DiDonato, Sinkovsky, Il Complesso Barocco Bring Down the House

W   e singers tend to boast that our careers offer the best form of psychotherapy in existence, for we are allowed to work out the bulk of our inner demons courtesy of the larger-than-life drama queens we encounter on the stage—divine ladies who weep, love, moan, and avenge more grandly and stylishly than in any other art form.”
  — Joyce DiDonato, 2012.

T he Joyce DiDonato/Dmitry Sinkovsky/Il Complesso Barocco performance last night in the Harriman-Jewell Series was really phenomenal. Many extraordinary, seldom-heard works by lesser-known Baroque composers, like Antonio Cesti (1623-1669), Geminiano Giacomelli (1692-1740), Giuseppe Orlandini (1676-1760), and Giovanni Porta (1675-1755). Extraordinarily dramatic and vivid vocal and instrumental interpretations. Extraordinarily tight and responsive interactions between the ensemble members and Ms. DiDonato throughout.

A scending cadences, each with the forte dynamic they require, imparting a strong sense of closure. Descending cadences to pianissimo, imparting a sense of sorrow with aspiration. The sort of gestures that Hatten once characterized as “yearning” (see links below).

F ormalized emotion—a dialectic of ‘drama queens’—DiDonato rations her body movement, reserves it mostly for recitative passages, while her body is relatively still during arias: her regal rhetoric is well-suited to these stories of queens and princesses. The arias ‘frame’ the dramatic recitatives, not the other way round (that is, ‘decorative’ arias, see Taruskin, p. 25).

M ost online reviews from performances on their current tour do focus, understandably, on Ms. DiDonato’s singing. But, my God, this ensemble! Gorgeous! And, my God, Sinkovsky! Prodigious!

W hat strings is Dmitry Sinkovsky playing!!? Silver-plated, copper on gut? Pirastro Eudoxa? Chorda? Sensuous with a glint, a sound that is a perfect match for DiDonato's rich mezzo-soprano voice!

T he wound G-string was common on violins in the 18th century. Beyond 1840 and already far beyond plain gut strings, composers were writing things that were, essentially, only playable with a wound G string. With modern strings, we’d lose this rich, complex sound of very thick gut strings. We’d lose the consort timbre within the violin family. We’d lose the diversity of articulation, and we’d lose subtleties of this 17th and 18th Century sonic architecture.

T o a software engineer like me, the musical score is an object-oriented ‘method’, procedural code executed on an instance of an object-class that may or may not grant all of the behaviors specified by the arguments passed to it. But Dmitry Sinkovsky and Il Complesso Barocco accomodate all args, all flavors!

T he range of Dmitry Sinkovsky’s articulation is especially interesting, because it allows him to imitate the singer’s diction, with diverse ‘consonants’ beginning each violin-syllable (or bow stroke) and diverse glottal and quasi-labial and -dental and -fricative sounds to match each of DiDonato’s vocal gestures. Through the centuries, the imitation of the human voice has always been an ardently sought goal for instrumentalists. Sinkovsky totally owns this! (He has even mastered American folk-fiddlish, jiggy “hoe-down” technic, which he improvised to humorous effect at DiDonato’s prompting for one of her encores, to the raucous delight of her hometown Kansas City audience!)

S inkovsky’s pulsatile, fluid bow-and-whole-body gestures, dance-like, match DiDonato’s operatic arms-and-whole-body gestures. Sinkovsky’s bow stroke is Transitional Period? Russian? Energized ‘non-legato’, at any rate! Because of the ‘give’ of the bowhair, the bow does not emit full sound immediately at the onset of the stroke, but only after some pressure has been exerted and some bow excursion has occurred—the momentary softness followed by a crescendo in each stroke.

H e plays fast passages with energy abounding but with still a roundness to his sound and supple articulations. A player trained in a modern, pressure-on-the-bowstick style feels immediately that baroque bow does not give the attack of a modern bow—it’s more from the wrist and fingers. But Sinkovsky’s Baroque bow attack is astonishingly sharp—more so maybe than would be achieved with a modern bow. Our jaws were agog for 2 hours in gob-smacked amazement.

A re these tempi faster than normal, or are we just glad to see you all? Was the room hot, or was it just you? :)

N ext up for these artists is Carnegie Hall tomorrow.

• Joyce DiDonato website.
• DiDonato & Il Complesso Barocco. Drama Queens. (Virgin Records, 2012.)
• Dmitry Sinkovsky page at Andreas Janotta Arts Management.
• Il Complesso Barocco website.
• Bachtrack blog. DiDonato Drama Queens review. 14-NOV-2012.
• Burton A. Performer's Guide to Music of the Baroque Period. Oxford Univ, 2001.
• Clement C, Wing B, McClary S. Opera; or, The Undoing of Women. Univ Minnesota, 1999.
• Conrad P. A Song of Love and Death: The Meaning of Opera. Poseidon, 1988.
• Fubini E. Music and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe: A Source Book. Univ Chicago, 1994.
• Goldenberg Y. A musical gesture of growing obstinacy. MTO 2006;12(2).
• Hatten R. Musical Meaning. Indiana Univ, 2004. p. 100.
• Hatten R. Interpreting Musical Gestures. Indiana Univ, 2004.
• Heurtz J. Joyce DiDonato returns in triumphant Folly concert. Kansas City Star, 17-NOV-2012.
• Kerman J. Opera as Drama. Univ California, 2005.
• Kivy P. Osmin's Rage: Philosophical Reflections on Opera, Drama, and Text. Princeton Univ, 1988.
• McClintock C, ed. The Solo Song, 1580-1730. Norton, 1973.
• Morrison M. Joyce DiDonato Drama Queens review. The Times. 03-NOV-2012.
• Robinson P. Opera, Sex, and Other Matters. Univ Chicago, 2002.
• Rosenberg M. Drama Queens review. WQXR, 11-NOV-2012.
• Rutherford S. The Prima Donna and Opera, 1815-1930. Cambridge Univ, 2006.
• Taruskin R. Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Oxford Univ, 2009.
• Baroque violin strings at EarlyMusicShop
• Baroque violin strings at TheStringZone

Private Passion Now Public: Rachel Brown and the Tip of Quantz’s Previously Unpublished ‘Iceberg’

W hat a remarkable performance Rachel Brown (baroque flute) and Terence Charlston (harpsichord) gave last Friday, in the Parry Rooms at the Royal College of Music in London!

