This is María and this is Hester. Together we are the CONSORT COUNSELLORS!
Today we would like to talk about a composition that every recorder duo wants to play at least once in their life:
the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 by Johann Sebastian Bach.
This concerto is in G major and is scored for solo violin, two recorders, strings and continuo.
Later, Bach made a version in F major in which the solo violin is replaced by harpsichord,
but the recorder parts stayed almost identical.
Bach assigned the recorder parts in the fourth Brandenburg to "Fiauti d'Echo",
which is quite an uncommon term in the 18th century. What did he exactly mean by that?
Is he talking about recorders in F... or maybe in G?
Or about a completely different instrument, maybe even one that sounds an octave higher?
Or is he rather describing how the piece works? Because the recorders are sort of "echoing" the violin,
or even echoing themselves in the second movement, in which there is a "forte" and "piano" effect.
Musicologists and performers have been discussing this issue for decades!
Although there's not a final or incontestable conclusion,
enough experts assume that "Fiauti d'Echo" are just 'normal' alto recorders in F... so that's what we brought today!
One of the many reasons why we, the Consort Counsellors, really appreciate and love this concerto
is that the two recorders truly act as a team over the course of the composition.
They are such a tight team that they almost sound like one instrument!
So, being a bit opportunistic, you could say that this is a concerto for solo violin, a tiny recorder consort and strings!
Bach had a very good reason to use two recorders: balance.
By having two recorders rather than one, we achieve a louder and richer sound
which is much more audible within the orchestra.
In contrast with a very virtuosic, almost frantic violin soloist,
the recorders play much more simple parts but with the extra eloquence of counterpoint.
If you listen very carefully to the concerto, or if you look at the score, you will easily discover
that the two recorders are always playing at the same time.
They don't get any individual solos or "moments of glory" except for a few bars in the second movement.
Bach assigned these few bars to the lucky Player One.
These are the only moments where Bach put only one recorder player "in the spotlight".
However, if you are Player One in the F Major version for harpsichord and two recorders
you are slightly less lucky, because in the second movement Bach took the melody away from the recorders
and gave it to the harpsichord. All Recorder One gets to play is a simple but beautiful chromatic line.
In the rest of the concerto, the recorders always stick together as a team. Let's see in which ways!
The third movement of this concerto is fugal and alternates between tutti and solo passages.
To make sure that the recorders are audible in the tutti sections, Bach lets them play in unison in a rather high register.
A great recipe to play very well in unison is the TRIPLE S! That stands for Sound, Sharing and Sympathy.
Sound, because both players should play with a good and beautiful individual sound
Sharing! There should be a common idea about direction, phrasing, articulation and length.
...and Sympathy in the sense of mutual understanding. In this concerto, although officially we are called
Recorder 1 and Recorder 2, there is not a ranking in which player 1 is more important than player 2.
Teamwork is the key!
In a way, fugal passages are the complete opposite of unison playing,
since we can play with much more independence. In a fugue, different elements travel through the voices
at different times, and we all get to play them and make them our own.
Play a lot with colouring, vibrato and very subtle timings within the bar,
so that, while fitting in the perfect and complex structure of the fugue,
you still can give the music your own colour and personality.
Imitation takes shape in many ways in Baroque music. The opposite of the long fugal lines we just discussed
may be the little and simple imitation going on in the first movement.
Even in such a little imitation game we really need to think like a team,
otherwise, the line in the music will be broken, there will be no continuity from beginning until end.
If our ideas are too personal and too different, it may end up sounding a bit far-fetched...
The opposite can also happen, of course... that we 'erase' our own input so much
that the total becomes too plain and therefore a bit dull... blank!
There is a lot of parallel motion going on in the Brandenburg Concerto,
where the two recorders play exactly the same material but a third or a sixth apart.
Small differences in phrasing, articulation, length and timing may make parallel playing seem very sloppy.
Do your sound, articulation, length and timing match?
To get closer to each other's sound take a small fragment and play this over and over in a loop.
This kind of teamwork features different musical material in each of the voices.
A very important motive in the first movement, for example, features a low note for the first player...
...and a nice row of semiquavers (16th notes) for the second.
These contrasting motives match perfectly and if the players understand each other well
they can create a nice gesture together.
Needless to say, this is very important material, because the piece starts like this!
How can you make a convincing gesture together? Often, in Baroque music you can look at the harmony.
It will give you important hints about the direction of a certain gesture.
In this case, for example, we start always on the tonic
then we go to the dominant, and on the last bar we come back to the tonic,
which means: rest - tension - rest, one - TWO - three.
As we've seen, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4is full of teamwork!
We hope that after watching this video you feel like listening to this concerto over and over again.
And, of course, that you will also like to give it a try with a friend!
You are going to learn a lot about Bach, his composition, your colleagues and yourself!
As we discussed in the beginning of this video, there are many possible interpretations of the term "Fiauti d'Echo".
One of the many possible meanings is a construction of two recorders joined together.
They differ slightly in pitch and you can quickly change between one and the other.
And since they differ slightly in pitch, you can create a real 'echo'.
In this video of the ensemble Voices of Music you can see how that sounds and how it looks.
If you are interested in watching some different versions of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4,
we leave you a few selected videos in the description of our clip.
Of course, we are curious to know what your favourite version is of the fourth Brandenburg concerto.
Let us know so we can all listen to it! Have a nice week! See you next time! Bye!
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét