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Once more:
What is the 'French overture style'? As might be e
from its shadowy origins, we are not dealing with
defined entity, since every one of its advocates-P
the 'French
Fuller's 'new zealots'-introduces his own variations on the
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(4) when a dotted note is followed by a Nachschlag-type end of their time. Here the rhythmic alteration is intended,
ornament (such as a written-out suffix after a trill); but the unavoidable imprecisions are immaterial, because
(5) in certain cases of unmetrical notation; the resulting glissando-like flourish makes orchestral sense,
(6) in solos where the legitimate or arrogated licence of the whereas unsynchronized sharp attacks of single notes do not.
performer allows him to manipulate the rhythm with agogic If Quantz's authorization is in doubt, there remain no
accents, or lengthening and shortening of dots ;2
other unequivocal evidence in support of 'the style'.
(7) but not in the figures ~ let alone ( "fff which
are not to be contracted (as discussed in FN2). True, a generation after Quantz, when the French overture
had passed into history, another German, Johann A. P.
The alleged strong overdotting of 'the style' remains un- Schultz, writing in Sulzer's Encyclopedia of the Arts,5 does
supported by any piece of French evidence. The search for this mention lengthening of the dot in French overtures ('the
'missing link' has so far been unsuccessful3 and Fuller's dotted notes are held longer than their value'). I pointed out
citations of French primary and secondary sources all refer in FN3 that this wording merely allows the mild overdotting
to notes inegales. generated by notes inigales. Schultz's article on Punkt, punktirte
Note, offers further confirmation: 'generally, the dot extends
A few sentences in Quantz's famous treatise have so far
the value of a note by one half... however, there are cases
been the theoretical mainstay of the doctrine.4 Even Fuller where the proper execution calls for a somewhat longer
admits that C. P. E. Bach, the other chief authority, speaks
rendition (eine noch etwas lingere Geltung) as was
only of German galant, and not of French practices and he, previously pointed out in the article on the overture.' [italics
too, like Quantz in chap. 5, speaks of solo performance only. mine]
Here are Quantz's sentences:
This significant lack of corroborating evidence has so far
The French use this [2-]metre in various dances such as been ignored by adherents of 'the style'. Since 'the style'
postulates a drastic deviation from the established mathe-
bourr'es, entries, rigaudons, gavottes, rondeaus etc. ... In
matical values of rhythmic notation, the onus of proof of its
this metre as well as in the 3/4 metre of the loure, sarabande,
courante, and chaconne, the eighth-notes following the existence rests with its advocates. If the arguments for 'the
dotted quarter-notes must be played not with their literal style' are severely deficient, as I trust I have shown, and if I
value (nicht nach ihrer eigentlichen Geltung) but very short
can now show that the new counter-arguments also miss the
and sharp. The dotted note is emphasized and during the dotmark, then it is highly improbable that 'the style' ever
the bow is lifted. [FN's translation.]
existed, I am afraid that my opponents are fundamentally
arguing in a circle, by taking as demonstratum that which as
In FN3, I ventured the hypothesis that these sentences, demonstrandum is in need of solid proof.
which are generally believed to prescribe sharp overdotting
Some scholars, frustrated by the meagre pickings of
of quarter-notes in French dances and overtures (though its
theoretical sources, appeal to an alleged 'tradition', notably
application to the latter is not directly referred to), instead
the 19th-century English convention of strong overdotting of
may have implied sharp staccato articulation of the eighth-
the Messiah overture. This is a most slippery path to take. For
all we know, the 19th-century overdotting of this overture
note rather than its strongly delayed entrance: ' - not
may have started with somebody's idiosyncrasy. That 'some-
-7" (the
Since then Irest, in lieu
have found of the
further dot,for
support as this
Quantz prescribed).
hypothesis.
body' may have been William Crotch, whose early 19th-
Two paragraphs earlier than the quotation above, Quantz
century double-dotted organ arrangements, fully three
discusses the interaction of dancers and orchestra, and
generations after Handel, are cited by Donington as the
prescribes, for French dance music in general, a bowstroke earliest source of what he calls 'one of our best attested con-
that is heavy, yet short, sharp and more detached than
ventions of baroque interpretation'. Battishill's keyboard
connected. Here he also insists that the dotted notes must be
arrangements from the end of the 18th century, which
played heavily, the companion notes short and sharp (die
Professor Graham Pont has kindly brought to my attention,
punctirten Noten werden schwer, die darauf folgenden aber
display overdotting in erratic, arbitrary patterns. Simply,
sehr kurz und scharf gespielet). 'Heavy' rendition does not
they show that a soloist could and did take rhythmic
imply any lengthening, and 'short and sharp' without
freedoms. They cannot be used as evidence for an orchestral
indicating delayed entry, on the face of it suggests accentedconvention: there, if utter chaos is to be avoided, drastic
sharp articulation, a clipping of the note value at the end,deviations from the notated values are thinkable only on the
not at the start.
basis of total/ consistency.
