The modern-day oboe is It seems only THE a beautiful and complex natural to group with instrument, commonly made of the harpsichord with the piano English grenadilla (African blackwood) and featuring a complex key and organ system with 45 pieces of because of the Concert keywork. The Baroque oboe way it’s designed is more rustic, generally made and played, but of boxwood and containing the funny thing only three keys, which means is, in some ways players have to “overblow” to reach the higher the harpsichord harmonic pitches. Invented in the mid-17th century is actually more and one of the fi rst woodwind instruments to be similar to the adopted into the , the oboe played an guitar. When you especially important part in Baroque and play a key on the was frequently employed as a solo instrument. The harpsichord, the oboe d’amore, featured as a solo instrument on this levers activate a program, is especially beloved for its serene tone mechanism that plucks the string, whereas in a piano color, something Bach and Telemann utilized to the sound is produced by hammers hitting strings (like great effect. percussion instruments), and in organs by releasing pressurized air through a series of pipes (like a wind instrument). On a harpsichord, it doesn’t matter how powerfully or gently one strikes the notes, the tone is generally brilliant and direct, but infl exible and are one of unvarying. Many are made with two the earliest known “manuals” (two sets of keyboards), which allow for an insTrumenTal Guide instruments, having some variation in volume and tone color. been found in the Byzantine Empire. The harpsichord is extremely important in Unlike other woodwind for providing the harmonic progressions and bass instruments, fl utes lines. Conductors of period ensembles also commonly do not use reeds, lead from the harpsichord, playing the fi gured bass and instead have an embouchure hole near the top while conducting. In addition to its accompanying across and into which the player blows. During the role, the harpsichord can also be a solo instrument; Fri Baroque Period, the original transverse fl utes were Bach alone wrote a large number of keyboard redesigned to give the instrument a wider range works that were played on the harpsichord before Jan 31 8 pm and more penetrating sound, while maintaining its they became popular on piano as well. Though the spauldinG audiTorium soft, expressive qualities. Composers such as Bach, instrument fell into disuse by about 1810, supplanted post-performance discussion Telemann, and Vivaldi incorporated the fl ute into a in popularity of pianos, 20th-century composers wide range of opera, ballet, chamber and orchestral have returned to the harpsichord, seeking variation music. The fl ute enjoyed popularity during the in the sounds available to them. Today, we hear Baroque and Classical periods, but fell out of favor the harpsichord in as well as in the during the Romantic era until Theobald Boehm works of contemporary composers such as Ligeti and redesigned the instrument into the form most Bartók. commonly found today, made out of metal rather than wood. HopKins cenTer For THe arTs Introduction to a Trumpet and How was music played in Bach and Mozart’s time? This innocent question became central to a major intellectual and musical movement called “historically informed performance,” or “period performance.” The idea of historically informed performance dates back to the late 19th century, when instrument maker Arnold Dolmetsch made copies of Baroque- era instruments and studied treatises on how music was performed in earlier times. The movement grew quickly after WWII, with the founding of ensembles such as the , the , and . Baroque Modern

There are two main considerations to period The Baroque violin differs from the modern violin in All conversations comparing modern and historical performance – using historical instruments and several ways. For one, strings are made of catgut, brass instruments begin and end with valves – they’re knowing the appropriate, “historically accurate” prepared from natural fiber found in the walls of that important. The ancestor to the French horn, playing styles based on modern-day research. Here, animal intestines, rather than steel. This gives the “natural horn,” did not have a valve system. As a we will explore some of the instruments used in a instrument a darker, richer, but less brilliant and result, pitch changes were mainly controlled by lip Baroque orchestra, how they compare to modern- explosive sound. In addition, Baroque violinists did tension and hand position in the horn bell. This not day counterparts, and a few of the stylistic aesthetics not play with chin rests or shoulder rests, as they only makes the horn difficult to play, but also limits commonly observed. didn’t exist at that time. The Baroque bow also bends the range of notes the instrument can produce. As outwards rather than inwards, contains less bow hair, a result, music written for the natural horn had to and is lighter than its modern counterpart. account for its limitations until valves were developed, Aesthetically, the choice of tempo, tuning pitch, which allowed for a whole new world of chromatic The lute and its improvisation, ornamentation, and vibrato are possibilities. However, some composers such as cousin, the four- all significant points of debate that have been Brahms preferred the sound of the natural horn and stringed oud, the subject of entire books. To make some large continued to write for it, adding to the repertoire are influential generalizations, the research behind period already left behind by Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, predecessors performance has often led musicians to adopt faster Telemann, and others. of the modern- tempos, lower tuning pitches, freer improvisation, Likewise, before the invention of keyed trumpets day guitar. A specific approaches to ornamentation, and restrained by Anton Weidinger in 1770, the instrument plucked string use of vibrato. Ensembles were also far smaller in was valveless and immensely difficult to play. instrument with the 18th century. Whereas a Handel piece typically It’s interesting to note that most contemporary a large half-pear features 25-50 instrumentalists, in the 20th century, replicas of natural trumpets are made with modern body, frets, and some composers wrote works for over 100 players. compromises, such as the addition of vent holes that a pegbox, the The period performance movement influenced ensure acceptable intonation, while still recreating the lute is used both orchestras to reduce ensemble size when playing original sound. This gives us an idea of just how much as a solo and earlier music, and many feel that this allows us to skill it took to control these instruments before the accompanying hear textures and musical lines that might otherwise invention of valves. instrument, especially well-suited to providing disappear in a larger ensemble. harmony to vocal songs. The lute was one of the most important instruments for Renaissance secular music, but fell out of fashion by the late 17th century in part because of the harpsichord’s increasing popularity.