TubeNet

Baroque Tips

Get a second job!

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I beleive there was a good article about this in the T.U.B.A ... sorry, the ITEA Journal in the last few years.

Placement of grace notes is also a consideration. However, I think there is a good argument that since you are playing the music on an instrument that is definitely not a period instrument that you don't have to interpret the music in a period style

Listen to as many performances on instruments that were available during the time period. Immerse yourself and I am sure you well just learn from listening!

Get one of the paperbacks specifically written on this subject;

Baroque Music, Style and Performance: A Handbook by Robert Donington

Performance Practice: A Bibliography by Mary Vinquist (Editor), Neal Zaslaw (Editor)

If you are playing a transcription, play it in front of someone who 1) plays the instrument it was originally written for and 2) knows something about baroque style on their given instrument. You won't learn anything about how to execute the piece on tuba (often times the biggest challenges when doing baroque stuff in my non-circular breathing experience), but you will learn what the piece should sound like--the character, the embellishments, etc.

The recording idea is nice, but you don't get any feedback.

Kyle

Be aware that a great deal of baroque music is DANCING music.
If it says "Courante", "Allemande", Gigue" at the top (and quite a few more I can´t think of right now), it definitely WAS written to help people dance those particular styles.
Imagine GOOD dancers, and when they might bend their knees or dance on their toes as the music goes.
(as in professional foxtrott or waltz dancing).

Play accordingly.

Roger Bobo wrote in his blog about this a few days ago. Basically he illustrates Mark's comment: you're playing a modern instrument, and trying too hard to do it "right" might sound ridiculous. Also: tastes have changed over time. If we were to apply everything we read in the contemporary treatises we could very well chase the audience away.

Here are some basic guidelines you could try to apply, which I learned mostly with working with the Kuyken brothers (but there are many other schools of baroque playing). Most of these guidelines apply best to late baroque, e.g. Telemann, Bach & co. :

• - Don't play the notes as written, interpret them.
  There are loads of playing conventions and notational shortcuts which contemporary players took for granted but we completely forgot about. Especially rhythms can be notated very differently from how they were executed.
  
  - This is music from a time where INequality was the norm, a time of nobles and slaves. Musical philosophy followed that.
  Every bar had good beats and bad beats, every key and every instrument had good notes and bad notes. These were used and explored at the time. Use lots of difference in attack and dynamics to bring this out.
  
  - Play like a harpsichord, not an organ.
  Every single note should in principle have a definite attack, decay and small articulation pause. This pause is important! Long notes were normally played with a mezza di voce: <> Notes followed by a rest are given full value.
  
  - Slur = diminuendo
  i.e. treat slurred notes as if they were one note with an attack, decay and pause. If you see long slurs: get another edition or at least check several others since these are extremely rare. If it checks out play it like a long note: <>
  
  - Dots on a series of notes make them equal
  i.e. same dynamic and same articulation for all, and not necessarily short.
  
  - Trills are started mostly long and stressed on the dissonant note of the 2 (mostly the upper).
  In French treatises they even give half the value of the note to the starting note, e.g. a trill on a quarter note C is started with a stressed, eight note D.
  
  - If there's a trill on a note followed by a dot you don't trill the dotted value.
  
  - Grace notes come in two flavours: appoggiatura's, which have a strong harmonic function and are long and on the beat, and acciaccaturas, which are short passing notes or ornaments and come mostly on the beat. Notation is not always a reliable way of distinguishing them, so you'll have to get a few recordings of early music players to find out. (or spend a few weeks in the library )

There have been some great tips posted.

One thing to keep in mind is that Baroque composers expected the performer to add not only ornamentation, but also to embellish and augment the melodic lines, especially in the slow movements. Thus, composers didn't write down all the notes that should be played.

A great resource is from the Baroque composer G P Telemann, who wrote a series of 12 "Methodic Sonatas." There are two versions of the solo line: one is the customary version of the era with no ornamentation, etc. In the other version, Telemann has written out all the notes a good performer might play while interpreting the pieces. It was intended as a study aid. [Of course, a skilled Baroque performer would consider the written-out ornamented version just one of many possibilities for interpreting these sonatas.] Highly recommended.

Cheers,
Allen