Baroque Ornamentation Introduction to Flattement

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Baroque ornamentation Introduction to flattement

An ornament in common use in the Baroque period and beyond, finger vibrato is the only type of wind instrument vibrato documented in the years 1690-1750

WRITTEN BY MICHAEL LYNN Michael Lynn performed at the Inaugural Luncheon for This article is the third in a President Obama’s first term and has played throughout the series of articles covering U.S., Canada, Taiwan and Japan with Apollo’s Fire, Mercury ornaments that we might Baroque, ARTEK, Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, Smithsonian expect to encounter in Baroque Chamber Players, Tafelmusik, American Baroque Ensemble, Handel & Haydn music for the recorder. Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival Orch­estra, Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Cleveland Opera, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and many other PART 1: “An Introduction to ensembles. Lynn serves on the faculty of Oberlin Con­servatory as Professor the Trill and Appoggiatura” of Recorder and Baroque Flute, and teaches each year at the Oberlin Baroque / AR Fall 2020 First, we Perform­ance Institute. He writes regularly for flute magazines around the world explored signs that Baroque and is noted for his presentations and videos on History and Development of composers used to indicate the Flute. A noted collector of flutes, he has a web site where you can view the appoggiatura, long trill and them at: www.originalflutes.com. His music and videos are posted at: short trill, with examples of how www.soundcloud.com/mloberlin and www.youtube.com/MichaelLynnFlute. these might be played in actual music of the period.

ne of the most expressive The flattement is the only type of PART 2: “An Introducton to the ornaments available for the wind instrument vibrato documented Mordent/Battement” / Baroque recorder, Baroque in our study period. There are no AR Winter 2020 Building Oflute and other Baroque wind examples of breath vibrato—some on the first installment, the instruments is flattement. It is also references to flattement indicate to numerous symbols and names known as “finger vibrato,” and was me that they didn’t use breath vibrato associated with the mordent an important ornament from at least at all. were added to our musical the 17th century through the 19th. It One of the reasons people are not vocabulary. In examples of was very popular in the heyday of the likely to know about flattement is that music, we learned how to play Baroque recorder. it has no modern cognate, except per- the mordent and to combine Like other ornaments, its use and haps in contemporary music. It is not its use with the appoggiatura performance practice changed over like modern vibrato, which is usually and trill—all great ways to add time—we will concern ourselves with used as a part of tone production. a little spice to the musical the period of 1690-1750. The most Well into the 19th century, vibrato experience. detailed early descriptions come from was added to individual notes, not Jacques Martin Hotteterre’s Principes part of the basic sound, even when de la Flute Traversiere, ou Flute d’Alle- breath vibrato came into fashion. magne (1707). Flattement is discussed in treatises from England, France How does flattement differ instrument. This is similar to what and Germany throughout the 18th from a trill? you would do in making a trill—but century and into the 19th century. In The idea of the finger vibrato is that your finger does not cover the entire other words, it was an ornament in you use a finger on the side of an hole. When playing a second octave common use. open hole, usually one hole down the C on an alto, T123 --- -, we would

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make the motion of a trill along the Play a flattement on several edge of the hole 4, with the tip of the notes, using an alto finger. Let’s try a few basic notes. We will The treatises often remind the start with an alto recorder’s second player that the flattement ends with octave C—fingering T123 --- -. the finger up—unlike a trill, which 1. First, just play the C with a nice usually ends with the finger down. clear and full sound. Try to have no This produces a vibrato with the vibrato or shaking in your air- special characteristic that it only goes stream. Any breath vibrato will ruin down from the main note, less than a the effect of the flattement—it is im- half-step variation in pitch. The main portant to remind yourself of this. note is intended to stay perfectly in 2. Now we will do a fake trill down tune. In this way it is quite different from C: finger T123 --- - and trill from a breath vibrato that usually with finger 4, as if trilling on a long oscillates both above and below the note. This isn’t a real trill finger- note. ing, but that doesn’t matter for our The connection to the trill is impor- purposes. Just do a steady, fairly fast tant, as we are told to start the flatte- trill to start. ment slowly, as we would a trill, and 3. In the next step we will play our to speed up in a way that depends on trill in a more stylistic fashion, by the length of the note and the charac- starting it slowly and speeding up. ter of the movement. Hotteterre tells Try to spread out your speed so you us, “You should observe that it is nec- put off reaching maximum velocity essary to make flattement on almost until you are near the end of the all long notes, and to do them (as well note. as tremblement [trills] and batte- 4. Now we will execute a flattement ments [mordents], slower or quicker, using those same fingerings. Instead according to the tempo and charac- of completely covering the hole ter of the piece.” Later sources warn with finger 4, use the tip of your against overusing the flattement. finger to cover just the edge of the Figuring out how much is correct hole. We want to be able to hear the is one of the reasons a source from pitch change, but we don’t want it Pierre Philidor (1681-1731) is so to sound like a different note—just valuable, as he tells us exactly where a downward wavering of the pitch. he wants ornaments—and it is not Try this first without changing the on all long notes. We have already speed, to find the right place for the encountered this source, and will turn finger. Once you can do that well, to it again later in this installment. do the same thing, but start slowly Most fingerings for flattement and speed up as we did in step 3. follow the rule of using the next hole Once you feel secure with this pro- down, but that often doesn’t work cess on C, and the sound it produces, well for left-hand-only notes. For try some other notes. Start on second those, we use a finger lower down on octave Bb, T 123 4 - 6 -, and use finger the recorder’s body, and sometimes 5 to produce the flattement. Make directly on the hole rather than just a sure to place your finger just on the partial covering. Using the entire hole edge of the hole. leaves out the possibility of shaping a Using second octave A, T123 45 - -, long note by changing the amount of produce the flattement by moving the hole that is covered, as the speed finger 6 on the side of the #G hole. and energy increases. This will be I’m not going to go through all the clearer as demonstrated on my video. fingerings—but let’s see what hap-

36 AMERICAN RECORDER SPRING 2021 HTTPS://AMERICANRECORDER.ORG Ornamentation: Flattement LEARN pens with left-hand notes. Start with as clear proof that no one at the time know that flattement was regularly a first octave D, T12- --- - . It is often who used this particular musical lan- used in the Baroque, it is not some- difficult to use other left-hand fingers guage used breath vibrato. They could thing that composers would notate to do flattement on notes played only easily have said, “for the bottom note, except in some special cases. For with the left hand, so for this D try you must vibrate your wind,” or some instance, Hotteterre—who describes using finger 4 to create the flattement such thing—but that is not the case. the fingerings and gives comments from your right hand. In this case you on how it should be used, including can put your finger entirely on the Historical references, and music “on all long notes”—never notates hole rather than on the edge. with flattement notated the ornament in any of his scores. For another example, try the second Quite a few treatises give fingering The best example of notated flat- octave G, -2- --- -; you could use charts for producing flattement on tement appears in the flute suites of finger 1 or 3, but either of those is dif- the flute. On the recorder the first Pierre Philidor (Deuxième Oeuvre ficult. A good choice is to use fingers good description is from Hotteterre. Contenant II Suittes a 2 Flûtes-Tra- 4 and 5, again placed on their holes. He gives a chart for the flute, but only versières seul avec II autre Suittes Des- You can experiment with different describes in words how to do this ef- sus et Basse). He uses a long squiggle fingerings to see what works best. fect on the recorder. I often invent the starting with a hook. Note: I also cited What happens if we want to play fingerings as needed: in some cases, examples from Philidor’s suites in my a low F? There is no hole below F we may want a mild effect; in others, previous articles and videos covering to cover, so the solution given by a strong one. A flattement can be very the trill and the mordent. Hotteterre and others is to cover all slight and soft, or it can allow you to Pierre Philidor notates ornaments the holes and shake the end of the in- put more stress on a particular note in his suites quite extensively—trills, strument. This creates a rather subtle than virtually any other technique. appoggiatura, battement and flatte- effect, which is probably enhanced If it was so common, why do we ment—thus giving us a wonderful by the visual element. I also see this not hear it more often? Although we source for learning how to use these

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ornaments and to phrase. In the Sarabande from Pierre ⊲ Because composers generally didn’t Philidor’s Suite 10 (example 3), we 1. Pierre Philidor, Sarabanda - notate flattement, we need to iden- see something that is rare to find: Très proprement, from Suite 7. tify the best places to use it. Pierre a flattement on the last note. Using Philidor published 12 suites, six for flattement on a final note is a good 2. Pierre Philidor, Allemande - two flutes and six for flute and basso example of how the character of the Lentement, from Suite 7. continuo. These are spread out into flattement needs to be changed based three books, published in 1717 and on context. In the earlier examples, 3. Pierre Philidor, Sarabande - 1718. Interestingly, he notates con- flattement is employed to stress Lentement, et trés proprement, siderably more flattement in the two and help shape the note in a for- from Suite 10. books from 1718. ward-moving direction. A last note, At right are some examples, which however, is a point of rest in Baroque 4. Anne Danican Philidor, Lentement, can help us understand where to use music, especially in a slow movement from Sonate pour la Flûte á bec. flattement. I have transcribed these like a Sarabande. We therefore want and transposed them into the proper to play the flattement placed at the 5. Anne Danican Philidor, Fugue, keys for recorder. end of the phrase in a manner differ- from Sonate pour la Flûte á bec. It is very common to find flattement ent from our approach to the other on longer dotted or tied notes, which two places in the line. I would play 6. George Frideric Handel, Larghetto, is demonstrated very clearly in the an opposite shape from normal: the from Sonata in F Major, Op. 1, No. Sarabanda from Suite 7 by Pierre flattement would slow down through 11, HWV369. All trills, flattement and Philidor (example 1). Here we see the the note, and end on the note being phrase marks are my additions. half notes often being notated with a held without any vibration. mordent or trill, and the dotted half notes with the flattement. Note that Adding flattement in French the tempo of this movement would be music where it is not notated ornaments are in the original, except quite slow, so there is plenty of time Armed with these examples from the flattement, which I added. to put in the flattement. In a Sara- Pierre Philidor, let’s see how we might In this style of music, the line from banda such as this, the dotted half is add flattement to music in which it the Fugue (example 5) is a relatively virtually always a very important note is not notated. One of the few early quick movement. It is unusual to add on which one could put a slight swell. French sonatas written specifically flattement in a fast movement, but We also commonly see flattement for the recorder is the Sonate Pour la there are exceptions that apply to a added to syncopated notes, as in the Flûte á bec by Anne Danican Philidor long note in any tempo. In this case, Allemande from the same suite by (1681-1728), a relative of Pierre who we see a wavy line in the notation. Pierre Philidor (example 2). These are lived at almost the exact same time. This isn’t a “normal” notation for notes we would want to stress, and It should be clear from the other a flattement, but context indicates the flattement helps us do that. The examples that we should play flat- that it must be what is meant here. tempo of this excerpt is quite slow, tement on the two half/dotted-half We have a very long note, where the marked Lentement. If the tempo were tied notes. We could also deploy it on composer wants us to increase the quick, it is doubtful that flattement other long notes. In this excerpt from energy on the note, starting with a would be used. a Lentement (example 4), all of the flattement and turning it into a trill

resources and Links of interest:

• Michael Lynn’s videos demonstrating this series of translation by David Lasocki (Praeger Publishers) articles: www.youtube.com/americanrecordermag • Flute suites of Pierre Danican Philidor: https://imslp. • Previous articles in this series on ornamentation: org/wiki/12_Suites%2C_Opp.1-3_(Philidor%2C_Pierre_ https://americanrecorder.org/american_recorder_ Danican) magazine_ex.php • Music of Anne Danican Philidor: https://imslp.org/wiki/ • Hotteterre quote from Jacques Hotteterre le Romain, Premier_livre_de_pi%C3%A8ces_(Philidor%2C_Anne_ Principles of the Flute, Recorder, and Oboe (1707) in Danican)

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by the end—a crescendo of activity. Music

Adding flattement in music from England by Handel Something old, something new As mentioned earlier, the flatte- ment was not just an ornament used in France. Let’s look at a familiar movement (example 6) from Sonata in F Major, Op. 1, No. 11, by G.F. Handel (1685-1759) and see if there 01 31 Bicinien for Two ed. Johannes Geiger are places where flattement might be Instruments by Johannes used. The original has no ornaments, Ockeghem so I have added flattement, trills and also phrase markings. 02 Zwei Szenen (Two Scenes) by Manuel Lipstein

Flattement used with crescendo 03 Nothing is Enough! by Alan Gibbs There is one final special technique (for John Turner) that can be applied to flattement. This creates a crescendo, which is not Easy Concert Pieces for ed. Elizabeth Kretschmann possible to achieve any other way on 04 Descant (Soprano) Recorder the recorder. This technique is not and Piano, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 described by Hotteterre in his brief remarks, but is discussed by others in many subsequent treatises. The idea is to start the flattement KEY: rec=recorder; S’o=sopranino; S=soprano; A=alto; T=tenor; B=bass; with the finger just on the edge of the gB=great bass; cB=contra bass; Tr=treble; qrt=quartet; pf=piano; fwd= hole. As you increase speed, you also foreword; opt=optional; perc=percussion; pp=pages; sc=score; pt(s)=part(s); increase how much of the hole you kbd=key­board; bc=basso continuo; hc=harp­sichord; P&H=postage/handling. cover and you increase your air. It is a lot to coordinate, but it makes the flattement very powerful and matches the musical idea of types of tied and dotted notes where we would normally use the ornament. This is covered in greater detail on my video. I still remember the first time I heard flattement played by Frans by Johannes Ockeghem, plus several Brüggen, used on the Anne Dan- 01 31 Bicinien for Two Instru- other short works. The masses from ican Philidor sonata—I thought it ments by Johannes Ockeghem which the selections are taken include sounded extremely strange. I was edited by Johannes Geiger the Missa Sine nomine, Missa De plus a high school student at the time. I en plus, Missa Ecce ancilla Domini, didn’t dislike it, but I also didn’t really Edition Walhall EW448, 2019. Missa L’homme armè, Missa Ma understand what it was all about. Sc 35 pp. Abt. $20.25. maistresse, Missa Mi-mi, Missa Over the years I have learned that www.edition-walhall.de/en/ prolationum and Missa Caput. flattement is a uniquely expressive woodwind-/23-recorders/ockeghem- Ockeghem’s birth date is not cer- ornament, and how enjoyable it is to johannes-1420-1497-31-bicinien.html tain (between 1410 and 1425 are use. You may have a similar experi- proposed); he died in 1497, one of ence—as you become more familiar REVIEWED by: the most famous composers of the with it, I hope you will find it to be a Beverly R. Lomer Franco-Flemish school of the late- valuable asset in your expressive tech- In this nicely presented edition, there 15th century. Little is known of his niques on the recorder. • are excerpts from a number of masses early life. He was born in what is now

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