Lesson with Mark

Mark will be wroking on a Concerto for Tenor Recorder and strings. A important goal of his for this piece is for this piece to exhibit the "flavor" or "spirit" of the Baroque and not an authentically composed baroque piece.

In Mark's own words his main plan is as follows:

Allegro (A minor) - Ritornello form, similar to the fast movements in Vivaldi's Cello Concerti.

Bourree (C major) - I know it's not traditionally part of a concerto but I really like them, and have written one for a solo instrument which could be harmonised with strings to give a similar effect to the second movements in Vivaldi's Concerti.

Fuga (A minor) - Again, I know it's not particularly common to find a fugue as a complete movement of a concerto, but this is something I'd really like to try. If it doesn't work, I can always just do another Ritornello type movement.

Mark,

After listening and looking at what you have so far, I have some questions to ask that I hope will get you thinking even more.

1) The opening solo is in the natural minor. Do you intent to vary between different forms of the minor scale for the solo passages?

2) Do you plan to add a keyboard instrument of any kind or a lute to further suggest ties to the Baroque philosophy?

3) As far as the form of your piece is concerned, do you plan to observe the traditional pattern of solo-ritornello-solo-ritornello, etc.? Or do you plan on using a more Rondo type approch? Or perhaps something different?

4) In regards to your voice leading, how do you feel about your direct ocatves in the 5th measuer that occur between the violins and violas from beat 3 to beat 4? Also from beat 4 of the 5th measure to beat 1 of the 6th measure between the viola and cello.
And again in measure 6 on the beat 2 between the violins and viols from F to D. Even though you have a passing note or two ti doesn't hide the the sound of direct octaves from the ear. The same issues occur are there of course when the pattern repeats in measures 7 and 8 and when the ritornello appears in C Major.

These are my first batch of questions and points of discussion.

1) I planned to keep it natural most of the time and employing harmonic on cadences.
2) I originally had an organ playing continuo but decided not to have an organ/harpsi./lute due to the rarety of these instruments which would make it a lot more difficult to have it performed.
3) I plan to use standard ritornello form.
4) I've looked around, and can't see any parallel octaves in the places you mentioned, could you perhaps point them out please? Or does direct octaves mean something different?

Thanks, Mark

When I said direct ocatves I meant direct unisons. Basically, you are approaching a unison, octave or perfect 5th in one or more voices by using the same direction of motion.

1) Direct unison #1 occurs in measure 5 from beat 4 to the 3rd beat between the violins and the viola. On the third beat the viola is on A and leaps up to the note D. At the same time on beat 3 the violins are on the note C and move up stepwise to the same note D. This is moving to a unison by "direct" or similar motion and is usually avoided.

2) Again in the 4th measure at the end of the 4th beat the viola moves up stepwise from C to D while at the same time the cello leaps from the half note F up to D. This is the case where you have approached an octave between two voices by "similar" or "direct" motion. Again, this should be avoided.

I have pointed out the problems in the Finale Attachment.

Because the ritornello repeats the problems with direct unisions and octaves also repeat. There are a couple more for me to point out but first let me know if you see and understand what I am talking about with your voice leading before I continue.

I see what you mean now, I wasn't aware that was an error, but I certainly understand what you're talking about.

Should these be corrected? Or are you just making me aware of a Baroque practice? If the former, how best do you suggest I go about correcting them?

Thanks, Mark

Many times the severe rules of strict counterpoint are at times ignored in personal composition. But, the rules involving voice leading of octaves, unisions and perfect 5ths are usually respected unless certain types of motion that go agaist these rules are part of the fabric of your piece. I can only suggest that you change the "problems" that I pointed out since you are attempting a Baroque-like piece.
But, in the end it will be up to you and if the changes still give you the desired result as far as what the piece sounds like.

I've had a good play about with the voices, changing notes here and there to try and get rid of the direct octaves, but unfortunetely all I managed to do was to kill the canonic feeling between the two upper voices.

I've been working on some ideas for the first solo, I'll try and get them notated some time tonight and post them.

Mark

Before you start with additional ideas for the solo I would like for you to do one thing first. I would like for you to look at the material that is the opening solo for the Tenor Recorder and extract motivic ideas from the opening solo.

Ok, will do

Right, the one that sticks out most is the A E D E figure as this is what I based the original canon on, even that's repeated with a permution in that first solo.

Another one that comes to mind is m.1 beat 3 through to m.2 beat 2.

And another the final melodic cadence of C D B G A in m.4

There are possibly a few more but I'm not too great at this part of it, choosing which bits to develop.

Mark

I want for you to actually write out the motivic ideas with Finale and post them so that I can see them and we can discuss your thoughts. When you write out the motifs, above the measure label them (ex. Motif 1/Motif a, Motif 2/Motif b).

done.

I'll be away this weekend, family gathering But I'll take some manuscript paper and work on fugues.