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Playing the Changes: Baroque Style
By Ernesto | January 21, 2008
I’ve always been very interested in improvisation practices in classical music. It was obviously a very respected ability in the baroque era…it seemed a way of showing one’s level of musicianship and creativity. Many musicians like J.S. Bach and Sylvius Leopold Weiss were highly revered for their improvisational skills.
But how was this taught? It’s one thing to noodle a melody with a little chord accompaniment, but what about structured contrapuntal pieces like fugues and canons?
I was hoping to find the answer in organ books, since organists have been the sole keepers of the flame as far as improv in classical music goes. No luck though. I found some books on archive.org for both organ and keyboard, but they weren’t much help.
However, one day I recieved one of those emails from Amazon that recommend books based on what you have searched and bought from them, and they recommended The Langloz Manuscript: Fugal Improvisation through Figured Bass by William Renwick.
Kudos to Amazon for finding exactly what I was looking for!
Only problem is…it costs 90 bucks! Luckily, while I was in Amsterdam, I found it in the public library (it’s a GREAT library!)
So the Langloz Manuscript is a collection of partimenti from Bach’s time, which are also related to Bach in some other ways which I honestly don’t remember. But the real discovery here for me was the very existence of partimenti, of which I had never heard before.
Partimenti were figured bass exercises…in essence a composition written in figured bass. For example, the fugues in the Langloz manuscript consist of one staff where the bass melody is written out (another voice fills in when the bass is silent). The rest is to be figured out by the student, wether on paper or right on the instrument.
You could think of it as training wheels for improv and composition.
But the real revelation here, is that even when improvising or composing contrapuntal pieces, baroque musicians were clearly using the over all harmony as a guide to what they played; much the same way as a jazz musician uses the changes on a tune as a basis for his solos and accompaniment.
(side note: when you think about it, a basso continuo ensemble and a jazz rhythm section have quite a bit in common…)
So, conclusions? Well, the great thing is that we’re getting some insight, not only into how improvisation was taught, but also what they were thinking while they improvised. Even in highly contrapuntal pieces, they were conscious of the underlying harmony: they were “playing the changes” so to speak.
That’s great for improvising counterpoint in general, but what about how it specifically applies to guitar? I’m hoping to find some info on that in lute literature, but not much luck so far. I’ll get back to you when I find something…
In the meantime, here’s a site full of partimenti for your enjoyment.
Topics: Composition, Counterpoint, Improvisation |
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
You should also consider reading Carl Philipp Emanuel’s “Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments.” While not directly applicable to guitar, he does have a section on figured bass and a section on using figured bass to improvise free fantasias.
Perhaps you could write some partimenti for guitar? Try starting with something that already exists. For instance take the Bouree from the e-minor lute suite, remove the upper line, and add chord symbols. Then that could be used to improvise additional melody lines using the same harmonies that Bach used.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Thanks for the tip on the CPE book! I’ve read quotes from it here and there, but have never checked it out.
And thanks for the other advice as well. The minute I read it I thought “Why didn’t I think of that?” I had a vague idea of doing something similar with keyboard pieces, but for some reason I didn’t think of lute pieces, which is the obvious place to start…