Prelude non mesuré

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Beginning of a prelude non mesuré by Louis Couperin

The prelude non mesuré ( French prelude without time signature ) is a musical form that was mainly used in early French baroque music for harpsichord . It is a prelude to the introduction of a series of dance pieces . In these quasi-improvisational preludes, the note values and the meter were not specified precisely and almost no bar lines were set. The musical phrases are often linked by slurs , with the rhythmic design being left to the respective player. In their original notation , these pieces of music, around fifty of which have survived, allow and demand a certain musical freedom in interpretation, which is related to rhythmic verse in comparison to a strictly bore notation such as prose . Important representatives of this genre are Louis Couperin , Jean-Henri d'Anglebert , Nicolas Lebègue and Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre . The prelude non mesuré went out of fashion around 1710.

history

Unrhythmic preludes were initially written for the lute , but also for the viol . Lute compositions by Denis Gaultier have survived from the 17th century , as well as pieces for viol by de Machy and Sainte-Colombe . Louis Couperin is the first composer to write comparable works for the clavecin (harpsichord); his works were not printed during his lifetime and are therefore only preserved as manuscripts . In his Preludes he used almost exclusively white notes, which, however, are not all to be understood as "whole notes", but can also represent shorter note values ​​or even runs. A correct interpretation of the musical text is therefore not that easy, but it can be made easier by studying and comparing it with preludes by other composers:

Nicolas Lebègue tried in 1677 in the first book of his Pièces de Clavecin for the first time a more precise notation, with all values ​​between whole and sixteenth notes; the young Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre followed in 1687 in her Premier Livre . The Preludes of d'Anglebert are a particularly interesting and instructive case, as they are both handwritten in white notation and printed in his Pièces de Clavecin , published in 1689, in black and white notation, which is easier to understand for laypeople then and now . In his print, D'Anglebert also differentiates between white and black notes in the notation of his Préludes, but does not use quarter notes, only eighth and sixteenth notes. The white, whole notes are basically used to indicate chords that are normally arpeggiated . One advantage of the French non mesuré notation lies in the possibility of being able to notate arpeggios relatively precisely, e.g. B. whether breaking up or down, fast or slow, or (rarely) not at all (!). Acciaccaturen (fr. "Cheute") or grinder (fr. "Coulé") were noted in white or black by d'Anglebert. Black eighth or sixteenth notes, on the other hand, are melodic garlands or decorations. In some places a barline is given as the end of a melodic phrase or section .

Younger composers such as Louis Marchand , Clérambault , Gaspard le Roux and Jean-Philippe Rameau tended to use even more precise spellings; a Prelude by Marchand is even notated with bar lines ( Premier Livre , 1702). François Couperin's eight preludes in " L'Art de toucher le clavecin " (1717) are notated exactly in time, and half of them can actually be played " mesuré ". According to his own statements, numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 should be played "... in an informal manner ...", "... without clinging too much to the exact beat ...". Nevertheless, it is no longer a question of preludes non mesurés in the true sense.

These introductory pieces can be formally divided into two groups. On the one hand, there are preludes that are consistently non mésuré and are meditative to elegiac in character, sometimes in the manner of tombeaux or lamentos , as they are written out in Froberger as Allemande . On the other hand, there are large-scale works that are reminiscent of Italian toccatas in Frescobaldi's or Froberger's spelling , and which merge into a strictly bore fugue or a fast bore section (mostly in the middle). Examples of this can be found in Louis Couperin, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre ( Premier Livre , 1687) or Rameau ( Premier Livre , 1706).

Unmensored music outside of France

Of course, freely improvised preludes were also known outside of France, but the actual prelude non mesuré remained limited to France. A Prelude in B minor by the Italian harpsichord master Giovanni Battista Draghi , who works in London, begins in a notation that is reminiscent of Louis Couperin's white notation, but changes to a straight scale and normal notation after two bars.

Examples of vacancies that are not precisely noted are in Italian harpsichord music e.g. B. known in the toccatas by Bernardo Pasquini and Alessandro Scarlatti . However, they were simply notated as long chords and given the music instruction " arp. " Or " arpeggio " (mostly at the beginning, but also in the middle of a piece). The exact execution of such passages is not known, but it is assumed that the arpeggiation was simply "up and down", possibly with the insertion of acciaccatures ; Whether the effect should be meditative or rather intoxicating must be decided on a case-by-case basis.

