In my class on ornamenting French music according to Muffat’s instructions we looked at his catalog of ornamental figures and his observations about when and how those ornaments should be used. In this class we’ll get the instruments out of the cases and find our way through a splendid example of French ornamented music, selected movements from Couperin’s third Concert Royal (1714). In each selected movement we’ll work carefully through the treble line, discussing and playing each little figure and addressing issues of timing, articulation, and dynamics within each. Along the way we’ll recall that the point of the ornaments is to make the melodies more graceful and beautiful, so that we don’t get hung up on all the little notes we’re playing. As we conclude each movement we’ll do a performance of that movement with everyone muted except our guest bowed-bass player.
Materials for participants: the appropriate pages from the 1714 facsimile score of Couperin’s Concerts Royaux
Technical level: intermediate to advanced; appropriate for any treble melody instruments.
A=415
The San Francisco Early Music Society has moved its Baroque, Medieval/Renaissance, and Recorder summer workshops online.
Join us for the June offerings: https://sfems.org/sfems-workshops/virtual-sessions/
Have questions? Email Stacey at [email protected]