In considering the role of practical music in education this book attempts

to define the art of performance in Germany during the Baroque period.

The author examines the large number of surviving treatises and instruc-
tion manuals used in the Lutheran 'Latin' schools during the period
1530-1800 and builds up a picture of the function and status of music
in both school and church. The understanding, gained through these
educational texts, of music as a functional art - musica practica — in turn
gives us insight into the thoughts of the contemporary performer and
how he might have performed the sacred works of Praetorius, Schutz,
Buxtehude or Bach.
For all those interested in historical performance this book provides
valuable information on the growing science of performance practice and
the development of a conscious awareness of style and idiom in this period.
CAMBRIDGE MUSICAL TEXTS AND MONOGRAPHS

Music education and the art of

performance in the German Baroque
CAMBRIDGE MUSICAL T E X T S AND M O N O G R A P H S

The series Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs has as its centres
of interest the history of performance and the history of instruments.
It includes annotated translations of important historical documents,
authentic historical texts of music and monographs on various aspects
of historical performance.

Published

Ian Woodfield The early history of the viol

Rebecca Harris-Warrick (trans, and ed.) Principles of the harpsichord by
Monsieur de Saint Lambert
Robin Stowell Violin technique and performance practice in the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries
Vincent J. Panetta (trans, and ed.) Treatise on harpsichord tuning by Jean Denis
J o h n Butt Bach interpretation: articulation marks in primary sources ofj. S. Bach
Nicholas Thistlethwaite 77ie making of the Victorian organ
Grant O'Brien Ruckers: a harpsichord and virginal building tradition
Christopher Page (trans, and ed.) Summa musice: a thirteenth-century manual
for singers
Ardal Powell (trans, and ed.) TJie virtuosofluteplayer by Johann George Tromlitz
Keith Polk German instrumental music of the late middle ages: players, patrons and
performance practice
Beth Bullard (trans, and ed.) {Musica getutscht': a treatise on musical instruments
by Sebastian Virdung
David Rowland A history ofpianoforte pedalling
Music education and the
art of performance in the
German Baroque
JOHN BUTT
University of California, Berkeley

CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia

© Cambridge University Press 1994

First published 1994

Reprinted 1996

A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data

Butt, John
Music education and the art of performance in the German Baroque
p. cm. - (Cambridge musical texts and monographs)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 43327 4 (hardback)
1. Performance practice (Music) - Germany - 17th century
2. Performance practice (Music) - Germany - 18th century. 3. Music -
Instruction and study - Germany - 17th centuiy - History. 4. Music
Instruction and study - Germany - 18th century - History. I. Series.
ML457.B9 1994
781.4'3' 0943 - dc20 93-17691 CIP

ISBN 0 521 43327 4 hardback

Transferred to digital printing 2004

SN
To the memory of Peter le Huray and Howard Mayer Brown,
editors of Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs
 Contents

List ofplates x
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xvii
List of abbreviations xix
1 The establishment of Lutheran musical practice in
the sixteenth century 1
2 The role of practical music in education c. 1600-1750 12
3 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 52
4 The development of performance practice and the tools
of expression and interpretation in the German Baroque 68
5 Ornamentation and the relation between performer
and composer 121
6 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates during the
eighteenth century 166
Notes 193
Bibliography 219
Index 230
 Plates

1 Listenius 1533: table of notes and solmisation

syllables 7

2 Friderici 1618/1624: example of variable tempo,

according to the affect of the text (reproduced with
permission of The British Library, London) 98

3 Mylius 1685: texted example showing application

of ornaments after the manner of Bernhard (reproduced
with permission of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris) 137
 Preface

Modern studies of 'original' performance practices are often presented in

a historical vacuum: we learn of conventions applicable to particular
repertories without necessarily knowing why these conventions pertained,
without imagining the original performers' thoughts and beliefs concerning
performance and unaware of the extent to which the interpretative
conventions matched these beliefs. The inquiry is genuinely historical
only if we can learn something of the motives for the composition and
performance in the first place, how the combined forces of composer and
performer were assumed to affect the original listeners.
Many histories of music centre on the surviving works of a particular
age, their interrelationships and influences. Some recent studies are more
concerned with the social, cultural and political environments in which
music was cultivated. Seldom though is a history created out of perfor-
mance as a system of thought. What did it actually mean to perform, as
opposed to compose? To what extent did performance presuppose the
other disciplines of music, its supposed natural laws and rationale?
This study attempts to give something of the background and rationale
for performance in a specific educational institution — the Lutheran school
and church - over a specific period. This field is particularly fruitful, not
least because of the remarkable achievements of German Baroque com-
posers who grew on its soil, but also because practical music held such a
significant place alongside the standard education of the Lutheran 'Latin'
schools. Many educated men would have experienced practical music to
some degree, and, given the intimate association of church and school,
would have gained some notion of the function of music as a practical
art. This consideration might give us a clue not only to the thoughts of the
contemporary performer of a sacred work by Praetorius, Schiitz or Bach,
but, equally importantly, to the presuppositions of the early listeners. In
xii Preface

gaining a sense of what music was meant to be in realised performance

we can also intuit something of the relation of performance to the verbal
text and the musical notation. This generates further questions: the
relationship between composer and performer, the dialogue between
music as a creative and rhetorical art, musica poetica, and music as some-
thing realised in the act of performance, musica practica. As I have proposed
before, the rhetorical model is something which evokes a degree of
continuity between these two arts.1 Although many parts of this study
directly relate to issues of performance practice, my interest here is
specifically in the 'why' rather than the 'what'. The very fact that there
are comments concerning performance practice and interpretation in
certain primers and at certain junctures suggests the development of a
conscious regard for performance and its style, something which cannot
always be assumed in the history of performance.
Why confine this study to Lutheran education and practical music-
making, given that the Italian tradition is at the forefront of Western
musical culture throughout the period under discussion? First, the large
body of published treatises on which this study is focussed forms an
enclosed tradition which, at the same time, absorbs many of the inno-
vations in performance practice from Italy. Indeed some of the German
treatises codify supposedly Italian practices during years when Italian
sources seem thin on the ground (such as the latter half of the seven-
teenth century). Secondly, the importance of music within Lutheran culture
cannot be overestimated; while Catholic church music of the Baroque is
hardly to be ignored, it was to some degree secondary to the newer,
secular genres of opera, sonata and concerto. Lutheran music forms a
separate tradition which preserved something of the Mediaeval outlook
on religious music, as something metaphysically central to man's ability
to understand and communicate with God. This tradition ended soon
after the death of J. S. Bach and only years later was this composer to
be absorbed into the 'central' tradition, which - even after the time of
Mozart - was still essentially Catholic and Italian in flavour.2
What, in fact, does musica practica mean? In the traditional sense codi-
fied by Gaffurio {Practica musicae, Milan 1496-7), it covered all aspects of
notation and composition, including just a few recommendations on
1
Sec Butt 1990, especially pp. 15-19.
2
This idea of the two traditions, one Catholic yet curiously secular, the other Lutheran and
essentially sacred, was first elaborated by H. H. Eggebrecht in his essay 'Uber Bachs
geschichtlichen Ort', Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift Jiir Literaturwissenschqfl und Geistesgeschichte 31
(1957), pp. 527-56; reprinted and enlarged, in Jofiann Sebastian Bach - Wege der Forschung, ed.
W. Blankenburg (Darmstadt, 1970), pp. 247-89.
 Preface xiii

performing practice. The latter were usually very much secondary to the
arts of composition; even with Zarlino 1558 (vol. Ill) they take up only
part of a single chapter out of a total of eighty. The art of musica practica
was practical in the sense that it contrasted with musica theorica, the
speculative, non-practical side of music. While Italian theorists clung to
this definition of musica practica - primarily as the art of composition -
German writers from the early years of the Lutheran Reformation tended
to confine it to the art of 'mere' performance, something which could be
grasped quickly and easily by young boys in school. With the influence
of Renaissance humanism, these theorists generally assigned composition
to a third field, that of musical poetics, musica poetica (from the time of
Listenius 1537);3 this reflects the increasing interest in the rhetorical
implications of verbal text and the art of composition as a creative act.
As will emerge in the course of this study, the position of composition
within the German system of musica practica remained ambiguous and
only towards the end of the seventeenth century were the fields of com-
position and performance again more closely bound together.
In the tradition of the Middle Ages, musica theorica was one of the four
components of the quadrivium, the higher level of the seven liberal arts,
while musica practica (the tools of composition and performance) was
essentially a worldly craft, something with which the 'true 5 musician
would not soil his hands. But with the thinking beginning to emerge
during the Renaissance era, more emphasis was placed on the human
significance of sounding - as opposed to speculative - arts; there was
thus a move away from the traditional Pythagorean view of music. 4
Luther, together with his reformers, gave particular attention to music as
practice within elementary education. He sensed the affective significance
of music in actual sound, believing it to be the supreme gift of God,
standing second only to theology itself. Moreover, music was especially
useful as a medium for the new vernacular texts; the concept of the
chorale - potted dogma and musical mnemonic in one - was undoubtedly
one of his most brilliant psychological achievements. Thus the place in edu-
cation traditionally assigned to musica theorica could at least partly be filled
by musica practica, that art which enabled the young pupils to acquire the
basic musical competence demanded by the new liturgies (especially the
chorales). The traditional respect accorded to music per se could well
3
The tripartite division is already evident in Boethius, with his privileging of the 'true'
musician (theorist) over the poet (composer) and performer; see 'Boethius', NG II, pp. 844—5;
Mover 1992, p. 31.
4
For an excellent survey of these issues in Italian Renaissance theory, see Mover 1992.
xiv Preface

accommodate a change of emphasis in practice. On the other hand

many scholarly theorists from the time of Gaffurio until the early eighteenth
century saw musica as a whole, an art founded in eternal mathematical
principles, to be defined in set rules, moving the affects in specific ways
and serving to the praise of God (see Ruhnke, in MGG IX, pp. 949-56).
Performance of the emerging Baroque repertoire required increasing
specialisation on the part of the performer, so that in the seventeenth
century musica practica (performance, in the German sense of the term)
could be a highly respected art, requiring considerable skill, insight and
awareness of the rhetorically-influenced practice of composition. Per-
formance practice thus became a 'science', a self-conscious activity which
entailed some conception of the function of music as a realised, sounding
art. With the onset of the eighteenth century the ancient musica termi-
nology was soon to evaporate, as did - and the two are doubtless not
coincidental - the solid basis of music in Lutheran education and
worship. Music was becoming a more autonomous, aesthetic artefact,
elevated as an attribute of culture and taste, but - as an object of
bourgeois choice rather than necessity - potentially dispensable. It comes
as no surprise that the Bachs (J. S. and C. P. E.) were two of the last
significant composers of Lutheran church music. Truly talented composers
could no longer find satisfactory employment in church and school; and
reciprocally churches and schools had little incentive to attract the
greatest musicians of their age.
This book is essentially the study of a literary tradition, the inter-
connections and influences between a large body of writings and their
relation to the music of their time. As primary material I have examined
a vast range o f - mainly published - treatises from the period c.1530-
1800, specifically the primers which seem to be addressed towards the
task of training young people in the art of practical music. This art of
'practical music' was initially synonymous with singing, but it soon came
to involve a certain amount of instrumental study too. My approach will
obviously minimise the vast differences between establishments and
areas, so the study cannot be used as a guide to the music practice of
specific localities and repertories at specific junctures. Most of the
information on school ordinances and curricula I have abstracted from
the vast body of modern secondary literature on the musical history of
specific areas, towns and schools in Germany. However, little of this has
hitherto been available in English and there is no single modern survey
which gives an overview of practical music instruction in Lutheran
schools over the course of the Baroque period as a whole.
 Preface xv

The bounds of this study do not permit a survey of the training which
might have been offered in the more sumptuous German courts, but
certain writings explored here do refer to the musical skills expected of
the young court performer. Indeed some influential sources, such as the
treatises of Christoph Bernhard, were doubtless written with court
musicians in mind. I will also not be concerned with the place of music
in the Ritterakademien, schools for the nobility which flourished during the
seventeenth century and where music was taught as a skill considered -
like fencing - essential to the pastimes of the galant homme.
Although this book takes the history of performance as its central issue
it cannot comprehensively cover every detail of recorded performance
instructions over the course of two centuries; the presentation of specific
points on performance is necessarily selective.5 While my work gravitates
towards the educational environment of the Baroque era in Germany,
the net will be drawn widely from the early years of Lutheranism to the
last decades of the eighteenth century. This tremendous chronological
breadth is necessitated by the remarkable continuity of the treatises
themselves: together they portray an enclosed tradition which began in
the late Renaissance and ended in the 'mid-Classical' era. At the same
time, the very cohesiveness of this material also highlights the develop-
ments in educational philosophy and beliefs about music, and changes in
musical style and performance practice.
While the overwhelming majority of the primary sources forming the
basis of this examination are from the Lutheran provenance of German
musical education, treatises addressing Catholic readers are not necessarily
to be excluded. Most of these latter rely directly on Lutheran writings
and thus add statistical weight to many of the developments which emerge
in the course of the study. Indeed it is often difficult to distinguish Catholic
writings from the Lutheran core, so ubiquitous are the traditions of music
training and musical interpretation in any particular period covered by
this survey. Furthermore, a major Lutheran treatise, such as Falck 1688,
might contain a large number of musical examples with Latin texts - and
indeed many of these were drawn from contemporary Italian publications.
A consideration of some of the Italian literature is also useful in ascer-
taining which elements of German theory were taken directly from the
Italian tradition and those which were more indigenous.
Although one of the primary aims of this book is to give a boy-in-the-
desk view of practical music, it is biassed toward those elements which
5
The recent study of Bartels 1989 gives an exhaustive summary of the performance advice in
German literature of the earlier part of the Baroque era.
xvi Preface

are most relevant to the surviving repertories. More attention is given to

musica jiguralis, that music which requires measured notation (and is thus
the category in which polyphony and concerted music were learned) than
musica choralis, the music sung in unmeasured rhythm (i.e. chant). A further
bias is made towards the education of the more musically talented pupils,
those boys who sang the demanding music by the composers whose
names are still familiar today.
 Acknowledgements

In writing this book I have tried to tread a narrow line between

providing a plethora of primary material - giving some impression of its
local colour - and creating an account which is both coherent and
interpretative. Many friends and colleagues have been most supportive in
expressing their exasperation with various early versions of this text,
encouraging and helping me to organize an enormous amount of
historical information into a relatively readable whole. Any remaining
failings in this regard are entirely my fault and not theirs.
Several institutions and individuals deserve special mention: the early
stages of this work were sponsored by a research fellowship at Magdalene
College, Cambridge; the music department at the University of California,
Berkeley has latterly provided a great deal of financial and collegial
support. The number of libraries to which I am indebted would be
impossible to list here; those that have experienced my actual bodily
presence have doubtlessly suffered the most: the British Library in
London, Cambridge University Library, Glasgow University Library, the
two libraries of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz
and the music library of UC Berkeley.
I am most grateful to the late Peter le Huray for his encouragement
of this project in its early stages and his painstaking critique of some of
the first drafts; he was always a wonderful friend, teacher and colleague.
His fellow editor for the series Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs,
Howard Mayer Brown, was particularly helpful and constructive in the
latter stages. The very day I began printing the final copy of this
manuscript I heard of his untimely death, while trying on a carnival
mask in Venice. Various scholars in fields related to this survey have also
been most generous with their time, both in reading the text and
providing me with further ideas. Eva Linfield and Robin Leaver deserve
xviii Acknowledgements

particular mention, as do my long-suffering colleagues, Joseph Kerman

and Anthony Newcomb. Finally, I should thank my wife, Sally, and baby
Christopher for adhering so strictly to their view that my work on this
project is least productive when it is undertaken for protracted periods.

Full details on both ancient and modern authors are available in the
bibliography. Modern editions and translations of historical texts are also
listed in the bibliography, where applicable. All translations, unless other-
wise noted, are the author's own and the original texts are given in their
idiosyncratic orthography.
 Abbreviations

AcM Acta Musicologica

AMw Archiv fur Musikwissenschqft
BJb Bach-Jahrbuch
EM Early Music
JAMS Journal of the American Musicological Society
JRMA Journal of the Royal Musical Association
MD Musica disciplina
Mf Die Musikforschung
MfMG Monatshefteflir Musik-Geschichte
MGG Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 17 vols.
(Kassel/Basel, 1949-86)
ML Music and Letters
MT The Musical Times
MuK Musik und Kirche
NG The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 vols.
(London, 1980)
RISM Repertoire international des sources musicales - Ecrits imprimis concernant
la musique, 2 vols. (Munich/Duisburg, 1971)
WA D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe
(Weimar, 1883-)
 The establishment of Lutheran
musical practice in the sixteenth
century

Musical culture in Lutheran states was undoubtedly centred on churches

and Latin schools during the sixteenth century; indeed the close bonds
between these two institutions ensured the growth of musical practice for
over a century to come. Music was hardly the key element in Luther's
reforms, but his personal belief that it was the greatest gift of God,
second only to theology itself, must have influenced many of the early
reformers.1 That he saw music as intrinsically good and not just the
servant of scriptural texts is evidenced by his love of Josquin's abstract
polyphony and his remark that even bad fiddlers are good, since they
enable us all the better to understand that which constitutes good music
(WA Tischreden I, no. 968, p. 490). It is important to appreciate today
that Luther's belief in the reality of the Devil was as strong as his belief
in God, and that music was for him one of the principal antidotes to the
Devil's work. The art was not just a useful adornment of liturgy and
certainly not an object for aesthetic appreciation alone; it was both a
powerful rhetorical medium - capable of influencing the listener in
diverse, wonderful ways - and the embodiment of the metaphysical laws
of God's creation. In the words of Friedrich Kalb, 'Lutheranism is not
driven to search for Biblical commands or prohibitions; for music is a
spontaneous activity of life, inherent in God's creation, and needs no
apology' (Kalb 1965, p. 141).
Much of the Reformation's success lay in Luther's political and social
astuteness. In 1524 he wrote a pamphlet on the importance of good
schools for the survival of the new reformed religion; a priesthood of all
believers could, after all, hardly be founded on an ignorant populace.2
His musical requirements were unequivocal: a schoolmaster who could not
sing was not worthy of office (WA Tischreden V, no. 6248, p. 557). Two
school ordinances prepared under Luther's direct influence set the tone

1
2 Music education and the art of performance

for music instruction during the entire sixteenth century. Melanchthon's

ordinance for Saxony and Bugenhagen's for Brunswick (both published
in 1528)3 show music defined as an essentially practical discipline, aligned
with the subjects of the Mediaeval trivium (grammar, dialectic and rhetoric),
and something to be taught to boys of all ages and abilities during the
noon hour after lunch each day (Schiinemann 1928, pp. 82~4).4 The
music should set both Latin and German texts and boys should be trained
in both musica choralis (unmeasured unison singing which involved those
parts of the chant repertory appropriated by the Lutheran church, and
to a certain extent, the new but related genre of the chorale)5 and musica
figuralis (measured music, essentially polyphonic in texture).
Although such ordinances recommend daily practice in music, only
certain schools followed this to the letter (Schiinemann 1928, pp. 92-3).
Indeed it is clear that music was not always warmly embraced by
humanistic academic reformers and that its status as a fundamental of
education was not always as secure as Luther himself might have wished.
Many ordinances required that the theoretical component of music instruc-
tion be kept to a minimum and that not too much time be allotted to
music (ibid., pp. 84—5). The precise status of music varied from school to
school and the situation was more complex than many modern studies
have assumed; then, as now, music was ambiguously related to several
conflicting elements in educational thought.
Niemoller's comprehensive study of Lutheran school music in the
sixteenth century has shown that the schools were subject to many cross-
currents in Renaissance culture. Foremost was the influence of Humanism,
which engendered a new emphasis on classical literature, the thorough
study of Latin (hence the nomenclature Lateinische Schulen) and the culti-
vation of eloquence. This, humanists believed, would revitalise spirituality
and improve the quality of life. In such a context music was important
only in so far as it would assist in the presentation of verbal text; indeed
many scholars saw it as a waste of time and objected strongly to the
daily church duties of Mediaeval practice (Niemoller 1969, pp. 611-17). 6
On the other hand, given that the Lutheran reforms abolished the hege-
mony of both the Latin Bible and the elite priesthood, there was less
incentive to encourage boys to learn Latin and consequently the standard
of education initially declined. Therefore Luther and his followers had to
take great pains to restore the quality of education. Their principal move
was to tighten the links between schools and churches, something which
made music instruction a particularly important component of school
life. It was this religious function - and not necessarily the humanistic
 The establishment of Lutheran musical practice 3

education which Lutheranism also encouraged - which accounted for

the growth in practical school music. Nevertheless, the new humanistic,
philological emphasis on classics on the one side, and on the Bible on the
other, were bound in the long run to affect the function of music,
moving as it did towards an instrument of rhetoric.
While Luther still considered the theoretical component of music to be
important, something to be learned 'with the whole of mathematics' (An
die Radherrn 1524),7 it is clear that he saw it primarily as a practice which,
by its very magic nature, improved the moral, devotional, temperamental
and intellectual disposition of the pupil (WA Tischreden I, no. 968, p.
490).8 That teachers in the more academic disciplines could also see the
benefits of musical practice is suggested by the foreword of Johann
Reusch's psalms of 1552: all teaching is better engrained in the memory
if set to music.9 Many schools retained the Mediaeval practice of singing
Latin hymns at the opening and closing of daily instruction. There was also
a fashion for setting classical and humanistic odes to music (Niemoller 1969,
pp. 622-3). The very placing of music in the hour after lunch points to its
supposed aid to the digestion and its role as a recreation and relief from
academic study. As an exercise, music was often grouped with the learning
of handwriting and simple arithmetic, basic skills which were often not
even mentioned on the lesson-plans and which could be taught commu-
nally rather than in individual classes. Here the boys were often divided
according to ability rather than age. There are several records to show that
music - at least as a theory of intervals and proportions - could be taught
simultaneously with arithmetic. This doubtlessly reflects the survival of
music's role as a component of the Mediaeval quadrivium (Schunemann
1928, p. 94). Despite its decline in academic status, practical music was,
as far as religion was concerned (and religion was still the central goal of
all education), the supreme tool for communicating the word of God.
The increasing emphasis on music as a practical art necessitated
changes in the disposition of the teaching body. Traditionally the
Schulmeister or rector was, with the help of the cantor and the other
teachers, responsible for providing and training the church choirs. This
remained the case in certain German states, particularly those retaining
the Catholic faith and those to the west and south west, which were
strongly influenced by the Swiss reformers.10 However, in those Lutheran
areas where there was a growth in figural music and a consequent need
for more intense practical instruction, the cantor gradually took over the
role as head of music; moreover, the various fees gave the cantor a
certain degree of financial independence. At the same time the growing
4 Music education and the art of performance

humanistic orientation of education led the rector in the opposite direction,

towards specialisation in academic subjects; indeed the relief from church
duties must often have been welcomed. Nevertheless, the other teachers
in the school were still generally involved in the music-making of church
and school and the cantor was still required to teach a certain amount of
academic work (Niemoller 1969, pp. 636-40). But the increasing polarity
between rector and cantor (the latter now often being ranked second or
third in the school hierarchy) spawned a whole series of disputes which
can be traced right through to the end of the eighteenth century (see
pp. 30-3 and 189-90 below).
Furthermore, with the steady expansion of the cantor's musical
activity, the school authorities were increasingly concerned that music
should not consume too much of the time which might more profitably
be directed towards academic study. The Saxon ordinance of 1580
shows a modification of Melanchthon's original plan (Schunemann 1928,
pp. 86-7): textbooks in music should be concise, teaching only the
essentials to acquire skill in practical music; music practice should be
confined to specific days or, if carried out every day, should not last too
long. That the ordinance recommends the cultivation of music by earlier
composers of Josquin's generation might evidence a reaction to the
increasingly bold compositional activities of the cantors. Moreover the
ordinance advises the cantors not to neglect the monophonic repertory
of psalms and chorales.
Niemoller has presented the clearest account of the singing duties of
the school boys at the outset of the Reformation. The terminology and
division of duties are often vague and confusing: the most common cate-
gories are Currende, Choms symphoniacus, Chorus musicus and Cantorei (Niemoller
1969, pp. 669-79). The Currende is the most common of several terms to
describe the groups of poorer pupils who sang around the streets of the
town. This tradition, which continued well into the nineteenth century,
often led to an ambivalent attitude towards music on account of its asso-
ciation with beggary. While the term Currende might most appropriately -
but not necessarily exclusively - be associated with unison singing (choraliter),
the terms Chorus symphoniacus and Chorus musicus often refer to those more
talented groups who sang polyphony in front of certain houses under the
direction of a prefect. These two groups - the one performing mono-
phonic and the other polyphonic music - were presumably responsible for
their respective repertories in the church music; furthermore, the Currende
usually sang for funerals while the Symphoniaci performed at weddings
and special occasions.
 The establishment of Lutheran musical practice 5

The term Cantorei was more widely used throughout Germany, loosely
to refer to the figural singing (and gradually also to the concerted instru-
mental playing) in church. The singers employed in this capacity were
drawn primarily from the Symphoniaci, poor boys who earned their educa-
tion and hospitality through their singing duties; but other boys who had
particular talent in music could also be admitted to this group. Many
schools supported a set number of Alumni, who were offered free lodging
in the school on account of their musical abilities; in this way schools could
be guaranteed a steady body of singers to form the Cantorei (Niemoller
1969, p. 667). Furthermore other teachers in the school, adults from the
locality and the professional Stadtpfeiffer were recruited to furnish the
lower parts of the choir and to provide accompanying instrumental parts.
The cantor normally directed the Cantorei, while the Chorus symphoniacus
was traditionally organised by prefects. With the turn of the seventeenth
century the cantor began to assume a wider musical responsibility as
Director Musices, something which gave him increased independence from
his traditional place in the school hierarchy (see p. 17 below). By the
middle of the sixteenth century the Stadtpfeiffer had also become permament
members of the Cantorei in many towns, thus giving the cantor further
jurisdiction outside the school. Many new guilds of Stadtpfeiffer were formed
in response to the new demands of the Cantorei, and these versatile
players were often employed in the school to assist in rehearsals and
general singing lessons.
In sum then, the boys in the Latin schools were musically employed
on several levels. According to the first Lutheran ordinances, all boys had
to attend singing lessons, join in the singing which opened and closed
instruction and lead the congregational singing in the daily church
services, Mass and Vespers (Schiinemann 1928, p. 91). Of the poor boys,
the less advanced sang around the town in the Currende, the more capable
in the Chorus symphoniacus. Finally the cantor had the choice of the best
singers to form the Cantorei, which did not usually contain more than
twelve singers (Niemoller 1969, pp. 682-3). In certain places, though,
due to the consolidation of several schools into one during the early
Reformation years, the cantor had to provide a Cantorei for several churches
simultaneously. As the Nordhausen ordinance of 1583 stipulated, the
cantor should rehearse figural music with the boys in groups of five, so
that, in an emergency, he could furnish the Cantorei in two places at once.11

This book is concerned most closely with the content of instruction in

practical music, the conception the pupil might have gained of the
6 Music education and the art of performance

nature and function of the art. Nevertheless it is extremely difficult to

ascertain the details and sequence of instruction. We can only hope that
the many surviving treatises are at least symptomatic of the ideas and
methods employed. The ordinances of the first years of Lutheranism
stress repeatedly that the instruction books should be as concise as
possible. While most ordinances do not stipulate the specific books to be
used, it is clear from those that do that Faber's Compendiolum musicae
(1548) and Listenius's Rudimenta musicae (1533/1537) were the books most
commonly used.12 It is by no means certain how many of these books
actually found their way into the hands of the pupils, but at the very
least they would have formed the basis of the teacher's instruction.
The first significant books to be written specifically for the Lutheran
lands were by Luther's close musical associate, Martin Agricola, whose
Bin kurtz deudsche musica (1528), Musica instrumentalis (1529), Musica Jiguralis
(1532) and Musica choralis (1533) seem to form a complete curriculum for
the practical musician, together covering rudiments, chant, polyphony and
instruments. The fact that they were written in German clearly reflects
the spirit of Lutheranism, elevating the vernacular as a viable language
for instruction; it might also be evidence for the initial decline of Latin
instruction during the early years of the Reformation (see p. 2 above). In
the first treatise of 1528 Agricola notes the need for much more concise
instruction in the mother tongue;13 nevertheless, the ensuing text (geared
towards the unmeasured musica choralis rather than figural music) is still
quite thorough and extensive, with much information on solmisation,
intervals and psalm tones.
Agricola 1532 is designed to provide the remaining information on
measured notation, particularly for those who might have studied the
author's exhaustive treatise on instruments (1529). Despite Agricola's
continued use of the German tongue, the instruction is still very extensive,
including much detail on mensuration and proportions. It opens with
anecdotes on the history, power and invention of music, including fifteen
poems, but the remainder of the text concerns basic rules of notation
rather than speculations on the essence of music.
The style of instruction - something shared with basic primers in other
subjects too (Schunemann 1928, pp. 102—3) - is a basic presentation of
the material in the form of tables and explanations followed by examples.
In Agricola 1532 the introduction to notes and rests is followed directly by
a three-part canon (but before the necessary concept of measure has
been introduced). There is little direct explication of how a rule relates to
the examples; presumably the pupil must infer this for himself. Agricola
 The establishment of Lutheran musical practice 7

continues with rules for clefs and ligatures followed by exhaustive examples
of mensuration. The remaining chapters cover the various signs used in
music, the concept of the beat or tactus ('Schlag odder Tact'), where we
learn that the singer actually learned to beat while singing,14 and finally,
proportions and their related signs. It is interesting that Agricola does
not cover solmisation in detail in this treatise; this subject was covered in
the Deudsche musica of 1528 (republished in a revised form as the Musica
choralis of 1533).
With Listenius 1533 there is a return to Latin as the principal language
of instruction; however, what made his format so popular was the incor-
poration of musica choralis and Jiguralis into the same text. With his table of
all the notes and solmisation syllables he established a format which
survived in German tutors well into the succeeding century (Plate 1).
Plate 1 Listenius 1533: table of notes and solmisation syllables (copied by subsequent
authors for over a century to come)

DIV1SIO.SCAL&
Muficae*

Inevitably, examples provide the means by which the pupil may

assimilate and apply the rules (but again the examples are not necessarily
related directly to the subject in hand). Those for the six solmisation
syllables, for instance, include canons. The canon was an extremely
8 Music education and the art of performance

effective means of cultivating part-singing and remained the staple of

singing primers well into the Baroque era.
Listenius's text is lean in the extreme, with little speculative material.
He is the first writer to define composition as the separate art of musica
poetica, distinct from the fields of musica tfieorica and practica. Later theorists
adopt the threefold division (e.g. Finck 1556, Oridryus 1557) or merely
omit to mention composition within the context of musica practica. In all,
then, Listenius was striving to provide the barest essentials for the perfor-
mance of music, something which unashamedly neglected the fields of
speculative music and composition.
Faber established the basic topics of practical music (clefs and letter
names, solmisation syllables, the three hexachords, mutation and 'figures',
i.e. the various notational signs) which remained standard for over a
century to come (see p. 56 below). His text, first published in 1548, is even
more concise than Listenius, and adopts the question-and-answer style
(erotemata) which persisted in many subsequent publications. This pre-
sumably reflects something of the way skills such as music were taught,
answers being learned by rote and tested regularly by the teacher. Indeed
exactly the same attitude is evident in some of Luther's own writings on
teaching: in the context of the Small Catechism (1529), for instance, he
employs the question-and-answer style in the doctrinal sections and
stresses that the pupil (particularly the young) should initially learn both
the sacred texts and their commentaries in a single version and alter not
a syllable (WA X X X / 1 , pp. 268-9).
During the latter half of the century, writers increasingly adopted
German as their language; indeed treatises such as Wilflingseder 1561
and Gumpelzhaimer 1591 were basically German versions of Faber's text.
Others, such as Fesser 1572, include parallel Latin and German texts.
Few of these basic primers give any clue on what would today be
regarded as musical interpretation, nor is there much reference to the
affective nature of music. Holtheuser's description of the characteristics
of the intervals between certain solmisation syllables (e.g. mi-la = hart,
re-sol = naturlich, ut-fa = weich; Holtheuser 1586, ch. 2) is about the
most explicit statement in this regard.
The simplicity and conciseness of Faber's influential text does not
mean, of course, that more complex treatises disappeared from the field.
Indeed Agricola himself published a Latin text, Rudimenta musices, in 1539
(an abridged version of the German primer of 1528), which covers all the
details of notation and ends with an elaborate exposition on the mono-
chord. Furthermore, his Quaestiones vulgatiores (1543) deals at length with
 The establishment of Lutheran musical practice 9

common questions concerning the information imparted in his simpler

treatises. Clearly there must have been a need for these more complex
surveys of notation; some were designed for particular schools (e.g. Agricola
1543 was written for school pupils in Magdeburg), specifically for pupils
who had proceeded beyond the simple rules of practical music. Schneegass
seems to have had two different types of pupil in mind with his treatises
of 1591 and 1592; that of 1592 is a simple question-and-answer primer
written in German while that of 1591 is not only written in Latin, but
also contains a detailed survey of modes, different genres of counterpoint,
vocal ranges, canons, consonance and dissonance and rules for good sing-
ing. It is tempting to speculate that a series of essentially practical treatises
by one author might relate to the performing divisions within the school
body such as between the Currende, the Chorus symphoniacus and the Cantorei.
The practice of including extensive musical examples grows in the
latter half of the century. Wilflingseder includes the canonic Agnus Dei
of Josquin's Missa Hercules, directly after his exposition of solmisation
syllables (Wilflingseder 1563, p. 11); Dressier includes the Sanctus of
Josquin's Missa UHomme Arme after presenting the mensural signs (Dressier
1571, part 3, ch. 2); he includes other examples byjosquin and also some
by Lassus and Isaac. Hofmann 1572 includes Josquin's In exitu Israel to
exemplify mensuration. All this reflects the reverence accorded to the
earlier composers, particularly Josquin, something which is explicitly
prescribed in the Saxon ordinance of 1580 (see p. 4 above).
While some of the most interesting treatises from the sixteenth century
are those which give us information on style and performance practice,
these are the exceptions rather than the norm and may thus not be
typical of their age. Nevertheless, as will emerge in the course of this
study, it was precisely these writings that formed the basis of many rules
of musical interpretation and performance in treatises of the seventeenth
century, when the interest in voice production, interpretation and orna-
mentation became that much more pronounced. In other words, the
earlier publications must have been sufficiently known and distributed to
have been influential several decades later. Most obviously influential was
the Practica musica of Finck (1556), a comprehensive treatise which offers
extensive rules on elegant singing after the basics of notation have been
covered. This, and the other influential sixteenth-century treatises
(C. Praetorius 1574, Schneegass 1591), will thus be relevant within the
context of seventeenth-century education (see chapter 4). Here, though,
we briefly examine two eccentric teatises which seem not to have
influenced the later writings.
10 Music education and the art of performance

Singer's German treatise of 1531 clearly follows the prescription that

primers should be concise and not include unnecessary information.
However, the content and style of his short publication are unusual for
the time: his intention is to teach children how to sing, how to devise
counterpoint and to acquire the necessary musical background for study
of lutes, violins and 'pipes'. 15 Having covered the basics of solmisation,
mensuration and proportions, Singer includes five rules of concords (the
vertical intervals permitted in four-part harmony). His reasons for includ-
ing this elementary information on harmony are somewhat obscure:
It is further good for those youths who wish to learn instruments to know which
are consonances or dissonances, that is, which notes sound well, and which not.
Noch ist den jungen die aufF den instrumenten lernen wollen gut zu wissen /
welches cocordantzen oder dissonantzen sein das ist/welche notten woll lauten /
oder nicht.' (Singer 1531, fol. 6v.)
It is not clear how such knowledge was to be used: perhaps in
embellishment of melody and harmony, perhaps in the improvisation of
new lines. Singer further outlines the rules concerning consecutive fifths
and octaves and the avoidance of the tritone. He also gives some advice -
remarkable at this time - concerning the addition of coloratura: embellish-
ment is good when the composer so desires, but where this is not the case,
the performer should rather seek edification and sweetness in the song. 16
In all Singer prescibes an education in practical music that is far more
rounded than is usual during the early Lutheran years: some pupils learn
instruments and for these, in particular, a knowledge of the rules of
harmony is useful. However, knowledge of harmony did not become a
common component of instruction books until the end of the seventeenth
century. It may be that Singer was reflecting the last traces in Germany
of the old concept of musica practica, as an art encompassing both compo-
sition and performance.
Some twenty years later Coclico published his Compendium, which, like
Singer's treatise, also assumes a more comprehensive approach to practical
music. His work is something of a unicum in sixteenth-century German
writings: he believes himself to be transmitting an art (musica reservata)
which had hitherto been a secret withheld from the masses. Claiming to
be a pupil and follower of Josquin, he insists that the arts of singing and
composing should not be separated and that these basically practical arts
are the essence of music. Having dealt with notation he proceeds to his
favoured topic, embellishment. Counterpoint to him is essentially the art
of improvising against a cantus firmus; but the pupil should be familiar
 The establishment of Lutheran musical practice 11

with the art of notated composition too. However, Coclico's treatise can
hardly be thought typical of musical education in the German cantorates
and no subsequent writings show any trace of its influence.

