Analysis and Interpretation in the Performance of Handel's Concerti Grossi, op.6Author(s): Channan WillnerSource: The Musical Times, Vol. 130, No. 1753 (Mar., 1989), pp. 138-141Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1193821 .Accessed: 02/09/2011 18:46

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Analysis and interpretation in the performance of Handel's Concerti Grossi, op.6 Channan Willner

Performers of Baroque music, on period as well as on modern instruments, have often been accused of pro- moting an inexpressive and inflexible style of playing, one based on a misguided and mechanical type of fidelity to the printed text that sidesteps the need to cultivate a per- sonal view of the music, and thus one that of necessity displays a rigid uniformity of tempo, dynamics and accentuation. While the 'uninterpreted' playing, in the sewing-machine manner, that has been the product of this approach has hardly become scarce, one finds an increas- ing number of performances, particularly on authentic instruments, that combine stylistic propriety and textual fidelity with musical originality and a distinctly individual touch - John Eliot Gardiner's and Hans Martin Linde's accounts of the major orchestral and choral masterworks of Bach and Handel, for instance, or L'Ecole d'Orphee's magisterial recording of Handel's complete chamber music, to name a few particularly successful examples from the recent past. Even the most appealing renditions, however, sometimes show lapses in judgment in matters of pacing, timing, choice of agogics and the like which result from failing to take important tonal, rhythmic, for- mal, and registral features of the music into consideration.

In this brief article I should like to present several analytical observations on a number of passages from Handel's Concerti Grossi, op.6, which I hope would prove useful in pointing to the kind of special yet rather elusive compositional feature that requires particular attention in performance. These are passages in which identifying the contextual meaning of a problematic progression or repetition (especially one whose simple appearance belies its real complexity) can be instrumental in fostering an expressive style of playing, one that is based on under- standing the musical content rather than on arbitrary choice. In particular I should like to dwell, though not exclusively, on several instances in which a reprise that is only apparent serves a compositional purpose other than recapitulation and thus requires special treatment by the performer, including the adoption of nuances, shadings, and other, more forthright means of expression, the need for whose employment lies implicit in the music. My ap- 138

proach will of necessity be somewhat technical: owing to Handel's tendency, so different from Bach's, to mask com- plexities with the misleading appearance of simplicity, the examples demand rather close study if their significance is to become fully apparent. I shall deliberately keep my suggestions for performance simple, though, as my pur- pose is less to offer specific instructions for performance on a note-by-note basis than it is to illustrate the need for greater shading, differentiation and expression in the per- formance of Handel's music. The precise depiction of analytical observations in performance, and especially the degree to which one may (or may not) wish to portray them - these must be left to the discretion of the performer.

The G major Polonaise from the Concerto Grosso in E minor has been cited more than once as an early if rather coincidental manifestation of incipient sonata form.2 At least from the vantage of large-scale harmonic organiza- tion, however, the reprise, which begins in bar 47, represents not a return to the tonic but something of an interpolation between the developmental passages that follow the central double bar (very briefly extending the key of E minor/major) and the long-span cadential motion from C to D and to G that follows the onset of the reprise, in bars 53-57-73 (see exx.la and Ib). It is the arrival at C, rather than the entrance of the reprise, that is the major event here. Handel has purposely kept the tonal framework in a state of flux from the double bar on, depar- ting quickly from E at bar 41 and leading to a weakly prepared introduction of G in bars 46-47 and also to a much-abbreviated quotation of the opening bars in bars 47 - 51; he now establishes C cadentially and employs it to clarify, refocus and tighten the harmonic framework before continuing on to D, allowing C to supersede the preceding harmonies and having us reinterpret the preceding apparent tonic, G, as its dominant (see ex. lb; 'Readers will note the influence of Heinrich Schenker and his increasingly popular analytical approach here. An excellent study of the intimate links be- tween this approach and performance is C. Burkhart: 'Schenker's Theory of Levels and Musical Performance', in Aspects ofSchenkerian Theory, David Beach, ed. (London and New Haven, Connecticut, 1983), 95-112. 2M. Bukofzer: Music in the Baroque Era (New York, 1947), 361; S. Sadie: Handel Concertos (London, 1972), 44

Ex. 1 Op. 6, No. 3; Polonaise a) Bars 39-40, 47-53

(5 6 (3) 4 5

[suggested: cresendo, slight accelerando]

b) Harmonic framework

Bars 1 22 32 33 35 40 42 44 46 47 52 53 57 58 72 73 ,t -~ 'Reprise'

I V VI passing IV r I

I V VI passing IV V I

c) Rhythmic reduction, bars 40-53 Bars 40

.: fI \

44 47 53 ----. 'Reprise'

I i i ,1^77i .. ir ..I... . . . i pa. i / "1% ' I ' I; I I I tI I I II VI I i III Ivl I

