Essay on Early Music, 2008

8/3/2019 Essay on Early Music, 2008

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Early Music : an Art from thePast brought into the Present

By Moiss Antonio Bittner

Santiago de Chile, 2008


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When someone is being asked about his/her favourite music, s/he is bound to

mention contemporary music and some singers/interpreters. However, something

unusual happens when talking about music from the past. People do not know any other

way to label it but as Classical Music, what is more, they can barely come up with two

or three performers. So the term Early Music, which I would like to highlight, is

something that not many people, especially in Chile, seem to be acquainted with.

When I talk aboutEarly Music, I am referring to European music played during

the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods1 specifically. Although pin-pointing

an exact start date to this musical movement is a tricky taskwhere knowledge is too

vague to give a precise datethe most common end date used is 1750, with the death of

Johann Sebastian Bach. After that, we start speaking about the Classical and Romantic

periodswhich people are more familiar with andwhere most of the instruments,

composers or singing techniques from previous periods are forgotten.

Regarding the instruments used to perform Early Music, the most important ones

were: the recorder2, the baroque flute3, and the baroque oboe in the woodwind family;

the viola da gamba, the baroque violin and the lute or theorbo in the strings; and the

harpsichord4 or pipe organ in the keyboard family. All these instruments possessed a

1The Middles Ages correspond to the period in European history, between about 500 AD and 1400 AD, when the power of kings,

people of high rank and the Christian Church was strong.

The Renaissance was the period of new growth of interest and activity in the areas of art, literature and ideas in Europe, especially

northern Italy, during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

The Baroque related to the heavily decorated style in buildings, art and music that was popular in Europe in the 17th century and

the early part of the 18th century.2

It is said that this instrument takes its name from the archaic meaning of the verb to record i.e. to twitter/ to chirp. It has

occasionally been used in popular music, including that of groups such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix.3

The radical change in the flute in the nineteenth century was much larger and more abrupt than that of the other woodwind

instruments. This was due to the flautist and flute maker Theobold Boehm, who aimed to make the flute louder, its timbre more

homogeneous from note to note, and its tuning more in accord with that of other instruments . Wolfe, Joe, John Smith, John Tann

and Neville H. Fletcher (2001).4

In modern times, the harpsichord has been used in popular music. Examples include The Rolling Stones Yesterdays Papers and

R.E.M.s Half a World Away. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, 2008.Harpsichord).


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subtlety that modern instruments lack. One example is the baroque violin which used to

be smaller, gut-stringed and with a mellow sound, conversely, the modern violin is

bigger and its strings are made of metal, what makes it extremely noisy at times.

Among the musicians that composed for these instruments, there are four

influential music schools; the Italian one led by Claudio Monteverdi (composer of the

first ever opera LOrfeo, favola in musica, written in 1607), Girolamo Frescobaldi

(organist), Alessandro Scarlatti with his son Domenico (harpsichordists), and Antonio

Vivaldi (baroque violinist; The Fours Seasons,La Tempesta di Mare andIl Gardellino

are some of his most renowned compositions). The German school was dominated by

Johann Sebastian Bach5 (regarded as the Father of Music), Georg-Philipp Telemann

(the most prolific composer of works for the recorder), Johann Joachim Quantz

(Frederick the Greats flute teacher), and the half-Danish composer Dietrich Buxtehude 6

(organist; Jubilate Domino is one of his virtuoso cantatas). The French school was

represented by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (baroque flautist), Marin Marais7 (viola da

gamba player), F. Couperin & Jean-Philippe Rameau (harpsichordists), and Jean-

Baptiste Lully (creator of the modern orchestra arrangement). Finally, the English

school was one of the most appealing schools, for it bloomed during the reigns of King

Henry VIII and his second daughter Queen Elizabeth Iled by Thomas Tallis, William

Byrd, Thomas Morley (a sequence of mentors and disciples), Henry Purcell (the aria

When I am laid in earthof his only operaDido & Aeneas is considered one the most

beautiful ones) and the German composer Georg-Friedrich Hndel (composer of The

Messiah8 and Water Music, who later became a British citizen).

