Historical Pitch: 101

Several musicians who are not in the early music field have recently asked me about pitch. So I thought I would write a blog post with a broad overview of historical pitch. Disclaimer, I am going to over generalize, but I just want to give people who are not in the early music world a basic primer about what we are doing in the early music world.  If one wants a much more in-depth look into historical pitch, look into Bruce Haynes book, "The History of Performance Pitch: The Story of 'A'". This will give the you all the answers to everything you are yearning for. It's a really dense book, the amount of research he did is admirable. This is just a blog post. :)

Pitch is not something modern players have to think about too much. Before an ensemble plays, there is always the question of where is everyone's individual A.  At 440, at 442, or even higher. There needs to be some kind of consensus.  However, that is as far as anyone had to think about it. However, there is a whole other world of pitch possibilities.  You might know about baroque instruments playing at a lower pitch, A = 415. This was all that I knew until I fell through the early music rabbit hole now quite a few years ago. Well, this is only the beginning of our little tale.

Throughout most of Western Music history, there has not been a standard pitch. The pitch of instruments depended highly on the pitch of the organ. In many different parts of Europe during the Renaissance and baroque periods (except apparently France) organ builders sometimes saved a little bit on money by making the pipes a little smaller, so they would be a little higher. So for a long time, pitch in a particular city was regulated to the pitch of the organ, which could get quite high.

Mimicking this would be a logistical nightmare, so we have simplified things a bit. Renaissance music tends to be played at either A = 440 or A +/- 465. In the Midwest, most people played at 440, here in Dresden, most people play at 465. The pitch around 465 is considered historically more accurate. I have a G alto shawm at 465, and it just feels and sounds right. Not that I have any idea in reality, but the instrument just makes a lot of sense at that pitch. I am definitely a fan of high pitch for Renaissance music.

Lets move onto the baroque period, easy right? 415 all the way? Well... It depends on where and when the music you are playing comes from. In my mind, the Baroque party didn't fully start until the  second half of the 17th century. Which is a little later then what the history books give you as the beginning of the baroque period. In my mind, all that lovely early baroque music originating mostly from Italy I consider a separate time period. I call it.... 17th century music. I know, mind blown. So, the fun really starts in France, where the pitch around 1680 should be  A = +/- 392. Wanna know why, read Haynes' book. Basically it has to do with organs again and church singers, and Lully's turf war. Everything else in the Baroque period (into the 18th century) can easily be played at 415 without anyone yelling at you. One can even get away with playing early French baroque music at 415.

Then pitch become a little more standardized, comparatively. Classical era music we tend to play at A= 430. My classical bassoon is at 430, more or less, depending on how much coffee I have had that day. I have been known to dip back down to 415 on cloudy days.

So essentially it is all relative. Which is a good point. The objective of having different pitch centers is not to replicate exactly how the concert would have sounded. I think this is a myth that is pervasive in the modern world about early music players. In my mind, since we can make an instrument close to its original pitch, we should. At the end of the day it doesn't really make a whole lot of difference. Why make a baroque instrument at 415 rather than at 440? One could definitely.  A baroque bassoon at any pitch is a totally different beast than the modern bassoon. In my experience, baroque music makes much more sense on my baroque instruments than it does on my modern. But that, that is a another blog topic.

Bach, Lions, and Honey, oh my! pt. 2

I yearn from my heart
for a peaceful end
because here I am surrounded 
with sorrow and wretchedness 
I desire to depart 
from this evil world
I look for heavenly joys
Oh Jesus, come soon!
Herzlich tut mich verlangen (verse 1)


First, lets continue with some Bach 101.  Bach wrote his sacred cantatas for church services. Which, if you think about it, is pretty freaking cool. Imagine you, the devout Lutheran, going to church on Sunday, like you do. Suddenly the most heavenly music you have ever heard reaches your ear. It is music by the new cantor, Sebastian Bach.  You are one lucky son of a bitch. A lot of classical music that we have today is sacred in nature because the church employed many musicians. Thank you church! Bach would use the weekly gospel reading for the theme of the cantata. The gospel reading for the week during which Bach wrote BWV 161, Komm du süße Todesstunde, (come, sweet hour of death) was about death. Surprise! However, the gospel reading isn’t about death, so much as it is about Jesus bringing someone back to life. Life, death, one would think they would be two sides to the same coin. Not necessarily according to Bach’s worldview.