The next chapters concentrate on the practical treatises of the seventeenth

and early eighteenth centuries, turning first to the conceptions of music
they offer to the incipient performer, then to considerations of perfor-
mance practice and interpretation. Despite the 'advances' which this
literature displays, it should be stressed that there is no definitive break
with the style and format of the sixteenth-century primers and that many
establishments maintained a conservative approach to performance well
into the eighteenth century.
 The role of practical music in education
c.1600-1750

The Lutheran Reformation not only fostered an immediate growth of

musical activity in church and school, it also nurtured the further expan-
sion and richness of music during the seventeenth century, the seemingly
delayed fulfilment of Luther's desire to place the art as second only to
theology in cultural and educational life. The reasons for this delay - if
the Lutheran musical achievements of the sixteenth century may provi-
sionally be disparaged thus - perhaps lie in the dislocation of the various
historical processes. First, although Luther himself believed in promoting
music at both elementary and specialised levels, the emphasis initially lay
with the elementary, since the chorales and their melodies were so
important for the dissemination of the new confession. Secondly, despite
Luther's enthusiasm for music as a practical art, schools still retained a
respect for music in its ancient role as a component of the Mediaeval
quadrivium, music as a science of proportion and number which mirrored
the order of creation. Thus cantors in the newly established Lutheran
foundations were primarily academics (teaching other subjects in addition
to music) who were not necessarily eminent 'practical' composers and
performers, and who might have considered the position of cantor as a
stepping-stone towards a post as rector (head of the school), pastor, or
university professor. Furthermore, other teachers on the staff at Latin
schools were often musically proficient, assisting in church services and
taking the lower music classes in the school. Even as late as 1723, the
Quartus (i.e. the fourth teacher in the school hierarchy) of the Thomasschule,
Leipzig was still teaching elementary music (Leipzig school ordinance
1723, p.. 43).
Luther was concerned with the affective dimension of music, its power
to move mankind to joy and to banish the Devil. But German musical
style was itself slower to adapt to this growing conception, and not until

12
 The role of practical music in education 13

the importation of what was frequently termed 'the new Italian style', at
the turn of the seventeenth century, were musicians placing extra-musical
elements (at first, the verbal text, but soon also the concomitant affects)
at the forefront of their creative processes. It is not immediately obvious
what writers such as Praetorius mean when they refer to the 'new Italian
style': it could refer to the JSfuove musiche of Gaccini, the seconda prattica of
Monteverdi, or even to the madrigalian idioms of the sixteenth century.
If the 'newer5 music that composers such as Praetorius were introducing
into German repertories is anything to go by, the 'new Italian style' can
refer to any of the Italian styles which were viable at the turn of the seven-
teenth century: expressive madrigalian gestures, polychoral and concerto
textures and monody. Perhaps the greatest advance, at least to the
Germans, was the growing importance of music as a form of speech and
rhetoric, something which augmented (but never fully replaced) the emo-
tionally neutral, 'unmarked' texture of traditional Renaissance polyphony.
It should immediately be noted that those writers advocating the
importation of newer styles represent only one wing of the literature
relating to musical education in Germany. Not only did many cantors
stick doggedly to the methods of the Reformation era, but it is also clear
that many were somewhat overawed by the abilities of Italian musicians.1
In some ways the Lutheran soil had been nurtured to support the
implantation of the 'new Italian style' all along. But with this came a
striking change in music's role in education: the new idiom demanded a
more musically specialised cantor, one who might be expected to
compose with not a little sense of the 'new' and perhaps even with some
notion of the 'original'. Moreover, the new style, with its detailed notation,
the demands it made on the singer as 'orator' and its inclusion of obbligato
instrumental parts, took more of the cantor's time, affording him less
opportunity and inclination to teach academic subjects. All in all, then,
the cantor as a musical specialist was becoming something of an imposter
in academic life; practical music was cultivating an agenda of its own,
outside its original role in education. Inevitably, music sowed the seeds of
its ultimate demise as a fundamental element of education; in the mean-
time, though, it enjoyed a privileged position which seemed to combine
the outlook of the old with the new. The outstanding achievement of the
German Baroque, not least the music of Schiitz and Bach, can be
viewed in the context of this glorious age of transition.
14 Music education and the art of performance

FAVOURABLE A T T I T U D E S T O W A R D S C H U R C H M U S I C

A broad spectrum of literature bears witness to the high regard in which

music was held in seventeenth-century life. The city council in Hamburg
acknowledged in 1615 that music was 'not a slight ornament and elegance
of this city'. 2 J. Rist, in a treatise on the most noble amusements, valued
music far above such practical arts as comedy and tragedy, affirming
'that music, or the art of singing, which one can simply name as a truly
heavenly, even Godly gift or token, is far, far to be preferred to all tragic
and comic playing'. 3 School ordinances also frequently mention music in
favourable terms. The Speyer ordinance of 1654 states that 'Music is a
beautiful ornament and asset in churches and schools and should thus be
cultivated as a particular condiment of studies.' 4 The introduction to
Biittner 1625 stresses the utility of music: the art not only contributes to
the praise of God, the Cantorei also supports poor pupils during difficult
times, enabling them to continue with their studies, developing into
learned men of school and church. 5 Many of the books designed for
practical musical instruction in schools include Luther's celebrated
quotations about music; perhaps the most extensive in this regard is
Ribovius 1638 (pp. 247f.), which includes virtually all Luther's well-known
sayings regarding the beauty and use of music.
Some of the most enthusiastic supporters of music were pastors who
followed the lead of their reformer in treasuring music as an element of
worship. Friedrich gives a clear indication of the classic Lutheran pur-
poses of music in an organ dedication of 1610: music celebrates divine
glory foremost, secondly, it moves the human soul, affecting both teacher
and listener; thirdly, it banishes the Devil and his melancholy ways and
finally it gives a foretaste of heavenly joy. Friccius 1631 and Mithobius
1665 are two of the most extensive tracts supporting music during the
entire century. Friccius, having presented a long justification of music in
Scripture, history and nature, stresses that the schools should continue
to contribute to the musical richness of the liturgy:
The school servants, together with the organists, are obliged to practise music
diligently so that the service may be decorated both with organ playing and (as
hitherto, so henceforth) also otherwise with music-making (as much as the
opportunities of this place afford).

Die Schuldiener neben dem Organisten / denen die Musica zu iiben obliget /
daB sie FleiB thun / damit beydes mit schlagen der Orgel / und (wie biBhero /
also weiter /) auch sonste mit Musiciren der Gottesdienst (so viel dieses Orts
Gelegenheit nach geschehen kan) gezieret werde. (Friccius 1631, p. 125)
 The role of practical music in education 15

Friccius loses no opportunity in his long sermon to speak out against other
denominations. While the Catholics are vaguely accused of 'superstition'
and 'idolatry' ('Aberglauben', 'Abgotterey'; Friccius 1631, p. 333), the
richness of Lutheran music is a particularly potent weapon with which to
taunt the amusical Calvinists, well known for their destruction of organs.
Their worship is not only emasculated but also contrary to the many
exaltations to musical worship in the Bible. Rosinus's sermon of 1615
had likewise condemned the Calvinists' attitude to music, something
which showed the influence of the Devil.6 Anwander suggests that Lutheran
music is a 'Mittel StraB' between Calvinist austerity and Catholic excess
(Anwander 1606, p. 31).
Given that cantors quite often proceeded to become clerics, it is not
surprising to find a pastor, Erasmus Gruber, writing a singing primer for
use in schools. Gruber clearly wished to show the young student that
music was essential in deepening belief and relaying the content of
religious dogma:
If one sings and makes music with a beautiful learned text, psalms and Lieder, the
subject and dogma themselves go far more deeply and pleasantly into the heart
together with the beautiful melodies, than would surely happen through preaching

Wenn man schone / LehrhafFte Text / Psalmen und Lieder singt und musiciert,
so gehen zugleich mit den lieblichen Melodien die Res und Glaubens-Lehren
selber durch die Ohren viel tieffer und anmuthiger ins Herz / als wohl durchs
predigen geschicht (Gruber 1673, 'Christlicher Vor-Bericht')
One element which becomes especially prominent in seventeenth-century
writings about music in worship is the emphasis on instruments, these
being such an integral part of the new Italianate musical style. Indeed
one of the most common motivations for the longer tracts of the period
(such as Friccius's) was the dedication of a new organ. Poland's Musica
instrumental^ of 1604 links the organ celebration in the cathedral at Meissen
with the use of strings in the service. He takes a verse from Psalm 69
('Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves
therein') as his starting-point, since it implies so much the totality of
praise; sumptuous figural music with organs and other instruments is
akin to the music of heaven (this is typically coupled with a polemic
against other denominations). Friedrich 1610 is based appropriately on
Psalm 150, which exhorts us to worship not only with the living voice
but also with all kinds of instruments.
Anwander, in another organ-dedication sermon, stresses the importance
of musical instruments, the costs spent on the organ being like the costly
16 Music education and the art of performance

water with which the woman anointed Christ (Anwander 1606, p. 8). He
affirms that - some Old Testament objections to instruments notwith-
standing - musical prosperity is good and useful in itself (pp. 16-17).
Throughout his tract he is concerned to highlight music as a useful art,
on account of its ability both to move and to teach the listener. 7 Friccius
1631 takes a more abstract viewpoint, likening the components and
totality of the organ to the parts of the human being, of which the heart
(= organist) is itself regulated by the heavenly Kapellmeister (ibid.,
p. 252).8 This sort of mechanistic analogy is typical of the age, reflecting
the temporary integration of the new science and technology within the
old theocentric order (see Dammann 1984, pp. 397-476). 9
Rosinus argues that the musical worship of God takes place at three
levels: the singing of angels; the singing of humans (the Cantorei thus
being a vital institution which mirrors that of Heaven); and thirdly the
music of dumb, unreasoning things. Instruments (with animals) fall into
the third category and should be respected, albeit at the lowest level of
musical worship:
When one hears the organ struck up in church, each person should strike up
and cheer himself with these thoughts: Dear God, the foolish, ignorant
instrument praises God in Heaven
Wann man auch Orgeln horet in Kirchen schlagen / so sol ein jeder in sich
selber schlagen / und sich auflmuntern mit diesen Gedancken: Lieber Gott /
lobet das tumme / unverstendige Werck GOtt im Himmel (Rosinus 1615)

THE EXPANSION OF FIGURAL MUSIC

The enthusiam of these theologians is paralleled by the great expansion
of figural music during the seventeenth century. In Hamburg, figural
music was sung in each church only six times per year before 1608, but
after this time it was performed in each church every four weeks; the
addition of galleries in several city churches is further testimony to this
expansion (Kriiger 1933, p. 47). In Dresden the development seems to
have been even swifter with figural music every fourth Sunday in 1574,
every Sunday in alternate churches by 1581 (Krickeberg 1965, pp. 59,
114). The Nordhausen ordinance of 1583 shows that cantors were
beginning to furnish figural music in several churches at a time, which
meant that the capable students were to be trained so that they could
sing a piece with only five singers (see p. 5 above). Rosinus's Cantorey
Predigt of 1615 shows that even in the comparatively small village church
at Staucha, a motet was sung every week.
 The role of practical music in education 17

According to Kuhnau, the aristocracy was frequently requesting newer,

up-to-date works from the church musicians (Krickeberg 1965, p. 85).
Ernest the Pious issued an ordinance for Gotha in 1642, directing that
the schoolmaster should not bore the pupils with precepts and scales, but
teach them which figural pieces belong to elegant and artistic singing. 10
That schoolteachers often followed this trend is suggested by the comments
of a Quintus teacher in Flensburg during the dismissal proceedings
concerning the cantor, Ewers, in 1687: the latter had performed the
same pieces repeatedly without introducing anything new (Detlefsen
1961, pp. 228~9). Many city musicians tried to imitate the idioms and
musical standards of court establishments: in Halle, the organist, Zahn,
stated his intention in 1638 of making music in the modern fashion, just
as it was done in the contemporary princely courts. 11
Not surprisingly this expansion of figural music is reflected by changes
within the school body and curriculum. First, the developing status of
the cantor is immediately noticeable. Krickeberg (1965, pp. 19, 48)
shows that cantors were often the leading musicians of their towns
during the seventeenth century, their energies moving away from the
cultivation of musica choralis (unmeasured monophony, for which a separate
cantor was sometimes employed) to musica Jiguralis. Progressively, the
cantor became the only specialist teacher in the school, with a much
lighter load of academic instruction. The hardships of the Thirty Years
War, which often hindered music instruction in schools, might also have
encouraged the cantor to look more in the direction of the city than the
school (Finkel 1973, p. 103).
One especially telling sign of this move was the seemingly silent
appropriation of the title Director Musices by the Leipzig Thomaskantor
J. H. Schein for a publication in 1618 (Krickeberg 1965, p. 104); J. S. Bach
likewise claimed this title a century later. Praetorius's treatise of 1619,
the first major German work to codify a complete importation of the
'new Italian style', offers the title Director Musices as a synonym for cantor.
Many basic music primers (e.g. Demantius 1635) follow Praetorius's lead
here. That there was an explicit division between two types of cantor,
the academic and the Kapellmeister, is clearly evidenced by the intriguing
politics surrounding Bach's Leipzig appointment in 1723; one faction of
the town council desired the traditional academic cantor while the other,
calling for a more purely musical candidate, won the day (see Siegele
1983, 1984, 1986). As Fuhrmann made clear in 1715, there was a dis-
tinction between the academic, but musically informed, cantor and the
cantor who must understand composition so that he can harmonise a
18 Music education and the art of performance

given melody, correct mistakes, supervise the compositions of students

and improve poor pieces:
I say that a choir-leader who wants to be called not a common cantor but a
Director Musices must understand the fundamentals of composition
Ich sage, ein Ghoragus, der kein gemeiner Cantor, sondern ein Director Musices
seyn und heissen wil, muB Fundamentum Compositionis verstehen
(Fuhrmann, Musicalische Strigel, p. 18)

Mergerle, in his compendium of the various professions and trades,

likewise implies that there are two categories of cantor: those who
conduct individual choirs and those who take overall responsibility for
the entire musical establishment:
Certain cantors and singing-masters are appointed to begin the songs and their
sections correctly, to lead the voices and to instruct the young. But because
musical instruments are added to the vocal parts, following an ancient and
praiseworthy custom, and the musicians are divided into several choirs, it was
necessary not only to have various cantors, but also to have one to direct the
entire Capelle and the main choir, whom we still nowadays call the Kapellmeister
sind gewisse Cantores und Sing-Meister angeordnet / die Gesange und deren
Absatze richtig anzufangen / die Stimm zu fiihren / und die Jugend zu
unterweisen. Weil aber denen Sing-Stimmen auch die Musicalische
Instrumenten aus einer uralten loblichen Gewohnheit beygefiiget / und die
Musici in gewisse Chore vertheilet worden / waren nicht allein unterschiedliche
Cantores nothig / sondern auch einer / so die gantze Capelle und den Haupt-
Chor dirtgirte / welchen wir noch heut zu Tage den Capell-Meister nennen
(Mergerle 1711, p. 136)
It is interesting to find the term Kapellmeister used in connection with
church music and that the reference to 'instructing the young' is con-
spicuously absent from this category. The authorities in Frankfurt in 1623
must have been rather progressive in relieving the school cantor altogether
of the direction of the figural music and appointing a 'professional'
Kapellmeister to control the music in all the churches, J. A. Herbst.
Nevertheless Herbst was still required to train the eight best boys from
the school.12 Samuel Scheidt was appointed to a similar position in Halle
in 1628 (see p. 30 below). These are striking instances of a general trend
towards training only those boys who had special talent and neglecting
the traditional singing culture in the school as a whole.
Krickeberg has shown that the musical activity and status of the
cantor often varied according to area in Lutheran Germany. In the
north, for instance, cantors were not traditionally composers (since there
 The role of practical music in education 19

were so few composers there at the time of the Reformation), so the

organists began to play more of a role, even though these were officially
ranked below cantors and not necessarily associated with school music
(Krickeberg 1965, pp. 124-5). As Fuhrmann so elequently put it in 1706,
the cantor should be well-informed in musica theorica, practka and poetica,
since it would be a bad thing if the organist were cleverer than the
cantor.13 On the other hand, Buxtehude, as organist of the Marienkirche,
Liibeck, became so important in the town's musical life that he was often
addressed in the manner of a Kapellmeister (Krickeberg 1965, p. 149).
Furthermore, while Buxtehude was still not officially responsible for the
figural music in the Marienkirche, his extra-liturgical Abendmusik was the
most famed musical event of the year, something which was, incidentally*
funded by the business community (Snyder 1987, pp. 63, 66, 71-2).
In smaller towns throughout Germany the cantor was often still
primarily a schoolteacher, so here again the organist sometimes could
take a larger role in the direction of the church music (Krickeberg 1965,
p. 133). In southern Germany too the cantor was slower to become an
important musical figure since, with the proximity of Catholic states, the
chorale - as the flagship of Lutheran dogma - remained the most
important musical element of education and worship, to the detriment of
more complex figural music (Krickeberg, p. 160).
It was in the larger cities of central Germany that the cantor was most
influential, often taking up the musical directorship of several churches
while still retaining some of his respected status as a schoolmaster. 14 In
exceptional cases (e.g. Bach's and Telemann's) it was even possible for
the cantor to hire a substitute to take the cantor's Latin lessons, but this
was not greeted with universal approval.
Some of the more important cantorates were obviously very attractive
to notable musicians even in the eighteenth century. As the entry on
'Cantor' in Zedler's Grosses vollstdndiges universal Lexicon (vol. V, 1733,
p. 600) affirms, the name 'cantor' carries particular honour in religious
institutions. 15 C. P. E. Bach tried twice to become cantor at the
Thomasschule in Leipzig, but was deemed unsuitable, apparently on
academic grounds (see Petzoldt 1985, pp. 7-8). Perhaps the town council
was reacting against the 'exceptional' situation of his father's appointment:
for over twenty years the cantorate had been controlled by a musician
who did not even hold a university degree. Telemann evidently considered
the Hamburg cantorate an attractive proposition in 1721, even if he was
criticised for having neglected the general school singing tuition (in a
document relating to his successor's (C. P. E. Bach's) appointment; see
20 Music education and the art of performance

Schulze 1977, p. 76). It may be that with the rising bourgeois interest in
progressive and public music, the prospect of such a post in a free city
was more promising than one in court service, where the musician was
at the mercy of the aristocratic whim. In any case the traditional distinc-
tions between church, court and theatre music were being eroded and the
leading musicians were often 'complete Kapellmeisters' in the sense advo-
cated by Mattheson's famous treatise, Der vollkommene Kapellmeister (1739).
The academic status of music seems to have declined during the seven-
teenth century: the 1580 Saxon ordinance (see p. 4 above) already implied
that music was being regarded as a non-academic study. A century later
the Leipzig rector Thomasius stated that music was no longer an
essential requisite of a learned man (Krickeberg 1965, p. 49). On the
other hand, some schools evidently encouraged a wide participation in
musical activities. In Schleiz, for instance, all pupils were expected to
sing motets in 1673, whether or not they were in the specialist choir;16
moreover, the Brieg ordinance of 1581 stresses that only the 'amusicaF
may be excused from music lessons (Schunemann 1928, p. 81). In the
Michaelsschule, Luneburg the higher classes were trained to sing a certain
amount of advanced figural music (Walter 1967, pp. 56-7). The average
number of hours spent on general music instruction seems to have been
about four per week, so the Leipzig ordinance of 1634 was probably
exceptional in advocating seven hours (Schunemann 1928, p. 171,
Wustman 1909, p. 110).
In most schools morning and afternoon lessons were still opened and
closed with the singing of a sacred song (Schunemann 1928, p. 88); this
practice is still documented in the ordinances of the Thomasschule,
Leipzig in 1733.17 Furthermore, music could still be used as a mnemonic
system to learn basic facts and elements of faith, since some believed it to
affect both singers and listeners alike.18 Gruber's comment that facts and
matters of belief penetrate the heart far more effectively with 'lieblich'
melodies than with preaching has already been noted here (see p. 15
above). One further use of music in school is outlined by Falck 1688:
music refreshes the mind exhausted by concentration, stimulating the inner
senses, fantasy and memory (Falck 1688, foreword). This in turn reflects
the position of music as an art somewhat apart from academic subjects.
Church records point towards a tremendous growth in instrumental
performance during the seventeenth century. The case at Hamburg is par-
ticularly well documented: instruments are mentioned at the Jacobikirche
for the first time in 1548, regular payments are recorded from 1563 and
contracts are issued for musicians in the Catharinenkirche in 1592 and
 The role of practical music in education 21

the Johanniskirche in 1609; in 1613 a general ordinance was passed to

establish the apportionment of singers and instrumentalists for all churches
(Kruger 1933, pp. 54-7). Similarly in Leipzig instrumentalists were
established for the second choir, in addition to the first, in 1608
(Wustman 1909, p. 95). The Stadtpfeiffer - professional musicians who
were employed (and apprenticed) by the town - were traditionally
responsible for the instrumental parts, but the growth in concerted music
clearly demanded that more players be available. In Freiberg, for
instance, school instrumentalists were supplementing the Stadpfeiffer by
1680 (Krickeberg 1965, p. 115).
School documents show a similar trend: the Weimar school ordinance
of 1614 directs that instrumental music should be practised and that
organists and other musicians in the town should be employed to teach
instrumental music (Preussner 1924, p. 443). The introduction to Leisring
1615, a treatise specifically directed at young schoolboys, states cate-
gorically that music is industriously practised at schools and that many
well-appointed churches are furnished with both vocal and instrumental
music.19 Instrumental instruction became part of the private tuition to be
offered by the cantor in Freiberg in 1650 and instrumental study was
mandatory by 1658 (Krickeberg 1965, pp. 83-4). Kuhnau's document of
employment in Leipzig 1702 states that he was to be responsible for
instrumental tuition (Schering 1926, p. 60). Several treatises also imply
that singing study could be combined with instrumental tuition (see p. 61
below) and Gradenthaler 1687 even suggests that pupils who are not
capable of singing - presumably at the time of the voice change - can be
employed in instrumental music. 20 The extent to which instrumental
music was practised and respected is demonstrated by the fact that even
a Pietist rector, Vockerodt (1697), was well informed in both vocal and
instrumental performance and and claimed to have greatly encouraged
both activities during his time as rector at Gotha (see p. 28 below).
Another innovation of the seventeenth century, which was essentially
the beginning of the concert tradition, was the Collegium musicum, a group
of students who met regularly to perform concerts. Such collegia were
formed in Erfurt (1608), Gorlitz (1686) and Freiberg (1672 - see Preussner
1924, Schiinemann 1928, p. 198) and these were often involved in the
instrumental side of church music. According to Schering, a Collegium
musicum was formed in the Leipzig Thomasschule during the latter years
of the seventeenth century to cater for instrumentalists in the two highest
classes and to perform in the school on special occasions (Schering 1926,
p. 60). This new type of institution was not always neccessarily associated
22 Music education and the art of performance

with the cantor and school music: Weckmann, organist of thejakobikirche

in Hamburg, formed a Collegium musicum in 1660 which became famous
in its own right (Kriiger 1933, pp. 97-9). In Leipzig, Kuhnau was con-
stantly irritated by Telemann's activity at the New Church. Telemann's
student Collegium musicum (formed in 1704) drew capable musicians away
from Kuhnau's circle, and moreover, it enabled Telemann to perform
music in an operatic style which offended the cantor's sense of musical
decorum in church (Schering 1926, pp. 118, 192; Krickeberg 1965, p. 120).
Although it is difficult to establish how the more elaborate music was
rehearsed and performed, there are a few factors which together point to
how the cantor employed the pupils in his charge. First, he often had an
automatic control over the pupils since many were supported in their
studies through singing, whether in the streets or in the church Cantorei.21
Sporadic references to private musical instruction with the cantor are
found throughout the seventeenth century. Given that this practice was
also well recognised in other subjects - one third of the students in
Freiberg in 1688 received some form of private tuition (Krickeberg 1965,
p. 47) - it was probably far more widespread than the sources suggest.
The cantor Demantius at Freiberg offered private music lessons for those
who had love and desire for music (ibid., p. 53). The 1673 Loban school
ordinance directs that the cantor should train the boys especially in
figural music, both in public and in private (ibid., p. 49). Mylius's treatise
of 1685 is specifically designed for 'boys in schools and also in private
instruction'.22
Given the number of instruction books, such as Mylius's, which deal
with quite complex forms of ornamentation and diminution (see chapter
5, below) it is likely that some of the more talented pupils could have
reached quite a high level of expertise. Certainly in Freiberg the con-
certists (i.e. the solo singers who were the core of the seventeenth-century
chorus) were paid 4—5 Groschen more than the 'common singer' towards
the end of the seventeenth century (Krickeberg 1965, p. 85). The Leipzig
Thomasschule ordinances of 1634 and 1733 stipulate, at the outset of
the cantor's duties, that those who are naturally gifted and inclined
towards singing must be given private music instruction since it is not
usually possible to achieve perfection within the cantor's ordinary singing
hours.23 The ordinance of 1723 states that those belonging to the Cantorei
should rehearse every day at a set time. 24 Printz describes the duties of
the prefects who were to direct the street-singing: rehearsal seemed to
entail singing through the pieces in order to determine which could be
performed without too many errors. 25
 The role of practical music in education 23

The rules outlined by Thomas Selle during his early years as cantor
in Hamburg, 1642-8, give a useful picture of what the director of music
may have expected from the school musicians. Sixteen pupils were to be
given special privileges as the best singers of their part, and a further eight
musicians would be financed by the churches (Kriiger 1933, pp. 68—77;
Kriiger 1956). This accords remarkably well with the number specified
for the first choir in the well-known 'EntwurfP written by J. S. Bach to the
Leipzig town council in 1730 (see David and Mendel 1945/1972, p. 121;
Bach-Dokumente I, p. 60). Selle also demanded that these concertists gave
him their time on Saturdays, Sundays and festivals, that they spent an
hour a day, four times a week, copying out scores and parts, and that they
attended four singing lessons a week. In 1720 the cantor of Flensburg,
Sternstorff, likewise referred to the time he needed to prepare scores and
direct copyists; this accounted for his absence from the Currende singing
(Detlefsen 1961, pp. 109-10). Selle even specified food for each day and
various other rules of living (cf. Printz's stipulations, see p. 80 below).
Furthermore, he made several demands for rehearsals with the
Ratsinstrumentisten and requested benches in the churches to prevent the
instrumentalists from going to the 'Weinhaus' during the sermon.
One further factor to consider is the employment of singers who were
not currently members of the school, particularly for the lower voices
which must have been difficult to furnish with younger singers. In early
seventeenth-century Hamburg, the tenor and bass parts were assigned to
pupils from the advanced school [Gymnasium) who were thus older than
those from the Lateinschule (Kriiger 1956, p. 18). Close examination of
the Cantorei at the Leipzig Thomasschule under both Kuhnau and Bach
shows that extra singers were employed on a regular basis. Indeed
Kuhnau's complaint that the ex-pupils of the school were more interested
in operatic and coffee-house performances than church music suggests
that he expected those singers who remained in Leipzig - presumably as
university students - to continue their services. In Bach's time there are
records of regular payments to university students and his testimonials
for private pupils frequently mention the involvement of the latter in
church music (see Wagner 1986, pp. 285, 291-5). Although it must
clearly have been necessary to rely on outside help for the maintenance
of a high standard of church music, this practice must have weakened
the connections between school and church, reflecting a move away
from the fostering of general school music towards the cultivation of the
more talented pupils.
24 Music education and the art of performance

D I S P U T E S C O N C E R N I N G M U S I C IN C H U R C H AND
SCHOOL

Of course the history of figural music in the seventeenth century was not
without its problems, and a large body of material shows that the more
enterprising musical establishments often drew adverse criticism. Friedrich,
in his organ dedication of 1610, remarks that the Devil has recently
inspired some to advocate the abolition of figural music altogether. The
first book of Praetorius' Syntagma musicum (1614-15) - an exhaustive study
of the use and origins of music in both Old and New Testaments - is
designed as a rebuff to those Lutherans who condemned elaborate liturgy
and music as inherently papist.
Such criticisms multiply during the Thirty Years War, when many
must have viewed music as an irrelevant and expensive luxury. Biittner
notes in the introduction to his school music primer of 1625 that many
oppose the art of music and that Luther's judgement is here appropriate:
'those contemptuous of the wonderful art of music apparently hear only
the grunting of the sow and the cry of the ass'.26 Nevertheless, as Biittner
affirmed, music in schools did serve the purpose of supporting some of
the poorer students, particularly in times of need (see p. 14 above). But,
given that many saw this as a form of beggary, they doubtless felt that
the practical musician was essentially a craftsman, lacking the status of
an 'educated man'. Michael's introduction to the second part of his
Musicalische Seelenlust of 1637 states categorically that music has suffered
more changes in fortune during the recent years than virtually any other
art or discipline.27 Music is constantly being denigrated as a profession:
Because enough contrary-minded people and libertines have arisen, who will
begrudge both music and those who cultivate it . . . a bite of bread, not to speak
of respect. On the contrary, because one can neither fill one's purse with it, nor
still hunger and thirst with it, and because it is a useless and inefficient art, while
not a harmful one, they take pains to get rid of it and put the money to better use.
Weil genugsam widrige Kopffe und Wustlinge auffgestande / welche / weder
der Music noch ihren cultoribus . . . einigen Bissen Brodt / geschwiege dann
einen Respect gegonnet / Ja vielmehr / weil man weder den Beutel damit fullen
/ noch Hunger und Durst darmit stillen konte / dieselbe / wo nicht gar als eine
schadliche / doch als eine unnutze untiichtige Kunst abzuschaffen / die Kosten
auff was bessers . . . zu wenden / sich bemiihet.
(T. Michael, Musicalische Seelen-Lust II, 1637, preface to Quinta vox)
Given the high regard in which the Leipzig Thomasschule and its
musical achievements were held during the Baroque period, it is likely
that this downturn in Michael's fortunes was the result of the temporary
 The role of practical music in education 25

pressures of war. However, it does show that music was not sufficiently
grounded in society to endure well in a time of dire need. Moreover,
even Schiitz - writing from the relative security of the Dresden court -
notes the appalling decline of music in recent years in the prefaces to
the Kleine geistliche Concerte of 1636 and the Symphoniae Sacrae II of 1647.
Even in the latter part of the century Georg Falck remarks in the
introduction to his Idea boni cantoris 1688 that the youth in school were
disinclined to study music if they knew that they would not continue to
make a profession of it (Falck 1688, foreword). As Pastor Sebastian
Kirchmajer adds in his foreword to the same publication, 'Most people
love and learn gladly only those arts which adorn and fill the purse, or
which otherwise bear profit.'28 Gradenthaller 1687 gives an enormous
introduction on the historical importance of music (including relatively
recent figures, the emperors Charlemagne, Ferdinand III and the con-
temporary Leopold I) as a rebuff to those who oppose educating the
youth in music, and who shrink from allowing their children to learn it.
As Furhmann wrote in the introduction of his practical treatise (1706,
p. 5), people of high status often believed that music was bad for their
reputations.
Some church and school officials regarded the new Italianate figural
style as detrimental to the cultivation of monophony. As early as 1605
the rector of the Kreutzschule in Dresden remarked that not a single note
of Choral had been sung in the last half year (Preussner 1924, p. 441),
which implies that the cantor was spending too much time on the more
elaborate figural music. Kalb has observed that orthodox Lutheran theo-
logians of the seventeenth century never fully addressed the implications
of the 'new Italian style5 and judged music - on the whole favourably -
on the assumption that it was still the Flemish polyphony beloved of
Luther and his generation.29 Nevertheless, there is a case for suggesting
that the new styles did indeed retrospectively fulfil some of Luther's claims
and desires regarding music (see p. 12 above); complaints within orthodoxy
obviously centred around the secularisation that might result from the
expansion of personnel and musical ambitions within the cantorate.30
The most vicious outbursts against elaborate music came in the last
decades of the seventeenth century with the growth of the Lutheran
Pietist movement: this eschewed traditional liturgy and elaborate music.31
In Freiberg the rector complained of trumpets and drums destroying the
Sabbath and the superintendent warned that figural music was driving
out the German songs (Krickeberg 1965, p. 89), the simplicity and direct-
ness of which was so important to the Pietists.
26 Music education and the art of performance

The pamphlet wars of this period are testimony to the depth of the pas-
sions aroused. The most vitriolic attack on music came from J. Muscovius,
first pastor and inspector of the churches and schools in Lauben, in
his Bestrqffler Mifibrauch der Kirchen-Music 1694. Immediately evident in
Muscovius's tract is his desire for the simple Pietism of the early church.
In the spirit of the early Enlightenment he desires to understand the New
Testament texts in their true, 'original5 meanings. He believes that problems
of understanding are the fault of men, not of the Holy Scripture itself:
It is not the Holy Scripture in and of itself that is dark and difficult but the
spoiled human understanding which is made incapable, dim and difficult
through sin, which always adheres to us and makes us sluggish in our perception
of that which belongs to God's spirit. . . . One should look so much more for
the purpose that an author has decided on, than at the mere words, which can
be forced and misinterpreted against the author's intention . . . if one wishes to
understand an author correctly, one must look into what caused him to have
spoken about this or that.

Nicht die Heil. SchrifTt / an und vor sich selbst ist dunckel und schwer /
sondern der verderbte Menschliche Verstand ist untiichtig / dunckel und schwer
durch die Siinde / so uns immer anklebet / und trage macht / zu vernehmen /
was des Geistes GOttes ist . . . Man so vielmehr auff den Zweck sehen / der
ihn ein Autor hab vorgenommen / als auff die blossen Worte / selbige wieder
des Autoris Meinung zu nohtigen und auBzudeuten . . . wenn man einen Autorem
recht verstehen wil / so muB man auff die Ursachen sehen / umb welcher
Willen er dieses oder jenes geredet hat. (Muscovius 1694, pp. 11-12)
The matter is therefore one of accurate and historically appropriate inter-
pretation, something which shows the Pietists to have been progressive in
intellectual thought. Clearly music, which - by the very ambiguity of its
exegetical properties - could cloud the 'authentic' meaning of Scripture,
would be eschewed (even if, to some, it rendered the text more affectively
immediate).
Predictably, Muscovius observes that instrumental music is not
mentioned in the New Testament and that this doubtlessly reflects the
practice of the early Christians (p. 17).32 However, the thesis of his
argument is not the total abolition of music but rather the curbing of its
misuse; indeed he claims to hold vocal and instrumental music - if used
correctly - in far higher regard than do the musicians themselves. 33
Clearly, he believes music to have an affective power if he affirms that
music which is serious, respectable and fine makes the people likewise
serious and moves them to penitence. 34
What Muscovius detests is the florid, 'frivolous5 nature of modern
music which renders the text incomprehensible. His vivid commentary
 The role of practical music in education 27

gives an interesting insight into the music and performance of his time.
In a passage referring to Aristotle's prescription of music which leads
only to virtue and good morals, he conjectures:
How would this heathen judge the church music of Christians today, if, in the
gathering of the simple congregation - as often happens, especially on high
feasts - he were to hear nothing more than laughing: now one of them makes a
coloratura or a trill thereby shredding the text; now a small boy therein whimpers
or crows like a cockerel; now the whole company cries together like hunters at
the hunt; now among them there is yet riddling, now reed-blowing, drumming
and thundering, and in multifarious fashions all is therein scorned and rushed,
so that one cannot perceive a word of the text and does not know what has
been roared and ridiculed.
Was wiirde wohl dieser Heyde von der itzigen Kirchen-Music der Christen
urtheilen / wenn er / wie offt / sonderlich an hohen Festen / in der gantzen
Versamlung der einfaltigen Gemeine / nichts mehr horete / als ein Gelachter /
da bald einer durch Zerreissung des Textes daher coloraturiret / oder driillert /
bald ein kleiner Knabe drein winselt / oder wie ein Hahnlein krahet / bald der
gantze Hausse / wie die Jager auff der Jagt / zusammen schreyet / darunter
noch bald gefiedelt / bald geschalmeyet / bald gepaucket / bald gedrommetet /
und auff mancherley Art drein gehonet und gesauset wird / daB man vom Textu
kein Wort vernimmet / und nicht weiB / was gebrauset und ausgelachet worden.
(Muscovius 1694, p. 30)
Muscovius cites various classical precedents (notably the Spartans) to
justify his puritanical bent, yet he also advocates a direct, personal
approach in worship to replace the 'dead pipes' and 'artful voice-
mongers'. 35 Above all, music should be used only in so far as it is
understandable and in accordance with reason. His extensive complaints
about the use of Latin in the liturgy also reflect his concern for compre-
hension and are likewise grounded in the practice of the early Christians;
for instance St Paul always celebrated services in the mother tongue (p.
65). Moreover, he agrees with those who complain that they cannot join
in with the music and who would dearly love to sing German songs
slowly and devoutly with the organ.36
The Pietist position on music was also clearly outlined by the rector of
the Gotha Gymnasium, G. Vockerodt, in his MijSbrauch der fieyen Kiinste of
1697, a defence of his report on a school inspection written the previous
year. This had outlined the dangers of the misuse of music, drawing on the
rather disturbing examples of Nero, Claudius and Caligula. J. C. Lorber,
the court poet at Weimar, responded with the obvious example of Luther's
devotion to music (1697), while J. Beer of the Weissenfels court responded
with a stinging attack on Vockerodt's logic, showing the absurdity of his
28 Music education and the art of performance

underlying argument. For instance: 'What has harmed Caligula, Claudius

and Nero must harm all leaders. Now, music, dancing and comedies
harmed Caligula, Claudius and Nero; therefore music, dancing and
comedies harm all leaders.' 37
Vockerodt responded with the express intention of showing that he
was not a 'Music-Feind' and that it was in the misuse of music,
particularly in the theatre, that the danger lay. Indeed he claimed that
the standard of music had improved in the school since he had become
rector; he had been diligent in ensuring a fair division of the money
earned by the choir ('Chor-Geld'), he had restored two subsidiary singing
lessons per week that had formerly been dropped, he had arranged
instrumental lessons, and had himself been well-practised in vocal and
instrumental music since his youth (Vockerodt 1697, pp. 12-13).
Vockerodt's prescription for the justified use of music is a useful summary
of the Pietist position: the musician should perform from the heart, and
in such a way as to inspire devotion in the listener; he should perform
spiritual Lieder, psalms and songs of praise, which spread the word of
Christ; he should not perform so much for the applause of men as for
the fear and love of God, scorning the world and all vanity; he must use
the art not for any worldly pleasure but only for the praise of God and
the betterment of those who hear him; he should live a holy, goodly and
God-fearing life and not misuse the tongue with which he praises God
(Vockerodt 1697, pp. 22-3).
Despite his respect for music and claims that he was not starting a
Pietistic inquisition (p. 17), some of Vockerodt's arguments - grounded in
the simplicity of the practice of the early church - are remarkably similar
to Muscovius's:
Afterwards, however, irrational worship gained the upper hand in Catholic
lands, andfinallyin Germany too, they sing more in Latin than in German, more
often colourful and curly coloratura, than understandable and edifying songs
Nachdem aber gleichwol der unvernunfftige Gottesdienst im Pabstthum uberhand
genommen / und endlich auch in Teutschland mehr Lateinisch als Teutsch /
ofFters bundte und krause coloraturen / als verstandliche und erbauliche Lieder
gesungen worden (Vockerodt 1697, p. 24)

What angered Vockerodt in particular was the fact that various boys had
played in public dances and consorted with the Stadtpfeiffer, wasting the
time allotted to attending to God's word, lessons and the Catechism, by
copying out parts to 'Quodlibeten' (pp. 14-15). Given that this sort of
attitude was prevalent, Muscovius may have been justified in doubting
 The role of practical music in education 29

the devotion of the specialised musicians in church, particularly since he

observed that musicians frequently left the church during the sermon.38
Significantly, Megerle (using material from Abraham a Sancta Clara - a
Catholic writer) notes, in the enormous compendium of the various
professions, crafts and trades, Etwas Jur Alle (vol. II, 1711), that many
singers are hardly angels and sing, instead of the Gloria Patri:
Glory be to me, my song and my voice; you are merely men in principio and
remain fools in saecula saeculorum Amen.
Ehre sey mir / meinem Gesang / und meiner Stimm; ihr seyd halt Menschen in
principio, und bleibt Thoren in saecula saeculorum Amen. (Megerle 1711, p. 139)
All this suggests that it is unwise to assume that all church musicians of
the Baroque period were inspired to pursue their art by an uncon-
trollable religious fervour. Indeed, while the florid style had flourished on
the bedrock of a particular religious motivation which viewed music with
favour, many of the more talented musicians probably cultivated their
art as an end in itself.
It is often a matter of contention as to whether one or other writer or
musician should be labelled a Tietist', but it is clear that many
prominent musicians were inspired by the Pietistic zeal for cleansing
music of its abuses. J. G. Ahle quotes Muscovius's scornful portrayal of
the whining, coloratura-grinding boy in his second edition of his father's
vocal primer (Ahle 1704, p. 82). While his writings in general suggest
that he was not entirely averse to elaborate music and vocal diminution,
it does seem that he may have been influenced by the Pietist cause,
particularly since he lived in Miihlhausen, where there was a notorious
pulpit war between Orthodox and Pietist pastors (see Sevier 1974,
pp. 26-9). It was here that his successor, J. S. Bach, experienced
opposition to elaborate church music, and was soon to resign because he
was not able to compose a 'well-regulated church music' {Bach-Dokumente
I, p. 19; David and Mendel 1945/1972, p. 60).
Kuhnau was certainly an orthodox Lutheran as a churchman,
composer and writer, but he shared with the Pietists a distaste for
ostentatious theatrical music (something which is elegantly stressed in his
satirical novel Der musicalische Quacksalber, 1700). It was undoubtedly his
musical conservatism and strict views on decorum in church that lost
him many performers to Telemann's New Church choir during the first
decade of the eighteenth century (see Schering 1926, p. 192, and p. 22
above). Significantly, the cantor in Hamburg at this time, J. Gerstenbiittel
(a cantor of the traditional, academic type), experienced similar problems,
30 Music education and the art of performance

since he too disapproved of the opera and modern theatrical music

(Kriiger 1933, p. 225). Although the disapproval of these conservative
figures might have something in common with the Pietist movement,
their attitude more probably derives from the distinction made in German
compositional theory between music for church, chamber and theatre
(most clearly articulated by Bernhard and surviving in the writings of
Werckmeister and Mattheson). In other words, while the concept of
differentiated musical styles was still consciously pursued by many
composers and theorists, music was becoming more autonomous with an
emerging aesthetic dimension that rendered the functional categorisation
irrelevant. Certainly the entry on church music in Zedler's Lexicon suggests
that some composers wrote the same type of music, whatever the purpose:
And it is very bad when those composers who, in order to show their particular
skilfulness in the invention of all sorts of cultivated and agreeable singing
manners, perform at the public services pieces of a kind that are better suited to
the theatre or dance-place than to so holy a place and such holy matters.
Und ist es von denenjenigen Gomponisten sehr iibel gehandelt, welche um nur
ihre besondere Geschicklichkeit in Erfindung allerhand kiinstlicher und
angenehmer Singe-Arten zu zeigen, auch bey dem oflfentlichen GOttes-Dienste
dergleichen Stiicke aufluhren, die sich entweder besser auf das Theatrum oder
auf den Tantz-Platz, als an eine so heilige State, und zu so heiligen Handlungen
schicken. (Zedler, vol. XXII, 1739, p. 1,466)
Another area in the dispute over music concerns the authority of the
cantor within the school hierarchy. It is already clear that some school
rectors must have held the cantors to blame for many of the abuses, if
Vockerodt's testimony is anything to go by. Furthermore, given that
music no longer had such a strong academic standing in the school, many
academically minded rectors felt threatened by the 'extramural' appeal
of the Cantorei. Scheidt's experiences at the Marktkirche in Halle are
especially illuminating: the city created the new office of Director Musices
in 1628, a post independent of the Gymnasium but one which involved
the recruiting of choirboys from the school body; Scheidt's acrimonious
disputes with the school's rector led to his resignation in 1630.39
One particular element of the school organisation which inevitably led
to conflict was the fact that many boys were financially supported in the
school through their musical activities; thus some rectors were envious of
the power that the cantor consequently wielded in the selection process.
Even in 1614 the learned cantor of Leipzig, Seth Calvisius, found that
the boys he had accepted on musical grounds were turned down by the
rector (Wustman 1909, p. 91). Nevertheless, the Leipzig Thomasschule
 The role of practical music in education 31

ordinance of 1634 states categorically that musical boys over the age of
twelve are to be given priority in admission to the school, regardless of
their other achievements.40 Less experienced boys may be admitted, but
if they do not make improvements they should be dismissed by a certain
time so that they do not deny the place to a more musical boy.41
The most illuminating picture of the tensions between rector and
cantor is given by the tract Directorium musicum (1706) by J. P. Bendeler,
the cantor of Quedlinburg. The foreword suggests that there have recently
been conflicts so intense that the entire staffs of schools have been dis-
rupted by hate, distrust and constant disharmony; Bendeler's intention is
to settle the disputes by use of reasoned argument. He begins with the
affirmation that whoever is responsible for a particular matter is also the
head of the same; therefore reason dictates (whether the logic is that of
the Christians, Jews, Turks or heathen) that the cantor is the head of
music and not the rector.42 After all, he adds, the rector has absolutely
no jurisdiction over the organists and other church musicians (over
whom the cantor traditionally had precedence).
In the best of rhetorical traditions, much of Bendeler's tract comprises
counter-arguments which he then proceeds to demolish. The first
counter-argument affirms that the rector is the head of the pupils.
Bendeler retorts that the head of the school has nothing to do with the
church music or its practice; only in the conduct of the 'ordinary' singing
lessons is the cantor subservient to the rector, since these belong to the
school curriculum. This clearly demonstrates the break between music as an
official subject in school and the cultivation of school choirs for the church
liturgy. Bendeler argues that the pupils belong to the rector only when
they fall within his jurisdiction. If indeed he does give music lessons,
these are the only occasions for which he has musical authority.43 Evidently
some rectors were still versed in music, as in the early days of the Refor-
mation era when the cantorate was still an academic post and many
teachers taught music to a certain level; the example of Vockerodt also
points to the later survival of musically informed rectors (see p. 28 above).
Another sign of the division between school and church music is the
fact that in small places the director of music must take people from
outside the school into the church choir: e.g. cobblers, tailors or linen-
weavers. Bendeler rhetorically asks: if these people are the leaders of
their professions should not the cantor be answerable to them too, just as
he is answerable to the rector as head of the school profession? (Bendeler,
p. 6). Surely the case is like that of the town officials and Burgermeister,
who, in the matter of hunting, must submit to the hunting-master.
32 Music education and the art of performance

The next matter for dispute is the distribution of 'Chor-geld', the

money which the students earn from their church service. It appears -
and the testimony of Vockerodt substantiates this (see p. 28 above) - that
rectors were often responsible for dividing the money, but Bendeler
retorts that it is the cantor who is responsible for church music and thus
for the remuneration. Regarding the admission of boys to the choir,
Bendeler outlines the practice at Quedlinburg:
When a pupil wishes to join the choir, he registers himself with the rector and
with the cantor, and if they consider him capable and necessary, he is admitted;
if not, he is turned away or put off until another time.

