Prof. Robert Donington (Iowa City/Iowa) RepliesAuthor(s): Robert DoningtonSource: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 41, Fasc. 3/4 (Jul. - Dec., 1969), pp. 238-239Published by: International Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/932390 .

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238 F. Oberdoerffer: Again: Figured Bass as Improvisation

to be employed in figured-bass accompaniments in a work like this which teaches the very rudiments of music. More probably he would look into the same author's Kleine Generalbass- schule (Hamburg 1735). There he would find on p. 41 in ? 8 that the figures have to order and to lay down the rules which have to be followed by the player, "so dass er schier gar- nichts Neues erfinden darf; es sei denn in den Ausschmlickungen eines Basses, wenn man schon den Meister spielen, und alles zur rechten Zeit tun kann, Derowegen ist auch diese vermeinte Erfindung ein lauteres Nichts."

The final quotation of Roger North actually boils down to the often-found advice that the accompanist has to be able to adjust his accompaniment to the changing musical situa- tions. Even the sometimes touching ye air is found in many treatises, saying that the accompanist is permitted to play melodically when the soloist has a long-held note or rests. The fact that in the last sentence of the quote the mastery of composition is mentioned in connection with the perfection of Musick upon every key makes it clear that Roger North's judgment does not rise too much above the level of a layman, though an interested and sensible one.

This answer to the footnote is already too lengthy; therefore all further discussions and quotations have to be avoided. In spite of this limitation it seems to be certain that the concept improvise as used by earlier authors has only the restricted meaning of ex tempore, which meaning incidentally has never been contested by anybody. Likewise the concept composition can only have the meaning of fluency in four-part writing and playing, which is according to H. C. Koch the teachable part of the art of composition. Being read in this sense, the use of this expression to explain the figured-bass accompaniment to beginners seems to be quite logical.

Prof. Robert Donington (Iowa City/Iowa) Replies: In thanking Professor Oberdoerffer for his courteous rejoinder to Professor Buelow and

myself, we feel quite willing to accept his limitations of the words "composition" and "improvisation" in connection with thorough-bass. Composing within the bounds of given material is still composing; while the modern meaning of improvisation remains what it always was, "the production or execution of anything off-hand" (Oxford English Dictionary), and this fits thorough-bass without in any way exceeding the limitations of meaning which Professor Oberdoerffer wishes to set.

When a thorough-bass has no figures or very few (the commonest 17th-century situation), imagination and experience are the main recourse, aided by a few rough working rules like taking a sharpened bass note as probably a leading-note requiring a 6-3. When a thorough- bass is fully figured (unusual even in the 18th century) we are still left to choose for ourselves (or to reject where inappropriate): passing notes; melodic outline; voice-leading; fullness or sparseness of texture; closeness or wideness of spacing; figuration; arpeggiation; ornamen- tation; counter-melody; imitation; and any other such refinements, all of which were taught, and used, as desirable in the right places though not desirable in the wrong places.

And that is surely the real issue behind the disputed words. We are all opposed to those facile accompanists who compose or improvise their way through a thorough-bass realization without being sensitive to the limitations set, not only by the rules of the game, but still more by the musical context. Beyond the very simplest contexts, a good realization calls, I believe, for the best of our imagination, for which dull correctness is a very inadequate substitute. But also it calls for the utmost tact, experience and restraint; and here let me take an example from the notoriously exacting skill of accompanying recitative.

In recitative, the singer must be well supported at the harpsichord by plenty of figurate arpeggiation, seasoned with acciaccaturas though scarcely with other ornaments. But also

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Prof. Robert Donington Replies 239

the singer must be left free to vary the rhythm, proportionably, yet with great flexibility. Did not Berardi in his Ragionamenti (Bologna 1681), p. 136, write of the reciting style that it "consists in this alone, that singing one speaks, and speaking one sings"? Thus we need many notes, not few; but these many notes must never fall into a melody. If there is a melody in the accompaniment, it will have to be performed in measured rhythm; and that prevents the singer from singing in unmeasured rhythm. It is a common mistake, even among our best modern editors and accompanists. But the mistake is not in using too many notes or too much imagination. The mistake is in using the wrong kind of notes and the wrong kind of imagination for the musical context. In accompanying an aria, the very same kind of melodic invention might, in the right places, prove both appropriate and felicitous.