Expanded two-bar group

C also helps consolidate the rhythmic structure, which con- sistently supports the cycle of descending fifths E - A - D - G in the bass in bar 40ff with two-bar groups at every turn except at G: here, in order to underscore the tonal interpolation by a corresponding rhythmic interpola- tion, it presents the opening of the reprise as an im- provisatory six-bar expansion of the second bar of G's fun- damental two-bar group - see ex. Ic). The sheer aural ef- fect of the entrance of C, both tonally and rhythmically, represents one of the great moments in Handel's in- strumental music. A performance that took the imbalance between G and C and the galvanising quality of C into ac- count would naturally acknowledge the entrance of the reprise (through a slight ritardando and by adopting Handel's explicit forte and the emphasis it implies in bar 47), but would prepare and announce the arrival of C with a substantial crescendo across bars 51 - 52 (in keeping with the thickening texture), and lead on to an emphatic ac- centuation of C as it enters at the turn of bar 53. Most recorded performances, as it happens, make no attempt to differentiate between G and C, and treat the two key areas (and those that precede and follow them) exactly alike: as a result, both their shape and cumulative impact suffer a great deal.

A similar type of interpretative problem, but one that grows out of different tonal circumstances, arises in the

Ex. 2 Op. 6, No. 5; Allegro (fifth movement) [ ] a) Bars 41, 44-47 4r 44 r fL >]T ifr

tr r r ir r

-9"#C. , g t Ir ; l r

[Suggested: crescendo, allargando ]

b) Harmonic framework

Bars 1 15 40 41 45 48 - 53 57 58 67 68

I (V1) IV V I

G major quotation of the ritornello-like theme in the Allegro (fifth movement) from the D major Concerto Grosso. The quotation starts on a bass pedal G (bars 41 - 44) and serves to signal the entrance of the Allegro's large-scale subdominant (exx.2a and 2b). Instead of draw- ing to a close as expected on an imperfect cadence in its fifth bar, the quotation quite surprisingly continues on to A and to an extended D in bars 45 -47 (see ex.2a). This unexpected, unprepared and ultimately deceptive return to what might seem to be the home key only serves to ex- tend G (in the manner of a long, if rather veiled, imperfect cadence) and afford a transition to the developmental group of bars that in turn leads to the true A and D (the long-span dominant and tonic), which finally appear in bars 57 and 68 (see ex.2b). It is the very absence of any marked melodic or rhythmic support for the quotation's move to the apparent D, coupled with the syncopated appearance of D on the third beat of the fifth bar of a seven- bar phrase, that lends the entrance of the would-be tonic not only its force of surprise but also an exquisitely irides- cent quality, as well as a propelling contrapuntal force that does much to underscore the theme's characteristically dissonant melodic figurations. In performance, the shift to D might (to name one of several possibilities) be marked by a very slight allargando and by a strong syncopated emphasis on D, and underlined by a corresponding cres- cendo; certainly treating all seven bars of the theme's quota- tion alike, as most conductors and groups do, represents a contradiction of the tonal direction in which the music unfolds.

In the Allegro (fourth movement) from the D minor Concerto Grosso, the simulated return to the tonic (bar 17) supports a seeming reprise (bars 17 - 20, ex.3a), much as it does in our first example, but a reprise that is them- atically as well as tonally only apparent. Although quite elaborately prepared by the harmonic and thematic spinning-out that follows the central double bar, the reprise here serves to link the mediant, F, which had been established just before the double bar, and the relatively brief but registrally and thematically climactic subdomi- nant, G (bar 21, ex.3b), to which the apparent tonic of the reprise essentially serves as an extended preparatory

139

51 r j

51 [>] A t - - -9h .7-- 17.

dominant (see ex.3b). The purpose of the reprise is to allow the movement to rest and regain its strength - reculerpour mieux sauter, as Edward T. Cone might describe it3 - before continuing on to the climactic bars (21 - 24), which help outline a poetic enlargement of the Allegro's prin- cipal motif (ex.3c). To achieve the temporary ebb, the quotation of the opening theme is stretched out in time and left incomplete, and the expanses opened up by its enlargement are marked by long rests and by reduced har- monic activity in the accompaniments, which together lend the music a distinct touch of pathos (compare exx.3a and 3d). It is precisely this thematic and textural ebb that per- formers ought to bring out - by means of an allargando to underscore the broader design and thinner texture of the reprise, and through a more sustained and deliberate rendition of the transmogrified theme.