A 'short and sharp' delivery would create critical ensemble Furthermbre, the Handelian 'tradition' is flatly contra-
problems unless done either on the beat or within andicted by an important manuscript in the British Library:
established lilt of notes inigales. Such ensemble problems doRM 18 c.l., entitled: Handel Miscellaneous. Though undated,
not arise for the next directive, that three or more 32nd- the manuscript was presumably written in, or shortly after,
notes after a dot or a rest (the scale-wise tirades mentioned by1729,6 and contains harpsichord reductions of seventeen
Fuller on p. 535), are to be played as fast as possible at theHandel overtures and selected opera pieces. Its adaptation to
40
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the harpsichord idiom, instance its written ornamentation, In FN1 I pointed out that Quantz's rule about the sho
shows the hand of an experienced professional performer, and sharpness of eighth-notes following dotted qu
whom one would certainly expect to have been conversant refers to a number of dances, but not to the overture
with a convention of overdotting so widely practised (we are questions the logic of calling this omission 'impor
led to believe) that nobody saw the need to mention it in any Whatever the degree of its importance, the omissi
textbook or anywhere else. However, the manuscript's pains- hardly inadvertent, as we may see from Quantz's re
takingly careful vertical alignment of rhythmical relation- (chap. 17, sec. 7,956-8) on the interaction of musi
ships invariably shows exact standard values for all dotted dance. Speaking of fast dances, he again refers to the
notes, no overdotting, no synchronization. The horizontal dis- for sharply articulated bowing--previously stipulat
position of the notes in proportion to their values reinforces general rule for French dance music-in order to sp
the evidence. The specimens (p. 43) are fairly representative dancers to leaps and at the same time convey musical
of the whole volume. I have marked certain details with dancers' actions to the public. These reflections on
numbers to facilitate comments on their significance. dancers' and the public's requirements provide fu
support for the argument that the notes following a do
A contemporary print by Walsh of Handel, XXIV Overtures
fitted for the Harpsichord or Spinet (London, n.d.), varies
to in
be executed in a clearly defined rhythm. We shoul
details of transcription from the above manuscript, forget
but that Quantz's rule about overdotting in cha
offers the same external evidence against overdotting. applies primarily to the solo flute, not to the orchest
Quantz specifies that groups of three or more 32nds not that to quarter-notes. (Similarly, C. P. E. Bach, L6hlein
follow dots or rests (the above-mentioned tirades) are to be cola, Rellstab, Tromlitz, Tfirk, also speak in this conn
played, tempo permitting, as late and as fast as possible. only of soloists, never of an orchestra.)
Fuller implies that Quantz must have meant this to apply to
Since overtures are not dances' there is no reason for
16th-notes as well, though he does not refer to them specific-
Quantz to mention them in a music-dance context, nor any
ally. My failure to acknowledge this allegedly obvious fact is
reason to apply to the overture what he says about the mus
branded as an argument from ignorance. It is very con-
for the dance. He discusses the overture in the next chapter
venient to adapt a source to fit one's opinion. If one cannot
18, ?42, along with other purely instrumental music. In th
always take an authority at face value, it is up to one to prove
an alternative reading. It so happens that in French overtures
context of the dance, the overture is mentioned only
incidentally, in connection with the flourishes of 32nd-not
the difference between a sequence of 32nds and one of 16ths
tirades which he says occur in overtures, entrtes, and furies. I
is not one of degree but of kind. The 32nds appear charac-
should be clear now that the previous failure to mention th
teristically in the tirade form, the 'scalewise flourishes' as
overture along with the dances was no oversight.