It is in these refinements of appropriate and felicitous accompaniment that, as I hope we may all agree, we have still most to learn. And perhaps Roger North was not speaking as a "layman", but as the practical and practised thorough-bass accompanist we know he was, when he said that a man cannot be truly a master of thorough-bass in particular without being "a master of composition in general". We can only do our best, of course; but in my experience, it is the right idea.

Der Tod des kaiserlichen Kapellmeisters Pieter Maessins (Petrus Massenus von Massenberg)

HORST LEUCHTMANN (MUNCHEN)

Maessins' Todesdatum war bisher unbekannt und wurde im Zeitraum zwischen 1560 und 1563 angesetzt'. In den Berichten des bayerischen Agenten am kaiserlichen Hofe zu Wien findet sich eine genaue Beschreibung und Datierung der

Umstinde, durch die M. ums Leben

gekommen ist2. Dieser Agent ist Dr. Sigmund Seld. Er ist in der Musikgeschichte bereits bekannt im Zusammenhang mit der Berufung Orlando di Lassos aus Antwerpen nach Miinchen sowie durch die Erwihnung des umstrittenen Terminus musica reservata, der ihm als erstem Nichtmusiker aus der Feder flie3t3.

Seld schreibt an seinen Herrn Albrecht V. aus Wien ,,am hey: Christtag des newen an- geenden Jars 1563" 4. Ferdinand I. war nach der Wahl und Kr6nung seines altesten Sohnes Maximilian zum r6mischen K6nig in Frankfurt am 1. Dezember 1562 nach Speyer auf- gebrochen, von wo er die Riickreise nach Wien antrat. Nach

eintigigem Aufenthalt in

Hagenau liel er sich durch die Einladung der Stralburger Biirger bestimmen, entgegen

1 Den neuesten Forschungsstand vertritt Othmar WESSELY, Beitrdge zur Lebensgeschichte von Pieter Maessins, in: Gestalt und Wirklichkeit, Festgabe fiir Ferdinand Weinhandl, Berlin 1967, S. 438ff. Wessely schreibt (S. 444): ,,Pieter Maessins diirfte, einem von Ulrich Zasius an den hessischen Land- grafen Philipp den Grolmiitigen gerichteten Brief zufolge, h6chstwahrscheinlich zwischen Jiinner und April 1563 verstorben sein." 2 Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Miinchen Abt. II (Geheimes Staatsarchiv), Kasten schwarz, Nr. 5387, fol. 467 f.

3 Adolf SANDBERGER, Beitrage zur Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle unter Orlando di Lasso, 1. Buch, Leipzig 1894, S. 53ff.; 3. Buch, Leipzig 1895, S. 300ff. - Bernhard MEIER, Reservata- Probleme, in: AMI 30, 1958, S. 86. 4 SELD datiert hier nach dem Gebrauch der kaiserlichen Kanzlei, die seit der Karolinger Zeit das Jahr mit dem 25. Dezember beginnen liel (Weihnachtsanfang), dann aber im 16. Jahrhundert allmihlich den 1. Januar als Jahresbeginn (Circumcisionsstil) iibernahm. In der Zeit des UIberganges, um die Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts, wird den Daten vom 25. bis 31. Dezember die nahere Bestimmung a nativitate oder des angehenden Jahres beigefiigt, um den Weihnachtsanfang zu kennzeichnen. Vgl. Hermann GROTEFEND, Taschenbuch der Zeitrechnung, 10. erweiterte Aufl., Hannover 1960, S. 12.

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