Ex. 3 Op. 6, No. 10; Allegro (fourth movement) a) Bars 17-20

r'- >t 7 tr sr r '- rci"- r r

9^ ( ,

n ^- S r4^ r \ r r 1 7 ' 1 r 7' 7 J1 r

[Suggested: allargando; sustained rendition

b) Harmonic framework Bars 1 6 7 10 15 17 21 22 23 24 25 28

I m IV V I

c) Motive expansion of bar 1 in bars 17-23

becomes

Bars 17 21 22 23 24

LJ r - 'lr

d) Bars 1-3

kw _ i L ; rp r r' ri-mr. f r. _ r

[senza basso] '-- "--I L- L I_ r

Although a seeming reprise can (and often does) play a rather profound role in working out the essential ideas of a composition, it frequently owes its existence primarily to compositional circumstances and requirements that are of an entirely practical nature. The preceding example is a case in point; another is found in the great Allegro (second movement) from the Concerto Grosso in B minor. Here one of the ritornello's most important features is the sweep- ing descent through the span of a sixth, in both treble and bass, which occupies its first three bars (ex.4a). Many times over Handel must find ways to regain and maintain the width of the movement's large tonal ambitus so that he

3see Cone: Musical Form and Musical Performance (New York, 1968), 24

140

Ex. 4

Op. 6, No. 12; Allegro (second movement) a) Bars 1-3

(soF) ftirr j rrT. :; j rrrrrrrr (Soli)

.,>, rrfrFPrfrfrFrfrfr rrr fLr r rLrFrIrr

b) Harmonic framework

Bars 1 15- 40- 55- 74 75 20 46 58

'Reprise' 6th 6th

': I .-9 ' - I 0)

6Mh i m vI ibecomes . - F I m v I

can present these frequent descents without difficulty or awkwardness. Among the numerous devices of registral play that Handel employs is the long-span inversion and enlargement of the essentially compact tonal space tra- versed by the bass line from the beginning of the move- ment to its end (namely an arpeggiated ascent from B to F by way of D) into a far wider space encompassing two descending arpeggiated sixths, B-Ft- D (bars 1-15/ 20-40/46) and D-B-FFt (bars 46-55/58-74, see ex.4b; as the square brackets show, the sixths help ex- pand, on the whole, the ritornello's characteristic descen- ding sixth). It is within the second descending sixth, D-B-Fg , that Handel introduces the false reprise, which allows the Allegro to assume an outward semblance of traditional ritornello design without impeding the flow of its through-composed structure. The reprise is again quite incomplete and it is followed not by material deriv- ed from the opening bars but by a dramatically developmental transition back that leads on to the climactic return to the tonic (bars 71 - 73 - 74), and to the final state- ment of the ritornello (bar 74ff). Especially in this instance the false reprise should be distinguished from the later and much more elaborately prepared recapitulation: the highest dynamic, temporal and accentual emphasis should be reserved for the closing statement, and the earlier decep- tive quotation should be treated only as an anticipation of the movement's outcome - not as a framing conclu- sion to the events that had already transpired.4

For our final example, let us turn to a Concerto Grosso movement, the closing Allegro from the A minor Con- certo, in which long-range registral transformation and expansion is itself the essential issue at play. Here Handel introduces and develops the basic thematic material, work- ing it out principally through repetition, at the lower reaches of the two-line octave in the first half of the move- ment (bars 1 -67, ex.5a). All of a sudden, having already begun to state the ritornello and the ensuing passages in contracted form in the key of the dominant, E minor (bars 57-67), Handel has the composition skip up to the

4Although Handel marks only the false reprise forte (b.55), the same marking is implicit also in b.74, where it is tacitly held over from the forte at the upbeat to b.71.

higher reaches of the two-line octave and trespass into the three-line octave (bars 67-73), a dramatic gesture he repeats twice more (bars 78-83 and 94-99, ex.5b). So insistent and powerful are the three registral changes and the new motivic work they support, and so strong is their link to the continual reassertion of E in the face of the ad- vancing re-establishment of A, that they quite literally take over the composition and assert their control of its registral and structural design, lending a long rising contour to its larger outlines (note the stepwise summary of the registral change in the coda, bar 100ff, as shown in ex.5c). To depict this gradual and quite profound shift - which possibly contains programmatic and symbolic significance - in per- formance, one should intensify progressively the rendi- tion of each rising motion in turn, and lead to a climactic account of the closing progression (whose treble also pro- vides the necessary denouement by descending gradually from the high c"' to a" in bars 94-99 - see ex.5b). A cursory review of the presently available recordings of the Concerto will indicate that this rather obvious suggestion is hardly gratuitous.

It would be presumptuous to suggest that comprehen- sive structural analyses such as those on which the pre- sent observations are based represent a prerequisite for the successful performance of Handel's music. Although analysis can indeed promote more perceptive playing, there is much that can, and must, be done by instinct. Instinct, however, can be educated and cultivated in many ways - analysis is one of them - and possessing an

Ex. 5 Op. 6, No. 4; Allegro (fourth movement) a) Bars 1-3

Tutti

3: 3 ! ; a p n ( <6)

b) Bars 67-71,78-82, 94-99 vln I (concertino e ripieno)

r : f if r

-vniC r ..... : I

^ l 94 ;r-- 'F i ulr

94 ~~5~ d? #J, 6r 1

c) Registral summary in coda (bars 100-109)

So lo ' i1 7 5' - % ei -~ -; 105 L r f -

ML r

educated instinct is of the essence if one is to approach such phenomena as deceptive repetitions and false reprises thoughtfully, and render them expressively in performance.

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