Level: Geeky (some familiarity with French baroque music recommended)
Pre-class study guide available. When one looks at French baroque chamber music—Couperin’s Concerts Royaux, for example, or Marais’ viol music or Pièces en trio, the level of ornamentation on the page (either written out in notes or indicated by symbols) is sufficiently dense that it’s hard to imagine wanting to add more to what’s already there. In the orchestral music, however (e.g. that of Lully), there’s some written-out “connective tissue,” but mostly it looks a lot plainer than the chamber music. One might think that speaks to the difference between chamber music and orchestral playing. However, Georg Muffat’s 1698 instructions for playing music in the French style in Florilegium Secundum includes a chapter on ornamentation, specifically in the context of music-making where there would be more than one player on a part. The chapter describes in considerable detail the various ornamental figures and how they are applied, along with specific “do’s and don’ts” about using them. Following his suggestions results in a level of ornamentation at least equal density to that found in later French orchestral music such as Rameau—a sound rarely heard in this repertoire in our modern times.
The Baroque, Medieval/Renaissance, and Recorder Workshops will hold online sessions in May and June. Information is currently available for the May classes, and will be available in mid-May for the June classes. https://sfems.org/sfems-workshops/virtual-sessions/