Wann ein Schiiler in den Ghor will / so meldet er sich bey dem Herrn Rectore,
und bey dem Cantore, erachten ihn dieser tiichtig und nothig / wird er
eingenommen / wo nicht / wird er abgewiesen / oder bifi auf andere Zeit
vertrostet. (Bendeler 1706, pp. 8-9)
Therefore it does seem that the rector had some authority in admitting
boys to the choir in the first place, but Bendeler implies that the cantor's
prerogative in dividing the money earned by the choir gives him effective
control over the pupils and indeed over the intake of the school itself,
particularly in the case of pupils who come from outside the town.44
Bendeler also vehemently insists that the rector cannot appoint prefects
(i.e. boys who had extra authority in the choir) since the cantor must be
assured of their capacity in music, so that they can deputise for the
cantor in emergencies.45 Thus with the increasing specialisation of the
cantor, the rector's 'general musicianship' could no longer be trusted.
That the church singers were regarded as semi-professionals is suggested
by Bendeler's use of the term Concertisten for those who are taken by the
cantor and instructed towards the 'concert'.46 Bendeler also shows that the
furnishing of the music depends on the cantor's private instruction;47 con-
versely the rector has given no special instruction to the pupils and cannot
thus demand special greetings or gifts as if he were director of music.
Bendeler tries to give his document an official status by appending
three short, favourable responses to his argument by lawyers from Leipzig,
Halle and Helmstedt. It is interesting that his discourse is governed by
cool reasoning throughout, with no resort to metaphysical or theological
arguments. This shows him to be a writer of the early Enlightenment, an
age which, ironically, led many to question whether complex music itself-
with its rhetorical and quasi-mystical power - was an indispensable part
of worship. The examples of Muscovius and Vockerodt also suggest that
rationalistic thought tended to associate with a Pietistic theology, something
 The role of practical music in education 33

which by its very nature eschewed 'art' music. Bendeler's tract shows the
cantor on the defensive, anxious to retain his status within the school, but
also concerned to establish himself outside its jurisdiction as Director Musices
(this term appears regularly throughout his writing), answerable only to
the church and its liturgical contingences. In this light two celebrated
disputes in the eighteenth century can be seen in clear perspective:
Bach's dispute with the rector J. A. Ernesti of Leipzig during the 1730s
(summarised in David and Mendel 1945/1972, pp. 137-49), over the
appointment of prefects; the celebrated attack on music in De vita musica by
the Freiberg rector J. G. Bidermann 1749 (see chapter 6, p. 184 below).

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF PRACTICAL MUSIC

The traditional respect for music in the Lutheran tradition, the cultivation
of figural music during the seventeenth century, and the reservations and
warnings about its misuse, together point to a network of beliefs con-
cerning the nature and essence of music. Clearly this cannot simply be
explained in the later eighteenth-century sense as a belief in the
autonomous 'sublime' nature of music, since the study and practice of
music was still tethered to specific extra-musical functions. In the case of
educational establishments, the principal purpose of music was to accom-
pany and disseminate religion; indeed the art might even be described as
a mode of religious discourse, one which many considered essential to
the quality and integrity of Lutheranism. Thus the beliefs about music
and religion itself doubtless shared many metaphysical premises.
The recent writings of Ruhnke, Dammann and Rivera show that
seventeenth-century German music theory could be deeply speculative,
drawing both on the Pythagorean, mathematical view of music and on
more modern elements of rationalist philosophy. Certainly the traditional
Mediaeval distinction between the great musician-philosopher and the
mere 'practical' musician still pertained (in some minds, at least) during
the eighteenth century, if the Bach-Scheibe controversy is representative.
Bach's champion, Birnbaum, was particularly critical of Scheibe's use of
the word 'Musicant' to describe Bach (David and Mendel 1945/1972,
pp. 237-52). On the other hand, Bach's obituary suggests that the
composer kept clear of theoretical abstractions (Bach-Dokumente III, p. 89;
David and Mendel 1945/1972, p. 224), so perhaps Scheibe was indeed
applying the correct term. A writer such as the cantor Fokkerodt 1698
insists that the true Musicus must be familiar with all aspects of music: its
history and origins, the mathematical basis, how to move the affects in
34 Music education and the art of performance

the listener, how to sing, play and understand the instruments and how
to compose. In all, then, we need to retain a clear distinction between
what we generally today describe as musical quality and depth of musical
insight (i.e. the aesthetic and structural perspectives by which we often
judge the existing repertories) and the concerns of many Baroque theorists.
Furthermore, the concepts lying beneath 'practical' music and the act of
music-making may only tenuously have been linked with speculative
musical thought, even if some writers wrote in both fields; and if those
writers did assume a connection - as indeed we may do today - this
might disintegrate on closer inspection.
The aim here is to construct some sort of spectrum of musical aware-
ness for performance of the German Baroque: did the more advanced
musician steadily acquire a more advanced insight into the nature of
music as part of his advancing studies? Were there any changes in the
perspective of the practical instruction books during the period under
discussion? Obviously a study of the literature will give only a one-sided
view of what actually took place in music instruction, since we can never
know how the music lessons - public or private - were conducted.
However, the similarities between a wide selection of surviving treatises
are striking, and allow us to infer, at the very least, the common deno-
minators governing the nature and purpose of music. One particular
issue here is that most of the writers of speculative music theory were in
fact also practising cantors and organists (e.g. Calvisius, Lippius,
Werckmeister). Did they impart their insights to all who performed and
studied with them? Or does the fact that most were cantors in the
traditional academic sense - and not particularly distinguished composers -
mean that their outlooks are not strictly relevant to the performance-
perspective of the 'greater' composers?
The entries on 'Musica practica' and 'Musicus practicus' in Zedler's
Lexicon suggest that, by the early eighteenth century at least, there were
two types of musica practica: the traditional and frequently despised art of
'mere' practice and a wider, more intelligent discipline:
Music: practical . . . means either, when someone can sing or play without
having learned this according to the proper principles, and therefore does not
concern himself with this or with the causes of a good effect in the music, or else
it is applied, in particular, when someone not only knows the rules of music, but
also practises them in singing and on instruments, so that a lovely harmony is
awoken and the feelings of the listeners are moved.
Musick: (Practische) . . . heisset entweder, wenn jemand singen oder spielen
kan, ohne dafi er solches nach ordentlichen Grundsatzen gelernet hatte, und
 The role of practical music in education 35

daher sich um selbige, oder die Ursachen des guten Effects bey der Musick nicht
bekummert; oder es wird dadurch und zwar insonderheit angedeutet, wenn
jemand die Regeln der Musick nicht nur verstehet, sondern auch solche im
Singen und auf den Instrumenten ausubet, dadurch eine liebliche Zusammen-
stimmung erwecket wird, um die Gemiither der Zuhorer zu bewegen.
(Zedler vol. XXII, 1739, p. 1,468)

This distinction might reflect the end of a process of change during the
German Baroque; the emphasis of musical thought had moved from the
theoretical to the practical, so the Mediaeval theoretical-practical distinc-
tion was being replaced by the distinction between 'technical' and
'informed' practical musicians. The 'informed' musician needed no
longer an abstract, mathematical basis for his musical awareness, rather
a 'modern' conception of the psychological implications of music, and,
presumably, of the basis of affects within the conventions of harmony
and figuration. Towards the end of the seventeenth century there was in
German theoretical writings a tendency to place musica poetica (i.e.
composition) within musica practice something which may have reflected a
trend towards more 'informed' performance. Stierlein 1691 even went as
far as to unite all three concepts — musica theorica, practica and poetica —
within the same performance treatise. Although his use of the three
terms is eccentric in the extreme and barely relates to any other definition,
the very corruption might reflect a desire to create, at all costs, the
appearance of a fully-informed performer.48 Although late seventeenth-
century writers such as Werckmeister and Fokkerodt suggest that the true
Musicus is one who is familiar with all three fields of music, their views
are clearly more normative than descriptive.

THE DEFINITIONS OF MUSIC

What definition of music would have been impressed on the pupil from
the very outset of his musical studies? Immediately striking is the fact
that the standard Listenius/Faber definition persists well into the
seventeenth century: 'Music is the art (or science) of good singing' - a
very simple, if not banal, definition (ultimately derived from Augustine;
see Rivera 1980, p. 30) which seems to be aimed at the merely 'technical'
rather than 'informed' musician in Zedler's sense. It is to be found
in early seventeenth-century primers, 49 and persists in more modern
and extensive writings - e.g. Friderici 1618 (last published in 1677);
Gengenbach 1626 - although sometimes amplified in a way which may
reflect the increasing importance of the effect of music on the listener:
36 Music education and the art of performance

Music is an art which teaches correctly and well how to awake a sound or noise,
so that it is dainty and charming to hear.
Musica ist ein Kunste / welche recht / wol / und also einen Schall oder Hall zu
erwecken lehret / daB es Zierlich / unnd Licblich zu horen seye. (Hizler 1628)
The word 'awake' ('erwecken') was also important in Zedler's definition
of the 'informed' musician and perhaps reflects a sense of a universal -
and humanistic - musical language, one which exists in the nature of
sound and humanity (rather than in the abstract) and one which the
musician in some sense 'discovers'.
The standard definition persists in primers of the mid seventeenth
century,50 through to the later years.51 Hoffmann's elaborated definition
(1693) reflects a typical attitude of the later Baroque (commonly observed
in Bach's title-pages), a Janus-like synthesis of the theocentric with a
more modern, humanistic orientation:
Vocal music is an art, attained through multifarious practice, so that one sings
correctly and well, primarily to the glory of God and, after that also for the
uplifting of the spirit and the delight of men.
Musica vocalis ist eine erlangte Kunst / durch vielfaltiges iiben / da man
furnemlich zu Gottes Ehren darnach auch zu Auffmunterung der Gemiither /
und Ergetzligkeit der Menschen / recht und wol singet. (Hoffmann 1693, p. 1)
Falck (1688) likewise emphasises the secondary, recreational aspect of
music, something which helps to refresh the mind exhausted by concen-
tration (see p. 20 above). Speer's definition of 1697 shows similar trends
but with a new sense of autonomous art and beauty:
Music is a lovely, beautiful, free art, belonging to the praise of God, in which
the sound is most charmingly varied and human hearing enlivened.
Die Music ist eine liebliche zu Gottes Lob gehorende schone freye Kunst / da
der Thon auf das anmuthigste verandert / und das menschliche Gehor
erquicket wird. (Speer 1697, p. 1)
Similar 'updated' definitions are found in Beyer 1703; Fuhrmann 1706;
Steiner 1728 (a direct copy of Fuhrmann's definition, published in
Zurich); indeed relics of it persist in Schmelz 1752 and Kiirzinger 1763,
both of which come from the Catholic portion of Germany. Feyertag
1695 (p. 1) includes the maxim that whoever sings well, doubly prays.52
Fuhrmann's definition is particularly interesting in giving the 'updated'
definition followed by a nota bene to the 'old' simpler definition. His main
definition is also more pointedly theological, owing something to Luther's
own view of music as a foretaste of heaven:
 The role of practical music in education 37

Music is a Prelude to the angelic joy in that world, which is lent from God to
man in this world, so that he can daily and industriously praise Him
everywhere, thereby serving himself and his neighbour well.
Die Music ist ein Praeludium der englischen Freuden in jener Welt / dem
Menschen in dieser Welt von GOtt verliehen / ihn dadurch taglich und fleiBig
allhier zu loben / ihm selbst und dem Nachsten damit recht zu dienen.
(Fuhrmann 1706, p. 33)

The 'old' definition persists in Wesselius (1726), perhaps the last tutor
which is strictly in the tradition of the two preceding centuries. The
anonymous Kurze Anweisung of 1752 poses the traditional question ('What
is music?') but defines it more elaborately as an art and science concerning
the organisation of beautiful sounds (composition) and their presentation
(performance) as a vehicle for God's praise and all virtues.53
It is notable that none of these definitions gives much of a sense of the
speculative side of music, although affective and aesthetic elements can
be inferred.54 Only J. G. Ahle's fascinating notes (1690) to his father's
Faber-influenced treatise (1673) give the beginner a taste of speculative
German theory in the style of Lippius and Kircher. He tries to show that
the standard definitions are really the upper level of a deeper musical
reality, one which is founded on universal mathematical principles. Just
as the great scientists of the seventeenth century discovered local laws
which they believed would ultimately be linked into a universal theory
merely with a little more time and thought, Ahle reflects the belief that
music necessarily forms a unity. Science and art belong to a continuum,
together with morality and the affections:

Music is a mixed mathematical discipine which concerns the origins, attributes

and distinctions of sound, out of which a cultivated and lovely melody and
harmony are made, so that God is honoured and praised but mankind is moved
to devotion, virtue, joy and sorrow.
Die Musik ist eine vermischte Matematische Wissenschaft / welche handelt von
den Ursachen / Eigenschaften / und Unterscheide des Klanges / woraus eine
Kiinst- und liebliche Sangweise und Zusammenstimmung gemachet wird / iim
dadurch Gott zu ehren und zu loben / den Menschen aber zur Andacht / zur
Tugend / zur Freude / und zur Traurigkeit bewegen.
(Ahle 1690, 'Anmerkungen', p. 1)

Ahle proceeds to explain and elaborate this definition of music with a

commentary owing much to Lippius (see Rivera 1980, pp. 30-3). He
divides music into external and internal concepts. To the external belongs
a hierarchy of causes and purposes: the efficient cause (causa efficiens) is God,
38 Music education and the art of performance

who has ordered everything by mass, number and weight.55 This phrase -
from the apocryphal Book of Wisdom (11:21) - appears very frequently
in German theological and musical writings of the seventeenth century.
It gives a succinct view of the age, linking as it does Mediaeval theo-
centric thinking with the new mechanistic universe (see Dammann 1984
pp. 62~5). Ribovius 1638 even includes the familiar reference in an
introductory poem: whoever cannot be joyful when the notes are in the
correct mass, number and weight?56
For Ahle, the particular efficient cause {causa efficiens particularism is nature,
the mother of sound and the art of the composer.57 The intermediate
purpose {finis intermedius) is the moving of men towards virtue, moderate joy
and 'useful5 sorrow,58 while the ultimate purpose {finis ultimus) is the honour
and praise of God.
To the internal aspect belongs music as a phenomenon (that which
has been caused and which, in turn, causes), divided in the classic
Aristotelian manner into substance and form: the substance is the sound
itself, which can be counted or measured ('der Zahl- und maBbare
Klang') while the form is the song itself, the melody and the sounding
together ('der Gesang selbst . . . Melodia & Symphonitf).
Ahle does not show clearly how this external/internal definition (a
maximal elaboration of the standard Faber/Listenius phrase) coheres
with the traditional tripartite definition of music (in German theory, at
least) which he discusses next: musica theorica, poetica and practica. Presumably
the first, binary categorisation defines what music is, in terms of its
causes, effects and phenomena, while the tripartite definition prescribes
the areas of music study, or, rather, three distinct musical professions
(theorist, composer and performer). Nevertheless, it is not impossible to
construct parallels between the two systems: with regard to the external
aspect, the efficient cause with its emphasis on number and measurement
could be related to musica theorica; the particular efficient cause with its
reference to the art of the composer forms the natural basis of musica
poetica and the two purposes (the moving of the listener and the praise of
God) could be related to performance {musica practica). Music here is both
a rhetoric (also a form of teaching) and an expression of praise.
The intrinsic substance/form view of music as a phenomenon does
not immediately seem to relate to one of the three musica categories;
in some ways it is closer to the modern discipline of musical analysis.
Nevertheless, it is clearly that with which composers and performers are
most immediately concerned and hence which relates both to musica
poetica and musica practica. Both composer and performer create and
 The role of practical music in education 39

recreate the substance and form of music, following its grammar,

introducing devices and figures on several levels which connote the affect
and sense of the discourse (on the relationship of composer and performer
see chapter 5, below).
Ahle is the only writer who overtly discusses these theoretical issues in
a specifically practical treatise, but they do emerge incidentally in other
writings. Furthermore, Ahle's 'Anmerkungen' were reprinted and expanded
in 1704 and at least one other singing treatise recommends them. 59 The
remainder of this chapter examines treatises relating to practical music
instruction with the following issues in mind: music as a system reflecting
cosmic unity and heavenly harmony; music as an affective medium,
grounded in the nature of mankind; music as a rhetoric, designed to
teach and convince the listener of various theological truths.

THE SPECULATIVE NATURE OF MUSIC

With the horrors of war and the rapid spread of the new Italianate
figural style, perhaps most teachers and writers simply did not have time
(or did not dare to risk boredom) to impart much of the speculative side
of music. Sermons by theologians give the most information on such
issues, and although these do not strictly come into the category of
teaching manuals, they might reflect the general views of music to which
pupils would have been exposed in church and school. Friccius's organ
dedication of 1631 shows that musically minded theologians were not
slow to link the newly emerging triadic system with the concept of the
Trinity. This must have been tantamount to scientific proof of Luther's
doctrine that music is the gift of God:

I often wonder at the fact that on the whole keyboard not more than three notes
harmonise together; any more are merely octave doublings. Is that not an
obvious mystery of the highly-praised Trinity?

Ich wunder mich offt / dafl im gantzen Clavir nicht meyr als drey clams zusammen
stimmen / die andern sind lauter octaven. 1st das nicht ein augenscheinlich
GeheimniB der hochgelobten Dreyfaltigkeit?
(Friccius 1631, p. 35)

Together with the concept of the triad came the view of the bass as the
foundation of music. Thus the bass becomes almost a metaphor for the
Godly foundation of music, something which was later emphasised in the
thoroughbass methods of Werckmeister, Niedt a n d j . S. Bach:
40 Music education and the art of performance

The heart is set under the tongue as a majestic, deepest Bass which rightly
decorates the song with its support; accordingly such devotion of the heart must
always accompany the music, if it is to be pleasing in God's ears.

Das Hertz ist der Zungen untersetzter Maiestatischer tieffester Bass, welcher
zuforderst den Gesang recht zieret / darumb solche Andacht des Hertzens fur
alien Dingen bey der Music seyn muB / wenn sie in Gottes Ohren angenehm
seyn sol. (Friccius 1631, p. 257)

Throughout his text, Friccius makes allusions to consonance, as a

musical unity which mirrors that of heaven and the integrity of the
human. 60 As J. C. Hack wrote in a funeral sermon in 1676, the dis-
sonance of the cross and death is restored to order by the Lord Jesus.61
There is a moral aspect too, since the consonant basis of music is
associated with a virtuous life; life should be tuned together with music
(Friccius 1631, p. 265). Music is a foretaste of heavenly music which
comforts us not only because of its loveliness ('unauBsprechliche
Liebligkeit') but also because of its eternity funauflhorliche Warenheit' -
p. 297).62 Friccius even implies that good music is intrinsically good
regardless of text.63 This intrinsic quality of music might also explain why
instrumental music was increasingly permitted in worship. Although
Friccius marginally favours texted music, the basic purpose of his sermon
was the dedication of an organ. He quite clearly sees music as a system
and language that transcends words. Exactly the same point is made by
Kuhnau in his introduction to the Biblische Historien (1700): instrumental
music technically communicates the same affects as vocal music since the
mathematical basis is the same for both (see Dammann 1984, p. 364).
Most practical treatises of the seventeenth century omit overt
references to the concept of music as a mirror of heavenly unity and
harmony, the traditional Pythagorean view of music, inherited from the
Middle Ages. Indeed, few introduce protracted mathematical discussion
after Schornburg's Elementa Musica of 1582 (which includes an extensive
exposition of the monochord). One notable exception is Weide 1627,
which introduces many speculative elements, including a chapter on the
monochord (from which all harmony springs)64 and frequent references
to music as the mirror of the cosmos. Weide follows the structure of the
traditional elementary tutor but introduces metaphysical elements at
every turn. The seven musical notes relate to the seven days and planets,
and the conjunction of Jupiter, Sun and Mercury reflects the 'liebliche
conjunctid* of ' C u t E.mi G.sol' (ch. 3). Moreover Weide relates each
interval to equivalent numbers in nature and metaphysics. The final
 The role of practical music in education 41

chapter reads like an extensive sermon demonstrating the relationship

between the harmony of music and the cosmos of which God is the centre.
Erhardi 1660 must have considered the link between music and mathe-
matics important if he included a Rudimenta Arithmetica (by Hirtzwigius
Redivivus) at the end of his practical tutor. Although he states that music
and arithmetic are foremost among the seven liberal arts, his efforts to
show that the two are closely related are contrived in the extreme: the
five species of arithmetic (counting, adding, subtracting, multiplication
and division) correspond to the five principles of singing (the traditional
sixteenth-century headings of claves, voces, cantus, mutatio, Jigurae).

MUSIC AND T H E AFFECTS

Treatises concerned with musical performance are considerably more
productive with regard to the natural, affective basis of music. But such
information is usually only to be found in those writings which sponsor a
more modern repertory, music which presupposes an expressive approach
to performance. Praetorius 1619 makes the first serious effort to import
the 'new Italian style' and, although his 'Instructio pro Symphoniacis' was
clearly intended for the use of the teacher rather than the pupil, it is likely
that pupils of this time would have sensed the need to move the affect:
Thus a musician should not only sing, but sing with particular artifice and grace;
so that the heart of the listener is stirred and the affect moved, and therefore the
song may attain the puipose to which it is made and to which it is directed.
Also ist eines Musicanten nicht allein singen / besondern Kiinstlich und anmiitig
singen: Damit das Hertz der Zuhorer geriihret / und die qffectus beweget werden /
und also der Gesang seine Endschafft / dazu er gemacht / und dahin er
gerichtet / erreichen moge. (Praetorius 1619, p. 229)
Several points are interesting here: first, the qffectus is described almost in
mechanistic terms. It is not merely a matter of the heart being stirred
but also the affect being moved. Secondly, Praetorius uses the term
Musicant rather than the more honourable Musicus. This suggests that the
relatively uninformed musician (i.e. the boy) can learn a system of
musical expression and decoration without having to learn about the
wider metaphysical basis (see also chapter 5). Thus the moving of the
affects is more or less a mechanical process, requiring little more than an
'instruction book' to be set in motion.
The basic primers - their opening definitions notwithstanding - tend
to concentrate more on elementary notation. Most advice on perfor-
mance style is of a very rudimentary kind:
42 Music education and the art of performance

To what is one who wishes to sing correctly further required to pay attention? . . .
To match a sad voice to a sad text and a joyful voice to a joyful text.
Was ist ferner notig von einem / der da recht singen wil / in acht zu nehmen? . . .
DaB er zu einem trawrigen Text eine trawrige / und zu einem frolichen eine
froliche unliebliche Stimme bequeme. (Demantius 1632)

It is quite interesting that one much-published primer which does contain

a great deal of detailed practical advice (Friderici 1618) gives virtually no
description of the affects or advice as to how to stir them. Bernhard, in
an 'advanced 5 treatise which was widely transmitted in manuscript
(c. 1649), implies that there was a distinction between two types of non-
ornamented singing: plain, even singing, which is the foundation of all
other kinds {cantar sodo) and singing which took into account the affect of
the words {cantar d'qffetto). Likewise Feyertag 1695 (p. 234) suggests that
singing according to the words is a specific style ('Mflrfmren'). Certainly
Schiitz had a remarkably low opinion of choral institutions, if the preface
of his Historia, der Freuden- und Gnadenreichen Geburth Gottes und Marten Sohnes
1664 is anything to go by: he did not publish the concerted choral
sections, partly because they would hardly achieve the requisite effect
'outside the well-appointed royal courts'. 65 Even as late as 1647 {Symphoniae
sacrae II) - some thirty years after Praetorius's celebrated treatise on
Italianate performance - Schiitz notes that many establishments still had
little idea of the contemporary Italian style; indeed he even asserts that
many Germans were unfamiliar with the black notation of modern Italian
music. Nevertheless, given that even the most elementary primers describe
the smaller note values, it may well be that Schiitz actually underestimated
the level of musical awareness in church and school music.
It seems then that many less advanced singers, and perhaps even
many respected establishments as a whole, sang in a manner which was
not influenced by the 'modern' affective view of music. As is implied by
the majority of the sixteenth-century treatises, the pupil's main concern
was to learn to read music and sing; the unspoken 'meaning' of the
music presumably lay in its existence as a God-given harmony.
Sermons and the teaching of theologians might have been more
significant in giving the young pupil some idea of the affective basis of
music. Friccius's sermon is, as ever, quite productive in this regard. He
relates God's order to nature, suggesting that the pleasing effect of music
is both divinely and naturally based:
It is implanted in man so that an apt harmoniousness and lovely singing above
all are agreeable to him.
 The role of practical music in education 43

Es ist dem Menschen also eingepflanzet / das ihme eine apta modulation und
lieblich Singen fur alien dingen annemblich ist. (Friccius 1631, pp. 55-6)
To him music seems almost to be a form of natural regulation: the entire
disposition is led and regulated by music.66 In a manner far more explicit
than Praetorius, Friccius suggests that there is a mechanical relation
between the movements of the heart and the affect in music:
For there divine music is a Godly act: there its song and sound is a heart-bell,
which penetrates every little vein of the heart and its affects (be a man a very
Stoic or an immovable trunk).
Traun da ist die Musica divinum quiddam ein Gottliches Thun: Da ist ihr Gesang
und Klang eine Hertz-glocke / welche /. . . alle Hertzenaderlein durchdringet
/ und desselben Affectus (es sey den der Mensch gar ein Stoicus und unbeweglicher
Truncus) erweckt.67 (Friccius 1631, p. 90)
The latter parts of Friccius's sermon read rather like a medicine book,
the section on the 'Use5 of music describing all the things that music can
do, from banishing the Devil to curing illness, enlivening oneself for
battle and turning away danger and misfortune {Ibid., pp. 168-80). In all,
this (published some twenty years before Kircher's Musurgia Universalis) is
a vivid picture of an age when the theological, the natural and the super-
stitious seem to live side by side; science taught men to look for order in
everything, even if this required a little imaginative invention.
The theologians' belief in the affective and moral power of music is
made particularly explicit in the fears expressed by the Pietists (see p. 27
above). They see music as a gift from God which is easily abused since it
has such a powerful influence over people (a parallel with sexual
morality is hard to ignore here). Vockerodt makes a point of linking the
strong affective categorisation of Greek modal theory to the modern
musical forms: to him the Lydian mode is represented by the Sarabande,
Folie d'Espagne, sonatas, toccatas, ricercars and the stylus phantasticus
(Vockerodt 1697, p. 41).
Turning to writings of the early eighteenth century it is clear that the
affective view of music was now entirely absorbed into musical culture. If
some establishments still held to conservative 'pre-affective' views of
performance (and the following chapters will show that this was indeed
the case) they are represented only in the smaller portion of the surviving
literature. Scheibel's remarks suggest that the church performers of his
time were quite well aware of the affective dimension of music. In his
opinion the musicians of the day were far more competent in this regard
than those of some two centuries before:
44 Music education and the art of performance
At the time of the Reformation, Zwingli wanted church music in particular to
be abolished; I believe though that were he to have lived in our time, now that
musicians have understood the doctrine of the affects better, he would have
judged differently. In his time music was still in a sorry state; small wonder that
it could not have pleased everyone.
Zur Zeit der Reformation hat ^winglius sonderlich die Kirchen-Music abgeschafft
wissen wollen / ich glaub aber / wenn er zu unsrer Zeit hatte leben sollen / da
die Musici besser die Lehre von den Affecten eingesehen / er wtird anders
geurtheilt haben. Zur selbigen Zeit war die Music noch gar schlecht bestellet /
was wunder dafi sie auch nicht jedem gefallen konnte. (Scheibel 1721, p. 8)
During the early eighteenth century librettists such as E. Neumeister
encouraged composers to adopt wholesale the dramatic forms of modern
Italian opera. Ironically the older, seventeenth-century style of composition
which tended to follow directly every twist and turn of the text, might
seem more immediately Effective' than the stylised da capo forms of
Italian opera. But perhaps the orthodox reformers - in direct reaction to
the Pietists - considered that the modish secular forms would have more
contextual appeal for the congregations; the very familiarity of the fashions
would have led the listener immediately to the 'correct' affect. There
might even have been Pietist support for some of Neumeister's reforms:
Ahle, the organist at Muhlhausen whose opinions seem partly to have
been influenced by the Pietists, asks why composers do not use the stylus
recitativus, since this suits the words so perfectly.68 ScheibePs prescriptions
point to a larger movement which aimed to counteract the conservative
style of much church music:
I always think that if our church music today were to be a little more lively and
freer, c'est a dire, more theatrical, it would be of more use than the forced
compositions that one usually uses in church.
Ich denck aber immer / wen unsre Kirchen-Music heut zu Tage ein wenig
lebhafftiger und freyer / c'est a dire, mehre theatralisch ware / sie wiirde mehr
Nutzen schaffen / als die gezwungne Composition, der man sich in der Kirchen
ordinair bedienet. (Scheibel 1721, p. 39)
Ruetz remarks in 1750 that the entire style of church music had changed
during his age, much to its greater advantage and reception. 69 A similar
observation is made by Bach in his famous 'EntwurfP of 1730: modern
taste had dictated a style that was greatly different from that which was
current during his youth, and this required more of the performers. 70 It
is in the early eighteenth century that taste becomes an explicit element
of musical quality, something which is often borne out by some of the
performance treatises:
 The role of practical music in education 45

What are the graces in music? As it were the ornaments. But given that they
are for the most part dependent on good taste, one can give no general rule
about them
Was sind die Manieren in der Music? Gleichsam die Zierrathen. Da sie aber
meistentheils von einem guten Geschmack abhangen, so kann man keine
allgemeine Regul dariiber geben (Kiirzinger 1763, p. 32)

If some of these later remarks imply a more relativistic stance to musical

affect - i.e. the affective nature of music is not so much absolute as
conditioned by the listener's experience, era and environment - this
point is made explicit in Zedler's Lexicon:
However, it cannot be doubted that from the differences of sound that excite
someone through music, various feelings happen by means of hearing, which,
according to [one's] disposition, give the opportunity for differentiated mental
images, through which the mind or the will is affected in various ways, so that it
experiences either a joy or a sadness.
So ist auch dieses ausser Zweiffel, dafi nach dem Unterscheid des Klangs, den
iemand durch die Music erreget, unterschiedene Empfindungen durch das Gehor
geschehen, welche nach der Disposition des Gemiiths Gelegenheit zu unter-
schiedenen Imaginationen geben, wodurch denn das Gemuth, oder der Wille auf
verschiedene Art afficiret wird, dafi es entweder eine Freude, oder Traurigkeit
daruber hat. (Zedler, vol. XXII, 1739, p. 1,393)

Zedler continues to observe that each person is moved especially by a

particular type of music, or a particular song, which does not affect
others to such an extent. Nevertheless, some physical problems do seem
to be alleviated through sound, such the bite of a tarantula which is cured
with a particular type of music. Although it is probable that this somehow
affects the soul, the manner and means remain hidden (an admission
which could hardly have been made a few decades earlier):

Of these [manner and means], only some are documented with the names of sym-
pathy, of magnetism; but others are ascribed to the world-spirit or also to a certain
intertwining of ideas, which however are disguises for ignorance, so one does best
if one regards this as a secret of nature, and freely recognises one's ignorance.
Dahero einige dieses nur mit dem Namen der Sympathie, des Magnetismi
belegen; andere aber dem Welt-Geist zuschreiben, oder auch einer gewissen
Verknupfiung der Ideen, welches aber Deckmantel der Unwissenheit sind, da
man am besten thut, wenn man dieses fur ein naturliches GeheimniB ansiehet,
und darinnen seine Unwissenheit frey bekennet. [Ibid.)

Even a composer as conservative as Kuhnau, writing in the introduction

to his Biblische Histonen of 1700, acknowledges that the affect of a piece of
46 Music education and the art of performance
music might vary from listener to listener. While certain elements -
consecutive perfect consonances, the affective difference between major
and minor - relate to affective states in a manner which is apparently
mathematically certain, much also depends on the humour of the hearer.
Kuhnau included a verbal programme for each sonata in order to clarify
affective and narrative gestures which could be interpreted in several
ways. As the Leipzig poet Gottsched was later to say: 'Music alone lacks
a soul and is incomprehensible if it does not hold on to words, which, as
it were, must speak for it; so that one would know what it means to say.'71
From all this one can conclude that the seventeenth-century belief in
a certain and stable connection between musical events and affective
states was breaking down. Furthermore, fashion and taste seemed now to
be playing a particular part in all music, church music in particular
undergoing a 'modernisation'. For a time this state of affairs was a
necessary condition for some of the greatest church music of all time,
the cantatas, oratorios and masses of J. S. Bach, but to do this, music as
a whole had forfeited its claim to represent a God-given order and a
certain control over the souls of men. With music as an autonomous,
aesthetically based art, it was only a matter of time before its role in
church and education became a matter of luxury rather than necessity.