This practice was adopted by German composers such as B. by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (in " Musicalisches Blumen-Büschlein ", 1696). There are also arpeggiando passages of this kind in some of the preludes of the harpsichord suites by Georg Friedrich Händel , and entire preludes (some of the early versions) have been handwritten in simple chordal notation, which can be performed arpeggiando . The best-known example are some passages in Joh. Seb. Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue . However, all of these works are in the Italian-German tradition and cannot be compared with the Préludes non mesurés of the French. The same applies to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , who wrote unmensored piano pieces until 1762. In his textbook, attempt on the true way of playing the piano, he writes about this: Fantasizing without Tackt seems to be particularly adept at expressing affection, because every Tackt type involves a kind of compulsion.

literature

Notes / sources

  • Jean-Henry d'Anglebert, Pièces de Clavecin - Édition de 1689 , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1999.
  • Manuscript Rés. 89 ter , Pièces de Clavecin: D'Anglebert - Chambonnières - Louis Couperin - Transcriptions de pièces pour luth , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1999. (= second volume of the D'Anglebert complete edition of the Édition Fuseau).
  • Manuscript Bauyn, ... , deuxième part: Pièces de Clavecin de Louis Couperin, ... , Facsimile, prés. by Bertrand Porot, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 2006.
  • François Couperin, L'Art de toucher le Clavecin - The Art of Playing the Clavecin , Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, ed. & trans. v. Anna Linde (originally 1933).
  • Giovanni Battista Draghi, Harpsichord Music , ed. By Robert Klakovich, Madison (Wisconsin): AR Editions, Inc., 1986.
  • Georg Friedrich Handel, Piano Works III - Selected Various Pieces (Wiener Urtext Edition) , Schott / Universal Edition, 1994.
  • Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Les Pièces de Clavecin, Premier Livre, Paris (sd = 1687), Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1997.
  • Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue, Pièces de Clavecin, Premier Livre, 1677 , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1995.
  • Louis Marchand, Pièces de clavecin: Livre premier & Livre second , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1999.
  • Bernardo Pasquini, Opere per tastiera, Vol. III and Vol. IV , a cura di Armando Carideo, Colledara: Andromeda Editrice, 2003.
  • Jean Philippe Rameau, Pieces de Clavecin , ed. v. Erwin R. Jacobi, Kassel et al .: Bärenreiter, 1958/1972, pp. 1-3.
  • Alessandro Scarlatti, Toccate ..., Vol. I & II, a cura di A. Macinanti e Fr. Tasini, Bologna: Ut Orpheus Edizioni, 2000 & 2003.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See François Couperin , L'art de toucher le clavecin
  2. ↑ Most of them are preserved in the famous Bauyn manuscript , see: Bauyn manuscript, ... , deuxième part: Pièces de Clavecin de Louis Couperin, ... , Facsimile, prés. by Bertrand Porot, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 2006.
  3. ^ Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue, Pièces de Clavecin, Premier Livre, 1677 , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1995.
  4. ↑ Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Les Pièces de Clavecin, Premier Livre, Paris (sd = 1687), Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1997.
  5. ↑ In the manuscript Rés 89ter in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France , Paris. See: Manuscrit Rés. 89 ter , Pièces de Clavecin: D'Anglebert - Chambonnières - Louis Couperin - Transcriptions de pièces pour luth , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1999.
  6. ^ Jean-Henry d'Anglebert, Pièces de Clavecin - Édition de 1689 , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1999.
  7. ^ Louis Marchand, Pièces de clavecin: Livre premier & Livre second , Facsimile, publ. sous la dir. de J. Saint-Arroman, Courlay: Édition JM Fuzeau, 1999, pp. 24-25.
  8. ^ François Couperin, L'Art de toucher le Clavecin - The Art of Playing the Clavecin , Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, ed. & trans. v. Anna Linde (originally 1933), p. 33.
  9. ↑ Draghi was stylistically strongly influenced by French and English! The author of the said piece is given in the original source as "Mr. Baptiste", which is unfortunately not entirely clear, as it could theoretically also refer to Jean-Baptiste Loeillet (1680-1730). See Giovanni Battista Draghi, Harpsichord Music , ed. By Robert Klakovich, Madison (Wisconsin): AR Editions, Inc., 1986, foreword p. Xi, and p. 84.
  10. ↑ Examples in: Alessandro Scarlatti, Toccate ..., Vol. I & II , a cura di A. Macinanti e Fr. Tasini, Bologna: Ut Orpheus Edizioni, 2000 & 2003, Vol. I, p. 12 (Toccata II) , P. 32 & 35 (Toccata III), or in Vol. II, p. 33.
  11. ↑ Pasquini doesn't always add arpeggio to it. See: Bernardo Pasquini, Opere per tastiera - Vol. IV , a cura di Armando Carideo, Colledara: Andromeda Editrice, 2003, 38 (Tastata in g "per il Signor Melani") and p. 40 (Tastata in g "per Milone") ). Bernardo Pasquini, Opere per tastiera - Vol. III , a cura di Armando Carideo, Colledara: Andromeda Editrice, 2003, p. 59 and p. 65 (unmarked examples).
  12. ↑ French title with English preface: Suites de Pieces Pour le Clavecin London 1720; modern edition Henle-Verlag, Munich 1983, including four examples in the appendix.
  13. ^ Georg Friedrich Händel, Piano Works III - Selected Various Pieces (Wiener Urtext Edition) , Schott / Universal Edition, 1994, pp. 16–18, 26–27, 32–35.
  14. ↑ Philipp Emanuel Bach: Attempt on the true way of playing the piano, Vol. 2, Berlin 1762 (last page Allegro with precisely noted time values); [1]
  15. ↑ Vol. 1, Third Main Part (From the lecture), § 15.