Facility, Clarity, Flow, and Charm: Mattheson's Theory of Melodic
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Facility, Clarity, Flow, and Charm: Mattheson’s Theory of Melodic Invention and Its Potential in Performance Joel Verkaik April 2019 Schulich School of Music McGill University A paper submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of D.Mus Performance Studies 1 Table of Contents Introduction....................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1: Mattheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister ............................................... 3 Mattheson’s Four Necessary Qualities of Melody ........................................ 6 Facility ........................................................................................ 7 Clarity ......................................................................................... 11 Flow ............................................................................................ 16 Charm .......................................................................................... 20 Chapter 2: Analysis ......................................................................................................... 26 Brockes’s Passion Text .................................................................................. 26 Heul, du Schaum der Menschenkinder .......................................................... 30 Hier erstarrt mein Herz und Blut ................................................................... 38 Brich, mein Herz ............................................................................................ 44 Chapter 3: Further Discussion and Adaptations for Performance Practise ..................... 51 Adaptations from Examples; Recording Critique .......................................... 51 Emotional Identification ................................................................................ 52 Metric Stress .................................................................................................. 53 Ornamentation, Articulation .......................................................................... 61 Instrumentation .............................................................................................. 64 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 68 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 70 Appendix........................................................................................................................... 72 Abstract Mattheson’s 1739 treatise Der vollkommene Capellmeister provides a model for melodic invention that can be used by performers to examine music and to make programming and performance practise decisions. His framework of four necessary qualities of melody, Facility, Clarity, Flow, and Charm, is a useful way to examine works of his contemporaries, and can be adapted for use by performers. Differences between settings of Brockes’s Passion text examined under this rubric show the flexibility of Mattheson’s model and its applicability for performative ends. Mattheson’s insistence on adaptability and good taste makes his theory compelling and efficient. We are able to evaluate composers’ choices according to his rubric and make reasoned programming and performance practise choices, with the possibility of bringing unnoticed works to the fore by emphasizing a balance of facility, clarity, flow, and charm. Le traité Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739) de Johann Mattheson fournit un modèle pour l’invention mélodique qui permet aux interprètes d’examiner la musique afin de les ouriller dans leur prise de décisions lors de la programmation et de l’interprétation. Son cadre suggère quatre qualités nécessaires pour la mélodie, soit la facilité, la clarté, la fluidité et la charme. Ce cadre est utile pour examiner les œuvres des compositeurs contemporains de Mattheson et peut également être adapté pour les interprètes. Les différences entre des compositions écrites sur les paroles de la Passion de Barthold Heinrich Brockes, examinées sous cette rubrique, montrent la flexibilité et les possibilités d’application du modèle de Mattheson. Son insistance sur l’adaptabilité et le bon goût rend sa théorie particulièrement intéressante et efficace. Grace à la rubrique de Mattheson, nous pouvons évaluer les choix des compositeurs ainsi que prendre des décisions de programmation et d’interprétation raisonnées, tout en découvrant découvrir des œuvres inconnues de manière à mettre en lumière les principes de facilité, clarté, fluidité et charme. 2 Introduction Musicians face an ever-growing wealth of easily and cheaply available manuscript scores and scans and reproductions of early publications. The number of baroque-era composers, for example, with music available in some form on imslp.org’s extensive database of uploaded scores reaches to almost 2000,1 and library collections are increasingly available in scanned versions online.2 Given the wealth of available yet little-known repertoire, performers looking for programming options may ask themselves, based on their experience: in seeking out and discovering new works, how best to approach them from a programming and performance perspective? Can a model be developed with which performers can efficiently evaluate and prepare music not previously known to them, using criteria and insights from contemporary writers? The current study serves to answer these questions by adapting a typology of melodic characteristics developed by Johann Mattheson (1681-1764) in Part II of his 1739 treatise Der vollkommene Capellmeister. Below, Chapter 1 contains an introduction to Mattheson’s career, followed by a summary of his framework for melodic invention. In Chapter 2, several similar works contemporaneous to the period leading up to the publication of Der vollkommene Capellmeister will be examined in the light of Mattheson’s outline, to determine in what ways he and his contemporaries may have followed in practise the same principles he sets out in his treatise. In Chapter 3, some particular ways that performers can apply and adapt Mattheson’s suggestions will be presented, including some potential additions and adaptations that can render his framework even more useful as a tool in performance. 1 ‘Category:People from the Baroque Era - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music’, accessed 13 April 2019, https://imslp.org/index.php?title=Category:People_from_the_Baroque_era&intersect=Composers&from=Venturini %2C+Francesco. Not every composer is represented by manuscripts or early editions; and indeed certain newly- uploaded editions can seem hastily prepared in their occasional errors and omissions. 2 McGill University’s library website contains links to library collections at Rochester and Indiana Universities, alongside IMSLP and other, more specialized collections. SLUB Dresden is another important and diverse online resource. 3 Chapter 1: Mattheson’s Der Vollkommene Capellmeister Johann Mattheson, one of the most prolific 18th-century German writers on music and a staple of musical culture in Hamburg, began his career as a performer, singing in the Hamburg Opera from the age of 15. This is reflected in his published writings, where he often appeals to good taste and experience as the final arbiters of compositional choice, rather than to strict theoretical dogmatism. By 1700, the young Mattheson had also begun performing operas of his own composition at the Hamburg Opera, and in 1703 he met and befriended Georg Frederic Handel (1685-1759). When Mattheson left the opera, he became the tutor to the son of English ambassador John Wich, and subsequently clerical secretary to the ambassador himself, affording him opportunities for travel and study among the English. In 1715 Mattheson became Capellmeister at the Hamburg Cathedral, and the ensuing 15 years were extremely productive for him as a musician, and later as a writer and critic on music.3 In 1739, he published his most important theoretical work, Der vollkommene Capellmeister. Mattheson makes his case for a melody-based theory in Der vollkommene Capellmeister. 4 He considered melody to be the fundamental basis of other musical arts such as counterpoint and basso continuo, and found it a pity that the art of melody writing had been so badly ignored: “This art of making a good melody comprises that which is almost essential in music. Hence, it is quite amazing that such an important feature, on which most depends, has been neglected by virtually every teacher until now.”5 His treatise is divided into three parts. Part I provides a 3 Beekman C. Cannon, Johann Mattheson; Spectator in Music, Yale Studies in the History of Music, v. 1 ([New Haven?]: Archon Books, 1968), 45-62; 82-89. 4 Ernest C. Harriss, Johann Mattheson’s Der Vollkommene Capellmeister: A Revised Translation with Critical Commentary (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1981). I also draw from Harriss’s earlier translation: Ernest Charles Harriss, Johann Mattheson’s Der Vollkommene Capellmeister: A Translation and Commentary (PhD diss., George Peabody College for Teachers) Ann Arbor, MI: 1969, and from a facsimile of the 1739 edition. Citations from the main body of Harris’s translation of Der Vollkommene Capellmeister (DVC) will be listed by Part, Chapter, and Section, for easier reference across editions. 5 DVC, Pt. II, Ch. 5, s. 2. 4 philosophical basis. Part