedi S. Bartolomeo.

u See 1 1 . 1 4above. 23 T h m may have been no need for opera t i * it seems reasonable to supposethat Ccloniat and particularly Pugnaniwould have arranged for Viotti to attend rehearsals if not performances at the Teatro Regio in the years before he himself joined the orchestra. Indeed, we may surmise that Viotti would have profited from the musicians' p& sometimes abused, of bringing non-playing friends into the orchestra (see B O U ~ U ~ n,tear4 p.176). in his case to watch and to listen. 24 On 6 August lm Viotti signad, as one of the witnesses, a wnaact betmen the prince and the chief builda of these renovations Biella, Archivio di Stato, Fmiglia Dal Pozw dcUIl c k f Z t 7 W mazU, 13. 25 Qearly bre fiour clothing purchases for Viotti cited above cannot represent an the dothing bought for him in this period. In the Indumenti section there arc several entriesof more than Lioo for clothing Zor 'the Prince and those who saw him' or 'for the servants and others in his service'. Similarly, under

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arcsevaalentriesofuptoL6oointhe 19 GiPzotto, Vwtti, p.27. Giazotto prince's name ' t o spmd at his discrequotes from a letter in which Antonio tion'. We cannot d u d e the possibilCdoniPt M llPmad as Viotti's teacher, itythatsomeofthismoneywasspcnt giving as the location Gcnoa,Archivio on V i di Stato,Letme e r & di Ministri 26 It wodd in m y case be extremely s t r e fibn xxxxr, n.9. A recent s u r p w if LaopoId had not organ~e~~chfaikdto~l~~~erthisktte r. ized~nyprivoteconcats during I am assured by the archivia of the thcir two-mdr stay in Turin, to judge Genoa archive that a cdledion of this h e i rvisits to other from tbe mwrd of t namedoesnotaristinthearchivzand Italian centrrs: sa N .Zaslaw, Mozart's that t h i s type of Jhdf-mark is unknown S Y r n p (Oldord, ~ ~ 1989)s pP-l59,184 to the &I have also examined and esp. p 3 0 See ~ nlso L Woodfield, (with no result) the appropriate !ik in 'Newlight on the Mozarts' London the Turin Arcbivio di Stato ( W e visit' a private concat w i t h Manuoli'. Minimi, Gmow,mazu, a ) , in any Music cL h v i (1995). pp.187case a more likcIy location for a letter 208.at p ~WWOOdfidd . suggests that purportedly from a T w i n e court '... the name Leopold mtered [in his ofticial to a Turimse representative London travel diary or RcirmoriPin] in Cmoz wme not Pimply those of CaSual acquaintancesbut of individuals with whom he bad lctuPi dealings'. On the otha hand, the Turinese may haw had u CPssati and Signorelli, P k littk time for the Mozarts amid the pp.1.19, I Y J ~The ~ . autograph of flumy of EPrnival operas and balls. Cimvoao's letter is in Bidh, Archivio di Stato, Pcuniglia Dal Pozw ddh Cisa?ma, Staia dcIh F m i g h Ll,
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28 Francesco Galeazzi, Elementi teorico-pratici di musica con un saggio sopra Yarte di suonare il violino (Rome, 1791-6), i, Tavola IV. I am not aware of any reason to suppose that the seating plan changed materially between 1773 and 1791.1 am assuming a linear arrangement of the section according to rank. 29 ASCT, Colkzione IX, Conti, vols.58, 60, 62; Carte saolte 6188.

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30 ASCT, Collezione DC, Ordinati, vol.8, p.238. 31 Galeazzi, who was Turinese, claimed that it was 'without contradiction the best in Europe': Elementi, i, p. 222. 32 ASCT, Collezione IX, Ordinati, voL8, p.258. 33 ASCT, Carte saolte, no.6206. 34 ASCT, Carte sciolte, no.6188: 'Capitulazione delTOrchestra per la pastorale da rappresentarsi in quest'autunno nel regio Teatro', 1775. 35 Leopold Mozart, A treatise on the fundamental principles of violin playing, trans. E. Knocker (Oxford, 1985), pp.54, 96-7. 36 Turin, Biblioteca Reale, La Mascarade du Colporteur Francois ou collection de Poesies galantes distributes a Turin la nuit du douze Fcvrier dernier dansle Bal public de S_A.S. Monseigneur It Prince de Carignan Recueillie & publiee Par M.rle Marquis de Bel*** (Milano, 1774). Shelf-mark 04(33). I learned of the existence of this document in Storia, ed. Basso, iii: M. Ferrero, La scenografia dalle Origini al 1936 (Turin, 1980), p.277. Ferrero tentatively identifies 'Bel***' as Belgiojoso, who in all probability was a kinsman of the Principe Alberico di Belgiojoso d'Este, a Milanese nobleman whose daughter the Prince della Cisterna married in 1780, and a collection of whose letters to the prince are in Storia della Famiglia II, mazzo 9. It may be worth noting as well that the Biella archive also contains two letters to the prince from Count Carlo Fontana (his 'cher ami'), who, as the Turinese ambassador to Prussia, was Viotti's host in Berlin in 1780-81: Storia della Famiglia II, mazzo 11, fasc 26.

37 Negri, biographical note, and DeGregori, Istoria, iv, p.411. Both authors, as well as Fetis, incorrectly place this London visit after the grand tour of 1780-81. E. Miel, 'Viotti', Biographic universelle, ancienne et modeme [Biographic Michaud] (Paris, 1827), xlir, p.184, says that Viotti went with Pugnani to London at the age of 12, which agrees with the fact that Pugnani went to London in 1767, and with the hiatus in Viotti's lessons with Celoniat, 1 August 1767 - January 1768. 38 See S. McVeigh, The violinist in London's concert life, 1750-17&4: Felix Giardini and his contemporaries (New York, 1989), pp.70-71. 39 Turin, Archivio di Stato, Sezione Prima, Lettere Ministri, Gran Bretagna, mazzo 78. Letter of Comte de Scarnasis to Comte de Lascaris, 20 Oct 1772. 40 Miel, 'Viotti', p.184. 41 Storia della Famiglia II, mazzo n, fasc.77. 42 Turin, Biblioteca Reale, [Azienda Real Casa], Registro Recapiti dell'anno 1776 (microfilm), pp.75, 463,840,1172. This is confirmed by the other relevant source (Turin, Archivio di Stato, Sezione Riunite, Terzo Conto Camerale del 1776, Tesoreria Real Casa, entry no.317: orchestra list). Toso played until 5 March, when Viotti took his place; the first quarterly payment was divided between them proportionately. 43 See W. Lister, 'New light on the early career of G.B. Viotti', Music & letters, Lxxxiii (2002), pp^io-25, at P-41944 Storia della Famiglia 11, mazzo 11, fasc.56. Published in Cassetti and Signorelli, Palazzo, pp.122-4. 45 DeGregori, Istoria, p.411, states that Viotti wrote to the prince with his news on his grand tour of 1780-81, but provides no evidence. 46 Precis de la vie de J. B. Viotti depuis son entric dans Ic monde jusq'au 6 mars 1798. Both this manuscript and that of Viotti's will, dated 13 December 1822, are in London, The Royal College of Music, Viotti Collection, shelf-mark 4118. They are transcribed in Giazotto, Viotti, pp.229-31 and p.235 respectively.

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1 Title-page of the libretto ofAthalia, as printed for the first performance on 10 July 1733 (by kind permission of the Trustees of the Gerald Coke Handel Collection and Hampshire Record Office; HC 513 (ci)) 248 EARLY M U S I C MAY 2 0 0 3

PERFORMANCE CONTEXTS

H. Diack Johnstone

Handel at Oxford in 1733

appearance at Oxford in July 1733, like Haydn's in 1791, was one of the few great events in the musical history of the 18th-century university.1 The occasion was the so-called 'Oxford Act'which was, in effect, the university's annual graduation ceremony (or passing-out parade) for masters of arts and the higher doctorates (in divinity, law, medicine and, just occasionally, music too). When celebrated publicly, the Act usually involved special musical performances (and also, in earlier days, a short season of dramatic performances given by one of the London theatre companies). Such a variety of entertainment, in addition to the academic ceremonial itself, naturally attracted a great many visitors to Oxford, not only numerous persons 'of quality and distinction', but also a fairly large contingent of Cambridge men come to witness the proceedings. As it happened, the Act in its traditional form as established by statute was publicly celebrated only three times during the first half of the 18th century: once in 1703, again in 1713, and once again 20 years later when, possibly because of the presence of Mr Handel and 'his lowsy Crew' (as they were famously dubbed by Thomas Hearne, the irascible Oxford diarist and antiquary), the stage players were denied access to the city, and thus forced to perform in Abingdon, a small country town about 6Vi miles to the south.1 The character of the Act, occasionally referred to later on as the Commemoration, changed quite markedly during the course of the century, and was, after 1733, soon replaced by the Encaenia, now an annual one-day festive event in commemoration of the university's benefactors which takes place in the presence of the Chancellor, and is confined to the awarding of honorary degrees

ANDEL'S

(and ancillary garden party). A generally lively speech by the Public Orator (or, in alternate years, the Professor of Poetry) commenting on the main events of the preceding academic year also forms part of the proceedings.3 Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, the 1733 Oxford Act involving Handel seems never to have been considered as a single self-contained episode in the composer's career, save by Cyril Eland, in an unpublished essay apparendy written in the 1930s when its author was an undergraduate at Magdalen College.4 A corrected carbon copy of the typescript was later acquired (and bound) by Gerald Coke, the great English collector of Handeliana, who lent it to Otto Erich Deutsch when he was working on his invaluable documentary biography published in 1955. Together with a letter of 9 July 1951 from Deutsch to Coke thanking him for the use of it, Eland's essay is at present housed with the rest of the Coke collection of manuscripts and early printed editions in the Hampshire County Record Office in Winchester (press-mark HC 767). Though it can hardly be described as a commendably scholarly achievement, even for an undergraduate, Deutsch no doubt found it useful in alerting him to one or two sources that might otherwise have eluded him. Unfortunately, however, Deutsch's strictly chronological presentation of data not only allows two or three odier non-Oxonian items to get in the way, but also defers for a further 30-odd pages several other contemporary observations on the Act which were not published until June 1734.5 Thus no clear picture of the week's events emerges; neither is there any very satisfactory explanation of the framework of academic ceremonial to which

H. Diack Johnstone, formerly a Reader in Music at the University of Oxford, is now Emeritus Fellow in Music at St Anne's College, Oxford, and General Editor ofMusica Britannica.
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3
2

49

Handel's several performances were, as we shall see, only very tenuously attached. By long-standing tradition, the Act itselfthat is, the occasion on which the various academic exercises were performed and degrees actually bestowedtook place on the first Monday after 7 July. It was preceded, on the Friday, by a 'Comitia Philologica' at which some 20-odd candidates for M.A. chosen by the Proctors (and generally of aristocratic birth or otherwise socially elevated status) delivered themselves of a series of Latin declamations or speeches in both prose and verse. These 'Philological Exercises' were normally divided into three groups (or acts, as we might think of them), with provision for music in the gaps. Topped and tailed by a prologue and an epilogue (which, in 1733, brought the number of'actors' up to 30), and prefaced by a 'poetical lecture', it must have been a very long drawn-out affair. Saturday morning was given over to lectures in the various 'Schools', the afternoon to disputations (in Latin) on a small number of 'Quaestiones' put to candidates in advance, and, in 1733 at any rate, these spilled over into the Act proper on Monday. Except for the Saturday morning lectures and the afternoon's disputations in theology, law and medicine, these preliminaries, known generally as the 'Vesperies' of the Act, took place, like the Act itself, in the Sheldonian Theatre (illus.2,3), designed by Sir Christopher Wren specifically for the purpose and opened in 1669. According to the statutesand virtually every move in the ceremonial ritual was determined by the statutes (or so-called Laudian code) established in 1636 when Archbishop Laud was Chancellor of the university there was also to be a 'Musick Lecture' (in English) given 'between the hours of nine and ten in the forenoon, with a concert of musical instruments in the course of it' on Saturday.6 In the 18th century this usually took the form of a concert, and in 1733 (as in 1713) it was moved from the Schola Musicae to the Sheldonian, presumably in order to accommodate a rather larger audience than was normally expected, though the performance itself evidently took place, believe it or not, sometime between 6 and 8 a.m.7 On Sunday there were two services at St Mary's, the university church; each featured a sermon preached by one of those who were due, the next
25O EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

day, to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity; these sermons were generally published shortly afterwards. A Latin sermon 'for the clergy' at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning (also in St Mary's) was followed by a meeting of Convocation (then the official governing body of the university) at which a number of Cambridge men (four doctors and 'about thirty' M.A.s in 1733) were allowed to incorporate their degrees (and thus to enjoy all the same privileges at Oxford as they would at home). And that, but for a concluding speech from the Vice-Chancellor, would normally have brought the formal academic proceedings to a close.8 In 1733, however, a distinguished French cleric, Pierre Francois Courayer, who had six years previously been awarded an honorary Oxford doctorate of divinity (by diploma) for his public defence of the Anglican episcopate and the authority of the English clergy, also appeared to address the university, this took place in the Sheldonian on the afternoon of Wednesday, 11 July, and was (said Hearne, very charitably for him) handsomely replied to by the Vice-Chancellor.9 After that, the only other item on the academic agenda for the week was the quinquennial election of the Professor of Poetry on Friday, 13 July. Oddly enough, the first news of the then-impending Act in 1733 appears in a London newspaper: Applebee's Original Weekly-Journal of Saturday, 24 March, which tells us that 'Last Monday 7-night, the Heads of Colleges, &c. met at Oxford, and agreed to have a Publick Act the 12th [51c] of July.'10 There was indeed a meeting of Convocation on Monday, 12 March, but, rather astonishingly (as it may seem to us), there is no mention of the Act in the minutes of this or any other meeting of Convocation prior to the actual event." Quite how and by whom it was organized remains something of a mystery. Certainly no documentary evidence bearing on any of the arrangements for the Act survives. Late in June the London papers announced that not only were 'Great Preparations ... making for Mr. Handel's Journey to Oxford', but also that the university was intending to honour him with an honorary 'Degree of Music' (obviously a doctorate)." If so, there is no surviving evidence of this either. No doubt such things were settled outside the walls of Convocation House, with no written record of discussion kept.

2 View of the Sheldonian Theatre (with the original Clarendon Press building to the right), as seen from New College Lane. Pencil drawing by John Malchair dated 28 July 1774: Corpus Christi College Ms.443 sketchbook vii, f.31 (by kind permission of the President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford)

But that the possibility of an honorary degree was no last-minute decision is made clear by the following hitherto unnoticed press release in Applebee's Original Weekly-Journal of 7 April, just two weeks after its announcement of the forthcoming Act:
We hear that the University of Oxford will present the celebrated Mr. Handel with the Degree of Doctor of Musick, at the Publick Act to be held there this Summer, that Signor Senesino is expected to be present on that Occasion, and that an Oratorio would be perform'd in the Theatre there.

By the beginning of June, however, Handel and Senesino had fallen out.13 For the cast of singers Handel took with him to Oxford in addition to 'the Musick [i.e. orchestral players] from the Opera', we are chiefly dependent on The Bee of 23 June, which (as quoted by Deutsch on pp.316-17) also tells us exactly which works were to be performed. At one stage, it now appears, Francesca Bertolli and Celeste Gismondi had been tipped to join Senesino on this particular expedition, but this intelligence seemingly

did not make it into the papers.14 In the event, the vocal soloists who actually sang were Anna Strada and Mrs Wright (sopranos), Thomas Salway and Philip Rochetti (tenors), Gustavus Waltz (bass) and the countertenor 'Mr. Row' (not mentioned in The Bee), who was presumably Francis Rowe, then a Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey. On their arrival they were joined by Walter Powell, the well-known Oxford countertenor and a member of the Christ Church, Magdalen and St John's College choirs. We shall never know whether or not an honorary doctorate was actually offered, but if it was, it was apparently turned down, as was 'the like Honour when tender'd him at Cambridge' (or so The Craftsman of 14 July reports).15 If Oxford's offer of an honorary D.Mus. was actually rejected, then surely the most likely explanation is, as others have previously suggested, that Handel had no wish to be placed in the same camp as his erstwhile friend Maurice Greene, whose performance at Cambridge in July
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1730 had not only earned him a doctorate, but also the honorary title of Professor of Music.16 However that may be, Oxford's invitation to Handel to attend the 1733 Act must have been a fairly astute political move on the part of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr William Holmes, President of St John's, especially as the university had for many years been regarded as a stronghold of High Church Tories, whose members included some, like Hearne, who were dearly also staunch Jacobites. In terms of government patronage and political goodwill, it had naturally suffered the consequences.17 And so to have allied itself thus not only to the greatest figure on the English musical scene, but also to someone so dosely assoriated in the public eye with the reigning monarch (George II) and, by extension, Walpole and the dominant Whig oligarchy, cannot but have enhanced its credibility with its political masters in Whitehall. In such a context, the irony of the words at the choral dimax of Athalia, Handel's new oratorio spedally written for the occasion, is not likely to have been lost on an Oxford academic audience: 'Bless the true Church and save the king'.18 By the end of May Oxford was stirring with excitement. On the 20th of that month, Erasmus Head, an undergraduate at Queen's College, wrote home to his parents in Cumberland to tell them that
We are like to have here the Grandest Doings this Midsummer, that have ever been known in Oxford since it was an University, by reason of a Publick Act, w * has not been celebrated here for these 19 [recte 20] Years last past. All the Lodgings in <the> Town have been long ago bespoke for the Accomodation of Ge<ntle>men & Ladies, who then intend to visit us. We expect mo<st> of the Nobility & some of the Royal Family, & very great Preparations are now making, I'll assure you, for their Reception. It will be a mighty expensive Season, you may easily imagine. But as 1 shall have no Strangers, that I know of, to spunge upon me, my Share in the Expences I hope will be very inconsiderable.1'

Head was, of course, wrong in supposing that any of the royal family might turnip, but it is interesting to learn that there was thought to be some possibility of it. That Oxford was crowded out on the occasion is clear enough from a report published in Read's Weekly Journal of 7 July, which states that 'Almost all our Houses not only within the City, but without the Gates, are taken up for Nobility, Gentry, and others', and also that 'we are so hurry'd about 252 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

Lodging, that almost all the Villages within three or four Miles of this City, make a good Hand of disposing of their little neat Tenements on this great Occasion'.20 Quite where Handel and his troops were quartered we do not know. It would be nice to think that, as a guest of the university, invited by the ViceChancellor, and tempted perhaps by the offer of an honorary doctorate, Handel himself might just possibly have been accommodated in the President's Lodgings at St John's, but in the papers of William Holmes in the college archives, as in the records in the central university archives also, not a word about Handel and the musical performances associated with the 1733 Act is to be found. As it happened, Erasmus Head was so ill at the beginning of July that he was, it seems, unable to attend anything, and, in his next letter to his parents (of 13 July), had nothing whatever to say of the Act other than that "The Pleasures & Diversions of this famous Solemnity, w1*- is now in a manner over, have been vastly excellent, & answer'd (I believe) all Expectation'.21 But one person who was there was Dr William Warren (d 1745), a Fellow and Vice-Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, who had come over to incorporate his Cambridge LL.D. (gained in 1717) at Oxford. Shortly after the event, he wrote a long account of the proceedings which he communicated in a letter to his old friend the Revd Thomas Brett (1677-1744), a non-juring clergyman (and bishop) who lived in Kent, not far from Ashford (where Warren's father had been vicar, and he himself had been born). Warren's original letter does not survive, but in a letter of 3/14 September 1733 to his youngest son, Nicholas {d 1776), who was then in France studying at the University of Angers, Thomas Brett passed on what reads like a verbatim restatement of everything Warren had told him about the Oxford Act, with the further suggestion that Nicholas might try translating the whole thing into Latin for the benefit of his French tutors, who, he thought, would doubtless be interested to learn how such academic ceremonies were conducted in this country. Most of what Warren has to say is concerned with academic ceremonial, and what went on where and when. For example, the opening Friday afternoon orations and verses 'Spoken by young Noblemen &

can be squeezed in (as, I am reliably informed, happened when, in 1985, senior members of the university met to debate the proposal that the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, should be given an honorary degree). Allowing both for 18th-century modes of dress and different seating arrangements, however, an audience of anything much over 1,250 seems utterly inconceivable. At 55 a head, the figure of'upwards of 2000' profit reported by the Norwich Gazette of 21 July for five performances in the Sheldonian Theatre plus one in the Hall at Christ Church The Musick, w 4 was performed occasionally during -f time of y* Act at S' Maries and y* Theatre was very noble & affect- must be gross. Against that, set the costs of bringing ing. There were above 50 performers. And y* celebrated Mr down a fairly large band of London musicians Handel (who is looked upon as one of y* most celebrated John Cony speaks of'waggon Lo[ads] of performMusicians in Europe) conducted y* whole. The University ers'and keeping them in Oxford for a week, and was at no expence for this fine Musick, but they gave Mr Handel y* Liberty of having Several Oratorios in y" Theatre at one is surprised to learn that Handel emerged with 5*- each Ticket, by w* means (as he is said to have sometimes as much as 700 in hand. 2500 or 2600 persons present at an Oratorio) it is thought he The performance of Esther on Thursday, 5 July, cleared 700 L to himself21 must have been conceived as a curtain-raiser to the Nevertheless, this is one of the very few accounts so-called 'Vesperies' of the Act, and was, said to comment on the actual number of performers Hearne, 'an innovation' of which he did not involved.24 Where exactly they were placed is a mat- approve. To have got there in time for a 5 p.m. start, ter of conjecture, but most probably it was in the not to mention the possibility of a preliminary uppermost gallery on the south side of the Sheldon- rehearsal, Handel and his team would have needed ian. This was a site then traditionally reserved for to have set out from London (as did the Earl of 'the Musick', which, without the bulky present-day Arran, the Chancellor of the university) on Wednesorgan case and terraced seating, would almost cer- day, 4 July, since the journey normally took two days tainly have been large enough to accommodate both and involved an overnight stop. How many local choir and orchestra. Very little is known about the performers other than Walter Powell took part we organ on which Handel played, and from which he do not know, but surely a consortium of the most may well have directed the performance of his orato- accomplished boys and men from some if not all of rios, but John Byfield was paid 10 guineas for tuning the four main collegiate choirs (Christ Church, Magdalen, New College and St John's) must have proit (and the organ in St Mary's) on the occasion.25 Also interesting is the statement that the univer- vided the chorus, and it may be that some of the betsity 'was at no expence for this fine Musick': in other ter players from the Oxford Musical Society were 17 words, that Handel was allowed the run of the place also involved. As Superior (i.e. senior) Bedel of in return for the number of non-academic auditors Divinity, Walter Powell would naturally have taken his performances were certain to attract, an arrange- part in the academic ceremonial (and enjoyed the ment not so very different perhaps from that which additional perk of certain fees payable by those takgoverned the Oxford appearance of various London ing degrees). According to Burney, Michael Christtheatrical companies in the years before 1713.26 War- ian Festing and Thomas Augustine Arne were also ren's figures of '2500 or 2600 persons present at an there, the former quite possibly as leader of the 28 Oratorio' are more than a thousand short of those band; among the other musical spectators was reported in the London papers, but neither in fact William Hayes, then organist of Worcester Cathecan be anywhere near accurate. Nowadays, the Shel- dral and shortly to become organist of Magdalen 29 donian is licensed (because of fire regulations) to College (and later Professor of Music). Apart from seat 1,000 persons only, but about half as many again the solo singers, the only other musician actually
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2

Gentlemen of good Rank & Estates' were, he thought, 'an excellent Way of training up young Noblemen & Gentlemen to Speak in Publick; & because when they come off with Applause (as all did now) they remember it as long as they live; & such an Impression is made upon their Minds, as that they always retain a Benevolence & are ever more Friends to -f University'." Unfortunately for us, Warren was not greatly interested in music, and his only observations were that

53

3 Interior of the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, during the Encaenia of 1759. Engraving by Thomas Worlidge. Here the ladies are to be seen mainly in the lower gallery behind the Chancellor (seated in the centre of the picture), though some are also also dotted about the galleries on either side, and on the floor near the viewing point (an area reserved, said Anthony a Wood, 'for persons of promiscuous quality1); in 1733 they were seemingly confined, by long-standing tradition, to the galleries at either side of the pillars that frame the scene. The gallery for 'the Musick' was directly above. (by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford)
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named (in this case by Robert Marsham, second Baron Romney, reporting on the event to the Duke of Leeds, who was then in Paris at the start of his Grand Tour), was a certain 'Mr Mattis', evidently a local Oxford player, and quite possibly the same John-Nicola Matteis who later taught Burney the violin (and French) as a schoolboy in Shrewsbury.30 Thomas Jones, harpist to the duke of Chandos, also seems likely to have taken part.31 The Thursday performance of Esther was evidently well attended, and so too, after a bit of a scrum, the repeat performance on Saturday, which seems to have followed hard on the heels of the 'Quaestiones Discutiendae'. On Friday, it appears, the musicians had the evening off. Who, if anyone, provided the music between the opening speeches and each of the three 'acts' of the 'Comitiorum Philogicorum' on the Friday afternoon is not recorded, but among the 'artists' who spoke in the first of the three acts was Henry Baynbrigg Buckeridge of St John's College, who delivered himself of a highly appropriate 'Carmine Lyrico' (i.e. a lyric poem) entitled 'Musica sacra Dramatica sive Oratorium'.32 But whether Handel was actually present in the theatre to hear it we rather doubt. Later in the proceedings (as no.2 of the Concentus Secundus) Edmund Gibson of Christ Church (son of the Bishop of London, who, only a year or so earlier, had seemingly put paid to the idea that Esther might be dramatically performed on the London stage) also spoke on 'Colonia Georgiae deducta', described in the printed programme as a 'Carmine Heroico' (i.e. an epic poem in Latin hexameters).33 Not all were solo performances, however, somethe 'Carmine Amoebaeo'were shared between two or three speakers. According to Hearne,34 by no means all these Latin orations were written by those who actually delivered them, and this seems indeed to have been the case. In one of two manuscript copies which together preserve most of the Latin speeches delivered in 1733,35 no fewer than four are ascribed to persons other than those who actually spoke them; among these is 'Colonia Georgiae deducta', there said to have been written 'byCrotchley, A.B. of XtCh' (i.e. one Crotchley, a B.A. of Christ Church).36 As for the 'Musick Lecture' on the Saturday morning, 7 July, this seems to have been under the direction of Richard Goodson jun. (c.1685-1741), the
256 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

Heather Professor of Music, who (says The Oxford Act, A.D.1733) 'made it his sole Business to perform every thing [sic] very exactly, that could well be expected from him'. William Warren (as reported by Thomas Brett) refers to it simply as 'a Concerto', but Hearne, though he confirms a very early start ('only a little after six [o'Jclock or about 7'), speaks of it as 'a sham consort ... at which some Ladies were present, but not a soul was pleased, there being nothing of a Lecture ...'.37 Unnoticed by Deutsch, however, is a comment in the jocular appendix to the aforementioned Oxford Act which suggests, however improbably, that 'our old Friend Handel, and his Retinue' thought it worth their while 'to slam us off ... with two or threecommonOvertures and not above half their Hands, neither'.38 The Sunday obviously went well, with Handel's 'Utrecht' Te Deum in the morning, and the Jubilate in the afternoon, each performed with an orchestrally accompanied anthem, one of which, almost certainly, would have been 'Zadock the priest'.39 The preacher at Matins was the Revd Thomas Cockman, Master of University College, Oxford, who was just about to be created a D.D.; at Evensong, the Revd Dr Thomas Seeker, an M.D. of Leyden, who, though not of sufficient standing for the Doctor of Divinity degree, was on the morrow to become an Oxford Doctor of Civil Law.40 According to The Oxford Act, the galleries of St Mary's 'were reserved for the Ladies, where they made a very sparkling gaudy Shew'. Nowadays the university church is galleried only at the west end, but in the 18th and early 19th centuries there was a gallery over the north aisle as well, which would have more than doubled the number of seats available.41 And as if two such services in one day were not enough, many of the ladies (and men too, one assumes) then went on to New College 'where they heard an Evening Service of the famous Dr. Blow, and another Anthem with Instruments, from whence they divided their Favours, and took to different Walks, as lay most convenient for the remaining Part of their Evening'.41 The stamina of some at least of our 18th-century forebears is really quite amazing. Had Handel accepted the offer of an honorary D.Mus. it would have been officially conferred during the ceremonial proceedings that took place on

the Monday afternoonor if not then, on Wednesday afternoon along with the 11 honorary D.C.L.s. He would, however, have been presented to the Vice-Chancellor and assembled company not by the Heather Professor of Music, who then had no real academic standing, but by one or other of the two Savilian Professors (of astronomy and geometry) among whose statutory duties it was to present candidates for degrees in music 43 Whether or not, for an honorary doctorate, an exercise would also have been required is by no means clear, for such a degree in music was, at this date, wholly unprecedented. Most probably not, since, unlike earlier Oxford Doctors of Music such as Croft and Pepusch, Handel was not himself a supplicant; and in any case, Athalia would surely, if need be, have counted as such. As for the expense, the combined costs of taking an Oxford B.Mus. and D.Mus. were then less than Es.44 Who knows? The university might even have given him the splendid robes to go with it In cream satin brocade with its long full-length lapels and deep sleeve trimmings in cerise silk, the Oxford D.Mus. gown must be one of the most strikingly handsome academic gowns everand it must surely have been with the object of acquiring it that no fewer than five of the thirteen 18th-century doctors of music at Cambridge subsequently incorporated at Oxford (and at least twoMaurice Greene and Benjamin Cookeshortly afterwards had their portraits painted in it). According to the original timetable, Athalia was scheduled to have had its first performance on Monday evening, but the afternoon's academic ceremonial evidently dragged on so long that a 5 p.m. start was impossible. During the course of the afternoon (say the papers) no fewer than 84 Masters of Arts,

not to mention 17 doctors, were created. In the event, the premiere was delayed for 24 hours, and was thus slotted in after the formal dosing of the Act by the Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday.45 The composer, one imagines, can hardly have been best pleased and, as for the reactions of the performers and audience ...! But no complaint, formal or otherwise, seems to have been registered The notion that there were 3,700 persons present on the occasion is, as we have previously noted, wildly inaccurate.4* Wednesday, 11 July, was for Handel and his team at any rate, a very full day, with a performance of the 1732 polyglot version of Ads and Galatea in Christ Church Hall in the morning (at 9 a.m.) and a repeat performance of Athalia in the Sheldonian in the evening. If we may believe the comment in The Oxford Act, A.D. 1733, the first of these was a benefit for the performers. At first sight, the specifically collegiate (as opposed to university) venue is perhaps a bit surprising, but it was probably a last-minute arrangement designed to compensate the musidans for the loss of revenue on Monday. But as with every other event in this week-long Handelian festival, there is no documentary evidence of the performance in either the university or college archives.47 Advance notices in the London papers suggest that two performances each of Esther, Athalia, Deborah and Ads and Galatea were originally planned, but if so, the last-minute cancellation of the Monday performance of Athalia would have put paid to that Thus both Ads and Deborah were heard only once (the latter on Thursday evening), and on Friday, 13 July, the day before the offidal end of term, Mr Handd and his 'lowsy crew' must have headed back to town, exhausted no doubt, but also elated by the overwhelming success of their Oxonian adventure.

1 For further details, see The history of the University of Oxford, v. The eighteenth century, ed. L. S. Sutherland and L G. Mitchell (Oxford, 1986), ch.32 (pp.865-87) on 'Music and musicians' by S. L. F. Wollenberg; see also S. Wollenberg, 'Music in 18th-century Oxford", Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, cviii (1981-2), pp.69-99,

and S. Wollenberg, Music at Oxford in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (New York, 2001). 2 See O. E. Deutsch, Handeh a documentary biography (London, 1955), pp.319-10, quoting Hearne, Remarks and collections, e d . C E . Doble and H. E. Salter, u vols. (Oxford, for the

Oxford Historical Society, 1885-1921), xi, p.225. For details of the 1713 Act, see my essay in Concert life in eighteenthcentury Britain, ed. S. Wollenberg and S. McVeigh (forthcoming). 3 See L. H. D. Buxton and S. Gibson, Oxford University ceremonies (Oxford, 1935). PP-92-103.

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4 After war service in Africa and the Middle East, Cyril Anthony Eland (1914-95) joined the British CoundL If the essay was written (as it might have been) for one of the many university prizes annually on offer, its author did not succeed in gaining one (as is evident from the lists of prize-winners published in the University Calendars of the mid-i93os). 5 See Deutsch, Handel, pp.316-29, 332-4,366-8. 6 For details, see Oxford University statutes, trans. G. R. M. Ward, i (London, 1845), esp. pp.57-72; also ii (London, 1851), p.235. The original Latin text is to be found in Statutes of the University of Oxford codified in the year 1636, ed. J. Griffiths (Oxford, 1888), pp.67-79. 7 The Schola Musicae (formerly the School of Rhetoric) was a room (24'x 48') on the ground floor of the Old Library, which, since the mid-i7th century, had been used for the weekly practice of music under the terms of the original HeatheT bequest. It also housed various instruments (including an organ), and the collection of music books and manuscripts now generally known as the Music School collection. The annual 'Musick Lecture' referred to was normally given here, and so too were the performances of the exercises of most candidates for degrees in music Though the room is now divided in two, the entrance (in the south-east corner of the Bodleian quadrangle) still bears the words 'Schola Musicae' above the door. Hearne, a stickler for tradition, was incensed that there was no Musick Lecture proper, but only 'a sham consort by Goodson in the Theatre' (see Remarks, xi, 226not 227 as given in Deutsch, p.323). He was also greatly concerned that there was no longer any place in the proceedings for the Terrae filii, a pair of licensed undergraduate buffoons whose satirical and generally scurrilous comments on university life and the conduct of the academic authorities had been suppressed by the Vice-Chancellor in 1713. 8 For the most detailed account of the 1733 ceremonies, see The Oxford Act, 258 EARLY M U S I C

A.D. 1/33,a 75-page pamphlet published in June 1734. The only known copy of the first edition is in the Bodleian Library (Gough Oxon.113 (11)), which also houses two copies of the 1735 reprint (Gough Oxon.131 (16) and G. A. Oxon.8 61 (2)). There are other copies of the 1735 reprint in the British Library, the William Andrews Clark Library in Los Angeles, and the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. The musical references relating to Handel have mostly been reproduced, not entirely accurately, in Deutsch, pp.366-8, and H&ndclHandbuch: Documente zu Leben und Schaffen, ed. W. and M. Eisen, iv (Leipzig, 1985) [hereafter HHB], pp.242-3. 9 No fewer than 11 honorary doctorates of Civil Law were also created that same day. Though some sources (Buxton and Gibson p.98, for example) tell us this took place during the course of the morning, it is quite dear from The Oxford Act, A.D. 1733 (p.45) that this was in feet part of the afternoon ceremony at which Courayer spoke. For some reasonmaybe the noble honorand was unavailable on 11 July a further honorary doctorate of Civil Law was bestowed on Thursday, 5 July, before the Act proceedings officially got under way. 10 Since this is the only paper in which this information appeared, we may perhaps assume that Applebee himself had an Oxford contact. 11 Oxford University Archives, Ms. NEP/Subtus/Be, Register of Convocation 1730-41. 12 See The Bee of 23 June, as quoted by Deutsch, pp.316-17; also HHB, pp.215-16. 13 See The Bee of 2 June (Deutsch, pp.315-16; HHB, p.215); also in The Country Journal: or, The Craftsman of the same date. See also The Daily Advertiser of 11 June, as quoted in D. Burrows, Handel (London, 1994), p.175. 14 See T. McGeary, 'New accounts of Handel and the Oxford Act', The Handel Institute newsletter, xiii (2002), p.[7]. From another letter also quoted by McGeary, it is dear that at least one

person (in this case John Corry, agent to the Earl of Essex, then British diplomatic representative at the Sardinian court) still thought Senesino was due to appear in Oxford as late as 4 July. When Athalia was conceived, it seems that Handel had expected Antonio Montagnana to be available to sing the part of Abner, but by early summer he too had left to join the Opera of the Nobility; see W. Dean, HandeVs dramatic oratorios and masques (London, 1959), pp.26o, 184-5. 15 See Deutsch, p.326; HHB, p.220; see also the extract from Prevost's Le Pour et Contre quoted by Deutsch in translation (pp.333-4) and rather more fully by Eigen in the original French (HHB, pp.223-4). Prevost, writing in August, was still waiting for the detailed account of the Act which had evidently been promised him (quite possibly by an Oxford informant). 16 For more on Handel's relations with Greene, see H. Diack Johnstone, 'Handel and his bellows-blower (Maurice Greene)', Gdttinger HdndelBeitrSge, vii (1998), pp.208-17; also 'A Cambridge musical event the Public Commencement of 1730', Cambridge review, xevi (1974), pp.51-3. 17 For the political background as it affected Oxford, see The history of the University of Oxford, v, ch.1-4. 18 This same point has been made in P. Brett and G. Haggerty, 'Handel and the sentimental: the case of "Athalia"', Music & letters, Ixviii (1987), pp.11227, at p.115; but see also R. Smith, Handel's oratorios and eighteenth-century thought (Cambridge, 1995), pp.286-7. 19 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Don.c.152, f.6iv. Letters in angle brackets have been torn away at the right-hand edge of the document. In the source, the last sentence quoted here begins with a lower-case letter. 20 See Deutsch, p.323; HHB, p.218. See also The Weekly Register of 14 July (Deutsch, p.327; HHB, p.220). 21 Ms. Don.c.152, 63r. 22 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Eng.th.c36, p.65.

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23 Oxford, Bodleian library, Ms. Eng.th.c36, p.66; the bracket after 'Europe' is editorial and replaces a comma in the original. 24 However, the Norwich Gazette of 14 July, reporting on the first performance of Athalia, says there were 'about 70 Voices and Instruments of Musick', and that this was 'the grandest [performance] ever heard at Oxford' (see Deutsch, p.327; HHB, p.220). 25 Oxford University Archives, Ms. WPB/21/6 (Vice-Chancellor's Accounts, 1697-1735). The original 'Father' Smith organ of 1671 had been given to the church of St Peter's in the East in February 1725, and replaced by a new instrument for which 'Mr- [John] Harris' was paid 249 the following year, see R. Pacey, 'Organs of the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford', BIOS journal, iv (1980), pp.43-50. The specification is unknown, but, as the price would suggest, it was evidently a two-manual instrument, the keyboards of which are now in the musical instrument museum of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. The Heather Professor of Music (Richard Goodson jun.) and a local musician called William Sells were also paid 2 25 A,d 'for mending Musical Instruments'. The bill for extra help and attendants at the theatre came to 11 IOJ o i According to Bumey (see n.28 below), Handel 'opened the organ in such a manner as astonished every hearer', but his impressive extempore playing on the occasion does not necessarily imply, as some modem commentators suggest, that he played concertos between the acts. 26 That this was indeed the case is confirmed by the following statement in a manuscript commentary appended to the British Library's copy (press-mark 8364 cc 48) of the 1735 edition of The Oxford Act There was it seems a sort of an Agreement with Handel, to have the use, of the Theater, for His Oratorio'sIf His Performers woud [sic] Help out the celebration of the Act'. 27 Though nothing much is known of "The Musical Society at Oxford' beyond the fact that it was appearing

on subscription lists as early as 1730, it may, perhaps safely, be assumed that this was a continuation or outgrowth of an earlier Music Club whose activities are not documented after 1719; see M. Crum, 'An Oxford music dub,
1690-1719', The Bodleian Library record, ix/2 (1974). PP-83-99- The boy Goodwill who sang the part of Joas in Athalia is also likely to have been local; the rather unusual surname is not to be found in any of the Oxford parish church registers, however. Deutsch (p.324) is wrong in describing him as an alto (and Joad as a tenor); Joas and Joad are treble and alto/countertenor respectively. 28 See Charles Burney,'Sketch of the Life of Handel', in An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon ... in Commemoration of Handel (London, 1785), p.23. 29 See Philip Hayes's brief biographical account of his father in William Hayes, Cathedral Music in Score (London, 1795). Hayes was evidently there as a guest of the Warden of Merton College. 30 See McGeary, 'New accounts of Handel and the Oxford Act'. Marsham and Thomas Osborne (fourth Duke of Leeds) were friends who had both matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in July 1731. 31 See W. Dean, Handel's dramatic oratorios and masques (London, 1959), p.211. 32 For a complete list of the young orators 'of good Rank & Estates' (as Warren describes them) and the topics on which they spoke, see the official Ordo Comitiorum Philologicorum published for the event by the university press (copy in the Bodleian Library, press-mark G.A.Oxon.b.mUo)); the names of the orators and the titles, in English, of their speeches are also to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1733 (p.383) and in the July issue of The London Magazine (pp.365-6). Some were in praise of the king, queen, members of the royal family and the princes of Orange, while others were on topics as diverse as the Clarendon Press, the Doctrine of Flowers,

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59

Learning and Virtue, and the burning of the Cottonian library. The Buckeridge poem is reproduced by Eisen (HHB, pp.217-18) and, with an English translation by Henry Gifford, in Deutsch (pp.320-22); the date on which it was delivered, however, was not 7 July, but 6 July. The version of 'Musica sacra Dramatica sive Oratorium' printed by Deutsch was transcribed, not entirely accurately, from Bodleian Raw!. Ms. 0.155 (f-368v). Unknown to Deutsch, there is another manuscript copy (with interesting textual variants) in Ms.Top.Oxon.e.214, ff. I7v-i8r. All but eight of the speeches delivered on the occasion survive in one or other of the two manuscripts cited here. The star turn, and the only one of the bunch ever published, however, was a dialogue entitled 'Bellus Homo et Academicus' (The Beau and the Academic), which was singled out for special mention in The Country Journal: or, The Craftsman of 14 July (and also in The Oxford Act, A.D. 1733, where it is said that an English verse translation 'for the Use of the Ladies' was expected shortly). This is obviously the version ascribed in the Bodleian library catalogue (and the Dictionary of national biography) to 'the learned printer' William Bowyerjun. (16991777). By October 1733 it had also been translated into English by the Revd Edward Moises, Rector of Keyworth in Nottinghamshire. Amazingly, it was anthologized (in its original Latin form) 40 years later still in Edward Popham, Selecta Poemata Anglorum Latina (London, 1774; 2/1779). A passing mention of Handel's name midway through the poem is of no interest. According to the Bodleian Library catalogue (and Ms. Top.Oxon.e.214 also), the original author of this piece was one William Hasledine, a recent graduate and fellow of Magdalen College from 1733 to 1764 (for whom see Alumni Oxoniensis, ed. J. Foster (London, 1887-8)); as 'GuL Hasseldine' [sic], he was also an orator on the occasion.

'the Plantations', Edmund Gibson sen. must almost certainly have been involved. 34 Remarks and collections, xi, p.225 (not mentioned by Deutsch). 35 See n.32 above. 36 Bodleian Library, Ms. Top.Oxon. e.214, ff.8-9; RawL Ms. c.155 identifies yet three more (one of whom did deliver his own speech), and there are another four (including William Hasledine) named in the first of the two copies of the 1735 edition of The Oxford Act, A.D. 1733 cited in n.8 above. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it may well be that 'Musica sacra Dramatica sive Oratorium' is the work of Henry Buckeridge himself. 37 Remarks and collections, xi, p.227 (quoted by Deutsch, p.323; see also HHB, p.218). 38 The Oxford Act, A.D. 1733, p.[63], and somewhat in the manner of the Terrae filius'. The preceding reference to Goodson's performance is on p.21. 39 The other might possibly have been the Chapel Royal version of'I will magnify thee', a score of which survives among the Goodson/Fawcett materials in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. I am indebted to Professor Donald Burrows for this suggestion. For details of the Goodson/Fawcett connection, see D. Burrows, 'Sources for Oxford Handel performances in the first half of the eighteenth century', Music & letters, lxi (1980), pp.177-85. 40 For Seeker's very interesting career, see the Dictionary of national biography. Already a chaplain to George II, he became bishop of Bristol in 1734, of Oxford in 1737, and subsequently (in 1758) archbishop of Canterbury. 41 The west end and north aisle galleries are shown in a print of 1834 reproduced in C. Hibbert, Encyclopaedia of Oxford (London, 1988), p.480. According to The London Magazine, July 1733, p.366, the church 'was so thronged [at the afternoon service] that many Persons were almost stifled, before they could get out'.

42 The Oxford Act, A.D. 1733, p.36. Whether the anthem at New College was also by Handel is not dear. Most probably not. 43 See Oxford University statutes, trans. Ward, i, p.65. The Savilian Professor of Astronomy in 1733 (James Bradley) is little known, but the then Professor of Geometry was the distinguished astronomer Edmund Halley (16561742). When William Hayes took his D.Mus. in 1749, it was Bradley who presented him. 44 For a detailed breakdown of the fees payable for these and various other Oxford degreeswho exactly got whatsee the Registrar's notebook of c.1737 in the University Archives, Ms. Wp a/58/1, fi2v-i3r, and 26V-27V for music 45 The postponement of the scheduled first performance of Athalia (and the reason for it) were noted by Prevost, who, interestingly and perhaps significantly, describes the work as the expression of Handel's gratitude to the university (see Deutsch, p.334; also HHB, pp.223-4); see also The Bee of 14 July and other London papers referred to by Deutsch on p.327. 46 The figure of 3,700 comes from The Bee of 14 July (Deutsch, pp.326-7; HHB, p.220), and is repeated in the July issue of The Gentleman's Magazine, while in The London Magazine this is bumped up to 'near 4,000'. Whatever the number, it must have been singularly uncomfortable in the Sheldonian, particularly as the weather, so Hearne (xi, 230) tells us, had been 'for some time very dry & excessive hot'. Forty years later the seating capacity of the Sheldonian was still reckoned, in the papers at any rate, to have been 'near three thousand'; see S. Wollenberg, 'Handel in Oxford: the tradition c.1750-1850', GOttinger HSndel-BeitrSge, ix (2002), pp.161-76, at p.168. 47 It is clear from the printed libretto that Handel had originally intended Ads and Galatea to be performed in the Sheldonian Theatre; see W. Dean, Handel's dramatic oratorios and masques, p.184.

33 This was a thoroughly up-to-date topic, the American colony of Georgia having been established by Royal Charter just a year earlier (in 1732); as Bishop not only of London but also of 260 EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2 0 0 3

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26l

OBSERVATION

Roger Bowers

Five into four does go: the vocal scoring of Ockeghem's Missa Vhomme arme
N his article 'Finding closure: performance issues in the Agnus Dei of Ockeghem's Missa Vhomme arme", Early music, xxx (2002), pp.593-607, the dilemmas of vocal scoring to which Edward Wickham draws attention are certainly genuine, but are not insoluble. There are senses in which they are dilemmas primarily of the modern ensemble director, and would not have been perceived as problematic by Ockeghem's 15th-century contemporaries. Dr Wickham draws attention to the manner in which the composer appears to engage for the five movements of the Mass vocal scorings which, except for the Kyrie and Gloria, are not consistent from one movement to the next The vocal ensemble required for the Credo is constituted differently from that used in the Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus, while that needed for the Agnus Dei appears different yet again. In addition, the music of the Agnus uses a configuration of clefs that seems to throw each of the participating voices into a tessitura considerably lower than the one engaged for the movements preceding. In aggregate, these features make upon every one of the individual voices demands so extreme as to render all but impossible a performance executed throughout by an ensemble composed of an unchanging assembly of singers employing standard vocal timbres. Wickham wonders how such music was ever performed in its own time, and how a modem ensemble should attempt its performance today. The music itself certainly exhibits all the features Wickham has observed.1 In the Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus, the ranges of the voices are:

contratenor Kyrie Gloria Sanctus tenor2 Kyrie Gloria Sanctus bassus Kyrie Gloria Sanctus Kyrie Gloria Sanctus

d-a'

H
g{d, e,/eachonce)-g'(a'once) c-d'

B*-e' (once /') BV-e'(once/') The overall compasses of these movements are thus: 18 notes (c-/") 19 notes (B\-f") 19 notes (BV/")

superius

Kyrie Gloria Sanctus

a-e" (once /") a-e" (once /") a-e" (once /")

MAY 2OO3

In the Credo the range of the superius is g-e" (once/"), of the contratenor da', and of the bassus c (twice B, once A)-g' (once a'). The tenor, notated in clef C3, bears a canon instructing the performer to sing a 5th lower than written pitch; so transposed, it sounds in the range Bl-d'. The overall compass, between the bass A and the superius /", is thus 20 notes. In the Agnus the prevailing vocal tessituras appear much lower. The range of the superius is g (once f)-c", of the contratenor c-f (once g'); and of the bassus G (once F)-d'. The tenor, notated in clef C3, bears a canon instructing the performer to sing an octave lower than written pitch. So transposed, it sounds in the range G-a (once b\), and is indeed the true bass. The overall compass, between the bassus F and the superius c", is thus 19 notes. One point can thus be settled immediately. Whatever else may fluctuate, the overall compasses of the successive movements are consistent. Between the highest and lowest notes written, F and /", there lies a distance of three octaves (22 notes). However, not

262

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a single one of the constituent movements makes use of the whole of that compass. All consistently engage a compass of 19 notes. (The compass of the Credo is extended by a single rogue note to 20, while the brief Kyrie engages only 18.) Clearly, therefore, the diverse levels of pitch which to the modern eye are generated by the clefs of this music must be entirely illusory, for if Ockeghem had really had available to him voices able to sing up to three octaves apart, why did he not use them simultaneously in full three-octave polyphony? Rather, as is the case with all music of this period, it must be concluded that the clefs neither yielded nor were intended to yield any idea of actual sounding pitch; their role had not yet developed beyond the function which they had been designed to perform in plainsong, namely to convey no more than just the location on the staff of the diatonic semitones.3 A change of clef-system therefore conveyed not a change of pitch-level, but a change of what may anachronisticaUy be called 'tonality'. Consequently, and irrespective of false impressions inadvertently generated by its system of clefs, it is evident that the Agnus Dei was composed to be performed at a level of pitch no different from that of the other movements. A further point becomes evident when the ranges of the individual voices are plotted onto a 'great staff of 11 lines. Preserving their ostensible diversity of pitch, the ranges of the Agnus Dei and of the Credo yield the pattern presented in ex.i. It is evident from this that a single pattern is presented by both movements. Indeed, when reconciled by means of the adjustment of the pitch of the Agnus Dei upward by two degrees of the staff, the scoring of both movements may be seen to be the same, being for one high voice, one middle and two low. Moreover, and in particular, the differentials of pitch between them are consistent and common to the scoring of both movements. A further pattern becomes evident when the vocal scoring common to the Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus is likewise plotted onto a 'great staff, and aligned both with that of the Credo, and with that of the Agnus adjusted upward by two degrees, as in ex.2. It is now perfectly plain that it was never the composer's intention for all the movements of the Mass to be performable by an ensemble of consistent and

unchanging personnel. Performance of the Mass required the availability of a pool totalling not four but five voices, from which four were drawn for the performance of any one movement The ranges of the five voices, and the differentials between them yielding a pattern of one high, two middle and two low, are indicated in ex.3. Ex.i Ockeghem, Missa L'homme armir. vocal ranges and differentials in (a) Agnus Dei; (b) Credo 00 Ct T
(canon)

(b)

Ct

T (canon)

Ex.2 Ockeghem, Missa L'homme armt. vocal ranges and differentials in all five movements, compensating for the def-system of the Agnus Dei and recognizing the distinction between the tenor, and the tenor modified by the verbal canon S Ct T B T
(canon) Gloria, Sanctui

Krric,

tf

- " a ~ ~ ~ ~ ~_~m - - - - - " I m r m r f _ ^

IB

Credo

r
Agnui Dei (adjusted upward by t w o degree])

r J

' E
=

M 1'"' p - - - - F ' '

* - - *** _

Ex.3 Ockeghem, Missa L'homme armt. vocal ranges and differentials of the pool offivevoices required to perform the complete Mass
S
m

Ct
._.

B
n

T (canon)

voice 1 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 263

Thus for performance of the Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus, voices 1, 2,3 and 4 were required; the Kyrie and Gloria were necessarily performed by a single ensemble, since in the course of the Mass the Gloria followed the Kyrie with no break. However, whenever a canon directed that the tenor be performed at a level of pitch lower in relation to the other voices than that indicated by its clef, the voice formerly singing that line took a rest, and was replaced by voice 5, so generating for the Credo and Agnus an ensemble consisting of voices i, 2, 4 and 5. It will be noted that these scorings were so deployed by the composer as to ensure that the two ensembles alternated as the Mass proceeded. Such resorts may have been unusual for the time; however, never was Ockeghem a composer to stick to rules and conventions that did not suit him, especially in respect of his participation in the general exploration at this time of ways and means to break out of the long-standing constraint of the two-octave overall compass. These analyses reveal that this Mass exhibits one further feature found also in many other examples of Ockeghem's sacred music. In the case of all but one of the parts, he was composing for singers of range rather greater than was average for the time. Voice 5 may indeed require a range standing well within the standard 11th; however, voices 2 and 3 both require a core compass of a 12th, and voices 1 and 4 a 13th. In addition, voices 1 and 2 both need one extra note above the core; and voice 4 must have been truly remarkable, for its extremes of range in the Credo encompass two complete octaves. At the French Chapel Royal, Ockeghem dearly had at his disposal at least a quartet of very versatile voices, whose full capacities he was more than content to exploit. The identity of the specific timbres of voice which the composer had in mind, and the actual sounding pitch at which he intended them to sing, are other issues altogether. As noted above, no idea of the level of performing pitch envisaged by the composer for this music can be derived from the clefs, and to endeavour to do so would be wholly anachronistic. Even by the time of Ockeghem's death in 1497 there still had not yet arisen those practices in composition and performance which eventually would visit upon the clef this augmentation of its traditional role. Pitch of performance in vocal music was a mat264 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

ter not of notational prescription but of custom and convention, determined within narrow limits of possibility by the nature of the performing medium available;4 and into this latter subject, research in respect of 15th-century Continental music has not as yet progressed beyond the most initial stages. Given the date of composition of the Mass, it appears safe to conclude that it was written for an ensemble of men's voices; in the present state of research, I hesitate to be more specific, except to suggest that Ockeghem himself, noted by one contemporary as the possessor of an exceptional bass voice, may have been the intended executant of the truly exceptional demands made upon voice 4. Certainly, however, the level of pitch envisaged by the composer will have been substantially lower than that produced by modern mistranscription of the original clefs as their ostensible equivalents. The remaining dilemmas diagnosed by Wickham in respect of this Mass appear to be entirely those of the modern ensemble director, and in the 15th century would not have been perceived as constituting circumstances departing from the ordinary. Everything about the Mass seems to indicate that it was composed probably during the 1450s, and there is no reason to imagine that the expert singers for performance by whom the music was conceived were any other than those specialists in polyphony who were to be found among the singing-men of the choirs of the household chapels of royalty and the aristocracy and of the greater cathedral and other collegiate churches. Large as many of these choirs were, at this time the number of singing-men in each who were expert in executing not just plainsong but also polyphony from notation was probably relatively attenuated, and unlikely to have exceeded six or eight. During any celebration of festal High Mass those deputed to sing the polyphonic Ordinarymost probably at this period a small group singing one to a partfound themselves performing it at just four points in the service, widely separated by long stretches of chant and monotone. During the latter, the deputed poh/phonists sang from their places in the choirstalls; only at the start of each polyphonic movement did they leave their places in the stalls to gather round a lectern placed probably near the

choir-step, on which stood the choirbook from which they sang. It may look odd in a modern concert if the four men who step up to sing the Credo and Agnus Dei of a polyphonic Mass are not quite identical to the four by whom the other movements are being sung, but in the context of a 15th-century church service such a practice would have been neither material nor, probably, even noticeable. On a modern CD it may sound disturbing and incongruous if the 'tonality' of the Agnus Dei of a complete Mass is different from that of the other movements; however, as one of four stretches of polyphony thinly dispersed among the diverse 'tonalities' of many items of plainsong, such a feature arising in the course of a service would have been no more than inconsequential and immaterial. And the deployment for two movements of a grouping of voices somewhat different from that utilized for the other three may cause concern to the finance manager of a modern ensemble of small and fixed membership, but would have presented no problem to a 15th-century maestro whose overall pool of singers was somewhat larger, and was being paid whether they performed in the polyphony or not It may be added, however, that in all likelihood the late 15th-century choirs for whose use such surviving sources as CS 35 and CS 234 were prepared5 may well not have included singers possessing such special characteristics as the two-octave range required of Ockeghem's executant of voice 4. In a circumstance so very unusual, it is possible to imagine that certain early directors of performances of this Mass may well have met a dilemma exactly the

same as that encountered by their modern successors, so that for the execution of such a line they were put to anticipating exactly the modern solution, however inelegant, of sharing or even doubling that part by two voices of different but suitably complementary timbres. The solution offered here for the vocal scoring of Ockeghem's Missa L'homme arm& does seem to provide a simple and satisfactory resolution of all Wickham's original dilemmas. If Ockeghem envisaged the availability of a pool of singers consisting of the five voices proposed here, then there is no need to consider the use of any instrument, nor the exchange of parts between two singers for the Credo.6 In addition, the Agnus Dei ceases to exhibit features whose explanation requires resort to possibly anachronistic concepts of ensemble texture and timbral colouration.7 Indeed, many instances of seeming inconsistency in the vocal scoring of multimovement works of this period may well have been intended in 15th-century practice to be resolved by the engagement not of a minimum but of an aggregate team of singers, out of whose membership two (or even more) slightly different ensembles could be appointed, each appropriate for the performance of particular movements. Ockeghem's Mass Ecce ancilla Domini is an obvious further instance, and doubtless many others can be found for the period c.1450-1510. In this respect, Dr Wickham's likening of the pool of singers of polyphony maintained within each greater 15thcentury choir to a modern 'sports squad' appears no less than entirely apt*

1 The edition consulted is Johannes Ockeghem: Masses and Mass sections, ed. J. van Benthem, ii/2: Missa L'homme armi (Koninldijke Verenigjng voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis). 2 The manner in which the tenor concentrates on the upper reaches of its full compass in these movements is a consequence of its having little to sing other than just the cantus firmus. 3 These conclusions arise ineluctabry from a systematic study of the deft and

vocal ranges and differentials exhibited by over one thousand pieces of music of English origin, c.1300-1550, and may be considered watertight R. Bowers, English church polyphony: singers and sources from the 14th to the 17th century (Aldershot, 1999), items 1-3. 4 For this conclusion, see the literature cited in n.3 above. 5 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ms. CappeUa Sistina 35 and Ms. Chigi c viii 234. 6 E. Wickham, 'Finding closure:

performance issues in the Agnus Dei of Ockeghem's Missa L'homme armi', Early music, rxx (2002), pp.593-607, at pp.594,595. It could be added that had there ever been required such an exchange of parts between singers in the course of performing a multimovement polyphonic work, it would probably have been regarded by contemporary performers as a manoeuvre entirely unremarkable and unexceptional. 7 Wickham, 'Finding closure', p.598. 8 Wickham, 'Finding closure', p.599.