• Sonata in G major, No. 272 - Presto mà fiero
  
• Sonata in B major, No. 267 - Larghetto
  
• Sonata in A major, No. 274 - Grazioso mà vivace
  
• Sonata in D major, No. 277 - Allegro assai
  
• Sonata in G minor, No. 366 - Affettuoso, mà mesto; Allegro di molto, mà fiero
  
• Sonata in B-flat major, No. 272 - Allegro di molto; Affettuoso; Vivace
  
• Sonata in C minor, No. 276 - Cantabile
  
• Sonata in F major, No. 356 - Larghetto, mà arioso; Allegro di molto
  
• Sonata in G minor, No. 265 - Con affetto, mà non troppo lento

T he occasion for the performance was the launch of the publication of the first two volumes of Quantz flute sonatas that Rachel has edited. Brown’s edition of Quantz Sonatas, bringing these works to the public for the first time, is available by subscription, either to one volume or both, by emailing her at info@uppernote.com.

T his is a marketing approach similar to that used in the 18th Century. For example, Brown notes that Telemann’s Paris Quartets listed among its subscribers not only several members of the French aristocracy, such renowned players as Blavet, Guignon, Edouard, and composers, notably de Caix d'Hervelois, Charpentier, Mondonville, Fasch, Pisendel but also a ‘J.S. Bach of Leipzig’.

V olume 1 contains 6 sonatas (F major No. 272; G major No. 273; A major No. 274; B-flat major No. 275; C minor No. 276; D major No. 277) as does Vol. 2 (B minor No. 231; B minor No. 267; G minor No. 336; E-flat major No. 348; A major No. 351; F major No. 356). These are selected by Brown from the more than 300 flute sonatas that Quantz composed, almost none of which have been previously published.

Q   uantz’s book ‘On Playing the Flute’ is still one of the most-consulted books on flute technic, which makes it especially odd that virtually none of Quantz’s many compositions were actually published. Almost everything that was written by Quantz for King Frederick of Prussia remained in the court’s private possession, and then in the Stadtsbibliothek in Berlin, for more than 200 years. So I went to the library in Berlin to have a look. I would arrive in the morning when they opened at 9 a.m. and take a quarter-hour lunch and leave when they closed at 7 p.m. The librarians were wonderful; they broke almost every rule to help me—they were so delighted that someone was taking an interest in these things. It turns out that there are more than 300 Quantz concerti and about 400 sonatas, hardly any of which have been published.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

T he design of these Volumes is unique in several ways. Firstly, for the sonatas that have a ‘bass’ (cello) part as well as flute and harpsichord, the flute and bass parts appear on linked staff-systems together—so that both players can continuously see what the other is doing, with the obvious advantages that this entails for fluid, mutually-responsive performance.

I   t is crucial, I think, to have the flute and the cello (bass) parts together on the page—to have the cello able to see where the dialogue with the flute is going and, from that, to be better able to choose appropriate phrasing and ornamentation.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

T   onguing, for Quantz, was not just simple ‘tuh’ or ‘duh’. Instead, tonguing involved a whole range of syllables and shades—tiree, tä, diddle-diddle—all sorts of articulations that could alter the sound and reveal different qualities of expression. The expressive range he covered is really quite marvelous—something that takes years to fathom, really.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

R achel expressed deep thanks to Terence Charlston for his skill and devotion in preparing right-hand parts where Quantz only provided left-hand continuo. In all, Terry had to compose about 120 minutes of right-hand harpsichord score, for the multiple movements of the 12 sonatas in these two volumes.

R achel also expressed gratitude to Jackie Lee, whose Finale©/Sibelius© copyist/pre-press expertise produced the publication-ready digital files. Rachel’s specification and Jackie’s layout involve fold-out pages so as to prevent any awkward page-turns for the performers. This is a second unique/novel aspect of the design of the 2-Volume publication.

T he acoustics in the intimate, modest-size Parry Rooms on the 4th floor at RCM were ideal for the baroque flute-harpsichord duo. Filled to capacity with more than 120 people eager to hear these works, the rooms with their irregular wall and ceiling contours and the warm yellow-pine ceiling and paneling served to reflect the sound in such a way that most everyone had a good vantage point for hearing the performance. (We were grateful for Rachel's consideration in getting everybody who was in Parry 1 moved into Parry 2 just before the performance began!)


B rown explained at length the merits of various alternate fingerings that the Quantz design affords. Her blazing 32nd notes in the bravura first movements of the pieces, though, are pretty incredible, regardless how well-engineered and forgiving a particular instrument may be. It is hard for most of us to imagine executing these fast passages on a modern Boehm design instrument with anything approaching the fluency and consistency of tone that Brown achieves on an early flute! What prodigious ability she has!

W e were similarly thrilled by Charlston’s finely-nuanced harpsichord performance. The gracefulness of his accomodation of accelerando and ritardando decisions initiated by Brown was magnificent; the ornaments Charlston applied embodied a fresh spontaneity that responded attentively to Brown’s gestures but never ‘competed’ with them. Really exciting ‘collaborative keyboard’ at its best!

O   ne of Quantz’s strengths was rhetorical ‘delivery’... all of the gestures with tonguing and breathing... He believed that every musician should play like an accomplished orator speaks: clarity and conviction should ring out from every declaration that you make as a musician. Above all else, you must be an orator.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

A n especially endearing and comment-worthy aspect of the evening were Rachel’s remarks between the pieces that she and Terry played. She covered an amazing gamut of topics, ranging from instrument design, to ornamentation and historically-informed performance practice, to flute-playing technic, to composition methods, to Prussian history, to anecdotes on parent-child relationships and the plight of kids whose natures are ‘different’ than their parents would prefer. Seldom have we had so much fun as we did on Friday night. Immediately bought all of Rachel’s Quantz CDs on-offer, to take them home and get better acquainted with this previously-private-now-public Quantz passion. Judging by the qualities she displayed during the Friday night performance at RCM, Rachel must be one hell of a teacher! Bravo!

