Bach's OrnamentsAuthor(s): Robert DoningtonSource: The Musical Times, Vol. 112, No. 1536 (Feb., 1971), pp. 130-131Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/956329 .Accessed: 31/05/2011 14:15

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example of the latter type is an extensive setting of O Lord, rebuke me not (Psalm 6) in which whole sections are repeated note for note with the same text, without any indication that different singers take over. Of similar magnitude is a setting of Deus misereatur nostri (Psalm 67) in which the compressed imitation is reminiscent of Tye's work.8 At the other end of the scale is a simple but beautiful setting of Voce mea (Psalm 142), characterized by short but poignant phrases.

The canticles receive varied treatment. There is another Benedictus, this time in a metrical antiphonal setting. The Benedicite includes the only example of

setting uses close imitation to impressive effect, and the first setting of the Nunc dimittis is notable for its variety of texture even within the confines of so short a piece. Later in the books there are pieces for eight voice-parts; among these is another Nunc dimittis and a second Te Deum.

Only a fraction of the music in the Lumley books can be mentioned in a brief survey such as this. It is evident from the varied forms and styles which this manuscript has to offer that it has perhaps been underestimated as a source ot7 post-Reformation liturgical music.

This month's Music Supplement, Tallis's 'Benedictus' (believed to be previously unpublished) for three men's voices, has been edited by Judith Blezzard from the Lumley part-books in the British Museum.

coloration found in this source. The Magnificat s Since writing this article I am indebted to Dr. Anthony Langford for pointing out a concordance ascribed to Tye in BM Add Ms 30480-4.

Letters to the Editor

BEETHOVEN'S PITCH Alan Tyson had better provide himself with a suitably flattened piano and a strong-minded orch- estra, and try to reconstruct the events of 1795 (Dec MT, p.1197). If a performance of the C major concerto is to take place, he will find that, first, he will have to play the orchestra a B flat (on the key- board), instead of an A, to tune to, and secondly, he will then have to play the solo part in C sharp (on the keyboard). Wegeler's statement is perfectly clear and no doubt accurate; any confusion is entirely Mr Tyson's.

Cheltenham G. H. TOULMIN

ALAN TYSON writes: Mr Toulmin is rather kinder to Wegeler than he is to me! The passage in the Notizen (p.36) is at any rate a well-known crux. Wegeler says: (1) the piano was a semitone too low for the wind instruments; (2) Beethoven immediately got the other instruments to tune to a B flat instead ofto an A; and (3) he played his part in C sharp. The best discussion of the prob- lems that is known to me is by Franz Kullak (1881) in the preface to his edition of the concerto. His 'solution'-that Wegeler meant that the orchestra tuned to the piano's B flat (which of course sounded like an A)-is really the neatest and is the same as the one offered by Mr Toulmin. But other 'solutions' have been proposed; Theodor Milller-Reuter, for instance, thought that Beethoven raised the pitch of the wind by a semitone and then played the B flat concerto in the key of C.

The whole point is that Wegeler was in Vienna only from about October 1794 to the middle of 1796 (Notizen, p.xii). He then returned to Bonn; if his memory was sound and the concerto that he heard was indeed the C major one, that must have been completed and performed no later than the middle of 1796-a date which some have considered too early.

Shostakovich has written music for a film of King Lear directed by Grigory Kozintsev.

Alan Bush's 70th birthday has been celebrated by the Workers' Music Association with the publication of seven choral songs 'written by him between 1931-1948; five have texts by the com- munist poet Randall Swingler. Songs of Struggle is available from WMA, 236 Westbourne Park Rd, London Wl1, price 7s 6d.

THE BRODERIPS I welcome Graham Hooper's clarification of the Broderip relationships but I am afraid that Baptie is no more reliable than other reference books on the birth date of Edmund of Wells.

William, organist of Wells Cathedral, and his wife Martha did not have any children in 1712, and the fact that their last two sons (born in 1725 and 1727) were both called Edmund seems to indicate that the 1712 one did not survive (if in fact he was ever born) any more than the 1725 one did. This leaves only the 1727 Edmund, who presumably became organist of St James's Bristol in 1746 at the age of 19.

Francis Fane Broderip was the brother of Edmund of New Street, Wells (probably an attorney) and had-as far as I can see-no close relationship with any earlier Edmunds.

Wimborne BETTY MATTHEWS

BACH'S ORNAMENTS I think my answer to Kenneth Holland's interesting query (Nov MT, p.1107) about quintuplets, sep- tuplets, etc as ways of notating suggested realizations for baroque ornaments would be that what he rightly calls 'an irregular rhythm, practically un- measurable' is really just about the nearest one can get on paper to suggest the unmeasured flexibility so many ornaments got then, and should get now, in performance.

'You must not try to divide the trill exactly note for note, but only try to make it rapid', wrote Frescobaldi in 1614. 'Although the trills are marked regular . . . they are nevertheless to begin more slowly than they finish', wrote Couperin a century later, in 1716. 'There is no need to make all trills with the same speed', wrote Quantz in 1752. Leopold Mozart in 1756 recommended trills of different speeds to match the mood of the piece, adding that 'the accelerating trill is used mostly in cadenzas'.

