Capstone

Capstone. Theary Lloyd.

[Audio] The topic I have chosen for this capstone is "How important is it for a musician to put an "individual" stamp on a style, performance, or composition? How much is "original" and how much is "borrowed" (and in what manner) from previous models, and how much borrowing is considered appropriate?" I chose this topic because improvisation is something that interests me, and it's interesting to see how the incorporation of it in classical music has faded out over time. Many of my classmates may be performers themselves, or will be teachers of performers, so understanding various improvisational practices and developing an individual style may be relevant to them. The main takeaway from this presentation will hopefully be a better understanding of individuality and expression in music. The project will be focusing on musical practices from 16th century Italy to answer the topic questions, since it is an era of music we cover in this class and one that has many relevant examples of improvisation. The presentation will first give background on this time period and location, then I will highlight relevant aspects of its musical practices from the essays I have selected. Next there will be an analysis on Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie by Giovanni Bassano, with the score and two musical performances. All of the information from these sources will be used to draw a conclusion about the two questions in the project topic. Lastly, there will be a connection made between the conclusions and modern day music..

[Audio] How important is it for a musician to put an "individual" stamp on a style, performance, or composition? How much is "original" and how much is "borrowed" (and in what manner) from previous models, and how much borrowing is considered appropriate?.

[Audio] Improvisation was commonly incorporated into music and performance in the 1600s. There were various different methods of improvisation, and improvising was considered an inherent part of performing music at the time. Most musicians were expected to be able to improvise using various techniques.Embellishing a piece by adding ornamentations and diminutions to it was one of the most simple forms of improvisation. Variation pieces and realizing basso continuo, creating new lines based on a given bassline and counterpoint, were additional methods. A toccata, which is a prelude played by an organist before a motet/ fugue, was one of the most complex forms of improvisation at the time..

[Audio] Many instrumental works included borrowed material, either as instrumental arrangements of existing pieces, partially borrowed material with diminutions added, or as a paraphrase or parody. The overuse of borrowed material was criticized by various composers at the time, and this ties back to the first part of my project: "How important is it for a musician to put.....How much is "original" and how much is "borrowed" (and in what manner) from previous models, and how much borrowing is considered appropriate?".

[Audio] "Even though a lot of us are ' improvisers,' we spend a large percentage of time 'playing' things that we already know" - Mick Goodrich All of these sources begin with a written portion describing the practice, giving practical advice on performing and adding embellishment, and providing warnings about the misuse of the material Giovanni Bassano's ' Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie' ( 1585). In the first measure, Bassano presents an interval of a major second followed by four examples of ornamented ways to perform it. "I believe these treatises are training manuals meant to help a student acquire the necessary musical language to function in improvisatory situations, and their approach is not terribly different from that of modern jazz pedagogy" "The ornamentographs in the sixteenth century manuals remind me of transcriptions of jazz solos, and perhaps we can apply modern pedagogical strategies to these as well.".

[Audio] " Brown points out three kinds of improvised ornamentations in sixteenth century music: i) simple decoration; ii) virtuoso display; and iii) acoustical reinforcement" "It was still common in early Italian Baroque to embellish existing parts as well as creating or improvising entire counterparts" Conforto method - very simple as he provides multiple possible passages over various intervals, that are also of different lengths, that a musician can learn, memorise and, so-to-say, copy-paste into their own musical situation:.

[Audio] Contrappunto ad videndum entailed an oral approach to improvised discant, which as the term indicates, was performed "at sight" - maintain the contrapuntal lines within an octave while improvising. usage of different note values ( minima, semiminima) to create melodic and rhythmic variation strongly resembles the well-established improvisational techniques of diminution with passaggi - ornamental procedures "borrowed" from instrumental music the idea that first-species counterpoint was often implicitly intended as extemporized can be deduced in other treatises of the period Pietro Pontio's Ragionamento di musica the student is expected to learn by heart five different contrapuntal melodic variations, What is remarkable is the sheer number of diverse contrapuntal combinations that the students were expected to memorize and employ extemporaneously The concept of improvisation that emerges from these theoretical works is founded on the extemporaneous application in performance of internalized contrapuntal paradigms.

Giovanni Bassano, 1585. “Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie”.

Ricercata Quarta - Giovanni Bassano (from Ricercate, Passaggi et Cadencie. Venetia 1585).

Giovanni Bassano: Ricercata Quarta. Performance: Anna Stegmann.

[Audio] How important is it for a musician to put an "individual" stamp on a style, performance, or composition? Looking at the musical practices of 16th century Italy, an individual stamp or style was not something that was emphasized. Many ornamentations, embellishments and other forms of improvisation were laid out for music students, and to an extent there was a limit to what was "acceptable." The expectation was to be able to improvise, not necessarily be original. An individual stamp or style was something that developed naturally..

[Audio] How much is "original" and how much is "borrowed" (and in what manner) from previous models, and how much borrowing is considered appropriate? Looking at the musical practices of 16th century Italy, the vast majority of "improvised" music was borrowed. Improvised material was usually either borrowed directly from another piece of music, or was selected from one of the written out exercises/ patterns for the music. As Mark Goodrich notes, "pure improvisation" has always been rare. The overuse of borrowed material in composition was heavily criticized, however..

[Audio] Many of the improvisational practices of 16th century Italy can be related to modern day practices of improvisation. Borrowing from and copying existing music, using exercises and patterns to help guide improvisation, and embellishing a given melody are all techniques used in jazz and commercial music today. The genre and applications vary compared to 16th century Italy, but their musical practices seem to be the foundation of improvised music in general..

References. Ward, John Milton. 1952. “The Use of Borrowed Material in 16th-Century Instrumental Music.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 5 (2): 88–98. https:// search.ebscohost.com / login.aspx?direct = true&db = ram&AN =A833593&site= ehost -live. Bass, John. 2009. “Improvisation in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Lessons from Rhetoric and Jazz.” Performance Practice Review 14 (1): 76–108. https:// search.ebscohost.com / login.aspx?direct = true&db = ram&AN =A653668&site= ehost -live. Morucci , Valerio. 2013. “Improvisation in Vocal Contrapuntal Pedagogy: An Appraisal of Italian Theoretical Treatises of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century.” Performance Practice Review 18 (1): 12–31. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ram&AN=A900869&site=ehost-live . Rolfhamre , Robin. “Embellishing Lute Music: Using the Renaissance Italian Passaggi Practice as a Model and Pedagogical Tool for an Increased Improvisation Vocabulary in the French Baroque Style.” Danish Musicology Online, 2016. Giovanni Bassano, 1585. “ Ricercate , passaggi et cadentie ” Ricercata Quarta - Giovanni Bassano (from Ricercate , Passaggi Et Cadencie . Venetia 1585). Youtube , n.d. https://youtu.be/7ZU5PllmZaU . Giovanni Bassano: Ricercata Quarta . Youtube , n.d. https://youtu.be/-4F90Ar0v-4 ..