MUSIC AND R H E T O R I C
Finally we turn to considerations of the rhetorical nature of music in
practical treatises. On the surface it might seem that questions of rhetoric
should have been discussed within the context of the affective nature of
music. After all, rhetoric is the art of persuasion, a system of devices by
which the affect is moved and the text presented in a convincing and
moving way. However, there are differences here: first, the performer is
so much more immediately concerned with issues of rhetoric, for he
must play the part of orator to bring out and embellish the affects ready-
coded within the notated music. Secondly, many of the practical sources
imply that the spirit of rhetoric was sometimes developed separately from
a consideration of the text and its concomitant emotions. In other words,
rhetoric could also be interpreted in its second traditional sense, as a
system of ornament rather than persuasion.72
Just as with considerations of theology and affect, we cannot trust that
allusions to rhetoric in vocal primers alone constituted the pupils'
knowledge of the art. Indeed rhetoric was an important element of
education, one of the three practical arts of the Mediaeval trivium and
 The role of practical music in education 47

one which had received a significant boost with the rediscovery of

important rhetorical treatises during the Renaissance (in particular, that
of Quintilian). The German theorist who did most to make rhetoric an
integral part of musica poetica (the birth of rhetorical and analytical thinking
conveniently coinciding with the expressive revolution of the Italian
Baroque) was Burmeister. As an active teacher and cantor he also wrote
a book which includes issues of performance in 1601 {Musica auto-
schediastike). This contains several references to the need for the singer to
portray the content of the song. Some of the terms he uses (e.g. ornatus
and its subdivision gestus - how to hold the body appropriately for what
is to be expressed) show a direct application of rhetorical thinking (see
Ruhnke 1955). But there is nothing of the systematic musical analysis
(whether prescriptive or descriptive) that is evident in Burmeister's compo-
sition treatises: clearly the singer is to perform 'as if he were an orator
rather than actually as an orator per se. Lippius, in his Synopsis musicae novae
(1612) shows his desire to encompass all the branches of music by sug-
gesting that the various ornaments used in composition can also be part
of the performance practice in order to bring across the aim of the oration:
Like an artful orator, the musician uses these ornaments to polish his harmonic
oration in keeping with the nature of the text and the circumstances of persons,
time, place etc., so that he may achieve his aim successfully . . . The bass may
proceed slowly, while the other voices may employ apt colorations and a
moderate flourish of running passages. In this style ordinary musicians often
embellish a basic composition when appropriate, using pleasant elegance like an
elaborate scriptural flourish. (trans. Rivera 1977, p. 49)

quibus Musicus ut Prudens & Artifex Orator in Oratione sua Harmonica utitur
expolienda juxta Textum & Gircumstantias Personarum, temporum, locorum &
c. adsuum ad suum foeliater obtinendum Finem . . . ut Bassus incedat tardius,
reliquis interim Melodiis congrua colorantibus & moderate luxuriantibus
celeratura, qua tarn saepe in fundamentarite componendi impingunt plebei,
quam suo est loco usurpanda grata venustate, sicut vermiculatio scripturam
condecorans. (Lippius 1612, De Compositione Ornata)

The drawing together of the roles of composer and performer to bring

across the sense and affect of the text is symptomatic of the 'new Italian
style' itself and is made explicit in Caccini's famous introduction to Le
nuove musiche, 1602. As Banchieri stated in 1614, in a summaiy of Cicero's
first saying on oratory: 'The supreme orator is a harmonious-sounding
man who, in speaking, delights the minds of his listeners and moves
them'; he adds that not only does the composer take delight in this, but
also singers and listeners (trans, from Cranna 1981, p. 349).73 Evidently it
48 Music education and the art of performance

would be a mistake to suggest that the rhetorical approach to music was

merely a German phenomenon. However it was the Germans who came
closest to a codified system.
How do the specifically practical treatises reflect this concern for
rhetoric in general music theory? The first description of practical
rhetorical performance is in Praetorius's guidelines for singers (1619). Just
before the quotation given on p. 41 above, Praetorius states that:
Just as the task of an Orator is not only to decorate an oration with beautiful,
charming and lively words, and with wonderful Figures, but also to pronounce
correctly and to move the affect: in which he now lifts the voice, then lets it sink,
now speaks with a powerful, now gentle, now with a full and entire voice: So is
it [the task] of a musician not only to sing but to sing with art and charm. Thus
is the heart of the listener stirred and the affect moved, so that the song may
reach its purpose, for which it is made and to which it is directed. -

Gleich wie eines Oratoris Ampt ist / nicht allein eine Oration mit schonen
anmutigen lebhaflftigen Worten / unnd herrlichen Figuris zu zieren / sondern
auch recht zu pronuncijren, und die qffectus zu tnoviren: In dem er bald die
Stimme erhebet, bald sincken lesset / bald mit machtiger und sanffter / bald mit
gantzer und volier Stimme redet: Also ist eines Musicanten nicht allein singen /
besondern Kiinstlich und anmiitig singen: Damit das Hertz der Zuhorer
geriihret / und die qffectus beweget werden / und also der Gesang seine
Endschafft / dazu er gemacht / und dahin er gerichtet / erreichen moge.
(Praetorius 1619, p. 229)

Praetorius proceeds with a summary of what is required of a singer to

achieve this quality of performance. After possessing the natural qualities
of a suitable voice the performer must have a good understanding of the
'science' ('Wissenschafft') of music. This seems to comprise the various
ornaments and figures of diminution rather than anything that could
lead to a deeper awareness of the harmony or mathematical basis of
music. He must know when these are appropriately applied and in what
measure; finally he must also understand the text and the written notes.
Although in the elaboration that follows there are references to the
moving of the affect (e.g. the exclamatio - a dotted elaboration accom-
panied by a raising of the voice - has more qffectus than a plain semi-
breve with the same dynamic effect) there is never a direct explanation
of which device creates or stills which affect. The 'Doctrina' section is a
careful analysis of the various figures of diminution, but there is little
indication of how these are to be applied. Clearly one must learn from
example rather than by rule; as Praetorius states in the context of the
trillo: one learns this from others as a bird must learn from its fellows.74
 The role of practical music in education 49

Praetorius intended to give more exemplification in the third section

of this short treatise, the 'Exercitatio', which he never wrote. But one
might expect that it would have consisted largely of practical examples
similar to those afforded by his contemporaneous publication of sumptuous
motets, Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619), where simple and ornamented versions
are printed simultaneously (see chapter 5, p. 160 below). By no stretch of
the imagination could these embellishments be linked to any affective
nature of the words, so it is not surprising that no treatise even attempts
to show the performer how to do this. In other words the performer's
role as a rhetorician requires the knowledge of a historically specific
repertory of ornaments which he learns from example to apply at
appropriate places in order to make the music 'more expressive'. But
the rhetorical activity of the performer and the rhetorical/affective work
of the composer do not necessarily coincide. While Caccini's Le nuove
musiche, with its exhortation to closer consideration of the text, was
influential in Germany (Praetorius himself acknowledges this), it is
equally obvious that music was still being developed and elaborated for
its own sake and with its own system of expression (related to the judi-
cious application of dissonance). One might then speak of a musical
rhetoric or a rhetorical 'flavour' without this necessarily relating to specific
verbal and affective communication.
Praetorius's lead is followed by several other major writers of the
seventeenth century (see chapter 5). Bernhard's two-part categorisation
of singing is quite illuminating (c.1649):75 the simpler of the two styles is
further divided into two, cantor sodo and cantor d'affetto, only the latter of
which takes the affect of the text into account. However he does not
directly relate this affective style to his second main type of singing, cantor
passagiato. Thus the ornamental figures constituting the diminution of
cantor passagiato are purely musical elaborations. Bernhard's two compo-
sition treatises explain such figures in rhetorical terms as 'figures' or
licenses to the prima prattica conventions of strict counterpoint. Again,
then, they point to a form of rhetoric, but one working strictly within
musical language (i.e. ornamentation rather than persuasion). Bernhard,
in contradistinction to Burmeister or Kircher, does not analyse motets
for their musical-verbal rhetoric. Several other writers suggest that
Bernhard's distinction between plain and coloured singing was common
currency: Gibel, in the foreword to his treatise of 1645, distinguishes
between pure and simple singing and that with coloratura which can be
learned by more advanced students.76 Given the enormous barrage of
complaints voiced specifically against coloratura during the entire
50 Music education and the art of performance

seventeenth century, from clerics, rectors and musicians alike, it is quite

clear that many realised that the 'new Italian style' worked as much to
the detriment of the text as to its advantage.
This is not to say that Bernhard (and several other writers) never
mention the text or its associated affects; but these he relates more to
the style of singing and performance: the voice is loud when angry, quiet
when grief-stricken; impatience requires haste; love requires bashfulness
etc. These points can of course be termed a part of a scheme of rhetoric,
but they might more mundanely be described as a simple mimesis
common to much of the history of Western music.
Nevertheless, it may be that young singers had more idea about the
rhetorical unity of their discourse than the primers would lead one to
believe. After all, the conventions of rhetoric suggest that good oratory
requires a sense of unity between inventio, the basic idea of the text,
disposition elaboration ornatus/ decoratioy the laying out and development of the
idea, and enunciatio/pronunciation its delivery in performance (for an examina-
tion of this terminology, see Forchert 1985/6). This continuity is suggested
by J. G. Hack's funeral sermon for the Kapellmeister M. G. L. Agricola
in Gotha (1677). He affirms that the inventio is important ('wichtig'), the
compositio must be correct ('richtig'), and the capell capable ('tiichtig'). He
shows each level is dependent on the others: however good the
invention, a poor composer will have little success if he sets a sad text in
b durus and a joyous text in b mollis. Likewise a good composer requires
good performers who are industrious ('fleissige'), quiet of heart ('die Stille
wird auch bey der Music erfordert; also ist eines Christen Hertz Stille
zu GOTT'), and form a capable company ('eine tiichtige Gesellschafft');
finally a quantity of instruments is required, since variety is so important
to express the various texts. Given the addressee of Hack's sermon it is
likely that at least one person in the musical establishment should have
had a sense of the continuity from invention, through composition to
performance: the Kapellmeister, Cantor or Director Musices himself.77

There were thus several views on music, its purpose and essence during
the Baroque period, some old, some newer. If music was sanctioned in
the church for its (old) role as a mirror of God's order and for its (newer)
mechanical influence on the affects - both of which, incidentally, seem to
be implied in Luther's own enthusiasm for music - this privilege brought
with it various 'abuses' that, to many, upset music's very purpose of
interpreting and conveying texts. In the eighteenth century, the newly
developed aesthetic sensibility exploited this latent autonomy in music,
 The role of practical music in education 51

something which automatically cancelled its privilege as a fundamental

of worship and education. The tendency of seventeenth-century philo-
sophy to construct unities in systems of thought and mechanics should
not be allowed to detract from the fact that such unity was not necessarily
there in practice.
As far as performance is concerned, there was doubtless a wide range
of quality, style and insight. Certainly many performers were skilful
without having a knowledge about anything outside the field of musica
practica as a rhetorically-influenced system of musical discourse. Certainly
many cantors and organists, as experts in all three fields of musica, might
also have been skilful performers, perhaps with a 'deeper' interpretative
skill. But, despite the existence of such musical polymaths as Lippius and
Werckmeister, it is still unclear how the three fields related in practice,
both in terms of the rationale for and the quality of performance. The
next three chapters will reinforce the view that there were basically two
branches of performance thought in the educational environment of the
German Baroque: on the one hand, a very conservative approach which
taught the basics of notation and fluent reading, but which gave little
attention to the style of performance or to its function as affective oratory;
on the other, an approach that attempted to assimilate and codify the
latest Italian conventions (in both composition and performance). The
latter approach can further be divided into two fields which do not, by
necessity, interact: first, a compositional and performance style that
fosters the affect of the text; secondly, that which cultivates a more
autonomous system of ornamentation.
 The contents, layout and style of
instruction books

Any study relating to performance practice is based on primary sources -

treatises, letters etc - which either singly or as a group give us some
inkling of the context and specifics of historical performance. Problems
often arise, though, for we cannot always be sure of the background of
the writer concerned, his motives - benign or otherwise - or his relation
to his contemporaries. Moreover, we are often equally unsure of the
specific musicians to whom he addressed his remarks, or of who actually
read his works. In the case of the present study there are certain factors
which minimise these problems. First, the treatises concerned are, on the
whole, chosen for their express relation to practical music instruction in
a specific, semi-standardised education system; most writers belong to
this system as practising teachers and musicians. There are sufficient
similarities between the works and sufficient instances of direct plagiarism
and reprinting to suggest that they offer a realistic picture of musical
education and are thus not merely the speculations of a few eccentric
cantors. Indeed some writers seem positively to be proud to have drawn
their material from important authors; evidently adherence to tradition
was often more desirable than originality.1 On the other hand, it must
continually be stressed that the body of surviving literature is no sub-
stitute for what actually happened in public and private instruction; at
most it offers a trace of what successive musicians and teachers themselves
must have read, and - to a lesser and vaguer extent - a summary of what
each may have consciously experienced in practice.
School ordinances and records give us some account of the use of
certain primers in schools. The ubiquitous Saxon ordinance of 1580, the
model for Lutheran education of the time (see p. 4 above), recommends
that pupils be taught music as efficiently and quickly as possible.
Theoretical material should be kept to a minimum and concise books

52
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 53

should be used, specifically Faber's Compendiolum, which contains the bare

essentials for reading music (Schiinemann 1928, p. 101). The student
should not longer concern himself with elements that are more theoretical
than strictly practical (e.g. church tones and mensural theory, which were
rapidly becoming redundant). Finkel's study of education in the
Palatinate shows that Listenius's Rudimenta musicae was used in several
schools into the seventeenth century (Finkel 1978, pp. 179, 240-2); other
books included Faber (ibid., p. 331; Finkel 1973, pp. 191, 200), Lossius
1590 (Finkel 1978, p. 240) and a direct derivative of Listenius, Stenger
1635 {ibid., pp. 182, 280, 331; Finkel 1973, pp. 197, 300). Salmen's study
of Westphalia likewise shows that Listenius was specified on ordinances
(Salmen 1963, p. 188). Library catalogues are also often of use: the
library of the Thomasschule in Leipzig contained two copies of Faber,
two of Galvisius and copies of treatises by Agricola and Orgosinus at
some point during the seventeenth century (Schering 1926, pp. 56-7);
furthermore, Kuhnau's copying of Bernhard's manuscript singing treatise
(c. 1649) implies that this may have influenced his teaching during the
early years of the eighteenth century (ibid., p. 64). Another indication of
the transmission of these books is the remarkable number of reprintings
that many enjoyed.2
While it is well known that most of the major writers were active as
cantors and Kapellmeisters,3 the title pages of primers by lesser-known
authors show that many of the latter were also practising cantors who
addressed their writings specifically to their local schools.4 Sometimes
tutors might be addressed to a subsidiary group of people too: Leisring
1613 is dedicated to young boys and other 'Liebhaber'; Quitschreiber
1607 is addressed to both German and Latin schools (thus distinguishing
it from his earlier short treatise of 1598, which was written in Latin). Of
the earlier treatises, Orgosinus 1603 is remarkable in being addressed to
women as well as men.5 In fact this seemingly enlightened approach was
merely the result of Orgosinus's copying of an earlier treatise, published
by Keiser (1602), which was dedicated to a female order near Steinfurt,
where young women from the foundation's school sang in the services
(see Niemoller 1986).
Many publications probably originated as manuscript treatises which
cantors compiled (often from existing books) for their lessons. This fact is
made explicit on the title page of Hizler 1623, for instance; Gibel 1645
stated that the contents of his primer were usually communicated viva voce
rather than on paper. Even a comparatively large treatise such as Falck
1688 survives in an earlier manuscript form (Taylor 1971, p. xv). The
54 Music education and the art of performance

apparent lack of unique manuscript treatises after 1600 suggests that the
use of printed books, or manuscript copies thereof, was becoming the
norm.6 Bernhard's significant manuscript vocal tutor was never published,
but was widely copied (see Miiller-Blattau 1926/1963, pp. 8-12) and, in
any case, partly transmitted by Mylius 1685.
One further question which is particularly difficult to answer today
concerns the way in which these books were used in classes. Did the
pupils have access to copies or did the cantor merely relay the infor-
mation? Certainly the overwhelmingly standard form of instruction, in
the elementary tutors at least, is the question-and-answer format (erotemata),
which would seem eminently suited to a teacher-pupil dialogue. The
1634 ordinance of the Thomasschule, Leipzig suggests that in most
subjects the pupil was expected to read the praecepta without changing a
word, to learn and industriously practise the questions and responses
from memory.7 The introductions of some music primers imply that the
pupil actually used the copy:
I have had these present questions . . . printed for the new year, entirely and
particularly for your sake, so that you can now use the time that you otherwise
would have spent copying for learning from memory. Thus you are less hindered
in the other lessons that you must also industriously learn besides music.
habe ich diese gegenwertige Fragen . . . umb ewren willen / semptlich und
sonderlich / jetzt zum newen Jar / im Druck ausgehen lassen / auff das ihr die
Zeit / die ihr sonst hettet miissen auflfs abschreiben wenden / nun dieselbige
auswendig zu lernen konnet anwenden / Das ihr also desto weniger an ewren
andern Lectionibus / die ihr / neben der Music / auch allefleissigLernen miisset /
verhindert werdet. (Dedekind 1589, introduction)
A similar use of the books is implied by the title page of Stenger 1635.
He also shows that cantors did not necessarily always use a specific text
book for music instruction:
It was found advisable to print the present music booklet anew, accordingly I
have on my part gladly let this happen in consideration of the fact that in this
fashion singing is learned far more quickly and with greater enjoyment; since, as
in their other lessons, the boys become accustomed to a particular book in music
too, out of which they are instructed and taught in an orderly and thorough
manner, so that they can further research at home, and thus industriously practise
for themselves, those things which are explained and shown to them in schools.
Demnach Gegenwertiges Music-Biichlein vom Newen auflzulcgen rathsam
befunden worden / habe ich meines Orts solches gerne geschehen lassen / in
Betrachtung / daB auff diese Weise das Singen viel schleuniger / und mit
besserer Lust gelernet wird / wenn die Knaben / wie sonst in andern Lectionibus,
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 55

also auch in Musica an ein gewiB Buch gewehnet / aus demselben ordentlich
und grundlich unterwiesen / und angeleitet werdcn / dem jenigen / was ihnen
in der Schule erklaret und gezeiget worden / zu Hause ferner nachzuforschen /
und sich also selbstfleiBigzu iiben. (Stenger 1635, 1659 edn)

Grappius 1599/1608 is likewise designed for the pupils' own use with
much repetition and many 'reminders' ('Erinnerungen'); the final portion
is a small Latin test on the content of the primer. Petri implies that the
situation had not changed much by the middle of the eighteenth century;
while his treatise was primarily designed for the teacher, it could also be
given directly to the pupil:8
If it pleases the Herren Cantors, Directors and Stadtmusici to give this book
directly into the hands of their pupils, they can make it more useful by means of
their learned delivery and the exercises they teach; so I have employed the
utmost conciseness in all parts.
Gefallt es den Herren Cantoribus, Directoribus, und Stadtmusicis, dieses kleine Buch
ihren Schiilern in die Hande zu geben, so werden sie es durch ihren gelehrten
Vortrag und beygebrachten Uebungen brauchbarer machen konnen, da ich
mich in alien Stiicken der moglichsten kurze beflissen habe. (Petri 1767, p. 3)

T H E LAYOUTS AND C O N T E N T S O F I N S T R U C T I O N
BOOKS

The formats of instruction books run along fairly predictable lines:

foremost are the simple primers derived from (or direct copies of)
Listenius and Faber. Burmeister 1601 (Musicae Practical) is something of a
unicum with its precise, somewhat pedantic Latin definitions; never-
theless, the material is covered quickly and concisely. The title page to
Dedekind 1589 (see p. 54 above) reflects the trend towards restricting the
amount of time spent on learning the rudiments of music. Many other
title pages likewise stress the need for speed and efficiency in learning;
indeed an anonymous primer of 1601, Idea musicae (issued by Keiser, see
Niemoller 1986), is designed so that its contents can be learned in a
single day. With the exception of sporadic references to the necessity of
physically beating the tactus (e.g. Holtheuser 1586, ch. 9) most of the
elementary primers contain no reference to the activity of performance.
A typical example might be Gumpelzhaimer 1591/1600, a tabular primer
based directly on Faber with parallel Latin and German texts. The
author's contribution lies mainly in the enormous number of examples
with which he elaborates the text. The basic topics are:
56 Music education and the art of performance

definition of music 'Was ist die Music?' (see pp. 35 above for a summary
of these definitions), with examples of notation in choralis and figuralis
clefs (claves), with the standard table of letter name notes on staves with
solmisation syllables (see Listenius's example, Plate 1, p. 7 above);
Guidonian hand
solmisation syllables (voces/Stimmen)
hexachords (cantus/Gesang): durus, naturalis and mollis, with canons to
demonstrate each
mutation
signs used in music ifigurae): note forms and various other signs (including
signs to be used for correcting poorly placed notes)
ligatures
rests and dots
mensuration signatures and proportions', all demonstrated with canonic
examples
modes: each demonstrated with polyphonic examples
more examples

Some primers might offer an extra chapter on intervals (e.g. Schneegass

1591, in a second book, after the fundamentals) since the less grateful
vocal lines of the newly-emerging styles required increasing mastery of
these. Quitschreiber 1607 not only contains the chapter on intervals, but
also an extensive section on pitch and how to set it for the choir.
Descriptions of intervals can be surprisingly thorough and detailed: some,
for instance, outline the difference between major and minor semitones
(i.e. the interval between a letter-name note and its accidental is smaller
than that between an accidental and the next letter-name note).9
With the increasing concern for conciseness, many primers were soon
omitting the chapters on mode and proportion. As Friderici observes, the
use of the surviving proportion signs, namely 3/2 and 3, is chaotically
regulated; many composers observe no difference between them, so it is
better to leave the matter to the discretion of the director who can alter
the tempo in accordance with the text.10 Gengenbach 1626 likewise
observes that the difference between C and (^ is often not strictly
followed and that tempo words such as 'Adagio' and 'Presto' are more
often used (pp. 78-9). Printz 1671 employs the numerical signs in their
more modern sense, in that 3/1 indicates the slowest triple metre, 3/4
the fastest (Printz 1671, ch. 4). However, proportions are still explained
in the much-published Wegweiser (1689-1753) and in Hoffmann 1693
(pp. 6-10), although the latter states that they are no longer observed by
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 57

many.11 The remnants of the proportional system are evident in

Schmiedeknecht's description of 3/2:
That one should sing three half-beat notes in one bar, two in the downbeat of
the arm and one in the upbeat, whereas two such notes would otherwise be sung
in one bar.
Dafi man soil drey halbe Schlags-Noten auf einen Tact singen / zwey im
Niederschlagen des Arms / und eine im Aufheben / da solcher Noten sonsten
zwey auf einen Tact gesungen werden. (Schmiedeknecht 1699, p. 15)
Ligatures were also rendered redundant by the increasingly shorter note
values; early prescriptions of slurs to indicate underlay are found in
primers by Walliser 1611 and Gengenbach 1626 (and in Praetorius's
compendium-style treatise of 1619). However, ligatures were still needed
if older music was to be performed; thus they can appear in compara-
tively late sources (e.g. Ahle 1690).
Friderici's much-published treatise contains a long chapter on the
affective nature of each mode. Explanations of mode can still be found
in Falck 1688 and even in Doles's manuscript treatise of c. 1760 which he
doubtless used in the Thomasschule, Leipzig. Doles notes that the singer
must know the 'keys of the ancients' ('die Tonarten der Alten' - Doles,
in Schneiderheinze 1989, p. 30) since these are still used in many of the
traditional chorale melodies. Furthermore, given that many early
eighteenth-century choirs were often singing from motet collections that
were over a century old, it was necessary to have a working knowledge
of modes and proportions, even if these were seldom used in contem-
porary compositions. However, as Erhardi stated in 1660, many school
teachers and church musicians were entirely ignorant of modes:
Yes indeed, I say, it has come so far that, out of ignorance of these modes,
many a Collaborator Scholae does not know how to begin to perform a chorale -
let alone a figural piece - according to the correct ambitus of the mode, either
in the schools or in the churches (where no musical instrument is available).
Ja dahin / sage Ich / ist es kommen / dafi mancher Collaborator Scholae, aufi
Unwissenheit dieser Modorum, weder in der Schulen / noch in der Kirchen (wo
kein Instrumentum Musicum vorhanden) einen Choral, geschweige einen Figural-
Gesang / nach dem rechten Ambitu Toni anzufangen und aufizufuhren weifi.
(Erhardi 1660, p. 96)
On the other hand, references to 'key5 in the modern sense are relatively
slow to appear. Criiger 1660 recommends that the pupil discern to
which trias harmonica a piece belongs before beginning to sing (p. 18);
presumably this is a reference to the major and minor triad. Ahle 1690
58 Music education and the art of performance

still retains a transitional nomenclature, naming sharp keys 'harder' or

'sharper' fharter/scharfer'), flat keys 'softer' or 'milder' ('weicher/gelinder');
Hoffmann 1693 uses the old hexachordal form of durus and mollis to
denote keys without signature and with the signature of one flat,
respectively; however he also names signatures with more than one flat
and sharp cantos mollis totalis and cantos doros totalis respectively. Stierlein
1691 introduces what we would now term key signatures as the content
of his chapter on transposition: signatures with flats are transpositions of
the mollis, sharp signatures of the durus. Beyer 1703 retains this transitional
form in the main text (p. 8) but gives a footnote remarking that the
modern sense of durus and mollis (i.e. major and minor) can also be used;
so that a signature with three sharps can paradoxically be termed mollis if
it is based on f#. Fuhrmann 1706 retains the old nomenclature (i.e. durus
- no signature, p. 40) but states that pieces based on one of the 'seven
tones' are generally distinguished by their major or minor thirds. The
transitional system (where sharp keys are 'hard', flat keys 'soft') survives
in Wesselius (1726) although he allows the modern sense of major and
minor, if the music is to be viewed harmonically. 12
At the outset of the seventeenth century, solmisation syllables were a
vital part of singing tuition and they were evidently to be applied to the
many untexted examples (especially canons) to be found in most books.
However, since the music was becoming that much more complicated,
exceeding the standard ranges of sixteenth-century music, develop-
ments in solmisation are demonstrated by a wide range of primers.
Quitschreiber 1607, in addition to giving the clearest exposition of the
ways in which a melody can be practised, implies that the solmisation
system was already becoming cumbersome:
A song can also be sung or sounded in three manners:
1. That one sings with solmisation syllables or uses the letter names (which
would be easier), as the beginner should do.
2. That one expresses the notes intelligibly only in sound, as instrumentalists are
wont to do.
3. That one underlays the text to God's glory and to the use of one's neighbour,
as singers are wont to do.
Man kan auch jeden Gesang auflf dreyerley Weise singen oder klingen lassen.
1. Das man solmisirt / oder die Buchstaben braucht (welches leichter were) wie
die anfahenden Schiller thun miissen.
2. Das man die No ten nur am Klange verstendlich ausdrucket / wie die
Instrumentisten pflegen.
3. Das man den Text GOTt zu Ehren / und dem Nechsten zu Nutze /
unterlegt / wie die Sanger pflegen. (Quitschreiber 1607, ch. 9)
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 59

The addition of a seventh syllable (si) to avoid the cumbersome practice of

mutation is already evident in Burmeister 1601 (se for B; si for B|>), Keiser
1601, 1602 (see Niemoller 1986), Orgosinus 1603, Kretzschmar 1605,
Kraft 1607, although it was never fully to be standardised. Alternative
methods of solmisation are offered in Hizler 1623/1628, who recommends
reducing the syllables used to four (la, sol, fa, mi); he also describes a
newer system of syllables, Bebisation. Gengenbach 1626 likewise recommends
this system, together with Bobisation, which he states to be of Belgian
origins and already employed by Calvisius and lippius (Gengenbach 1626,
p. 28). Gibel 1645 suggests that ut be changed to do and sol to so,
something which reflects the increasing concern for clarity of diction and
purity of vowels. This may well be symptomatic of the greater attention
apparently given to performance per se. Applicatio textus, a study of under-
lay and pronunciation, is sometimes included as an additional basic
chapter in a primer (e.g. Hase 1657).
Inevitably it was not long before writers recommended the total
abolition of the solmisation system. The first of these is Profe 1641,
followed by Hase 1657, who states that letter-name pitches are older,
more complete (since they do not lack the seventh syllable), easier (no
mutation) and more useful (since they are used in keyboard playing and
composition).13 He likens the use of the solmisation system to the experi-
ence of a drunken man who finds himself back at home but knows not
how he got there.14 J. G. Ahle significantly omits solmisation from the
main text of his edition of his father J. R. Ahle's tutor in the Faber
tradition; he gives a history and description of the practice (with several
different systems) in the extensive 'Anmerkungen' of the appendix,
stating that it had fallen from use during his own lifetime (Ahle 1690,
'Anmerkungen' pp. 25-6).
Nevertheless, some later primers such as Feyertag 1695 and Beyer
1703 describe solmisation, and since it was never abandoned in Italy, it
would be a mistake to consider it totally moribund in Germany. More-
over, German treatises of Catholic provenance often introduce solmisation,
as it remained a very useful method for learning Gregorian chant. 15
It is interesting that Doles, in his manuscript treatise for the Leipzig
Thomasschule of c. 1760, uses the term 'solfeggiren' to describe singing the
notes to their letter-names without the text. In other words, the traditional
term is still used to evoke the learning process which solmisation was
originally intended to instigate. While Marpurg 1763 still recommends
that solmisation and, more particularly, Graun's newer system ('Da-mi-
ni-po' etc.) be used, this is not for the primary purpose of learning to
60 Music education and the art of performance

sing intervals, but because such systems give the pupil practice in singing
all five vowels (Marpurg 1763, pp. 39-43).
Another trend is the gradual disappearance of the non-measured choralis
notation in the most basic primers, since the use of chant was declining
and chorales, with their measured notation, could be subsumed under
musicafiguralis. As Stierlein noted in 1691:
But because choralis, or equally formed music [i.e. without rhythmic differen-
tiation] is little, indeed virtually never, used by us, we will only deal with musica
figuralis here.
. . . weilen aber die Choral oder gleichformige Music heutiges Tages bey uns
wenig / ja fast gar nimmer im Gebrauch / als wollen wir von diBmal / nur
allein / de Musica Figurali. . . handeln. (Stierlein 1691, p. 3)
Nevertheless, the two types of notation are still outlined in Quirsfeld
1675, a book which was reprinted until 1717. Anton 1743 (p. 7) preserves
the term choralis, but redefines it as that music which requires no
instruments, such as chorales.16
Some treatises in the 'traditional' format are expanded in certain
ways. While only a handful of sixteenth-century primers contain any
information relating to the specifics of performance and interpretation
(e.g. posture, breathing, blend, dynamics and articulation; for a detailed
survey, see chapter 4), such sections - often in the form of an appendix -
become increasingly prominent in later publications.17 These clearly
show a change in perspective: performance style and elements of vocal
'technique5 are presumably vital to the imported Italianate idioms. Of
course it might equally point to a change in educational stance; perhaps
these issues of style were hitherto communicated orally and only later
written down. However, the general trend towards 'understanding' in
education (see p. 66 below) probably coincides with an increased
awareness of the function and nature of practical music, something of
which the new affective musical styles are themselves symptomatic.
Some of the earlier seventeenth-century treatises give some infor-
mation on harmonic considerations. Schneegass 1591 and the second
part of Harnish 1608 contain a section on consonance and dissonance.
Quitschreiber's description of the four vocal parts mentions the importance
of the bass as the 'Fundament', the omission of which would sound bad
since it would lead to naked fourths and sixths (Quitschreiber 1607,
appendix). Magirus 1596 introduces harmony as a more detailed study,
as does Beringer 1610. One of the latest elementary primers to cover the
basics of harmony is Weide 1627, a book which relies heavily on the
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 61

Mediaeval conception of musical harmony as the mirror of God and His

creation (see p. 40 above).
Thus in a few establishments pupils were introduced to harmonic
considerations at a relatively early stage in their education; this perhaps
reflects the survival of the older conception of musica practica in which
performance and composition were combined. However, after the
beginning of the seventeenth century the majority of the basic German
treatises on performance (including those containing advice on improvised
diminution) omit detailed references to harmony. On the other hand, such
considerations become more important in some of the large 'compendium5
treatises towards the end of the century, incidentally during the period
when some German theorists again categorised composition and perfor-
mance under the one heading (see chapter 5).
Three other factors also begin to gain prominence in the basic
primers during the seventeenth century: dictionaries of the Italian words
appropriate for the new music; references to instrumental performance;
anecdotes on music's glorious past. Dictionaries can appear in quite
small primers after the publication of Praetorius 1619, the first major
German treatise specifically dedicated to the 'new' Italian style.18 That
some authors were suspicious of the new terms is suggested by Dieterich
(1631), who claims that the words are confusing and awkward both for
the singers and printers; he confines himself to an explanation of forte
and piano alone.19
References to instruments are not difficult to find in the standard
primers: Quitschreiber 1607 contains a survey of the ranges of various
instruments; it also notes that those boys who learn the clavichord or
other instrument will observe that pieces can be performed a fourth or
fifth higher or lower.20 Leisring 1615 states at the outset that both vocal
and instrumental music is practised in schools; the introduction to Hizler
1623 notes that this primer is a good introduction for those students who
wish subsequently to take up instrumental music. Gradenthaller 1687
states in the introduction that even if a particular boy does not have a
good voice it might be worth training him in case his broken voice turns
out well, or if he wishes to become an instrumentalist, since vocal and
instrumental music belong together like body and soul. The fact that the
first German treatise of the Baroque era to address instruments alone
was not published until 1695 (Merck) shows how closely instrumental
performance in schools was linked to the general purpose of providing
music for church; pupils were trained in both vocal and instrumental
performance as dictated by necessity. On the other hand professional
62 Music education and the art of performance

instrumentalists (e.g. court musicians and the Stadtpfeiffer) learned by

apprenticeship, so they required no specific published tutors.
Merck's Compendium 1695 addresses 'Die Jugend und andere
Liebhaber'; it thus had the dual function of serving schools and amateur
musicians. Merck notes that while many are fortunate to have a good
foundation in instrumental music through the art of singing, this might
have been denied to some because of a poor natural voice or because of
a poor teacher (Merck 1695, 'Vorbericht'). This could point towards
both an increasing specialisation on the part of cantors, ignoring the
general singing instruction, and the fact that some cantors were still of
the old academic type, who understood little of the practicalities of
singing and playing.
It is in the larger compendium-like treatises of the late seventeenth
century that the most detailed references to instruments are to be found.
Speer, in his large compendium, made a wide-reaching proposal that the
cities should provide subsidised instrumental tuition for all talented
children, however poor ('wohlmeynender Entwurff / wie bey gemeinen
Stadten zur Ehre GOttes die Vocal- und Instrumental-Music in Aufnahm
zu bringen und zu pflantzen ware', Speer 1697, pp. 258-60). He himself
also provides the most comprehensive information on instruments to be
found in a seventeenth-century school treatise. His reasons for doing this
are interesting in themselves. Clearly it was necessary not only to provide
many pupils with such a background in instrumental performance, but
also to show those who were contemptuous of practical music just how
difficult it was:
And although envious grudgers will no doubt have nothing good to say about
this, I nevertheless hope that understanding Stadt- and Kunst-PfeifTer (because I
also was once their equal) will judge reasonably; since it is not only for the good
of their present apprentices and also to their own advantage, so that they thus
will be spared much trouble with them; but my intention is also that other
people will see from the fundamentals that this noble art of music is not only
mere street musicians' stuff, as some of the scornful companions of Midas
dismiss it, and that not only does the correct learning and delicate performing of
such an art take considerable time, but that it also demands capable people: for
just as one cannot carve a picture out of every piece of wood, so not everyone is
able and skilled in music.
Und ob mir zwar von miBgiinstigen Neidhammeln hievon schon nichts gutes
traumet / s o will ich doch hoffen / daB verstandige Statt- und Kunst-Pfeiffer /
(weil ich auch weiland ihres gleichen geweBt/) verniinfftig judiciren werden;
sintemahl es nicht allein urn ihrer habenden Lehrlinge bestens / und auch
derselben eigenen Vortheil / daB sie dardurch vieler Miih mit ihnen uberhoben
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 63

seyn werden; sondern auch mein Absehen dahin gehet / daB andere Leut auB
dem Fundament sehen mogen / daB diese edle Music-Kunst nicht nur geringe
Spielmanns-Sachen / als zum theil verachtlicher Midas-Gesdlcn davon scoptisirtn /
und daB nicht allein solche Kunst zimliche Zeit / zum recht erlernen und
zierlichen tractirtn gehore / sondern auch taugliche Leut erfordere: Dann gleich
wie man nicht auB jedem Holtz ein Bild schnitzeln kan; also auch nicht ein
jeder zur Music tauglich und geschickt ist. (Speer 1697, p. 188)

Speer's emphasis on instrumental performance suggests that the need for

qualified players was exceeding the resources traditionally available from
schools and town musicians5 guilds. It is highly likely that J. S. Bach's
'EntwurfP of 1730, which likewise outlines the shortage of musicians, was
written in the light of such writings as Speer's 'wohlmeynender EntwurfT
of 1697.
That instrumental tuition was becoming almost as common as vocal
instruction in the early eighteenth century is suggested by Sperling in 1705:

Because a violin is almost always the first thing to be placed in the hands of a
vocalist, once he is already somewhat experienced in singing and wishes to
proceed to instruments, so I have, to end with, included several easy exercises
for two violins.

Weil fast allzeit einem Vocalisten / nachdem er im Gesang schon etwas erfahren /
und zu denen Instrumenten schreiten will / zu erst eine Violin in die Hand gegeben
wird / als hab zum BeschluB etliche leichte Exercitia vor 2. Violinen beygefiiget.
(Sperling 1705, p. 138)

However, most school vocal primers from the early eighteenth century
do not cover instrumental technique. Evidently instrumental instruction
was acquired privately or from the growing number of treatises dedicated
specifically to instruments. That these latter were not primarily to be
devised for practical music within general education, though, is suggested
by the increasing concern with amateur performance, partially evident
in the dedication of Merck 1695 and made explicit in Baron's treatise
for lute of 1727:

Meanwhile may the reasonable reader live well and judge these pages according
to what is possible and the principles of truth, and be assured that such an under-
taking has been made with no other intention than to amuse the honest amateur.

Indessen lebe der verniinfftige Leser wohl, und beurtheile diese Blatter nach der
Moglichkeit und denen Principiis der Wahrheit, und sey versichert, daB solches
Unternehmen aus keiner andern Absicht als rechtschaffene Liebhaber zu
vergniigen geschehen sey. (Baron 1727, introduction)
64 Music education and the art of performance

The primary purpose of references to the ancient history of music was to

show that music had a long and glorious past in both Christian and
pagan traditions. Moreover, given the stress laid on the affective and
rhetorical power of music, it was important to have historical - and
especially Biblical - anecdotes to support this. The tradition for giving
extensive passages on the history and mythical power of music (laus
musicae) stretches back into classical times. It is strongly evident in
Quintilianus and Quintilian, and is characteristic of both Mediaeval and
Renaissance scholarship.21 Lutheran writers thus had a very large body
of literature on which to rely; nevertheless, the uncritical nature of most
of their writing, even in the later seventeenth century, suggests that they
were most closely allied with the older, Pythagorean school of music
theory, as exemplified in the influential writings of Gaffurio.22
Quitschreiber 1607 contains a short paragraph on the origin of music:
it was ultimately invented by God, but within humanity it can be traced
back to Genesis in the Hebrew tradition, Pythagoras within the pagan
tradition. Similar introductions are found in Leisring 1615 and Weide
1627. A longer essay on the history of music is found in Sartorius 1635,
after which time such material becomes quite commonplace: Herbst
1642, Zerleder 1658 etc. The Old Testament use of music is inevitably
very prominent in the vocal primer by the pastor Erasmus Gruber
(1673). Luther's own comments regarding music were of course especially
pertinent and some treatises, particularly Ribovius 1638, contain exten-
sive quotations from the reformer. As late as 1752, Luther's pronounce-
ments can be found at the head of the anonymous Kurze Anweisung zu den
ersten Anfangs-Griinden der Musik.
With the publication of Printz's Historische Beschreibung 1690, music
history became established as a subject in its own right, the main interest
being in the 'causes', 'origins' and 'invention' of music. Of the school
primers, the 'Anmerkungen' of Ahle 1690 offer the most extensive
speculation into the invention and origins of music. Evidently the
concept of cause was becoming part of the essence of each phenomenon
in the new mechanical universe.