The primary theme that runs throughout the entire cantata is the protagonist’s desire for death.  Even the chorale melody text (above) that is not spoken in the first movement, rather played, expresses yearning for death. This, taken at face value, would seem to be a strange counterpart to the gospel reading about non-death, otherwise known as life. Jesus saved a child from death. However, it is likely that Bach was referring to the Christian idea that Jesus would save you from death. Not actual physical death, but that if you followed him, then there would be a life after death. Not just any life, but life without pain, death, hunger, evil, etc.  So, in the Christian cannon, the afterlife is much sweeter than just straight up death. Cake or Death? You can have cake with your death! However, one must first actually die in order to obtain this afterlife. This idea, that something sweet comes from death, that the afterlife is so much better than this current terrible life, with all its pain and suffering and evil, runs through the entire cantata on a musical and textual level.

All of this is clearly reflected in the first movement. While this movement is mostly in major, with pastoral thirds played by recorders, and no jarring chords throughout the entire movement, there are significant sections of unease. This at first confused me, and led me to begin my research. I thought the title was clear enough that the theme of the movement was sweet death. Was the bitterness in the movement about not being so happy about the actual death part? Why the chromatic sections? When I looked up the text to the embedded choral, it became clear to what the unease in the music was referring. So, while death is this magical thing to aspire to, the current life is full of all sorts of evils.

This idea, that out of death comes sweet eternal life, is also reflected in the “eating honey out of the lion’s mouth,” phrase. I did a lot of research into the Samson myth, (check out pt. 1) because the entire story didn’t make sense to me. Apparently the Samson myth doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. At first I thought that the chromaticism in the first movement referred to the Samson story. I found some people that thought that Samson became unclean when he ate the honey because as a Nazarene he wasn’t allowed to touch anything dead. However, within the context of the text, this didn’t make much sense. So I continued my studies. Eventually, I put all the different puzzle pieces, and the reference became clear.  The lion was dead, so I can say with certainty that he represented death. The bees made honey out of the lion, so they literally made death sweet.


There is so much one can talk about in each of the Bach cantatas. There has been so much study on Bach and his music. One could probably properly argue diverging points depending on whom you reference. It goes without saying that Bach was a master at what he did, and I am happy to have the opportunity to play and study his music, and have the B minor mass original scores less than 10 miles from my home. Life is pretty crazy.  


References:

Day, J.C.J. "The Texts of Bach's Church Cantatas: Some Observations," German Life and Letters 13 no. 2 (January 1960): 137-144.

Emmrich, Martin. "The Symbolism of the Lion and the Bees: Another Ironic Twist in the Samson Cycle," Jets 44/1 (March 2001): 67-74.

Yadin, Azzan. "Samson's hîdâ," Vetus Testamentum 52, fasc. 3 (July 2002): 407-426.

Early Music News

Here are some interesting articles from the last week:

On the celebration of Ton Koopman's 70th birthday, the New York Times ran a article, see it here.

Not on early music, but a nice article here about non-professional musicians. In my world, the word amateur is not a bad word.

Branford Marsalis is doing a baroque tour on saxophone, see an article here. While one of my least favorite things to do is to play baroque music on modern bassoon, that doesn't mean that will rail against others playing baroque music on modern instruments. Honestly though, the idea makes me a little itchy. The matter for me is a physical one, not authenticity. I don't like how baroque music feels and sounds on my modern.

Bach, Lions, and Honey, oh my! (part 1)

Soon I will be traveling back to Madison for a couple of weeks. My good friend is getting married, and it worked out that I could perform again with the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble. I played with them the last couple of years, and it has always been a wonderful experience. Good music, great people, excellent experience all around. So I was very happy to find out that they were having a concert the week before my friend's wedding, and I can participate. In this concert I will be playing three pieces, a movement from a Bach cantata, a 17th century two recorder sonata, and a 17th century bass dulcian sonata. For more info if you are in the area click here.

The movement of the Bach cantata we will be performing is Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161. We are only performing the first movement, but there is plenty to discuss in this movement alone. I prefer the translation "Come, sweet hour of death." Some translate it as "come, o sweet hour of death,"or "come, thou, sweet hour of death" but I feel that the informal "you" in the German was intentional, and the title shouldn't be too formal. In addition to the primary music themes, there is a secret (well not so secret, but it is played without words) embedded choral melody Herzlich tut mich verlangen, which I will talk about in part two.

So, I was working on the music line by line...

