Early music movement versus academic convention: manifestation of creativity MARIS VALK-FALK Estonian Academy of Music
Abstract Musical creativity is not merely a philosophical or sociological manifestation. The practising of early music brings forth the inherent antagonism between the academic educational and performance practices. In the academic custom creative endeavours are limited by dictates of the music as written down. At the same time, modern educational practices allow for creative impulses. The early music tradition involves notational symbols lend to a free interpretation (e.g. inégales, basso continuo, ornamentation). In this paper a stylistic aspect of 17 th - century French music for keyboard is examined _ unmeasured prelude, calling upon creativity as a pre-condition. Using the quantitative method of melodic activity, recorded performances by expert harpsichordists serve as means to compare creative interpretation with the dictates of the composers original score. The endings of this comparison between interpretation and the printed page could provide a model for use in performance education. Unmeasured prelude is a creativity model, where the improvisor has to keep in check elements chosen from two categories _ strong elements notated by composer (harmony and pitch), and created elements of free choice (rhythmic patterns and melodic ornaments). Selection should be fast at a certain point in the structure, and there is always more than one element to choose. The teaching of Early Music practices could be broadened in the areas of musical insight both in terms of techniques for improvisation and conventional know-how.
Unmeasured prelude as a creativity model An arpeggiated instrumental piece _ unmeasured prelude _ provisionally extemporized by ear, represents a unique style in relation to creativity in music history (after 16th-century improvisational diferencias (glosas) in Spain). It combines the rules of harmony and rhythmic freedom in live music. Having its origins in 17th-century French _ lute playing, the unmeasured prelude presumably developed in the process of tuning. Historians refer to the following sources: (1) pieces with set harmonic sequences and freely chosen rhythm created in about 1630, and (2) short pieces for gamba by Demachy, where he states that one can play the Préludes as one wishes, slowly or fast. As for the freedom of performance, it has been stated that [...] The rhythmic freedom remained to such an extent that the lutenists simply omitted any indication of rhythm in the tablature as being pointless, if not possible, to notate (Curtis 1970: X). I. Preludes were noted down in the tablature and composed in a musical form. Louis Couperin was one of the forearrangers of half-extemporized works for keyboard _ unmeasured prelude. Notation in whole notes in the lute tablature seems unfamiliar to contemporary performers. However, comparison of autograph sources by D Anglebert clarifies the principle, [...] Notation, consisting in the main of whole notes for harmonic tones and eighth notes for passing notes and motives, makes them somewhat easier to grasp at first sight than those of Louis Couperin (Gilbert 1975: VII). II. Neumann has marked the common use of the slurs, German and Italian violinists of the 17 th century in their written texts used legato [...] for not more than three or four notes at a time (Neumann 1993: 198). Couperin s long slurs are used to three different purposes in harpsichord playing. Firstly, to determine notes making up the phrase or grouping the sounds (it would be identified by the cognitive pitch streaming in a performer s perception (see Sundberg 1996: 176)). Secondly, to keep the key with the finger similarly to the piano arrangement (legato), and thirdly, to build up the stress system for dissonances produced by passing notes (appoggiaturas). III. Apparent polyphony represents a strong factor in the text of unmeasured prelude. The contour of melody reveals a bass-line, upon which harmonic sequences have been built, forming the stress system for arpeggiating and inégales in live music. Unmesured prelude serves as a valuable model of creativity offering an extreem case of freedom involved the tempo and rhythm. The lack of measure dictates in advance to improvise. Prescription of harmonic sequences lead to a manner of improvising. Arpeggiating of chords calls up the feeling of the charm of performance. Observation According to the Bauyn and the Parville MSS Louis Couperin has 14 unmeasured preludes, dating from 1653-1654. For the observation, 4 improvised versions of a single prelude (E minor from suite No. 11) have been used. Three of them were played by a graduated harpsychordist in the course of preparation of a programme for International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges 2001, and recorded on CD. The 4 th version performed by Bob van Asperen has been observed (War and Peace. CD LC 02674, Vox Humana, 1998). The performances lasted to 1 minute 15-28 seconds (2 of them 1 minute 15 seconds, 3 rd one 1 minute 22 seconds and 4 th one 1 minute 28 seconds). As the data, the duration of the whole piece as well as the duration of harmonic sequences has been provided. The author s original source contains 240 melody notes, 239 intervals formed by melody notes and 20 harmonic sequences consist in apparent polyphony. The average number of notes in a sequence is 12-21. For drawing parallels, the extemporized performances were noted down. The type of notation (fixed by Howard Ferguson 1975: 24-25) is evidently based on the comparison in music history of unmeasured