Ornaments written out in baroque sources, from virginalists' MSs at the start of the era through violinists' treatises at the end of it, are frequently unmathematical in their note-count. Examples may

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be consulted in my Interpretation of Early Music, including on pp.534-7 enough to last most of us a lifetime; in fact if you don't like blinking, it is better not to look.

In J. S. Bach and elsewhere, ornaments written in regular rhythm are common enough. What baroque specialists like Walter Emery and myself are trying to suggest is approximately how they may be played, on grounds of good evidence and good musicianship alike. Kenneth Holland's solution to the music example in his letter is certainly not wrong, but it is not very good: being regularly measured, it would not really sound like an ornament. Walter Emery's solution is, I think, as near as one can get in notation to the unmeasured irregularity needed in performance, to have the really ornamental effect of spontaneousness and informality.

Of course, I quite agree that 'from the performer's point of view this is a vital matter'. May I suggest that the best starting-point is flexibility ?

Yale ROBERT DONINGTON

WIDOR'S TOCCATA Researching into Widor's Airborne Variants is highly diverting. In my copy, the first of each two quavers in bars 1-8 has an accent sign: from my estimate of Widor's magisterial style of playing, I infer that these accents are also agogic, and this I have taught to others-only to find that my neigh- bour's Urtext has no accents and no sfz markings later on. I have crotchet 100: I admit that my RFH recording is nearer 120; but at 6.30 a.m., after a night of waiting, that was only human frailty!

London W5 RALPH DOWNES

SUSAN LONGFIELD AWARD On the 27 August last, Susan Longfield, a singer much loved in musical circles, died of cancer at the tragically early age of 35. She was well known to choral societies all over the country and also to radio and television audiences. She was the possessor not only of a particularly lovely soprano voice but also of a beautiful and radiant personality.

That these were widely recognized was borne out by the large audience attending a concert in Salisbury Cathedral dedicated to her memory and by the hundreds of friends and admirers who paid tribute to her at a Memorial Service in London; a service unlikely to be forgotten by any of them.

A more permanent memorial, however, is to take the form of an annual award at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she received her student training. The School has welcomed this proposal and the award will be made for soprano oratorio singing.

There are, we know, many people who would wish to subscribe to this purpose and contributions may be sent to the Honorary Treasurer, 'The Susan Longfield Memorial Award Fund', Lloyds Bank, R. Section, 6 Pall Mall, London, SW1.

ARTHUR BLISS, EDMUND COMPTON, ALLEN

PERCIVAL, E.G. SIMPSON, WALTER K. STANTON

BROADCAST ORGAN MUSIC Listening lately to BBC broadcast organ music, I have become increasingly aware of the confused jangle of overtones, especially of the harmonics at the 17th. Rebuilt organs, as well as new organs, seem to be the culprits. It may be that we have gone too far in striving for piquant effects. On the other hand, what may appear to the builder and performer as properly scaled and voiced and registered in the tonal environment of the building, may be repro- duced differently in transmission over the radio-- placing of microphones close to sources of sound could account largely for this. What are unnoticed harmonics become disparate and discordant har- monies. In any case I personally feel that the trend towards over-emphatic upper partials has gone too far and the enthusiasms of certain practitioners need to be tempered with more moderation. I know this is an emotive subject but it needs to be aired.

Cheltenham LAURENCE HUDSON

CHILDREN'S CONCERTS I refer to Arthur Jacobs's notice of a Robert Mayer Concert in your January issue (p.59). He deplores the choice of music of this century in the whole series of concerts which 'might all have been picked for such concerts 20 years ago'. We are now making the programmes for next season. Will Mr Jacobs please suggest what new music he thinks we ought to play? I should be most grateful. But I warn him that it must be music of proven value. If it is not, why should we subject children to it ? (I remember that, shortly after the last war, we were told that it was a disgrace to the nation that the symphonies of a certain composer were not played. His name? Karl Amadeus Hartmann-and where do you hear his music now ?)

With this, Mr Jacobs links the criticism that my talk at the concerts is avuncular and that I wear a frock-coat. I do not see why 'avuncular' should be used in a deprecatory sense. The average age of the audience is 10 plus and it would be silly for me to be other than an older, but friendly person of the sort who knows what he is talking about. (Recently some Glasgow children sent me a postcard of good wishes, starting 'Dear Uncle Trev' and ending 'with love from'. I was delighted, for it showed that I had their affection.)

As to the morning dress. Children come from long distances to these concerts-one coach starts in Huntingdonshire at 6.45 a.m. If Mr Jacobs set out at that hour, he would expect it to be for an occasion, as indeed it is for the children. The Festival Hall, for a start. It may not hold much glamour for Mr Jacobs, but it certainly does for our audiences. In what garb, then, does he think the orchestra and I ought to appear? Sweaters and jeans? No; each concert is a special occasion for these children (would it were so for all audiences), and it is vitally important that each should be so. Each is a special occasion for me, too: and so I put on my best rig.

But, Mr Jacobs, let me have your suggestions for next season.

London S W1 TREVOR HARVEY

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