Komm, du süße Todesstunde (see above)

Da mein Geist                        (when my spirit, apparently an old German phrase, nowadays one                                                            wouldn't phrase it this way)

Honig speist                           (honey ate/dined on honey)

Aus des Löwen Munde          (out of/from the lion's mouth)

Wait... When my spirit ate honey out of the lion's mouth? What? Is it me, or is this a strange thing to say. So I did some research. The story of honey and lions come from the bible story about Sampson.

Here is the abridged version: Sampson saw a girl who he liked. He went to go talk to her, but right before this he was attacked by a lion. Sampson, strong guy as he was, ripped the lion in half with his bare hands. Pumped, he goes and talks to the girl he likes. After they are done talking, Sampson goes and checks out the dead lion. He finds that bees have made honey inside the lion (fast bees apparently). He says to himself, "sweet," and takes the honey and shares it with his parents.

So, the wedding day arrives, and Sampson offers a riddle to his new wife's clan. The stakes are if they figure it out, they receive 30 sheets and 30 sets of clothing. This must have been high quality bedding and clothing, because the other tribe is upset because they can't figure it out. So they threaten Sampson's new wife. She begs him for the answer, and eventually he relents and tells her. Sampson was pissed over the entire event. That was high quality bedding, he didn't want to give it up. So he goes and kills a bunch of people, and takes their bedding.

So the question still remains for me, what exactly does honey have to do with death. OK, so honey I can see, Jesus is known to have sweeten the death deal with honey. Honey has a long history of sweetening things. However, my question is, why the lion? Why particularly the Sampson myth? Stay tuned for part 2...

The entire text of the first movement is:
Komm, du süße Todesstunde (come, you sweet hour of death)
Da mein Geist (that my spirit)
Honig speist (honey ate/dined)
Aus des Löwen Munde; (out of the lion's mouth)
Mache meinen Abschied süße (make my departure sweet)
Säume nicht, (do not delay)
Letztes Licht (last light)
Daß ich meinen Heiland küsse (so that I may kiss my savior)

New City Downtime

Here I am, one month into "Life in Germany." I am taking an intensive German course at the Volkshochschule. (you automatically get into the A2 class if you can pronounce Volkhochschule three times) I currently end each weekday with a German Headache, eine Kopfschmerzen, for those who were wondering. It sounds particularly painful when spoken in the local Dresden dialect. The locals all sound like they are rehearsing for the scene in My Fair Lady when Eliza has a mouth full of marbles.

In between German classes, I attempt to gather some practice and study time together. Whenever one moves to a new city, or a new country, it takes time to make connections. I am never particularly calm during these perfectly normal slow times right before and after moving to a new city. I try to guard against that little voice in the back of my head that tells me I will never get paid for working again. I imagine this little voice as a cartoon character devil sitting over my shoulder, trying to keep me from doing what I love. Sometimes I actually succeed in ignoring it completely. Sometimes.

Despite the fact that no one is actually paying me for working, there is actually a lot to do when one moves to a new city. Everything can and will become overwhelming. Here are a few things I recommend to stave off that little voice:

One is e-mail, e-mail, e-mail. Start with one person, send an e-mail. The next day send another e-mail. Assume that you won't hear back from anyone. Pretend that you are sending e-mails back out into the wild. Let them be free. Eventually you will get a reply, a really good reply. Which will lead you to more e-mails with more dead ends. Eventually you start building something. It is slow, painful, everything feels like a rejection. It isn't, people are busy, people have a lot on their plates. Most people aren't sitting by their computers, waiting to not respond to you.

Attend workshops, masterclasses, (if they are around) and performances. Make yourself known. Don't necessarily have any concrete goals regarding these outings, but rather the broader goal of just meeting people. You never know who might turn out to be a colleague, or even just a nice person. Nice people are important in new cities. Nice people can make an overwhelming city become a little more like home.

Another thing to work on when in a new city is update lists and calendars. I am a big list maker and planner. If I didn't have three different levels of planners, I would end up circling the living room wondering what I should do next. Not a pretty sight, it confuses the cats. Planning takes away the question, "What should I be doing now." You know what you should be doing. So, slow times are good times to review the longer term schedule and maybe cross one or two things off the list.

This only goes for double reed players and maybe the occasional ocd clarinetist, but make reeds, make reeds, make reeds. Down time is a great time get your stock of reeds up past the panic mode. If you don't play historical woodwinds, consider yourself lucky with the reed situation... at least it is only one instrument that is failing you on the reed front.