EARLY M U S I C

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265

REVIEW ARTICLE

Alejandro Enrique Planchart

Early English Masses

An extended review of Fifteenth-century liturgical music, iv. Early Masses and Mass pairs, ed. Gareth Curtis, Early English Church Music, xlii (London: Stainer & Bell, for the British Academy, 2001), 55

its title indicates, this volume is the fourth in a series of publications of English liturgical music of the 15th century. The series began in 1968 with an edition of antiphons and other music for Holy Week and Easter,1 which was followed by Margaret Bent's epoch-making edition of the large-scale English Masses of the mid-century found in the Trent Codices (with the exception of the Caput Mass)1 and Gareth Curtis's edition of the English Masses in the Burgundian manuscript Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale Albert \a, Ms.5557.3 This volume departs from its predecessors in that it appears in the series' new larger format (32.5 x 5 cm, instead of the 25.5 x 17.7 cm of the older volumes), almost the dimensions of Brussels 5557 itself; the new layout is remarkably spacious and dear. It contains three movements from a Mass by John Benet, two movements and a fragment from the Mass on Requiem aetemam, Leonel's Mass on Alma redemptoris mater, two movements from an anonymous Mass on Jacet granum, and four Mass pairs, one anonymous, the others by Bloym, Benet and DrifTelde, plus an odd-couple Mass-pair of disputed authorship. The notation used in this volume calls for some comment, for it is a complicated and perhaps uneasy balance of 15th- and 20th-century elements (illus.i). The 15th-century elements include the use of mensuration signs instead of time signatures, and black and white note-shapes instead of modern ones. In that respect, it goes beyond the notations familiar from Rudolf von Ficker's edition of music from the Trent Codices,4 the many publications of Laurence Feininger,5 and the equally numerous dissertations that have emerged from the University of Munich from the days of Trasybulos Georgjades onwards,6 in that for passages in O and in G or O the nota266 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

tion itself follows 15th-century conventions: perfect breves in O and semibreves in G, for instance, will not have dots when followed by a similar note-value, or even when followed by shorter values, except in those cases where a real ambiguity exists. In other words, the parts are written in true mensural notation, and the reader of the music is expected to recognize matters of perfection, imperfection and alteration when reading the score. In practice, this is not as difficult as might be imagined, since the music itself is not mensurally complicated, the typography and alignment are both crystalline and spacious, and in his introduction (ppjci-xii) the editor provides some helpful suggestions for the reader. In the circumstance that would be least familiar to a 21stcentury reader, that of alteration, any altered note is marked with a superscript haceka policy that is explained in the introduction in a matter-of-fact manner, without mentioning that the symbol is in fact a sensible and even witty resurrection of the crucial trait in the cauda hirundinis, a sign designed to indicate alteration in English notation of the early 15th century, and one of the mirabilia repugnantia that so distressed the author of the Quatuor principaliaJ The use of unreduced values is a welcome change from the 4:1 reduction of earlier volumes in the 15th-century series, for it eliminates the use of rhythmic values that only amoebas could love, and the need to beam together short note-values, creating rhythmic groupings that might be misleading to the singer. 1 (opposite) The opening of the anonymous Mass Jacet
granum, a sample page from Early Masses and Mass pairs, ed. Gareth Curtis, reduced in size (O British Academy, 2001. Reproduced by permission.)

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C Copyright 2001 by The Britiih Academy

EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2 0 0 3

The 20th-century notational traits include the use of score rather than presentation of the music in parts (as was done in the many editions published by Ogni Sorte Editions in the 1970s and 1980s). ligatures are indicated by the traditional brackets placed over the notes concerned; superscript accidentals indicate musica ficta, occasional musica recta b-fas, and signed notes in sources other than the copy source; and the only clefs used are treble, transposing treble and bass. Vestigial barlines, which are indicated by tiny strokes at the bottom of each staff, occur after every breve in O and G, and after every long in C. Using barlines after every long in C reflects the fact that, in most of these works, imperfect time moves in breves and semibreves (and was consequently often signed with (f in Continental sources).8 The editor's explanation of the barlines begins with a politically correct circumlocution: 'Mensural groupings have been marked off by means of vertical strokes below the stave'; but 'VSBS' would probably have been too clumsy a locution for sustained use, and within a few lines the things are being called bars, and that is that. They don't get in the way, and they will be useful for citing passages of the music, and for rehearsal if singing from multiple copies. One aspect that betrays a time-honoured 20th-century traditionalthough this, to be fair, could hide behind the 'mensural grouping' notion is that barlines are happily present under the continuation of maximae and longae, but disappear with becoming modesty under hemiola groups in coloration. Another modern compromise is the subdivision of extended rests into groups of breve or long rests, which is sensible; about the only information that would be lost by this is when works were conceived (as is Du Fay's Mass on Se la face ay pale is) in perfect modus,9 but that is not the case with any of the works in this edition. Of the 20th-century compromises adopted here, perhaps the only one that makes me slightly unhappy is the use of treble clefs, even when the music changes clefs during its course. This can result in passages that lie unnaturally low in their clefs, for instance in the Masses by Benet, Power and Bloym. But the avoidance of C clefs is probably an inevitable concession to the dumbing-down of practical music education on both sides of the Atlantic.
268 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

The look of the music on the page is both beautiful and inviting; its spacing in score is particularly well done, and this should go a long way to facilitate reading and performance. Given the size of the book, it would be feasible for even six people to sing from it around a music stand. (I tried doing that, and found the music to be quite readable even for my nearly 70-year-old eyes, thrashed by decades of staring at bad microfilms and at palimpsests under ultra-violet light.) Typographically, the notational symbols draw on a mix of traditions: the maximae, longae and breves, for instance, go back to the late 19th-century Palestrina and Lasso editions of Haberl & Co., while the semibreves, minims, and semiminims have wiry and unfussy outlines that betray the computer age.10 They are nonetheless reasonably handsome." The only truly ugly symbol is the bass clef used for the incipits; I hope that future volumes change it. The text underlay is sane and very musical. I am glad to see that the editor is not particularly afraid of placing syllables in the lower voices in such a way that the text can be heard, even if occasionally this means placing the syllable on the last note of a ligature. In this I suspect he might have been influenced by some of Christopher Page's concern with textual clarity, which is all to the good. I have not deliberately searched for typographical errors, but in one of the pieces I sang through there was one in my part (p.6, bar 18, voice m: the semibreve b should have the missing last syllable of 'pleni', and the 'sunt' should go under the minim d).

H E editor has provided plainsong intonations for all movements in this edition, including the Sanctus and Agnus settings. In most cases, these movements do not have plainsong intonations in the surviving sources, and this elicits a relatively extended editorial explanation (pp.xii-xiii), which sounds reasonable but is in some ways wrongheaded. The arguments are not presented in an entirely straightforward manner in the introduction itself, the basic assumption being consigned to a footnote. Brought together and reordered, the argument runs as follows:

1 It seems to have been normal for English settings of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei as well as the Gloria and the Credo to begin with intonations. (p.xii, note 20) 2 Continental scribes often revised the texting in order to accommodate the opening words within the polyphony, (p.xii, note 20) 3 All the movements in this volume require intonations, (p.xii) 4 The choice of intonation would be the opening of whichever melody was appropriate to the liturgical status of the occasion, (p.xiii) 5 Where a polyphonically decorated version of chant was sung by one of the voice-parts, there is no difficulty choosing an appropriate incipit However, where the polyphony is not based on chant, we cannot necessarily assume that there would have been a match in mode between the polyphony and the intonation prescribed by the liturgy, (p.xiii) 6 Hence, a liturgically appropriate choice of incipits in a Mass cycle may sound less than ideal from a purely musical point of view, (p.xiii) 7 The solutions adopted in this volume presuppose that liturgical propriety took precedence over musical considerationsand, for better or worse, they assume that the music was composed for liturgical occasions of the highest status, (pjciii) The main problem here is that the word 'normal' in statement no.i is tacitly made into a synonym for 'without exception' (despite the opening words 'it seems'). This leads directly to the categorical nature of statement no.3. In the case of statement no.2, the reader should at least have been presented with some evidence of how often is 'often'. The scribe of Bologna Q15 apparently found intonations in the Sanctus and Agnus of the Benet Mass, and dutifully copied them into his own manuscript, even though (as Margaret Bent has shown) he was something of a compulsive reviser.12 The Trent Codices and other Continental sources have a number of Sanctus and Agnus movements

that begin with chant intonations and are copied that way. On the other hand, from the little that remains of English 15th-century manuscripts copied between 1430 and 1500, it appears that, for the most part, functional sources written in cantus collaterals did not include the intonations except in cases where the composer decided to devise his own, as is almost certainly the case with the Benet Mass;13 instead the intonations would have been taken from the Gradual. In a few cases, intonations are cleverly placed within the historiated initials of a de luxe manuscript;14 these might have been overlooked by a Continental scribe. But the case for Continental scribes changing the text underlay at the beginning of Sanctus and Agnus settings in English Masses may be overstated. Among the pieces included in this edition, we have the following situation: Benet Mass: the Sanctus and Agnus have composed intonations, copied as such by the scribe of Q15. Mass on Requiem aeternam. there is so little left of this work that it is not possible to determine whether or not the English manuscript included the intonations. (No Continental copy survives.) Leonel, Mass on Alma redemptoris. both the Sanctus and the Agnus require intonations, and there is good evidence that the text was redistributed in two Continental copies (Aosta and Trent 87); this is most obvious in the Agnus in Trent 87, where the scribe entered the words 'Agnus dei' under bars 110, replacing (and thus omitting) the original text for those bars, 'qui tollis'.15 Mass on Jacetgranurrc the Sanctus requires an intonation; the text underlay was changed in Trent 93 (and therefore in Trent 90, which derivesfromit), but was not revised in Trent 92, which has only two Sanctus invocations. Driffelde Mass: the Sanctus requires an intonation; but the text underlay was not revised in Trent 93 (nor in Trent 90). The Agnus does not seem to require an intonation, and the phraseology of the music fits quite well with the text as set down in Trent 92. Given the text displacement caused by the intonation, the cadence at bar 8, which has no syllable to articulate it, seems unstylistic
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 269

Anonymous pain the Sanctus requires an intonation, and the text was not revised in Trent 87. The Agnus Dei does not seem to need an intonation, and in fact the rate of texting in the edition changes so drastically between Agnus 1 on one hand and Agnus 2 and 3 in the other that perhaps the addition of an intonation is misguided here. Expanding this inquiry to a group of works closely related to the ones in this editionnamely the four Masses edited by Margaret Bentthe results are very similar.16 The Sanctus of the Mass on Fuit homo missus does not appear to require an intonation, nor does its Agnus Dei. The case of the Mass on Quern malignus spiritus is ambiguous; its Sanctus may or may not require an intonation,17 but its Agnus certainly does. The English source of this Mass lacks the opening verso of the Sanctus, but the Agnus Dei is intact, and no intonation is given for it. Admittedly this is a late and rather scruffy-looking copy,18 but nevertheless it shows that the intonations were not always copied with the polyphony. In Trent 93 the text of this Mass was adjusted in the Sanctus, but not in the Agnus. The Mass on Salve sancta parens is probably a case where both the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei required intonations; the text was adjusted by the scribes of Trent 93 and Trent 90. As for the Mass on Veterem hominem, it needs an intonation for the Sanctus, but not for the Agnus Dei. Turning finally to the English Masses in Brussels 5557, the Continental scribe did not, by and large, adjust the texts of the movements. In short the practice was inconsistent on both sides of the Channel. Some English movements used intonations, others did not; some Continental scribes adjusted the text, others left the music as they found it. The most striking example of how the rigid universal application of intonations can do damage to a work is afforded by the recording of the Caput Mass by Gothic Voices.1' Here, what is by a very long shot the best recorded performance of that work is disfigured by a series of intonationsin the wrong mode, at thatextending to the last two movements. What is particularly ironic in this case is that the intonations are added despite the evidence afforded by the one surviving English source for the work, in which the Mass has no intonations in the last two move270 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

ments (illus.2). The case of Caput presents us with the 'for worse' consequences of making assumptions 3 to 7 above. It may be that some of these problems led some composers to abandon the use of intonations for their works. It is also probably wrong to take intonation chants only from the Use of Sarum. Widespread though it was, we have little knowledge of where these Masses were composed and used, nor of the circumstances that may have regulated the use of polyphony, nor of the interaction of liturgy with practical matters at the time. A more flexible approach seems preferable. In any event, the use of these works today as anything other than concert music is almost nil, so why not make an effort to find intonations that will work musically with the polyphony? This is, after all, what Benet himself did.

HE introduction to this volume is dear and most useful, gracefully written with the scholarly reticence typical of all of Curtis's other writings. (In the present scholarly climate, such a quiet voice is something to be welcomed.) He points to a number of traits in the Masses, particularly the sometimes faint traces of proportional organization, and suggests a rough stylistic chronology among them. His assessment of the works appears to me to be both accurate and sensible. As for the critical notes, they are a model of clarity and usefulness. In the Mass on Requiem aetemam, Curtis has supplied not only many of the notes in the Credo that are missing on account of damage to the paper, but also the entire cantus voice of the Gloria. Reconstructing a cantus in an early 15th-century work is considerably more difficult than reconstructing an inner voice. Here, however, the reconstruction is idiomatic and skilled. If a few passages sound a bit dutiful, that is because the composer himself does not have a strong melodic personality (as is the case with the master of the Caput Mass, or Walter Frye), so the editor had much less to go on in terms of imaginative writing in the model. With the exception of Leonel's Mass and perhaps some of Benet's pieces, this is Kleinmeistermusik, but grateful and lovely nonetheless. Curtis is right when he points out that the works bespeak a varied and lively set of traditions and compositional

rr tio

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2 The fragment of the English Caput Mass (formerly attributed to Du Fay) preserved as Coventry Archives, Coventry City Council, BA/E/6/37/I, f.ir (by kind permission). The opening of the contratenor part of the Agnus, at the top of the page, is clearly underlaid with the text 'Agnus dei'; no plainchant intonation is required. EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3 27I

voices. This makes the almost total disappearance of the insular English sources of these works all the more tragic and regrettable. Not only have we lost many splendid pieces, such as the Mass on Tu es

Petrus. To judge from their surviving leaves, the destruction of these English choirbooks has also deprived us of some beautiful as well as practical physical objects.

1 Fifteenth-century liturgical music, ed. A. Hughes, Early English Church Music, viii (London, 1968). 2 Fifteenth-century liturgical music, ii: Four anonymous Masses, ed. M. Bent, Early English Church Music, xxii (London, 1979). 3 Fifteenth-century liturgical music, iii: The Brussels Masses, ed. G. Curtis, Early English Church Music, xnriv (London, 1989). 4 Sechs Trienter Codices, sechste Auswahl, ed. R. von Ficker, Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, bocvi (Vienna, 1933; R/1959-60). 5 In the series Monumenta Poh/phoniae Liturgicae Sanctae Ecdesiae Romanae (Rome and Trent Societas Universalis Sanctae Caeciliae, 1947-66). 6 A notable example, which edits music roughly contemporary with that of the present volume, is R. Bockholdt, DiefrQhen Mcssenkompositionen von Guillaume Dufay, 2 vols., MOnchner Verdffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte, v (Tutzing, i960). 7 Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series a Gerbertina altera, ecLE.de Coussemaker, 4 vols. (Paris, 1864-76; s/Olms, 1963), iv, p.171. 8 In virtually all the works in the edition, at least one source gives C for the imperfect time, and the editor sensibly uses that in the score. In the exceptions, such as the Sanctus by Driffelde, he emends the signature. 9 T. Brothers, 'Vestiges of the

isorhythmic tradition in Mass and motet, ca.1450-1475', Journal of the American Musicological Society, xliv (1991), pp.7-1410 This perhaps adds to their legibility, although on aesthetic grounds they are no match for the exquisite typefaces devised by Leland Smith and used in Guilhume Dufay, Chansons: forty-five settings in original notation from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Canonid 213, ed. R. Duffin (Miami: Ogni Sorte, 1983), which survive today as the Renaissance music fonts for Smith's Score music program. Smith's typefaces are more consistent, and the breves, longae and maximae do look like part of the same notational graphic world as the smaller values. 11 The fine drawing of the semibreves and minimi makes a bit hard to notice at first the passages added by the editor in smaller print, except when an entire voice is added (where the staff itself is in a smaller type). 12 M. Bent, 'A contemporary perception of early fifteenth-century style: Bologna 0.15 as a document of scribal editorial initiative', Musica disciplina, xli (1987), pp.183-201. 13 A due that this may be the case is that the Sanctus and Agnus intonation are virtually identical. This is not impossible a few such instances are listed in P. J. Thannabaur, Das einstimmige sanctus der rdmischen Messe in der handschrifdichen Oberlieferung des 11. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, Erlanger

Arbeiten zur Musikwissenschaft, i (Munich, 1962) and M. Schildbach, Das Einstimmige Agnus Dei und seine handschriftUche Vberlieferung vom 10. Bis zum 16. Jahrhundert (PhD diss., Erlangen: Friedrich-Alexander Universitat, 1967), but it is so rare as to make possibility of Benet being the composer of the intonations all but certain. 14 This is the case with Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms.Don.b.31 verso, where the intonation in the decorated initial Q is the Sarum Agnus given in Schildbach, Die Einstimmige, p.100, as variant 1 to melody 100; see M. Bent, The progeny of Old Hall: more leaves from a royal English choirbook', Gordon Athol Anderson (1929-1981), in Mcmoriam von seinen Studenten, Freunden und Kollegen, 2 vols., ed. M.Bent et aL, Musicological Studies, xxxix (Henryvifle, 1984), i, p.50. 15 This is carefully reported in the critical notes, p.51. 16 See n.2 above. 17 Trent 93 has three invocations in the cantus but two in the contratenor. The third invocation of the cantus could be editorial. 18 See Four anonymous Masses, ed. Bent, pp.173-4. 19 Missa Caput and the story of the Salve Regina, The Spirits of England and France, iv, Gothic Voices, dir. Christopher Page (London: Hyperion CDA 66857,1996).

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'Book reviews
pointespecially invertible counterpointas a kind of microcosm of the order of the universe (see Yearsley, p.20), an exegesis which, I believe, might incidentally lend some support to my own theories about the precompositionally conceived cosmological programme for the GoldDavid Yearsley, Bach and the meanings of counterpoint berg Variations. Predictably, this morbid streak in Pietist (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 45/560 thinking produced a counter-reaction among writers of an Enlightenment persuasion such as Mattheson, who argued This book is essentially a study of J. S. Bach's counterpoint that such preoccupations were an unhealthy distraction viewed through a series of 18th-century prisms. For the from the life well lived. Here again, Bach is seen as an theorists and composers of that time, this most highly upholder of conservative values. Yearsley sees the famous prized of arts had an element of the miraculous, and they change of title as a manifestation of Bach's personal culexpressed that view in a series of metaphors that were held tivation of the discipline of the an moriendu Connecting to illuminate its function and purpose. These lost none of this view with the music by analytical discussion is their relevance when, with the advent of new musical styles inevitably fraught with difficulties, since the work already in the second quarter of the 18th century, their validity was had a long compositional history (and, needless to say, increasingly challenged by a new system of musical values a different title) by the time of Bach's final revision. Yet in which counterpoint played a less significant role. David Yearsley's analysis, as are most of his analytical sections, Yearsley's valuable and illuminating study concentrates on is detailed and illuminating. each of these metaphors in turn, bringing them to bear on the fugues and canons of Bach's late period. At this stage of Next, Yearsley considers contrapuntal artifice from his career Bach seems to have become more and more the unexpected standpoint of alchemy, this time taking committed to the cultivation of contrapuntal achieveas his starting-point the four-part Canon pour M. Houdement, at a time when many other composers were abanmann [Hudemann], BWV1074, as printed in Mattheson's doning it in favour of the simpler tastes of the new age. Der getreuc Music-Meister in 1728. He extends the scope The last chapter, in which Yearsley turns from the 18th of the discussion to cover the correspondence between century to the 20th, sheds sharp if sometimes disturbing Bach's Weimar colleague and distant relative, Johann light on the interpretation attached to Bach's counterpoint Gottfried Walther, and the Wolfenbuttel cantor Heinrich under the jackboot of National Socialism. Bokemeyer, a correspondence that contains some bizarre observations on the subject. Yearsley links this with simiParadoxically, Yearsley begins at the end of Bach's life lar interests cultivated by Frederick the Great, as well with the chorale prelude on VOT deinen Thron tret' ich hinein, BWV668, otherwise known as the SterbchoraL He as with Bokemeyer's long and ultimately unsuccessful debate with Mattheson on the alchemical significance views this composition in the light of the tradition of an of canon. Another point of reference is Johann Adam moriendi literature of various Lutheran divines, some of Theile's famous Musikalisches Kunst-Buch, which demonwhose devotional work Bach had in his library. The constrates the arts of invertible counterpoint and canon templation of mortality, which Luther himself urged on through the means of enigmatic inscriptions, extending his followers, was also eagerly taken up in the 17th and 18th the contrapuntist's claims to musical wizardry still centuries, producing a body of work that may seem further. depressing and rebarbative today, but which had no such disadvantages for a readership for which the fragility of life Yearsley proceeds to examine the arts of counterpoint was a fact with which they were faced all too regularly. from the standpoints of aesthetic taste in general, this time Yearsley draws helpfully on an impressive range of writers, in a chapter fetchingly entitled 'Bach's taste for pork or including Heinrich Mflller {Erquickstunden, 1664) and canary'. This title is justified by a picturesque passage in August Pfeiffer (Liebes-Kufi, 1732), as well as others whose Mattheson's Critica musica in which the analogy is drawn names are more familiar to musicians (Werckmeister, (Yearsley, pp.119-20). The chapter has some valuable Printz and Burmeister). Some of these, especially Werckobservations, especially as regards the cultivation of canon meisteT, broaden the analogy still further, and see counterby musicians of a galant persuasion.

David Humphreys

Interpreting Bach's counterpoint

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In the following chapter Yearsley turns to canon as a metaphor of autocracy (in the context of the canons from the Musical offering) and the 18th-century fascination with the automaton. This last, in a section headed 'Bach the machine', takes its starting-point from the famous fluteplaying automaton invented by Jacques de Vaucanson. It stirred up a livery debate in Bach's own day, and was hailed by some materialists as proof that a soulless machine could emulate all human achievement, dispensing with the need to see man as endowed with a souL (The flute-playing faun was actually mentioned by one of Bach's contemporaries, the theologian Johann Michael Schmidt, who naturally took the opposite view and cited Bach's prelude on Wenn wir in hochsten Ndthen sein, BWV668, as an example.) Yearsley's treatment ranges from La Mettre's L'homme machine (1747)a central contribution to the materialist sideto a consideration of the canons of the Art of fugue, in relation to Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment debates about the nature and reality of the soul versus the rival view of man as a mechanical apparatus. The canons are considered, in their aspect as mechanical contrivances, as 'an automatic, self-referential music' in which Bach plays 'at fabricating mechanistic composition, producing not so much music as meta-music; not so much compositional thought as a picture of the objects of compositional thought and how they might be automatically strung together, yet still grammatically coherent' (p.207). The final chapter, 'Physiognomies of Bach's counterpoint', is in some ways the most gruesomely fascinating of alL Its central theme is the discovery in 1894 of what was alleged to be Bach's skull, located a few feet outside the church door of the Thomaskirche. The evidence for the authenticity of the skull may now seem weak, but scientific experiments carried out at the time were men held to confirm its status, and to this day it remains an object of veneration, housed under the altar of the Thomaskirche. Needless to say, this discovery, whatever its real value, had momentous repercussions in generations to come. During the period of National Socialism, theories that the bonestructure and features of the human face were an indicator of human character gave the impetus to a disreputable pseudo-science that involved even such reputable musicologists as Heinrich Besseler (who was a member of the Nazi party) and Hans Joachim Moser (whose anti-Semitic views once induced him to write a music lexicon with no entry for Mendelssohn). The Haussmann portrait of Bach, which appears to show him with blue eyes, allowed Bach to be shown as a paradigm of manly Teutonic virtue. Yearsley marshals a chilling array of quotations from National
276 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

Socialist authors who turn Bach's counterpoint into an 'idealised confluence of popular feeling' in which contrapuntal voices 'march to the most precise, even beat'. These quotations are from an article entitled 'The Prussian style in music' by a certain Alfred Burgartz, published in 1931 (Yearsley, p.232). David Yearsley's illuminating study places Bach's counterpoint in the context of the history of ideas. His breadth of reference and control over his material is admirable. Some readers may find his attempts to connect individual canons with their respective conceptual themes slightly forced. But the concept behind the book, its thorough and scholarly execution, and the high intellectual level of the writing, all make it an indispensable study for students of Bach's late published works.

Thomas McGeary

No apologies for the 18th century

Music in eighteenth-century Britain, ed. David Wyn Jones (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), 49.50 Deborah Rohr, The careers of British musicians, 1750-1850: a profession of artisans (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 4o/$59.95 In 'Eighteenth-century English music past, present, future', the opening essay in Music in eighteenth-century Britain, Peter Holman provides benchmarks that will be useful for surveying these two books. He swiftly dismisses the old canard that Britain was 'das Land ohne Musik'. All levels of 18th-century British society, as we know, were teeming with music; but those 'four German words' still sting, with their aspersions on the quality of Britain's native composers or the sophistication of British musical taste. Readers of Early music will need no persuading that Britain's 18th-century 'musical culture' is 'worth studying and performing'. Yet Holman offers some noteworthy historical revisions that might work toward correcting this view of'the land without music'. He identifies several 'fictions' in the received opinion about British musical life. The most prevalent of these is the 'foreign domination' theory: the notion that native composers were too weak, insular or conservative to offer much competition to foreign musicians (and especially Handel) who dominated British musical life. Holman

stands on its head the implication of the foreign domination theory. That London was a Mecca for foreign musicians demonstrates to what extent Britain's audience for music was willing and able to patronize (and often perform at some level as well) all varieties of music, producing what was in numerous ways a 'vibrant and complex musical life'. Shoals of foreign musicians came to Britain not to be big fish in a small backwater pond, but "because London was the largest and most exciting pond of all, where you did not need to be a big fish to make a fortune'. The keystone of the foreign domination theory is the supposed domination by Handel of British musical life, at least in his lifetime. Holman cautions that in fact little of Handel's music remained in the active repertory: his operas quickly disappeared from the opera house after he ceased producing them; the Italian cantata was outmoded by the 1750s; his concerti grossi were not so influential as Corelli's; his solo and trio sonatas were reprinted less frequently than Corelli's; he wrote no catches or glees, and little for the English stage; and his anthems were unsuited for ordinary use. It was only a small group of oratorios (mostly those with few choruses), or extracts from them, that lived on to overshadow even his other oratorios and those attempts by native composers. Holman also challenges the fiction that condemns British composers (and music lovers, too) for being slaves to the past, and failing to keep up with new Continental developments. This view is a function, he suggests, of critics' dinging to the Enlightenment belief in progress, and the notion that novelty is desirable in itself. Part of this supposed conservatism resulted from performance needs. After the Restoration, cathedral choirs sought out Tudor and Stuart anthems, which then stayed in the repertory, joined by Purcell's and those in Boyce's Cathedral Music The concerto grosso served the needs of orchestral societies who needed ripieno parts easy enough for amateur performers, and Handel's oratorios were grist for the developing choral movement and choir festivals of the century. The antiquarian interest in Ancient Music, however, was also an early manifestation of Romanticism. Britain did import the latest in Continental galant and pre-dassical concertos and symphonies, and Holman points to a seemingly unique British practice (seen in Thomas Ame and Thomas Linley) of mixing ancient and modern musical idioms, in effect making stylistic inconsistency a style itself. One reason for the invisibility of British composers' keeping up with newer styles is that the progressive solo concerto repertory needed by virtuosos remained in man-

uscript, since there was little point in publishing it Much of it has disappeared because Britain's commercial and decentralized music culture lacked the court archives and libraries to collect it Other fine British music has not been heard, Holman points out, because modern performance needs have little use for once-popular 18th-century genres such as the ode, English opera and orchestralh/ accompanied song, whereas anthems, voluntaries, symphonies and concertos have been revived. Chapters in Music in eighteenth-century Britain reveal those products of its musical culture that scholars have found worth studying, though little is said about music worth performing. Two chapters provide assured and authoritative surveys of two instrumental repertories. In 'Italian violoncellists and some violoncello solos published in eighteenth-century Britain', Lowell Iindgren, with his usual exemplary bibliographic thoroughness, identifies the known Italian cellists working in Britain and their bodies of published solo cello music His biographical sketches and catalogue of their publications are a definitive guide to the repertory. H. Diack Johnstone's 'Maurice Greene's harpsichord music sources and style' is in expert guide to the forms and style of Greene's keyboard music, along with a checklist of the printed and manuscript sources. Johnstone shows how in some of his pieces, Greene was decidedly unHandelian and up to date with ItaJianate styles. He points to some of Greene's demanding Six Overtures, which would be useful additions to the repertory. Donald Burrows, in 'Handel's 1735 (London) version of Athalia', expertly sorts through the autograph music sources, conducting score, manuscript and printed music, and printed wordbooks (some not available earlier to Winton Dean) to identify the new music inserted and obsolete music deleted to establish the form Athalia took for its first London performances. Burrows shows Handel as the shrewd theatrical producer trying offer the public what it wanted. He cut the 1733 version (first performed in Oxford) considerably, to make way for show-stopping arias for his Italian soloist Carestini, a new organ concerto, and a rousing 'Hallelujah' chorus. Eva ZOllner's 'Murder most virtuous: the Judith oratorios of De Fesch, Smith and Ame' discusses three oratorios on the Judith subject from the years 1733-1761. Although the three treatments of the subject could hardly be more differentfrom De Fesche's bloodthirsty protagonist, through Ame's coloratura operatic heroine, to the insipid scoldings of Smith's JudithZSllner shows that the EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 177

appropriateness and popularity of Judith as an oratorio subject were never in doubt. The best, though, that she can do by way of summary about her Judith oratorios is that 'Arne's Judithleaves a much more convincing impression than Smith's.' Sally Drage's 'A reappraisal of provincial church music' attempts an ambitious reconsideration and resuscitation of provincial church music, which is not well served by the apologetic tone of her truncated essay. She prints a typical anthem, which she admits 'may not be great music', but commends for being 'resourceful and exhilarating to sing' and possessing good textural variety, competent part-writing, ingenious word-painting, and exuberant rhythms. The ten London violin concertos of Giovanni Battista Viotti, who fled the French Revolution and revived his solo career in London at Salomon's concerts in 1793, are surveyed by Robin Stowell in 'Viotti's "London" concertos (nos.20-29): progressive or retrospective.' Competition from other instrumental virtuosos, London's rich orchestral resources, and the influence of Haydn inspired Viotti to expand the scope and extent of his compositions. Their lyrical melodies and structural and stylistic features mark these works as 'pre-romantic'. But, for all the innovations that Stowell finds, he cannot quite commend the concertos on their own merits, but only as important intermediaries between Classical and Romantic, between Mozart and Beethoven. Aside from its musical products, 18th-century Britain offers varied fields and rich source materials for studying musical taste and music in its social setting. Sarah McCleave imaginatively but cautiously teases out what we can learn about the musical tastes and practices of four generations of the Mackworth family of industrialists, politicians, and rural gentlemen and women. Her The Mackworth Collection: a social and bibliographic resource' complements her two published catalogues of the music in the 311-volume collection of music assembled by this Welsh family during the period c.1680-1790. The collection is evidence of the large amount of amateur music-making (also undercutting the notion of the land without music), and its types and genres of music no doubt reflect the performance capabilities and interests of the family. The role of music in London's Moravian community and Christian Latrobe's influence on the musical life of late Georgian London is explored in Rachel Cowgill's "The papers of C. I. Latrobe: new light on musicians, music and the Christian family in late eighteenth-century England', which draws on hitherto unused sources. Latrobe was sec278 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3

retary of the Moravian Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel among the Heathen for almost 50 years. One of those musicians who followed modern Continental developments, Latrobe favoured the modern Austro-German instrumental idioms, especially the instrumental music of Franz Joseph Haydn, and he tried to break what he considered the Handelian monopoly over sacred music and to reform British musical taste by arranging the best Italian and German sacred music in his Selection of Sacred Music
(1806-25).