prelude and of the sample of style from the piece Tombeau de Blancrocher by Froberger. (His phrase from the piece was compared with the first passage from Louis Couperin s D minor Prélude by musicologists). In this sample, the exacting German indication is more similar to modern notation but, at the same time, requires the knowledge of the conventional sound notating, e.g. inégales, fermatas, ornamentation. Finally, average melodic activity (Knopoff & Hutchinson 1978) have been found (for the composer s original source 1.2, for the 1 st version 0.6, for the 2 nd version 0.6, for the 3 rd version 0.5, for the 4 th version 0.4). The melodic activity constitutes the relationship between an interval leap (decided by score) and duration (determined by rhythm interpreted). The similarity of average melodic activity of extemporized versions shows limited freedom in creating the interval structure (i.e. ornamentation). Differences between the composer s original score and extemporized versions show the main _ freedom of the created rhythm. Discussion I. As the pre-requisite of a creation is that each structure position involves a set of variants. Estonian writer Leo Metsar, for example, has described to the author of this paper the options he faces at any given moment in his creative processes: When the protagonist of his novel leaves the house, the author might decide in which direction the protagonist would go. The road on the left will lead to the bus-stop where the bus will take him to the city centre, as will the bus on the right road, but the routes will be different. The following structure positions involve new sets of variants. First, on the bus departing the left bus-stop he may run into an acquaintance who may take up a story that will affect the course of the novel. Second, the protagonist and his acquaintance will overlook one another and the protagonist will not find out about what he might have been told by the acquaintance, and so he will make independent decisions. Third, the protagonist s acquaintance needs not get on the same bus to city centre, hence the outcome will be the same _ the protagonist will move from change to change, using his own previous experiences etc. II. One can find a detailed description (by Sloboda 1994: 215-233) of skill acquisition process in teaching by Production System Theory, where foreseeably impossible changes will be excluded from the motivated choices (contrary to possibilities of equal probability). Foreseeably impossible changes on a structure position direct the movement from experience to experience to a path supported by experiences. III. According to the explosion theory in culture semiotics (Lotman 1992), the basic factor of musical improvisation seems to be the unforeseeable moment (explosion). It contains abundant opportunities for transition from one state into another. At each unforeseeable moment, for transition from one state into another, there is a choice of equally probable possibilities, and only one of them will be realized. Thereafter the moment of semantic differences will arise, which makes it possible to continue with creativity as a process, adding more and more nuances of semantic differences to the choice made. In music, different qualitative shades are selected from among aesthetic details, such as pitch relations, volume, agogics (sustaining or speeding the value noted down). New shades in semantic differences make, at first, the findings from among possibilities of equal probability contrary in the meaning, then the process will be regulated by an opposite development, the aim of which is to limit differentiation, turning cultural antonyms into synonyms (Lotman 1992: 141). IV. The fact explains the tendency of the unmeasured prelude observed to keep the improvisational changes in specific boundaries. Among them the strictest seem to be time limits: the duration of versions not once exceeds 1 minute 28 seconds (where notation is indicated by whole notes to vary the timing). The harmonic sequences seem to be limiting the structure in live performance. First, the tempo is limited by number of harmonic sequences. Second, the rhythm is limited by grouping of pitches in harmonic sequences. Third, the choice of melodic line is limited by creation of ornaments (according to the author s original source).
We should bear in mind that the performer is in command of an unlimited amount of ornament selection, which fills the audience with admiration and enjoyment. Contrary L. Couperin tends to avoid intervals of high melodic activity in prelude, such as phaseal ornament long trill, composite ornament port-de-voix, diatonic slide (later described by Francois Couperin (see Breitkopf & Härtel: 18-21)) etc., and suggests only two ornaments, three-note mordent from below and four-note trill from above. Thus L. Couperin seems to master brilliantly the realization of equally probable options. Therefore, unmeasured prelude s extemporizer should not be as much attracted to creating melodic patterns (ornaments), as to seeking rhythmic freedom of this style. The image of the harpsichord as an instrument with short vibration of strings, (peculiar to the age of the piano), will compensate by ornamentation. Spontaneous creativity and selection determined by experience should be balanced, where selected elements of two sets _ strong elements notated by composer, and created elements at your choice should be melted into a whole. As a consequence, the experience acquired in the improvisation of unmeasured prelude (in the stricter sense, it concerns the harpsichordist) expands to the concept of creativity in the broader sense. Although observed here does not add up to knowledge we already have about performance of the unmeasured prelude, it shows the difference between two perceptions, of author s original source and impovised versions. However, it leaves many interesting questions open. Firstly, why the rhythmic difference between the improvised versions is limited, why do the harmonic sequences limite the ornamentation. Interpretation of the model of melodic activity is badly in need of knowledge of harpsichord sound. Translated by Kersti Skiller.
Address for correspondence: MARIS VALK-FALK Estonian Academy of Music 16 Rävala 10134 Tallinn Estonian Republic E-mail <marisf@ema.edu.ee>
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