CONTINUO: THE ART OF CREATIVE COLLABORATION C
ONTINUO: The Art of Creative Col- laboration was a conference spon- sored by the Westfield Center in
collaboration with Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, April 4–6, 2013. The opening concert in the university’s Lagerquist Hall, an- chored by the 1998 Fritts organ—to be demonstrated later in the conference by Paul Tegels—was performed by violin- ist Ingrid Mathews and harpsichordist Byron Schenkman, with realized inter- pretations of 17th-century sonatas by Castello, Leonarda, and Schmelzer, as well as Schenkman’s solo rendition of Muffat’s Passacaglia. Mathews pre- sented all three sonatas from memory. The second half of the concert was Carissimi’s Historia di Jephte, sung by the PLU Choir of the West with a cham- ber orchestra conducted by Richard Nance. The soloists were John Marzano as Jephte and MeganMcCormick as the Daughter, and the variegated continuo group consisted of Nathan Whittaker, cello; Mercedes Paynter, bass; James Brown, Baroque guitar; Kathryn Habe- dank, harpsichord; and Paul Tegels, positiv organ. Haydn’s Little Organ Mass closed the evening. The morning brought “The Nuts and
Bolts of Basso Continuo,” under the guidance of Edward Parmentier. His lecture drilled home such precepts as bringing the bass to life with the left hand, treating the bass as an indepen- dent melody, recognizing the bass as the melody, and creating the maximum dialogue between the bass and other parts. An annotated handout presented the score of a Veni Domine by Viadana and a movement from a Handel flute sonata, showing multiple stages of preparation, each illustrating a step in a systematic approach to realizing a basso continuo part: identifying motivic asso- ciations with the verbal text if one ex- ists, creating phrasings, articulations, and emphases for the bass part, identi- fying harmonic roots and harmonic rhythm, adding numeric figures, and identifying and classifying cadences. Amasterclass ensued, with four harp-
sichord students, assisted by various soloists, presenting a gavotte from a LeRoux trio sonata, a movement from a Telemann violin sonata, a Handel aria, and a movement from a Handel vi- olin sonata. With each, Parmentier ze- roed in on one primary objective, un- derlining the chosen concept with colorful imagery. Gregory Crowell gave a talk on “Con- tinuo for Organ,” armedwith slides and
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recorded excerpts, and addressing nu- merous concerns specific to organ con- tinuo playing, arguing for a bolder, more substantial sonority than is often heard. He offered practical advice relat- ing to chordal voicing, the use of em- bellishment, matching releases to the ensemble sound, and the substitution of sonority for cleverness. Three modern flutists with their keyboard partners had been assigned to the masterclass, and Crowell encouraged each toward realizations that addressed inflection, phrasing, and the awareness of har- monic and rhythmic structure, pointing out that a realization should be neither interesting all the time nor boring all the time. A paper on “Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Italian Continuo Improvisation and its Application to Buxtehude’s Trio Sonatas, Op. 1 and 2” was read by Jeong-Suk Bae to round out the afternoon. An evening chamber concert an-
chored by Parmentier also included flutist Jennifer Rhyne, violinist Svend Rønning, cellist Nathan Whittaker, and tenor James Brown. They presented a wide spectrum of Baroque styles, from Viadana, Caccini, Frescobaldi, and Pur- cell, through François Couperin, Hot- teterre, Veracini, and Handel, to Vivaldi and again Frescobaldi. As a finale, all joined forces in the aria “So schnell ein rauschend Wasser schiesst” from J.S. Bach’s Cantata 26. Day three began with a presentation
by Charlotte Mattax Moersch on “The Style of Basso Continuo Accompani- ment in France according to Denis De- lair.” From Delair’s 1690 treatise she extractedmuch guidance for realization in the French
style.Auseful distinction was drawn between science and art, corresponding to rules and style. Rules are fairly universal, reflecting the laws of tonal composition, but styles differ according to time and place. The ele- ments of style that Delair discusses re- late to such refinements as ornaments, arpeggiation, alteration of the bass, and added dissonance, leading to a chord treatment not unlike the unmeasured prelude tradition. Although none of the works presented in the masterclass that followed was French, Mattax Moersch’s grasp of the repertoire generated guid- ance toward the realization of works by Caccini, Telemann, Purcell, and Bach. Lutenist Stephen Stubbs discussed
“The Conceptual Shift between 17th- and 18th-Century Keyboard Continuo,” tracing the historical context for the de- velopment of continuo and claiming the
Lutenist Stephen Stubbs
chittarone as an important instrument. Of particular interest was the distinc- tion drawn between the 17th-century conception of harmony in confronta- tion with the melodic parts and the 18th-century conception of harmony as accommodating to them. The 1607 con- tinuo tutor of Agazzari was commended for guidance contemporarytothisperiod. A harpsichord recital by Ignacio
Prego, winner of the 2012 Westfield In- ternational Harpsichord Competition, revealed the harpsichord in a different light from that of continuo instrument, traversing works by Cabezón, Caba- nilles, Frescobaldi, Froberger, and J.S. Bach. As a conclusion, Stubbs led an all-
Handel concert by Pacific MusicWorks, anchored by two earlier vocal works, Apollo e Dafne (1709) and a Gloria (1707). Amanda Forsythe and Douglas Williams were the vocal soloists.
This report is based on a longer review article by Andrew Willis.
THE AMERICAN ORGANIST
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