Early Music America Fall 2014 - (Page 52)

BOOK reviews Edited by Mark Kroll Upon a Ground. Improvisation on Ostinato Basses from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries. Martin Erhardt. Trans- Linking to the books: Edition Franz Biersack http://edition-walhall.de/de/ Musikbuecher.html Indiana University Press www.iupress.indiana.edu Ashgate Publishing www.ashgate.com Oxford University Press www.oup.com/us University of Exeter Press www.exeterpress.co.uk Brepols www.brepols.net Suggestions about books to review may be sent to Mark Kroll at books@earlymusic.org. 52 Fall 2014 Early Music America lated from the German by Milo Machover. Verlag Franz Biersack, 2013. 148 pages. Reviewed by Mark Kroll. Trying to teach improvisation with a book is like trying to nail Jell-O™ to the wall. In fact, you might have better luck with the JellO. But this hasn't stopped people from trying (to write a book, that is). There is a substantial number of publications on the subject, going back almost to the time when the keyboard was invented. Diego Ortiz, for example, tried it in the 16th century, but he acknowledged the limits of written instruction in his wellknown Trattado de Glosas of 1553: "I cannot demonstrate Fantasia because any good musician will play it according to his own imagination, to his study and habit." Not surprisingly, Ortiz assures readers that he is fully aware of what one needs to know: "I can say what is required to play it." Johann Nepomuk Hummel, one of the greatest improvisers of the 19th century, included a separate section on extemporaneous playing in his monumental piano treatise of 1827/1828, but all he really said was to practice, "aiming particularly at a good connexion and succession of ideas, at strictness of rythm [sic], at variety of character, at changes of colouring, at the avoiding of great diffusiveness (which easily degenerates into monotony)." Not much help here, but Hummel did make the wise recommendation to first try things out in private "after a couple of years [of] quiet study in [your] chamber," and then in front of a "few persons only" before improvising on stage. Hummel did encourage the student by saying that he "always felt less embarrassment in extemporizing before an audience of 2- or 3,000 persons than in executing any written composition to which I was slavishly tied down." Some excellent studies about improvisation have appeared recently, including Valerie Goertzen Woodring's article "By Way of Intro- duction: Preluding by 18th- and Early 19th-Century Pianists" (Journal of Musicology, Summer, 1996) and Beyond Notes, a collection of essays on the subject, edited by Rudolf Rasch (Brepols, 2011). Few, however, have actually dared to show how to nail that Jell-O to the wall-until now. Martin Erhardt has written an excellent how-to book on the subject, which, he tells us, is "intended for music students, (aspiring) professional musicians, and amateurs"; also, "many of the basic exercises presented here can be mastered by children and teenagers, under the guidance of a teacher." These are quite ambitious goals, but to a great extent Erhardt succeeds in realizing Hummel said that he "always felt less embarrassment in extemporizing before an audience of 2- or 3,000 persons than in executing any written composition to which I was slavishly tied down." them. His book is informative, wellorganized, user-friendly, and quite effective. Particularly welcome are the author comments about the relationship of music and speech, since this concept goes to the heart not only of improvisation but of all keyboard playing: "Although the musical languages of the Renaissance and Baroque is [sic] not unfamiliar to us today, it is often more 'read out' than 'spoken freely.' The aim of this book is to help bring this language back to life." Moreover, Erhardt echoes Hummel by asserting that a command of this language (i.e., improvisation) will also have a further beneficial effect on performers' overall experience on stage, since "those with enough competence and experience in speaking freely and spontaneously without script often communicate with more enthusiasm, and have a closer, more flexible contact with their audience." Upon a Ground, which limits its focus to "the study of improvisation on ostinato bass models" from the 16th to the 18th centuries," is divided into four large sections. Part I, which the author calls a "Thematically-ordered historical overview," contains musical excerpts by Byrd, Marais, Merula, Ortiz, Rossi, Josquin, C.P.E. Bach, Frescobaldi, Biber, and many others-122 examples in all, fitted with commentary, instruction, and further information in the footnotes. To cite a few of the nine subheadings, there are sections on improvising on "Two-Chord pendular ostinatos" (more about that later), "Passamezzo antico/Romanesca," "La Folia," and "Passacaglia/ Chaconne." Part II deals with "Historical improvisation-a paradox?" Here the author discusses the dangers, and I might add self-delusion, of making the claim that one can perform music of the past just as the original composer would have done, or heard. He calls this the "presentpast paradox," writing: "Even when interpreting a composition by, for example, Claudio Monteverdi, in line with current understanding of historically informed performance practice, doubts are bound to remain about whether...Monteverdi would even recognize his own work if he were to hear it performed today." This is even truer for improvisation, since treatises "only give us written descriptions of an oral [sic] musical practice." Erhardt concludes, quite reasonably: "Despite any efforts one may put into achieving stylistic authenticity, any act of improvisation today is bound to reflect the entire background of musical experience and the personal temperament of the twenty-first century musician." If the author's opinions are not clear from these statements, he adds a further important caveat: "the aim of a historical improvisation today cannot be just to achieve historical authenticity." To further emphasize this point, Erhardt makes another reference to the link between speech and music in this part, as well as a charming http://www.edition-walhall.de/de/Musikbuecher.html http://www.edition-walhall.de/de/Musikbuecher.html http://www.iupress.indiana.edu http://www.ashgate.com http://www.oup.com/us http://www.exeterpress.co.uk http://www.brepols.net

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Early Music America Fall 2014

Editor’s Note
Baroque Competition
Sound Bytes
Musings: Ave Atque Vale
Musings: Ave Atque Vale
Recording Reviews
Recording Reviews
Aetas Aurea: An Early Music Macbeth
Aetas Aurea: An Early Music Macbeth
Mysterious Titles, Hidden Meaning
Mysterious Titles, Hidden Meaning
Viola da Gamba Dojo
Viola da Gamba Dojo
A Joyful Noise: Highlights of BFX 2014
A Joyful Noise: Highlights of BFX 2014
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
EMA Donations
EMA Donations
Ad Index
Ad Index
In Conclusion: Sam Franko and the Origins of the Early Music Movement
In Conclusion: Sam Franko and the Origins of the Early Music Movement

Early Music America Fall 2014