PEDAGOGIC APPROACH

Finally, we turn to one of the most striking developments in the seven-

teenth-century primers: the changing attitudes towards the pedagogic
process itself. The most obvious change is the move towards practical
issues, something resulting from the development in musical styles which
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 65

patently required more fluency from the performer. With this comes a
great increase in the number of practical examples (bicinia, canons,
motets and chorales). The canon (usually labelled 'Fuga') is the staple
diet of practical education well into the seventeenth century; it was
especially serviceable since the pupil needed only to learn one line of
music in order to become acquainted with polyphony and independence
of voice-parts. Even in a primer as early as Kraft 1607, it is not
uncommon to find over thirty (usually untexted) canons at the end of the
primer.23 In Biittner 1625 many of the thirty-seven canonic examples are
based on chorale melodies.
Some primers still include examples throughout the text which do not
necessarily relate directly to the topic just discussed. Eichmann 1604
introduces four-part motets by Reddemer and Belicius after the chapters
on solmisation syllables and clefs; likewise the chapter on mutation is
followed by several canons (including one by Eichmann himself, and a
two-part piece by Lassus). This was common in sixteenth-century treatises,
where it seems that the pupil had to know considerably more than the
precept just discussed (see p. 6 above). It might also give us some idea of
the way lessons could have been planned, with practical examples sung
at intervals to break up the teaching of new factual material.
Conciseness and the banishing of Latin are also common concerns:
Biittner 1625 opens with a long complaint about the use of Latin in the
common music primers, since this often turns away the most talented
pupils. Presumably Buttner was reacting to the lasting influence of treatises
based on the Listenius/Faber model. While these had themselves aimed
to make practical music instruction as concise as possible, many writings
of the early seventeenth century went even further towards presenting
the material efficiently. Dieterich 1631 is a model of conciseness, dividing
the basic material into two sections: 'Systema' (the clefs, staves and scales)
and 'Nota' (note lengths and metre). After this he gives an explanation of
coloratura, something most unusual in a short primer of this kind.
Gradenthaller 1687 (foreword) observes that in many schools the pupil
is more hindered than encouraged to progress since too much worthless
information is usually communicated. 24 Although it restricts the number
of clefs required for singing, Gradenthaller's introduction is one of the
longest appended to an elementary primer and the contents are not
significantly clearer than those of other books. However, the claim that
the training should be concise is typical of the seventeenth-century
intention of teaching the pupil as quickly as possible and in such a manner
that he understands what he is doing and why.
66 Music education and the art of performance

In response to educational developments in Europe as a whole during

the early seventeenth century (especially the pansophic method of
J. A. Comenius)25 more attention was given to the learning experience
and the cultivation of the pupiPs understanding. The 1634 ordinance of
the Thomasschule, Leipzig very clearly reflects a respect for the pupil;
the teacher should encourage pleasure and joy in study and avoid
unfriendliness and tyrannical gestures.26
Hizler 1623 and Gengenbach 1626 are among the first music books
to show this tendency by suggesting at the outset that the pupil should
gain the outlines of the topics first and fill in the detail only later.
Treatises up to this point (and many afterwards) imply that the pupil
usually had to learn an entire topic first (probably parrot-fashion if the
erotemata style is anything to go by) before moving to the next. Thus only
after having learned several chapters would the pupil have been able
even to begin singing independently from notation. Hizler tries to cut
this waiting-time by printing hand-signals to indicate the points a student
should grasp first.27 The remainder of the text should not be learned, but
read often and understood. The various note signs and symbols should
be copied so that the pupil internalises their shapes.
Gengenbach's emphasis is always on learning by experience and not
merely by learning rules. Solmisation cannot be learned by reading a
book: either the singing teacher must demonstrate and the pupil
imitate the difference between mi and fa or (as Quitschreiber and Hizler
also advise) the pupil can learn it with a tuned instrument such as a
clavichord, violin or lute.
Profe 1641 and Erhardi 1660 continue this trend by covering the
basic topics in a few introductory pages, after which these and additional
material are studied in greater detail. Profe 1641 designs everything with
the pupil's imagination and ability in mind: the scale is pictured as a
ladder (p. 7), intervals are drawn from examples (p. 10) and the whole of
music is succinctly summarised under qualitas and quantitas, the para-
meters of pitch and time. Stenger's title page (see p. 54 above) likewise
shows a concern for the learning process: the pupil should practise
everything he learns at home, since anything which is heard without
exercitium is so easily forgotten.
Ribovius 1638 gives particular attention to the way in which the boy
learns intervals, at the same time as he applies the text:
It is however better, when two or more boys are equally advanced, if one sings
the notes [presumably to solmisation syllables] and the other, or the others, the text,
and frequently alternate, so that they progress together and become confident.
 The contents, layout and style of instruction books 67

welches dennoch besser ist / wenn zween oder mehr Knaben gleich weit
gekommen seyn / daft einer die Noten / und der ander oder die anderen den
Text singen / und offt abwechselen / damit sie also mit einander fortkommen
unnd sicher werden. (Ribovius 1638, p. 195)
La Marche 1656 is very concerned with the way the pupil comprehends
the material. He extends the erotemata technique well beyond most of his
contemporaries, asking the pupil searching questions regarding his
motives for singing. His short primer concludes with advice to the teacher:
it is not enough that the master identifies mistakes, he should also ask the
boy how he has erred and insist that he correct the mistake himself (La
Marche 1656, p. 21). It is also important to rehearse the boys
individually so that they do not cover up each other's mistakes; material
should be introduced a little at a time and always related back to the
fundamentals (Ibid., pp. 21~2). Perhaps the most detailed prescription of
teaching method appears at the end of Fuhrmann 1706 (pp. 94-6).
Following his week-by-week course, pupils should learn to read at sight
within three months. Use of the clavichord, enabling them to practise in
the absence of the teacher, is vital. Fuhrmann provides a precedent for
several treatises after 1750 which emphasise the learning process.

With the onset of the eighteenth century, more treatises seem to cater
for the growing amateur market. While some are still designed with
school music in mind this is often only one of several uses. Eisel 1738 is
specifically aimed at the cultivated amateur, covering a large variety of
instruments. Nevertheless he still suggests that the pursuit of music
should take its place next to theology and above all the other arts and
sciences.28 Maier 1741 (first version 1732) is addressed to the galant
homme, but, remarkably, covers both musica practica and musica poetica. Like
Eisel, Maier points to the lofty God-given status of music, one that was
being greatly enhanced by the growth in musical expertise among royal
amateurs.29 Thus although music was still highly regarded, it was accorded
its status not necessarily within the traditional Lutheran educational
system but rather within the circles of the rising bourgeoisie, taking their
lead from royalty.
Having now covered the basic formats of the literature designed for
elementary music instruction, I shall concentrate in the next two
chapters on those elements relating specifically to the practical aspects of
performance during the Baroque era: technique, interpretation and
ornamentation.
 The development of performance
practice and the tools of expression and
interpretation in the German Baroque

While issues of performance technique, style and expression undoubtedly

come to the fore in texts from the late sixteenth century onwards, earlier
musicians cannot have been entirely unconcerned with interpretation,
and the lack of written documentation does not necessarily mean that it
was never discussed. Nevertheless, there is obviously a striking contrast
between earlier treatises dealing with the rudiments required for per-
formance and those later ones that are equally elementary but add
recommendations on technique and style. Significantly, many of the
vocal rules of the early seventeenth century are drawn directly from
those few sixteenth-century writings which mention vocal technique. 1
This could point either towards a codification of an existing practice or
to a desire to justify rules for the present by earlier prescriptions. In any
case, the noticeable expansion of treatises concerned with the actual
practice of performance doubtless reflects the development of musica
practica in Germany as the science of performance, something with its
own rules and defining characteristics. Praetorius makes this explicit in
his dedicatory foreword to Syntagma musicum, part 3, of 1619:
So I have now in this third, and in the following fourth, volume compiled and
written the most important things that a Kapellmeister who is a singing-master and
musicus practicus will need to know, particularly in the present time when music
has risen so high that one can hardly believe that it can come any higher.

So hab ich nun in diesem Tertio und folgendem Quarto Tomo, das furnembste so
einem Capellmeister Phonasco und Musico Practico, Sonderlich jetziger zeit / da die
Music so hoch gestiegen / das fast nicht zu gleuben / dieselbe numehr hoher werde
kommen konnen / zu wissen von nohten sein wird / begriffen und verfasset.

As chapter 2 suggests, the elevation of performance was not only a factor

of the 'new Italian style' but also something inherent in the spirit of

68
 The development of performance practice 69
Lutheranism: practical music as an affective theological discourse. It
should, however, be remembered that this chapter concentrates on only
a portion of the treatises written between c.1600 and 1750; the
remainder preserve the pattern of Listenius and Faber, something which
suggests that the more conservative attitude to performance survived
side-by-side with that of the 'modernists'.
This is the survey of a textual tradition and not a fully documented
record of actual performance style. As will quickly emerge, the texts rely
strongly on each other, forming a body of performance theories reflecting
the contemporary awareness of performance practice and its role in
musical and educational life.

SINGING T E C H N I Q U E
The first half of the seventeenth century

The variety of practice in the first half of the seventeenth century is well
demonstrated in Bernhard's manuscript vocal treatise, c.1649: according
to him there were two basic styles of singing, that preserving the notes
and that changing them (cantar sodo/d'qffetto and cantar passagiato; see
p. 49 above). The survival of the basic sixteenth-century format in
seventeenth-century treatises suggests that many cantorates still promoted
a relatively 'inexpressive' performance style which did not even necessarily
relate to the textual affect (Bernhard's cantar d'affetto - in which the
affective implications of the text are regarded - is a subcategory and not
a prerequisite of plain singing). That many choirs were still unfamiliar
with differentiated dynamics is suggested by a direction Tobias Michael
added to the last piece in his Musicalische Seelenlust part I (1634): whoever
has no taste for the indicated piano-forte contrasts may simply omit
them.2 The relatively extensive treatises of Gengenbach 1626 and Hizler
1623 are representative of a large number of primers that — like most
from the sixteenth century - barely mention matters of vocal style, not to
speak of ornamentation. This is particularly interesting in view of the fact
that these two adopt a progressive pedagogical stance (see p. 66 above).
The most elaborated form of singing was clearly reserved for the
more sumptuous establishments (e.g. Bernhard's own at the Dresden
court). On the other hand, Bernhard lists some devices which he regards
as indispensable for the plain style. Only one of these comes into the
category of vocal technique proper, the concept otfermo, a steady voice
without the defect oUremulo (Miiller-Blattau 1926/1963 pp. 31-2). That
70 Music education and the art of performance

Bernhard calls for vibrato as part of the the ornament ardire, suggests it
was an element of ornamentation rather than a constant in 'plain singing'.
The remaining devices are the one-note graces which, in Bernhard's
view, are essential to the fundamentals of 'plain singing'. Indeed, according
to Printz 1671, the pupil should start learning the figures of diminution
when he first learns to apply the text (see p. 132 below). The lack of
fundamental physiological information, which is common to all German
sources on the Italian style, implies that singing 'technique' was still the
by-product of a concern for musical style and ornamentation rather than
an art in its own right.3
Bernhard's categorisation is useful in showing not only that a variety
of performance styles was permissible in the early seventeenth century
but also that there was a certain amount of interplay between the cate-
gories. The sources suggest that, while many authors (e.g. Gengenbach)
taught nothing but 'plain' singing, there is a large middleground of
writers who recommend a certain amount of expressive interpretation
without necessarily outlining details of improvised ornamentation. It is
perhaps these writers who - as the 'mean', so to speak - best reflect the
basic German tradition of performance during the Baroque era as a
whole, something on to which the more progressive advocates of the
'new Italian style' grafted their own developments. Furthermore, it
should not be discounted that these 'middleground' writers codified
conventions which many of the writers in the Listenius/Faber traditions
took for granted.
Several factors might account for the increasing interest in and
awareness of vocal technique at the outset of the Baroque era. First,
there is the proliferation of the 'new Italian style' which, with its renewed
emphasis on textual expression, engendered an interest in certain aspects
of vocal delivery. Secondly, the increasingly close links between music
and rhetoric in German theory - part of the elevation of practical music
as an element of the trivium - inspired closer study of classical rhetorical
texts and their advice on the cultivation of the orator's voice.
The writings drawn from the sixteenth century do not generally
present a theory of performance as such, rather a loosely connected list
of rules, empirically derived, which publication had hardened into a
tradition. Much of the German tradition stretches back to the writings of
Conrad von Zabern (1474) and Hermann Finck (1556; see Ruhnke
1955, p. 98): clear and correct expression of vowels; the forming of the
notes in the lungs and throat and not with the lips or tongue; the
avoidance of singing through the nose; the clear and distinct performance
 The development of performance practice 71

of fast notes in passages (but without aspiration); correct pitching; gentle

performance of high notes; steady tempo; clear vocal entries in fugal
passages; correct underlay; correct posture. These rules reappear, almost
literally, in the writings of C. Praetorius (1574) and Schneegass (1591),
who also stress that the singers must establish a balanced sound between
the parts and that the mouth should not be opened so wide as to
preclude a sweet vocal style. Praetorius insists that the style of singing
conform to the words so that it can express a joyous affect with joyful
words, a sorrowful one with sorrowful words. 4 Quitschreiber further
suggests that some form of vibrato should be cultivated, 'Tremula voce
optime canitur' (Quitschreiber 1598, 'De canendi elegantia').
With Calvisius 1602 comes the most thorough summary and amplifi-
cation of these traditional German rules. He also introduces detailed advice
on breathing; the first rules emphasise sweetness of tone, the virtues of a
long breath with steady tone on sustained notes and the dangers of
ruining the tone by giving too much strength to the high notes. 5 The
rule that the singer should sing more gently the higher he goes, stronger
the deeper he goes, derives from Finck and remained an element of
German vocal technique for more than a century after Calvisius.6 The
next rules emphasise the need for sustaining the tone and breath on a
long note over several beats and on divisions, giving particular attention
to the higher notes. In contradistinction to most of the other writers of
his age, Calvisius recommends a somewhat smooth performance of
crotchets and quavers, perhaps to guard against the aspiration of vowels:

Crotchets or quavers that ascend or descend by step must be formed in the

throat, not with the lips, and the sounds must be joined together in such a way
that the steps are not greatly perceived.
Semiminime vel Fusae quae gradatim ascendunt vel descendunt, gutture, non
labijs, formandae sunt, & sono ita coniungandae, ne gradus magnopere
exaudiantur. (Calvisius 1602, rule 7)

He may have taken some of his advice from sixteenth-century Italian

writers, since he repeats Zarlino's direction that the voices should be
louder in churches and public places than in smaller, private chambers. 7
Burmeister 1601 (Musica autoschediastike) stands apart in giving a more
theoretical underpinning of these conventions; it introduces material
from the classical rhetorical tradition, namely the chapter 'De pronun-
ciatione' from Quintilian's Institutiones oratoiiae (see Ruhnke 1955, pp. 94—8).
The effectiveness of the oratory/song is achieved with the firm, elegant
and affective voice. All aspects of vocal technique depend on achieving
72 Music education and the art of performance

moderation between all extremes: between light and dark, strong and
weak, delicate and raw; breath which is neither too long nor too short; a
performance which is neither to fast nor too slow. This moderation in
style accords well with the traditional German rules summarised in
Calvisius 1602, so Burmeister probably found the ancient rules of
rhetoric a useful way of justifying the status quo. The rhetorical tradition
also recommends that each singer cultivate what Nature has given him,
something which would refreshingly discount a single dogma of vocal
technique. Most important is the level-headed, abstinent, and hardened
lifestyle, combined with daily singing and faith in portraying the content
of the song. The second part of Burmeister's rules (appropriated as they
are from Quintilian) concerns the pronunciatio qffectuosa, achieved primarily
through the decoration of the oratory/song (see chapter 5, below).
Gesture is an essential element of rhetorical delivery, one that is often
ignored in considerations of historical performance. Burmeister cites the
example of the deaf-mute who must express all his feelings through his
gestures. According to Quintilian's advice on gestus, it is important that
the content and style of the singing is not contradicted by inappropriate
gestures. Furthermore, the most potent performance is achieved when
both aspects are united; thus the eyes, the head and every limb should
adopt the gestures directly implied by the text.
While Burmeister is suspicious of the wholesale application of modern
Italian mannerisms, Praetorius strikes a remarkable balance both by
outlining the practice of the ancients and by establishing the modern
Italian style in German performance theory. In the first part of his
Syntagma musicum (1614-15, book 2, pp. 188-98), he gives perhaps the
most thorough compilation of classical writings on voice production.
Only a few years later, he wrote the most influential German essay on
'modern' Italian practices, in the third part of Syntagma musicum (1619).
Although the volume as a whole is too cumbersome to have been used
as a regular school primer (it is designed more for the teacher than the
pupil), it contains prescriptions that were a tremendous influence on
later pedagogical writings. As he states in the introduction, the Italians
have so changed the art of music that a good survey is required for
'Capellmeisters / Directores / Cantores / Organisten / Lautenisten'. In
his rules on Italianate ornamentation and diminution he mentions two
specific Italian authors - Caccini and Bovicelli - both of whom emphasise
the need for matching ornaments with the appropriate affects.
His prescription of the natura required of the incipient singer is a
useful summary of the vocal presuppositions of the age: the singer must
 The development of performance practice 73

have a natural, beautiful voice with a smooth, round neck for fast passages,
a steady long breath and finally a voice which fits one of the four vocal
ranges, which can be used with a full sound, brightly and without falsetto
(Praetorius 1619, p. 231). His distaste of the falsetto register may derive
directly from Caccini 1601; at least one German contemporary does not
share this prejudice.8 The list of vitia, the common deficiences in singing,
is also a useful summary of many previous German and Italian writings:
the singer should not take too many breaths (see Caccini 1601) and
should avoid singing through the nose, holding the voice in the neck
with the teeth biting together (see Bovicelli 1594).
What is particularly striking about a treatise as thorough and compre-
hensive as Praetorius's is the comparative lack of a theory of vocal
production (in the modern sense, at least). The emphasis is on the free
and 'natural' working of the vocal organs, supported by long, deep
breathing. Praetorius interestingly regards vibrato as a fundamental of
singing, given by God and nature (something of which Quitschreiber
1598 also approves, see p. 71 above):
Whereas those who are endowed by God and nature with a particularly lovely
shaking, wavering or trembling voice and also with a round neck and throat for
diminution, but who do not heed the rules of music, are not to be praised
Sintemal die jenigen gar nicht zu loben / welche von Gott und der Natur / mit
einer sonderbahren lieblichen zitterten und schwebenden oder bebenden Stimm
/ auch einem runden HalB unnd Gurgel zum diminuiren begabet / sich an den
Musicorum Leges nicht binden lassen (Praetorius 1619, pp. 229-30)

Another detail that Praetorius requires as part of the natura of the inci-
pient singer is the exclamatio, apparently a dynamic increase to be applied
to certain notes. This is something quite new in German vocal treatises
(which up to, and often beyond, Praetorius still recommended a steady
tone and, presumably, dynamic). The exclamatio and the apparent messa di
voce that Praetorius specifies for semibreves are dynamic devices he took
from Caccini 1601, essentially to express the sense and affect of the
words. Praetorius evidently considered such dynamic shading to be a
fundamental of singing rather than merely an optional expressive device:

Exclamatio is the true means to move the affects, which must be achieved by
increasing the voice. And it can be employed with all descending dotted minims
and crotchets. And the following note especially, which thus moves somewhat
quickly, is more affective, and also has better grace, than the semibreve, which
takes place more often with a raising and lowering of the voice, without
exclamatio.
74 Music education and the art of performance

Exclamatio ist das rechte Mittel die qffectus zu moviren, so mit erhebung der Stimm
geschehen muB: Und kan in alien Minimis und Semiminimis mit dem Punct /
Descendendo angebracht unnd gebraucht werden. Unnd moviret sonderlich die
folgende JVbta, so etwas geschwinde fortgehet / mehr qffectus, als die Semibrevis,
welche in erhebung und verringerung der Stimm ohn Exclamation mehr stadt
findet / auch bessere gratiatn hat. (Praetorius 1619, p. 231)

This somewhat ambiguous explanation seems to suggest that semibreves

are commonly made more expressive with dynamic nuancing, while the
exclamatio refers specifically to the crescendo applied to dotted rhythms
(or perhaps even an improvised elaboration of the semibreve into a
dotted rhythm for 'more affect?).9 Beyond this it is clear that elements of
vocal technique are directly connected to the various 'manners'; in other
words, techniques are directly connected to musical interpretation, expres-
sion and ornamentation. Never do these form an abstract, normative
voice-culture. It is the selection and interpretation of 'Manners' which
Praetorius and his followers most closely related to the singer's role as
orator. The concept of music as a rhetoric was a central impetus - and
alternatively a justification - for developments of vocal style in Germany
during the seventeenth century (see pp. 46-50 above, and chapter 5).
The 'new Italian style' was also particularly well represented by Herbst
1642/1653 in what was essentially an expansion of Praetorius's pioneering
work of 1619.
While Praetorius 1619 established a German textual tradition that
purported to outline the Italian style (i.e. the most advanced of Bernhard's
categories), many treatises showed this influence but were more modest
in their ambitions. Particularly influential was Friderici's, Musica Figuralis,
first published in 1618, but republished numerous times until 1677.10
The penultimate chapter (chapter 7, enlarged with four more rules in
the 1624 edition),11 on the numerous rules for singing, provides one of
the most useful and comprehensive summaries of vocal style of the time.
This gives a good impression of the 'middleground' as it stood at the
time of Praetorius. The latter's influence is strongly evident in the
sections added in 1624: Praetorius's prescriptions of the suitable voice
and the moderation of physical gestures appear almost word for word
and Friderici's advice on the placement of singers is doubtlessly
influenced by Praetorius's exhaustive discussion.
Many of Friderici's rules can be traced back to the earlier German
treatises up to Calvisius 1602: e.g. correct pronunciation of vowels;
attention to the other voices. Of foremost concern is the suitability of the
boy, who must have pleasure and love of singing ('Lust und Liebe'),
 The development of performance practice 75

something which may suggest that the era when all school boys were
expected to attend communal singing lessons was passing. Suitable boys
should have a natural control of breath, particularly when they sing
high, and should not screech and shout.12 His emphasis on singing which
is joyful ('freudig') and fresh ('frisch') and not to be confused with
shouting, gives us a figurative idea of the vocal style to be cultivated,
something which conjures up the sense of a free, natural technique.
Most impressive are the closing exercises on vocal agility (added in 1624)
which give a good account of how vocal training could be conducted:
Here follow various exercises, in which a teacher can rehearse and instruct his
pupils who are beginning to learn singing by singing to them one clausula after
the other, finely expressing himself, after which each can sing individually or all
together, so that they can learn from him the correct voice and tone and thus
each day become more skilful at other music.

Folgen etliche Exercitia, darinnen ein Praeceptor seine Discipulos, so da anfangen /

singen zu lernen / iiben und unterweisen / ihnen eine Clausulam nach der
andern vorsingen / und sich fein articulate, entweder von jedem insonderheit /
oder von alien zugleich ins gemein nach singen lassen lean / damit sie ihm die
Stimme und den Thon recht lernen abnehmen / und also taglich geschickter zu
anderer Musick gemacht werden.
(Friderici 1618/1624, introduction to exercises)

The first example involves singing a succession of notes in progressively

decreasing note values; if the capacity of the boys allows, they may even
try semiquavers (Example 1). The subsequent example provides variations

Example 1 Friderici 1618/1624

1. Exemplum die Noten in unisono auff einen Schlag recht zu theilen

u. pronuncire zu lernen.

M J JJJ mm
Wofern es der captus puerorum ertragen kan
so kan man den Knaben auch wol Noten mit zwey Schwanzen vorschreiben.
on each of the six solmisation syllables (Example 2), followed by exercises
on successive intervals and dotted rhythms (Example 3). The remaining
examples are patently diminution exercises which cultivate both vocal
agility and a sense of how to embellish simple note-patterns. Several
other writers share this 'middleground' interest in the fluency cultivated
by diminution exercises, even if they did not advocate the wholesale
76 Music education and the art of performance

improvisation of ornamental figures.13 Friderici states in his 'Conclusio'

(1624, and thus after Praetorius) that he has omitted numerous Italian
manners (he specifies here exactly those given by Praetorius), since they
are too difficult for young boys and are used only in the most distin-
guished establishments. Furthermore, coloratura can lead to great misuse,
Example 2 Friderici 1618/1624
2. Exempt, darin Man lernet
ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la> verandern.

j j - j j » j J » J r " i j j J iJrr i J J J J r r
j J J J J J J Jr Jr r i;» j) J i

?
J j) j> J > J> r J P r i j j j j i j j J j

jJrJiJrrIJJJJ iJ J J J iJ J r J J r r i

3. Ein anders auff dem sclbigen Schlag.

o o
r»l JJJJJJJr"
 The development of performance practice 77

Example 3 Friderici 1618/1624

10. Exempt, die Pimcta in die Noten zu versetzen

J- i' j- j) J ii J- j^ J-
i|g J. $ J. b ,\ J-
ruining the music; and many such devices are more appropriate for
instrumentalists; there is, in any case, already easily enough for boys to
learn in singing. Nevertheless, the strong emphasis that Friderici has
already given diminution suggests that he is referring to a more extreme
practice here (as Bernhard's categories of vocal style suggest, some
ornaments are required even in the 'plainest' style, p. 69 above).14
The growth in the consciousness of singing technique and style during
the early seventeenth century is reflected in the comparison of the 1607
and the 1632 editions of Demantius's Isagoge Artis Musicae. While the first
contained some general singing exercises similar to the patterns found in
Italian diminution manuals (typically arrayed with the simplest forms
moving to the most complex), the later edition introduces rules of singing
clearly influenced by Friderici's publication. There is also a tremendous
increase in the number of exercises in vocal agility and one hundred
canons in two to seven parts.

77ie latter half of the seventeenth century

After 1650 we can observe many continuities with the earlier part of the
century; conservative writings still appear side by side with those giving
attention to details of performance, for instance. The 'middleground'
material (i.e. that which addresses issues of performance but does not
necessarily advocate the most elaborate forms of improvised ornamen-
tation) is greatly expanded and many texts, at all levels, show the influence
of educational reforms (see p. 66 above). On the whole the understanding
and responsibility of the pupil are more noticeably enouraged.
By far the most informative writer on German singing in the entire
seventeenth century is Wolfgang Caspar Printz, Director Musices and
cantor at Sorau. His most extensive practical treatise is Musica modulatoria
vocalis of 1678, a work, like Praetorius's, that represents the 'high ground'
of the German tradition. 15 Not only does he sum up much of the
78 Music education and the art of performance

German literature on singing, but he also consults Herr Gottfried

Giganti, court doctor in Sorau, on a suitable diet for the singer. His
demanding list of the requirements of the good singer includes natural
inclination and ability, a clear and beautiful voice, a complete knowledge
of musical signs, a clear forming of all intervals and knowledge of all
rhythmic notation, clear pronunciation of the text and knowledge of all
ornamental figures (Printz 1678, pp. 10-11). In sum, the natural abilities
can be reduced to good memory (for pitching intervals); delicate ear (to
perceive the good and bad in singing); judgement and understanding
(particularly for matters of interpretation and ornamentation; Printz
1678, p. 14). Clearly Printz was advocating singing as a vocational
choice within education, a position reflecting the increasing specialisation
of the singers selected to perform the figural church music of the age.
Printz's attitude to dynamics seems to combine the traditional German
teaching with the more 'modern5 concern for text and affect. While he
stresses that the singer should not sing too loudly and should cultivate a
pleasing sound, and that all the voices should be balanced etc. (p. 21) -
rules that are common in earlier writings — he also proscribes singing
which is too quiet and that can barely be heard ten steps away:

The notes should be sung at a consistent strength, so that they do not sound
weak and strong by turns; it should rather be the text or the affect that requires
either stronger or more soothing singing
Die Noten sollen mit einerley Starcke gesungen werden / daB nicht eine
Schwach / die andere Starck laute / es sey denn / dafi der Text, oder der
Adfectus erfordere entweder starcker oder Under zu singen (Printz 1678, p. 21)

Like many writers before him, Printz gives close attention to the correct
pronunciation of vowels, together with the correct mouth-shape. Further-
more he also remarks on the importance of consonants, particularly since
they must be more sharply pronounced in a large building (p. 41).
What seems particularly new in Printz's approach is the responsibility
he places on the pupil himself to guarantee his own progress. From the
start he is to act intelligently, cultivating his own judgement and estab-
lishing a routine of personal practice. This undoubtedly reflects the
growing stress laid on the pupil's understanding in seventeenth-century
education (see p. 66 above). But it must also relate to a change in
musical approach, namely the need for the performer to recognise the
affect and sense of the musical setting and to have some view of his role
as an orator. The latter responsibility is fulfilled most directly in the
singer's addition and control of ornamental figures (see chapter 5).
 The development of performance practice 79

The boy should first practise singing German Lieder - learning not to
sing like a gross peasant - and introducing sweet trilletti or the sharp trilfo
from the start (Printz evidently expects the singer to add a variety of
ornaments from the earliest stage of his singing career).16 In this way he
can practise while all are singing so that his mistakes are not heard. Only
with practice does the singer develop a soft, moderate and full voice with
a long breath. Thus he will learn to sing with twice as long a breath as
someone who does not practise, something which will also enable him to
sing passages and trills with more facility (Printz 1678, pp. 15-16). A
particularly interesting point of advice is Printz's view that a building
with a resonant acoustic will enable the singer to hear and correct his
mistakes. Printz may have acquired this advice from an Italian source,
since it can be found in Maffei 1562.17
A boy can also use a well-responding echo to practise his voice, and in particular
he can try to form each and every figure correctly, and so notice if it does not
sound well
Ein Knab sol auch seine Stimme ausiiben bey einer wol respondirenden Echo, und
da sol er sonderlich versuchen alle und jede Figurcn recht zu formiren / und so
er mercket / dafi es nicht wol klinge (Printz 1678, p. 16)

Printz stresses that the singer must practise all the intervals. First he can
learn these from the teacher, but since the latter usually does not have
enough time, the pupil should also practise alone for half an hour a day
with a tuned instrument and, for the best training, with a monochord
(pp. 23-4).
It is significant that Printz lists many general faults in singing under
the heading of common errors in diminution practice, something which
shows the fundamental importance of improvised ornamentation to the
very basis of singing technique. The faults in 'figured' singing are mainly
concerned with articulation, specifically the use of the wrong sort of
attack with particular figures. To the general faults of singing (which,
reciprocally, also contain points relating to coloratura), belong sharp and
flat singing, incorrect intervals, distasteful tone, incorrect rhythm, poor
enunciation of text, sloppy intonation and inconsistent tone, no attention
to the Fundament and adjacent parts (which can lead to compositional
abuses when figures are added), too many dissonances in added figures,
breathing in the middle of a figure, and the stringing together of figures
like a peasant or 'beer-fiddler'. As ever, imitation of good singers provides
the best learning experience (Printz 1678, pp. 74-9).
Printz's general concern for lifestyle doubtless owes something to the
80 Music education and the art of performance

classical rhetorical tradition, where the care of the orator's voice and
health were just as important as his expertise in rhetorical delivery (see
Burmeister, p. 71 above). Certainly Italian authors such as Cerone, Doni
and Rossetti wrote much on the lifestyle of the incipient singer, in direct
emulation of the discipline of the ancients (see Ulrich 1973, pp.
26-33). Printz laments that general advice on the care of the voice is not
generally available in German and that many young Discantisten are not
well experienced in Latin. His recommendations are most explicit:
But we must first remember that the vocalist should protect himself from
impure, foggy, very cold or hot air, north winds, smoke and dust (particularly
that from flax and lime), and that he looks after his chest well all the time and
keeps it warm.
Wir erinnern aber erstlich / daB sich ein Vocafist hiite fur unreiner / neblichter
/ sehr kalter oder hitziger Lufft / Nordwinden / Rauch und Staub / sonderlich
von Flachs und Kalck / und daB er darneben die Brust allezeit wol verwahre
und warm halte. (Printz 1678, p. 17)
He recommends only temperate foods which are to be consumed in
moderation, providing an extensive list of prohibited food and drink
which includes lentils, white cabbage, sauerkraut, mustard, raw onions,
garlic, and radish, sour wine, sour beer and very cold water (p. 18). He
even provides an extensive recipe for a drink which lengthens the breath
(p. 20). The singer should avoid too much sleep, particularly during the
day (p. 18). Moderate bodily exercise is to be recommended before
meals, but not so much that it becomes an art and thus leads to a
wasting of valuable time. The singer should avoid anger and sadness, too
much singing or loud shouting. Perhaps the most alarming recom-
mendation relates to the singer's behaviour:
Fifthly it is to be remembered that vocalists, particularly discantists and altos,
should live chastely and modestly, and generally should stay away from women,
nor converse with them; for nothing is more harmful to the high voice than the
conversation of womenfolk.
Furs fiinfte ist zu erinnern / daB ein Vocafist / sonderlich Discan&st und Al&st /
keusch und ziichtig lebe / und den Frauenzimmer durchaus nicht zu nahe
komme / noch mit ihnen conversire: Weil der hohen Stimme nichts schadlichers /
als die Conversation des Frauenvolckes. (Printz 1678, p. 19)

Printz's misogyny probably derives from the conception that the voice
breaks more quickly if the boy becomes sexually aware. Indeed he later
explains that the best means of preserving the beautiful high voice is
castration, but that this is as little used as justified 'by us Germans' (p. 19).18
 The development of performance practice 81

Printz's writings on vocal training in the cantorates - especially Musica

modulatoria of 1678 - mark a watershed in the history of German texts on
performance: many subsequent treatises are similarly comprehensive,
offering instruction from the rudiments through to relatively complex
details of ornamentation. Furthermore, some consideration of the rules of
singing becomes common in even the most modest of primers; the
'middleground' has thus been greatly extended. For instance, Quirsfeld's
Breviarium Musicum first appeared in 1675, but singing rules were not
included until the 1688 reprint (which continued to be published until
1717). These show the persistence of the traditional German rules codified
by Calvisius and Friderici: a lighter voice for high notes, the mouth to be
opened only moderately for the greatest beauty of tone, the avoidance of
singing through the teeth and nose, correct pronunciation of vowels.
Contrary to Calvisius's advice of 1602, but in agreement with most
other sources, Quirsfeld recommends an articulation of runs; he is more
precise about how the articulation is to be achieved, showing considerably
more knowledge of the physiology involved:19
If there are fast runs, he should not only touch on the notes, but attack each and
every one with its own sound. Not with the chest however, which is highly
damaging to the lungs, but between the pharynx and the neck, so that the palate
is used somewhat.
Wenn geschwinde Laufter kommen / soil er nicht die Noten nur heraus
hauchen / sondcrn eine jedc mit ihrem Tone ausschlagen. Doch nicht mit der
Brust / welches der Lungen hochst schadlich ist / sondern zwischen dem
Schlunde und der Kehlen / darzu der Gaumen etwas gebraucht wird.
(Quirsfeld 1675/1688, p. 28)
Quirsfeld's requirement that the song begin quietly, gradually increase in
dynamics and remain loud to the end, modifies the traditional German
stipulation of a steady voice throughout.20 This advice is duplicated almost
word for word in Sperling 1705 (p. 86). It might imply the more wide-
spread acceptance of dynamic flexibility, as recommended by Germans
importing the 'new Italian style5. However, it hardly accords with
Praetorius's exclamatio, which concerned the performance of individual
patterns of dotted notes (see p. 73 above).
Mylius 1685, Falck 1688 and Stierlein 1691 are compendia much on
the same scale as Printz's, likewise containing extensive surveys of orna-
mentation. The fact that they are drawn largely from several earlier
sources (without apparently copying Printz's work) is striking; it suggests
that the need to codify and prescribe vocal practices was very much part
of the spirit of the age. Mylius takes much of his information on
82 Music education and the art of performance

mannered singing directly from the manuscript treatise by his teacher

Ghristoph Bernhard; Falck relies on the Praetorius/Herbst tradition;
Stierlein's rules on ornamentation seem to derive from Bernhard's
manuscript treatise without the intermediate influence of Mylius (he also
clearly had access to Bernhard's treatises on composition, which contain
much more detailed definitions of the various ornamental devices).
Stierlein 1691 and Hoffmann 1693 (a much more modest tutor)
introduce some of the requirements for a suitable singer and the
traditional singing rules at the outset, before describing notation. At the
beginning of the century such comments would have been added only
after the traditional chapters of the Faber/Listenius tradition had been
covered. Clearly the suitability of the boy concerned and physiological
factors were now important issues in an age when even school musicians
were becoming more specialised. Both writers also give dietary advice at
this stage, similar to Printz's, prohibiting foods such as raw fruit and nuts
(Stierlein 1691, p. 3; Hoffmann 1693, p. 3). The introduction to another
large compendium, Feyertag 1695, gives clear testimony that the
fundamentals of singing involve interpretative and physiological factors
together with a concern for correct posture:
This book, I say, is aimed not only at the use and moderation of one's art or
one's voice, but also at how to preserve the outer demeanour of the body while
singing and to maintain the limbs in seemly order

Es zielet dieses Buch nicht nur allein auf die Kunst oder Stime zugebrauche u.
zu moderiren, sage ich / sondern auch die ausserliche Minen des Leibs und der
Glieder in geziemender Sittlichkeit unter dem Singen zu halten
(Feyertag 1695, introduction)
Beyer 1703 likewise introduces questions of posture at the outset of his
description of the vitia: the head should not be hung low so that it
inhibits the freedom of the neck (Beyer 1703, p. 65).
It is quite significant that Feyertag describes moderiren as a style of
singing which is concerned with the sense of the words (Feyertag 1695,
p. 234), as if it were a special case to be distinguished from singing
without concern for word or affect (see also Bernhard's categorisation,
p. 49 above). He states at the outset that he draws most of his material
from other sources, so it may be that he is unwittingly preserving an
anachronistic distinction. Nevertheless, Falck 1688 similarly sees
expressive performance, with dynamics varied according to the text, as
part of the special category of ornamented singing, musicafiguralisornata.21
Likewise, Beyer 1703 implies that singing according to the affect of the
 The development of performance practice 83

text is a special type of singing - musica ornata seu colorata - in which the
concept of ornamentation is vaguely fused with that of dynamic and
affective textual expression:
When the notes in a song are not sung simply but decorated with beautiful
coloraturas and figures in accordance with the text beneath, so that the singer's
voice is heard now strong, now weak, now joyful, now sad.

Wenn in einem Gesang die Noten nicht schlecht hin gesungen / sondern mit
schonen Coloraturen und Figuren / nach Anleitung des unterlegten Textes /
ausgezieret werden / also; dafl der Sanger seine Stimme bald starck / bald
schwach / bald freudig / bald traurig horen lasset. (Beyer 1703, p. 53)
Clearly, then, expressive singing was still not to be taken for granted,
even at the close of the seventeenth century (certainly Schiitz condemned
the German ignorance of the style during the middle of the seventeenth
century; see p. 42 above).
Furthermore, the advances in vocal technique evident in Printz 1678
did not necessarily infiltrate even the larger treatises. The most
comprehensive German school primer at the end of the century is Speer
1697 (a more systematic version of an earlier treatise of 1687). Nowhere
else is the student introduced to so many skills in one publication:
singing, keyboard and thoroughbass, instruments and composition.
Nevertheless, Speer's rules on singing (including some dietary pro-
scriptions) break little new ground, merely repeating the same rules on
pronunciation, articulation and breathing that were listed in treatises
over a century before (Speer 1697, pp. 19-30). Likewise, the singing
rules and vitia of Beyer 1703, Fuhrmann 1705 and Sperling 1705 are
written firmly in the German tradition and contribute little that is new.
Beyer's repeated reference to 'free and unforced singing' (Trey und
ungezwungen singen' - pp. 53, 65), and Fuhrmann's prescription of
moderate singing so that the voices blend and balance (Furhmann 1705,
p. 74), show an approach to choral singing that had not changed for
over a century.