E   very day, Quantz was defending and protecting his reputation... It is interesting to read other people’s accounts of him... In his own writings, filled with quotidian bits and pieces, he will often tell you, for example, how much he paid for a thing, as though it were important to him to demonstrate or prove his shrewdness. He was orphaned at a young age and was taken under the wing of a local musician... In his teens, Quantz concentrated on oboe and violin; only later did he come to concentrate on flute. It is underappreciated how much of a musical jack-of-all-trades he was—how resilient.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

H   e gave flute lessons, secretly, to Prince Frederick—before Frederick’s father, the King, died. The father’s disapproval of music, and especially of flute, was absolute; he considered it far too effeminate, inadequate as a representation of Prussian militarism, and incompatible with the important priorities that Frederick must have in his training to become King one day. There was one episode during one of Quantz’s lessons when one of Frederick’s servants reported that the father was approaching the part of the palace where the secret flute lessons room was located. Quantz and the flutes and the music and the music stands were shoved into an armoire. The father arrived and found Frederick alone, studying some book of military strategy, but, because Frederick’s hair was still done-up in the French style, he knew something was ‘up’. The father searched the area for more than an hour, but never found Quantz in the armoire. Quantz, though, subsequently referred to the incident as ‘being cooked’—because the armoire was so cramped and hot while he was confined in there.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

A   t one point, Frederick tried to escape, with the help of a servant. The two did not get far. The father arrested them and subsequently had them tried for high treason. Frederick was imprisoned for a year, and his father forced the young Frederick to witness the execution of the servant.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

Q   uantz did marry, you know. It was under, shall we say, ‘intriguing’ circumstances. He went to visit the widow of one of his friends who had recently died. The woman was ill; bedridden; in fact, the priest had been called to administer the last rites to her. And, with the priest there, the woman was asked if there was anything she most desired before she departed this life. And she replied that her dying wish was to be married to the great Quantz. So Quantz agreed and the priest conducted the ceremony on the spot. After which the woman sprang from her bed, said she felt very much better now, and thanked everyone for coming. This was when Quantz’s annual income was more than 2,000 talers, more than 10 times that of C.P.E. Bach...”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

T   his particular flute is a boxwood one that I was able to buy from Carl Hanson in Yorkshire before he retired. It is a 2-key design after Quantz—the two keys are E-flat, which is a few cents higher in pitch, and D-sharp, which is a few cents lower in pitch [than would be the case in equal-temperament]. The difference is very useful, depending on which key a piece is written in. Rudolf Tutz in Innsbruck also made me two flutes of Quantz-type design, one of ebony and one of boxwood—these woods have substantially different tone qualities, both very good. The bore of Quantz flutes is considerably larger, especially in the headjoint, compared to other baroque flutes. The sound is darker and richer in the lower register and yet they are brilliant in the upper register...”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

T   hese titles or designations for pieces became more and more florid, you know... this ‘Allegro di molto, mà fiero’, ‘this way, but not too much so’, and so on. In fact, as we enter the Classical period, you can tell that people were finding it to be over-the-top. Mozart, for example, entitled one of the movements in his Quartet in A major KV-298 ‘Allegro grazioso, mà non troppo presto, però non troppo adagio, così-così-con molto garbo ed espressione’, mocking the excessiveness of the practice of a generation or two earlier.”
  —  Rachel Brown, remarks between Quantz sonatas, 19-NOV-2010.

• Rachel Brown website
  
• Rachel Brown page at RCM
  
• Terence Charlston page
  
• Rudolf Tutz Baroque Flutes
  
• Carl Hanson Baroque Flutes, 23 The Crescent, Hipperholme, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX3 8NQ U.K., Tel: +44-(0)1422-201289
  
• FluteHistory.com
  
• Bärenreiter-Verlag ur-text facsimile publishers
  
• FluteFocus.com
  
• Brown R. The Early Flute: A Practical Guide. Cambridge Univ, 2003.
  
• Dehne-Niemann E. The Quantz flute. Traverso 1994;9(4):1-4.
  
• Quantz J. (E. Reilly, tr.) On Playing the Flute. Northeastern, 2001.

M   odern editorial markings can so easily obscure the composer's intentions. Unhelpful editions of baroque music are readily recognisable: if a copy of a baroque sonata designates ‘piano accompaniment’; if the left-hand keyboard part has no figured bass; if there is no separate bass part for a cellist or viol player; if there are metronome marks...”
  —  Rachel Brown, The Early Flute.

Borromeo String Quartet: eBach

T    his program is about the greatness and the ‘open-endedness’ of Bach’s music, and about letting Bach’s music meet a new set of tools... When Bach played the organ, he was known for making beautiful and unexpected combinations of stops (the sets of pipes that make a certain sound). With this electronically-processed string quartet arrangement, we are going to bring a new set of ‘stops’ into play.”
  —  Nicholas Kitchen, @TheGardner interview with Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum staff, OCT-2010.

T he Borromeo String Quartet’s [Mai Motobuchi, viola, Yeesun Kim, cello, and Nicholas Kitchen and Kristopher Tong, violins] performance tonight at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall included Bartók’s String Quartet No. 6 and Beethoven’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127.

B ut the sheer novelty of this program was embodied by ‘Bach’s Electric Chords’, Nicholas Kitchen’s string quartet arrangement of Bach’s ‘Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor’, BWV 582, with electronic processing. Warning: If novel reworking of Bach inherently offends you, then read no further.

T he passacaglia consists of twenty variations on a theme that Bach famously co-opted from André Raison’s Premier Livre d’orgue of 1688. Many have said that the double fugue in BWV 582 is really a twenty-first variation on that theme—a variation of prodigious, surreal length.

B ach plumbed the limits of the bass melody in BWV 582, to the point where he was able abandon the melody itself from time to time and yet the beautiful mechanism does not quit or fall apart. Emulating Bach’s exploratory spirit, Kitchen pushes the discursive, contrapuntal ‘envelope’ even further. This arrangement is like a string quartet conversation that ranges from one topic to others, to the point where the thread of the conversation matters less than than the flow itself—matters less than the continuation of the self-propelled cameraderie of the celebrants. The piece becomes an expansive meditation on the joy of playing together. There are moments when it is possible to believe in the abrogation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, energy for free, perpetual motion, and Eternal Return. The nature of bowing—as contrasted with keyboards and pedaling—also lends new dimensions to the piece, ones that likely would have pleased Bach himself.