Three essays explore the music associated with London institutions. Italian opera stria was the dominant musical genre of 18th-century London, but the buffi singers also enjoyed international popularity. In 'Italian comic opera at the King's Theatre in the 1760s: the role of the buffi', Saskia Willaert examines the institution and mechanism of comic opera at mid-century, and shows that the buffi influenced the offerings of the King's Theatre, supplying and adapting repertory for London. Willaert explains the working practice of the comic department at the King's Theatre and amplifies our knowledge about comic pasticci and the taste for Italian opera in generaL Appended are a calendar of comic operas produced in 1760-1770, and tables giving the lifetime performance careers of three primi buffi who sang there (Maria Paganini, Giovanni Lovattini, and Anna Zamperini). Music played a major role in two aspects of British freemasonry: their mutual benevolence (attending other members' theatre or concert benefits), and their private recreational activities, as Simon McVeigh explores in 'Freemasonry and music life in London in the late eighteenth century'. Using records of the United Grand Lodge, McVeigh shows that freemasons and their music had a central place in London's music life. He identifies musical members of selected lodges and music performed at concerts or ceremonies. London's musical audience became familiar with the masons' musical culture after the opening in 1776 of the Freemason's Hall, which hosted masonic as well as other concerts. There was a distinct masonic presence in the London theatres as welL Foreign embassy chapels in London, outside the reach of the official proscription of Catholicism, were places where Roman Catholic rites could be celebrated. In "The London Roman Catholic embassy chapels and their music in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries', Philip Olleson surveys the chapels and their elaborate musical traditions that became central to the history of Roman Catholic church music until the closure of the Portuguese chapel in 1829. The chapels and their traditions furthered

careers and the fluid boundaries between amateur, semiprofessional, journeyman musician and public virtuoso. Upwards of 15 categories ultimately yield a rather tedious account, as we repeatedly hear of musicians' low status, Holman's second objection to the 'foreign domination' economic insecurity, need for multiple jobs, wide disparity theory is his claim that 'there is little sign that immigrants in income and social success, lack of advancement, limitareplaced native musicians in lucrative employment, or tions to achieving high elite professional status, and lives prevented them from obtaining it'. This claim meets headending in poverty. on Deborah Rohr's book The careers of British musicians, But with her eye fixed on explaining the profession's 1/50-1850, which labours much of the time under the failure, and moved by sympathy for musicians' plight, weight of the foreign domination theory (though HolRohr has given far too much emphasis to the middling and man's essay probably did not appear in time for her to lower end of each professional group (perhaps the voices consider it). Rohr comes to her project with a sympathy of complaint are too easily heard), and so we fail to gain a for the low professional status of British musicians comsense of the whole range of status and success achieved by pared with that enjoyed by more fashionable and successBritish musicians. Missing is some way to account for the ful foreign musicians. successful careers of, among others, Thomas Arne, Samuel Arnold, Thomas Attwood, Charles Avison, William Boyce, Much of Rohr's book overlaps Cyril Ehrlich's classic The music profession in Britain since the eighteenth century William Crotch, John Field, William Hayes, Michael Kelly, Thomas Iinley, Vincent Novello and the Wesley (1985). But whereas Ehrlich provides a general history of brothersand how they overcame career impediments the profession, Rohr's book is a structural examination of that stunted other musicians. Utterly ignored, as the the profession that aims to answer some "big" questions. most obvious example, is the case of Charles Burney, Why is there an 'apparent lack of great native composers who began his career in the provinces and achieved in England'? Why, by 1850, had British musicians failed to everything Rohr would have desired for a professional achieve 'middle-class professional status'? She ascribes musician. their condition to foreign domination, lack of professional controls, a moral and social ideology biased against music, As a cause for the low status of musicians, Rohr accepts and the overall day-to-day realities of economic survival. too uncritically the actual effects of pejorative moral and For Rohr, re-creating the realities of the daily lives of social ideology about music These complaints about professional musicians is a first step toward studying the music have been recycled endlessly by moralists and critics social context of music Rather than Ehrlich's generalized since antiquity. But Britain's booming commercial and portrait of the profession, Rohr embarks on a series of amateur musical life suggests the moralists' strictures did group biographies of 15 career-categories, discussing the not limit most people's enjoyment of music. And despite social background, training, financial prospects, career the precarious careers portrayed by Rohr, some satisfacpaths and status as professional types. To illustrate and tions must have compensated for the career's insecurity document musicians' careers, Rohr selects from a rich (or some realistic hope for success) if so many continued trove of contemporary accounts of the profession from to enter the profession. Rohr also seems captive of Romanmusic periodicals and archives. The petitions of improvitic ideals about music and is often condescending toward dent musicians (or their families) requesting aid from the musicians, implying that those not composing pure art Royal Society of Musicians bring us face to face with the music or following the calling of the highest form of fate of many musicians. abstract music must somehow have compromised their musical integrity. Her decision to focus on career types (chorister, theatre composer, soloist) might promise greater precision and With these reservations kept in mind, The careers of refinement, but brings some drawbacks. The group bioBritish musicians joins Music in eighteenth-century Britain graphies come with little sense of context or comparison in showing a wealth of source materials and diverse range to other professions (artists, actors, playwrights). They are of topics for investigation about the musical life of a nation also of limited utility because of musicians' multiple that most decidedly was a 'land with music'.

the training of Samuel Webbe and Vincent Novello, and their performances of Masses by Haydn and Mozart were major contributions to British musical taste.

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left the composer's hands. She starts by looking at the libretto, by Lorenzo Da Ponte, and correctly stresses that its plot (concerning the human rights of a peasant couple threatened by the authorities but restored by the sovereign) was good propaganda for the policies of Emperor Christine Martin, Vicente Martin y Solrrs Oper Joseph II. She identifies the various high- and low-class 'Una Cosa Rara': Geschichte eines Opernerfolgs character types, the language adopted by each, the opporim 18. Jahrhundert tunities given to each type to sing music that is suitable to (Hildesheim, Georg Olms Verlag, 2001), 68 it Passing then to the music itself, she analyses the apparent simplicity of the composer's style. Deliberating on the 'Bravi! Cosa Rara!', sings Mozart's Leporello as the wind nature of this simplicity, she notes that commentators in band strikes up to entertain Don Giovanni during his dinMartin's time called his style 'naive'(p.9i) and accepts this ner. The band music is an arrangement o f O quanto un si is a good way to describe it. Modem readers may find the bel giubilo' from the first finale of Martin y Soler's opera term surprising. She argues, though, that, while 'naivety1 Una cosa rara, premiered in Vienna in November 1786. to generations preceding Martin's was a term of derision, Scholars often refer to this borrowing by Mozart without to his own generation it implied expression free of insingiving much consideration to Martin. Indeed, the quescerity and cant. Late 18th-century audiences, according to tion arises whether Una cosa rara would be a source of her argument, felt at one with the 'naive' (read 'honest') interest to anybody if Mozart had not decided to borrow feelings of his characters, and went along with them. from it The quote itself is revealing, for it indicates many features of Martin's style: square phrasing, a high degree of There is a downside to this music, though. What it lacks phrase repetition, conventional cadences, harmonies is any feeling of grittiness or tension, any feeling that the restricted over long stretches of time to tonic and domicharacters are committing not merely their tender hearts nant chords to the virtual exclusion of all others. Even the to their outpourings but their guts as well. The author tune, a pleasant and easily singable line that jogs along in laments every so often the lack of dramatic tension in the _ one of the composers fayourite time signatures, 6/8, fails score. Reaching her general conclusion (on p.100), she to redeem the facileness of the music in general. The "writes: ~ ' ~ aspects of Martin's piece that cannot be gauged from the Because of the over-emphasis on the sentimental moments Don Giovanni quote include, of course, orchestration and the action-bearing passages are reduced if not exactly supcolour. But then Mozart was probably not taking his cue pressed. Strong, dynamic emotions are furthermore missing from the original scoring anyway. Among the many interfrom the naive expressions of feeling. Rage, anger, anguish, esting nuggets of information provided by Christine Marsadness, distress, defiance, and intense pain find no place in tin in her new book is the fact that Mozart seems to have this simple sound world. In no way do they suit the rather taken 'O quanto un si bel giubilo' not from the full score passive behaviour of the sentimental characters. but from a wind arrangement by Johann Nepomuk Went. The past ten years or so have seen a revival of scholarly For this reason, she argues, the opera cannot be judged by interest in the operas of Mozart's contemporaries. Recent modern standards but only in terms of its own time. The studies have had one or more of three principal objectives. paradox, for anyone who nowadays imagines Una cosa There are those that compare Mozart with his main rivals rara to be of mere historical interest, is that in the last years in order to put Mozart's work in better perspective. There of the 18th century it far outstripped Mozart's Italian are those that plot the general course of opera in late 18thoperas in popularity. The second half of her book, in century Vienna without particular emphasis on any indiwhich she reviews the dissemination of the opera, and of vidual composerthese tend to regard opera as much a particular items from it, throughout Europe in the late social and economic phenomenon as a musical one. And 18th and early 19th centuries is an attempt to define how finally there are those that try to rehabilitate composers and why this was so. Her quest leads her to study particulike Martin whose historical importance is downplayed lar productions of the opera, other composers' borrowings because they do not reach Mozart's standard. Christine from it, and their arrangements of particular arias and Martin's book seems initially an attempt to rehabilitate ensembles in manuscript and print. By examining which Martin on the basis of his Una cosa rara, but it later parts of the opera were revived, borrowed and/or adapted becomes a commentary on the history of the opera after it by others, she effectively shifts the emphasis of the book

Michael F. Robinson

Una cosa rara

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away from Martin himself towards the study of late 18thcentury taste in general. Whoever is interested in late 18th-century taste should look at the statistics she offers (pp.420-23) of the number of times individual arias and ensembles from Una cosa rara appear, either separately or in miscellaneous collections, in contemporary prints and manuscripts. The items that head the list are, not surprisingly, those in her sentimental/naive category. She indicates that part of their success was due to the ease with which the tunes could be reworked as keyboard or chamber music, or used as the basis for potpourris, dance suites, and sets of variations. Interestingly, she concentrates on particular adaptations that clearly were designed for professionals and highly gifted amateurs rather than for ordinary folk. But there was a demand also from the other end of the market, namely from 'polite' society, and especially from those many young ladies like the fictitious Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice, who sang and played at the keyboard as one of their social graces. One would like to find out whether Martin's music was arranged for them. Some of his melodies would surely have suited the likes of Miss Bennet, whose performance, according to Austen, was only moderately proficient, yet applauded by her listeners for being 'easy and unaffected'. Christine Martin's history of the dissemination of Una cosa rara is admirable yet obviously incomplete. She is much more interested in adaptations of the opera into German and English than she is in later productions of the opera in Italian, whether in Italy or elsewhere. She gives a list of manuscripts of the complete opera in her appendices, and of librettos of the same, but it seems she has not looked at all of them. Anyone who has studied the revivals of popular Italian operas of that period knows that they were constantly altered, usually shortened, and sometimes transformed to the extent that, although publicized under the original name and original composer, they were barely recognizable. One would be fascinated, for example, to know what happened to some of the later revivals of Martin's opera in the Napoleonic era, and especially to the performances at the Theatre Imp^ratrice in Paris in 1812. The point is that changes to an opera are in themselves an indication of changes of taste, and much was changing in the 1810s, when Una cosa rara fell out of fashion and disappeared from the stage. Nonetheless, one of the pleasant things about music scholarship is that there is always more to discover, and scholars should be grateful to Christine Martin for leading them into an area about which little has been written so far. Yet more interest may be generated in

2004, when, so it is rumoured, one or more of Martin y Soler's operas will be revived to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth. No one knows how taste may change. It seems unlikely though that Una cosa rara will ever find its way back into the firmament of the world's great operas and regain the popularity it once held.

Howard Schott

Clavicordio V
De clavicordio V: proceedings of the V International Clavichord Symposium; Magnano, 5-8 September 2001, ed. Bernard Brauchli, Alberto Galazzo and Ivan Moody (Magnano: International Centre for Clavichord Studies, 2002), 55 Beginning in 1993, as reported in these pages by Derek Adlam (EM, xxii (1994), p.533), an International Clavichord Symposium has been held every two years in Magnano, a tiny village in the Piedmont region of Italy. The originator of the series, the Swiss davichordist Bernard Brauchli, was joined in 1997 by Christopher Hogwood, also a distinguished exponent of the instrument, as co-chairman. The four days of the fifth symposium (5-8 September, 2001) were filled with presentation of the 19 papers printed in this volume of the proceedings, plus concerts, sampling the contemporary clavichords on exhibition, and enjoying the beauties of the countryside. The 19 papers presented can be subsumed under three general headings: the taxonomic, the aesthetic and the philosophicaL The first of these will be of principal interest to modern builders avid to rediscover the secrets of the 'old masters' of the craft. Connoisseurs and curators will also find these statistics and measurements of great interest. The travelling clavichord, an especially compact type of instrument, is discussed in Laurence Libin's paper on two anonymous examples, one in Prague's Narodni Muzeum, the other in New York's Metropolitan Museum. Alfons Huber offered a paper on Mozart's Reiseclavier, bought in 1763 from the maker, Johann Andreas Stein. Today's makers will be grateful that Eh\ Huber has anatomized it in such great detail. Stein made at least one more of these almost miniature clavichords, a 1787 instrument in The Hague's Gemeentemuseum. There seems to have been a continuing demand for them, remarkable for being less than 1 metre wide but playing at 8' pitch. One of the rare 16th-century clavichords, the Domenico Pisaurensis EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

of 1543 (University of Leipzig), is anatomized by Grant O'Brien in his paper. O'Brien proves by an ingenious analysis based on the Venetian oncia (inch) that he has established both its regional origin and sounding pitch, said to be a 5th higher than 'normal'. Since, however, historically Venetian pitch tended in any case to be high, and 'normal' may have fluctuated widely, especially for clavichords hardly used in ensemble, this claim may seem a trifle too absolute. The 1791 large unfretted clavichord by Johann David Schiedmayer (Stuttgart, Wurttembergiscb.es Landesmuseum) is fully described by Peter Bavington, and compared with those made by two other members of that prolific clan of builders. Jenny Nex and Lance Whitehead presented a comparative study of three 18th-century schools of clavichord building. Instruments from Hamburg and its close neighbour, Lflbeck, are contrasted with examples from Copenhagen and Stockholm. They run the gamut from the simplest four-octave fretted model all the way up to the six-octave Lindholm unfretted instrument of 1798. The musical uses of the large late Swedish clavichords remain obscure. Were they only the poor man's piano? What was played on them? Was it mainly hymns and the lightest of musical fare, vacuous variations on innocuous themes? Some biographical ^information about the seven known Danish clavichord builders and their 13 extant instruments, dated from 1755 to 1801, was presented in a brief paper by Dorthe Falcon Moeller. Of particular interest is her research into the repeated purchases of clavichords, both new and second-hand, by Copenhagen's Royal Theatre, where, presumably, they were used in musical preparation for many decades. Christopher Hogwood's The Copenhagen connection' brings together much valuable information about what was played on the clavichord in 18th-century Denmark and how the instrument was taught. Special attention is given to the 1753 tutor by Carl August Tbielo, a pupil of J. G. Walther in Weimar, and to the set of six sonatas published in 1783 by H. O. C. Zinck, who studied with C. P. E. Bach. (Could Hogwood have an edition of these in mind?) This fifth symposium devoted much attention to the clavichord in Scandinavia. Joel Speerstra provided a fascinating comparative study of two mid-i8th-century Swedish clavichords: 'a professional instrument by an amateur builder and an amateur instrument by a professional one'. One of these was fitted with a pantaleon stop, a second set of tangents that produced sounds akin to those of the hammer dulcimer. A conspectus of musical
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Ufe in 18th-century Sweden as seen through the pages of a musical periodical was offered by Eva Helenius-Oberg. The improvisation on the Swedish clavichord in both secular and sacred contexts was the topic chosen by Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, with particular attention to the keyboard compositions of Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758) and Ferdinand Zellbell sen. (1689-1765) that served as models. Bernard Brauchli contributed two papers revisiting and expanding topics treated in his authoritative book The clavichord (Cambridge, 1998). One discoursed on the clavichord's historical role as 'the key to the study of all other keyboard instruments', while the other listed the iconographical documents on the instrument from the 15th to the 19th centuries. For the performer, Paul Simmons offered a valuable lesson on embellished repeats in late 18th-century repertory. John Whitelaw spoke in almost mystical terms on The singing hand', reminding the player that the vocal origin of music must always be borne in mind as we play our keyboard instruments. Michael Zapf pleaded a case for regarding the writings of Eduard Eggeling (1813-85) as handing down a tradition of keyboard technique derived through a sequence of pedagogues (W. F. Bach, J. N. Forkel and F. C. Griepenkerl) from J. S. Bach. A number of Eggeling's exercises are printed in facsImilerTheyiseara remarkable resemblanceto those promulgated by such 19th-century pianotechnique Torquemadas as Schmitt, Hummel, Czerny, Pischna, Hanon and Tausig, to name but a few. Father and son, Johann and Florian Sonnleitner, represented the avant garde in a sense. Father Johann spoke on 'the clavichord in the expanded tonal system', i.e. an instrument with 24 notes in the octave with all manner of microtonal subtleties. One must ask how the clavichord with its ability to bend the note, so to speak, with vibrato or excessive pressureis really suitable to this task. Son Florian spoke of the 'Klavikantal', a 'singing keyboard instrument' combining the sensitivity of the clavichord with the dynamic possibilities of the piano. It would also have the 24-note keyboard of the 'expanded tonal system'. In a lecture dealing with the basics of tempered tunings, J8rg Gobeli presented a diagram developed by Jean-Marc Pittet that allows the comparison of intervals of various unequal temperaments. Last but certainly not least, Derek Adlam, a valued contributor to every symposium thus far, spoke on 'missing instruments'. There was much music of the historical period for which no particularly appropriate type of clavichord is known. Indeed, the accident of survival has seen to it that often we did not have more than

secondary evidence of the specific instruments played by the old masters, or even those that were in common use at various periods and places. Modern makers would do well to go beyond reproducing surviving instruments and seek information from iconographical and literary sources. In a word, craftsmen should also be scholars. A review of such a volume of 19 papers covering such a wide range of topics can only offer a tour d'horizon. The symposium's organization is to be commended on bringing out the proceedings in well edited and excellent printed form so promptly. So often years elapse before this comes to pass. The late summer of 2003 will see a sixth symposium at Magnano. Those clavichord enthusiasts who are able will surely wish to attend. Those who cannot may await publication of the proceedings. They, too, will be well served.

Michael Fleming

The Italian viol lives

The Italian viola da gamba: Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Italian Viola da Gamba, Magnano, Italy, 29 April - 1 May 2000, ed. Susan Orlando (Solignac/Turin: Edition Ensemble Baroque de Iimoges/Edizioni Angolo Manzoni, 2002), 45 New books about viols are rare, especially those devoted to just one aspect of them, so this collection of articles about a neglected corner of the viol field is especially welcome. The contents comprise the papers read at a conference organized by Christoph Coin and Susan Orlando in Magnano, in spring 2000, and therefore reflect the interests of participants rather than a systematic survey. As a result, the work is not of a uniformly high standard, but its variety is a strength. It demonstrates that many viol topics are under active investigation, and it frequently reminds us how misinformed are those who rely unquestioningly on received opinion. The broad range of papers address both the instruments themselves and their use in Italy. While there is no musicologjcal discussion of repertory, there is a passionate and well-argued plea from Paolo Pandolfo, one of today's leading violists, for the reinstatement of improvisation as a major component of public and private music-making.

Within the last half century a new view has been advanced that identifies the origin and early development of viols in Spain and Italy at the end of the 15th century. This was finely described in Ian Woodfield's landmark book The early history of the viol (1984). The first article in The Italian viol is by Renato Meucci, who translated Woodfield's book into Italian, and here adds to the important strand of iconographical evidence presented therein. However, several articles share with a large proportion of organologjcal writing a disappointing vagueness and/or lack of supporting evidence when interpreting images, especially for comments concerning instruments' structure. For example, 'Adding an arched bridge, whose increased pressure on the soundboard required various types of reinforcements, soon modified the original construction of the viols' (p.29). The reader does not know whether to disagree with the author (because it is an increase in height, not arching, that increases pressure on the belly), or to sympathize with him about the obscuration of his precise and meaningful thought Some such problems may be attributed to infelicities of translation, a common problem in organology, especially where terminology is itself an issue. In this case, confidence is already undermined by a preceding comment about the same painting that interprets the three musicians as comprising a consort of viols, although the instruments are dearly all the same size. This is said to be 'evidence that music based on a single melodic line was already in use at that time' (p.28). It is difficult to know what to make of this. Several papers present important evidence that the viol did not fall almost completely out of favour in Italy by the early 17th century, as is widely believed. Viols are shown to be found in later inventories, they are described in theoretical works, and patrons, composers and players are shown to have paid attention to them. A paper by T. G. MacCracken provides the most up-to-date listing of Italian viols, drawn from his larger project of documenting all antique viols. Two papers address 'violin-shaped' instruments (i.e. with four pointed corners, and the top ribs joining the neck at a right angle), encouraging us to view them not as weird hybrids but as one of many standard viol forms, if 'standard viol form' is not an oxymoron. Considered all together, these papers provide ample evidence to demand a revision of established views of the nature of Italian viols and their prominence in Italy, and indeed elsewhere. Among other papers discussing viols as instruments is another airing of K. Moens's deep mistrust of many instruments in museum collections which purport to be
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mid-i6th-century viols by members of the Venetian Cidliano family and others. This mistrust rests on a frankly unconvincing superimposition of the shape of the viol on that of a bass violin, which is claimed to show that instruments of this shape represent a recycling of another species to satisfy antiquarian or other demands. The claim is supported by dendrochronological evidence, but this cannot provide more than a terminus post quern, so when the date found post-dates the claimed time of manufacture, it cannot support either position (although there are some cases where dendrochronological evidence does show clearly that an instrument cannot have been made at the date ascribed to it). Incomplete and/or inconsistent provenance documentation is a further issue that calls for explanation, but it is something that these old viols have in common with almost all others. Moens certainly provides enough evidence to make a substantial case, but not enough to move this reviewer from a default position of profound mistrust and caution about putative antique viols to one of outright rejection. Other people's examinations of Ciciliano viols are described in other papers given here. These, unsurprisingly, confirm Moens's views in some respects, but do not demand a wholesale rejection of the instruments as historical documents that are revealing -abou^what-they-dairn_to-be.-Even-SO,_Moens!s dosing statement that 'a study of extant early viols often tells us more about the nineteenth century than about the sixteenth century' is true, and much of the 21st century may pass before we can outgrow the errors made in the 20th. No doubt our own aspirations towards a complete, objective, accurate analysis and understanding of extant old instruments will appear flawed and inadequate in due course, but attending to issues such as those raised in The Italian viol could help us to avoid some errors of carelessness and superficiality. Altogether, this is a very useful and welcome work.

Graham Dixon

Monteverdi at San Marco

Linda Maria Koldau, Die venezianische Kirchenmusik von Claudia Monteverdi (KasseL Barenreiter, 2001), 33.50 If there had been business schools in 17th-century Italy, Monteverdi's church music would have made a great case study for the marketing course. No wonder the Marian Vespers of 1610 proved to be the focus of attention over the centuries. It is clear from the label what is being presented; the assembled items form a coherent whole; and the elements are delivered in a single packaging; you don't need to go out and purchase accessories to make it work welL Now those of us who have indulged in debate about the 1610 collection know that it is not really so simple; however, initial perceptions are important, and with the case of the Mantuan collection relatively straightforward. The same cannot be said of the church music that Monteverdi published while active as maestro di cappella at San Marco in Venice. The title of the firstSelva morale e spirituale (1641)is scarcely dean the pieces seem at first sight to be a confusingjwi^pjDuir^fJitiu^^c^ music, jipart from the spiritual madrigals at the opening, which add to the problem of understanding a primarily liturgical volume. At least with the 1610 volume, you can open it and perform it from beginning to end, and give the impression that Vespers was performed like that in Monteverdi's timeeven if it never actually was. It is a pity that the church music of the Venetian period has been largely in the shadow of the 1610 collection. After all, Monteverdi was primarily working in a religious context during some 30 years in Venice, yet it is his secular music from this timemadrigals and operaswhich have primarily attracted the attention of performers and scholars. From his earliest years he was involved with churdi music, publishing a modest volume of motets in 1582 when he was still in his teens. The stylistic evidence is that some real involvement continued, since the developing dramatic style of his secular compositions is also applied to his church music, in line with the Seicento tendency to stimulate the emotions in contemplating the sacred sphere. Such trends can also be seen in the flowering of extra-liturgical observances such as devotions to particular saints, processions and novenas, which were performed with considerable affective intensity. We know nothing of Monteverdi's own spirituality, though his position and his

UR CONGRATULATIONS to Teresa M. Gialdroni and Agostino Ziino, whose Petrucci article in the November 2001 issue of Early music has received the Richard S. Hill Award from the Music Library Association for 'the best article on music librarianship or article of a music-bibliographic nature published in 2001'.

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ordination as a priest does strongly connect him with the religious establishment Koldau provides a rich and detailed view of Monteverdi's Venetian church music, an area which has been consistently neglected by scholars. So thorough is the work presented hereincluding appendices, bibliographies and copious notesthat one might wonder whether there is anything left for any one else. She described in details the religious context in which Monteverdi was working in Venice, the ethos of Venetian Catholicism as a state religion, whose purpose was to underline the divine foundation of La Serenissima and its political institutions. Though this was centred around San Marco, Koldau helpfully describes the whole religious fabric of the city, including the scuole grandi, the religious orders and the minor churches. Monteverdi must have been allowed considerable freedom to participate in freelance work outside his primary role, and the table on p.84 shows how many institutions developed some relationship with him. At the heart of his activity was his work with the Cappella Marciana, and again we can learn much of their structure, governance, salaries and general excellence from the evidence Koldau has assembled. The body of the volume can be divided into three parts: the place of religion in the Venetian state; the repertory of the 1641 and 1650 collections, the contrafacta, and surviving separate items; and an analysis of the musical styles which range from concertato to stile antico. Finally, the work is set in the context of his Venetian contemporaries. If I have one criticism, it would be that I would have preferred to see the music set throughout in such a context; even though it is dear that Monteverdi was responsible for advancing many of the theoretical arguments of his time, he was not working in a vacuum. Indeed, as Koldau herself states, Venice was a highly effective meeting-point for cultural exchange. I have one further regret, not about the book, but one that we would need to step back in history to correct The neglect of the later volumes of sacred music could perhaps be remedied if it had been possible to propose highly specific contexts for the original performance of the music, so that it becomes lifted above merely a miscellany. Unfortunately, with all the analytical tools at Koldau's disposal, this has not been possible. Indeed the dedication of the Selva morale to Eleonora Gonzaga in Vienna may even detach the repertory somewhat from the Venetian orbit of its conception. It will remain necessary to continue making the argument for this later repertory of liturgical works on musical grounds alone. As this book shows, the church music is as affective and

dramatic as the secular works of Monteverdi's Venetian period. For me as a listener at least, it is equally engaging. Koldau can be pleased to have enriched our understanding of these works, as far as the sources allow. Her labours would have a positive result if performers were to return to these treasures with greater frequency.

