I’m coming to the end of writing my research proposal this morning, all I need to do is just the final checking of referencing and proof reading like mad till I can get some constructive feedback on my ideas of PlayBach. It’s exciting though! Today I thought I’d talk a little about the progress and changes I’ve made so far for the project in terms of research and how my ideas have changed.
Originally, I thought I would be a doing a project centered around performance practice, but the more advice I got, the more inclined I was venturing back to my previous goals from last year in questioning how to interpret pieces of music. I have always been interested in Baroque music, one of the main reasons that has kept my interest in the instrument I may, and I feel as a movement, it needs more recognition whether that is playing something purely authentic or purely interpretive. However, I am glad that I finally decided to focus on something I have a keen interest in, something I can put into practice and that people can get something from. I have a good knowledge already of the practicalities of playing baroque music, and no ‘most of the fundamentals’ to be able to pull of the style, but I want to expand this personally and aim to demonstrate to people what I have learned. Last year, as I have blogged about before, I discussed and researched thoroughly the possible the bowing and playing considerations needed for applying authentic methods to a conventional bow, similarly, this year I will be doing effectively a close idea but by showing I can apply it on both styles of instrumentation. Rather than focusing on just bow technique, I wanted to get a picture of interpretation as a whole – meaning I will look at many things such as;
- Effectiveness
- Instrumentation
- Bowing
- Articulation
- Suggested Fingering
- Ornamentation
- Dynamics – musical effectiveness (style)
- Intonation
- Rhythms
With the work I have done last year, I can apply this and further its investigation with close analysis of scores, reading experts’ suggestions and asking musicians and professionals their views to get a more collective view on how we should or not interpret Bach’s music.
Over the last few weeks I have been listening to various recordings by professionals, in a varying mixture of instrumentation i.e. Stradivarius/Guaneri/Baroque Setups(+equivalant) – to types of strings and tuning – which I will have to consider when recording myself and when documenting the research I am doing. All this is still ongoing and in very rough note form – which I’m finding myself a nuisance to try and revise myself at what on earth I am trying to say – but I will post some more detail when I am a bit more at ease that the proposal is away.
The recordings I have been listening to – all have something that is interesting about them, from things such as mood, articulation which shows how music has evolved and changed to meet performance criteria and practice. Itzak Perlman has been one of my favourites in terms of projection and hearing every note very clear and capturing its rhythmic flow. However, with my love of baroque authenticity Monica Hugget and Rachel Podger are both inspiring in terms of style as it is very different to how Perlman has portrayed the music. I think in order for me to fully understand – I will do some analysis and comparisons of these recordings to get a better grasp on what the differences are of authentic reinterpretation and a modern reinterpretation of the music.
I am still pretty set on using his Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin – but for the practical side – I will need to prepare only one-two movements – due to time constraints and physicality of learning the piece in two different characters.
lauren hamilton violinist 