The late Baroque era - Tosi, Agricola, Mattheson and the science of singing

The most influential treatise of the late Italian Baroque is Tosi 1723, a
text which transmits the details of a practice stretching right back to the
time of Caccini. In the decades after its publication it enjoyed a wide
reception and was eventually translated into several other languages,
including English (1743) and German (1757). No other singing treatise
84 Music education and the art of performance

gives such detail on the interpretation of specific musical genres, or on

the type of ornamentation appropriate to each. Although the work is not
directly relevant to the German school milieu - since Tosi's main
concern is the international, secular world of Italian opera - its basic
rules of vocal production accord remarkably closely with German ones;
clearly even the traditional German rules on voice production reflected
Italian theory and practice. Tosi cautions against singing through the
nose and choking the voice in the throat, stresses the importance of
intonation (including the difference between major and minor semitones),
and advocates careful attention to accurate vowels, good posture and
appearance. A long breath should be cultivated and high notes expressed
softly. The practice of subtle dynamic changes from the softest piano to
the loudest forte can be traced in Italian literature back to Caccini;
dynamic variety is a particular element of the German writers who
claimed to transmit the Italian style, in the tradition of Praetorius. Tosi's
comments on uniting and blending the two registers, di petto and di testa,
show that the Italians had a greater grasp of this aspect of singing than
the Germans. All further detail on singing technique is the direct result
of specific ornamental patterns, just as is the case in the German tradition.
The early eighteenth century was a time of marked advances in
physiological awareness of the vocal organs. Although little of this filtered
through into the standard school manuals (which, if Wesselius 1726 is
anything to go by, could still be astonishingly conservative), some of it is
evident in Mattheson's Der vollkommene Kapellmeister of 1739. The second
part of this book opens with a chapter on the 'Examination and the care
of the human voice', a subject which Mattheson describes as phonology.
His first study is of the mutation of the male voice:

with [boys], the strongly increasing ardours and humours generally enlarge and
distend all of the ducts and canals of the body. This does not have such a good
effect as is manifest with the female sex about the same time.[!] As is easily seen,
the natural accretion and release of the ardours and humours, hence also the
enlargement of the passages and ducts in the throat whence undeniably derives
the lowering of pitch, is impeded in castrati by the early removal of those organs
from which all of the fertile humours come, and indeed before the power of
enlargement of this last appears. (trans, from Harriss 1981, p. 240)

bey den letztgenannten die starck-zunehmende Warme und Feuchtigkeiten

uberhaupt alle Gange und Rohren des Leibes erweitern und auftreiben, denen
iedoch kein solcher heilsamer Abgang bestimmet ist, als sich bey dem weiblichen
Geschlechte um dieselbe Zeit aussert. Bey Verschnittenen wird, wie leicht zu
erachten, der natiirlichen Warme und Saflte Anwachs und Ausbruch, einfolglich
 The development of performance practice 85
auch die Erweiterung der Rohren und Gange in der Kehle, als wovon die
Erniedrigung des Tones unwiedersprechlich herruhret, durch friihzeitige Berau-
bung derjenigen Gliedmaassen verhindert, denen alle fruchtbare Feuchtigkeiten
hauptsachlich bestimmet sind: und zwar, ehe die ausdehnende Krafft dieser
letzten sich meldet. (Mattheson 1739, p. 95)

It appears that Mattheson expected boys to sing alto and had little
experience of mature male falsettists, since he notes that the soprano
voice usually breaks to a tenor and the alto to bass. Nevertheless, several
earlier German writers imply that broken voices could provide the alto
part, Praetorius's distaste for the falsetto register notwithstanding (see
p. 73 above).
Mattheson affirms that the knowledge of how to aid and preserve the
voice was common in 'olden times' when one could make an actual
profession of voice culture, but that modern singers have forgotten it,
with the exception of some Italians. 22 He is not slow to note that the
great classical orators and actors were constantly advised by skilled
teachers off the stage. Nonetheless, the general tone of his writing, and
particularly the fact that he believes he is communicating some infor-
mation for the first time in his own age, may well imply that the vocal
training in schools was quite backward during the early eighteenth
century. Certainly there are far fewer surviving school primers from this
period than from the 'golden years' of the seventeenth century.
Mattheson's description of the vocal organs is the first detailed
account of its kind in German literature, relating certain components to
specific vocal techniques:
It is indubitably true that such an epiglottis contributes to the delicacy and
tenderness of sound, especially as far as trills, mordents, etc., are concerned. It
also contributes much, perhaps more than the uvula in the mouth, to everyday pro-
nunciation . . . Thus neither the lung nor the tongue, neither the throat nor the
palate, is the true cause of the tone. Even less are the teeth and lips, which have
no part in this except that the first yields the air, while the second, after the sound
has been produced by means of thirteen muscles through the cleft of the glottis
above the windpipe, emits it quite sonorously, clearly, properly, and unrestrictedly.
Thus the unique human glottis is the most sonorous, pleasant, perfect, and
accurate instrument. Or, to put it better, it is the single and only true instrument
among the great number of instruments of sound, be they produced through art
or through nature; for all these wind or string instruments, excluding only the
violins, are altogether imprecise compared with the human voice, even if they
are perfectly tuned. These words of a veiy scholarly mathematician . . . confirm
my throughts . . . that the human voice is the most beautiful instrument.
(trans. Harriss 1981, p. 243)
86 Music education and the art of performance
DaB nun auch sothanes Oberziinglein zur feinern Bildung und zartlichern
Einrichtung des Klanges, absonderlich was die Triller, Mordanten &c. betriflft,
ein grosses und vieleicht mehr, als der Zapffen im Munde zur gemeinen
Aussprache, beitrage, solches ist wol ausser Zweifel wahr; dennoch aber thut die
Glottis selbst gantz gewiB das meiste und vornehmste dabey: und ist also weder
die Lunge, noch die Zunge, weder die Gurgel, noch der Gaumen die rechte
Ursache des Tones; vielweniger sind es die Zahne und Lefzen, welche alle
keinen weitern Antheil daran haben, als dafi die erste den Wind hergibt, die
andern aber, nachdem der Schall durch die Spalte des Ziingleins oben an der
Luflftrdhre, mittelst dreizehn Musceln gezeuget worden, fein hohl, vernehmlich,
rich tig, und ungehindert heraus lassen.
Es ist also die eintzige menschliche Glottis das klangreicheste, angenehmste,
vollenkommenste und richtigste Instrument, oder besser zu sagen, sie ist das
eintzige und allein richtige Instrument unter der grossen Menge klingender
Werckzeuge, sie mogen durch Kunst verfertiget, oder von der Natur
hervorgebracht werden; denn alle diese vom Winde getriebene oder mit Saiten
bezogene Instrumente, nur die Geigen ausgenommen, sind mit einander falsch,
gegen die menschliche Stimme zu rechnen, und wenn sie auch auf das beste
gestimmet waren. Diese Worte eines grundgelehrten Mathematici bestatigen
zugleich meine anderswo gefiihrte Gedancken, dafi nehmlich die Menschen-
Stimme das schonste Instrument sey. (Mattheson 1739, p. 96)
Mattheson draws this latter opinion from Dodart's Memoir de VAcad. Roy.
des Sciences. VAn 1700, something which shows the respect that the French
sciences enjoyed in the early part of the eighteenth century. It also
demonstrates the tendency to seek a scientific explanation and justification
for all matters of art and taste.
But Mattheson is rather a Janus-like figure in music literature,
seemingly equally open to the ancient and modern trends of his age, a
quality which makes him a particularly useful historian. He is clearly
conversant with some of the writings of Printz, since he mentions the use
of communal chorale singing as a good opportunity for individual vocal
practice (see p. 79 above); and he mentions Printz by name at one
point, as the only writer to distinguish between vocal and instrumental
ornamentation (Mattheson 1739, p. 109). His directions on how to
develop the voice are really an amplification of the rules in the more
informative German treatises: first the singer should practise sustained
notes with as long a breath as possible, without straining the voice; then
he should cultivate a wide range of dynamic control (since the innu-
merable degrees of softness and loudness 'will also move the emotions of
his listeners'; Harriss 1981, p. 244).23 It is striking that Mattheson claims
to have encountered no singing master locally 'who had the desire or
knowledge to train his charges in this practice', something which may
 The development of performance practice 87

further reflect a certain stagnation in German singing practice at this

time. His next advice is a scientific explanation of a familiar rule:

just as little concern is taken in our singing schools for not forming the sound
midway in the rasping throat, by means of the tongue, or between the cheeks
and lips . . . Yet if at first sufficient and full breath were drawn and amassed
deeply from the chest and lungs to the windpipe and then the tone were given
its correct form through a well-calculated division of it by the glottis and its
delicate cleft, then, if it has been well-formed to this point, the hollow of the
mouth together with the adequate opening of it merely permits a favourable
passage. (trans. Harriss 1981, p. 244)
Eben so wenig bekiimmert man sich in unsern Sing-Schulen . . . daB der Klang
nicht mitten in der schnarrenden Gurgel, mittelst der Zunge, oder zwischen den
Backen und Lippen seine Form bekommen moge . . . sondern wenn erstlich
gnugsamer und volliger Athem von unten herauf aus der Brust und Lunge in die
Lufltrohre geholet und gesammlet worden, alsdenn mit wolabgemessener
Austheilung desselben, durch die Glottis selbst und ihre zarte Spalte, dem Ton
seine rechte Gestalt gegeben werde, welchem hernach, wenn er bereits wolge-
bildet worden, die Hole des Mundes, samt dessen gnugsamer Oefnung, nur
einen vortheilhafften Durchgang verstattet. (Mattheson 1739, p. 97)

Mattheson continues with some advice on voice-care which shows more

of his reliance on the German tradition, particularly the writings of
Printz: certain wines and beers are better for different voices, over-rich
foods are to be avoided, and he is sceptical of certain medicines employed
by 'so-called virtuosos5.
Mattheson's debt to Printz is also made explicit in his chapter 'On the
art of singing and playing with graces' (Mattheson 1739, pp. 109-20).
Here he adds more voice rules which correspond closely with the natura
and vitia specified in German treatises on ornamentation: e.g. breaths
must never taken be too frequently; pitch and vowels should correctly be
observed; one should avoid singing through the nose, with clenched teeth
or with the mouth open too far (Mattheson credits Finck with this rule).
Another ancient rule of Finck's - that the voice should become lighter
the higher it goes, stronger the lower it goes - Mattheson considers to be
largely ignored in 'the present wanton world'.
Although Mattheson gives detailed explanations of the various
ornaments he deems necessary for the singer of his age, he repeats
another maxim of Finck's which must sum up the reality of 'mannered'
performance practice over the previous two centuries: 'the matter is
not merely determined by rules but more so by usage, long practice,
and experience'.24
88 Music education and the art of performance

Mattheson's information on phonology is greatly expanded with

Agricola's annotated translation of Tosi 1723, the Anleitung zur Singkunst of
1757. This was not directly intended for use in schools, although it is
difficult to envisage that its influence was not felt in certain establish-
ments. Rather, it belongs to the genre of literature on performance
practice most characteristic of the eighteenth century: that which
addressed the growing market of cultivated amateurs and the professional
secular musicians who were active in the rapidly expanding worlds of the
concert hall and opera house. This situation is symptomatic of the
decline of music as an indispensable adjunct of education, worship and
municipal life, and its rise as an autonomous 'fine' art.
Agricola confirms Mattheson's view that the Germans have not
perfected the art of singing to the extent of the Italians (Agricola 1757, p.
vii). He similarly takes much of his information on the physiology of the
voice from the recent research of the Paris Academie (p. 38), and gives
particularly detailed advice on the vocal registers. Many comments
amplifying Tosi's original advice might point to specific tastes in the
performance of Agricola's own day, a period when the whole concept of
'taste' was of particular importance. Thus the issue of performance
practice and style was necessarily a self-conscious activity:
di voce; the practice of strengthening and then weakening sustained longer
notes can be applied to every kind of singing. For here is a fundamental rule of
good taste, that each note, no matter how short its duration, must be given with
increasing and decreasing strength; this can be compared exceedingly well with the
so-called beauty-line in bodies and paintings (see Hogarth's Anatomy of Beauty).
Mezza di voce Die Uebung in dem verstarcken und wieder abnehmenden
Aushalten langer Noten, verbreitet ihren Nutzen in das ganze Singen iiberhaupt.
Denn da es eine Grundregel des guten Geschmackes ist, daB jeder Note, wenn
sie nur irgend von einige Dauer ist, ihr zu- und abnehmende Starcke gegeben
werden miisse; welches sich mit der sogennanten Schonheitslinie in der Korpern
und Gemalden, (siehe Hogarths Zergliederung der Schonheit) iiberaus wohl
vergleichen laBt. (Agricola 1757, p. 48)
This may be distinguished from the seventeenth-century Baroque
mentality in which vocal expression was tied (officially at least) to the
rhetorical implications of the text and a natural, quasi-mechanical system
of affects; style was then the result rather than the aim of performance
(see, in particular, Praetorius's similar exclamatio, p. 73 above).
Most of the Agricola/Tosi text concerns the performance of specific
ornamental figures, those which are improvised by the performer now
being termed the 'willkuhrliche Veranderungen' (free variations). Evidently
 The development of performance practice 89

the ability to ornament remained an essential element of singing well

into the eighteenth century. Indeed it was still within this realm that the
bulk of what we might call 'singing technique' was learned.

School primers of the mid eighteenth century: Marpurg, Doles, Petri and Kiirzinger

Fortunately, there are several tutors designed specifically for schools

which give a good picture of the extent to which the developments
reflected in Mattheson and Agricola filtered through to the practice of at
least some of the canto rates. Marpurg 1763 makes explicit its debt to
Tosi at several points and shows a 'modern' approach to the education
of the singer and the responsibilities of the teacher. Another manuscript
primer from this period is the Anfangsgrunde zum Singen by Johann
Friedrich Doles, cantor at the Thomasschule, Leipzig from 1756.25 It
is difficult to know exactly when Doles wrote this; a date of origin
before the end of the 1760s has been suggested, since this was the time
E. L. Gerber (the copyist of the surviving manuscript) left Leipzig
(Schneiderheinze 1989, p. 6). However, so exactly do various sections
and indeed specific expressions correspond with Petri's Anleitung zur
practischen Musik of 1767 (chapter 9 of which is entitled 'Die ersten
Anfangsgrunde vor einen Sanger') that it is highly likely that Doles was
influenced by this publication.

General singing rules and lifestyle

Doles and Petri follow the traditional format of the German vocal
primers of the Faber/Listenius tradition remarkably closely, beginning
with the basics of music, the notes, vocal ranges, staves, clefs, intervals
and keys etc. Kiirzinger 1763, writing in Catholic Germany, follows a
similar scheme. Doles's first requirement is a good open and broad chest
that allows the singer to perform long notes both strongly and quietly
(Doles, in Schneiderheinze 1989, p. 40); although German tutors had
traditionally recommended a long breath, control of a variety of
dynamics assumes first place here.
Doles and Marpurg mention various rules of life style and diet, much
on the lines of Printz;26 Doles's comments on good hearing, correct
pronunciation of vowels, the avoidance of singing through the nose or
teeth, of grimaces or shaking, the requirement of a mouth that is not too
widely or narrowly opened, and of a voice suited to one of the four
standard ranges also show him still to be adhering to the long tradition
90 Music education and the art of performance

of vocal rules. Marpurg shows that many schools still maintained the
traditional hour after lunch for their singing lessons:
Since it is bad to sing on a full stomach, it would be good if school singing
lessons were not held from 1 till 2 in the afternoon, but at a more comfortable
hour. The best time for singing practice is in the morning.
Da es nicht gut ist, mit vollgefiilltem Magen zu singen, so ware es gut, daB in
manchen Schulen die Singstunden nicht von 1 bis 2 Nachmittags gehalten,
sondern in eine bequemere Stunde verleget wiirden. Die bequemsten Stunden
zur Uebung im Singen sind die Morgenstunden. (Marpurg 1763, p. 34)

This reflects both changes in the role of music in education and the
developments in musical style. While practical music was less demanding
in the sixteenth century when the most influential Lutheran school
ordinances were written, music was a good, semi-recreational activity to
aid digestion before the afternoon classes. However, since the musical
demands made on the more talented pupils had considerably increased,
more attention was given to the fundamentals of singing and the care
of the voice.
Marpurg, like Doles, repeats much traditional advice, including the
ancient rules that one should sing higher notes softer, the lower ones
louder, and that one should maintain an even dynamic unless dynamics
are otherwise marked (Marpurg 1763, pp. 23-8). The latter rule is
particularly interesting: Marpurg takes a convention which stretches back
to sixteenth-century tutors, and which (although modified by some
seventeenth-century writers advocating a closer attention to the affective
content of the text) could still be applied in the mid eighteenth century
when the necessary dynamic changes were more likely to be included in
the notation. Nevertheless, Marpurg, like Doles and Petri, still advocates
the spontaneous application of dynamic devices such as the messa di voce
to the longer notes (Marpurg 1763, p. 29).

Articulation

While most earlier German writers on vocal style had emphasised the
articulation of passages, as if it was a common fault to slur them,
Agricola - in his specialist treatise - stresses at the outset that basic
singing should be very smooth. Passages were of course still to be
articulated, but this was secondary to the fundamental approach. This
doubtless reflects a change in the musical style itself; a large amount of
the basic substance of high Baroque music comprises passage-work, but
 The development of performance practice 91

music of the mid eighteenth century is essentially more melodic in nature

and intention. While a sustained singing style had always been implied
by the prerequisite of a long breath, here with Agricola the emphasis is
that much stronger:
Here I further give to the singing teacher only the necessary reminder to take
care that the notes of the pupil are properly joined and bound together. This
happens when one lets the previous note sound until the following is expressed,
so that no gaps may be perceived in between
Hier gebe ich dem Sangmeister nur noch die nothige Erinnerung daB er in Acht
habe, damit die Tone, von der Schiiler, gehorig mit einander verbunden und
zusammen gehanget werden mogen. Dieses geschieht wenn man den vorherge-
henden Ton so lange klingen laBt bis der folgende ausspricht; damit nichts
Leeres dazwischen vernommen werde (Agricola 1757, p. 50)

Turning to the school primers, Doles and Petri provide a precise

description of articulation marks in the 'traditional' chapter on the signs
used in music: slurs indicate not only underlay and ties, but also notes
that are to be smoothly bound together; dots or strokes indicate short
notes while dots and slurs together indicate that most galant of styles,
'Tragen der Tone' ('carrying of the notes'), something which is obviously
not technically possible in singing, but which can be understood by
analogy with string playing:

so that one does not completely leave a note when one begins sounding the
second, and so one should draw the sound of the first directly into the second.
da man einen Ton nicht ganz verlassen soil, wenn man den Anschlag des
zweyten anhebt, und also den Anschlag des ersten in den andern gleichsam
hineinziehen soil.
(Doles, in Schneiderheinze 1989, p. 39; Petri 1767, p. 26 (with minor verbal
differences))

Marpurg - following closely on Agricola's advice - implies that the

slurring and shortening of notes is an exception to the generally smooth
(but clearly not fully 'slurred') style of singing, and that (contrary to the
advice of Doles and Petri) these need not be learned until a later stage:
and each following note is joined to the previous one in such a manner that no
hiatus or space comes between the two notes. The shortening and slurring [of
notes] . . . make an exception to this attack, which one does not need to know
in the first singing lessons.
und jeder folgende Ton mit dem vorhergehenden dergestalt verbunden werden,
daB kein Hiatus oder keine Lucke zwischen beiden Tonen entstehe. Das
92 Music education and the art of performance

Abstossen und Schleifen . . . machen wegen dieses Anschlages eine Ausnahme,

die man in den erstern Ubungsstunden nicht zu wissen braucht.
(Marpurg 1763, pp. 22-3)

One factor which is given considerable attention by these authors is the

concept of 'good' and 'bad' notes, something which had been evident in
theoretical and performance writings since at least the late sixteenth
century, but which gained prominence in German literature during the
mid-eighteenth century. Each beat and division of the same should be
divided into its strong and weak components, which are distinguished
through the strengthening and weakening of the voice.27 Marpurg gives a
wider context for the concept: 'good' beats ('Tacttheile') should be
aligned with long syllables and it is on them that dissonances should fall;
they are furthermore the basis for the rhythmic weight of the bar
(Marpurg 1763, pp. 76-7).
Doles follows his description of Tragen der Tone' with the sign for
'Bebung' or tremolo, the pulsating performance of longer notes. The
inclusion of these specifically interpretative points in the notational aspect
of performance reflect the development of a more normative perfor-
mance style, something the pupil should assimilate at an early stage.
Kiirzinger likens the tremolo to the vibrato on the violin, and suggests that
it is a particular component of the cantabile style:

Tremolo . . . the most gentle beating on a single note, which must at the most
be an extremely gentle movement of the breath, so that, like the mere bending
of thefingertipson the violin, without moving from the place, this is exactly how
one succeeds in playing in a true cantabile.

Tremolo . . . die allergelindeste Schwebung auf einem einzigen Ton, dabey eine
gar sanfte Bewegung des Athems das Meiste thun muB, so, wie auf der Violon
die blosse Lenkung der Fingerspitzen, ohne von der Stelle zu weichen, eben dies
ausrichtet wenn man recht Cantabile spielen will. (Kiirzinger 1763, p. 35)

For Kiirzinger the cantabile must rule in all pieces that are not explicitly
staccato in style (Kiirzinger 1763, p. 46).

Registers

Another point which distinguishes these texts from most earlier German
school primers is their requirement that the vocal registers be smoothly
linked, something which had been well documented in Italian literature
(see Foreman 1969, pp. 137-8):
 The development of performance practice 93

and [he must know] how to join the natural or chest-voice with the falsetto or
head-voice in the sustaining of the notes in diatonic order, rising and falling, so
that one cannot perceive where the one begins or the other ends.
und die mit der natiirlichen od. Bruststimme die Falset- od. Kopfstimme im
Tragen der Tone nach diatonischer Ordnung, steigend und fallend, so zu
verbinden weiB, daB man den Unterschied nicht wahr nimmt, wo diese od. jene
anfangt und aufhort. (Doles, in Schneiderheinze 1989, p. 42)
Marpurg gives similar advice, recommending Agricola's commentary on
the uniting of registers. In his opinion this greatly elaborated translation
of Tosi is so important that it should be re-translated into Italian
(Marpurg 1763, pp. 19-20).

Exercises

Most impressive is Doles's insistence on thorough practice of a variety of

vocal exercises, beginning with the diatonic scale, in numerous metrical
and rhythmic formats. The systematic working-through of each interval,
including some exercises with swift ornaments, recalls the long tradition
of Italian diminution exercises which cultivated both agility and a sense
of creativity. As Maipurg states, some of the most difficult intervals are
found in the melodic lines of galant pieces, rather than those in a more
traditional contrapuntal style; this might account for the particular
attention given to learning and practising intervals in the performance
tutors of this period (Marpurg 1763, p. 32).

Pronunciation

Doles gives very precise directions on how the mouth should be set for
the singing of passages:
With these three vowels [a, e, o] he must particularly bear in mind that he
should continually press the tongue downwards, make it somewhat flat, and, as
far as possible, hold it straight and firmly behind the teeth, by which position of
the tongue the nose and throat errors will best be avoided.
Bey diesen 3 Selbstlautern [a, e, o] . . . muB er besonders darauf bedacht seyn,
daB er die Zunge stets unterwarts driicke, etwas glatt mache, und hinter den
Zahnen, so viel moglich, geradc und fest hake, durch welche Lage der Zunge
die Nasen- und Kehlenfehler am besten verhutet werden.
(Schneiderheinze 1989, pp. 61-2)
The attention Doles and Petri (in texts which match each other almost
precisely) give to the pronunciation of vowels, final consonants, diphthongs
94 Music education and the art of performance
and triphthongs shows a precision of detail that is never found in earlier
German literature. Words like 'leide' should first be pronounced 'la-'
with the remainder of the diphthong delayed until just before the
consonant: 'la-eide' (Doles, in Schneiderheinze 1989, pp. 66~7; Petri
1767, p. 60). Marpurg gives particular attention to consonants, which for
him provide the primary articulation of vocal music. Moreover, their
strength must be modified according to the size of the building; large
buildings and open spaces obviously require sharper performance of con-
sonants than small places, where they must be correspondingly gentler
(Marpurg 1763, pp. 38-9). Such detail in pronunciation is undoubtedly a
reflection of the contemporary interest in language as the carrier of
human reason, and particularly of the attention which had been given,
since the time of Gottsched, to the refinement of the German tongue.
Doles introduces hisfinalsection, on ornaments, with a statement which
would not have been out of place in a treatise written a century before:
It is still not enough that the pupil has achieved a skill in all that he has learned
from the beginning up to this point; he must also learn to see, with the
performance of each musical piece, what forms part of the beautification and
ornamentation of song. And this then is done with the musical graces, which in
singing and playing are introduced before, over and after the notes, now slowly,
now fast, now strongly, now weakly, in order to give the song more gleaming
perfection and greater pleasantness.
Noch ist es nicht genug, daB der Schiiler in allem, was er vom Anfang bis
hierher ist gelehret worden, eine Fertigkeit erlangt hat, er muB auch noch beym
Vortrag eines jeden musicalischen Stiicks darauf sehen lernen, was zur
Verschonerung und Auszierung des Gesangs gehort. Und dieses thun alsdann
die musicalischen Manieren, welche im Singen und Spielen, vor, uber, und nach
manchen Noten, bald langsam, bald geschwind, bald stark, bald schwach,
angebracht werden, um dadurch dem Gesang mehrer glanzende Vollkom-
menheit und grb'Bere Annehmlichkeit zu geben.
(Doles, in Schneiderheinze 1989, p. 69)

Of course the ornaments that Marpurg, Doles and Petri specify belong
to the mid eighteenth-century tradition and would hardly be found in a
treatise of the Praetorius type (for a more detailed study of ornamen-
tation, see chapter 5). Nevertheless, both the persistent description of
ornamentation as the final expressive component of singing style and the
survival of many traditional rules on singing technique (also evident in
Kurzinger 1763) point to a remarkable continuity in the German peda-
gogic literature. Certain fundamentals - correct pronunciation, the
avoidance of nasal singing, and the cultivation of a naturally balanced,
 The development of performance practice 95

flexible voice - seem to apply to the performance of three generally

accepted musical epochs: the late Renaissance, Baroque and early Classical
styles. Writers in the mid eighteenth century, just like those at the outset
of the Baroque period, borrow from each other, reflecting - and in turn
creating - several intertwined traditions of performance technique and style.

Choir direction, ensemble and organisation, and the approach to tempo

The mechanics of directing the singers and the manner in which they
were distributed receive only incidental attention in the basic school
primers. However, the remarks that do survive may be indicative of the
various attitudes towards music in performance and how these developed
during the course of the Baroque era. The question of choir direction
partly hinges on considerations of the steadiness of tempo and the
distribution of forces. These in turn relate to the developments in musical
style and the function of music in worship and theological exegesis.
The even division and beating of the tactus is essential to late
Renaissance music, and it is not surprising to discover references to this
in elementary primers from the late sixteenth century. Some writers imply
that the pupil himself learned to beat time as part of his study of singing:
About the tactus . . . it is a steady and measured movement of the hand of the
singer, through which, as a rule directed by the signs, the equality of the voices
and the notes of the song are correctly conveyed and measured. For all voices
must direct themselves according to it so that the song will sound well.
Von dem Tact . . . ist ein stete und messige Bewegung der Hand deB Singers /
durch welche / als ein Richtscheidt nach anweisung der zeichen / der gleichheit
der Stimmen / und Noten deB Gesangs recht geleitet und gemessen wird. Denn
es mussen sich alie Stimmen / so der Gsang sol wol lauten / darnach richten.
(Holtheuser 1586, ch. 9)

However, while Schneegass (1591) asserts that the measure must be

even, he does allow for a modification of an even tempo if warranted by
the text; Quitschreiber takes up the same statement (see Bartels 1989, p.
181). Burmeister (1601) disapproves of too great a variation of tempo,
and he considers it a fault when the choir director gesticulates like an
athlete. Nevertheless he does permit a measured variation of tempo on
account of the character of the piece and the affective content (see
Ruhnke 1955, p. 89).
While much of this information is relatively unambiguous, implying a
fairly uniform metre, as directed by the notation, Burmeister reveals
something of the more complex situation which prevailed at the turn of
96 Music education and the art of performance

the seventeenth century. As a major prescriptive theorist who was well

aware of the anomalies in the practice of his age, he was anxious to
simplify and modernise the mensural system, divorcing the notated time
signature from any finite concept of tempo and thus making the role of
the director that much more important (Ruhnke 1955, pp. 78-84).
Nevertheless, many contemporary writings still imply a metrical
differentiation of tempo, at least between C and 0.
Much of course depended on the style of the music to be performed,
and the new styles proliferating at the outset of the new century
provoked the most confusion. While Praetorius notes some difference
between C and (^ - in that C is appropriate for madrigals and § for
motets (since the former contain smaller, and thus faster note values) -
he observes that a wide variety of practice prevailed:
But each can consider the matter for himself, and, from consideration of the text
and harmony, observe where a slower or a faster beat should be maintained.
For it is at once certain and most necessary that in concertos for the chorus an
extremely slow, solemn beat must be maintained. Because in such concertos now
madrigalian, now motet style are found mingled together and exchanged, one
must also act according to this when beating; about which there is an extremely
necessary invention, where the words of the Italians adagio, presto . . . are
indicated in the parts from time to time; for otherwise with the two signs C and
<|5, so often confused, there is and arises more confusion and hindrance.
And if I look at the Italian compositions of the present time, which in so few
years have become directed in a different, singular new style, I find very great
discrepancies and varieties in the use of equal and unequal tactus signs.

Es kan aber ein jeder den Sachen selbsten nachdencken / und ex consideratione
Textus & Harmoniae observing wo ein langsamer oder geschwinder Tact gehalten
werden miisse.
Dann das ist einmal gewis und hochnotig / das in Concerten per Chows ein gar
langsamer gravitetischer Tact miisse gehalten werden. Weil aber in solchen
Concerten bald Madrigalische / bald Motetten Art unter einander vermenget und
umgewechselt befunden wird / mus man sich auch im Tactiren darnach richten:
Darumb dann gar ein notig inventum, das biBweilen . . . die Vocabula von den
Walschen adagio, presto . . . in den Stimmen darbey notiret und unterzeichnet
werden / denn es sonsten mit den beyden Signis C und § so offtmals umbzu-
wechseln / mehr Confusiones und verhinderungen geben und erregen mochte.
Und wenn ich jetziger zeit der Italorum Compositions, so in gar wenig
Jahren gantz ufF eine andere sonderbahre newe Art gerichtet worden / ansehe /
so befinde ich in praefixione Signorum Tactus aequalis & Inaequalis sehr grosse
discrepantias u n d Varieteten. (Praetorius 1619, p. 51)
 The development of performance practice 97

Praetorius later makes his taste for the new style particularly clear,
showing that variety of tempo and dynamic is essential to the idiom, just
as he also stipulated that the singer, as a good orator, must be able to
apply a variety of figures (see p. 48 above):
For the motet and concerto [styles] are given a special loveliness and pleasant-
ness and this is brought about, if at the beginning numerous extremely pathetic
and slow tempi are set, after which several fast clausulae follow: now again slow
and grave, now again with faster exchanges mixed in, so that it does not
continue all the time in a single pitch and sound but with different kinds of
variations, with a slow and [then with a] fast beat: and also with the most
concentrated attention to singing with the voice raised and then again with an
extremely quiet sound
Sintemahl es den Motecten und Concerten eine besondere lieblich: unnd anmiitigkeit
gibt unnd conciliiret, wenn im anfang etliche viel Tempora gar pathetisch und
langsamb gesetzet seyn / hernach etliche geschwinde Clausulen daruff folgen:
Bald widerumb langsam und gravitetisch / bald abermahl geschwindere
umbwechselung mit einmischen / damit es nicht allezeit in einem Tono und Sono
fortgehe / sondern solch und dergleichen verenderungen mit eim langsamen
und geschwinde Tact So wol auch mit erhebung der Stimmen / unnd dann
biBweilen mit gar stillem Laut mit allemfleiBin acht genommen werde
(Praetorius 1619, p. 80)
Praetorius even suggests that a slower tempo can be associated with a
softer dynamic, showing that more than one parameter of performance
may relate to the same affect.28
The implications of Praetorius's general views on tempo are also evident
in a text of the more traditional school-primer format, one which enjoyed
wide transmission during the seventeenth century: Friderici's Die Musica
Jiguralis (1618/1624). Both Friderici's proscriptions and recommendations
imply a variety of practice. His example (Plate 2) shows just how varied
the beat could be:
The beat should not be heard throughout in singing, but only seen, or, where it
is possible, only observed and noted. (Whereas the cantors leave themselves wide
open, and reveal their great folly markedly, and that they still do not know
about any well-formed music, when they strike the choir-stick so that it breaks
into pieces; and believe they are beating time correctly when they can only bang
away in a masculine fashion, just as if they had to thresh oat-straw.)
But where the beat must be made it should not be beaten by just two or
three boys alone but by the entire chorus. (Whereas those cantors who have only
one or two boys standing in front of them and motion the beat to them and
allow the other performers to drag behind them, just as the herdsman with his
dogs, are in error.)
98 Music education and the art of performance
In singing a single beat should not be perceived throughout, but the beat
should be directed towards the words of the text. (Whereas those cantors who
measure out the beat so strictly in a line as the clock its minutes, and observe
absolutely no decorum and accommodation towards the text and harmony, are
in error. For now a faster, now a slower beat is demanded.)
Im singen sol der Tact durchauB nicht gehoret / sondern allein gesehen / oder
wo es miiglich / nur observiret unnd gemercket werden. (Geben demnach die
Cantores sich zimlich bloB, und ihre grosse Thorheit mercklich zuerkennen / und
daB sie noch von keiner rechtschaffene Musica wissen / welche mit de
Chorstocke also zuschlagen / daB die Stiicke davon fliegen; Und meinen es sey
recht tactiret, wen sie nur manlich niederschlagen konen / gleich alls wen sie
Haberstroh dreschen miisten.)
Wo aber tactiret werden muB / sol nicht nur zweyen oder dreyen Knaben
allein / sondern dem gantzen Choro tactiret werden. (Irren demnach die Cantores,
welche nur einen oder zween Knaben vor sich stehend haben / und denen den
tact vorschlagen / und lassen die andern Concentores, gleich als der Hirte seine
Hunde, hinter sich herziehen.)
Im singen sol durchauB nicht einerley tact gespiiret werden: Sond'n nach dem
die worte des Textus seyn / also muB auch der tact gerichtet seyn. (Irre demnach
die Cantores, welche den tact so schnurgleich abmessen / alB dz Uhrwerck seine
minuten; un observiren gantz kein decorum und convenient^ des Textus und der
Haarmoney. Denn bald ein geschwinder, bald ein langsamer tactus erfordert wird.)
(Friderici 1618/1624, rules 17—19)
Plate 2 Friderici 1618/1624: example of variable tempo, according to the affect of
the text

This statement reflects the older writings of Schneegass and

Quitschreiber and parallels Praetorius's comments, with its reference to
the parameters of text and harmony. However, it does show that many
 The development of performance practice 99

cantors still adhered to the strict beating of the tactus and indeed did
not confine this activity to visual gestures. Friderici, like Praetorius and
most other German writers dealing with matters of tempo (see Bartels
1989, p. 179), advocates a very steady {groundJ tempo:
In singing one should not over-hurry, but sing moderately, slowly, without any
fear and timidity. (While those who thus hurry in singing, as if they were
hunting a hare are wrong, and, if they come across a few quavers and
semiquavers and gloss over them out of fear and haste, so that they do not get
half of what is correctly to be seen, even less do they sing correctly. Those who,
when they hear that the song is going somewhat weakly, immediately drop their
voices out of fear, are also mistaken, and often cause a distemper and confusion
in the song, which they surely could have avoided.)

Im Singen sol man sich nicht iibereylen / sondern messig / langsam / und ohne
alle Furcht und Zagheit singen. (Irren derwegen die / welche im Singen also
eylen / als wenn sie einen Hasen erjagen solten / und wefi sie bey etliche Fusen
und Semifusen kommen, auB Furcht unnd Eyle iiberhin wischen / daB sie nicht
die Helffte davon recht zu sehen bekommen / vielweniger recht singen. Auch
irren die / welche wann sie horen / daB der Gesang etwan bloB gehet / alsobald
ihre Stimme auB Furcht fallen lassen / und mache offt eine Verstimmelung und
Confusion, des Gesanges, da sie es wol hetten sicher konnen vorbey gehen.
(Friderici 1618/1624, rule 9)

Schiitz, in the preface to his Historia Der . . . Aufferstehung unsers einigen

Erldsers (1623), similarly prescribes a well-measured, slow beat for chorus
sections, something in which 'the soul and life of all music consists'. 29
Praetorius outlines some further duties of the director, practical ones
which he drew from Viadana and which were evidently necessitated by
the new concerted style. Here we can see the growth in the role of the
conductor in the modern sense:
And L. Viadana will have it that the Kapellmeister or choir director stands by
this soloists' choir, or the concerted voices, and has the general bass or continuo
part continually to hand, or that which the organist has before him, and must
industriously pay attention and observe how the music proceeds; and will signal
when one voice alone, when two, when three, when four or more should begin
to sing; which thus must always be signified in the general bass part. But when
the ripieni and chorus plenus (that is, the full-voiced choir) enter, he should turn
his face to all the choirs and lift his hands up high, to show that all should enter
together and proceed to make music.
U n d wil der L. Viadana haben / daB bey diesem Choro Vocali recitativo, oder Concertat-
Stimen der Gapelmeister oder Chori Director stehen / und stetigs den Bassum
generalem seu continuum vor sich in der Hand haben / oder aber den / welchen der
Organist vor sich hat / mit fleiB in acht nemen / un observiren miisse / wie die
100 Music education and the art of performance

Music nacheinander fortgehe ; und anzeigen / wen eine Stim alleine / wenn zwo /
wenn drey / wenn viere oder deren mehr / zu singen anfahen sollen; welches
dann in dem Basso Generali allzeit darbey mus gezeichnet werden. Wenn aber die
Ripieni und Plenus Chorus der vollstimmige Chor, angehet / so sol er sich mit dem
Angesicht zu alien Choren wenden / unnd beyde Hande in die hohe erheben /
zur anzeigung / daB sie alle zugleich miteinander einfallen und fort Musiciren sollen.
(Praetorius 1619, p. 126)

Friderici draws two other points on tempo from earlier German writings.
The advice that the penultimate note should be held and that the bass
should hold the final note slightly longer than the other voices is easily
traced back to Schneegass 1591 and Quitschreiber 1607 (Bartels 1989, p.
41-2). 30 Here then are two rules of musical style which are not directly
dependent on the text but show a concern and awareness of the sense of
a musical cadence. While the convention of extending the penultimate
chord accords with the modern sense of a ritardando at a cadence, 31 the
rule that the bass should hold seems unusual today. It may indicate the
importance that Friderici and his contemporaries afforded the bass as the
foundation of the harmony, the guiding musical line from which all the
other voices ultimately derive. As Printz 1678 adds, the bass should
sustain the final note, since the last syzygia is always perfect and good
(Printz 1678, pp. 22-3).
In the latter half of the century, it seems that the general advice of
Praetorius and Friderici was still valid. With Quirsfeld 1675 there is a
closer attention to the manner in which the beat is signalled, something
which develops the traditional up-down tactus (which was used in both
duple and triple metres). The quadruple metre is signified by a beating
pattern which traces the four sides of a square or diamond and the triple
metre follows a triangular pattern (Quirsfeld 1675, ch. 2). Printz - like
many writers from a century before - recommends that the singer learn
to beat time so that he can internalise the idea of metrical rhythm:

But because the singer must often have his eyes more on his part than on the
director, it is advisable that each and every singer first learns from youth
onwards to beat a correct measure himself, not so that he conducts along with
the conductor, but so that he can memorise the given beat more easily once it
has been seen
Weil aber ein Sanger die Augen mehr auf seiner Stimme / als den Directorem
haben muB / so ist rathsam / daB erstlich ein jeder Sanger selbst einen richtigen
Tact bald von Jugend auf schlagen lerne / nicht / daB er zugleich mit dem
Directore tactire / sondern / daB er den einmal gesehenen Tact desto leichter im
GedachtniB behalten konne (Printz 1678, p. 38)
 The development of performance practice 101

While Quirsfeld observes that there is still often a difference between C

and (^, the former indicating a very slow tempo ('gar langsam'), Mylius
1685 notes that the difficulty of pieces has increased so much that the
half circle is indiscriminately used and that successful performance
consists mostly in the discretion of an understanding director, when he performs
pieces by other authors; how he will correctly understand their opinion with
good judgement and industrious reflection
bestehet meist in eines verstandigen Directoiis Discretion wenn er fremder Autoren
Sachen machet / wie er dessen Meinung mit einem guten judicio und fleiBigem
Nachsinnen recht vorstehen will (Mylius 1685)

The role of director seems also to be more strongly emphasised in Printz

1678; the singer should always watch the director:

which he should primarily do when he notices that the director, on account of

an elegant figure, such as is made by an artistic musician, which lengthens the
time of a beat, or on account of an affect or another reason, directs the measure
faster or slower.
welches er furnehmlich Thun sol / wenn er mercket / daB der Director / wegen
einer zierlichen Figur so etwan von einem klinstlichen Musico gemacht wird / die
Zeit des Tacts verlangert / oder eines Affectcn oder anderer Ursach halber die
Mensur geschwinder oder langsamer fiihrt. (Printz 1678, pp. 37-8)

One significant divergence with Praetorius's advice here is the absence of

a direct reference to the text (although the concept of affect was pre-
sumably dependent on the implications of the words). The improvisation
of ornamental figures is given as the primary reason for the rhythmic
freedom. This could point to a growing independence of musical perfor-
mance style from its role of relaying precisely the sense and affect of the
text. It is not surprising that in 1690 Ahle (- an important poet laureate
influenced by the Pietist movement, who condemned excessive ornamen-
tation and diminution -) stresses the importance of the text in influencing
a fluid approach to metre. But he also shows the influence of the
Cartesian outlook on the movement of human affects: just as the beating
of the heart is affected by all sorts of passions:

so, according to the disposition of the text and the emotions to be expressed,
now a slower, now a faster, now a more even, now an uneven beat is used.
also wird auch nach beschaffenheit des Textes und der auszudriikkenden
Gemuhtsbewegung bald ein langsamer / bald ein geschwinder / bald eine
gleicher und bald ein ungleicher Takt gebrauchet. (Ahle 1690, p. 34)
102 Music education and the art of performance

The growing focus on the conductor is also evident in a very similar

stipulation by Speer (Speer 1697, p. 30) and in Hoffmann's advice that
the pupil should observe the director's beat and not himself beat time
with the hand or foot.32 To Feyertag the director is indispensable since
all things need direction and authority to avoid chaos; he considers
the director to be God's regent, someone who understands all the com-
ponents of music including thoroughbass and composition (Feyertag
1695, pp. 111-12).
Tutors of the mid eighteenth century add little to our knowledge of
conducting practice; however, they do suggest that the practice could still
be quite conservative. While Marpurg introduces conducting patterns for
each metre, similar to those specified by Quirsfeld (Marpurg 1763, pp.
79-81), Anton 1743 and Doles show that the old down-up method of
beating was still applied to all metres, and that the director might even
use his foot.33 With Petri there is even the impression that the director is
dispensable and quite often a nuisance. The conductor is most necessary
when the singers are unpractised and the instrumentalists poor; otherwise
the first violinist should lead, paying particular attention to the point at
which the singers enter, where the instrumentalists should play piano
(Petri 1767, p. 45). The director should avoid all grimaces:
For formerly one took more trouble to see him than nowadays, when one wishes
that he were no longer necessary, or that he might beat only the first three bars
or so of a piece. Or sometimes in emergencies a couple of bars, to bring an
erring voice back to the measure.
Denn, vor diesen gab man sich mehr Muhe, ihn zu sehen, als heut zu Tage, da
man wiinschet, daB nirgends mehr einer nothwendig ware, oder daB er nur etwa
die drey ersten Takte eines Stiicks ausschlagen mochte, und etwa. Sonst einmal
in einem Nothfalle ein paar Takte einer fehlenden Stimme durch den Takt zu
rechte wiese. (Petri 1767, p. 48)
Petri also forbids noisy beating since unexpected noise puts off all musicians
(Ibid., p. 48). Evidently, then, the audible beat was still practised in parts
of Germany at this time.