Fuller describes them. Only such figures (shown in ex. la)
can be contracted effectively for the glissando effect des- Fuller finds it 'quite disingenuous' on my part 'not to hav
cribed above. The 16ths, by contrast, are not only slower, but pointed out that elsewhere in his treatise Quantz says that th
appear in far more varied melodic designs that would overture demands a priichtig and gravitiitisch (splendid an
become unintelligible if played at extreme speed. One would weighty) opening and says that das Prdchtige is characterize
have to look long and hard to find the tirade of Example la by overdotting'. But Quantz's statement is not of one piece
written in 16th-notes (ex. lb) in French overtures. And what
(a) das Prdchtige und Gravititische of the overture do no
would be the musical result if-say, in Bach's C major directly apply to (b) the overdotting. The statement (b) occur
Overture, BWV 1066 (ex. lc)-each violinist and oboist tried not in connection with the start of the overture (chap. 18
to execute the 16th-notes as late and fast as possible? ?42), or music of a similar character, but in the chapter on
how to play the Allegro! There (chap. 12, ?24) Quantz say
Ex.1 a
that das Priichtige (and not das Gravitditische) is expressed either
by long notes under which another voice executes a fast
movement, or by dotted notes that are to be overdotted 'a
explained in chap. 5, ?21 and ?22'. This last reference is t
German and not to French practices, i.e. to the. soloist, not t
c Bach BWV 1066 the orchestra. After explicitly stipulating, in ?20, liter
1st vlns. and oboes rendition of dotted quarter-notes, Quantz prescribes over-
2nd vlns.
dotting only for dotted eighths and shorter values, 'because o
the liveliness which these notes are intended to. express
Fuller's reasoning is a classical 'fallacy of the undistributed
violas middle': (1) Overtures are prdchtig and gravitiitisch. (2) In the
Allegro, das Priichtige may be expressed for soloists by over-
dotted eighths and shorter notes. (3) Therefore the dotte
o nt.
cont.
quarter-notes in the gravitiitisch orchestral overtures have to
be overdotted.
41
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Fuller continues: 'Since Raison uses double dots, [Neu- notes where notes inigales would apply (as cited by Fuller) are
mann reasons that] Lully who does not, is to be played as simply further proof of the slightness of inegalite.'0 Similar
written. But Lully would only be played as written if there was examples are legion in French music of the 17th and 18th
not a convention ofoverdotting [Fuller's italics], i.e. if Neumann's centuries.
contributed to the emergence of the dogma, because refer- flabby and neurotic rather than energetic'. Here he disavows
Dolmetsch, Dart, Leonhardt, Donington (and his 'up to
ences to the quantity of dots in French music were mis-
interpreted as hints of their greater intensity. The prevalence
quadruple dotting'), along with many members of the
'nameless horde'.
of dotted rhythms became such a hallmark of the French
style that when Bach changed the theme from the Art of Fugue Fuller also offers interesting information in footnote 19
to dotted rhythms he spoke of it as 'stile francese' (with the about the first movement of Handel's Organ Concerto op. 4,
assistance of 32nd-note scale flourishes).9 Couperin's dotted no. 2, which opens in the dotted style of a French overture.
42
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--~ r
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43
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He finds this the only example known to him on an 18th- 'La note point& et la soi-disant "maniere frangaise" ', Revue de
Musicologie (1965), pp. 66-92; English tr. by R. Harris and E. Shay,
century barrel organ, to be not overdotted, though such a
'The dotted Note and the so-called French Style', EM 5/3 (July 1977)
rhythmic contraction would have posed no problems to the pp. 310-24 (FN1); 'The Question of Rhythm in the Two Versions of
pinner. Bach's French Overture, BWV 831', Studies in Renaissance and Baroque
Having thus in several crucial issues moved rather far from Music in Honor of Arthur Mendel (Kassel, 1974), pp. 183-95 (FN2);
'Facts and Fiction about Overdotting', Musical Quarterly (April 1977),
left to centre, Fuller does not disown 'the style'. He speaks of
pp. 155-85 (FN3); Michael Collins, 'A Reconsideration of French
a 'third convention of special cases' that form a group
Over-Dotting', Music dr Letters (Jan 1969), pp. 111-23.
'because they are occasionally mentioned by name as Z The overdotting survives, especially in Italian opera, to the present
candidates for overdotting'. They include marches, French day; in a recent performance of Otello, the singer of the title role
gigues and canaries, 'and of course the slow parts of French strongly overdotted the last a' on his first entrance, with fine effect:
overtures' [italics mine]. However, overdotting in French 'Dopo l'armi lo vince l'u-ragano'.
