The Recorder player: Archaeologist or Artist? by Laura Cannell

In contemporary music practice, how much is the performance of a baroque piece concerned with the music and to what extent is it relating to the perceived history of performance? Various historical sources such as Quantz’s ‘On playing the Flute’ to Telemann’s ‘Sonate Metodiche’, it is stated that in baroque music, especially slow movements, the performer is expected to ornament or elaborate on the established notes. On the subject of the cadenza in a solo piece Quantz states that:
“Nearly every instrumentalist tries his hand at it. If he has no inventiveness of his own, he helps himself to borrowed ideas.” (p.318, Quantz, On Playing the Flute)

In a sense the recorder player of Early Music is limited to using ‘borrowed ideas’, since the rules of ornamentation change and vary with fashion. ‘Inventiveness’ is therefore difficult to achieve in retrospect, as every performer will have contrasting influencing factors in their musical education such as teaching, social background and access and availability to music such as concerts/instruments and recordings.

Contemporary issues concerning the 21st century recorder player are different to those faced by the recorder player of earlier centuries. Considering that an understanding of music, fashion and society are implicit to a specific time or era, for the contemporary performer to perform in a historically informed way they must be aware of the rules, history and social practices of both their own time and that of the early music they wish to perform.
With this in mind it is fair to say that in the contemporary performance of baroque music there are considerations for the performer which involve the preoccupation with ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways of being historically informed, particularly in terms of committing performance to a recording. One of the purposes of ornamentation can be seen as follows;
“The performer must have an opportunity to demonstrate his judgement, inventiveness and insight” (p.318, Quantz),

Recordings often possess a loss of spontaneity and individuality in ornamentation and improvisation. In the attempt to present recordings which have long term listening value, concerns with authenticity juxtaposed with listenability have lead to a one-dimensional perspective of listening, for example the mixing, mastering and producing of a recording have become clinical sounding.
Are performers too inhibited to let go and perform with the influences of their own time without worrying that their ideas will be considered ‘inappropriate’, thus promoting a more generic style of ornamentation.

Considering that the performers role was to ornament particular passages in the baroque era, and the classical era moved away from this convention, it can be perceived that composers who would have had no notion of their music being performed several centuries later may have embraced the possibilities which come with contemporary culture. Since they were composing modern music of the day, the idea of constant retrospect would have been quite unnatural.

It is a contemporary notion to perform in a historically informed way. John Butt’s book ‘Playing with History’ promotes an interesting point:
“It is wrong to view Historically Informed Performance as a ‘thing’ since it is definable only as a social practice, the tacit assumptions and activities of a range of people”(p.7 Playing with History, J Butt, Cambridge University Press 2002).
Butt highlights that historical performance information and practice as we know it is based on research and theories and not on any first hand knowledge. In performance it should be noted that although there is generally no reason to doubt previous scholarship, there is also perhaps more freedom in interpretation than previously thought.

Since it is possible to research and empathise to a degree, there will always be questions arising and assumptions to be made about how things were achieved. Indeed, understanding our own musical cultures may be more representative of the ethics behind baroque music because it was after all contemporary music at one point. This based on thr assumption that the motivation behind performing baroque music is not to feed into the vacuum of the heritage industry but to reproduce and recreate and reinterpret a music which has influenced the past few centuries.

Taking as an example Vivaldi’s Concerto RV443 for Recorder and Strings; there are numerous recordings of this work by leading recorder virtuosos. The Largo of each performance has been personalised/ornamented predominantly on the repeat. Each recording has general differences in speed, ornamentation, dynamics, instrumentation (Sopranino A=440 & A=415, Treble A=440 & A=415 and Descant at A=415). Main stylistic differences can also be found in the articulation, yet essentially the piece is still the same. When the first repeat of the largo is in progress the different playing styles of the performers are highlighted. Essentially this is where the rationale behind performing a piece which has been previously recorder lays. If they have something new, virtuosic or beautiful to say it will appear in the ornamented sections. The Purpose of the comparative analysis is to ascertain the musical reasoning and conviction behind the performance and ultimately what makes a recorded performance exciting.

One of the key differences between producing a performance to be recorded and producing a performance for a live venue is that in order for the recording to tolerate repeated listening, there is far more pressure to produce ornamentation which is both pleasing and innovative with real conviction. It is, therefore extremely important that performers use their own individual influences and musical knowledge together with studying those of leading research and performance pioneers. Based on analysis of ornamentation in Vivaldi’s concerto RV443, it is almost certainly the case that the ornamentation is previously established, thus leaving little room for spontaneity at the time of performance. Therefore the effect of committing music to a recording can be seen as responsible in part for a slightly held back performance, putting the performer and listener in the position of comfort as opposed to wild abandon.

Based on;
“The Contemporary Recorder player as archaeologist or artist; A comparative analysis of Vivaldi’s Concerto RV443 for Recorder”
by Laura Cannell BMus(Hons) from forthcoming MMus Dissertation 2003