F    enner Douglas groups French registrations into four texture-based categories: broad textures [plein jeu (principal chorus, upwards from 16'); grand jeu; fond d’orgue (all principals and flutes at 16', 8', and 4')]; contrapuntal textures [esp. reeds]; melodic textures [cornets; tierces; nazard; voix humane; etc.]; and composite textures... In the Fugue of BWV 582 easily the most interesting is the cross-beat slurring of the first countersubject [in m. 169]... If Bach had asked his [organ] pupils to phrase the countersubject across the beat, some indication of this would have been needed in the score, for it goes against the Baroque practice of placing ‘downbows’ on the ‘good’ notes.”
  — Peter Le Huray, p. 104.

T he organ offers a wide range of colors and textures, and so, of course, does the string quartet. The range can be substantially extended when mics and electronic processing are applied. To my taste, Kitchen’s orchestration makes good sense—it is empathetic, not ‘indulgent,’ and the electronic processing does not draw undue attention to itself.

T he chords themselves are intriguingly different when played by a string quartet instead of an organ. For example, the Neapolitan sixth near the conclusion of BWV 582 is not like a C-major chord transposed up a semitone but is instead a dramatic new color, in part because stringed instruments are not confined to equal temperament (12-TET). Unfretted instruments and singers are free to conform their tuning closer, say, to 18th-Century well-temperaments. Then, instead of congenial key-independent uniformity of sound as in ET, with well-temperaments each key has its own distinctive qualities, tensions, dissonances—tensions that would not be evident when playing this Passacaglia and Fugue on a modern organ.

T he tailpiece miking of each of the Borromeos’ instruments was excellent. Each quartet member’s Line6 POD® effects modeler output was routed to a powered QSC K-8® monitor positioned on the stage directly facing the audience. (In the future, I hope that a larger array of more speakers directed in a variety of directions may be possible for BSQ, or, better still, get a sound engineer and a mixing console and adjust the delays properly for the size of the hall.) The succession of effects patches in each part was switched via the foot stomp switches on the Line6 POD®s, in a pattern reminiscent of an organist changing ‘stops’. Each instrument’s soli passages involved switching to a brighter ‘reed’ patch and increasing the volume with the pedal on the right-hand side of the POD® modeler. Other organistic effects included divide-by-two and divide-by-four frequency-division patches that transformed the cello’s signal into 16' and 32' thundering contrabass pipe organ sounds. Light chorusing effects and, toward the end, increasing reverb were among other effects that Kitchen scored in this arrangement.


T he use of the 4 Macintosh laptops and Bili Inc. Footime® digital Page/Score Turners was interesting from another perspective as well. The profile of these is far smaller and lower than standard music stands filled with sheet music. As a result, the laptops on their stands do not present such a big acoustic obstruction between the performers and the audience members as conventional music stands. The cello and the viola are far clearer-sounding compared to normal string quartet configurations. Absolutely beautiful.


I n summary, we were thrilled by a superb performance and by an arrangement of BWV 582 that sheds exciting new light on an old subject.

• Borromeo String Quartet website
  
• Borromeo faculty page at NEC
  
• Nicholas Kitchen website
  
• Bili Inc. Footime® Page/Score Turner
  
• Line6 POD® HD powered effects pedals/modelers
  
• QSC K-series powered monitors
  
• Le Huray P. Authenticity in Performance: Eighteenth-Century Case Studies. Cambridge Univ, 1990. [see pp. 102-111]
  
• Pejrolo A, De Rosa R. Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer: A Practical Guide to Writing and Sequencing for the Studio Orchestra. Focal, 2007.
  
• Quaglia B. (Univ Utah) ‘Passacaglia and Eternal Return in Bach and Ligeti’. Paper given at Rocky Mtn Soc Music Theory, APR-2002.
  
• Speerstra J. Bach and the Pedal Clavichord: An Organist’s Guide. Univ Rochester, 2004.
  
• Williams P. Witting and unwitting allusion in keyboard music of J.S. Bach. Musical Quarterly 2000;84:756-75.
  
• BWV 582 score at IMSLP.org

S°HIP Musica Nuova: Turbulent Love, Teleported from 17th Century Italy to Here & Now

O    biondi capelli
Che preso m’havete!
Di voi cosi belli
Amor fa le reti.
Acciò che frà l’ombra
Secùra vi tendi.
E mille poi prendi
Di cuori rubella—
O, biondi capelli!”

[O, blonde hairs
that have captured me!
From you, blond ones,
Love spins nets
that must securely stretch
Amongst the shadows,
there to capture
Thousands of hawt hearts
O, fair hawt hearts!]
  —  Giovanni Ghizzolo, ‘Ahi, quanto ne godo’.

M usica Nuova’s S°HIP performance last night at Emmanuel Church in Boston was thoroughly enjoyable.

T his Musica Nuova performance was part of S°HIP’s twenty-third season, which this year runs for seven weeks (30-JUN through 06-AUG) with events at various venues in and around Boston. Focusing on works from the Renaissance through 18th Century, SoHIP embraces eclectic programs and productions like Musica Nuova’s, as well as more ‘conventional’ HIP (historically-informed performance) interpretations.

T he Emmanuel Church’s Lindsey Chapel, a narrow 12 meters wide by 25 meters long, was acoustically well suited to the size and sound of this ensemble and the 80 or so attendees who turned out for the performance. The conceit for last night’s ‘Turbulent Love Songs’ program was romance in the modern workplace/office. On the steps and floor of the chancel at the front were arranged a filing cabinet, coffee pot, and two back-to-back office chairs and desks where Ms. Keil and Mr. Scoggin conducted their business activities, shuffling and stapling papers, texting on their mobile phones (whence, the program's subtitle ‘BlackBerry^® Jam’), and so forth. The nature of their office work is grey, drudgerous, and uninspiring—and each is hoping to find meaning in Life through other non-commercial pursuits. Mr. Scoggin (Tirsi) makes an amorous overture to Ms. Keil (Filli), and the succession of songs carries the pair through a tumultuous arc from initial besotted mutual infatuation, to disappointment and annoyance, to pique (Tirsi pitches the flower he has given to Filli on the floor in disgust), to reconciliation and finally loving rapprochement that comes with each realistically gauging the sentiments and potential that the other offers.