Listen to recordings. I always need to take more time to listen to recordings, in my  schedule it is the thing that gets pushed to the sidelines. It is good for one's musicality, for one's soul, for one's business. It is a good thing to do all around. Even better listen to a recording while walking around the city. Walking a good way to get one's barrings in a new city, and bonus, it is good for you.

General cleanup. One can update website, (mine is currently a mess) clean up finances, clean the apartment, (it is amazing how much cleanup a new apartment requires) cut the cat's nails. My apartment, in a freak turn of events has a refrigerator too many and about ten pieces of furniture too much. Freaky for having just sold all my furniture and moved to a new country. The tenants before us left their furniture, and it is simply too many pieces. So selling off furniture can be on my personal list, but generally not a problem for someone who just moved. If one has health insurance, a dentist appointment or a physical can always be a good thing.

Finally, take up a knitting project, start an art project, go for a bike ride, be a tourist. The tourist bit is important for new cities. I know I tend to have a certain disdain for tourists in my own city, they don't know where they are going and stop walking in random places, but it is OK to be the tourist every once in a while in your own city. A tourist who knows where they are going is much less irritating. Seeing the sights can be a good reminder on what makes your city special.

Here are some other industry freelancer's ideas on dealing with downtime:

http://blog.creativegroup.com/bid/291956/Freelance-Tip-Put-Slow-Time-to-Work-for-You
http://budgetandthebeach.com/2014/07/16/when-freelance-work-is-slow/
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/tips-freelancers-what-to-do-with-slow-days-and-dry-times/

Change

I really hate moving. Probably because I have moved so many times in the last ten years. Since 2004, I have moved to four different cities, in three different states and finally to a alltogether new country. A country where they speak German. A language that in the right hands can wrap words around complex thoughts, tie up all the loose ends into a bow, and present it as a complete complicated whole to the listener. In the wrong hands, well, no need to go into that. 

I have visited Germany several times before, and have spent a bit of time with J's family. This idea, that quite a few people in this world speak another language that isn't my native language, I thought I had a pretty good grasp of it. I have been watching movies with subtitles for many years now, have heard many people speak many different languages, and have done a fair bit of my own studies in German. However, this time was different. This time, I needed to keep reminding myself that everyone around me speaks German. Ironically going to IKEA and hearing and reading German, bizaare.

My brain is very confused with everything that I have done to it the last month. I either sold, tossed, or packed everything I owned. Gave almost everything that I owned to the nice truck driver in Madison, with the hopes that it would all arrive in Dresden some day through the magic of transport. I take my instruments, 98 pounds of clothes and treasures, and my two cats to the airport. My husband does not need to be taken, he brings himself. Then for one more layer of stripping, the cats are taken away to their secret place in the back, and the baggage is checked. Then we fly. 

I am waiting for my brain to catch up with that trip that I made. It doesn't quite yet realize that I have moved. However, there must be a part of my brain that realizes it, possibly part that wants everyone to speak English. However, most of me thinks I am on this vacation. It hasn't quite sunk in that this is where I am to live. As I build a new life here, I imagine that my brain will slowly realize that this isn't a break from life, it is life. A new life, on a different continent, with different street signs, different windows, and different foods. It is like a shift to a new dimension. A dimension that is similar to the one I knew. The foundation is the same, the clothing is different. 

Moving to a different country is a unique experience. An experience that I truly believe you cannot understand unless you do it yourself. It isn't easy. I never realized that before. I always felt that since I never really felt at home in the US, that moving elsewhere would be easy. I am not finding this to be the case. Maybe because I hate moving. 

Early Music News

Happy July 4th, to everyone in the US. I celebrated by watching Germany beat France in the world cup, and continuing the continuous packing. I have always enjoyed watching the world cup, I am proud to say that I am not a bandwagon jumper, but I am also glad to see soccer gain popularity in the US.
My own personal news is that I am updating my website, redoing the format and adding a german language section. I am quite happy with it so far, although it still has a lot of work, including a new background picture, but all in good time. Check out my progress at theresakoenig.org.

Early Music Now has announced it's 2014-15 season.
Amherst Early Music Festival begins.
Cape Cod Early Music Festival begins.

Early Music News

I will be starting a weekly "news' page where I will post things I find interesting and or of note. So here goes.

Story about an early string maker in DNAinfo New York, link here.

