Posted by Klaus on October 08, 2002 at 08:37:09:
In Reply to: Air and Bourree - 'style' posted by Tim on October 08, 2002 at 05:08:09:
I don't know the edition, that tubaists play from, but the bourrée as a dance form is in is two beats a bar, even if it might be written as C or 4/4.
Dances shall be kept strictly in time all the way through. No ritardandos, but for the fermata on the last note.
Brasses never can emulate strings, but yet it might pay off to know how the strings bow this music: downstrokes on the beats, upstrokes on the up- and afterbeats.
That, very simplified, translates to a dynamic/articulation-wise expression, that phonetically can be said very effectively in my own language: tung-let-tung-let (for the standard 4 quarternote bourrée bar). The English translation is very much less adequate: heavy-light-heavy-light.
Further on one must understand that much of the dance music of the renaissance and the baroque was performed on instruments, that did not have much, if any, dynamic expression potential: recorders and organs.
These instruments emulated the effects of the string instruments by their articulation. The heavy notes were played to their full rhythmic length, whereas the light notes were shortened. Not necessarily always to a short staccato, but most certainly they should at least be detached.
The artistry for players of recorders and organs lies in the varying shortening of the light notes. Tubas and other brasses have very varied dynamic expression options, but for my ears their artistry lies in finding a balanced compromise between the string and the organ/recorder ways of play this music. If they combine the full dynamic variations of the strings with the contrasted articulation of length of the organs/recorders, then a perfect parody will be born.
When eight notes occur in a bourrée, the same pattern relates them as relates the quarter notes. You can slur them in pairs or play them tenuto-detached-tenuto-detached.
One can never say never, but it will almost always be wrong to play a staccato note on the first beat of a baroque dance tune. One well known exception happens occurs in the hemioles of dances with 3 beats to a bar. But that is quite another matter, that I might return to at a later occasion.
Klaus