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From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: bach to bach highly recommended
Message-ID: <1126@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Sep-84 01:12:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: eosp1.1126
Posted: Mon Sep 17 01:12:24 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 04:03:42 EDT
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 52

References:

Harpsichordist Ken Cooper used a number of techniques that
are unusual among the best recorded harpsichordists.
For one thing, he played a lot of ornaments that are not in the
original.  Ornaments give a performer a chance to add a lot to
his interpretation of a work.  In general, one assumes that every
baroque piece was intended to be played with ornamentation. Leaving
it out is like playing Jazz with straight rhythms.  And yet (why??)
many recordings of baroque music have little or no added
ornamentation.

In the particular case of J.S. Bach, some musicologists claim that
pieces which he composed to be played by others (including the
Brandenburg concertos) had all the ornamentation written out,
since Bach knew he wouldn't be there to explain what he intended.
I greatly doubt this in the case of the 5th brandenburg, since the
part is not that heavily ornamented.  Cooper is an excellent
musical scholar, and has probably made a very informed decision
about what is a suitable degree of ornamenting.

Paula Robison (flute) and Ani Kavafian (violin) ornamented their
parts as well.  Since there are a lot of phrase echoes between them,
they naturally had to pick up and respond to each other's ornaments.
Judging from the expressions on their faces, the ornamenting was
quite spontaneous, and they were really enjoying it.

Cooper also played "notes inegales", which, according to music
theorists who lived in the baroque era, were quite common, especially
in French music.  The idea is that a sequence of, say, 16th notes,
are not played in a smooth equal way.  Instead, every oddnumbered
note is played slightly longer, and each even nombered note slightly
shorter.  The theorists spoke of proportions between the notes as
3 to 2, or 4 to 3 (that is, almost similar lengths, and an irregular
division in comparison  to the meter).

I've played a lot of notes inegales, and they impart a lively, almost
jazzy flavor to baroque music, especially for instruments like the
harpsichord that cannot play individual notes at controlled different
amplitudes.  Cooper played the first of each note-pair
shorter than the second, in about a 3 to 4 ratio.  The result,
particularly noticeable in the cadenza, was a very perky sound to
his playing, with a great sense of forward-moving energy.

Cooper is really a fascinating harpsichordist to listen to.  He is
incredibly creative, and his ideas are founded on thorough
musicological knowledge.

	- Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
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