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Bachs Air on a G String was used as the background music of the song Whiter Shade of Pale by the British band Procol Harum

in 1967. Other singers have made covers of this song, e.g. Annie Lennox, Joe Cocker, Sara Brightman, Willie Nelson, etc.6

Bach, at the age of 20, walked more than 320km to attend Buxtehudes Abendmusiken (evening concerts that took place the days

before Christmas).7

The film Tous les matins du monde (All the mornings of the world) by Alain Corneau (1991) portrayed his life.8

An special event in Chile was the first performance of this oratorio in 1895 at the Anglican Institute in Valparaiso. The concert

was organised by J. W. Given.


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Concerning singing techniques, I must refer to the role that men and women

played in music at that time. The vocal ranges for women were described from the

highest to the lowest as: soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto; and for men as: tenor,

baritone, and bass. In some countries, women were forbidden by the Roman Catholic

Church to participate in theatre or music events, so men had to substitute for them. This

is when the singing practices of countertenorsand castrati appeared on the music

scene. A countertenor9 is generally a tenor (defined as a sopranist) or baritone who

makes use of falsetto, a form of singing or speaking by men using an extremely high

voice. A castrato10, on the other hand, is a man castrated in puberty to keep his high

vocal range undisturbed. This type of voice was in great demand during the renaisance

and baroque periods for its beauty, clarity and strength. Farinelli11, whose real name

was Carlo Broschi, was one of the most famous Italian soprano castrato singers of the

18th century. The former singing practice still exists at present, but the latter does not.

The last well-known castrato was Alessandro Moreschi who died in 1922.

The so-called Early Music Revival began in the 19th century with the

performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion (conducted by Felix Mendelssohn), but it

would strengthen in the early twentieth century mainly due to the huge effort made by

Arnold Dolmetsch and his family to recover the practice of playing dated instruments.

However, it was in the second half of the 20th centuryfrom 1950 onwardsthat the

Early Music Revival was fully underway. This phenomenon began in London, but soon

spread to other major cultural centres throughout the world.. Among the most

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Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for remarkable vocal performances and an unusual, otherworldly, elfin stage

persona. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classic opera to covers of 1960s pop

songs. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, 2008.Klaus Nomi).

10There is also a phenomenon called natural or hormonal castrati, which refers to men born with hormonal disorders that

reproduce the vocal effects of castration without the surgeon's knife. The Chilean mezzo-soprano and countertenor Patricio Soto is a

very good example.11

It is said that his intonation was uncannily pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, sothat he performed the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease and certainty. J.J. Quantz (1726).

In 1994, a film was made about him by Grard Corbiau,Farinelli, Il castrato.


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outstanding virtuosi that belonged to this avant-garde movement were: Frans Bruggen

(Dutch recorder-player), the Kuijken brothers (Belgium flautist, violinist, & gambist),

Jordi Savall (Catalan gambist), and Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichordist)12.

In Chile, this movement started in 1954, when some European immigrants

mainly English from the north of Chile and German from the southand some Chilean

enthusiastsJuana Subercaseaux13 among themgathered in an instrumental group

(Conjunto de Msica Antigua) described by the local media as an uncommon

initiative for their use of dated instruments and a forgotten music repertoire. Later on,

the dancer Mirka Stratigopoulou and the soprano Sylvia Soublette joined the group, the

latter assuming the role of chairperson. In 1960, the group became part of the Catholic

University. Since then, many other musicians14 have participated in this or similar

initiatives15 and have helpedas teachersto create new generations of Early Music

players.

Nowadays, some of the most praised Early Music groups in Chile are: Syntagma

Musicum (USACH), Estudio MusicAntigua and Compaa de Cfiro (PUC), Les

Carillons (UCH), Calenda Maia and In Taberna (UMCE). Something interesting is the

new approach these groups have made to perform the Latin American repertoire16

composed during the Spanish Colonial Period. Some research has been carried out

lately into the historical archives of several churches in Chile where music brought from

Europe and composed here by Jesuit missionaries is kept.

