Preluding During the Period Circa
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VERSUCH EINER ANLEITUNG ZUM PRÄLUDIEREN: A 21ST CENTURY METHOD FOR 18TH CENTURY PRACTICE by Donald D. Livingston Submitted to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, DOCTOR OF MUSIC Indiana University December, 2019 Accepted by the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music Doctoral Committee ______________________________________ Elisabeth Wright, Research Director ______________________________________ Vincent Carr ______________________________________ Wendy Gillespie ______________________________________ Stanley Ritchie December, 2019 ii Copyright © 2019 Donald D. Livingston iii Dedicated to the memory of my parents, Lowell and Virlene Livingston, and Thomas Binkley. Requiescat in pace. iv Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the support and generosity of my friends Paul Berget, Ginna Watson, Sarah Weiner, and Mary Burke, without whose support I could not have completed this work, and the faculty of the Historical Performance Institute, in particular Elisabeth Wright – teacher, mentor, and friend. v Preface The foundation of this project was laid with work done in preparation for my final DM recital on fortepiano at the Jacobs School of Music. It was a selection of works for fortepiano from the classical era, and the works were grouped in pairs, with an introductory work preceding something in a standard compositional form. This included some preludes and fantasies that were, in retrospect, probably larger in scale than an improvised prelude from the period may have been, but the idea of improvising – or at least composing – specific preludes as introductions to compositions or as interludes between had taken hold. After that recital, I began a series of house concerts of classical chamber works and experimented with fantasies, preludes, and improvisation. This project is a travelogue detailing how I developed a methodology for improvising preludes to works from this period. What started as a casual interest in preludes turned into an examination of the tutors and treatises of the period, and I found that there is less instruction from the period than there are examples. I have used these sources to engineer a method for creating them for the modern performer, mindful of the expectations of modern audiences and performers, the scarcity of improvisation in classical live performance, and the particularities of modern performance situations, all in hope that this method could be used to foster a reinvestment in improvisation in the classical realm, and to advance the endeavors of historically informed performers. vi Abstract The history of the prelude as an introduction reaches back to our earliest musical expressions and extends to the modern day. The prelude as a compositional genre sprang out of improvised practice, one which still finds life in the realm of organ service playing today, but which was otherwise largely abandoned by keyboard players in the 19th century. This abandonment was the result of two significant forces; a change in focus on the prelude from being an introduction to a stand-alone form, and the structural change of preludes from affektive expressions to abstract, formalized constructs. The transformation of prelude to a new genre of composition in the 19th century was its ultimate death as an improvised art form, and one aspect of the historical performance movement that has received little attention and even less studied application. This project addresses specifically non-organ keyboard preluding during the period circa c1760 to c1830, the period framed roughly by C.P.E. Bach’s seminal treatise, Versuch über die wahre Art, das Clavier zu spielen (1753/62), and Carl Czerny’s A Systematic Introduction to Improvisation on the Pianoforte (1836), which marks the last gasp of improvisational invention in keyboard performance. This project provides an historical context of keyboard preluding, traces the development of the prelude from written examples of improvised preludes to an independent compositional form during the same period, and most importantly supplies a method for creating improvised forms, including preludes, interludes and introductions to works from the period, using the principles of preluding supplied in the original sources. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... v Preface ............................................................................................................................................ vi Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... viii List of Examples ............................................................................................................................. xi List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ xii List of Appendices ........................................................................................................................ xvi Chapter 1 : Preluding: an Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 Preluding ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Preludes and Other Improvisations .............................................................................................. 3 Characteristics of Preludes .......................................................................................................... 9 Qualitative Characteristics .................................................................................................... 10 Formal Characteristics........................................................................................................... 16 The Fortepiano ........................................................................................................................... 26 Pianist-Composers ..................................................................................................................... 30 Improvisations to Compositions ................................................................................................ 33 Chapter 2 : Preluding: Tutors and Examples ................................................................................. 38 Preluding Tutors ........................................................................................................................ 40 Prelude Collections .................................................................................................................... 59 Works with Preludes Attached. ................................................................................................. 72 Compositions with Preludial Introductions ............................................................................... 79 viii Chapter 3 : Preluding: A Method ................................................................................................... 85 A. Präludium: The Process of Creating a Method ..................................................................... 85 1. Composition and Improvisation ........................................................................................ 86 2. Talent v. Skill .................................................................................................................... 89 3. Improvisation and Memory ............................................................................................... 90 B. Versuch einer Anleitung zum Präludieren: Creating a Prelude ............................................ 92 1. Prerequisites for Preluding ................................................................................................ 92 2. Inventio: Preparing a Prelude ............................................................................................ 93 3. Constructing a Prelude ...................................................................................................... 99 C. Extempore Preluding .......................................................................................................... 105 1. Practice Cadences and Harmonic Progressions ............................................................... 105 2. Sketching Preludes .......................................................................................................... 106 Chapter 4 : Preluding Examples .................................................................................................. 109 PRELUDING 1750-75 ............................................................................................................ 109 PARENT 1 – Johann Gottfried Müthel, Sonata Primo in F from 3 Sonatas, 2 Ariosi and 12 Variations pour le Clavessin (c1756). ................................................................................. 109 PARENT 2 – Ferdinando Pellegrini, Sonata V in D from Sei Sonate per Cimballo con Violino ò Flauti, Op. 10 ‘et Ultima’ (1762). ....................................................................... 112 PARENT 3 – Christian Gottlob Neefe, Veránderungen