More freedom solo than in an ensemble

As we all know, the musician who plays alone has the advantage of selecting the tempo and also to modify it at will. These freedoms vanish when you play in an ensemble, especially if there is nothing like a modern conductor.

In the harpsichord era, composers were well aware of this situation, and composed free Italian Toccatas and unmeasured French préludes only for single players, while for ensembles they only produced measured music. The latter (as attested by the sources) was performed preserving a strict beat, a soloist being only allowed mini-rubato within the beat.

At this point, there appears to be no difference in how a harpsichordist performed measured music when playing solo vs playing in an ensemble. At some point, however, the greater freedom when playing solo (so “natural” to us) was appreciated. Question: when was this first observed?

Needless to clarify, I do not know the answer to my question!

Hi Claudio,

I am surprised that you got no response. I posed the question because the first such observation I am aware of is post-Baroque, in C.P.E. Bach’s Versuch, Vol. I, 1753.

A good place too look for Baroque sources for this topic is not just in texts but also in transcriptions. Had a composer considered the matter important, a transcription of ensemble music into solo keyboard was a good opportunity for adding expressive markings.

For example, when transcribing Vivaldi’s concertos from L’Estro Armonico Op.3 for solo harpsichord, this was J.S. Bach’s occasion to add expressive signs such as fermatas or final “Adagio” directions. Yet, he did not: every single one of the fermatas in these concertos (almost all of them in the Concerto Op.3 No.12) are reproduced straight from Vivaldi’s original.

Another well known example is Rameau when reducing from his Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts (for violin, viol and harpsichord) his “Cinq Pièces” for solo harpsichord. A few years earlier (in L’Enharmonique) he had clarified in his Preface that the fermata sign meant a special rallentando (and also that this effect was often considered revolting!). Remarkably, throughout the Cinq Pièces, Rameau wrote neither tempo changes nor fermatas.

So far, great names such as Bach and Rameau have failed to give us any clue.

Hope somebody knows additional evidence (in either sense), Claudio!

Best,

Claudio

At this point, there appears to be no difference in how a
harpsichordist performed measured music when playing solo vs playing
in an ensemble. At some point, however, the greater freedom when
playing solo (so “natural” to us) was appreciated. Question: when was
this first observed?

I think this is what we call a “loaded question” (i.e. “a question that
contains a controversial assumption”, according to Wikipedia), and this
might be the reason why no one replied (because a reply would give
credit to this controversial assumption). Indeed, I see no reason to
believe a good musician didn’t take more liberty with the tempo, the
ornamentation, etc. when he was playing alone and had only himself to
listen to, as opposed to playing in with others, especially in a large
ensemble.

Dennis
PS. I only receive a small fraction of Jackrail posts via email. Does
anyone else have this problem?

Check your spam/junk folder. Mailers have to be trained over time to recognise this source as proper. If no luck, contact me.

Loaded question or not, I have recently observed (after checking through YouTube for interpretations of a number of pieces) that the music by Forqueray affords the harpsichordist a kind of reversed freedom: the freedom to play it more strictly than the ensemble version would be (or: often is) played.
It is quite astonishing what a lot of drama a gamba player can get away with when playing the original version of this music. Undoubtedly there’s often also something going on of what we called “technical rubato” In my study years, that is, an expressively cloaked tempo modification when things get difficult (or easier).
Most of the harpsichord versions that I found of certain Forqueray pieces were played noticeably more in a uniform tempo, often with good results.
I think in this specific repertoire we however do have a task letting it sound more difficult than it really is for the harpsichordist. It’s not an easy task, to sound “like a viola da gamba” when the notes are so easily available on the keyboard. But excessive modifications of the tempo don’t really help to create this effect, or so it seems to me.

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