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12. Baroque Clichés
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76 Interpretation CHAPTER TWELVE Baroque Clichés The Classic Cadential Formula The literature of Baroque music contains certain melodic and rhythmic patterns whose occurrence is so frequent that they are considered to be clichés. I devote this chapter to revealing several of them, with correct and incorrect ways of interpreting them. Here is one of the most common: Correct Incorrect In this example the suspended C becomes a dissonance on the third quarter that then resolves on the B. It is therefore incorrect to make a diminuendo on that note, and certainly not a rest, which transforms the B into a pickup to the C. It is best to lift the bow slightly on the bar-line. Try fitting the words “I’m going home” to the melodic line: this phrase exemplifies the articulation appropriate to such a figure. Slurred Articulations When playing groups of slurred notes it is important to respect the Baroque and Classical convention according to which the slur infers a diminuendo. When two, three, or four notes are slurred there will always be a diminuendo. Thus: 77 Baroque Clichés Pairs of slurred, leaping sixteenth-notes are among the most common: The Hemiola This is a device that often occurs in movements in triple metre as a means of relaxing the tempo in preparation for the final cadence. Two bars of the basic metre are combined to produce one in which the basic unit is twice as long. Hence, for example, in a passepied, two bars of the 3 8 metre become one in 3 4. In a 12 8 it can be a substitute for half a measure, as in this excerpt from Telemann’s Die Kleine Kammermusik: In this instance Telemann has inserted the hemiolas as a delaying tactic—effectively two measures in 3 4—thus paving the way to a more melodically elaborate version of the cadence. Bach used it in this way in his E-major Preludio for solo violin: 78 Interpretation Because he has created the effect of a measure in 3 2, it is important that the downbeat of the second bar (the sixth measure of the example) not be accented, nor the F-sharp/B double-stop. An appropriate bowing, then, would be: Pulsations I use this word to describe the way of playing passages such as the following, which will be essentially similar to one another in terms of articulation depending on the contextual affect: Staccato dots under a slur in Baroque music do not have the same meaning as they might in Romantic violin music, and the appropriate technique (“portato”) does not involve dry, stopped bow strokes but, rather, constant motion of the arm while pressing and releasing the bow with the index finger to create the pulsations. Suspensions The suspension, whereby a note is tied over to the next subdivision of the bar, is a device with an important harmonic function, one much used by Baroque composers to heighten melodic tension. The following passage from a sonata attributed to Handel (op.1, no.10, of doubtful authenticity) contains several suspensions: Two examples of common errors in the interpretation of these ties follow: 79 Baroque Clichés These two versions are illustrations of what happens when the bow is drawn too quickly (the “violin-thing”). In such a situation, frequently found in adagios, the sixteenth -note to which the quarter is tied is harmonically stronger and must be sustained and played firmly against the bass note. The following interpretation, in which the tied notes grow dynamically toward the suspension, is stylistically normal: Syncopations One exception to the rule stated above is seen in fast movements when a chain of syncopated dissonances and resolutions occurs, as in this passage from a Telemann trio sonata for violin and viola da gamba: 80 Interpretation The syncope is an anticipation of a beat and, as such, the note should be treated as though it were actually on the beat. In passages such as this the long notes, both syncopes and those on the main beats, should be lightly accented and decayed in order to preserve the liveliness of the affect: Melodic Accents Besides syncopes, composers made frequent use of accents created by placing notes of shorter value on a beat followed by longer—a kind of written-out Schleiffer—as in this theme from Handel’s D-major Sonata: In order to project the energy of this gesture effectively, one must accent the first sixteenth-note and decay rapidly...