Jeremy Montagu

Cheshire fiddlers and pipers

Elizabeth Baldwin, Paying the piper music in pre-1642 Cheshire (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2002), $30 (hbk), $15 (pbk) This interesting book is somewhat outside our usual line of country, for little has appeared in these pages on the sociology of early music. Elizabeth Baldwin and, in one chapter, David Mills have described from contemporary documents what is known of the lives and work of musicians in the county of Cheshire from the 15th century, when we begin to find records, to the mid-i7th. For those unfamiliar with English geography, Cheshire is halfway up on the left, south of Liverpool, west of Manchester, and east of Wales, to the last of which it is contiguous, so that many local musicians were of Welsh origin. It was, of course at that date, a rural area, and had no large towns save Chester, and no great baronial or other aristocratic houses, so that it was therefore without major domestic establishments, and the rolls and other records that might have been associated with them. As a result, the bulk of surviving material is court and other legal documents, recording the offences, misdemeanours and mischief that musicians got up to, plus three inventories and brief references to some wills and parish records. Thus musicians tend to come to notice only when arraigned for some villainy. Does this give a false impression of our character, or were we all drunk, disorderly, dissolute, vagrant, sabbath-breaking, thievish and so forth, or were most of us upright and god-fearing, with only a minority appearing in the pages of this book? This is something that we shall probably never know, simply for lack of records, but it is certainly interesting to read the number of references to musicians being done for piping, less often fiddling, at service time, which suggests that dancing to pipe and tabor, perhaps bagpipe or shawm, or fiddle was a EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 285

recognized and widespread, if illicit, alternative to going to dictionwhere, in the section at the end on instruments, church. Baldwin says that Sir Edward Stanley 'was noted for his Some other offences are also of interest, for I certainly ability to play two recorders simultaneously', whereas in had no idea of the extent to which movement was inhibthe poem referred to, quoted in an earlier chapter, Stanley ited. It was an offence to cross a county boundary, frowned at Henry VII's behest 'of all thinges mused king of Castell / upon even to wander outside one's own parish unless to heare two partes in a single Recorder / that was beyond licensed as a minstrel. (Cheshire was blessed with the all their Estimations far'. We may speculate whether the Dutton Minstrels' Court, whose licences saved players King of Castile did hear him get two simultaneous parts from prosecution under the Statute of Vagabonds.) from the one instrument, or whether, as for example alternating treble and bass, they were played as in some The book presupposes a certain amount of knowledge, Baroque solo sonatas, or whether the second part was in that, for example, all quotations from contemporary hummed as in the Balkans and Turkey, or whether the documents are precisely that; very few are translated into instrument was a flUte d'accord or other form of double modern English, and digraphs such as the thorn letter are flageolet ancestor, rather than specifically a recorder. The reproduced as they were. None of this is insurmountable, author does rely a little too much on terminology, regardhowever, for the gist of all quotations is easily gathered ing the sobriquet 'fiddler', for example, as always indicateven if the occasional word is left to be guessed or, if really ing a fiddle, rather than a loose term for any bowed instrunecessary, referred to a dictionary. Equally, the numerous ment. Her description of the fiddle having by 1500 separate references to the Chester cycle of plays presupposes both ribs and back is contradicted at least by those found in the some familiarity with the plays themselves and also knowledge of how they are normally referenced; there is no Mary Rose, which have ribs integral with the back. This construction seems to have continued for at least a century explanation of their peculiar style of referencing, nor is after the invention of viol and violin. there any table of abbreviations to elucidate i t This again is of no great importance so far as we are concerned, and is Three other points on instruments are her statement, in easily surmountable if need be. connexion with an inventory, that 'the term "curtal" refers Among some debatable points are a mention of a at this period to the dulcian', for 'curtal' was simply the fiddler and his boy, with the query whether this was an English for the German word 'dulcian', and it seems even apprentice, and asking why we have no evidence for odder to describe it for those to whom it is unfamiliar apprentices to other instruments (though it is later stated without making the obvious remark that it is the ancestor that the Chester waits could and did take apprentices). of the bassoon, just as it seems captious to describe the One wonders whether a disrespected player such as a fid- sackbut without remarking that the term is the English for dler, as distinct from a wait or musician (there is discusthe Italian word 'trombone'. sion here about the precise implications of these terms), These minor points aside, this is a book well worth might have been able or entitled to take apprentices, for reading for anyone who is interested in what late medieval this involved a formal contract. Surely it is more likely that and Renaissance musicians were like, how they lived, and someone who wanted to learn an instrument outside the how they were seen by the society of their time. We know formal structure of the waits would be more likely to be a more and more about the music and the instruments of casual 'his boy', rather than an apprentice. those periods, but comparatively little about the people who played them. This book is a welcome counter to that There is, probably inevitably in such a book, a certain ignorance. amount of repetition, and at least one other contra-

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Bojan Bujid

Music for the Duke of Urbino

Franco Pipemo: L'immagine del duca: muska e spettacolo alia corte di Cuidubaldo II duca d'Urbino (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2001), 39 In comparison with other principalities and city-states of Northern Italy, Urbino had bad luck. At the end of the 15th century it looked as if it was going to be one of the major centres of humanist learning and artistic patronage. It was still a lively place at the start of the 16th century, especially if we take Baldassarre Castiglione's Book of the courtier as a reliable depiction of its life and manners. However, the duchy was poorly defended and the formation of alliances with more powerful neighbours was a constant need. In 1508 Guidobaldo I died without a direct heir, and the duchy passed to his nephew, Francesco Maria Delia Rovere, who then had to endure a period of banishment In 1523 Francesco transferred his court from Urbino to Pesaro, and although the title 'Duke of Urbino' remained, the city itself was no longer the centre of the dukedom, serving only as a summer residence and venue for some ceremonial occasions. The economic base remained inadequate and the 16th century was a period of gradual decline. When Guidobaldo II, the duke around whose person this study is written, died in 1574, the ducal chapel was disbanded, thus prefiguring a similar 'retrenchment' in Mantua in 1612, when the brothers Monteverdi lost their jobs there. Finally, in 1624 the Duchy was ceded to the Papal State and when the last princess, Vittoria Delia Rovere, was married off to a Medici in 1631, she took with her to Florence most of the valuable works of art and the palace furnishings, including, it is said, kitchen utensils. There were many comings and goings in Urbino, and later Pesaro. As well as Castiglione, literary figures there in the early years of the century included Pietro Bembo and Bernardo Dovizzi ('il Bibbiena'). An early record of musical intermedi for Dovizzi's Calandria marks the beginning of interest in musical additions to plays presented at the ducal court The printer Ottaviano Petrucci, a native of Fossombrone, on Urbino territory, may have been educated at the court After the early success of his music printing business in Venice, he transferred it to Fossombrone and enjoyed the patronage of Francesco Maria I. Guidobaldo II became duke in 1538 and enjoyed a less troublesome reign than his predecessors. This waj partly

due to adroit manoeuvring, and, as was often the case in Italy, artistic tastes mirrored political allegiances. Outlining the many aspects of political and musical life in Pesaro, Franco Piperno offers an interesting chronicle of changes of taste. During the 1530s Ariosto was a powerful literary influence which also stretched to music, demonstrating the duke's then Ferrarese orientation. Venice became a more important protector in the 1540s, and Pietro Aretino, and for a while again Bembo, gained in importance. The old tradition of the intermedi was kept alive: in 1542 there is a record of musical inserts in Aretino's Vipocriw, later on, in 1565, Eliseo Ghibellini contributed music for Paolo Casale's Gli affetti, the pieces must have been far from ephemeral in Ghibellini's eyes, since he was to include them in his first book of five-part madrigals of 1581. In 1547 Guidobaldo married a Farnese; this opened up a political link with Parma, producing at the same time a cooling of relations with Ferrara, Mantua and Venice. The 1540s and 50s were, nevertheless, musically the most vibrant decades. Dominique Phinot, an important composer of polychoral music, settled in Pesaro in 1546, and both Domenico Ferrabosco and Cipriano de Rore dedicated music to the duke. In the 1550s there were yet more composers present in Pesaro: Costanzo Porta, Paolo Animuccia, Stefano de Ferrari. In 1571 the Ferrarese link again became important, with the marriage of Guidobaldo's son Francesco Maria, the future duke, and Lucrezia d'Este. Outdoor musical pageants were organized to mark her arrival in Pesarosuch musical feasts, after all, were becoming popular elsewhere, and the Delia Rovere had to follow suit But this was close to the end of an active ducal involvement in music patronage. Although after Francesco Maria's tightening of purse strings in 1574 musical activity did not cease, it was increasingly centred on Urbino Cathedral. We are by now familiar with accounts of musical patronage in Ferrara, Mantua and elsewhere. Franco Piperno has now added Pesaro and Urbino to the list with a study that in an effortless way combines details of politics, court and civic life and artistic patronage with accounts of the nature and style of music linked to the Delia Rovere. The repertory includes works by composers from outside the Pesaro-Urbino area, as well as the music closely associated with the duchy through those active in the duke's immediate vicinity. Piperno wears his considerable scholarship lightly, some of his observations on the nature of patronage, or the links between individual works and places and occasions, have a more general application in our attempts to understand the relationship of music EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 287

and power in Italian states. The volume concludes with a welcome collection of documents drawn from the now dispersed Urbino archives.

Jeremy Llewellyn

Fauvel's performing turns

Emma Dillon, Medieval music-making and the 'Roman de Fauvel' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 50/570 Performers and scholars of medieval music alike have long been in thrall to that vice-ridden and despicable beast, Fauvel, andmore particularlyto that manuscript, replete with illuminations and musical interpolations, of the Old French roman that so lavishly recounts his lascivious exploits: Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, fonds francais 146 (fr.146). Indeed, those interested in the musical compositions notated in this manuscript have been remarkably well catered for. two facsimiles exist alongside several editions, a handful of recordings, and a splendid collection of essays edited, in 1998, by Margaret Bent and Andrew Wathey. Against this rich bibliographical background, Emma Dillon sets out in her new book to create a new focus of meaning or significance for 'music'especially music in late medieval French manuscriptsbeyond the sheer sonic experience arising from performance. In short, 'music' materially assumes the function of a visual medium. The book literally focuses on the role of music in the redaction of the Roman de Fauvel in fr.146. In fact, Dillon elegantly effects a gradual concentration from general background information to specific observation, thereby avoiding the classic pitfalls of single-manuscript studies which can often burden the reader early on with undigested detail. The opening chapter briefly describes the contents of fr.146 (of which the Roman de Fauvel is only one constituent part); plots the political events in the French royal court of the first decades of the 14th century to which Fauvel alludes; concurs as to the dating of the manuscript to the first part of 1317; and introduces the elusive figure of Chaillou de Pesstain, who, according to a rubric, was responsible for the additionstextual and musicalto Gervais de Bus's original. Chapter 2 broaches broader methodological matters, providing a handy resume of recent research on manuscript culture in the Middle Ages (the materiality of the text, creative collabo288 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3

ration, variance and strategies of rewriting). In addition, initial pointers to an enhanced role for 'music' in fr.146 are offered; as an historicizing moment, preserving musical repertories up to 100 years old; as a symbolic device (the Trinitarian thrust of Franco of Cologne's reference to 'perfect', ternary notational forms); and as a means of representation, signifying the lyrical expression of song. The remaining four chapters play these broader concepts off against an ever-deepening analysis of the contents of fr.146. In conclusion, Chaillou de Pesstainwhile not divested of his shadowy historical identityis invested with a physicality born of his creative supervision of and scribal interventions in the material preparation of fr.146. In this interpretative scheme, music functions as an aspect of authorial self-representation. A first indication of this can be found in the graphic alignment on f.23v of the key rubric (which states that Chaillou was responsible for the musical additions) with the ballade En chantant, the convergence of the personae inscribed in the rubric and the song would have been perceivable to the wandering eye (chapter 3). An investigation of the hands that copied fr.146 (chapter 4) identifies a guiding scribe who not only copied certain sections of the manuscript (including the index of songs) but also corrected the work of others. By examining the personae evoked in the two outer texts of fr.146a complainte d'amours and Adam de la Halle's Congi d'ArrasDillon posits an overarching poetics of compilation which leads to the identification of the guiding scribe as none other than Chaillou himself (chapter 5). Finally, a threefold typology of musical interpolation into fr.146 is proposed (prepared, juxtaposed and disjunct), thereby underlining Chaillou's inventive manipulation of parchment space (chapter 6). In a separate interpolation of her own, Dillon assesses the Iate-i9th-century reception of the Roman de Fauvel in France. She notes how prominent philologists (including Gaston Paris, who literally left his mark) studied fr.146 and siphoned off, editorially and photographically, the Roman de Fauvel from its surrounding texts. This is portrayed, somewhat elliptically, in terms of technological and scientific progress, tinged with French nationalism. Elliptical, since Dillon's account conspicuously avoids mention of the contribution of German scholars to Fauvel studies. (Johannes Wolf published a 'practice facsimile' and transcription of parts of Fauvel in 1904, three years before Pierre Aubry's facsimile edition.) It presents a rather onesided view of Aubry, who, after all, undertook fieldwork on Armenian chant; and it adopts the rather tenuous dichotomies coined by Katherine Bergeron in her book on

Solesmes. (Was Pothier unscientific or Mocquereau unromantic?) And concerning technological advances, the website quoted by Dillon in a footnote on p.221 is inaccessible: a digest of information on narrative contexts of Old French refrains can now be consulted in book form in Ardis Butterfield's Poetry and music in medieval France (Cambridge: CUP, 2003). Dillon's book appears in the 'New perspectives in music history and criticism' series from CUP, and rightly so. It is a challenging and thought-provoking read. For performers, it will undoubtedly stimulate ideas on how to stage visual aspects of music; it also provides a timely reminder of the wealth of medieval musico-textual forms beyond the narrative (e.g. deictic or polytextual). For musicologists of all hues and bents, it furnishes ample material for assessing the 'performative turn' rippling through cultural studies.

Howard Schott

Sweelinck studies
Swedinck studies: proceedings of the International Sweelinck Symposium, Utrecht 1999, ed. Pieter Dirksen (Utrecht STIMU, 2002) STIMU, the Dutch Foundation for Historical Performance Practice, has held a number of valuable conferences in this field over a number of years. Yet it was only in 1999 that itfinallydedicated one to a single composerfittingly the Netherlands' greatest The 14 papers printed in this volume, doubtless in revised and expanded form, were originally presented at the symposium in conjunction with concerts offering an ample selection of Sweelinck's vocal music and his complete keyboard music They form a welcome addition to the slender literature in English on this late Renaissance master. Even the generous number of musical examples and facsimiles printed here can hardly hope to make up for not hearing the relevant works in historically informed performances as aural illustrations. His vocal music in particular has remained relatively unknown, certainly outside the Netherlands. Although a generation younger than William Byrd, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621), like the English master, had to straddle the doctrinal divide by composing works for both the Roman Catholic and Dutch Reformed rites. When the Reformed service reduced the renowned Hendrik Niehoff

organs of Amsterdam's Oude Kerk to the role of merely accompanying psalm singing, the city sponsored daily organ recitals there, with Sweelinck presiding at the console of the larger instrument This was his principal musical employment throughout his life, as it had been for his father before him. His influence as a teacher of composition was considerable, but it is only through his German pupils that this has been manifested to us. To offer an overview of this meaty volume, summary descriptions of its contents must suffice. Even readers with some familiarity with the history of the Dutch Republic will be grateful for the three background papers by Rudolf Rasch, Jan R. Luth and Jurjen Vis dealing with the process of Reformation there, and its effect on Sweelinck's hie and works. Next follows a quartet of papers under the rubric of keyboard music predecessors, contemporaries and followers. It begins with Gustav Leonhardt's essay on varietas in Sweelinck's variations works, analogizing to this principle or feature, if you will, in the visual arts and architecture. David J. Smith presented a paper on the musical influences exercised by and on Sweelinck by English composers active in the Southern Netherlands. Peter Philips, a pupil of William Byrd, had personal contact with Sweelinck from 1583 and is shown to have influenced his musical development After decamping to present-day Belgium in 1613, John Bull recast his compositional style in a distinctly Netherlandish mould. While he and Sweelinck were aware of some of one another's music, they are not known ever to have met Michael Belotti offered a brief survey of the music of Jacob Praetorius, one of Sweelinck's lesser-known North German organist pupils. Pieter Dirksen, author of a full-scale study of the keyboard music, summed up the conclusions reached by his research through analysis and actual playing of Sweelinck's keyboard music. These works have come down to us, not in Dutch but in German and English manuscripts, a fact attesting to the composer's international fame; there were no early prints. After a comparative study of the ubiquitous hexachord fantasias of Sweelinck's predecessors, contemporaries and followers in England, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, his hexachord fantasia can be viewed as a synthesis. Dirksen concludes by raising the issue of analysis versus performance practice, suggesting how a player might strike a balance between them. Performance practice as such is the subject of two essays. Ton Koopman offered thoughts on the canon of Sweelinck's works, his keyboard instruments, and, not unexpectedly, 'old versus modern fingering'. The 17thcentury fingerings in a few pieces in the important Lynar
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AI manuscript, a major source of his keyboard works, cannot be attributed to the composer with certainty. Pieter van Dijk carries the discussion further with his paper dealing in great detail with fingering and hand division in Lynar AI. Since this manuscript, according to Pieter Dirksen, was likely copied directly from the composer's autograph scores, the fingerings found in five of the Sweelinck toccatas are of exceptional interest. Their claim to absolute authority, it must be said, has been the subject of some controversy ever since Max Seiffert first printed them in his 1894 edition of the keyboard works. He also discussed them briefly in his 1899 treatise on early keyboard music. The matter of division between the hands, like fingering, and even notational practice, must needs take account of keyboard dimensions and mechanisms as well as hand configurations. Such critical factors seem never to be mentioned by early fingering advocates and, in the present volume, neither by Koopman nor van Dijk. The section labelled Theory' begins with Rudolf Rasch's essay on modality in Sweelinck's psalm compositions, 150 polyphonic settings using the melodies of the socalled Genevan Psalter as their cantus prius facti. The most substantial of Sweelinck's works, they were published in four volumes that appeared between 1603 and 1621, the year of his death. Rasch begins with a summary of the modal system as it evolved in the late Renaissance and how it applies to these works. Contemporaneous settings of the Genevan Psalter by others are drawn on, as well as the manner in which these melodies were used in settings for keyboard or to be sung with lute accompaniment. Sweelinck the teacher is revealed in his Composition Regeln. Ulf Grapenthin describes the four manuscript sources in which these 'rules' have come down to us; some of these sources date from long after Sweeelinck's demise, evidence of his posthumous renown and influence. The text, drawn largely from Zarlino's Istitutioni, survives only in German rather than Dutch, dearly translated by Sweelinck's students into their native tongue. The section dealing with instruments begins with Koos van de Iinde's paper on organs in Sweelinck's time. The composer presided at the Niehoff organs in the Oude Kerk, but Niehoff s predecessors in this organ-building tradition also receive mention. The tonal structure of Niehoffs instruments and their musical uses are discussed .followed by a report on playing Sweelinck's music today on the Van Hagerbeer organ in the Pieterskerk in Leiden. The prolific Pieter Dirksen presented a brief paper on a rediscovered painting by Emanuel de Witte showing the interior of Amsterdam's Oude Kerk in mid-i7th century
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but, regrettably, with no full view of the organ case. Hessel Miedma's paper on the "City Harpsichord of Amsterdam' deals with the lid with a painting by Pieter Izaakszoon. The lid was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 1999. Sadly, no more of the instrument survives. It is believed that it was the one for which Sweelinck was despatched to Antwerp in 1604 to arrange for the purchase and transport of a Ruckers two-manual harpsichord of the transposer type. It was housed in the standard painted case adorned only with printed papers. Two years later the lid painting was added to lend the municipal instrument a grander decoration more befitting its status. And for what reason did the city of Amsterdam acquire the Ruckers? It is recorded that Sweelinck played it, accompanying a violinist, at formal municipal banquets.

Graham Dixon

Communicating the Bach tradition

Ignace Bossuyt, Het Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV248) van Johann Sebastian Bach (Leuven: Universitaire Pers Leuven, 2002), 29 One of the most pleasant aspects of travelling in northern Europe around Advent and Christmas is the number of performances of Bach's music that you stumble across in almost every town. Last year, on a brief overnight stay in Heidelberg between two meetings, I managed to take in a recital of Advent Chorale Preludes on a magnificent organ, as well as a liturgical performance of the cantata Wachet auf in the University Church on the Sunday morning. I had regretted needing to leave so quickly for a meeting in Cologne, because it meant missing a performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. And, to judge by the posters across Germany, there would have been many available as December progressed. It is no different in the Netherlands or Scandinavia. So when this volume arrived some weeks later, I felt that I instinctively understood the intended readership. Bach's Christmas Oratorio could be regarded as playing, on the European mainland, the role that Messiah does in England. I therefore felt an instant empathy for the book, even more so since we have a longstanding family tradition of leaving the CD of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in the player throughout the festive season.

Relatively few English-speaking people are likely to acquire this publication, since Dutch is not widely understood in Anglophone countries. Nonetheless, it is still worth consideration, not only because it demonstrates the continuing strength of the Bach tradition across Northern Europe, but also because it says something about music education. As you might have gathered by now, I would be keen for the Bach tradition to continue flourishing and even (one day) cross the Channel. The question for me is whether this book will actually strengthen the cause. Clearty, the extremely well-presented material will satisfy the curiosity of many a student and musically literate amateur. The introduction deals with the secular roots of the pieces, Bach's attitude towards borrowing, historical context in Leipzig, the liturgical context and musical style. For anyone who reads the language, this is an expertly crafted resumd of research, and Bossuyt calls on a broad range of international scholarship. He also considers whether the work should be considered as an oratorio, rather than a succession of cantatas. After a section about the textual and musical components of the oratorio, the relationship between the Evangelist, chorales, accompanied recitatives and arias, we move through the work

movement by movement English-speaking readers would find the content rather reminiscent of Tovey, with his combination of remarks on the scoring, tonality and structure of a particular movement. This comment is not meant to be pejorative, since, for many choral singers, such an approach will provide many insights that will enrich the experience of performance. In addition, the musical examples and Dutch translation of Bach's original text will encourage more active listening and participation. While finding the book admirable in itself, I wondered how well it actually serves the audiences of music-lovers to whom it is addressed, since it consistently requires a greater tolerance for musical terminology than most listenerseven the best-informedreally possess. It is an excellent synopsis of current Bach study, but its conventional form of expression might prompt us to consider whether we have failed to develop a new vernacular to engage the many who are keen to find out more. Bossuyt maintains that the Christmas Oratorio is growing in popularity, this is good news. But if the trend is to continue, the arts and music community surely needs to explore new ways of genuinely meeting the thirst for knowledge, rather than repeating the analytical formulas of past generations.

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PART I

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Johann Sebastian Bach

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Barthold Kuijken
Rehearsals & Concerts 127/10/2003 -1/11/2003 i. . Leuven / Louvain (B)
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JOHANN SONNLEITNER and STEFAN MULLER,

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CHORUS:

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pre-professional, professional and advanced amateur singers.

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MUSICA
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!Music reviews
IanSpink
Blackfriars theatre, and vocal and instrumental music for court masques in the 1630s. He was praised in verse by Robert Herrick, whose 'Gather ye rosebuds' (no.30 in vol.i) has become Lawes's most famous song. This, of course, is one of his 'tuneful' settings. More characteristic are his 'declamatory' songs, such as the same poet's 'I'm sick of love' (no.3i), where the rhythm and rise and fall of the voice are more closely governed by the rhetoric of the poem. Less arid and arbitrary than many of his songs in this idiom, it is also one of the best In the field of sacred music he wrote a few anthems for the Chapel Royal (though he was never a member), and numerous metrical psalm settings which his brother included in Choice Psalmes (1648). All four parts of the edition follow a uniform format. Each begins with a general preface (virtually the same in each volume), with its own set of notes, followed by an accurate and informative introduction specific to the volume in question (with further notes) and a modernized edition of the literary texts. Then comes the music and a critical report covering manuscript and printed sources, editorial methods, a commentary on each item (with another set of notes), then an appendix, with its own critical report (and yet more notes). One might think that this was all the scholar needed, but already a certain amount of needless complication may be suspected. For one thing, the musical items are separated into categories, which is fair enoughbut each genre is numbered separately. Thus, in vol.2 the dialogues are numbered 1-14, the partsongs 1-10, the songs with chorus 1-8, and the catches 1-34, which makes finding a particular item in the commentary rather difficult, since, for example, there are four number 5s. To confuse matters further, the appendix of incomplete, doubtful and misattributed works, 19 in all (this time none of them numbered), has its commentary separated from the rest of the edition by 50 pages of music What with two runs of music, two sets of commentaries and four batches of notes, confusion reignsat least, until one has mastered the system. If this is a house style, then I humbly submit that it needs rethinking. Surely a single sequence of contents (nos.1-80, or however many, including the appendix), with commentary and notes to follow, would have been more sensible; similarly, the preliminary material could have been run together with its own notes at the beginning. The other volumes are less confusing in these respects, since EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 293

William Lawes vocal works

William Lawes, Collected vocal music, ed. Gordon J. Callon, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, cxx-cxxiii (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2002) Parti: Solo Songs, $49 Parti: Dialogues, Partsongs, and Catches, $85 Part 3: Sacred Music, $110 Part 4: Masques, $50 As many readers will know, William Lawes (1602-45) was the younger brother of Henry Lawes the songwriter (of Miltonic fame). Both brothers served among the musicians of Charles I, but whereas Henry survived the Civil War and went on to serve Charles II for a couple of years after the Restoration, William was killed fighting on the Royalist side at the Siege of Chester in September 1645. That, reinforced by a rather glamorous but uncertain portrait at Oxford, has lent his memory a kind of romantic fame. As a composer he was considerably more versatile than his brother, and especially notable for some remarkable consort music, much of which has been published in recent years. Now we have the Collected Vocal Music in four volumes. Without doubt this is an important event, and editor and publisher deserve at least two and threequarter cheers for their efforts. Research into William Lawes rests heavily on the work of Murray Lefkowitz, whose William Lawes (i960) dealt with his 'life and works' in a thoroughly scholarly manner. Subsequently Lefkowitz published a valuable selection of consort music in Musica Britannica, xri (1963, rev. 1971). Since then David Pinto has brought out more of his music, notably the Consort Setts in two volumes (1979), the 'Fantasia-Suites' in Musica Britannica, lx (1991) and The Royal Consort in both the 'old' and 'new' versions (1995). These and numerous other editions mean that a great deal of Lawes's string music is available in print, establishing him as perhaps the most important figure in the field between the Jacobean generation of Ferrabosco and Coprario (Lawes's master), and Matthew Locke in the mid-century. As a vocal composer he is less well known, and perhaps less noteworthy. Lacking his brother's lyrical sensitivity and subtlety, he was nevertheless highly regarded in his time, and was employed to write songs for the King's Men at the

the variety of contents is less. Nevertheless, using the commentary can still be frustrating. The copious provision of critical material raises the question of whether this edition is aimed at scholars or performers, or rather, since those categories often overlap, whether it is intended primarily for the library or the music stand. There can be little doubt that the former is intended, though the format would not preclude the latter, and, indeed, it provides a good dean text for performance. Turning now to specific volumes, and in particular to vols.i and 2, I checked the accuracy of several items and found them (mostly) true to the copy sources. One song not quite accurately transcribed, however, was Suckling's 'Why so pale and wan, fond lover' (vol.i, no.46), where there is an error towards the end: the first half of bar 18 is a 3rd too high in the voice, which makes musical sense, but is not what is written (which also makes musical sense). A pity this, as it is an attractive song which many might wish to perform. Most of the songs and dialogues are to be found in the autograph songbook (British Library, Add. Ms.31432) in versions that may be regarded as authoritative, though this should not preclude an editor questioning certain details in the light of other sources, whose ultimate origins may indeed be earlier. Such variants would certainly be interesting; for example, the readings in John Banister and Thomas Low's New Ayres and Dialogues (1678), which could possibly have a 'hot line' back to the composer, despite the collection's late date. Be that as it may, the editor generally eschews comparing variants and limits his intervention to adding a few accidentals to elucidate melodic progressions or confirm false relations. When it comes to items that survive in secondary sources only, he is again somewhat cautious about emending his copy-text, or even voicing suspicions about certain readings. Thus, the end (bars 13-14) of'Come, lovely Cloris' (vol.2, no.6 of the partsongs) seems questionable to me, though other sources are no help in suggesting how it might be unscrambled. After all, mistakes do get copied from one source to another, and agreement may not guarantee accuracy. In any case, the editor ought to discuss doubtful points. Yet among pages and pages of so-called critical report, so far as I can see, he raises not one query, lists not one variant, and proposes not one alternative reading, either of his own, or from a secondary source. Indeed, he is more inclined to mention literary variants than musical ones. Sometimes, when it is difficult to choose between secondary sources, he prints both versions, but unfortunately the source of the second is never made explicit in
294 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3

the notes, though sometimes one can work it out for oneself. These are continuo songs, but no continuo realizations are providednot surprising these days, perhaps, yet one frequently feels an editor's guidance is needed as to whether certain chords should be major or minor, or, here and there, whether a root position or first inversion is to be preferred. Written-out accompaniments may no longer be fashionable, and I am diffident even in suggesting editorial figuring, but, given that the idiom is generally unfamuiar and often idiosyncratic, why not? The original thorough bass is virtually never figured, and a few sharps andflats,5s and 6snot the full Bachian complement, obviously would not come amiss. After all, 'cautionary accidentals', which they are in a sense, are a normal part of an editor's stock in trade. The section on performance in the introduction is good on accompaniment nevertheless, though I am doubtful about 'multiple theorbos, often two or three, sometimes many more' (vol.i, pjori) other than in masque productions. The note on 'Meter indicated by 3i and 31' (voLi, pjcrii) might have been more helpful had its possible relationship with c time been examined (for example, half a bar of c equalling a bar of 3). While I am on the subject of triple time, I was sorry to see that the edition divides hemiola bars into two, with ties joining minims on each side of a new barline. Although it may make little difference in performance (despite the music's losing some of its 'swing', it seems to me), it pointlessly discards what some would regard as an important feature of the original rhythmic structure and notation. In my view, too, it was a misjudgement to leave out all original slurs. It brings no advantage, especially when the beaming is not broken syllabically, and throws the onus of fitting words to music entirely on the alignment of syllables and notes. As for ornamentation, where it occurs at the foot of a page or in the margin of a source, it is appended as an optional extra here; where it is more integral to the vocal line it is incorporated within i t Rhythmically such flourishes do not always 'add up' (nor do they in the originals), but sometimes they are not quite accurately transcribed, difficult to read as they areas in the case of Waller's 'Stay, Phoebus stay' (voLi, no.41). When it comes to the sacred music in V0L3, the editor seems unable to choose between 'Psalm Motets' and 'Motet Psalms' to characterize the Choice Psalmes. Both are reasonable enough, except that they do not take account of the modern restriction of the term 'motet' to Latin settings. As for 'Oxford Psalms', this is acceptable,

since the only source is a manuscript at Oxford in the hand of Edward Lowe (Oxford, Christ Church, Mus.768-70), though where they were composed remains a matter for conjecture. The editor is of the opinion that they 'almost certainly were composed during the Civil War, perhaps for use in Oxford' (introduction, p.xv), but he is sympathetic to David Pinto's plausible theory that they were written during the Siege of York in 1644 'one for each Sunday service"there are 12 of them. (Or is that too pat?) Alternating the old psalm tunes in unison above an organ bass (presumably) with declamatory verses for up to four voices, they are unique in their way, and, for that reason, interesting to have in print They may be seen as a completely fortuitous anticipation of the modern hymn-rune anthem. Unfortunately, the one using the 'Old Hundredth' (no.2, 'All people that on earth do dwell') is one of the feeblest Motets or not, Choke Psalmes includes, among other things, 30 settings of metrical texts ('lyrics' the editor calls them!) from George Sandys's translation of the psalms. The collection originally contained another 30 by Henry Lawes, who published them in 1648 as a memorial to his brother, and dedicated to the king, who met his death on the scaffold the following year. According to Callon, the

print is 'teeming with errors, including wrong notes, careless and inconsistent use of accidentals, missing and incorrect rests and note values, and even entire passages misaligned or missing entirely' (pjdv). I can quite believe it, but if so, it is rather surprising that he has reported so few editorial emendations in his edition. In fact, despite some excruciating soundssometimes, but not always, for expressive purposes none of my checks on doubtful passages revealed any revisions, beyond a few dotted editorial ties and square-bracketed accidentals. Wisely, perhaps, the editor has followed a policy on non-interference with regard to the numerous false relations and bizarre chromaticisms (not to mention wild leaps, augmented chords, free-standing six-fours, doubled leading notes, unprepared dissonances, parallel inds and 5ms, etc, and a completely inadequate figured bass), allowing them to stand, rather than 'improving' them. As a confidence-building measure he lists variants in two probably earlier sources separatelythoroughly in the case of the Chirk Castle partbooks in the New York Public Library (*MNZ Chirk), less consistently in another Edward Lowe manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Mus. Sch.e.451). These tend to confirm the asperities in Lawes's style. Taken together, they are somewhat ungrateful pieces.