• da Gagliano (1582-1643)—Lo vidi in terra
  
• d’India (1582-1629)—Lo viddi in terra
  
• Rossi (1597-1665)—Fanciulla so io
  
• Piccinini (1566-1638)—Prelude
  
• Caccini (1551-1618)—Ardi, cor mio
  
• Caccini—Dolcissimo sospiro
  
• Caccini—Non più guerra
  
• Cima (1570-1630)—Sonata
  
• Ghizzolo (?—c.1625)—Odi, Filli, che tuona
  
• Ghizzolo—Ecco, felici Amanti
  
• Steffani (1654-1728)—Sia maledetto Amor
  
• Frescobaldi (1583-1643)—Partite sopra l’aria della Romanesca
  
• Monteverdi (1567-1643)—Voglio di vita uscir
  
• Ghizzolo—Tirsi mio, caro Tirsi
  
• Piccinini—Toccata IV
  
• Monteverdi—Eri già tutta mia
  
• Caccinini—Sfogava con le stelle
  
• Ghizzolo—Perche piangi pastore?
  
• Ghizzolo—Ahi, quanto ne godo

T  irsi’s and Filli’s carryings-on generate paper-hurling, flower-pot slamming, Aeron-chair thwumping, stapling/paperclipping frenzy, and a couple dozen traversals of the chancel steps in un-historically-informed indignant manner. “Boy meets girl; boy gets girl; boy loses girl; boy gets girl back!” Sort of a white-collar ‘Pajama Game’ veering toward the caricature of ‘The Office’. The singing and playing, though, are entirely ‘HIP’ and faithful to the idioms of the 17^th Century.

I nstrumental interludes were well-chosen—enhancing the narrative arc and pace of the love story and also showcasing, in turn, the particular strengths of Cartreine’s, Lemire’s, and Shalem’s playing. Scoggin’s and Keil’s singing was masterful; each brought a rich voice and dramatic poignancy to his/her role. The two navigated the tremendous intricacy of the 17^th Century Italian texts in a manner that seemed, to us in the audience, nearly effortless. Amazing, in fact.

I  can only imagine that this light-hearted, dramatic production would be successful in engaging young audiences and those who love musicals. In other words, this program would be highly effective for chamber music presenters whose goals include ‘new audience’ development and marketing to those who might not otherwise think they would like 17^th Century music.

• Suzanne Cartreine, harpsichord
  
• Amanda Keil, mezzo-soprano
  
• Scott Lemire, theorbo
  
• Josh Schrieber Shalem, bass & treble viola da gamba
  
• Thann Scoggin, baritone

C o-founding Musica Nuova last year, mezzo-soprano Amanda Keil and lutenist Scott Lemire collaborate with Suzanne Cartreine (harpsichord), Joshua Schreiber Shalem (viola da gamba) and Bradford Gleim and Thann Scoggin (baritones).

M usica Nuova takes its name from Giulio Caccini’s 1602 book of songs ‘Le Nuove Musiche’. Caccini was one of the pioneers of monody, a vocal style that involves intensive ornamentation, rhythmic textures, and expressive harmonies. These songs were precursors to modern opera and oratorio.

S uzanne Cartreine, harpsichord, is currently pursuing a MusD in Harpsichord and Historical Performance at Boston University. As a pianist and harpsichordist, she performs solo and chamber music in New England and Canada. As a choral singer she has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Academy Chorus, among others. Suzie is the organist and Director of Music at the First Parish Church of Stow and Acton, where she conducts two choirs and oversees an active music program that engages over 100 volunteer musicians each year. Under her direction, they have just produced their first CD, In dulci jubilo, a collection of Christmas music. Suzie teaches piano and has a BA in Physics from Macalester College in St. Paul and a MMus in Piano Performance from Temple University.

A manda Keil, mezzo-soprano, has appeared in the role of Florence Pike in Albert Herring and as Third Lady in The Magic Flute [both with the Intermezzo Young Artist Program], Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus [Opera del West], La Chatte in L’enfant et les sortilèges [MetroWest Opera], the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe [MIT], and Nerone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea [OperaHub]. She has appeared with The Boston Camerata in Tristan et Iseult. Amanda holds a masters degree in voice and historical performance from Boston University, and a bachelors degree in French horn performance from The Hartt School.

S cott Lemire performs lute, theorbo, and vihuela, in solo and continuo roles. In addition to Musica Nuova, he has appeared with Sette Monti, Ars et Amici, New York Classical Guitar Society, and Williamsburg, Virginia, Music For A While. He has also performed with several New England orchestras including productions of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and New England Conservatory’s production of Cavalli’s L’Egisto.

J oshua Schreiber Shalem studied cello with Maxine Newman at Bennington College where he was a member of the Bennington Cello Quartet and the Early Music Ensemble. Josh is founding member of the ensembles Seven Times Salt, an English Consort, and Longy & Away, a consort of viols. He is currently completing a Masters of Music at the Longy School of Music, where he studies with Jane Hershey. In addition to his performance and Feldenkrais activities, Josh is active in Boston’s Jewish community as an educator and cantorial soloist.

T hann Scoggin, baritone, has appeared as soloist with numerous ensembles in such diverse concert repertoire as Monteverdi’s Selva morale, J. S. Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions, Telemann’s Der Tod Jesu, Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Mass in C, the Requiems of Fauré and Duruflé, and Arvo Pärt’s ‘Passio’. His operatic repertoire includes the roles of Leporello in Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, and Betto in Gianni Schicchi. He took his Bachelor’s degree at UNT, where he studied early music performance with Lyle Nordstrom and Lenora McCroskey. Before relocating to Boston in 2007, Thann appeared regularly with the Dallas Bach Society, Orchestra of New Spain, Texas Choral Artists, the Helios Ensemble, and the University of North Texas Collegium Musicum. Besides Music Nuova, Thann currently performs with Exsultemus, the Boston Secession and the choir of the Church of the Advent.

T he next SoHIP event will be 7 Hills Renaissance Wind Band (16th Century German Wind Music from the Hapsburg Courts) on Tuesday, 28-JUL.