3 Regarding Collins's attempts to find the 'missing link' see FN2 & 3.
gigues and canaries, with their fast speeds and separate bow
4 J. J. Quantz, Versuch einer Anleitung die Flite traversiere zu spielen
strokes, is technically impractical. For these dances a 3:1 (and
(Berlin, 1752), chap. 17, sec. 7, ?58. The sharp overdotting rule of
occasionally even smaller) ratio gives by itself the effect of chap. 5, }21 for eighths and shorter note values applies to solo
extreme dotting and great bounciness (par saccades as Bacilly performance only.
put it). By including the French overture, Fuller simply S Johann Georg Sulzer, Algemrneine Theorie der schonen Kiinste (Leipzig,
continues orbiting in the master-circle: 'it existed, there- 1777), 2, s.v. Ouvertiire.
6 1729 is the date given by William Barclay Squire in his Catalogue of
fore .. .'12 The term 'of course' with its implied assuredness,
the King's Music Library (London, 1927). Mr O. W. Neighbour, present
actually covers up a good deal of insecurity on Fuller's part Music Librarian of the British Library, to whom I owe this infor-
for this very nucleus of'the style'. He admits that 'the case of mation, adds in a letter: 'Whether or not this date is a little too exact
the French overture is by far the most complex and difficult I think there can be no doubt that the manuscript dates from
to deal with). That, as one of several 'special cases', it is Handel's lifetime; it comes from the Aylesford Collection, and was
presented to the Royal Music Library by Barclay Squire in 1918'.
occasionally mentioned as a candidate for overdotting, is
Quantz indicates their different musical character by describing
saying very little. The 'occasional mention' may well be the start of an overture as 'splendid and solemn' ('prachtig und
limited to Schultz's mild overdotting of 17 77. The only other gravitatisch') whereas the dances range from 'seriousness' to gaiety
answer Fuller has about French overture performance is to and sprightliness.
be sought 'in the unanimous references to their splendour, 8 Couperin very cleverly compares the non-literal rendition of notes
energy and fire...' But who were the unanimous autho- in.gales to the unphonetic French pronunciation which, after all, is
not a matter of personal preference.
rities? Fuller does not say. Quantz, as cited above, mentions
9 Overdotting of the quarter-notes and synchronization of the
splendour and graveness; Schultz, seriousness and fire; eighth-notes with the 16th-notes in the diminution of the theme, as
Koch, still later, in 1793, seriousness and pathos; but suggested by Leonhardt, is musically self-contradictory since such
Mattheson in 17 13, when the French overture was at its procedure would obliterate the 2:1 ratio that is the essence of
diminution.
zenith, characterizes its first part as having 'a fresh, gay, and
also uplifting nature' (ein frisches, ermunterndes und auch o0 Etienne Loulie (1696) explained that where inequality is intended
to be sharper than the mild lourer of the notes ine'gales, one has to write
zugleich elevirtes Wesen),'3 a description that Walther, with a dot. (See FN3, p. 166.)
due credit, repeats verbatim in his Lexicon of 1732. In Der " Yet in another internal contradiction he approvingly cites
vollkommene Capellmeister of 1739 (p. 234), Mattheson later Collins's invocation of German galant theorists as witnesses for 'the
mentions only 'nobility' (Edelmuth) but refers his readers style' (see his Un. 7).
12 I wonder whether it occurred to Fuller that his above-cited
back to his explanation of 1713. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in
remark about the 'sheer perversity' of a notation that does not mean
his Dictionary of' 1768, speaks of the overture as 'a slow piece
what it says, would have to apply to 'the style' as well, unless not only
marked grave' (un morceau trainant appele grave). Whoever its existence is proved, but a definite ratio of overdotting established
else can be mustered, one thing is sure, there is no to prevent 'vigour' from turning into total confusion. Here we see
unanimity. Yet even if the statement about unanimity were the difference with a piece like the C minor Partita of Bach, which
Fuller mentions to illustrate the complexity of the issue. This Partita
true, it still would prove nothing, since splendour, energy
is a solo piece where no ensemble problems arise, and if the godt (not
and fire can be conveyed in many ways other than by strong any 'convention') suggests some moderate overdotting at its start,
overdotting. Thus another attempt to save the dogma falls why not? I myself would recommend it.
short of its aim.
13 Das Neu-Eriffnete Orchestre (Hamburg, 1713), pp. 170-1.
45
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