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Not all are psalms, as it happens; some are settings of Jeremiah and Isaiah, but still from Sandys's metrical psalms. Probably they were written in the latteT half of the 1630s for chamber performance or private devotions, and though they do not specify how they are to be accompanied, William Child's comparable Choise Musick to the Psalmes, first published in 1639, gives the clue with its 'continuall Base either for the Organ or Theorbo ... after the Italian way". The present edition, of course, has no realization, but the original figuring is more a hindrance than a help. All are for three voices, with two cantus parts (two G2 clefs, or one G2 and one Ci) and a bass, except that the two Latin pieces employ two tenors (C3 and C4 clefs) and a bass. (Perhaps it was thought that women or boys could not cope with Latin.) Usually they begin with an arresting chordal opening, but continue with loose declamatory counterpoint, the voices separating and coming together in various combinations. As already suggested, die harmonic style is rather gritty, while the texture shows die influence of the Italian few-voiced motet (Grandi and the like). They are highly expressive and responsive to the text. The same collection contains a number of canons 'notable for their tunefulness', according to the editor. Perhaps. One might add that, with one or two exceptions, they look better than they sound. The exceptions include 'She weepeth sore in the night' (no.7), which is more like a serious catch, and "Tis joy to see' (no.9). Volume 4 gives us all Lawes's surviving masque music, instrumental and vocal. The introduction has an excellent section dealing with 'Masques and entertainments at the Caroline court' (ppjcv-xix), which, for its length, is among the best I have read. The music has, of course, been covered frequendy, most recently in Peter Walls's Music in the English courtly masque, 1604-1640 (1996), and much is already available in good editions, notably Lefkowitz's Trois masques a la cour de Charles I d'Angleterre (Paris, 1970), which has the advantage of including the full masque texts, and Andrew Sabol's Four hundred songs and dances from the Stuart masque (Providence, RI, 1978).

These are more highly edited than Callon's (for example, they both provide accompaniments, and Sabol halves note values where diere are diree minims to a bar), but are nonetheless reliable. The present edition is more complete, however, since it includes songs from Ben Jonson's The King's Entertainment at Welbeck of 1633, and James Shirley's school masque The Triumph of Beauty, from the early 1640sadmittedly only one from each. Of necessity the main copy-text is the autograph, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Mus. Sch.b.2, but the editor also draws on other sources, either to fill gaps (such as the opening of 'Why do you dwell so long in clouds' in The Triumph of Peace (no.4), missing from the autograph and absent from both Lefkowitz's and Sabol's editions), or to supply alternatives, such as the three-part versions of the symphonies in London, British Library, Add. Ms.18940-4. The latter are attributed to Charles Coleman, but hardly differ from the two-part versions in the autograph, except that they have middle parts (which Sabol adds in his edition) and no.3 is a tone lower. Mildly infuriating, if only at first, is the fact that die commentary on these two-part versions (nos.1-3) does not mention die odier versions, nor even that diey are to be found a few pages further on in die edition as nos.7-9. Familiarity with the contents soon mitigates diis, however,' likewise die unsatisfactory numbering system for various sections and subdivisions. As we have already come to expect, a comprehensive list of concordances is provided. The music itself is more straightforward dian most of the pieces in the odier volumes, and dius has fewer ambiguities or details to question. These volumes are very welcome. They look nice, and it is certainly desirable to have diis music available in versions diat are, a few slips apart, faidiful to die originals. Certain aspects of the edition may not be very user friendly, but on the whole die editor has done his job well, if cautiously. Whedier Lawes's reputation as a vocal composer will be much enhanced as a result is difficult to say (I confess to having my doubts), but now, at least, we have die evidence before our ears and eyes.

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of prima buffa roles and pieces designed by her brother Stephen to tickle the palates of London theatre-goers. Away from the stage, Nancy sang plenty of serious stuff, (much Handel, and Haydn's Creation and Seasons), drawing plaudits for 'taste', 'chasteness and expression', and for Arias for Nancy Storace: Mozart's first Susanna, singing in Westminster Abbey 'with the best effect'. In ed. Dorothea link, Recent Researches in the England she had her coterie of devoted admirers, but Music of the Classical Era, brvi seems to have been gradually overshadowed by other (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2002), $83 singers, especially in the theatre. Did her brother's style restrict her in the character roles, or bring out the best in This is an excellent publication. Dorothea link aims at a her? Did her private life take its toll? Were some of the crit'vocal profile' of Nancy Storace, the bare facts of whose life icisms of'coarseness', 'vulgarity of manner', 'deficiency of can be found elsewhere, but manages along the way to give natural sweetness' simply based on snobbery? No one can plenty of glimpses of the musical and theatrical world of know, but what does come across is the sense of an appealVienna and London. She prints a complete table of Nancy's roles, from her debut in 1776 at the age of 11 to her ing and lively person whose career must have begun in the glow of dazzling success, and who, when later faced with last public appearances in 1808, but the selection of 15 reverses and restrictions (some very much of her time: songs spans just seven years, four in Vienna and three in women singers today have much to be grateful for!), still London. This seeming restriction is partly due to the loss retained her characteristic verve and wit, and as late as 1801 of so much later material in London theatre fires, but Link 'her great command of voice', even if its compass and tone argues that the songs from this period well represent both was starting to fail. Nancy's initial aspirations and her eventual 'fach', in that she began with grand 'seria' numbers but gradually came In Link's selection, u of the arias were written specifito accept the popular verdict that she was best in lighter cally for Nancy, six of these by Stephen. At times she roles; also she returned to many of these numbers in inserted his arias into operas by others; this may show recitals and benefits later on. She was apparently a fine allfamily loyalty but also suggests she felt well served by his round musician, her acting and dancing enchanted audiwriting, which, along with his appealing melodies and speences, and it is clear from the number of 'patter' songs cial orchestral colours, supplied her with flashes of bravura written for her that her diction was excellent Link has and beguiling word play, and regularly exploited her chest chosen the most popular pieces, and based her edition on voice, which seems to have been strong (and sexy?) from the vocal scores which appeared almost immediately for the beginning. Stephen's settings include a couple in Engdomestic and recital use. As she points out, these scores are lish, one of which has also German words used for Nancy's often sparser than one might find in today's keyboard farewell to Vienna in 1787, and one in French, sung in Lonreductions. I think this will be all to the good; although don as a debating point in an opera about the rivalry of ideally one would perform the arias with a fortepiano, with national opera styles. a modern piano also these versions should give the singer Mozart's 'Deh, vieni, non tardar' appears here in a vocal more freedom to present chamber versions; but the other score from 1786, ideal for recital use. Two Salieri arias great advantage of Link's selection is that the orchestral offered Nancy the chance to be both serious and lightscoring for all of them is known and obtainable for concert hearted in the one opera, a story about a magical exchange performance. of personalities. Thus honours were well shared between the two leading ladies, and Nancy got to dance one of her One obvious omission is Mozart's wonderful aria pieces, to great acclaim. That leaves a delightfully simple 'Ch'io me scordi di te'. This is, of course, readily available number by Vicente Martin y Soler, which she sang first in elsewhere, so unnecessary here. (Perhaps too a vocal score Vienna and later in London, and a bigger piece for Vienna would be problematic?) Mozart wrote that he had comby Paisiello, which Link persuasively argues must have posed this 'for Miss Storace and me'; she had also a glitterbeen Nancy's, despite confusions of casting in the theatre ing success as his Susanna, and many have wondered how documents. things would have been for her if this collaboration had been allowed to continue. Certainly 'Ch'io me scordi' has The four remaining songs, by Salieri, Sarti, Paisiello and depths of the kind link suggests Nancy aspired to in her an unknown composer, were not written for her, but first years in Italy and Vienna, and then gave up in favour adopted by her as a significant part of her repertory. They

Emma Kirkby

Nancy Storace's arias

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range from the earliest charming cavatina of Salieri to a bravura piece written for the castrato Marchesi, whom the teenaged Nancy had famously annoyed on first acquaintance by perfectly imitating one of his best vocal effects; that the two later seem to have become friends says much for her characterthough still she could not resist continuing the competition. The edition is not particularly easy to use, as one has to turn to three different places for information about each song; but the wealth of material and lively comment well repays the effort, and the songs themselves are clearly set out. 1 noticed some oddities of accidentals in the recitative of aria no.2, where the modernized three flats in the key signature cause more problems than they solve; there may be other such things, but they will be quickly sorted out in rehearsal. The texts, translations and brief contexts given for each aria will be invaluable, and Link's account of some of the steps in her hunt for Nancy's 'core repertoire' make fascinating reading. I for one shall return to this volume often, and hope to see these pieces in general recital or orchestral repertory.

Peter Holman

Baroque chamber music

Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto da camera, F major reconstruction from the Second Brandenburg Concerto BWV1047, ed. Klaus Hofmann (Kassd: Barenreiter, 1998), 1x95 Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Opera omnia, viL Sonata da camera per due violini e basso continuo, Opera Quarto, 1703, ed. Enrico Careri, Collana per la Storia della Musica nel Trentino, xxiv (Trento: Societa Filarmonica di Trento, 2001) Gottfried Finger, Trio Sonata in F major, ed. Miloslav Klement (Prague: Barenreiter, 2000), 5 Nicola Francesco Haym, Complete sonatas, parts 1&2, ed. Lowell E. Iindgren, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, cxvi, cxvii (Middleton, Wl: A-R Editions, 2002), $48, $46 Isabella Leonards, Twelve sonatas, opus 16, ed. Stewart Carter, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, cxiii (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2001), $53 Georg Philipp Telemann, Concern a-MoUfur AltblockflGte, Gambe, Stretcher und Basso continuo, ed. use Hechler (Celle: Moeck, 2000) Georg Philipp Telemann, Nouveaux Quatuors en Six Suites (Paris Quartets), voti, ed. Ute Poetzsch (Kassel: B&renreiter, 2001), 27 Giuseppe Torelli, Concerti musicali Opus 6, ed. John G. Suess, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, cxv (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2002), $48 Editions of Baroque chamber music continue to pour off the presses, to the extent that, assuming you are wealthy enough or have access to a large library, it is now quite possible to acquire a greater knowledge of the repertory than even the best-informed musicians at the rime. Of this latest batch, two can be disposed of in short order. Miloslav Klement edited Gottfried Finger's Trio Sonata in F major from a manuscript at Uppsala in Sweden, thus offending against a basic principle of editing: that account must be taken of all the relevant sources. He dearly did not know that the primary source of the piece is no.5 of

ASSOCIAZIONE CLAV1CEMBALISTICA BOLOGNESE

10th HARPSICHORD COMPETITION

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OPEN TO CANDIDATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION BOLOGNA, ITALY

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2003

Applications postmarked by 31 October 2003

Jury Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, President Bob van Asperen, Alfonso Fedi, Maria Pia Jacoboni, Gordon Murray Tel. +39 - 051 33 02 28 Fax +39 - 051 58 33 64 ass.clavic.bol@iperbole.bologna.it www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/acb

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Finger's Sonatae XII pro diversis instrumcntis, op.i (London, 1688). The Uppsala manuscript, dated 1692, seems to be derived directly or indirectly from the print, and has little or no independent value. Another misguided enterprise is Klaus Hofmann's edition of a supposedly original version of J. S. Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto for trumpet, violin, recorder, oboe and continuo. It is dear from his introduction that Hofrnann has not discovered a new source of the work, but claims to find 'its prehistory couched, so to speak, in its own compositional fabric'. I cannot report on the strength of his case, since he does not bother to argue its merits in the introduction, merely referring to an article in an obscure volume of proceedings from a conference held in Dortmund in 1996. Even if you do manage to get hold of Hofmann's article and are convinced by its arguments, I do not see the point of buying this new edition. Why not use one of the existing editions and just leave out the ripieno string parts? Use Hechler's edition of Telemann's fine A minor concerto for recorder, bass viol, strings and continuo is generally well conceived and seems to be faithful to the source, a manuscript score at Darmstadt However, there is no critical commentary, and the score has a peculiar layout, with the solo parts parts placed below the ripieno violin and viola parts. It is a pity that editorial slurs are rendered as dotted lines, an ugh/ device much inferior to the slashed slurs generally used in British scholarly editions. Also, I question the assumption that the single violin part, labelled 'Violino grosso', is necessarily intended for 'tutti-violins'; the word 'grosso' in this context seems to mean 'ripieno' rather than 'unisono'. A single violin would certainly balance better with the soft solo instruments, and in general the surviving sets of parts of concertos by Telemann at Darmstadt have only single copies of the string parts. The edition of the first three of Telemann's Paris Quartets is a revision of vol.19 of the Barenreiter complete works, originally edited by the late Walter Bergmann and now revised by Ute Poetzsch. In the introduction Poetzsch rather unnecessarily takes Bergmann to task over several aspects of his editorial policy, though she is not above criticism herself: there is no critical commentary, and editorial slurs are again rendered as dotted lines. However, the music is a joy, and is required repertory for any group consisting of flute, violin, bass viol or cello, and harpsichord. It is good to be able to compare Telemann's alternative bass viol and cello parts; both are included in the score and the set of parts. Incidentally, the statement in

the introduction that Telemann is 'the only significant German composer before Mozart who travelled to Paris' is wide of the mark; Froberger, J. J. Walther, Kusser, Muffat and Quantz are obvious examples of other significant German composers who made the same journey. Next in the pile is an edition of Bonporti's Sonate da camera, op.4, of 1703; it is an instalment of an opera omnia produced by the Societa Filarmonica di Trento as part of a collection illustrating the history of music in Bonporti's home town of Trent The collection is scored for two violins, cello and archlute or harpsichord, and belongs to the tradition of da camera sonatas deriving from Corelli. It is well crafted, fairly straightforward music that will appeal to amateurs, though there is no sign that parts are available, and the figured bass is not realized. Enrico Careri contributes an excellent introduction and a proper critical commentary that compares the original Venetian edition of 1703 with Walsh's London reprint of about 1708. He has kept additions to the musical text to a minimum: there are some places where slurs present in one violin part are clearly required in the other part, and there are also a few missing accidentals. A-R Editions continue to produce important editions in their series 'Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era'. Notable among recent issues is a complete edition of Torelli's Concern musicali, op.6, of 1698. Most attention has been focused on Torelli's trumpet works, so a complete edition of one of the sets of string concertos is particularly welcome. Torelli uses a rather conservative idiom quite distinct from the Roman type of concerto exemplified by Corelli's op.6 or the Venetian type of Albinoni and Vivaldi; it seems to be derived from the Bolognese tradition of four-part sonatas by composers such as Cazzati, Giovanni Battista Vitali and Giovanni Bononcini. Op.6 is particularly interesting in that, unlike most Baroque concertos, it seems to have been intended for strings playing more than one to a part in both the original prints there is the statement 'I must warn you that if you find the word solo in any of these concerti, the part must be played by a single violin. Elsewhere you may have as many as three or four instruments to a part' John Suess's edition is thorough and very well prepared, though A-R seems to be wedded to my bugbear, the slur made up of a dotted line, and Suess's attempts to complete the figuring are rather half-hearted. Torelli is a seriously undervalued composer, perhaps A-R might be persuaded to do an edition of his op.8 concertos. The next A-R publication is Stewart Carter's edition of the Sonate a1.2-3.e4. Istromenti, op.16 (Bologna, 1693), by

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the Novara nun composer Isabella Leonarda. (1620-1704). Despite the title, it actually consists of 11 sonatas for two violins, violent and organ and one for solo violin and organ. Although the sonatas were not published until 1693 (Carter suggests that they are the earliest published sonatas by a woman), they look as if they were written considerably earlier, as Carter points out, they are similar to sonatas by Cazzati, UcceUini and Legrenzi in that they consist of unpredictable sequences of short sections rather than three or four separate movements, and some of them have solos for one or more of the stringed instruments. An interesting feature, not mentioned by Carter, is that several of the sonatas end with short passages for the violone and continuo alone. This suggests to me that, like Finger, who often uses the same trick, Leonarda might have been a violone player who liked to have the final say in her own works. Carter does not offer an opinion as to whether Leonarda's violone was a bass viol or a bass violin, though the latter is more likely in my opinion. This is interesting music, well worth performing, and it is well edited on the whole, though some figures are obviously misplaced and a few accidentals are missing. Finally, we come to Lowell Iindgren's two-volume A-R edition of Nicola Francesco Haym's complete sonatas. It consists of the 12 Sonate a tre, op.i (1703), four solo sonatas from a collection of VI Sonate da camera (1710) by Haym and Martino Bitti, the 12 Sonate a tre, op.2 (1704), and two manuscript cello sonatas. For good measure, the edition also includes two movements for cello and continuo by Quirino Columbani, who may have been Haym's teacher, and a sonata for two violins, obbligato archlute and continuo by Giovanni Antonio Haym, who Iindgren suggests was Nicola Francesco's elder half-brother. Nicola Francesco Haym (1678-1729) emigrated from Rome to London in 1700. He is best known today as one of Handel's librettists, though his own music is imaginative and skilfully composed. He was a cellist, and that shows in his bass lines; they are stronger and more elaborate than usual at the time, particularly in the solo sonatas, which have a strength rare outside Handel. Also notable are op.2, nos.10 and ii, scored for violin, cello and continuo, where Haym gives his own instrument some fine, virtuoso writing. Op.2, no.12, a free set of variations on the ciaccona for two flauti and continuo, is anbther fine piece, initially indebted to Corelli's op.2, no.12, but leaving its model far behind. It is good to be able to report that Lowell Iindgren's edition is fully worthy of Haym's music Between them, the introductions to the two volumes add up to a comprehensive account of Haym's life, his instrumental music,
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and its historical context The editing, too, is meticulous. The sources are described in great detail; there is an excellent critical commentary; and the musical text is admirably accurate. I have only a couple of small criticisms. Like the other A-R editions in this batch, the treatment of figuring is rather anomalous. The original figures have been amplified with some extra symbols in square brackets, though continuo players will have add quite a few of their own. The other problem concerns the treatment of the word 'flauto', specified as an alternative to violins for the upper parts of op.2, nos.6-9, and as the sole option for op.2, no.12. Iindgren writes that 'Haym did not add "txaversi" [to flauti], but transverse flutes as well as recorders are presumably welcome to play his treble parts.' However, Haym writes consistently within the range of the treble recorder in these pieces, and by 1704, when they were published, the Baroque transverse flute was still hardly known in England; its first recorded appearance was in 1701, in John Ecdes's setting of The Judgement of Paris. I hope recorder players will take up these valuable additions to their repertory, as with the Leonarda sonatas (but not, unfortunately, Torelh's op.6), A-R state that 'Performance parts are available from the publisher'.

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There is little in the way of drama here, nor much characterization of the individual Seasons, though some of Winter's arias are appropriately bluff and blustery. Nevertheless, Marcello's inventive music responds most effectively to all the expressive opportunities provided by Benedetto Marcello, Ilpianto e il riso deUe quattro a text which, as well as evoking agonizing grief, abounds stagioni, ed. Michael Burden, Recent Researches in imagery drawn from the natural world. His instruin the Music of the Baroque Era, cxviii mental writing in particular is wonderfully imaginative, (Middelton, WI: A-R Editions, 2002), $87 both in the accompanied recitatives that are carefully Antonio Vivaldi Le quattro stagioni, ed. Christopher placed at climactic points, and in arias that require the Hogwood (Kassel: Barenreiter, 2000), full score 19.50 strings to imitate raging storms, eternal ice, frozen raindrops, rustling leaves, laughter and tears; their parts are most carefully annotated with detailed bowing-marks Vivaldi's set of graphically descriptive concertos may be as well as dynamic markings and ornaments. Perhaps far and away the best-known musical work of its time because the work was originally composed for a Jesuit to exploit the distinctive characters of the four seasons. establishment that lacked virtuoso singers, the voice parts However, the appearance of the first modern edition of Benedetto Marcello's Ilpianto e il riso delle quattro stagioni are relatively straightforward, with little in the way of vocal display, but Marcello's use of quirky syncopated demonstrates that Vivaldi was not the only composer to rhythms and well-placed touches of chromatic harmony find this conceit attractive. Marcello, a nobleman whose more than compensates for this, and indeed give his style musical activities were a dilettante sideline to a career as a a pleasing touch of real originality. senior civil servant in various outposts of the Venetian Empire, is chiefly remembered today for H teatro all moda, Michael Burden's scrupulously prepared edition makes his acerbically entertaining satire on the operatic customs use of three manuscript sources, including Marcello's of the time. His contemporaries seem to have had a high autograph, and offers many detailed and helpful suggesopinion of his compositions, which, on the evidence of tions for performance. It is to be hoped that these latter this really delightful work, was fully justified. will find practical application, for Ilpianto is one of those musicologjcal finds that deserves to be heard and enjoyed Written in 1731, in the aftermath of a bizarre accident as music, not just studied for its historical interest which caused Marcello to become fervently religious (he fell into.a grave underneath a church floor), Ilpianto is a Attractive though it is, however, Marcello's fourvernacular oratorio in contemplative rather than dramatic seasons-inspired piece is unlikely to attain those giddy style, celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. heights of popularity enjoyed by Vivaldi's set of concerSoprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists take the parts of tos. Doubtless Christopher Hogwood's new Barenreiter Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter respectively; there Urtext edition of Le Quattro Stagioni will have to compete is a handful of choruses, and an ensemble of two violins, with many rivals for its share of the market, but though viola and continuo provides the accompaniment Part 1 not 100 per cent misprint-free, it has much to commend depicts Winter's efforts to discover why he has returned it, including admirably dear printing, and sensibly placed from the mountains to find Spring, Summer and Autumn page-turns in the solo part It also gives due prominence in deepest mourning. Something like an allegorical guessto the accompanying sonnets; not only is each one ing-game leads to the revelation that their grief is caused printed in full at the beginning of its concerto, but the by the death of the Virgin Mary. Part 2 begins with the words being illustrated are supplied at the appropriate realization that she still lives, but in Heaven, after which points in the scoreas in L'Inverno, where it is made the Seasons squabble over which of them has the best right quite dear that repeated demisemiquavers represent the to make an offering to her. Finally they decide that as all wind, whereas repeated semiquavers portray chattering their claims are equal, they must do it together. teeth.

Elizabeth Roche

Italian seasoning

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Recording reviews
Philip Weller
moments of cultural change are usually brought about by a confluence of factorssome very obvious, others less so, and a few almost invisible to the retrospective eye. The four discs introduced here set out to illuminate some of the remoter corners of this fascinating period. The vocal and instrumental ensemble Le Poeme Harmonique (the name comes from a 17th-century Spanish music print), directed by the lutenist and theorbo-player Vincent Dumestre, have set out on this quest in an audacious and uncompromising way. Other performers of early Baroque repertory have done equally radical things in order to rethink how this music works, or can be made to workNigel Rogers, for example, in the realm of monody, Bruce Dickey in cornett 'oratory'; Tragjcomedia in pushing the creative resources of the continuo group to their very limits. This French group is doing something similar with a repertory that is largely unfamiliar, in some cases virtually unknown. The performers do not set out merely to produce beautiful sounds (though in fact they do this often, frequently at relatively slow tempos, savouring ensemble textures and the richness of multiple continuo as well as of affective dissonance and well-wrought part-writing). Rather, they aim to give strongly imagined and vividly interpreted versions of this music that lack nothing in impact and intensity, nor, at quieter moments, in subtlety and polish. They perform with real flair and conviction (as few groups have done) both French and Italian music, giving each a distinctive edge in terms not only of the language and its characteristic modes of attack, articulation and vocalisation, but also of general style and idiom. As I have suggested, the programmes on these discs have been conceived and researched so as to show us new and sometimes astonishing things about the obscurer recesses of the music of the early 17th century. But there is one importantindeed, in some ways momentous exception to this: Emilio de' Cavalieri: Lamentations (Alpha 011; rec 2000). These works, though remembered by historians, have been all but ignored in performance. They date from 1599-1600, and it was as recently as 1990 that they were first published from their manuscript source in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana. The Lamentations have long been known about, yet musically (and even culturally) little understood. In this respect, they are like much else of Cavalieri's life and workshot through with grand successes and apparent failures, pursued with EARLY MUSIC MAY 2OO3 3O3

Varieties of the seconda prattica

The years either side of 1600 represent one of the dearest turning points in musical history. By more or less general consent, this great transition to what we now call the Baroque can convincingly be seen to embrace both the intrinsically musical and the broader cultural sphere. The emergence of the virtuoso solo performer ('virtuoso' in the holistic 17th-century sense of being eloquent and impassioned, as well as brilliant), the vast enrichment of continuo resources, the sophisticated exploitation of dance patterns, ritornellos and refrains of all types, of passaggi and strophic variationthis exponential flowering of new techniques and idioms was but the inner spring of an age that sought to use the medium of music as a powerful, demonstrative vehicle for public expression and spectacle, of both a serious and an entertaining kind, on a scale seemingly unmatched before. Yet, for all its apparently programmatic naturecoming as it did after the shared European trauma of the Reformation, the Wars of Religion and the opening skirmishes of traditional thinking with the scientific revolution and sceptical philosophythis transformation of the musical landscape occurred under its own momentum and (in part at least) from within. As with parallel developments in visual art around 1600, many of the leading ideas which are usually seen as having underpinned and informed itsuch as those concerning musical rhetoric and the passions, the aesthetic ideal of vividness and variety, the desire for impact and intensity, even the role of sprezzatura as an aid to expression in performancecan in fact be traced back far into the past If we look a little further we can see that changes in performing traditions, often operating within existing repertories (the solo performance of polyphonic madrigals, for example, with or without extempore vocal embellishments, or of instrumental variations upon them), helped to bring about analogous changes in compositional thinking. Evolving performance styles and the progress of compositional method hung closely together. The Baroque was as much a pragmatic, 'unwritten' revolution as it was an ideological one, for all its richness of new thought and ideas. Here we can begin to see that extended

tireless energy and vision, yet caught between Rome and Florence without appearing to find a true home in either. In this recording, however, the Lamentations aie revealed as something of a masterpiece in their own right, and undoubtedly of tremendous historical significance. At a stroke, they enlarge our retrospective vision of the range and variety of what was going on under the banner of the 'new music' of the formative years of the seconda prattica during the late 16th century, in Rome as well as in Rorence and, in a rather different way, Ferrara. Here is daring experimental music that is simultaneously poised and polished, and, in its own terms, fully thought through. The affective solos (mostly for virtuoso soprano, sometimes for tenor, occasionally involving soloistic ensemble groupings) are rhetorically conceived in a recognizably monodic idiom, yet quite unlike Rorentine recitative, 'and very varied within and between sections. Moreover, the short framing texts (the 'Lamentario' introductions, the Hebrew letters marking the verses, and the concluding 'Hierusalem convertere' invocations) are richly set for the full five-part ensemble in finely crafted polyphony. Here they are beautifully shaped, with instruments enriching the voices, and with equal attention given to melodic detail and to overall pacing. In these passages Cavalieri continues the Renaissance tradition of spinning long strands of melismatic polyphony as a foil to the music of the actual Lamentation texts. But the contrast with the verses is far more dramatic than in, say, Tallis or Palestrina, since the words of Jeremiah are set in an up-to-theminute soloistic style, underpinned by continuo, that has its own distinctive character and raison d'etre within the spectrum of'extended' vocal techniques and idioms being experimented with at the time, including rapid syllabic parlando, strong declamatory gestures, virtuoso flourishes, extreme chromaticism of a Vicentinoesque kind, and an intensely imagined lyric-arioso manner that is beautifully grave and sustained in expression. Moreover, Cavalieri, ever alert to the dramatic possibilities latent in his material and in the texts he sets, subtly varies the length of both individual phrases and entire verses throughout the work. Le Pofime Harmonique seem energetically alive to all these features, and are for the most part intensely responsive to their rhetorical potential. Their expressive articulation and pacing seem to emerge as if from behind the written notes, thereby capturing and projecting the inner dynamic of the texts as mirrored in the musical writing. The affective content is seen, and felt, as part of the morphology of the piece in both its verbal and its musical dimension, and communicated as such to the listener. In
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doing so, the group manages to bring out a maximum of contrast and moment-to-moment inflexion without loss of continuity and momentum. These works have a sense of real communicative purpose as well as aesthetic beauty. Here are versions, both compositional and interpretative, of these great Holy Week texts that seek to go to the heart of the matter, every bit as intensely as do the slightly later Gesualdo responsories, yet in a wholly different way something which is in itself an emblem of the almost explosive riot of new invention within the early Baroque in Italy, even aside from what has been viewed too easily as the mainstream. These beautiful pieces are framed within two elaborately embellished fahobordone psalm settings: In te Domine speravi (Psalm 71, penitential in mood, but not one of the seven official 'psalmi poenitentiales') and the famous Miserere (Psalm 51). The audacity of the diminutions, ornamental figures and other added dissonances in these examples of salmi passeggiati illustrates very well just how influential, not to say revolutionary, the sheer power of such strong performing traditions can be when operating on even modest material. Within the living dynamics of cultural change and development, performance can be just as radical a force as compositional aesthetics or ideology. And the group gives these pieces full-throttle treatmentsomething that may not bear repeated listening, but which was, to me, gripping at a first hearing, disarming in its strangeness and yet astonishing to the listener, not least for the skill and intensity with which it is done. The group's main soprano, Claire LefiUiatre, may perhaps lack something in sheer sonority and vocal depth, and her technique is not flawless; but her verve and daring, as well as her sensitivity at appropriate moments, compensate for this, and generally serve the music very well indeed She has the measure of its rhetoric, and is energetically communicative, exciting and rapt by turns. And if the vocal ensemble as a whole may not perhaps have quite the vocal quality of, say, Concerto Italiano or La Venexiana, or, in a different vein, the Ensemble Clement Janequin, Concerto Colin or the old Consort of Musicke at their best, this is more than made up for by the vigour, intelligence arid passion with which these interpretations are conceived and realized. And in any case, the full vocal and instrumental sound is often undeniably of very great beauty. The secular programme, Giovanni Battuta Fasolo: II Fasolo? (Alpha 023, rec2ooi), is as different from the Cavalieri as could be imagined. This contrast is in itself proof, if proof were needed, of the intelligence and versatility of the group as a 'collective interpreter' of 17th-century styles.