• Society for Historically Informed Performance (S°HIP) website
  
• Musica Nuova website
  
• Alexander R, Savino R, eds. Francesca Caccini's Il primo libro delle musiche of 1618: A Modern Critical Edition of the Secular Monodies. Indiana Univ, 1997.
  
• Cohen J, ed. Giovanni Ghizzolo: Madrigali et arie per sonare et cantare. Recent Res in Music of Baroque Era, Vol. 88. A-R, 2005.
  
• Glixon B, Glixon J. Inventing the Business of Opera: The Impresario and His World in Seventeenth-Century Venice. Oxford Univ, 2005.
  
• Haynes B. The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford Univ, 2007.
  
• Ringer M. Opera’s First Master: The Musical Dramas of Claudio Monteverdi. Amadeus, 2006.
  
• Rosand E. Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre. Univ California, 2007.

Latent Meaning: Performances as Authorship, Transcriptions as Intrepid Exploring

C    an Bach’s famous keyboard variations actually be improved? . . . it depends what you mean by ‘improved’. If ‘given a fresh new perspective’ qualifies, then the answer, according to this CD, is a resounding ‘Yes’! Hearing three distinct voices instead of one truly enhances the experience of listening to this classic. So how did Dmitry Sitkovetsky transcribe it? Violin & viola for the right hand, cello for the left? It would be nice if it were that simple. Sometimes the treble line involves the viola and violin, sometimes just the violin. In the case of Variation 19, Sitkovetsky does something quite impish. He sneaks pizzicato figures into the counterpoint mixture, so that when the violin and viola are conversing, the cello provides background plucking. But wait! That’s not all! A few bars later, the pizzicato is traded back and forth among the instruments, only to fade in and out of prominence. And it all happens in less than two minutes. Other dazzling feats occur in this performance. The centerpiece is the haunting Variation 25, the longest (7:39) adagio in the piece. Harpsichordist Wanda Landowska called it ‘The Black Pearl’, perhaps for its deeply affecting, melancholic beauty. The trioists inject it with an impressive array of dramatic techniques, like deft shifts from pianissimo to mezzo-forte and slight shadings in tempo. It almost sounds like a string trio piece from the late classical period. Why does this arrangement of the Goldberg Variations succeed so well? … the structure of the piece lends itself to three instruments, not one. When played on keyboard instruments, the two upper voices are virtually indistinguishable [but in string trio the voices are each more distinct].”
  —  Peter Bates, review of Rachlin et al., AudiophileAudition, 11-JAN-2008.

I f you haven’t previously heard Dimitry Sitkovetsky’s transcription of Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’ (BWV 988) for string trio [see links below], you will, I think, be pleasantly surprised. I particularly like the Deutsche Grammophon recording of the performance of it by Julian Rachlin (violin), Mischa Maisky (cello), and Nobuko Imai (viola).


    [50-sec clip, Julian Rachlin et al, Sitkovetsky transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for String Trio, ‘Aria’, 1.2MB MP3]

It is amazing how well-suited the variations turn out to be for strings. Sitkovetsky’s transcription is an expecially thoughtful and innovative one, which teases out new expressive elements that previously have been only ‘latent’ and never realized when played on a harpsichord or a piano.

New meanings that have lurked in Bach’s text for almost 270 years become apparent, even obvious. New kinds of tension—melodic, harmonic, textural, and metrical—that contribute to the music’s overall effect begin to take hold of us.

Dmitry Sitkovetsky was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1954 and is a Russian violinist and conductor. He grew up in Moscow, studying at the Moscow Conservatory. When he wanted to leave the Soviet Union in 1977, he feigned mentally illness, was granted permission to emigrate to the U.S. and studied at Juilliard. In 1979 he won first prize in the Kreisler Competition in Vienna. From then on he has appeared as soloist with renowned orchestras around the world. He was the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra from 1996 to 2001 and was Conductor Laureate of the orchestra during 2002. Since 2003, he is Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian State Symphony in Moscow.


Each of the trio parts avails the player the opportunity for an expansive response to the text, as well as challenges to maintain a good blend and ensemble. Rachlin sounds especially intense and personal here, which is what one always wants from a performer. The prodigious insight of Sitkovetsky’s compositional decisions is ample justification for what might otherwise have been thought to be an ‘unnecessary’ transcription of ‘Goldberg’. Once you have it, you realize that you needed it all along...

Bach’s two- and three-part keyboard writing for most of the ‘Goldberg’, so double-stops might be thought to be the natural approach to a string trio transcription that would render the harmonies in the original text. But there is far more here than that. Sitkovetsky emphasizes the dialogues in the counterpoint by exquisitely leveraging the timbral differences between the instruments. Rachlin, Maisky, and Imai are genuinely inspired by the ideas that Sitkovetsky has provided, as you will readily hear in their superb Deutsche Grammophon recording.

Variation 18 ending


    [50-sec clip, Julian Rachlin et al, Sitkovetsky transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for String Trio, ‘Variation 18’, 1.2MB MP3]

Variation 19 opening

Variation 19 ending


    [50-sec clip, Julian Rachlin et al, Sitkovetsky transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for String Trio, ‘Variation 19’, 1.2MB MP3]

Variation 20 opening


    [50-sec clip, Julian Rachlin et al, Sitkovetsky transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for String Trio, ‘Variation 20’, 1.2MB MP3]

In trying to understand why the Sitkovetsky string trio transcription of the ‘Goldberg’—and the Rachlin et al. performance of it—are so novel and genuinely illuminating, I recall that Peter Kivy once noted that “the quality that persists through [Landowska’s] various performances of the ‘Goldberg Variations’: performance is to be valued not as process but for the interpretation it embodies.” Kivy argued that performances are full-fledged ‘versions’ of works in precisely the same sense as arrangements are—performance becomes a vicarious act of composing. It is that full-fledged creativity that we hear here.

S    o in the case of the Goldberg, there is in fact one pulse, which—with a few very minor modifications—mostly modifications which I think take their cue from ritards at the end of the preceding variation, something like that—one pulse that runs all the way throughout.”
  —  Glenn Gould, interview with Tim Page, 1982.