12The Early Music Revival changed the listening habits of classical music audiences by introducing them to a range of music of

which they were largely unaware. Most interest was centred on the mediaeval and renaissance periods, and to a certain extent, the

first part of the baroque period. The focus was not simply on repertoire, but on the ways in which the music is conceived, the

process by which it is learnt, and the manners in which it is performed. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, 2008. Early MusicRevival).13

She had just arrived in Chile after studying violin in England.14

Among the ones I have had the honour to meet are: Octavio Hasbn, Renate Mattich, Guido Minoletti, Oscar Ohlsen, and VctorRondn (precursors of this movement); Gina Allende, Franco Bonino, Camilo Brandi, Sergio Candia, Gonzalo Cuadra, Rodrigo del

Pozo, Claudia Helmbold, Nora Miranda, Vernica Sierralta, Carlos Weil, and Elke Zeiner (the new generation).15

Mazapn is a female group created in the 80s that performs music for children making use of early music instruemnts.16

The first ever opera of the New WorldLa prpura de la rosa, composed by Toms de Torrejn y Velasco in 1701 with the text of

Caldern de la Barca is one example.


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Finally, I should like to point out that the dissemination of this musical genre is

achieving more audiences and influencing more and more people from different parts of

Chile. Personally, I belong to a group called The Broken Consort17. It was founded in

Purranque18 in the year 2003 with the idea of making people become aware of how

beautiful and dynamic this marvellous music is compared to Classical music, the

historical instruments used to perform it, and the history of the periods in which this

musical style was in fashion. I have to stress that as an English teacher of Austrian-

German heritage, I have felt specially attracted to this interesting musical genre for it

reflects part of my own family history19 as well as my development in the teaching

profession. To sum up, I just hope that this essay helps as another means of getting

people involved with Early Music.

References

1.- Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (2003). Cambridge University Press.

2.- El Blog de la Msica Antigua en Chile (2008). Available at:

http://musicantiguaenchile.blogspot.com/

17

A broken consortis a group of instruments from different families, the opposite is a ( whole) consort, which refers to members of

the same family, e.g. soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorders. The group is formed by Octavio Tenorio (recorder), Renate Mattich

(viola da gamba), Ana Gonzlez (virginal)who joined us last yearand myself (baroque flute).18

Town located in the 10th Region (Los Lagos), about 50km southwards from Osorno.19

Some time ago, I discovered on the Internet that there was a baroque lutenist named Jakob (Jacques) Bittner.
http://musicantiguaenchile.blogspot.com/http://musicantiguaenchile.blogspot.com/


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3.- McComb, Todd M. (July 1999). What is Early Music? Available at:

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/whatis.htm

4.- Ohlsen Vsquez, Oscar (1993). La Msica Barroca, un nuevo enfoque. Ediciones Universidad

Catlica de Chile.

5.- Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (1989). Oxford University Press, 4 th Edition.

6.- Rondn, Vctor (Nov. 2004). Resonancias N 15 (PDF Version). Instituto de Msica de la Pontificia

Universidad Catlica de Chile.

7.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (May 2008). Vocal Range. Availabe at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_range

8.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (May 2008).Early Music. Availabe at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music

9.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (March 2008).Early Music Revival. Availabe at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music_revival

10.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008).Harpsichord. Availabe at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpsichord

10.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008).Historically Informed Performance. Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically_informed_performance

11.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June 2008).Klaus Nomi. Availabe at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Nomi

12.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008).Recorder. Availabe at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder

13.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008). Whiter Shade of Pale. Availabe at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiter_Shade_of_Pale

14.- Wolfe, Joe, John Smith, John Tann and Neville H. Fletcher (2001). Acoustic Impedance of Classical

and Modern Flutes. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 243, 127-144. p 3. Available at:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/JSV.pdf
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/whatis.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music_revivalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically_informed_performancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Nomihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiter_Shade_of_Palehttp://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/flutehttp://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/JSV.pdfhttp://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/whatis.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music_revivalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically_informed_performancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Nomihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiter_Shade_of_Palehttp://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/flutehttp://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/JSV.pdf

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