I am sure that everyone knows the website Partifi, a wonderful website that takes scores and makes them into parts. Particularly good for music that we only have scores for. What you might not know is that the couple who runs the website has put in a lot of their own money and a lot of time into building and maintaining the site, so if you use the site, please donate to them.

It is festival season! Madison Early Music Festival will be July 12- 19. MEMF has a special place in my heart, so it gets the first shoutout.

The Tide is Low

‘Classical music, trying to seem cool and less stuffy, reeks of some sort of fossilised art form undergoing a midlife crisis.’

Said by the man attempting to crowd surf an audience during a classical music concert. If you happened to miss it, the complete article is here. The man, Dr David R Glowacki, attended a concert at the Bristol Proms, a concert series begun in order to challenge the “elitist, unwelcoming atmosphere surrounding classical." Bristol Proms uses a variety of techniques in attempts to bring new audiences to classical music and break down barriers between artist and performer. What happened during this particular performance was that a "mosh pit" was created near the orchestra, drinks were allowed in, and audience members were encouraged to make noise when they felt like it. Dr. Glowacki became a bit excited about the alleluia chorus culminating with his own personal finale attempt at crowd surfing.

For me, the story is amusing and I love when audience members are scandalized, we definitely need more of this is the classical music world. The story also highlights an issue that concerns me when people start talking about difficulties and stuffiness in regards to classical music concerts. I applaud the brave performers and music directors being creative and trying new methods of bringing music we love to a greater audience and trying to break down barriers. I also agree that the standard symphony orchestra situation of overture, concerto, symphony with three concerts a week can be a creativity killer. However, when the addition of various multi-media or special effects are utilized, we need to be careful to not drown out the actual reason for the concert, which is the music itself. It is our job to bring new life to old pieces. If we are lucky, we can do this on a daily basis. Maybe with or without high tech gadgets or multi media. What we should focus on are the fundamentals of expression, and finding ways to enhance this. I feel that all the brave souls who try something new, first ask yourself this, am I doing this because it is cool, or because it enhances the expression that is implicit already in the music.

A Moving Ordeal

Moving is always a pain. I know, I have moved many different times in the last 10 years, 6 times in the last ten year, and I am about to make it 7. Except this move, this move is the biggest, I am moving to Germany. To be exact, I am moving with my husband, life partner, partner with papers, partner in crime, whatever, and two cats to the city of Dresden. Some of you may remember Dresden from Kurt Vonnigeut's book Slaughterhouse 5, and that extraordinarily unfortunate event known as World War II. Today, Dresden has been mostly rebuilt, the people are much more hospitable towards people from the west, and one of the libraries there holds some very exciting manuscripts. Since this move will most likely be permanent, how does one do this? How does one move all of ones things over an ocean? We have 10 boxes, plus room for my bicycle, that will go from door to door, and then 1 checked luggage and our carry-ons for the plane. The carry-ons are already reserved for my modern bassoon and baroque bassoon, and the recorders that I will need right away will fit in my purse. So, that leave 10 boxes. 10 medium sized boxes. I think all of my music and scores and books about music would fill those 10 boxes. So I must downsize. This is how I am attempting it:

Going through all my music. Every single page. I am making five different piles:

1. Keep and pack. This is for actual purchased, complete, good editions of scores that I will use right off the bat. Music that I love, or will need.
2. Keep and store. This is for music that is either a good edition but I won't need immediately, music that is important to have but it isn't a good edition,  sentimental scores, or some of the more obscure etude books that I might need for students at some point, but not likely right away.
3. Scan and attempt to sell. This is music that is either a poor edition of something that I don't really need, duplicate copies of music, etude books so obsure it is unlikely that I will ever need it. Stuff that I am almost 100% sure I won't need, but am making a copy just in case. The scans will go onto an external hardrive which will be in my cary-on purse.
4. Scan an toss. Photocopies. I have tried to purchase as many things as I could, but when I was a student, this just wasn't possible. So I made a lot of photocopies. Additionally a lot of the transcriptions of early music are on photocopies. So these, as much as I would like to keep, will go onto that little hardrive.
5. Toss. Duplicate copies of music. Copies of music I am 100% sure I will never need. Incomplete photocopies.

Then the next step, is scan, scan, scan... This is talking multiple trips to the library, which has an amazing scanner that sends everything to my inbox. Then I open up the pdf's, label them properly so that I can find them with ease.

I am hoping with this method, that I might be able to ship one box of music and keep two boxes of music somewhere in the US. Wish me luck.  Of course this is not including music books, and scores which I am not sure what to do with yet...