Rachlin plays the opening aria with what feels to me to be just the ‘right amount’ of circumspection. The introspective sensitivity and exquisite variety of touch that Maisky and Imai achieve are a joy to hear as well. The transitions between Variations are well thought-out and deliver a perfectly coherent, consistent sense of ‘pulse’ from one Variation to the next—consummately Bach-like. The rhythmic alignments, Variation-to-Variation, amount to a kind of [64-bar] hypermeter that threads its way throughout the aria, the 30 variations in all their diverse 2-beat and 3-beat and 4-beat meters, and the da capo restatement of the aria. Click on the image below to open an Excel spreadsheet showing color-coded alignments of the tempi between Variations, as they are rendered in the Rachlin et al. recording of the Sitkovetsky transcription for string trio.


To Kivy, music is never dominated by the text in front of us; music is performance and is therefore irreducibly ‘social’. It involves a direct and private communication from composer/transcriber to listener. The intelligibility of the piece is negotiated in real-time—none of the social participants has ‘omniscience’, or a privileged perspective of meaning and intelligibility.

How, after all, could we know would we know what Bach intended? All sorts of evidence, sure—some of it fragmentary, some flawed. So the musical text is under-determined with regard to performance practice, and performance interpretation can never be a matter of absolute ‘correctness’ but rather one of rigorous ‘coherence’ and thoroughgoing ‘genuineness’.

W hich is what we get here, in the Sitkovetsky played by Rachlin et al. Performers-as-composers/improvisers. Performers and transcribers as explorers, discovering new [historically informed] territory as they go.

This wonderful string trio transcription of ‘Goldberg’ convinces us that a piece of music is better considered as a ‘script’ rather than a ‘text’. We must not be relentlessly clinical or obsessively literal, focusing on the text as the ultimate source of truth and aesthetic value. To do that would be ruthlessly sterile and anti-musical, as Glenn Gould once said. This Sitkovetsky strikes me as one of the most ‘genuine’ transcriptions of anything, ever. Absolutely wonderful, and a fine ‘tool’ by means of which it’s possible to discover yet more meanings in a work that we might previously’ve thought we pretty thoroughly understood…

• Julian Rachlin—Born in 1974 in Vilnius, Lithuania, his parents emmigrated in 1978 to Austria. In 1983, he entered the Konservatorium Wien and studied with Boris Kuschnir and Pinchas Zukerman. In 2005, Rachlin made his Carnegie Hall debut when he performed with the New York Philharmonic under Maazel. Rachlin also performs chamber music with such artists as Martha Argerich, Itamar Golan, Natalia Gutman, Gidon Kremer, and used to perform with Mstislav Rostropovich. In 2000, he joined Rostropovich and Yuri Bashmet, among others, in the premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Sextet. The same year, Rachlin also founded his own music festival in Dubrovnik, ‘Julian Rachlin and Friends’. In 2000, he was rewarded with the prestigious International Prize of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena. Julian Rachlin plays the 1741 ‘ex Carrodus’ Guarnerius del Gesù violin.
  
• Mischa Maisky—Born in 1948 in Riga, Latvia, Mischa Maisky began his musical training at Riga’s Music School and Conservatory. In 1962 he enters the Leningrad Conservatory. In 1966 he won first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and began his studies with Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory. He was imprisoned by USSR authorities for 18 months and emigrated to Israel in 1973. He has maintained a busy and illustrious performing and recording career ever since.
  
• Nobuko Imai—Born in 1943 in Tokyo, Imai began her training at Tokyo’s Toho Gakuen School of Music and soon after came to the United States where she studied at the Juilliard School and Yale University. She won first prize at both the Geneva International Music Competition and ARD International Music Competition at Munich. She taught as a Professor at the Detmold Academy of Music from 1983 to 2003, and currently teaches at the Conservatories of Amsterdam and Geneva, and at Conservatoire Supérieur et Académie de Musique Tibor Varga in Sion.

• JulianRachlin.com
  
• MischaMaisky.com
  
• Nobuko Imai page
  
• Sitkovetsky page at Nonesuch
  
• Clarke U-F. Review of Rachlin et al. performance of Sitkovetsky's Goldberg transcription for String Trio, MusicalCriticism.com, 26-NOV-2007.
  
• Rachlin J, Maisky M, Imai N. Goldberg Variations, Arr. String Trio (Sitkovetsky). (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007.)
  
• Trio Accord. Goldberg Variations, Arr. String Trio (Sitkovetsky). (Skylark, 2008.)
  
• Trio Echnaton. Goldberg Variations, Arr. String Trio (Sitkovetsky). (Coviello Classics, 2008.)
  
• Trio Zilliacus-Persson-Raitinen. Goldberg Variations, Arr. String Trio (Sitkovetsky). (Caprice, 2007.)
  
• Godlovitch S. Musical Performance: A Philosophical Study. Routledge, 1998.
  
• Goehr L. The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music. 2e. Clarendon, 2007.
  
• Kivy P. Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance. Cornell Univ, 1998.
  
• London J. Hearing in Time: Psychological Aspects of Musical Meter. Oxford Univ, 2004.
  
• Potter J. Vocal Authority: Singing Style and Ideology. Cambridge Univ, 1998.
  
• Small C. Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Wesleyan Univ, 1998.
  
• Swain J. Musical Languages. Norton, 1997.
  
• Yeston M. The Stratification of Musical Rhythm. Yale Univ, 1976.
  

Lionheart’s ‘Tydings Trew’—Normative Acoustic Truth, Burdens Borne Collectively

T    hese carols and the braided interrelationships of the parts—with a soloist prominent at times, and every individual dissolving his individuality into the sound of the ensemble at other times—vividly remind us of the spirit of this holiday season, which has everything to do with community, sharing, and giving thanks.”
  —  Cynthia Siebert, CEO, Founder and Artistic Director, Friends of Chamber Music, remarks introducing Lionheart, 04-DEC-2008.

C arols received an inspired work-out last night in Lionheart’s recital last night in Kansas City, as part of the Friends of Chamber Music Early Music series.


    [50-sec clip, Lionheart, Tydings Trew, ‘Carol: As I Outrode this Endres Night’, 1.2MB MP3]

A    s I outrode this endres night,
Of thre ioli sheppards I saw a sight,
And all abowte there fold a star shone brite—
They sange ‘Terli, terlow!’,
So mereli the sheppards there pipes can blowe.