There is beauty and intensity here, too: the laments and serious madrigals are done with great plangency, and an almost unerring sense of poise and pacing. But it is the buoyancy and wit, as well as the humour, the brilliant comic verve and the sheer joyous propulsiveness that emerge from some of the more light-hearted performances which impress just as much (and perhaps all the more) for their rarity. For these are qualities that are matched by few groups, if anyonly the Clement Janequin singers come anywhere near it, in vocal and linguistic terms. It is as if these musicians had taken the theatricality of an I Fagiolini show and combined it with the vocal and verbal flair that are indispensable to good comedy and good tragedy alike, with some exemplary continuo and instrumental playing of vivid and demonstrative character (matching the voices for both plangency and exuberance), and then mixed up the whole thing according to some ancient alchemical formula known only to the secular performers of 16th- and 17th-century Italy. The programme is beguiling, and astonishingly varied. It not only shows off the adaptability and imagination of the group, but also demonstrates the ubiquity of strophic patterns, with or without composed variations, in both the 'serious' music of the ever-popular lament and the 'popular' aria forms found in theatre songs and opera scenes, serenades and canzonettas, street songs and carnival episodesgenres that were being sung no doubt in every imaginable context and venue, as well as in the more obvious ones, all over Italy. The balance of serious and salacious, of 'high' literary Italian and 'low' regional dialect, of expansive noble rhetoric and taut rhythmic elan, is delightful and invigorating throughout I shall not rehearse the various multiple and mistaken identities of 'II Fasolo' of the title, the amusing details of which can be read in the very full liner notes, expanded and corrected here and there by the entry in the revised New Grove article and the publications listed there in the bibliography. Suffice it to say that Giovanni Battista Fasolo was, amazingly, a Franciscan friar originally from Asti in Piedmont who worked in Rome, Naples and Sicily, and who stands, emblematically, as an example of the extraordinarily free mixture of the sacred and the secular that was enjoyed by all, even by professional ecclesiastics, at this period. All the pieceseven, in this context, the wonderful interpolated Pallavicino madrigal O dolorosa sortehave a theatrical edge, and the various carnival scenes are overtly dialogic in nature (as, indeed, are the earlier madrigal comedies of Vecchi and Banchieri, examples of which

were recorded by the Ensemble Climent Janequin). This keen sense of dialogue then easily takes on a vivid dramatic quality. But however theatrical the listener's expectations, he or she will still be taken aback in surprise and delight at the virtuosity of the varied linguistic and vocal colours, and by the striking way the different kinds of texts are characterized. The impetus and the infectious swing of the canzonetta Sguardo lusinghiero sound spontaneous, not to say extempore, but must have been worked at very hard to achieve what Poulenc called a 'laisser-aller contr61' of such brilliance. The all'improwiso feel of the 'Aria alia napoletana' is handled with equal panache, including castanets and some 'rolled' flamenco-style guitar playing. Again, art very much concealing art The carnival pieces include commedia dell'artefigures,as well as regional types and foreigners singing either in their own language or in caricatureItalian. In both the Barchetta passaggiera and the Serenata in lingua lombarda the gallery of characters passes by with effortless swagger and energy, like some grand comic procession, yet not without moments of poetry. In the Serenata the audacious, sometimes outrageous, use of gently 'swung' ground basses and percussion, as well as guitar, lends an extra dimension to one or two episodes that admirably complements the pungency of the comic characterization, and also serves to set the cumulative rhythmic momentum of the whole sequence into even greater relief. Brilliant, and joyous. The programme is brought to a beautiful conclusion with a long, spacious ciaccona that builds through a gently climactic central plateau before ending in a long, beguiling instrumental fade. With the next two discs we enter the relatively uncharted, or at least under-explored, waters of French music during the reigns of Henri IV (d 1610) and Louis XIII (d 1643). Here we can observe somewhat similar underlying developments to those in Italy, but ones that produced very different aesthetic results, and occurred much more slowly and sporadically. Like England, France absorbed the fruits of the seconda prattica in its own way, and at its own pace. And, indeed, some things were neveT fully assimilated. The adoption of 'monodic' writing for the voice had resulted in the lyric-strophic, lute-accompanied air de cour and the more rhetorical solo ririt Like the English lute-song repertory, both were essentially genres of vocal chamber music which also found a place in the masque-like scenarios of the ballet de cour, and as a consequence (again like English song, as developed by such composers as Robert Johnson) took on more obviously demonstrative, even dramatic characteristics. Musically, EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 305

Pierre Gu6dron, who is anthologized on Pierre Guedron: Le consert des consorts (Alpha 019, rec 2001), stood astride two worldspositioned as he was between that of Balf s Acade'mie, with its ontology of underlying classical structures, existing in parallel with the still-polyphonic outlook of Lassus, Le Jeune and Du Caurroy; and that of the more phenomenological aesthetic of the ballet and other kinds of spectacle and entertainment, with their emphasis on theatricality, transient appearances and the momentary effects of rhetoric Of course, these two tendencies were not opposed in any monolithic way, but they do represent significant differences of emphasis between the music of two eras. Counterpointed with these products of the 'high' style, and much less affected by changes of fashion or of aesthetic direction, was the vast current of popular and popularizing song, of many different kinds, which had been cultivated throughout the 16th century and remained so through the early decades of the 17th. Like Dowland, Guedron still practised the polyphonic air as well as the soloistic variety, often writing parallel versions, intabulated and in real parts, of the same song. As a result, the contrast between the different scorings, with the added possibility of using instruments to double vocal lines, lends richness and variety to multi-strophic performances such as that of'Las! Que ne suis-je nee'. The tradition of 'scored-up' versions of essentially simple airs and instrumental pieces had been practised in France since at least the time of Mauduit's musical direction of the Acade'mie, and was maintained at court well into the new century. These extravagant musical occasions, whether devised purely for entertainment or structured around an allegorical scenario or a formal sequence of mythological or narrative episodes, usually contained a mixture of airs of different types, pastoral lyrics, dramatic rtdts (of which 'Noires fureurs' is a stunning example), popular tunes and songs of picturesque character in often piquant arrangements, dance movements, ballet entries and 'airs pour les instruments', as well as independent pieces for instrumental consort, whether homogeneous or mixed. The programme of the Gueclron disc offers just such a mixture in a varied and balanced sequence, in which the performances are as idiomatically French as the previous two were idiomatically Italian. And they contrive to give this repertory a breadth and a strength that have all too often been lacking in more wayward interpretations which have tended to produce a somewhat mannered delicacy, to the detriment of the overall shaping and momentum of what is in fact a strongly imagined, often spacious and subtly inflected style, for all its fundamental simplicity.
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The presence of a strong ensemble feeling between the singers and instrumentalists no doubt helps this sense of breadth and cohesion. But it is dear that, in giving this music a little of the sweep and energy of Italian music of the same era, while preserving a characteristically French approach to attack and articulation, these interpretations are saying something important about this corner of music history, over and above the pleasure such performances have to give. The texts are excellently declaimed, using features of'old' pronunciation but without mannerisms or exaggerated self-consciousness. Unlike Gu&lron, who was a northerner, Estienne Moulinie was from the Languedoc and educated, like the great but slightly older Bouzignac, at Narbonne Cathedral. But when, about 1621, he went to Paris and joined the retinue of Gaston d'Orleans, brother of Louis Xm, his musical world became that of the courtly and urbane genres appreciated by the aristocratic and bourgeois clientele who hired musicians and bought printed music. Moulini6 was a composer of sacred as well as secular music, and published what is probably the first French basso continuo line printed as a separate part. But it is by his airs that he is known. They are of very varied character indeed, in terms of their vocal writing and melodic style as well as of their texts (in French, Italian and Spanish; pastoral, picturesque, comic; tender, melancholic, dramatic; spiritual songs and drinking songs, and so on). Some were written for ballets, but most were clearly intended as vocal chamber musicand in any case, airs from ballets, if they were successful, were usually extracted and performed independently. Estienne Moulinie: L'humaine comedie (Alpha 005, rec 1999) is a well-devised programme that presents an interesting mini-spectrum of all these styles. The manner of performance is broadly similar to that on the Guedron disc, with similar strengths, but in lesser measure. Though there are many individual beauties, I find some of these interpretations less involving: not so vivid, perhaps not so fully thought through. Moreover, there are problems of tuning within the vocal ensemble, and between the voices and the instruments, that could surely have been sorted out. But there are still some beautiful and illuminating moments; and Moulini is undoubtedly a worthwhile composer. There is, as ever, some delightfully poised and pointed, as well as sonorous instrumental playing. Le PoSme Harmonique are cutting a path through interesting and little-known areas of the early Baroque repertory that impress not so much because of their esoteric appeal or their rarity value, but because of their imaginative qualities. The result of painstaking research and

archaeology, often the fruit of many years and many minds, these rediscovered works are given new life through the palpable sense of a living tradition of performance which is brought to them by practising musicians for whom their individual techniques, their improvisational flair and feeling for ensemble are second nature. They play a fully creative part in this music that is at times almost compositional. Such ventures are collaborative in the very best sense. And it is this which, in the long run, makes such work supremely communicative, however 'modest' the music may look on paper when it is first brought out of the archive. This is emphatically not historical recovery for its own sake, but for the sake of real musical experiencesexperiences in which, to be sure, the performers undoubtedly have as great a share as the composers. But of what repertory is this not, in the end, true? Listen to these discs. Qa vaut le ditour. Bravo, Alpha.

Music beyond
m e a s u r e around
Louis Couperin
Preludes non mesur6s
for harpsichord An attempted reconstruction of the lost autograph by Glen Wilson Edition Breitkopf 8705 21,

CD attached

Fabrice Fitch Postscript

To complete this survey of related recordings on Alpha, it is worth mentioning Claude Lejeune: Maze honorons l'illustre & grand Henry (Alpha 032, rec 2002). Its title (and opening track) notwithstanding, this is mostly a selection of psalm-settings in Latin and French, performed by members of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and the ensemble Les Pages et les Chantres, together with a handful of soloists under the direction of Olivier SchneebelL Alongside the often stellar performances of Le PoSme Harmonique, these spirited readings are a touch disappointing, mostly because the direction lacks the sureness of touch that characterizes the discs reviewed above by Philip Weller. The assembled forces are at times out of synch rhythmically (Jean TuWry's cornett diminutions, for instance, are uncharacteristically wayward), and the intonation of the young mattrise is often distractingly imprecise, especially on high held notes. Even the soloists (who include among their number Le Poime Harmonique's principal soprano, Claire Lefilliatre) can sound a little tentative. At the same time, these are performances of spirit and verve in which technique lags a little behind taste and enthusiasm. Lejeune psalms have not been recorded as often as the songs, so this recording fills a gap, and fits nicely within the portfolio of repertories surveyed here.

further Keyboard Music from the 17th Century:

Johann Christoph Bach

Works for Clavier
edited by Pieter Dirksen Edition Breitkopf 8730 12,50

Heinrich Scheidemann
Complete Harpsichord Music
edited by Pieter Dirksen Edition Breitkopf 8688 20,-

Samuel Scheldt
Tabulatura nova
edited and with extensive commentaries by Harald Vogel Part I: Works SSWV 102-126 Edition Breitkopf 8565 33,Part II: Works SSWV 127-139 Edition Breitkopf 8566 35,Part III: Works SSWV 139-158 Edition Breitkopf 8567 38,www. breitkopf.com

Breitkopf ^ Hartel
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2003 307

Lucy Robinson

Knock'd on the head?

A consensus has been reached. As all attempts to ban a dangerous narcotic have proved fruitless, there is no choice but to take the dreaded step and legalise Lawes. One could persevere and challenge the rampant disregard of decent counterpoint, be driven mad by offbeat imitations, condemn the bizarre themes, demonise the wilful obsession with repeated notes, in short, damn those who destroy their health indulging in this music, but what, I ask you, is the point? The errant behaviour is not about to end, nor do those hooked on Lawes show any signs of forsaking their folly.

ing also includes arrangements by the director Mark Levy of four catches for the same combination. Finally Fretwork's two discs have been reissued as a budget-priced set: Lawes: The consort setts for 5 & 6 viols and organ (Virgin Veritas 2CD 7243 5 62001 2 8, rec 1990/1991, remastered
2001).

Lawes's viol setts in five parts were probably written between 1637 and 1638, some ten years after the death of the mainstream composers of Jacobean viol consorts. Quite apart from being unusual in grouping fantazies with pavens and aires [almans], and in the development of the use of the organ within the consort, Lawes's works are revolutionary in their extreme emotional range. Just as most of the five-part dances are reworkings of earlier pieces, and thus pre-date the fantazias in the sets, so too is the cantus So reports Professor Laurence Dreyfus of King's College firmus-bzsed On the Playnsong. Lawes originally titled this movement 'Inomine'; but it is no such thing, merely a sucLondon and director of Phantasm, opening his liner notes cession of 58 breves (in the second treble) which Lawes for the group's disc, William Lawes: Consorts in six parts probably concocted himself. Notwithstanding its origins, (Channel Classics CCS 17498, rec 2001). 1995, the 350th the plainsong provides Lawes with the scope to write a radanniversary of Lawes's death at the Siege of Chester, was a ically new sort of movement with wild instrumental virtulandmark in the composer's 20th-century rehabilitation. It osity and little pretence of contrapuntal cohesion. Phanwas memorably celebrated by a William Lawes Festival in tasm meet the challenge face on, dancing the repeated Oxford, with concerts and papers (published in 1998 as William Lawes, 1602-1645: essays on his life, times and work, notes and relishing the crazy, sweeping division-like passagework between treble and bass. Hesperion XXI favour ed. Andrew Ashbee), a pithy paperback by David Pinto a slower tempo, more in the ecclesiastical cantus firmus Lawes's longstanding and hugely knowledgeable advocateentitled For ye Violls, and recordings of his consort tradition, with elegantly turned passagework. This piece well illustrates the differing approaches of the two ensemmusic in five and six parts 'to the Viols and Organ' by Fretbles. Phantasm play wonderfully richly without an organ, work and the Royall Consort suites (for violins, viols and but the ensemble, tuning, balance and clarity of the viols is theorbos) by both the Purcell Quartet and the Greate Consuperb. This is particularly true for the two 'Italianate' tresort, and a compendium of the two by the Rose Consort. ble parts who fulfil such a vital role in Lawes's consort It was probably the Royall Consort suites of dances that music; both players are using Kessler viols which sound most caught the public ear in Lawes's lifetime, but it is the very well. Phantasm's playing is rooted in an acute awareenigmatic and esoteric canon of works for five and six viols ness of harmonic progression which gives the perfordating from the late 1630s that provokes this powerful mance an outstanding sense of shape and direction. Hesintoxication for players today. The addiction has evidently perion XXI's added organ gives a beautiful aura to the viol been incubating strongly since 1995, as three of the leading tone without impinging on the viols' distinctive timbre. viol consorts have chosen to mark the quatercentenary of However, the ensemble employs pardessus de violes on the Lawes's birth with five splendid and highly contrasting top parts; whilst the players phrase exquisitely, the instruCDs. In addition to the six-part consorts, Phantasm have ments lack the brilliance and pain of the treble viols from recorded William Lawes: Consorts in four and five parts g" to c", as the notes lie too low. The five-part setts played (Channel Classics ccs 15698, rec 1999). Jordi Savall with straight through with conventional repeats for the aires do Hesperion XXI offer a two-disc set entitled William not quite come to the length of a normal CD. Hesperion Lawes: Consort sets in five & sir parts (Alia Vox AV9823 A+B, rec 2001/2002), and Concordia with Knock'd on the XXI make extra repeats to many of the aires, which are most welcome. I particularly enjoyed their performance of headb William Lawes music for viols (Metronome the first C minor Aire, which opens with two semibreves in Recordings MET CD 1045, rec 2001) present the six-part all parts ornamented splendidly in a manner that quite consorts in F major, G minor and Bl major, punctuated by reminded me of playing with Moroccan classical string the six surviving pieces for three lyra viols. The last record308 EARLY M U S I C MAY 2 0 0 3

players. Phantasm give us the six earfy four-part Aires of the late 1620s. But it is the six-part setts, dating from 1639 to 1640, which represent the acme of Lawes's art and display what a contemporary, Aurelian Townshend, described so aptly as Lawes's 'depth of Musique'. Concordia open their disc arrestingly with the radiant F major setta world apart from the tortured angularity of the monumental C minor work that lies at the other end of Lawes's emotional spectrum. The ensemble captures the expansiveness of the first point beautifully, but I find the texture overbalanced in favour of the organ. This halcyon mood reigns until the final section of the second Fantazia, which concludes the sett in Lawes's order (but not in Concordia's). Here the lively fugal section is dashed by a shift to the tonic minor, complete with an unprepared dissonance for added grit, as if to show the frailty of the major mode and indeed of those 'distracted limes'. Concordia make a dramatic break at this point, but I find the forward, driven approach of Phantasm more shocking. Lawes placed the G minor sett a6 first of the six-part consorts in his autograph, evidently awarding it pride of place; in 1931 Arnold Dolmetsch chose the same sett to introduce to Percy Grainger, who immediately came under its spell, declaring it 'certainly one of the most glorious and subtle compositions of any school or any period'. Concordia take a contemplative approach to the noble Paven that heads the sett, opening with delicious overlapping triads of the tonic and the submediant Characteristically Phantasm choose to move forward more strongly, which makes the dissonances hurt more and the figures after the souspirs more anguished. Hesperion XXI select a steady tempo, preferring a warmer sound than Concordia. This is certainly in part due to the use of a pair of violins on the treble lines which, when they scurry in consecutive 3rds, sound splendidly Monteverdian. But compared to the treble viols they 'scold' slightly at times, to use Mace's expression, as when they enter after the fine bass viol entry at the beginning of the following Fantazy. This lively piece sows the seeds for the spectacular 16-semibreve dominant pedal which concludes the following Aire. By using the common practice when two bass viols are at hand of sharing material in two contrasting registers in quick succession, Lawes splits the pedal on the resonant bottom D between the two instruments at minim intervals, after which there is the wonderfully energetic visual image of the bow cavorting up five strings to play in the tenor register, which doubtless would have appealed to Grainger. Curiously, Hesperion XXI favour a sedate speed

and play down this extraordinary feature; the other two consorts adopt almost the same high-spirited tempo and work up to a state of great agitation. Phantasm's basses are the more incisive, producing the tighter and more powerful effect. Writing to the Revd Thomas Twining in 1783, Burney dismissed Lawes as 'knock'd on the head', but in the 21st century Lawes has finally come of age: we are well and truly addicted. Laurence Dreyfus writes: 'seriously, there can be few experiences more absorbing than playing the six-part consorts of William Lawes'. For those wishing to take their Lawes in a less intense form, Concordia's disc mixing the consort setts with lyra viol music is certainly to be recommended. But personally I give Phantasm the laurel for an infectious rendering of this extraordinarily profound and bewitching music.

Alison Bullock

Angelic voices?
Medieval music is one of the only areas of recorded music that I can think of in which women have played a leading role right from the start. When Ted Perry engaged Emma Kirkby and Christopher Page to record A feather on the breath ofGod way back in 1980, he almost certainly had no idea that this disc would start a revolution. Its fresh presentation and its very particular sound and atmosphere made it an immediate hit, thus helping Perry's young record company, Hyperion, along the way to success. But Hildegard's music was up there in the vanguard, along with Kirkby, a female double-act that has helped women to hold their own in the earry-music field ever since. The irony that women are now praised for their performance of music that their medieval forebears would never have got near is obvious, but their achievement is, I would say, at least as high as men's in the current performance profile of this music Anonymous 4 is a case in point. When they appeared on the recording scene ten years ago, many were enamoured of their smooth sound and dassy production values, and also, of course, because they were an all-female group EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 309

recording a repertory that had hitherto been performed principally by male or mixed groups. Now, I wonder if their star is on the wane a little; in their 16 or so years together their approach to the music that they sing has hardly moved on, and, though this clearly provides continuityit is, after all, what their audience is looking for I'm not sure it does the music any service. Their current disc, La bele Marie (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907312, rec 2001), is a collection of 13th-century French conductus and songs to the Virgin, all beautifully packaged and presented (with an acoustic that I couldn't help thinking might be artificially enhanced). It is smooth, easy-listening material with a lightweight programme note (There are those who hear in such extravagant praises of the Virgin ... distant echoes of an intense prehistoric culture of goddess worship ...'). But the music is stunning. Many of the conductus stand out, especially the extraordinary Mundum renovavitwhatever you think of the accidentals in the transcription, this rendition sounds amazingand Mater patris etfilia, with its wonderful part-crossing and hocketing. Mundum renovavit is not the only piece to include some rather odd accidentals; the trouvere contrafactum De la tres douce Marie has a lot more B naturals than one might expect from a melody that moves primarily between F and C, and there are a few other strange decisions here and there. These are all the more surprising as, above all, this disc sets out not to shock. Perotin and Philippe the Chancellor's Beata viscera is cut to exclude the antiSemitic verse (this single-voice conductus is unaccountably performed in free rhythm), and the general atmosphere is one of calm and unobtrusive music-making. One aspect of this recording that I would recommend is its presentation of trouvere songs, which are always worth listening to; they form a massive repertory that is too often overlooked in favour of more aurally exciting material. There are four here, all contrafacta from the Clairambault Manuscript. Otherwise, though, 1 got rather bored with the disc; it is medieval music-lite, a recording that might be described as 'nice*. 'Nice' is an adjective mat I would also apply to the group Zorgina's disc Triplidte' (1350-1450) (Raum Klang RK9905, rec 1999), a collection of three-voice songs from France, Germany, Italy and England. (The actual datespan of the music falls slightly outside the neat century given in the title.) Zorgjna, a group of three women wim a rather good pedigree of training and performance, have chosen some of the most beautiful three-voice music from this period, from Landini's ballata A W s'andra lo spirto at the early end, through Caserta's Notes pour moy to
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Bedyngham's O rosa hello, as well as some of the most intriguing (Machaut and Oswald von Wolkenstein). One of the disc's virtues is to show the amount of variety and change in European music over the course of barely a century; even the most untutored ear could hear the differences. However, even given that variety, the group's approach to the music is somewhat inconsistent. Two things in particular struck me: the first is their changing approach to testing (or otherwise) the untexted parts of a song. In most of the pieces the parts are fully texted; only in one or two songs do the lower voices vocalise. For instance, the aforementioned Landini ballata is fully texted (not entirely successfully, I would argue), but as the group decided not to try in Caserta's ballade I was left to ponder why. The other problem that I had with the disc is that, although the quality of the singing is beyond reproach, much of the music is taken at such a slow speed that it loses all rhythmic impetus. I come back again to Caserta's Notes pour moy, which is so slow that it practically falls over, at this speed it rapidly induces boredom. The same can be said for Machaut's rondeau Puis qu'en oubli, taken so slowly as to prevent them getting through what ought to be very manageable phrases in a single breath. Quite a few of these wonderful songs really lose their life in the hands of Zorgina, though some fare better. (Machaut's Une vipere en cuer, for example, is taken at a fine pace.) The composer who comes off best is Bedyngham, whose Gentil madonna and O rosa bella are exquisitely sung. And it's so interesting to hear the Oswald songs; he was such a strange character that any light shed on the music is welcome. My star piece on the recording, though, is the beautiful song Mon cure n'averoye (or Mon cur en averoye), from the Douce Manuscript (retexted, rather bizarrely, with Jc voi tres bien qu'endurer from the Cyprus Manuscript). Two qualities link these two discs: the lovely singing they contain and the eventual tedium of listening to them. I asked myself why I was bored. The answer: these two groups are not doing anything new with the music, just performing it beautifully. I have come to expect medieval music to sound bright and sparkling new every time I hear it (surely not an unfair expectation), and cannot but imagine the wonder of the musicians of the period as they performed ever-new permutations of musical language. So I crave performances that bring this sense of wonder and pioneering spirit to the fore. For me, these two recordings fail to do so. So now, as they say, for something rather different Two very experienced performers, Patrizia Bovi and Gilberte

Casabianca, bring their considerable musical imaginations to bear on the Italian repertory of the 14th and 15th centuries in Tracce della tradiziona orale i manoscritte italiani del XTV, XV sec (Opus 111, OP 30333, Tec 2001). Both singers have formidable pedigrees: Bovi was a co-founder of Micrologus, studied at Certaldo with Gallo, Ziino, Pirrotta et aL, and has worked with Dinko Fabris; Casabianca is a specialist of Corsican music, and has worked with Marcel Peres, among others. They aim to show how the art music of the period corresponds to oral musical traditions. Their thesisthat 15th-century references suggest that traditional performing styles had permeated art musicis hardly contestable. It is certainly true that many Italian composers in the 15th century wrote much simpler music than their counterparts in France and Flanders, and it was Pirrotta's own suggestion that they may have been consciously imitating traditional music. References to siciliane and the like reinforce the thesis that it was at least fashionable to ape traditional styles. Bovi and Casabianca go about attempting to reconstruct how such performances might have sounded. The recording is absolutely arresting right from the start The singing, guttural and forced, is fascinating and electrifying, and though I was momentarily put out by the almost immediate appearance of a tambourine, this is used sparingly and effectively. The duo has two ways of bringing out the music's 'traditional' sideeither by performing it in the manner of a dance, as in the first track, Andrea Stefani's ballata F send matutino, or by performing a song in 'free rhythm', as in track 3, the 'siciliana' Dolce lo mio drudo from the Reina Codex. The art-songs on the disc (which also include Masi's ballata Non so qual'i mi voglia, on Boccaccio's text, Magister Piero's caccia Cavakando con un giovine accorto, and several laude) are interspersed with songs from the traditional repertory, from Corsica to Umbria, fantastically performed. When performed like this, the heavily ornamented artsongs sound intriguingly like the (heavily ornamented) traditional songs; but whether art-songs would actually have been sung in this way in the learned environments of the houses and courts of Renaissance Italy is quite another question. Perhaps the main problem, though, is that much of the music on the disc dates from before the 15th centurymusic by Landini, Piero, Masi, works from the Rossi Codex and the earlier sections of the Panciatichi and Reina manuscripts all pre-date the supposed backlash against the music of the North, and in that case the singers are on delicate ground. The music heard here could equally argue for influence working in the opposite direc-

tion: one of the two settings of the Stabat mater on this disc, from Corsica, sounds very formal in origin. I cannot but imagine that such influence could have worked both ways. Nonetheless, however one views the central question posed by the recording, it is one that I shall return to. Back to a rather more conventional take on music of the 13th and 14th centuries, with Trio Medieval's Words of the angel (ECM New Series 461782-2, ret 1999), a disc that mixes the Ordinary movements of the Tournai Mass with a variety of English polyphony and Italian laude, and a new work by Ivan Moody thrown in for luck. It's a strange mixture, but there is a nice contrast between the French Massodd movements thrown together for convenience and preserved as a single entityand the English works that were parts of once large collections, now preserved only in fragments. Like the Anonymous 4 disc, this is a collection of Marian music, sung by unaccompanied women's voices, one to a part, but two more different recordings you could hardly dream of finding. Trio Medieval have made their reputation on their lively renditions of medieval music; the sheer agility of their singing technique means that they can perform this music much more flexibly than almost anybody that I can think of, an ability awesomely shown off on this disc They move with grace and ease between the mesmerising Salve mater misericordie and a speedy rendition of the Tournai Kyrie and Gloria (the hockets in the wonderful Amen of the Gloriaflyby). The monophonic laude punctuate this feast of polyphony, some of which is quite strange; I marked out Benedicta es celorum for particular attention, with its odd tonality and extraordinary pitch range much easier for men to sing than for women! Trio Medieval feel this music very well, a knowledge that I imagine comes from many hours of rehearsalthough I am puzzled by a very odd mistake in the Credo, where they quite dearly sing 'fatcorem [sic] celi et terre'. (Is this a CD production mistake or do they not understand the Latin, I asked myself?) But the technique dazzles again, in works such as De spineto nata rosa, in which the way the singers move together is breathtaking. Ivan Moody's piece Words of the angel, effective in a Taveneresque sort of way, sits rather incongruously between a beautifully simple rendition of the lauda, Oi me lasso and the final piece on the disc, the Tournai Ite missa est motet With singing such as this, medieval music performance can be taken into the 21st centuryno frills, no fancy scholarship, but a knowledge of the notes that would almost certainly have been alien to all those men back in the Middle Ages, and an attitude that allows the music to be heard afresh.
EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 3H