In all, it seems likely that a variety of directing practices pertained during

the German Baroque. While there is an increase in the number of
references to the role of the conductor towards the end of the
seventeenth century, it is evident that the strict down-up beat was still
common. Clearly the type of music to be performed must have been a
large factor: many smaller establishments sang only pieces in the
traditional motet style which required the even beating of the metre
 The development of performance practice 103
(together with such refinements as the holding of the penultimate chord
and allowing the basses to sustain the last note beyond the other voices).
But the flexible tempo demanded by the concerted style obviously war-
ranted more focussed direction. There were more differences between
each piece, between each composer and conductor and a concomitant
centralisation of musical authority.
With the practice of the mid eighteenth century, it is interesting to
note that the traditional 'neutral' style of beating seems to have come
more to the fore. The 'absolute monarchy' of the director seems to have
been eroded somewhat, and the performers presumably took more of a
role in dictating tempo and its fluctuation. Musical style might also
account for this; in the galant idiom the music is essentially melodic,
simply textured and evenly paced. Furthermore musical notation was far
more precise, composers tending to note every nuance of dynamic,
tempo and articulation. As Petri recommends with respect to trumpeters
who often play too loudly, the player does best when he asks the director
to prescribe the appropriate dynamic for every note in his part.34

SETTING THE PITCH

Another duty for which the choir director was responsible was the setting
of the correct pitch for the singers. Ruhnke has written a comprehensive
survey of the prescriptions of three important writers at the outset of the
seventeenth century, Burmeister, Calvisius and Quitschreiber (Ruhnke
1955, pp. 90-4). Burmeister (1601), writing, as ever, with classical
rhetoric in mind, prescribes the middle way, a pitch which is neither too
high nor too low for the singers. The organist also had much of the
responsibility for transposing pieces to the most suitable pitch, using all
the keys available to him and writing out transposed parts whenever
necessary; the cantor should be aware of the pitch of the organ and
transpose downwards if it is set too high. He may use a pipe or flute or
can even use the experience of his own vocal range to work out a
relative pitch suitable for the choir.
Quitschreiber also specifies how the cantor - having chosen a suitable
basic pitch - should softly give to each part its first note, or teach each
how to work out his notes from the discant or bass note. Alternatively one
can sing a few notes of the discant part in advance so that the mode of
the song can be recognised. A key ('SchlusseP - presumably a sort of tun-
ing fork) may also be used to establish a reference pitch (Quitschreiber
1607, 'einfeltiger Bericht / vom anstimmen der Gesenge').35
104 Music education and the art of performance

Both Friderici's advice and his proscription of unsuitable practices

point to a wide variety of ways in which the pitch could be established:
In setting the pitch one [person] and no more should be heard. (Whereas it is
wrong when as many strike up as want to sing, or when the boys are allowed to
tune up together with the cantor and arouse an untimely, unworthy and
impolite reciting so that the whole song to come loses its charm.)
The cantor himself should also take pains that he does not tune up all the
voices individually; but, where possible, only take the principal pitch, and he
should accustom his boys and fellow singers to direct themselves from that. (For
it is a great impoliteness to take away the charm from a good song with much
tuning-up, just as with a set of bagpipes.)
Im Anstimmen sol einer, unnd keiner mehr gehoret werden. (Wird derowegen
geirret, da ihrer so viel anstimmen, als ihrer singen wollen, Oder wo den
Knaben gestattet wird, daft Sie allzusammen mit dem Gantore intoniren, Und
ein unzeitiges, unlobliches und unhoflliches geplarr erwecken, Dadurch dem
gantzen zukiinfftigen Gesange seine Liebligkeit genommen wird.)
Auch sol der Cantor selbst sich befleissigen, daB Er nicht alle Stimmen
insonderheit anstimme: Sondern wo muglich, nur den Principalem Clavem nenne,
und seine Knaben unnd Concentores gewehne, sich darnach zu richten. (Dan es ist
eine grosse Unhoffligkeit, ein guten Gesang die Liebligkeit, mit vielem
anstimmen, gleichsam als mit einer Sackpfeiffen vorher benehmen.)
(Friderici 1618/1624, rules 5-6)

Quitschreiber 1607 recommends the downward transposition of a fourth

when the organ is too high, the upward transposition of a fifth when
the plucked stringed instruments are too low. Quitschreiber's general
prescription of possible transpositions u p or down a fourth or a fifth
comes directly from the pitch relationships of the three hexachords, on
C, F a n d G:

So if the song in G with a Bt (which with the musicians is called the first tone) is
on account of an organ thus too high, I set it a fourth lower from G into D . . .
But if however a song is too low on account of a lute, harp, instrument etc,
I transpose it, as it suits, a fourth higher out of the hard C hexachord into the
previous flat, soft hexachord, or even out of the newly invented hard hexachord
on D with a B[lj], a fifth or Quint higher into the hard hexachord on A . . .
Such a hard hexachord is to be counted a second higher than the first Bt, soft
hexachord.

Als wenn der Gesang aus dem g b-mol (Welcher bey den Musicis der erste Thon
genennet wird) wegen einer Orgel also zu hoch . . . so setze ich in eine Quart
tieffer aus dem g in das d . . . Ist aber eine Gesang wegen einer Lauten /
Harffen / Instrument &c. also zu tieff / so setze ichs nach gefallen / wie das
Erste / eine Quart hoher aus dem t|-dur in voriges b-mol Gesang / oder auch
 The development of performance practice 105

wol aus jetzgedachtem d l)-dur Gesang eine Quint oder Fiinffte hoher in das a l|-
dur Weise . . . Solchcr t|-dur Gesang ist nach dem ersten b-mol Gesang zu
rechnen eine Secunda hoher. (Quitschreiber 1607, ch. 10)

Praetorius too points to a practice of transposing certain pieces - down a

fourth if there is a Bt key signature, down a fifth into the soft hexachord
with a B|> if there is none in the signature. This should happen when the
bass is notated in the high C3, G4 or F3 clefs. Clearly organists were
used to a great amount of transposition, and Praetorius oudines ways of
avoiding awkwardly tuned thirds which often arise with transposition;
another solution, which he had learned from Calvisius, was to tune one
or two 8-foot flute stops on the organ down a tone or semitone
(Praetorius 1619, pp. 80-1). Praetorius also recommends transposition
down a tone for pieces which have a wide range and cannot thus be
taken down a fourth or fifth.36 He later outlines the duties of the organist
who must play a prelude to the concerto in such a way that the players
can tune their instruments; the notes for open strings must be promi-
nently held (Praetorius 1619, p. 151).
Erhardi 1660 and Gradenthaller 1687 show that the transposition by
a fifth or fourth was still an option in the latter half of the century. 37
Although the song may also be transposed by a second or third or
indeed by any interval, Erhardi notes that transposition should only be
made when necessary.38 Erhardi does not specify why this should be the
case. Most probably, with the increasing use of transposed modes,
musicians - and organists in particular - were developing a concept of
differentiated keys which, although clearly not tied to an absolute pitch
standard, must have been influenced by questions of temperament.
Nevertheless, Printz, writing a few years later, still allows for trans-
position of pieces which do not employ instruments; his prescription that
the pitch should be chosen to suit the range of the singers recalls the
advice of writers from the beginning of the century (Printz 1678, p. 7).
He and Mylius both show that the convention of using an organ prelude
to set the pitch still pertained in the late seventeenth century (Printz
1678, p. 21, Mylius 1685). Indeed, if Petri is to be believed, this tradition
survived into the mid eighteenth century: string players should use their
bows and not pluck when tuning up; organists should not play for too
long and should not insert quiet passages which suddenly reveal the
trumpets testing their tuning (Petri 1767, p. 47).
106 Music education and the art of performance

THE SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION OF VOCAL FORCES

Questions of balance and the number of singers to a part often relate to
the changing styles and functions of church music. Schneegass 1591 and
Quitschreiber 1598 both stress that points of imitation need to be clearly
sung in fugal writing (Bartels 1989, p. 146). Schneegass 1591 and
C. Praetorius 1574 also specify that the choral sound be homogeneous
and harmonious (ibid., pp. 49-50). Evenness of dynamic and balance is
the emphasis of Calvisius's third rule of vocal performance.39
Calvisius does not specify how many singers should sing to a part, but
he does suggest that the pupils sometimes sing together in unison:
If one line is sung, they should begin together and end at the same time and
never take breaths together other than in the rests.
Qui vnam vocem canunt, simul & concorditer incipiant & desinant, nequaquam
tamen simul, nisi in pausa respirent. (Calvisius 1602, rule 8)

Quitschreiber 1598 calls for an emphasis on the outer parts, bass and
discant (Bartels 1989, p. 49), something which might reflect a new
conception of the texture of music, symptomatic of the Baroque idiom
per se. Praetorius stresses the importance of the bass as the fundament of
all the voices:
And finally since the bass is thus the fundament of all voices, it must be heard at
all places and distances, far more and truly than the other voices, particularly
when the choirs are diversely placed far from each other in the church.

Und dieweil endlich der BaB / also / das Fundament aller Stimmen / an alien
orthen unnd enden / bevorab / wenn die Chor in der Kirchen weit vor
einander unterschiedlich angestellet / viel mehr und eigendlicher / als die
andere Stimmen gehoret werden muB. (Praetorius 1619, p. 92)

Even in polychoral music, Praetorius - as a composer - clearly desires

the actual bass line to be doubled in certain places:
Therefore it is much better, and the song will have more harmony, if, when the
choirs come together or go along with each other, all the basses are then written
in unison; since they are to such a degree the voices that keep together, nourish
and augment the harmony
Derowegen viel besser / und wird der Gesang vielmehr Harmoniae haben / daB /
wenn die Chori zusammen kommen / oder mit einander fortgehen / alsdann die
Basse alle in Vnisonum gesetzt werden: Sintemaln sie dergestalt solche Stimmen
seyn / welche die Harmoniam gleichsam erhalten / ernehren und vermehren
(Praetorius 1619, p. 94)
 The development of performance practice 107

Friderici likewise alludes to the fundamental role of the bass when he

gives a helpful diagram of how the singers are best positioned:
Also, not only the choirs - when there are diverse choirs - but also the equi-
valent voices of each choir should be placed and disposed with the fundamental
voices standing a little further from each other, so that the resonance can come
better to the listeners. Thus, in a song of eight voices:
Chori Pritni Chori Secundi
Cantus Cantus
Altus Altus
Tenor Tenor
Bassus Bassus

Auch sollen nicht alleine die Chori, wann unterschiedene Chori seynd, Sondern
auch die gleichen Stimmen beyderseits Ghoren jegen einander gefiiget und
gestellet seyn, Doch also, da8 die Fundament Stimmen ein wenig weiter von
einander stehen, und die Resonantz besser zu den Zuhorern kommen konne. Als:
in Cantionibus 8. Voc.™ (Friderici 1618/1624, rule 12)
Michael, in the preface to his Musicalische Seelenlust II, 1637, likewise
places the solo bass in a special place, at some distance from the continuo. 41
Friderici's diagram is one of many indications of an imaginative and
adaptable approach to the positioning of vocal forces during the early
seventeenth century. For instance, Praetorius also provides countless
suggestions in his treatise of 1619 and Schiitz includes some interesting
advice in the published prefaces to his music. Not only does he suggest
that discrete choirs can be placed some distance from one another (e.g.
Historia Der . . . Aufferstehung unsers einigen Erlosers, 1623; Musicalische
Exeqideriy 1636), but he also advocates blending the choral sound by placing
the capella of one choir with the favoriti of another (Psalmen Davids, 1619).42
The practice of vocal scoring - how many people sang each notated
part - is a much more complex issue, although certain conventions
emerge which might pertain for much of the Baroque period. It is not
clear from Friderici's diagram whether more than one singer is to be
singing each part. Nevertheless, in another context, he implies that more
than one singer could sing a part in church music since he excludes this
practice from 'private' (presumably chamber) music. The excepting of
the bass and discant is again to be noted:
In chamber music it is not seemly that two should sing a part when the others
are one to a part. (It can happen though in the bass or in the discant, with their
appropriate instruments, and with a particularly pertinent disposition.)
108 Music education and the art of performance

In einer Privat Musica gebuhret sichs nicht, daB ihrer zwene eine Stimme singen,
wann die andern einfeltig besetzet. (Es mochte denn in dem Basso, oder in den
Discanten mit seinen fiiglichen Instrumenten, und mit sonderlicher fuglicher
Disposition geschehen.) (Friderici 1618/1624, rule 13)

While Friderici*s examples and diagram imply that he is most concerned

with a fairly traditional motet repertory, it is clear that Praetorius is
attempting to describe the practice in 'modern' concerted music. The
complexity and confusion of his instructions and terminology is testimony
both to a wide variety of practices and to the fact that many of these
issues were still too new to be securely categorised. 43 For example, capella
can refer to a vocal choir that is added to the other performers when
they all come together.44 This group can contain four or more singers,
or may even be omitted. The term is also applied to a choir in which
all four voices are vocal (as opposed, for instance, to a choir of cornets
or violins) and is therefore indispensable; thirdly, it may apply to an
optional instrumental group, placed somewhat apart in the church
(Praetorius 1619, pp. 133-5; for a more detailed discussion see Bartels
1989, pp. 22-4).
Praetorius also describes the two basictypesof singers, the voces concertatae
and the ripieno. The former are clearly the most expert singers who are
expected to understand all the modern manners and who presumably
sing one voice to a part:
I use the term concerted or rather concerting voices, for those who respond
among each other, and concert and dispute as to who among them can do it
best. Therefore one should select, dispose and order the best singers for such
parts, those who not only are perfect and sure of themselves, but also have a
good disposition to sing in the current new manner and fashion, so that the
words are correctly and clearly pronounced and intelligibly recited just like an
oration; because of this the Italians sometimes also call it the recitative chorus.
Ich nenne es Voces Concertatas, vel potius Concertantes; die gleichsam einander
Respondireriy und untereinander Concertiren und streitten / wer es unter ihnen zum
besten machen konne. Darumb man denn zu solchen Stimmen die besten
Cantores und Sanger aufilesen / bestellcn und ordnen mus / die nicht allein perfect
und gewifi seyn / sondern auch auffjtzige newe Manier und Weise ein gute
disposition zu singen haben / also das die Worter recht und deutlich pronunciret,
und gleich als eine Oration vernehmlich daher recitiret werden; derer ursachen es
die Itali auch biBweilen Chorum recitativum nennen. (Praetorius 1619, p. 126)

T h e solo performance of the vocal lines of concerted pieces is m a d e

explicit in Praetorius's recommendation for schools which have no
instrumentalists: 45
 The development of performance practice 109
So in schools one can also - when no instrument is available - place several
pupils on a part or line; and then, where voce is written, only one, who has the best
voice, must sing; but where instrument, another who also has a fine voice [should
sing]; and then where omnes is written, there they should all join in together.
So kan man auch in Schulen / wenn kein Instrument vorhanden / etliche Schuler
bey einen Partem, oder bey einer Stimme stellen; und alBdann mus / wo / Voce,
stehet / nur einer / der die beste Stimme hat / allein singen; wo aber /
Instrument, ein ander der auch ein feine Stimme; und dann / wo / Omnes,
daselbst fallen sie alle zugleich miteinander ein. (Praetorius 1619, p. 192)
Indeed Praetorius recalls Viadana's experience of the shortage of singers
in certain establishments; with only two or three singers, pieces in the
traditional motet style were hardly successful. This thus necessitated the
very invention of the new style as one fundamentally for soloists.46
With regard to theripieno,Praetorius first gives a literal definition; the
word implies that the full complement of musicians should join in. He
then shows that this is achieved by adding doubling parts to the existing
texture at important junctures:
So, when a large company of musicians is available, one can also have such
ripieno parts copied out two or three times, and have them distributed and
divided into different choirs placed far apart from one another; which I have
then usually called chorus pro capella . . . And so the ripieni are nothing other than
certain clausulae or small pieces out of a concerto, which are sung and sounded
in the other choirs. Therefore RIPIENO actually means not the full chorus, but
special reiterated full sections, the clausulae, which are taken from the principal
voices of a concerto, and set out for other diversely separated choirs, in order to
make a complete and full-voiced concerto.
So kan man auch / do eine grosse Compagny von Musicis vorhanden / solche
Ripieni zwey: oder dreymahl abschreiben lassen / und in unterschiedene weit von
einander abgesonderte Chor distribuiren un abtheilen: welches ich dan meistentheils
Chorum pro Capella genennet habe . . . Un sind also die Ripieni nichts anders / als
gewisse Clausulae oder parriculae aus eine concert, welche in de andern Chore gesunge
un geklunge wird. Heist derowege RIPIENO eigentlich nicht chorus plenus, besondern
Reiteratae plenitudines, die clausulae, welche aus den Haupt-Stimmen des Concerts
genommen / und in andern unterschiedenen abgesonderten Choren auffgesetzet
werden / einen volligen und vollstimmige Concert zumachen.
(Praetorius 1619, p. 131)
Gengenbach 1626 takes over much of Praetorius's Italianate terminology,
noting the three meanings of capella and terming the concertising solo
voices the chow favorito, the singers who gain much favour and praise
(Gengenbach 1626, p. 145).47 Erhardi likewise describes the favorito as a
choir of the best singers (in one to three parts), after which the entrance
110 Music education and the art of performance

of the capella works to the greater sounding and splendour of the music
(Erhardi 1660, p. 125). Heinrich Schiitz refers explicitly to the format of
the vocal choirs in the preface to his Musicalische Exequien of 1636: the
director may recopy the chorale sections from the published parts so that
they can be doubled by the ripienists; 48 similarly in the preface to
Symphoniae Sacrae III of 1650, Schiitz remarks that the four parts of the
complemente can be copied so that an alternative instrumental choir can be
formed.49 It would be a unique occurrence in music publishing today if
an author recommended that copies be made of his own edition! That
the choro favorito should comprise only four singers is suggested in the
preface to Schiitz's Psalmen Davids 1619, where the composer notes that
in certain pieces the second choir can act as a capella (which should be
strongly furnished), whereas the first choir (as the choro favorito), should
contain only four singers.50
In all, then, the new German church concerto, influenced as it was by
Italian monody and recitative, was essentially music for skilled soloists,
doubling singers being an optional addition to the sections with fuller
textures. It is thus not surprising that there were increasing problems
regarding the place of music within the educational system of German
schools. The cantorates had been established to foster general and com-
petent singing in the schools, but the cantors were performing increasingly
specialised music which utilised only the most talented musicians in the
school. However, given that the cantorates often had to furnish music
for more than one church, good solo singers were often in high demand.
As Friccius observed, singers often performed on a rota system, coming
together only on special occasions:

For although such singers have not all been together at one time, but have
performed their office in alternation, there is no doubt however that on high
feasts, where not all, but the majority, have come together, the most lovely
music-making has taken place.

Denn ob wol solche Cantores nicht alle aufF ein mal beysammen gewesen seyn /
sondern wechselsweise ihr Ampt verrichtet haben / so ist doch kein ZweifFel /
daB an hohen Festen / wo nicht alle / doch die meisten zusammen komen seyn /
und auffs lieblichste Musicirt haben werden (Friccius 1631, p. 297)

Several other forms of evidence suggest that the vocal choirs were often
quite small. Thomas Selle, in a letter to the Hamburg town council,
suggests that a normal Sunday required two each of basses, tenors and
altos, and four discantists (Kriiger 1933, p. 68). However, many of his
writings suggest that he would have preferred a far larger pool of
 The development of performance practice 111

performers and doubling ripienists (Kriiger 1956). Snyder's study of

Buxtehude's performances shows that most of his four-voice church music
was performed with single singers (Snyder 1987, pp. 360-6). Furthermore,
Erhardi was obviously contemplating small forces when he suggested that
if the alto singer is missing the part may be sung by a discantist, falsettist or
eunuch in the higher octave (Erhardi 1660, p. 103; see p. 203 below, n. 8).
Printz gives perhaps the clearest indication of vocal scoring practices
for the latter part of the seventeenth century. His instructions for the
prefects who direct the street and house singing (these groups often being
termed the chorus symphoniacus - see p. 4 above) show that there were
often several pupils singing from one part:
The most practised singer of each voice should carry the part himself and very
promptly look up the piece which the prefect indicates
Der geiibteste Sanger von jeder Stimme sol seine Parlem selbst tragen / und das
Stiick / welches der Praefectus andeutet / fein zeitlich aufschlagen
(Printz 1678, pp. 5-6)
Furthermore, Printz notes that it is easier to bring an erring singer back
to rights when the part is furnished with other singers.51 Neverthless,
even in this repertory, which presumably comprised motet and chorale-
based compositions, there were occasions when single-singer performance
was preferable:
If a piece is so scored that now 1, 2, 3 or at most 4 voices are heard alone, with
more later joining in, then the prefect should arrange it so that the best singers
each sing a part completely alone, so long as the few parts can be heard alone.
But where more voices are added to this, he should let all the choir-singers join
in as a capella. For if many sing a single part in few-voiced circumstances, in
general one spoils what the other has made good

Wenn ein Stuck also gesetzt ist / dafi bisweilen 1/2/3 oder aufs hochst 4 Stimmen
alleine gehoret werden / bisweilen mehr darzu fallen / da sol der Praefectus
anordnen / dafi die besten Sanger jeder eine Stimme gantz alleine singen / so
lang die wenig Stimmen sich alleine horen lassen. Wo aber mehr Stimmen
darzu kommen / sol er alle Chor-Sanger gleichsam als eine Capelle mit einfallen
lassen. Denn wenn in wenigstimmigen Sachen ihrer viel eine einzige Stimme
singen / so verderbet gemeiniglich einer / was der ander gut machet
(Printz 1678, p. 6)
Printz also repeats the traditional advice dating back to Friderici that
'private' music should be performed with single voices, something which
implies that there were public occasions on which it was feasible, if not
preferable, to double parts. His clearest testimony on vocal scoring -
112 Music education and the art of performance

which complements the evidence from the earlier writings - comes with
his advice on communal breathing:
When several sing one part, as tends to happen in full-voiced motets or with
capella parts, they should all begin, continue and finish together, but not take
breath together.
Wann ihrer etliche eine Stimme singen / wie in Vollstimmigen Motelten oder
Capell-Stimmen zu geschehen pfleget / sollen sie zugleich anfangen / fortgehen /
und aufhoren / nicht aber zugleich Athem holen. (Printz 1678, p. 22)
Thus doubling voices were clearly preferred in the motet style and the
capella sections of the 'modern' style. That these conventions pertained
until at least the early eighteenth century is suggested by Fuhrmann's
comments about problems of simultaneous diminution:
For if two singers sing a part simultaneously (which is often allowed in a capella
so that the same will sound the more penetrating) . . . they will never agree on a
single note
Denn wenn 2. Sanger zugleich eine Stimme singen (welches man offt in Capella
thun last / damit es desto durchdringender daselbst klinge) . . . so werden sie
nimmermehr einerley Noten zusammen bringen (Fuhrmann 1706, pp. 77-8)
Scheibel gives a useful picture of the practice in the second decade of the
eighteenth century. He notes that the musical practice of his time was
too extravagant and that some churches maintained three or more choirs,
as many organs and even Italian castrati (Scheibel 1721, p. 54). His pre-
scription that the principal parts be sung by only one or at most two singers
implies that he was countering a trend towards a fuller choral sound:
If each part or voice is furnished with one or at most two subjects, who
distinguish themselves, a choir is well provided for. Especially since nowadays
few arias are sung tutti but mostly solo . . . and if tuttis of such a kind occur, it is
enough if the principal parts, although they comprise single persons, do their duty.
Wenn jede Partie oder Stimme mit einem oder auffs hochste zweyen Subjectis
versehn / die das ihre praestiren / so ist ein Ghor gutt bestellt. Zumahl heute zu
Tage da wenig Arien tutti, sondern meistens Solo gesungen werden . . . und
komen dergleichen tutti gleich vor / so ist es genug / wenn die Haupt-Stimmen /
ob sie gleich aus eintzeln Personen bestchen / das ihrige thun.
(Scheibel 1721, pp. 54-5)
Later writers strengthen the impression that it was becoming standard
practice to perform with multiple singers:
Each part must be peopled not by an even division of the number of people
present but according to the respective strengths of voices, so that none stands
out from another but each part is as strong as the others.
 The development of performance practice 113

Jede Partie mufl, zwar nicht allezeit in Ansehung der Anzahl der Personen,
sondern nach BeschafTenheit der Starke ihrer Stimmen, gleich stark besetzet
seyn, damit keine vor der andern hervorrage, sondern die eine so starck als die
andere gehoret werde. (Marpurg 1763, p. 49)
Petri gives a more detailed version of the same advice.52
Of course the traditional scorings associated with the Baroque concerto
style hardly pertained in the mid eighteenth century. With the importation
of 'even newer5 Italian styles with their sharper distinction between arias,
choruses and recitatives, it may be that the vocal forces were divided
more along the lines of modern practice. With neither Marpurg 1763
nor Petri 1767 is there any mention of the division of singers into
concertists and ripienists, not to speak of the favoriti. Nevertheless in
Petri's greatly extended treatise of 1782 he mentions the term Ripienisten
within his analysis of the decline of singing in German schools.53 But
here it seems almost certain that Petri is using Ripienisten in a more
modern sense, to describe chorus singers, those who were not trained as
soloists but who presumably sang in all the pieces labelled as choruses.54
The testimony of Scheibel shows that some still preferred not to double
tuttis with ripienists in the early eighteenth century. Indeed the rector at
Osnabriick stipulated that only the best voice of each part should sing in
the tuttis, in a communication of c. 1750 (Bosken 1937, p. 143). Rifkin
has examined Bach's practice in detail and found convincing evidence in
the original sets of parts to suggest that Bach generally employed - if not
indeed preferred - single voices in his choruses (Rifkin 1982). If the
writings of Printz and Fuhrmann are anything to go by, it is likely that
Bach would have grown up accustomed to traditional scorings: the allow-
ance or preference for several voices to a part in motets, but solo perfor-
mance of concerto pieces with the optional addition of ripienists for the
tuttis. The question hinges on whether Bach consistently used the ripienists
for the choruses of his 'concertos' (as he termed the cantatas) - and Rifkin
suggests that Bach initially tried it at Leipzig but soon gave up. He also
argues that C. P. E. Bach followed the same practice in his performance
of the Symbolum Nicenum from the B Minor Mass in 1786 (Rifkin 1986).55

I N S T R U M E N T A L T U I T I O N IN S C H O O L P R I M E R S

Tlie seventeenth century

It has already been shown that there was a significant growth in attention
to instrumental tuition during the seventeenth century (see pp. 61-3
114 Music education and the art of performance

above). Here there is not room to give a comprehensive study of

instrumental practice in the German Baroque; rather, this examination is
concerned with the specific references to instruments in the Vocal'
primers, noting those factors of technique and interpretation which gain
particular attention.
Independent instrumental parts were integral to the new concerto
style, so it is not surprising that Praetorius, as its apologist, was the most
comprehensive commentator on the instruments of his age. The standard
primers do not show an immediate change of style; as Hizler states, the
basic rudiments and experience in singing provide a good background
for instrumental study:
But should someone also wish to go further and practise instrumental music, he
would be able to have good occasion, help and encouragement towards
instrumental music from this vocal music [book] and particularly through the
new universal scale in the same [a diagram showing all the pitches with letter
names and solmisation syllables].
Wolte aber jemand sich auch weiters und in der Instrumental-Music uben / der
wurde aufl dieser Vocal-Music, und sonderlich durch die neure Scalam Universalem
in der selbigen / guten AnlaB / BehelfT und FordernuB zur Instrumental-Music
haben konnen. (Hizler 1623/1628, foreword)

La Marche (1656) likewise suggests that the fundamentals he has out-

lined can equally well be employed for instrumental performance if the
pupil lacks a suitable voice; the only difference is that what the one does
with the mouth the other does with the hand and fingers (La Marche
1656, p. 23).56
The first, very striking, description of instrumental technique and style
is found in Herbst's celebrated treatise on vocal ornamentation, a greatly
expanded version of Praetorius's original text of 1619. The greater
emphasis given to instrumental exercises in the second edition (1653,
p. 51; cadential formulae for violinists, cornettists and flautists) exemplifies
the expansion of instrumental practice. The rules on bow direction are
the first reference in German writings to the 'rule of the downbow'; this
is the only actual information on instrumental technique, but it is
significant that it relates directly to musical interpretation: strong metrical
beats and divisions are played with the stronger stroke:

It is to be noticed that at the beginning of the music the bow should be drawn
towards the right hand. And if whole rests appear one must [afterwards] draw
the bow downwards, but where only half rests or suspiria are found, the same
should [afterwards] be drawn upwards. It should also be known that whenever
 The development of performance practice 115

the sign Tis found one should draw the bow downwards; but when this other
sign P occurs, it should be drawn upwards.
Es ist zu mercken / das im Anfang der Music der Bogen soil gegen der rechten
Hand gezogen werden. Und wenn gantze Pausen vorhanden / muB mann den
Bogen abwerts / da aber nur halbe Pausen oder Suspiria sich finden / denselben
auffwarts fiihren. Auch ist zu wissen / dafi / so offt dieses Zeichen T gefunden
wird / soil man den Bogen unter sich: Wo aber dieses andere Zeichen P stehet /
denselben uber sich ziehen. (Herbst 1653, p. 51)

The examples are basically exercises in diminution, which, just like those
for voice, are the principal didactic means for cultivating facility in
performance. The bowing indications are designed to generate a down-
bow on the last note of each cadence (Example 4).
Criiger 1654, on the other hand, suggests that diminution was a
greatly abused practice and that the violinist should cultivate a long
stroke. He repeats - almost literally - Praetorius's complaint that some
performers ruin the work through excessive diminution and adds a
passage concerning instrumentalists in particular:
Many instrumental musicians are also accustomed to such a bad and annoying
way of playing, particularly those who play on cornetts and violins, but it would
nevertheless be far more to their credit and renown and far more pleasant to the
listeners, if they were to take pains to employ a steady, sustained long stroke
with fine tremulants [vibrato?] on the violin.
Zu solcher bosen und verdrieBlichen Art gewehnen sich auch viel Instrumentales
Musici / sonderlich / auf Cornetten und Violinen / da es doch vielzierlicher /
Ihnen auch riihmlicher und den Zuhorern weit angenehmer wiirde seyn, wenn
sie sich eines steten / ausgedehnten langen Strichs mit feinen Tremulanten auf
Violinen beflissen und gebrauchten. (Criiger 1654, p. 190)

That the long bowstroke was not traditionally an aspect of German tech-
nique is also suggested by Schiitz's remarks in the preface to Symphoniae
Sacrae II of 1647; he observes that the modern Italian style is still largely
unknown and that performers should become familiar with the correct
tempo, the black notation and the steady, sustained bowstroke before
attempting these pieces in public.57
Falck's extensive treatise of 1688 owes much to the Praetorius tradition,
and, like Herbst, includes references to string playing. However, his
information covers far more than bowing directions: the strings and
tuning of the violin, viola and viola da gamba, purity of intervals and
some quite detailed directions on holding, posture and hand position
(Falck 1688, pp. 186-93). He also includes advice on how to perform
116 Music education and the art of performance

coloraturas and rapid runs, namely with strokes near the end of the bow,
where it is light (ibid., p. 191).58 His comments on the rule of the down-
bow develop those of Herbst: sometimes two downbows or two upbows
must be used in succession if the larger bowing scheme is to be satis-
factory (ibid., p. 192). This style of bowing, which was given particular
attention in German-speaking lands with the publication of Muffat's

Example 4 Herbst 1653, pp. 57-8

Cadenz in B fa U mi.

2. T.

3. T.

4. P.

5. P.

6. T.
 The development of performance practice 117

Fbrikgium Secundum of 1698, is often regarded as the French tradition today.

Nevertheless, Falck's comments suggest that the basic principles were
already part of German practice, whether as the result of earlier French
influence or as part of an indigenous tradition. Falck observes that players
often do not agree on the correct bowing for a triple-time bar: some play
it with one downbow followed by two upbow strokes, others in regular
up and down strokes. The choice should not matter provided that the
composition is not deformed, the intention of the composer is attained,
and the players' strokes are satisfactorily coordinated (ibid., p. 193).59
Falck's attitudes provide a useful insight into the status of performance
practice of his age. Certain conventions were valid, but the musical result
was what counted - performance conventions were a means rather than
an end. And, to Falck, the end was the realisation of the composer's
intentions, intentions which presumably had something to do with a
composer's insight into the 'natural mechanics' of affects and the
implications of the text, not necessarily the specific details of performance.
Detailed string instruction is found in the first German Baroque
treatise devoted solely to the art, Merck's Compendium musicae instrumentalis
of 1695. This is also designed to give the pupil background in the
rudiments of music in case he had somehow been denied singing tuition
(see p. 62 above). After describing notation, Merck gives instructions in
string tuning and bowing according to the stresses of the measure; his
examples and comments show that he favours the retaken downbow over
successive upbows.60 He allows an exception to this preference in triple
time when the movement is fast (ibid., p. 14).
While much of the information is applicable to general performance
practice (trill signs, Italian terms) some of it is clearly string-specific: the
sign 'm' for moving the whole hand (vibrato?), terms such as 'Spiccato'
and 'Harpeggiato' which, as Merck states, are not necessary for the
beginner, but are used in the publications of Biber, Walther and Westhoff
(ibid., pp. 14-16).
Merck's rules on holding the instrument are detailed enough to
suggest that not all students could necessarily acquire the requisite
private instruction. The pupil should cultivate a beautiful, long stroke
(ibid., p. 22), something which was also noted by Griiger in 1654 (see
p. 115 above); he should not rush the upbow; the instrument should be
held low, under the left part of the chest. But Merck's most telling
remark is that facility can be acquired only by listening to virtuosos (ibid.,
p. 23); clearly a publication of this nature was not an ideal replacement
for first-hand experience with practising musicians.
118 Music education and the art of performance

Thoroughbass practice was another feature of performance that began

to make its way into late seventeenth-century school treatises. For Stierlein,
instruction in thoroughbass was the musica practica which followed the
'theory' of musical rudiments, ornamentation and diminution (see p. 35
above). He shows that the union of performance and composition was now
something not only for the director of music and organist but also that
which should constitute the practical education of the general performer:
The general bass is the best and foremost fundament, according to which an
entire musical piece - as much in the composition as in the performance and
making of the same - must direct itself.
Der General-Bass ist das beste und vortrefflichste Fundament / nach welchem sich
ein gantzes musicalisches Stuck / so wohl in der Composition, als Aufffiihrung und
Machung desselben richten muB. (Stierlein 1691, p. 24)

Stierlein's Trifolium musicale ('Three-leafed music') of 1691 doubtless

encouraged Speer to enlarge his Grundrichtiger Unterricht der musikalischen
Kunst of 1687 ten years later, adding the alternative title Vierfaches musifca-
lisches Kleeblatt ('Four-leafed musical clover'): here the pupil is led from the
traditional fundamentals of singing, through keyboard and thoroughbass,
the basics of all kinds of instruments to composition. With the latter
three parts come some quite detailed explications of instrumental
technique, something which anticipates the renowned treatises of the mid
eighteenth century. His instructions for keyboard players are clear evidence
of the paired fingering style as the basis of keyboard technique. 61
Speer relates this fingering method directly to the musical result
required: a light, full and short touch and a satisfactory positioning of
the fingers for ornamentation. 62 The pairing of fingers and notes is a
striking parallel to the elementary bowing outlined by Herbst, something
which points strongly to a hierarchical view of metre and its divisions.
While paired fingering had been a feature of keyboard technique through-
out Europe for over a century, it was generally something noted in more
specialised treatises, not in a basic school primer. Although Speer was
obviously disseminating information which the more talented pupils
would have learned in their private tuition throughout the seventeenth
century, its summary in a single publication shows something of the
greater status of instrumental performance and the cultivation of the more
rounded musician.
Speer recommends that the keyboard student proceeds to learn short
intonations to chorales, then the chorales themselves, since this both
facilitates praise of God and forms the beginning of thoroughbass
 The development of performance practice 119

technique. Then he gives a large collection of dance-movements,

preludes, toccatas and fugues, each set of which covers the keys of D, b,
G, e, G, a, F, d, B|>, g, E|> and c (Speer 1697, pp. 47-179). Having
acquired considerable facility, the student can proceed to the following
chapter on thoroughbass itself.
The third part or 'leaf concerns tuition on other instruments. Speer's
short descriptions of the characteristics and techniques of each instrument
are not remarkable in themselves, but the number of instruments he
covers is striking: violin, viola, viola da gamba, basse de violon (followed
by a short description of other members of the string family), trumpet,
timpani, trombones, cornetti, bassoon, fingering-schemes for flutes and
flageolet. He notes that few young players manage the trumpet because
it demands such bodily strength (Speer 1697, p. 218). His long list of the
requirements of a good trumpeter show that this is indeed an instrument
demanding professional expertise and commitment.