Doune from heaven, from heaven so hie,
Of angeles ther came a Great Companie,
With mirthe and ioy and great solemnitye,
They sange ‘Terli, terlow!’,
So mereli the sheppards there pipes can blowe.”
  —  Medieval English Carol.

This carol was placed 7^th in the program of 22 pieces (carols, motets, canticles, antiphons, chants) and was sung last night as a trio. The tenor, baritone, and countertenor voices were deliciously intertwining, the openness of the harmonic textures contrasting wonderfully with the close-harmony, denser textures of much of the five-part and six-part singing earlier and later in the program.

• Lawrence Lipnik, countertenor
  
• John Olund, tenor
  
• Michael Ryan-Wenger, tenor
  
• Jeffrey Johnson, baritone
  
• Richard Porterfield, baritone
  
• Kurt-Owen Richards, bass

Lionheart’s conception of ‘Tydings Trew’ traces the origins of modern Christmas to the efforts of monks in medieval England, essentially to the Franciscans’ arrival in England in 1224. They note that caroling is far older than its co-optation by Christianity. The carol was originally a dance where participants held hands in a ring or in a line, and as they moved they sang a refrain. During several of the pieces in last night’s concert, members of Lionheart moved in a circular pattern around the altar, which stands in the center of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception sanctuary under the barrel-shaped ceiling. The antiphonal effects with the advance and recession and recurrence of each individual part as its singer moved in this 10-meter circle were ethereal—adding extra poignance and spatial color to the beautiful textures and harmonies. And the ‘collectivity’ or ‘group-normativity’ of the expressions conveyed by each part—to which Cynthia Siebert had alluded in her introduction—was especially apparent at these moments as well. The bodies of the singers move fluidly, as if held in orbit around a collective ‘center’—by centripetal force? by the force of gravity? by the force of shared spiritual belief associated with the carol/chant texts? by the force of secular belief in the power of music? Whatever! The effect is positively spell-binding. Or, at times, tear-making. Extraordinarily moving, at any rate.

Interestingly 14^th- and 15^th-Century English society engaged in caroling not only at Christmastime but also for nearly all other of the Church feastdays. According to historical research that Lionheart’s members cite, the musico-poetic form of the ‘missionized’ carol remained basically the same as that of the profane carol forms that had gone before. The chorus sings the refrain (called the ‘burden’) before and after each verse. Between repetitions of the burden, a soloist or a subset of the ensemble members sings one or more additional verses to a variation of the main melody, usually more embellished and virtuosic. Lionheart notes that the English carol therefore resembles the form and function of the Italian lauda spirituale, which was also Franciscan in its origin.

As an encore, Lionheart delivered an especially rich and touching account of the Gustav Holst – Christina Rosetti carol, ‘In the Deep Midwinter’. T’was a feast for the packed Cathedral-full of people attending. First-rate early music—and vocal music in general—bring Kansas Citians out in enthusiastic droves, and this event was no exception. Thank you, Lionheart!

• Lionheart webpage at ChantBoy.com.
  
• Lionheart page at Bernstein Artists Management.
  
• Lionheart at Friends of Chamber Music, Kansas City, 04-DEC-2008.
  
• Siebert C. Friends of Chamber Music podcast on Lionheart. 01-DEC-2008.
  
• Lionheart. Tydings Trew. (Koch, 2003.)
  
• Apel W. The Notation of Polyphonic Music. 5e. Medieval Academy of America, 1961.
  
• Caldwell J. Editing Early Music. 2e. Oxford Univ, 1995.
  
• Cyrus C. Introduction to Medieval music. Vanderbilt Univ, 15-OCT-1999.
  
• Duffin R. A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music. Indiana Univ, 2002.
  
• Hoppin R. Medieval Music. Norton, 1978.
  
• Knighton T, Fallows D. Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music. Univ California, 1998.
  
• McCully C. Non-linear phonology and Elizabethan prosody. Trans Philological Soc 1990; 89:1-35.
  
• McGee T, Rigg A, Klausner D, eds. Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Indiana Univ, 1996.
  
• Misak C. Truth, Politics, Morality: Pragmatism and Deliberation. Routledge, 1999.
  
• Parrish C. The Notation of Medieval Music. Faber, 1957 / Pendragon, 1978.
  
• Robbins R. The burden in carols. Modern Language Notes 1942; 57:16-22.
  
• Slob W. Dialogical Rhetoric: An Essay on Truth and Normativity. Springer, 2002.
  
• Wakelin D. M.S. S.54: Anthology of 16 medieval English carols. Cambridge Univ, St. John’s College, 2005. [80KB pdf]
  
• Yudkin J. Music in Medieval Europe. Prentice Hall, 1989.
  
• Traditional Music (U.K.) webpage of Wm. Sandy’s 1833 ‘Christmas Carols, Ancient & Modern’
  
• Cambridge University, ‘Keeping the Score’ exhibition, 2007

N    otre Dame organum, which employs a rhythmic notation, seems to modern ears much more evolved than its stylistic predecessors. Notre Dame organum employs three distinctive rhythmic styles: organum purum in which both the upper voice and the lower voice move freely without a specified rhythm, copula in which the upper part moves in a strict rhythm while the bottom voice moves freely, and discant in which both parts move in strict rhythm. In all three styles, the lower voice, known as the tenor (from ‘tenere’, to hold), tends to move more slowly than the top voice; in organum purum or copula, the top voice can have thirty or more notes for each note of the tenor. The notation for the rhythmic sections is based on a group of patterns known as rhythmic modes; once a pattern is selected (e.g. short-long, short-long, short-long), it continues until a new pattern is adopted. The writer of Anonymous IV (named for its order among the anonymous treatises contained in Coussemaker’s nineteenth-century ‘Scriptorum de musica medii aevi’, 1864-1876) discusses six rhythmic modes, and describes the effects that composers were able to achieve with them.”
  —  Cynthia Cyrus, Vanderbilt University.

• Long-short (trochee)
  
• Short-long (iamb)
  
• Long-short-short (dactyl)
  
• Short-short-long (anapest)
  
• Long-long (spondee)
  
• Short-short (pyrrhic)