'Reports
Paul Corneilson
way of piano-playing, as the highest degree of the composer's art was combined with perfection of playing. (Life of Mozart, trans. Helen Mautner (London, 1956), p.36) Levin brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the subject, and is one of the few people in the world who has so much of the keyboard repertory in his head and fingers. He was at his most passionate in demonstrating the 'terror that anticipates the tales of Poe' in K310, a sonata probably Mozart wrote in response to the death of his mother and the utter abandonment he felt in Paris. Speaking on Friday afternoon, Levin set the stage for many of the other themes of the conference. There were sessions on aspects of composition, genres, performance practice, keyboard instruments and cultural history. Topics ranged from traditional formal analyses to more trendy critical theory, representing a variety of approaches. Papers by Craig Harwood, Adena Portowitz and Les Black relied heavily on Jan LaRue's method of style analysis. There is certainly value in style analysis, first developed as a convenient way for researchers to keep track of statistical data in a compact format But do we really want to reduce Mozart's inventive and beautiful ideas to letters and Roman numerals? Handouts with musical examples and other illustration seem to be as ubiquitous as ever, but some were not very helpful. Especially regrettable were ones in which the musical readings were either incomplete or inaccurate. Better to rely on slides or transparencies than to reproduce sloppy or hastily assembled handouts. Several speakers referred to 'Sturm und Drang' passages in music; but unless this phrase is defined, it is too vague to be of much use. We are perhaps too hasty to accuse Mozart of 'subverting convention' or creating 'formal ambiguities.' There was no textbook definition of 'sonata form' until after Mozart's death, though composers did exploit certain conventions and strategies. Mozart was writing more for the Kcnner than the Liebhaber, and what we find problematic is not likely to have bothered him or his audience. We should remember Haydn's famous comments about Mozart (a quote cited by Levin): 'He has taste and possesses a thorough knowledge of the art of composition.' (Niemetschek, Life of Mozart, p.6o.) Two other papers, by Jen-yen Chen (on K284) and W. Dean Sutdiffe (on the Variations, K180 and K455), were more

Mozart in Ithaca
Mozart Society of America, Biennial Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 27-30 March 2003 No matter what your politics, you have to admit that a conference on 'Mozart and the keyboard culture of his time' in the week following the outbreak of war in Iraq does not seem the most timeb/ topic But the Mozart Society of America had been planning their second biennial conference well before any talk of military conflict As Kathryn Shanks Libin, the chair of the programme committee, so eloquently pointed out, perhaps there is no better time to contemplate the music of Mozart and his vision of enlightened humanity. Indeed, some of us wish that Messrs Bush and Blair had been forced to spend several evenings watching Die Entftihrung aus dem Serail in the company of Saddam Hussein, until they 'got it.' (Of course, Emperor Joseph II didn't 'get it' either, and waged a war on the Ottoman Empire in the late 1780s.) Despite heightened security, scholars came from Austria, Israel, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The conference began with a concert on Thursday evening and ended, appropriately enough, with a Salzburg Mass for Peace on Sunday afternoon. The participants who attended the papers and performances left with a greater appreciation for therichand complex culture of Mozart's day. Robert D. Levin, the keynote speaker, gave a prestissimo survey of Mozart's intimate involvement with the keyboard. He emphasized that in his day Mozart was admired first and foremost for his improvising, and secondarily as a performer and composerthe opposite view of Mozart today. Levin cited a passage from Franz Niemetschek, Mozart's first biographer (1798), describing a concert that Mozart gave in Prague: We did not, in fact, know what to admire most, whether the extraordinary compositions or his extraordinary playing; together they made such an overwhelming impression on us that we felt we had been bewitched. When Mozart had finished the concert he continued improvising for half-anhour. We were beside ourselves with joy and gave vent to our overwrought feelings in enthusiastic applause. In reality his improvisations exceeded anything that can be imagined in the
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successful in discussing the works in their historical context Some of Mozart's terminology (and that of his contemporaries) has often been modernized by successive generations; Wiebke ThormShlen offered a good example, the 'Klavier Sonate mit Begleitung einer Violine', K526. We refer to this work as a Violin Sonata or Sonata for Violin and Piano, but the original title suggests a different relationship, a Piano Sonata with Violin Accompaniment The speaker never quite addressed the central question. Is K526 a violin sonata, or did Mozart only write keyboard sonatas with obbligato violin? As Wendy AUanbrook demonstrated in her analysis of K332, the realm of musical topoi can illuminate the content and meaning of Mozart's keyboard sonatas and concertos. Nicholas Mathew offered a slightly different reading of K332, based on Adorno's ideas about Classical music as commodity. But this paper told us more about 20thcentury reception and ideology than it did about Mozart's time. Mathew did not attempt to answer the basic question: how well did K332 'sell' in 18th-century Vienna? Another potentially promising area of exploration (or speculation, depending on your point of view) is musical portraiture. Mozart wrote arias for specific singers to suit the range and abilities of individual voices. But it seems likely that Mozart was interested in expressing the character of some of his pupils in keyboard music as well. For instance, he claimed the Andante of K309 depicts Christian Cannabich's daughter Rosa, 'exactly how she is' ('wie das andante, so ist sie'). Along these lines, Ulrich Leisinger suggested that the Andante cantabile of K310 was a musical portrait of, or more likely a memorial to, his mother. Several papers, including those by Gregory Butler, Maria Rose and Michael Lorenz, dealt with documents and texts. Butler focused on two revised measures in the Andante of K37 (a movement that he has argued convincingly to be an original composition by the young Mozart). Rose recounted the competition between David Hermann and Daniel Steibelt in Paris, which resulted in a composite sonata entitled 'La Coquette' dedicated to Marie Antoinette; both composers later revised their movements (an Allegro and a Rondeau) for English pianos in the 1790s. Lorenz was the only speaker who took advantage of digital technology to present a number of documents relating to two of Mozart's pupils, Barbara Ployer and Josepha Auemhammer, and the site of one of his last concerts. (Auernhammer's six variations on 'Der Vogelfanger bin ich ja' is a charming and attractive piece.) Cultural studies were represented by Thomas Irvine,

who argued that the Fantasy in C minor, R475> might have been written as a defence of Masonic ideals in the wake of Joseph n's decree limiting their activities. Caryl Clark and Richard Leppert looked at cultural and iconographical evidence to address aesthetic issues. The former compared passagework in K521 and K497 to the cello obbligato in Zerlina's aria 'Batti, batti'; but rather than a 'gesture of quotation', Mozart probably wrote this virtuoso display piece for the cellist in Prague. The latter employed a broader range of images and literature, from Brueghel's allegory of the five senses to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. The most striking, perhaps, was an anonymous English sketch depicting a 'live' performance. Surprisingly, no one used Mozart's critiques of other keyboard players; such references are sprinkled throughout his letters. Sabine Klaus gave a summary of the square piano in South Germany at the time of Mozart Richard Maunder likened the technical improvements made to keyboard instruments between 1780 and 1800 to the rapid developments made in personal computers between 1980 and 2000. I thought he would draw the conclusion that it is impossible to recreate an 'authentic' Mozart sound (even fortepianos built by the same makers had significant differences, and it is often difficult to tell when or who made alterations to instruments; Mozart's own fortepiano is a prime example of this problem). Surely, no one would argue that Brahms's keyboard music should be played on a harpsichord, but Mozart's sonatas can be played on a modern grand piano. Nevertheless, it is good to listen to instruments closely related to the ones Mozart might have played. We do not know exactly what Mozart's own pedal clavier was like, but the attendees got to hear three different varieties at the Johnson Art Museum on Saturday afternoon. David Yearsley played two of the instruments, and gave a sensational performance of the Fantasy in F minor, K608, on a fortepiano pedal reconstructed by Maunder, based on Leopold's descriptions of the one Wolfgang had in Vienna. Mozart, of course, was an organist (a fart we often forget), and the pedal clavier opens up a realm of options for his solo keyboard music and concertos. The Museum also had on display period keyboard instruments from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, two sets of musical glasses (armonica) from the Corning Museum of Glass, and a flute dock (German 'Fldtenuhr') from the F and L Collection in Harrison, New York. Finally, there were three concerts specifically related to some of the themes. The first, entitled 'Arrangements of EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 t

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Mozart's music to and from the keyboard', was a nice concept, but the execution was rather informal, as though the audience was sitting in on a dress rehearsal The second featured David Breitman (fortepiano) and Brian Brooks (violin) playing Schuster's Divertimento da camera, followed by Mozart's K303 and K306, then Abel's Sonata in A major, op.5 no.5, paired with K526. There was a performance on Saturday night by Tafelmusik, featuring Malcolm Bilson as soloist in Mozart's Concerto in G Major, K453. After the intermission Bilson also played the Rondo, Neal Zaslaw, chair of local arrangements, deserves credit for organizing the informative and integrated exhibits and concerts that accompanied the paper sessions. The exhibit is accessible online via the Kroch Library at Cornell.* The conference was co-sponsored by the Department of Music and the Institute for German Cultural Studies at Cornell University. *http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/mozart/default.htm

Dinko Fabris

Festival Lodoviciano, Viadana

Even if today he is simply remembered as the 'inventor' of the basso continuo, Lodovico Viadana was one of the most important and charismatic figures of his time. Michael Praetorius refers to him in his Syntagma musicum (1619), paying him the unusual honour of abstracting him from the alphabetical list to which the other musicians are consigned. Lodovico's artistic accomplishment was completely forgotten soon after his death in 1627. However, a few years ago a festival was created at Viadana, a small town in the province of Lombardy, with the aim of bringing to light music by Lodovico and other important local musicians, such as Giacomo Moro and Orfeo Avosani. In 2001 the artistic direction of the Festival Lodoviciano was assigned to Giovanni Battista Columbro, a Baroque flute player and conductor from Cremona. Thanks to Columbro's commitment and competence in this repertory, the festival has begun to draw an impressive number of spectators while maintaining scholarly rigour. An ambitious programme includes many works that received their first performance since the 17th century. All this has caused a lively debate on the media about a so-called 'Viadana phenomenon'a successful experiment through which early music has become an event able to pull in 300 people per night to a very quiet little town by the River Po. The 2002 festival (which ran from the end of September to the beginning of October) had a spectacular opening. In the evening the Cappella Musicale Scaligera, a sackbut and cornett ensemble from Verona, performed under the porticoes of the town square a programme of branles and dances of the 15th and 16th centuries. This was followed by a concert in which the Ensemble Stirps Jesse played works from the Notre Dame School. The following week the solemn atmosphere of the opening was pleasantly contrasted by a concert of 'Tarantole, antidoti e follie'. This event allowed the audience to discover, through the popular form of the tarantella, the complicated relationships which during the 16th and 17th centuries connected the Salento area to the Spanish kingdom. The Ensemble Terra d'Otranto, directed by the violinist Doriano Longo, presented an extremely individual performance in which popular elements were skilfully combined with an historical perspective. This explosion of colours and of brilliant and fanciful sonorities was followed by the first modern

11-16 August 2003 Monday 11 August 2003 7.30pm The Chapel, Bishop Groisctestt College Angus Smith & Charles Daniels, tenors with Timothy Roberts, harpsichord Medieval and Renaissance musicforone and two tenors Tuesday ia August 1003 7.30pm The Chapel, Bishop Grosseteste College William CarteT, lute, theorbo and guitar Wednesday 13 August 2003 7.30pm The Chapel, Bishop Grossttestc College Safira - Arab and Jewish Music from medieval Spain Thursday 14 August 0003 7.30pm The Chapel, Bishop Grosseteste College Timothy Roberts, harpsichord 'Elegy for a Queen' In Memoriam Queen Elizabeth I Friday 15 August 2003 7.30pm Bishop Grosseteste College A Tudor picnic with the newly formed Lincoln Renaissance Band Saturday 16 August 2003 7.30pm St Nicholas Church, Newport, Lincoln Fretwork viol consort with Catherine King, soprano Tudor music for viols and voice Box OFFICE: Counterpoint Music, Lincoln 01522 560065
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performance of the Encomi musicali by Giacomo Moro. The concert was given in the Palatina Chapel, where the Servite friar's composition was placed alongside Torquato Tasso's poetry, read by the popular Italian actor Ugo Pagliai. The same programme was then given again in Mantua, Parma and Colorno, and it will soon be issued on CD. The second week was, in a way, the heart of the festival. In the following days the Hungarian virtuoso Mikl6s Spinyi made his Italian dbut in a concert of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and the Ensemble Dulcinea performed Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's sonatas for five violins, op.15. There was also an exhibition of historical instruments and a musicological conference. The exhibition of musical instruments was staged at the Bedoli Gallery. There were string instruments from the Cremonese lutier Heyhgers Violin House, wind instruments from the workshops of Anciuti, Padua, and of Michele Losappio, Colle Val d'Elsa (Siena), as well as an organ by Giorgio Carli, Pescantina (Verona). The exhibition benefited from very clear and concise descriptions and useful illustrations, allowing visitors to understand the reality implied in the words 'original instruments'. The First Viadana International Conference devoted to 'Musical dedications and their dedicatees' was held; this event gathered together many Italian and foreign experts (Dinko Fabris, Donata Bertoldi, Corrado Vitale, Marco Faelli, Galliano Ciliberti, Marco Giuliani, Mariateresa Dellaborra and Marina Vaccarini, Metoda Kokole, Robert Lindell). The introductory paper by Annamaria Marcocchi dealt with encomiastic poetry in ancient Greece, which gave a solid literary foundation to a theme that endured through many centuries of musical history. Among the most interesting contributions, it is worth noting Metoda Kokole's on Gabriello Puliti (1600-1635) and Robert Iindell's analysis of Filippo di Monte, both of which offered stimulating suggestions for further work on these two authors. The conference, which took place in a very quiet atmosphere, was a great success; another one will be held during the next festival, and will be dedicated to music in Lombardy. The proceedings will be printed, thus inaugurating the publishing activities of the festival. Later concerts included 'Cantar alia Pavana', a programme dedicated to the poet Angelo Beolco of Padua, whose byname was 'il Ruzante* (2002 was the quatercentenary of his birth), conceived and performed by Consort Veneto with the participation of two dancers of the company II Ballarino. The concert 'Per la voce e per la tromba",

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consisting of a series of arias from the operas of Porpora and Handel, alternating with three Sinfonie di concerto grosso by Alessandro Scarlatti, was performed by the countertenor Angelo Manzotti and the trumpet players Gabriele Cassone and Luca Marzana, with the new Orchestra Barocca di Cremona directed by Giovanni Battista Columbro. The festival ended with two masterpieces of Italian sacred music: the Collegium Farnesianum of Parma presented the Rappresentaziont di Anima, et di Corpo by Emilio de' Cavalieri, and the Ensemble Cantemus directed by Luigi Marzola sang the Stabat mater for ten voices by Domenico Scarlatti, together with eight motets by Francesco Cavalli. The festival emerged as one of the most prestigious events dedicated to early music in Northern Italy. Next year's programme promises the first performance of an unpublished oratorio by Nicola Porpora, the Salmi for five voices by Berardo Marchesi of Viadana, an opera by Francesca Caccini, and an important exhibition dedicated to the 18th century. Translated by Giovanni Tasso

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Correspondence
Tempos on the Bute mechanical organ
Beverly Jerold certainly is not wrong in saying that the barrels of the Earl of Bute machine organ leave room for interpretations ('A re-examination of tempos assigned to the Earl of Bute's machine organ', EM, xxx/4 (Nov 2002), pp.584-91). But I think that, as far as historical performance practice is concerned, most of her objections against the tempos as reconstructed by William Malloch ("The Earl of Bute's machine organ: a touchstone of taste', EM, xi (1983), pp.172-183) are unfounded. She compares tempos of the Bute organ to those of another barrel organ, built presumably by Henry Holland in the late 18th century, as they were reconstructed by David Fuller, and states that 'Fuller's figures are the more plausible' (p.587). These 'Holland' tempos are, however, doubtful in three different ways. First, this organ is provided with a hand crank; it is open to doubt whether The range of comfortable tempos' was 'relatively narrow' (p.587, following Fuller) when the over-200-year-old instrument was new. Second, the builder is 'almost certainly* a Nottinghamshire travelling showman (Fuller, p.v). Beyond doubt, then, he is a more insecure guarantor for Handel's practice than one of the two John Christopher Smiths, whichever was responsible for the Bute barrels. Third, the Bute barrels date from the 1760s, and the Holland organ dates from the 1790s (Fuller, Malloch dates it c.17901809). And we know that Handel's music was played ever more slowly after his death, until it reached its lowest point in the 1780s. While Handel himself conducted 'Messiah' on 1 May 1753 in two hours (as an anonymous correspondent is telling us in Jacob Adlung's Anleitung zur musikalischen Gelahrtheit of 1758, p.95), probably including an organ concerto, the tempos virtually halved in the 1780s, as is shown by known performance durations of 4 hours. In 1763, when most of the Bute organ barrels were made, the retardation would have been already, theoretically, only two or three metronome degrees. The organ concerto op.5 no.4 serves Jerold as an example for the comparison of Holland's and Smith's tempos. Let us take a short look at the four movements. The beginning Larghetto is in 3/4, and its main motion is in crotchets (leaving aside the ornamentation provided by the Holland organ). J. C. Smith's J = MM 75 is near to Johann Joachim Quantz's MM 80 for his so-called 'Adagio cantabile' of this kind of measure, while Holland's presumed MM c.63 is considerably slower. And Quantz, ef 316 EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 course, is also counting in improvised ornaments. The Allegro in Common time, with its principal tutti motion in quavers and semiquaver passages with the soli, shows with Holland's J = c.76 an extremely slow tempo, while Smith's MM 131 is not much faster than Quantz's 'gemiSigtes' (that is, 'moderate'!) Allegro of MM 120. The Alia siriliana is with J) = c.84approximately half as fast as Quantz's MM 160, while Smith's MM 135 comes much closer and is still slower. Finally, the Presto (Smith: 'Jig') in 12/8 has with Holland's MM c.84 (J) again about half Quantz's tempo, which is MM 160 for the Gigue as well as for the fast 12/8. With this background is also Smith's Tempo for 'Arm, arm ye brave' from Judas Maccabaeus with J = MM 132 in Common time (Allegro) not at all 'unnaturally rapid' (Jerold, p.589); it lies only two metronome degrees above Quantz's 'moderate allegro'! The very slow tempos of WUliam Crotch from the early 19th century, mentioned by Jerold to support her view, once more are just a witness for the extreme slowing down of Handel's tempos after his death. If we take an overview over Crotch's numerous tempo indications for works from different epochs, it is evident that his tempos have the tendency to be faster the younger the composer is. This shows Crotch's error, due to a belief of increasing progress, that in former times people would have played slower (a then common belief, and Jerold seems still sticking to it). Crotch's tempos for J. C. Bach and Haydn, for example, are fairly 'normal'. Jerold then points to two arias from Judas Maccabaeus again: 'Oh liberty" ( C Largo) has, following Malloch's reconstruction of the Bute organ tempos, J> = MM 71, and "Tis liberty' (C, Andante larghetto), J = MM 97. This apparent contradiction, however, is easily accounted for. The Largo's harmonic rhythm is mainly in quavers, and the voice declaims syllabically. The Andante larghetto, on the other hand, moves mainly in crotchets, and already the syllable 'li-' has a small melisma with four semiquavers and one quaver; a motive, characteristic of the whole piece. Quantz here would have written a barred C (called 'Allabreve* by him) and would have had J = 80 as basic tempo of 'Adagio cantabile'. 'Andante larghetto' may well be somewhat faster, so that Smith's MM 97 is plausible. Handel used the barred C, with a few exceptions, only for an earlier kind of 'Allabreve' with the whole note as beat, and crotchets as the fastest essential note values. Beverly Jerold finally announces a forthcoming text

Skill level in music performance diat 'will indicate that the remaining earh/ sources thought recommend extremely fast tempos have been misinterpreted' (p.591, n.19). This probably points to the hypothesis, stated for the first time by Erich Schwandt in 'L'Affilard on the French court dances' (Musical quarterly, be (1974), pp.389-400), that fast tempo indications of the 17th and 18th centuries would have to be halved. This hypothesis has since then been discussed and disproved in numerous debates in the Netherlands and German-speaking countries. If Jerold wants to restore it to the Anglo-Saxon world, she will do no favours to music and its composers, nor to musicology.
KLAUS MIEHLJNG Freiburg im Breisgau

Beverly Jerold replies:

With respect to Dr Miehling's first point, a peripheral matter should not obscure the central issue, which is that no organ barrels exist to substantiate William Malloch's tempo figures. They are purely suppositions, and hence inadmissible as fact in an academic discipline. I mentioned David Fuller's work with the Holland organ simply to demonstrate the difference between an existing barrel organ and Malloch's speculations. Perhaps Dr Fuller would like to respond to Dr Miehling's objections. Primary source material confirming the participation of either Smith in the Bute organ is still lacking; therefore, no claims can be made for a connection to Handel. Like many others, Dr Miehling believes that Johann loachim Quanta and his contemporaries in 1752 all had metronomes with which to obtain 'MM 80, MM 120', etc But a metronome suitable for general usage was not achieved until 1816; then it took most of a century before it was widely accepted among musicians. The 18th century knew only a few primitive time-measuring devices in the hands of their inventors. Quanta specifies that he had never seen one of these devices. This is why he had to use only one number80and compare it to the human pulsebeat. According to circumstances, this pulsebeat was to be applied to a minim, a crotchet, or a quaver, sometimes two pulsebeats were necessary per quaver. (See J. J. Quanta, On playing the flute, trans. E. R. Reilly (New York, 1975). pp-285ff. (xvii/vii/51).) Because musicians tended to play both fast and slow pieces at a middling rate of speed, Quanta needed a tool to teach them that an Adagio is not an Andante, etc Without metronomes, his pulsebeat figure of 80 could never have been implemented. The human pulse varies according to age and the activity being pur-

sued.. In the course of a day, it can shoot up to nearly twice its level at rest, making it totally unreliable for tempo. Quanta meant his pulsebeat in a figurative, not a literal sense. Why have those who have interpreted it literally not promoted the exceedingly slow tempos on the other end of his scale? Concerning the timings of Messiah performances in their entirety, these are untrustworthy unless one has precise knowledge about every aspect of the representation. Problems with singers and players often necessitated lastminute cuts and changes that would never occur today. Moreover, Handel constandy revised to meet changing circumstances. We need to know exactly which movements were used and in what version. Do we know how long was spent tuning and retiming these inadequate instruments many times? This can be an unbelievably time-consuming process. And how long were the intervals between movements and the intermissions? I have never seen an 18th-century source providing exact timings for all these elements in a large-scale work. The idea that William Crotch's pendulum tempos were 'very slow' is a widespread myth today. His faster tempos are often comparable to a modern mainstream tempo. In 1998 Wolfgang Auhagen found some of his tempos to be slower than modem recordings, but others to be similar or faster. (See W. Auhagen, 'William Crotch's Tempoangaben zu Kompositionen des 18. Jahrhunderts', Tempo, Rhythmik, Metrik, Artikulation ... Michaelsteiner Konferenzberichte 53, ed. G. Fleischhauer et at (Blankenburg, 1998), pp.44-53-) Has anyone considered the effect on tempo of the primitive mechanisms in 18th-century instruments? Do our players know that their 'early' instruments have the great advantage of a completely modern mechanism? Despite continual efforts by early builders to improve instruments, it was quite late in the 19th century before mechanisms, as well as intonation, approached modern standards. We have never had to experience the frustration of playing in an ensemble where some or many of the instruments cannot be played in tune. Faulty intonation and mechanism both impacted on precision and tempo. (These and other issues affecting tempo are treated in my forthcoming Skill level in music performance booksone each for die 18th and 19th centuries.) Lastly, I assure Dr Miehling that the material in my French music interpretation book disproving modem conclusions for excessively fast tempos in French music is unrelated to Erich Schwandt's work, but is based on new information in primary sources. EARLY MUSIC MAY 2 0 0 3 317

Bach's singers How many singers should be used for a Bach cantata? Starting with Arnold Schering in 1920, the answer was 12 singers: four soloists or concertists, to be joined by eight ripienists (two to a part) for the choruses and chorales. Schering asserted that there should be this number of singers even though less than 10 per cent of Bach's vocal works contain extra copies of parts for ripienists, or even indications in the score or soloist parts of where ripienists might sing. In 1981 Joshua Rifldn, considering the lack of ripienist parts to be significant, advanced the bold hypothesis that four singers total were sufficient to sing a Bach vocal work, unless Bach indicated otherwise. Further evidence presented by Rifkin and others (e.g. Andrew Parrot, The essential Bach choir (Rochester, NY, 2000)) in favour of a four-person Bach chorus include the great similarity in the style of Bach's solo and chorus parts, the question of whether Bach would always have been able to muster such forces in the face of chronic lack of resources for vocalists and instrumentalists, and the fact that, since the human ear perceives loudness on a logarithmic (decibel) scale, doubling or tripling the number of singers typically only increases the perceived loudness by about 20-40 per cent. A number of noted and eminent scholars have argued against Rifkin's hypothesis. Here I point out that considerations of fault tolerance and economy of resource use show that most certainly Bach's vocal pieces typically were written for only four singers. Besides the music itself from a given Bach vocal piece, we know something else: that the piece was performed. When writing a piece half a week, a week or even longer before the piece was to be performed, Bach could not know for sure (if only because of the possibility of illness) exactly how many singers there would be for the performance. But, nevertheless, Bach had to write the piece in such a way that he could be certain it could be performed successfully. Let us say that indeed there were supposed to be 12 singers for a given Bach cantata, but only 11 were available at the time of performance. What should happen now with the other odd three ripienists? There are two possibilities: (1) Use 11 singers. But this would mean that (a) two singers on a part are sufficient after all to give a good performance of the piece, (b) two singers on a part are sufficient to perform in proper balance not only with respect to the orchestra, but to three singers on other parts. That is, the third singer is not important or necessary. Or (2) perform with only eight singers. Again, this would mean that only two singers to a part can suffice, and also that the services of three musicians who could have been

used as singers or instrumentalists at other churches in Leipzig are wasted. Indeed we see, that either way, unless it could somehow have always been guaranteed that there would be 12 singers available, that no more than two singers to a part are really necessary. Continuing the argument, we find that only four singers total are necessary. Considerations of parsimony efficiency and fault tolerance show that four singers total suffice for a Bach cantata.
ERIC ALTSCHULER

Brain and Perception Laboratory University of California, San Diego

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G. F. Handel The Complete Sonatas for Recorder and Be

Complete Sonatas for Violoncello and Basso continuo RV 39-47 Edited bv Be^tiitaJteffarianW^-F-r. Score with figured bass realization, violoncello part and figured contiart v 6A 699&-_r.-;_r.^i cf Vivaldi's \ for vinlnrpHn~anH rnntifihn m a single edition perforrriance [Surposes -*-" Detailed preface on sources and performance practice (Ger/Eng) Wi^h new findings that t & considerably differ from.earjig y

Edited by Terence Best -Concerto in G major TWV 51:G9 Sonata in for Viola, Strings and Ba>so,-'?? 1 > Sonata in aaotinuo - -1 -}-- -. ^SonataJ'n Sonata in Sonata in Edited by Wolfgang Hirschmann Sonata jn G minor HWV 360 A minor HWV 3 6 2 3 G majeLHWV-365 -V-'J F major HWV 369 E-flat major HWV 377 D minor'HWV 367% :

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Piano KpJpction with part" ^"15.

BA 5878 Score 16.90 Violin l) Violin II, Viola, ] Basso tfigflradj.._U ._ieacb-fiii3.5O This edition replaces the previously available piano reduction (BA 3712) and score and orchestral material

BA 4i^9f SCoj:e with parts* ^ 2 4 . 9 0

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G. F. Handel The Complete Sonatas for Oboe and Be

Edited by Terence Best

1 fonata inB-flat^majar HWV 357

Son-ata-trrC minor HWV 366 Sonata in F major HWV 363a with parts 14.90

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EARLY MUSIC

MAY 2003