The eighteenth century

With the exception of Sperling 1705, few early eighteenth-century vocal

primers make much reference to instruments. Presumably the rapidly
expanding literature on instruments, catering mostly for the growth in
amateur performance, rendered instrumental school primers redundant
(see p . 63 above). Kiirzinger's Getreuer Unterricht zum Singen mit Manieren,
und die Violin zu spielen (1763) is an exception to this trend, a two-part
treatise covering the fundamentals of both singing and violin performance.
As virtually every significant eighteenth-century treatise in instrumental
performance also affirms, Kiirzinger stresses that the instrumentalist must
model his performance on singing.63
Petri's treatise of 1767 gives the most comprehensive information on
instrumental performance in church and school establishments of the
mid eighteenth century. In his fundamentals for the incipient singer, it
is important that the student hears much music and becomes experi-
enced in ensemble; he should gain an insight into the whole of music
by learning a 'Hauptinstrument' (i.e. one that permits chords) for
thoroughbass and by studying the scores of great masters. 64 Petri's
final chapters offer instruction in thoroughbass, the principal instru-
ments and the organ (including a useful description of pedalling, mainly
with alternate toes).
In all, this extensive book is a prescriptive treatise, reflecting much of
Petri's experience as a cantor, with advice on how to organise church
120 Music education and the art of performance

music and how to give the pupil satisfactory instruction. However, it was
among the last comprehensive tutors to be addressed specifically to the
cantorates. The most important achievements in vocal and instrumental
performance were now being made in the fields of opera and concert life.
 Ornamentation and the relation between
performer and composer

Of all the elements of Baroque performance, ornamentation - particularly

that which is not indicated by the notation - is the one which is most
alien to those modern views which regard the musical text as an
immutable record of the music.1 However, it should be one of the most
important considerations in any history of the music of this period, since
it concerns the cross-over area between performance and composition.
Indeed it may well be that much music would not have been notated in
the manner in which it survives without the influence of the performer
and the trends in improvised ornamentation. This point was uncannily
well summarised in an observation by Christoph Bernhard (mid seven-
teenth century), someone who significantly combined the arts of composer,
compositional theorist and performer:
Since it has been observed that artistic singers and also instrumentalists . . . have
somewhat digressed from the notes here and there, and thus have given occasion
to invent an agreeable kind of figure; for what can be sung with reasonable
euphony might well indeed also be written down.
Accordingly, composers in the last generation already began to set down one
thing or another that was unknown to their predecessors, and seemed unac-
ceptable to the unenlightened, but charming to good ears and musicians.
So that by our own time music has attained such a height, that - in view of
the multitude of figures, particularly in the newly discovered and ever more
decorated Stylus Recitativus - it may indeed be compared to a rhetoric.
Nachgehends hat man observiret, daB kunstliche Sanger auch Instrumentisten . . .
von den Noten hier und dort etwas abgewichen, und also einige anmutige Art
der Figuren zu erfinden Anlafl gegeben; denn was mit vernunfftigen Wohl-Laut
kan gesungen werden, mag man auch wohl setzen.
Dahero haben die Componisten in vorigem Seculo allbereits angefangen, eines
und das andere zu setzen, was den vorigen unbekant, auch den Unverstandigen
unzulaBlich geschienen, guten Ohren aber und Musicis annehmlich gewesen.

121
122 Music education and the art of performance

BiB daB aufF unsere Zeiten die Musica so hoch kommen, daB wegen Menge
der Figuren, absonderlich aber in dem neu erfundenen und bisher immer mehr
ausgezierten Stylo Recitativo, sie wohl einer Rhetorica zu vergleichen.
(Bernhard, Ausjiihrlicher Bericht vom Gebrauche der Con- und Dissonantien (MS), in
Muller-Blattau 1926/1963, p. 147)
The aim of this chapter is to give, first of all, an outline of the practice of
improvised ornamentation during the Baroque era, the complex lines of
the theoretical traditions and the attitudes developing during the course
of the period. Then, by comparing this with the compositional theory of
the time and with the stances of particular composers, I hope to produce
something of a definition of musica practica, a concept which hinges on the
fluid relationship between composer and performer.

I M P R O V I S E D O R N A M E N T A T I O N IN T H E G E R M A N
VOCAL TRADITION

The basis of vocal ornamentation in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-

century Germany can be assessed relatively easily by surveying the large
body of contemporary literature addressed to the performer, particularly
the singer.2 Most of this could be thought to represent the 'upper level'
of performance practice, something which was built over the 'middle-
ground' tradition, as outlined in the preceding two chapters. However, as
has already been observed (see pp. 70, 77 above), many 'middleground'
writings show at least some influence from those specifically concerned
with improvised ornamentation; moreover, a handful of primers which are
basic in all other respects introduce quite complex diminution techniques.
As Bernhard's reference to 'the last generation' implies, the performer's
elaboration of notated musical lines was by no means new to German
performance practice during the mid seventeenth century. Yet although
advice and examples are to be found in some surviving German treatises
of the sixteenth century, namely Coclico 1552 and Finck 1556, there is
nothing as extensive or exhaustive as the methods published in Italy during
the latter part of that century. Presumably performers were trained orally
and the practices of ornamentation and diminution varied from one
institution to another. Burmeister 1601 (Musica autoschediastike) sums up
some basic rules derived from Finck and C. Praetorius:
The singer should not push out the faster notes or so-called coloraturas through
a movement of the lips or tongue, but he should perform them with the lungs
and throat so that they can be heard clearly and distinctly. One should not
introduce coloraturas everywhere, but only at suitable places and not in all
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 123

voices together; on the contrary, they should be interspersed sparingly and

carefully while the syllables are silent [i.e. in non-syllabic, melismatic writing].
With coloraturas one should give more consideration to sweetness than to speed.
What one can no longer take in, one can no longer love.
(6). Schnellere Noten oder sog. Koloraturen soil der Sanger nicht durch eine
Bewegung der Lippen oder Zunge hervorstoBen, sondern er soil sie mit der
Lunge und der Kehle vortragen, so daB sie 'expresse et distincte' zu horen sind.
(7). Nicht uberall, sondern nur an passenden Stellen und nicht in alien Stimmen
zugleich soil man Koloraturen anbringen, vielmehr sie schonend und vorsichtig
einstreuen, wahrend die Silben schweigen. (8). Bei den Koloraturn muB man
mehr bedacht sein auf die 'suavitas' als auf die Schnelligkeit. Was man nicht
mehr aufnehmen kann, kann man auch nicht lieben.
(Burmeister 1601, in Ruhnke 1955, p. 96)

Burmeister places coloratura and mordantiae (two or three fast neighbour-

notes added before the beat) into the convenient rhetorical category of
practicum decorum (ornatus), that which is added by the performer (as
opposed to the poeticum decorum, the succession of consonants devised by
the composer in response to the text); both of these are part of the
pronunciatio qffectuosa (Ruhnke 1955, p. 95). Although he sees these added
ornaments as being part of the affective insight of the performer, he does
not give any clear indication of how to acquire this discernment and
facility. Nevertheless his testimony, derived as it is from C. Praetorius
and Finck, points to a wide practice of improvised ornamentation in
Germany, a practice which was clearly not always discreet.

Praetorius and the introduction of the 'new Italian style'

A specifically German pedagogic tradition for embellishment was founded

with the publication of Praetorius's Syntagma musicum, part 3, in 1619,
that treatise which was mainly responsible for introducing the Italian
style to Germany. The final chapter, 'How boys who have particular joy
and love in singing can be instructed in the current Italian manner', 3
explains how the singer's office is not unlike that of an orator, and how
he must use a wide range of expressive devices in order to move the
listener (see p. 48 above). Like the German writers before him, Praetorius
condemns those performers who add ornamentation indiscriminately:
Whereas one should not praise those who are endowed by God and nature with
a particularly lovely shaking, wavering or trembling voice and also a round neck
and throat for diminution, but who do not heed the rules of music, but only go
on and on with their excessive decorations, overshooting the limits prescribed
124 Music education and the art of performance
by the song, and in that manner spoil and confuse the same, so that one does
not know what they are singing. Also neither the text nor the notes (as the
composer has set them giving the song the best elegance and grace) can be
perceived, far less understood. This bad style then (to which also numerous
instrumentalists in particular are accustomed) little moves and amuses the
listeners, particularly those who have some knowledge of the art, indeed it makes
them far more annoyed and drowsy. Therefore, so that the song's natural life
and grace, which the master has given it, is not taken away through such
deformation of diminution, but so that each word and sentence will actually be
understood by everyone, it is highly necessary that all cantors or singers
industriously practise singing and articulated pronunciation from youth onwards,
and make themselves acquainted with these things.
Sintemal die jenigen gar nicht zu loben / welche von Gott und der Natur / mit
einer sonderbahren lieblichen zitterten und schwebenden oder bebenden Stimm
/ auch einem runden HalB unnd Gurgel zum diminuiren begabet / sich an der
Musicorum leges nicht binden lassen / sondern nur fort unnd fort / mit ihrem
allzuviel colorirn, die im Gesang vorgeschriebene limites uberschreiten / unnd
denselben dermassen verderben und verdunckeln / daB man nicht weiB was sie
singen / Auch weder den Text noch die Noten (so der Gomponist gesetzt / und
dem Gesange die beste Zier und gratiam giebt) vernehmen / viel weniger
verstehen kan.
Welche bose Art dann / (deren sich sonderlich auch etliche Instrumentisten
angewehnet) die Auditores, sonderlich die der Kunst etwas wissenschafft tragen /
wenig qfficiret unnd erlustiget / ja vielmehr verdrossen unnd schlafferig machet.
Derowegen damit dem Gesange seine naturalis vis und gratia, die ihme der
Meister gegeben / durch solche deformitet des diminuirens nit benommen / sondern
von menniglichen jedes Wort und Sententia eigentlich verstanden werde: 1st hoch
notig / daB alle Cantores oder Sanger von Jugend aufT in voce & pronunciatione
articulata sich fleissig uben / und dieselbige ihnen bekant machen.
(Praetorius 1619, pp. 229-30)

Praetorius then outlines the natura and doctrina by which this facility can
be achieved. To the natura belong the requirements of a suitable voice
(see p. 72 above), including the dynamic flexibility employed particularly
for dotted rhythms (exclamatio - see p. 73 above) and the intonatio, an
ornamental 'scoop' to the first note of each song:
Intonatio is how a song is to be started: and there are differing opinions about it.
Some desire that it be begun on the correct note, many on the second below the
correct note, but so that one gradually rises with the voice and lifts the same;
several on the third, some on the fourth, several with a charming and muted
voice, which varied fashions are mostly conceived under the name accentus.
Intonatio ist / wie ein Gesang anzufangen: Und sind davon unterschiedliche
Meinungen. Etliche wollen / daB er in dem rechten Thon / etliche in der
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 125

Secunda untcr dem rechten Thon / doch daB man allgemach mit der Stimme
steige / und dieselbe erhebe: Etliche in dcr Tertia: Etliche in der Quarta: etliche
mit anmiitiger und gedempffter Stimme anzufangen sey / welche unterschiedene
Arten meistentheils unter dem Namen Accentus begriffen werden.
(Praetorius 1619, p. 231)4
Thus Praetorius outlines certain ornamental devices as components of
the natural requirements of the singer, something which points to the
supreme importance of matters of ornamentation to the style and very
technique of singing in the Italian manner. It is in the doctrina* that he
prescribes the specific figures required in 'mannered 5 practice, under the
general heading of diminutiones and coloraturen: accentus, tremolo, gruppo, tirata,
trillo, passagi; each is applied, more or less systematically, to simple note-
patterns and intervals. Praetorius relies heavily on Italian sources
(acknowledging the influence of Caccini and Bovicelli) and provides little
that is new; however, the detail and care of categorisation render him an
exceedingly useful source on the musical life of his age. It may well be
this tendency to catalogue the formulae constituting diminution which
distinguishes German musical thinking (and consequently style) from the
'original' practices of Italy.
The accentus (already partly defined as part of the natura of the good
singer, since it is loosely synonymous with the intonatio) covers a variety of
neighbour-note ornaments. Immediately striking is the fact that a specific
style of performance (slurred) is directly connected with this: 'When the
notes in the following form are drawn in the throat 5 (Example 5).5 The
tremolo, Praetorius simply defines as a shaking of the voice over a note,
something organists term mordanten or moderanten. This, close to the modern
main-note trill, is apparendy more appropriate for organs and instruments;
thus Praetorius shows a growing consideration for the idiomatic differ-
ences between various performance media. The groppi are trill-figures
used expressly for cadences which 'must be struck more sharply than the
tremolt (Example 6).6 Tiratae are basically runs, Praetorius 5s examples
showing the given note approached by an octave run; the faster they are
performed the clearer each note must be expressed. 7 The trillo is the
figure of fast repeated notes on a single pitch which, according to
Praetorius, is described only by Caccini in Italian sources. Its perfor-
mance cannot apparently be described and must be learned by example,
as a bird learns from its fellows.8 Praetorius5s description of the passaggi -
technically the climax of the list of ornaments, since these employ the
others in combination - is surprisingly lame: they are fast runs which
comprise both leaps and stepwise movement. 9 Praetorius5s only advice
126 Music education and the art of performance

Example 5 Praetorius 1619, p. 233, Accentus

Nota initialis & finalis in Vnisono

-fc—r

Perfcecundem,Ascendendo

- J. n. I f J
Descendendo

" i r r" i r p-p" i r r P

Example 6 Praetorius 1619, p. 236, Groppi

n r iP
to the singer is that he proceed from the slower, simple passages to the
faster ones.
What is immediately obvious about Praetorius's practical theory of
vocal (and, to a certain extent, instrumental) ornamentation, is that the
performer must be familiar with a wide range of devices which, when
correctly applied, show the singer to be a good musical 'orator'. He
apparently sees no anomaly in the fact that these figures seem to have no
semantic dimension - the text and its affects are never mentioned except
in the introduction to this short manual - while together they constitute
a rhetorical system that is purely musical (i.e. ornamental, rather than
persuasive, rhetoric; see p. 46 above).10 Also interesting is the fact that
Praetorius makes no distinction between the art of singing per se and the
art of ornamentation. These ornaments alone constitute correct ornamen-
tation and diminution, presumably something which contrasts with the
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 127

excessive practices of the singers he criticises in his introduction. This

tendency Praetorius probably owed to his reading of Caccini and it reflects
the principal difference between the free, often excessive, diminution of
the late sixteenth century and the desire for ordered and expressively-
conditioned manners during the early Baroque. Perhaps the intention
towards control and rationalisation is more important than the success of
these in practice. Indeed Praetorius is astonishingly vague about how the
figures are to be applied: the promised, but apparently never written,
'Exercitatio' would probably have consisted of examples to be experienced
and emulated rather than prescriptive instruction (see p. 49 above).
Earlier in the same volume Praetorius does outline a sort of decorum
to be observed by ornamenting performers (something akin to jazz
practice in the twentieth century), but again no association is made with
the rhetorical implications of the text or affect:
But when several people and also different instruments are present, they must
watch one another to give one another room and not crash into each other at
the same time, but when there are many of them, each must wait until it is his
turn to demonstrate his schertzh trilli and accentus; and must not twitter together like
a swarm of sparrows, in which whoever can shriek the highest and loudest is cock
of the walk. This then must be observed in the same way with violins and cornetti.
Wenn aber Gesellschafft und andere mehr Instrument verhanden seyn / miissen
sie eins uffs ander sehen / ihnen untereinander raum und platz geben / nich
gegen einander gleichsam stossen / sondern wenn ihrer viel seyn / ein jedes
seiner zeit erwarten / bifi da(3 die Reye / seine Schertzi, Trilli und Accent zu
erweisen / auch an ihn komme: Und nicht / wie ein hauffen Sperlinge unter-
einander zwitzschern / und welches nur zum hochsten und z. starcksten schreyen
unnd krehen kan / der beste Hahn im Korbe sey. Welches dann bey Discant
Geigen / Cornetten, &c. eben so wol zu observiren. (Praetorius 1619, p. 148)

Praetorius also recommends that the organist observe where a solo singer
adds all kinds of ornaments, and if the latter should become tired of
these, continue to add embellishment in a similar style, thus creating an
echo and dialogue of embellishment between the two (Ibid., p. 137).

Comprehensive treatises in the tradition of Praetorius during the later seventeenth century

Herbst reprints much of Praetorius's writing in his Musica practica (1642/

1653), although the content is greatly expanded to match the scale of a
large Italian tutor. Herbst added further ornamented examples in the
second edition and included some advice and examples for instruments
(see p. 114 above). He remarks in the introduction that Germans other
128 Music education and the art of performance

than Praetorius, notably J. H. Schein and K. Kittel, had hoped to write

similar manuals on mannered singing but never fulfilled their promises.
He intends that his Musica practica should fulfil Praetorius's desire to write
a short treatise with practical examples, something which Praetorius
never achieved owing to his untimely death.
Herbst develops many of his predecessor's devices, the accentus examples
in particular containing much more elaborate cadential figuration.
Furthermore, Herbst underlays his examples with the five basic vowels so
that the singer can cultivate diction at the same time as vocal facility.11
For his extensive 'Exercitatio' Herbst takes examples from Francesco
Rognoni and Adriano Banchieri and ends the practical section with a
selection of ornamented solo concertos by Ignatius Donati.
Falck's treatise, some forty years later (1688), follows the Praetorius/
Herbst model surprisingly closely with some modifications: the groppo is
now shaped more like a cadential 'turn', while the trillo definition covers
more options than the figure of fast repeated notes of a single pitch (as
ever, these can only be learned directly from a teacher). Falck, like
Herbst, gives extensive exercises on primary vowel sounds, each compris-
ing sequences based on ascending notes of the scale. Some devices are
specifically designed to cultivate the repeated beating of the throat
(ribattuta di gold).12 Particularly interesting are Falck's extensive examples
of embellished monody from a recent Italian publication by G. F. Sances.
Both Criiger 1660 and Falck 1688 integrate their advice on mannered
singing into larger compendia which offer a full course in the rudiments
of music. Criiger, having already written two basic school primers in
which he promised a thorough study of coloratura at a later date, 13 gives
a full exposition of Praetorius's figures in the compositional treatise of
1654 and in the extensive vocal treatise of 1660. Although the latter is
expressly addressed to the Jugend' he affirms that the second section, on
the 'Manier', is not universally to be applied in schools. At the same
time though, the simpler graces are clearly indispensable:

Now when a boy has come so far, according to this instruction, through
constant and industrious practice, that he can sing a piece rather well, this is
not enough: for, because the aim in music is also sweetness, he must also be
guided in how to become familiar with an elegant and lovely style, in order
especially to know the accentus . . . Now indeed with boys in schools, particularly
those who do not intend to make a profession of music, it is not so greatly
necessary to attain these musical standards of Italian sweetness, because this style
of singing belongs far more in the well-furnished royal and princely Capellem but
for schoolboys it is enough that they take pains to make the accentus over the
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 129

notes and to introduce the same as the opportunity arises, likewise with several
of the easiest passages; I have nevertheless considered it prudent to include all
kinds of examples with the explication of the same, so that they will have
observed what constitutes the true musical Manner of singing
Wann nun ein Knabe / vorhergehender Instruction nach / durch stete und
fleiBige iibungen so weit ist kommen / daB er ein Stiicke zimlich fertig kan
singen / ist es damit nicht genug: sonder wei\ Jinis Musicae auch suavitas ist / muB
er auch angefiihret werden / wie er sich zu einer zierlichen und lieblichen
Manier sol gewehnen / daB er fuhrnemlich wisse die Accentus . . . Ob nun zwar
Knaben in Schulen / insonderheit die keine Profession von der Music zu machen
in willens / nicht so groB nothig ist / diese modulos Musicos Italicae suavitatis zu
exohrcn / weil diese Manier zu singen vielmehr in Konigliche und Furstliche
wolbestalte Capellen gehoret: Fur Schulknaben es aber genug ist / daB sie sich
befleiBigen die Accentus iiber die Noten zu machen / und selbige nach Gelegenheit
mit anzubringen / wie auch etliche der leichtesten Passaggien / habe ich doch fur
rathsam erachtet / selbiger explication nebest allerhand Exempeln hierbey zu
setzen / daraus sie sich zu ersehen haben / worinnen die rechte Musicalische
Manier im Singen bestehe (Griiger 1660, pp.19, 21)
Griiger's comments here offer a good insight into the extent of orna-
mental practice in German performance during the mid-century: the
basic school-singer who is competent in figural music should master
some of the basic figures, namely the accentus family (which Falck likewise
singles out as a fundamental of performance), while only those who wish
to specialise in music, and those in royal establishments, need be con-
cerned with the more detailed passages. Nevertheless, this does imply
that most of the music which concerns us today (e.g. the repertories of
Praetorius, Schein, Schiitz and Buxtehude, which were indeed composed
for the foremost establishments) might well have been sung with con-
siderable embellishment. Moreover, ornamental devices appear in some
relatively basic 'middleground' treatises; these will be discussed in the
next section.

Praetorius's influence in 'rniddleground' treatises

Although detailed instructions in Italianate ornamentation are not consis-

tently to be found in the majority of German vocal primers during the
seventeenth century, there are enough references in certain 'middle-
ground5 primers to suggest that there was an appreciable market for this
material.14 As Criiger implied, it was taught only to the most advanced
boys, those who were the concertists for the major figural compositions
of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, Dieterich 1631 and Printz 1671
130 Music education and the art of performance

are exceptional in introducing diminution in elementary 'middleground'

primers, that is, in the early stages of music instruction, after clefs, intervals
and metre have been mastered.15 Printz's claim that the first edition of
this primer was the official music book for the local school and also used
in several other places suggests that, in some areas of Germany at least,
diminution was a standard element of practical education.16
More normal for a basic primer is Friderici's attitude: coloratura of
the Praetorius type is used only in the foremost establishments and is
more often appropriate for instrumentalists in any case (see p. 77 above).
However, Friderici does include much advice on coloratura in the main
body of his singing rules:
In the bass no coloraturas should be made other than those specified by the
composer. (For otherwise the fundament of the song will be mutilated, and the
other parts left groundless, then will there be heard nothing other than an
annoying dissonance.) Other voices should add coloratura in a way that does
not introduce musical faults. (But they can noticeably avoid such when they
cease their embellishment on the same note on which they began.) [Example 7]

Example 7 Friderici 1618/1624

Recht ists

,K r w~ ir r . , „ - ,r r
aus diesem: also oder also singen

Unrecht ists

IE
r r "pi " FF
also
oder also machen

Im Basso sollen keine Coloraturen mehr gemacht werden / dann die / so vom
Componisten gesetzet seyn. (Dann sonst wird das Fundament des Gesanges
zerreissen / unnd bleiben andern Stimmen bodenlofl / und wird nichts denn
nur eine verdrieBliche Dissonantz gehoret.) Andere Stimmen sollen also coloriren,
daB sie nicht vitia musicalia einfiihren. (Solches aber konnen Sie mercklich
verhuten / wenn Sie in dem Clave auflhoren zu collorireny darinnen Sie haben
angefangen.) (Friderici 1618/1624, rules 15-16)

It is difficult to determine from the example why the first two solutions
are correct and the remainder incorrect; presumably Friderici was judging
them on idiomatic, rather than theoretical grounds. He adds futher
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 131

examples of diminution within the exercises he appends to the end of his

treatise. These show systematic diminution of simple scalic note patterns,
something which is the staple of Italian diminution treatises (Example 8).
In all then, Friderici's attitude to improvised embellishment and dimi-
nution is somewhat ambiguous: he gives fairly detailed instruction at two
different points in his treatise, yet he asserts that it is not widely
practised. As will soon emerge, this ambivalence is also evident in later
writings of the seventeenth century. Even when certain writers are cautious
about the universal application of diminution, they often seem to be con-
cerned that the singer at least cultivate the facility and become familiar
with the conventions. Thus Demantius 1632 lists some of the usual
Praetorius manners in the appendix, as if to alert the singer to their
existence without offering explicit instruction. La Marche 1656 (p. 22)
mentions that the trill should be employed on each dotted note, sharp
sign, on alternate notes in strings of quavers and particularly at cadences.
If the boy finds the technique difficult, he can become accustomed to it
by hitting the throat with the hand. 17
Example 8 Friderici 1618/1624
11. Exempl. die clausulas finales diminuiren zu lernen.

It, J » J .. I , J J- AhJ » .==N^

12. Exemption im ascendiren etwas zu diminuiren.

Ascensus. Diminutio

P
alia

alia
132 Music education and the art of performance

New theories of ornamentation and diminution: thefigural system qfPrintz

Printz, in his later treatises, provided the most detailed information on
ornamentation during the entire century. No other author provided such
a precise categorisation of the figures constituting passage-work. 18 Indeed
it is he who coined the term Figur for the motives comprising diminution,
something which immediately suggests rhetorical thinking. Just as the
rhetorical figure is something of an exception to the norm which gives
the oration particular emphasis and style, Printz views the ornamental
figure as the 'salt of melody'.19
The importance he afforded figures is evidenced by his first surviving
singing treatise of 1671, which introduces figures as part of elementary
singing tuition (see p. 70 above). In addition to his vastly expanded
account of the Praetorius ornaments here, he includes such devices as
the pausa, a very short space to be inserted between fast notes.20 Although
it is clear from the contents of the book that the pupil will know very
little about the rules of harmony, Printz demands that the singer pay
attention to the Fundament and surrounding voices so that forbidden
parallels are avoided.21 The singer is also enjoined to avoid 'Bauer- oder
Bierfiedler Clausuht although it is impossible to infer from Printz's rules
the degree of excess which will draw this epithet.
Printz's most detailed exposition of his doctrine of figures appears in
the second volume of his composition treatise of 1676-7 and the vocal
treatise of 1678. He divides figures into simple conjunct formulae (which
include most of the ornaments specified by Praetorius); simple figures which
remain on one note; those which leap; 'mixed* figures which are partly
conjunct and partly disjunct; trills; and compound figures which combine a
variety of simple figures (i.e. passages or diminution). The examples are
presumably to be practised as singing exercises which both enhance the
technique and cultivate the facility to elaborate pre-existent lines. 22
Printz gives the clearest account of the relationship between the
particular figure chosen and the performance style associated with it:
Here we are in general to be reminded that each figure must have its appro-
priate apulsus gutturalisy that is an attack which must be made in the throat with a
natural skilfulness and not with a nasty pressure, hard thrust, bleat, or whinny,
so that the singer opens the mouth moderately without making the cheeks
hollow, but leaving them as nature has given them, and does not lift the tongue
high, or bend it, but leaves it straight and low, so that the free passage of the
sound is not hindered; and also holds the mouth still without biting.
Hier erinnern wir ins gemein / daB eine jede Figur ihren manierlichen Apulsum
gutturalem haben miisse / das ist / eine Anschlagen / welches in der Kehle
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 133

gemacht werden soil mit einer natiirlichen Geschickligkeit / nicht mit einem
garstigen Driicken / harten Stossen / Meckern / oder Wiehern / so / daB der
Sanger den Mund mittelmassig erofihe / die Backen nicht hohl mache /
sondern sie blciben lasse / wie sie die Natur gegeben / und die Zunge nicht in
die Hohe hebe / noch krumme / sondern gerade und niedrig liegen lasse /
damit sie den Schalle nicht den freyen Durchgang verhindere; auch das Maul
unbeweglich still halte / und nicht kaue. (Printz 1678, p. 43)

Likewise he extends some of the comments on performance specified by

Praetorius: the accentus is indeed gently formed in the throat, but not so
that the voice is completely slurred. 23 The groppo is now defined as a
turn-like figure (Kuget) of four notes, in which the first and third are the
same. Its attack is 'moderately sharp' ('mittelmassig scharP, p. 48), like
that of all the other running figures. Printz gives the traditional Praetorius/
Herbst description (i.e. a modern trill followed by a turn) as a subsidiary
definition (p. 49). Several apparently new figures are also added here:
circolo mezOy a figure like the groppo in which the second and fourth notes
are of the same pitch; tirata meza, a four-note version of the tirata. Three
new figures in the 'mixed' category (i.e. those that involve conjunct,
disjunct motion and repeated notes) are significant enough to sum up the
most common motivic material of late Baroque music (pp. 53-5): \hefigura
corta (dactylic and anapaestic rhythms and the syncopated short-long-
short rhythm); the messanza (four-note figures involving both conjunct and
disjunct motion); thefigurasuspirans (three-note patterns beginning with a
downbeat rest).24 Printz adds that all running figures can also be per-
formed in a dotted rhythm (p. 56); dotting seems to be the most ubiquitous
rhythmic ornament in these seventeenth-century treatises.
Printz's comprehensive survey continues with a study of 'beating'
('schwebende') figures, namely the repeated-note trillo, which is learned
through retaining the air in the throat, driving the voice with a moder-
ately vehement beating and by imitating singers who can do it already. 25
The 'zusammengesetzte' figures are basically passages of diminution in
which Printz analyses the component figures. He concludes his survey
with a list of the faults in singing figures. This is compounded with an
outline of the faults in singing in general, something which points to the
importance of ornamentation as the substance of singing technique per se,
since Printz clearly saw no distinction between the two categories of vitia
(see also p. 79 above). The most significant faults are those relating to
articulation (vitia adpulsus): the singer must avoid excessive articulation
and attack of figures; he must not confuse the articulation of one figure with
that of another (e.g. by singing the accentus with the sharp articulation of
134 Music education and the art of performance

the messanza); he must pay consistent attention to the Fundament and

adjacent voices in order to avoid compositional defects; he must never
breathe in the middle of figures, or string figures together like a peasant
or 'beer-fiddler' (pp. 75-8). Like Friderici, Printz proscribes diminutions
in the bass that the composer has not specified, and, predictably, he
suggests that imitation of good singers is the surest way to learn the art
(pp. 44, 79).

New theories of ornamentation and diminution: Bernhard and his followers

Christoph Bernhard, with his manuscript treatise, 'Von der Singe-Kunst

oder Manier' gives perhaps the clearest explanation of the categories of
singing.26 What is particularly important is his division of singing style
into two basic fields: that in which simpler ornaments are appropriate
and that in which improvised diminution is added (see p. 69 above).27
The singer should master several ornaments even in the so-called plain
singing {cantar sodo): the trilb, accento, several derivatives of the same (antici-
patione della syllabalnotay cercar della nota) and tremolo.2* In cantar passagiato (or
lombarda\ the more ornamented form of singing, Bernhard gives some
detailed advice on the application of diminution (although the constituent
figures are not analysed with the detail of Printz).
Mylius's general introduction to singing with figures (1685) gives
another illuminating overview of the German tradition, reflecting his
consciousness of the history behind the practice and its relation to the
contingencies of his own day. He is clearly unacquainted with Printz's
writings, but shows the same tendency as Printz to provide the foun-
dations for a practice which is both traditionally based and modernised;
Bernhard's practice is, for him, that which is most relevant for his day:
Many distinguished old German musicians took trouble to prescribe rules and
regulations of such a kind collected from the famous works of the newest, most
authentic Italian and German musicians, in order to create a supply for future
generations, particularly the young, by which they might achieve a skilful and
elegant way of singing. Among these, Herr Michael Praetorius, in book 3 of
Syntagma Musicum p. 229, paved the way to this end; he was followed by Herr
Johann Andreas Herbst, former Kapellmeister at Nuremberg, who gathered
together a good portion of such examples from the aforementioned and
furthermore from Herr Daniel Bolli, Claudio Monteverdi, Rovetta, Francesco
Rognoni, Adriano Banchieri and other similar famous authors, for which he
earned great praise and thanks in his own time. But whether all these ways can
also be used nowadays, I will leave to the judgement of reasonable and clever
artists, and therefore I will despise no-one: for my part I will follow the
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 135

recommended outline and good report of my estimable, much-loved and

honoured teacher, Herr Christoph Bernhard, instructor to the young honourable
electoral Saxon princes and senior Kapellmeister, who wanted to show a good
way to follow the same, for the benefit of young people, and so that others too,
particularly young people, might have a clue how to achieve an elegant and
appropriate way of singing; from such [teaching], as far as it can be done in all
conscience, I have extracted some things and gathered them here.
Es haben sich viel vornehme alte Teutsche Musici bemuhet / dergleichen
Gesetze und Regeln vorzuschrciben / welche aus denen neuesten bewahrtesten
Italianischen und Teutscher Musicorum beriihmten Operen solche Arten colligiroX /
dafl der Nachwelt / absonderlich der lerncnden Jugend / ein Vorrath hierzu
geschaffet / dadurch sie zu einem kiinstlichen und zierlichen Singen gelangen
mochte / unter welchen hierzu Herr Michael Praetorius, in tomo tertio Syntagmatis
Musici fol. 229. den Weg gebahnet; dem ist nachgefolget Herr Johann Andreas
Herbst, gewesener Capellmeister zu Niirnberg / welcher aus erst besagten / und
hernach aus Herr Danielis Bollii, Claud. Monteverde, Rovette, Francisci Ragnoni, Andr.
Banchien und andern dergleichen beruhmter Autoren Schrifften einen guten Theil
solcher Arten zusammen gelesen / darvon es zu seiner Zeit grossen Ruhm und
Danck erworben. DaB aber solche Arten auch heutiges Tages, alle solten
angebracht werden konnen / solches wil ich vernunfftigen und klugern Kunstlern
zujudiciren iiberlassen / und defiwegen niemand verachten: Meines Orts wil ich
auf empfangenen Entwurff und gute Nachricht meines wehrt zu lieben- und zu
Ehrenden Lehrmeisters / Hern Christophori Bernhardi, Ghur Fiirstl. Sachs.
Hochbestalten Junger Prinzen Infoimatoris und altesten Capellmeisters / welcher
der allgemeincn Jungen zum besten einen guten Weg zeigen wollen / demsclben
nachfolgen / und damit auch andere / sonderlich die Jugend / einc Spur (zu
einem zierlichen und manierlichen Singen zu gelangen) haben mogen; ist aus
solchcm / so viel sich Gewissens wegen thun lasscn wollen / etwas ausgezogen
und hieher gebracht worden. (Mylius 1685, ch. 5)

For 'zierliches Singen', Mylius proposes exactly the same categories as

Bernhard: fermo, forte, piano, trillo, accento, anticipatione della syllaba/nota, cercar
della nota, ardire. The trillo is now an alternation of two notes which can be
made downwards (preferably) or upwards, and which the boy should
learn slowly in order to accustom the breast, neck and throat to the
necessary movement. Mylius gives advice on how the trill should be
applied: on dotted rhythms in descending motion; in successions of long
notes in accordance with the text and where the Generalbass has many
runs and leaps; in cadential phrases. The most inadvisable application is
on the first note of a piece or phrase ('welches ein greulicher Unverstand
ist'). He recommends the suave articulation and performance of accentus
figures, which accords closely with the advice of Printz. To these devices
Mylius also adds some of the well-known Praetorius categories which
136 Music education and the art of performance

Bernhard omitted: tremulo, groppo, tirata, variatio notae, and passagio. He

considers these more appropriate for instrumentalists than singers,
although they can be a part of applicatio textus.
Mylius's opinions are even more clearly demonstrated by his texted
examples, in which abbreviations usefully indicate where the fundamental,
Bernhardian manners may be employed. For someone who cautions
about too much diminution it is remarkable how important he considers
the frequent (almost indiscriminate?) application of the simpler ornaments
(Plate 3). An interesting corollary to this example is Kuhnau's ClavierUbung
(Leipzig 1689/1692) of almost the same time, an engraving peppered with
indications for small graces. This not only shows something of the
parallels in ornamentation between different performance media but also
the ubiquity of the graces, particularly in the case of a composer such as
Kuhnau, who was considered quite conservative in his own time.
Mylius's explanation served as the basis for Feyertag's verbose chapter
on figures of 1695. Feyertag too notes the importance of the singer's
ability to add figures of the accentus type:

These are the most usual and usable forms of the accentus, which a scholar
should fully impress upon himself, because the composers themselves do not
always commit them to paper but suppose it will be the singers who add such
according to the manner and art of music, without knowing or understanding
where and how they can introduce them.

DiB sind die gewohnlichsten und gebrauchlichste Genera des Accents, welche eine
Scholar wohl sich itnprimircn solle / weiln sie / wiewohln die Herrn Compotiisten
selbe / nicht allezeit zu Papier bringen / sondern Supponirzw / es werden die
Sanger nach Arth und Kunst der Music solche ohne dafl wissen / und verstehen /
wo und wie sie solche anbringen konnen. (Feyertag 1695, p. 206)

Stierlein 1691, like Mylius, shows the direct influence of Bernhard's manu-
script treatises. The appendix to the first part ('Musica theorica') of this
ambitious treatise includes the basic ornaments, accentus, tremulo, groppo,
trillo. Stierlein's definition of the accentus is interestingly taken not from
Bernhard's singing treatise but from his composition treatises. Such a
harmonic definition is rare in a performance primer:

Accentus or supetjectio is an upwards or downwards sliding through a second, from

a consonance to a dissonance or from a dissonance to a consonance

Accentus oder Superjectio, ist ein AufT- oder AbschleifTung per Secundam, von einer
Consonanz in eine Dissonanz, oder von einer Dissonanz in eine Consonanz
(Stierlein 1691, p. 16)
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 137

Plate 3 Mylius 1685: texted example showing application of ornaments after the
manner of Bernhard

5et(jm MtfMlf (iirtC Exempli mtt Tcxien, Baft,

Am. not, . juitntt* tr. tnf.fyll. ceriotahf.fyII,

« " ••-«'<»^"y*<W»i"H«»^»^».V».>.J... J .- t> -- *

acc. dec*

ti ncm tvirb tie mtt tiium

=J:
: ; ;

™fcj:

ant. not., tr. umnou

iiiliili
^ KA
=:fc?=fi^
8 $ rt
138 Music education and the art of performance

Stierlein outlines three further versions of the doppelter Accent, which involve
more than one added note (neighbour-note figures, slides and turns - all
to be performed in a slurred, 'schleiffend' manner). Tremulo is now a
beating on a single note (i.e. in the modern sense of vibrato). 29 With
Stierlein, groppo is still in the old form of alternating notes (with ubiquitous
dotted rhythm), but Feyertag gives it as the more modern four-note turn.
Trillo is the modern upper-note trill in Stierlein (with elaborate instructions
on how to perform it), but Feyertag describes it more as a fairly violent
vibrato.30 Thus even after a century's tradition of German ornamentation,
older and newer definitions seem to survive side by side.

Attitudes towardsfiguredsinging at the close of the century: the move from performer
to composer

The profusion of complaints about ornamentation and diminution

suggest that they were still fairly widely practised throughout the latter
half of the seventeenth century. The pastor E. Gruber's elementary
primer (1673) stresses that pupils should pay attention to the text and
not hinder the edification of the listener with too many diminutions
and trills. One of the most vitriolic attacks on florid church music came
from the Pietist pastor of Lauben, J. Muscovius, quoted in chapter 2 (see
p. 27 above).
Ahle gives a good account of the theologians who have objected to
the contemporary performance with passages, quoting Muscovius's
amusing attack on coloratura-mongers. His reference to Spener's Pia
Desideria gives a strong clue as to why there was so much effort to
contain, if not abolish, the practice of diminution towards the end of the
century: the puritanical influence of the Pietist movement: 31
Therefore one must not wonder that numerous theologians are so zealously
against the present manner of concerting. It is about that which one of them
speaks in his reflections on D. Spener's Pia Desideria, that the coloratura-making
chamber musicians introduced into the church, or rather the Italian capon-
laughter, take away from the gravity and the devotion, often throw the temporal
in with the spiritual and adulterate the precious gold of serious, Godly truth.
Says D. Dannhauer in one place: Away with the supposed nightingales who
gladly hear themselves and sing to themselves (and not 'Gloria in excelsis Deo'),
who fly more in ambition than in notes!-Away with the new ridiculous Italian
leaps and siren songs that aim not at the spiritual heart but at voluptuous
worldly pleasures! . . . Because not only the learned men of God noted here but
also many more name the present stylus luxuriant a fleshly, voluptuous, far too
colourful and muddled music, that angers those who understand and troubles
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 139

the simple, and indeed neither pleases God nor edifies the congregation; thus
they do not wish to tolerate this at all in church either
Darum darf man sich auch nicht wundern / daB etliche Ttieologi wider die
heutige Concerten-Ahrt so eifern. Es ist auch an dem / spricht einer in seinem
Bedenken uber des Herrn D. Speners Pia Desideria> daB die colonrendc in die
Kirche eingefiihrte Kammermusiken / oder vielmehr Italianische Capaunen-
gelachter / von dem grunde und der andacht abfuhren / oft zeitliches und
geistliches untereinander werfen / und das kostliche gold gotlich gravitatischer
Wahrheit adulteriven. Hinweg / sagt D. Dafihauer an einem Orte / mit den
vermeinten Nachtigallen / die sich selbst gerne horen / ihnen selbst (und nicht
Gloria in excelsis Deo) singen / einander mehr in Ehrgeitz / als in Noten fugircn!—
Hinweg mit den neuen lacherlichen walschen Spriingen und Sirenen-Liedern /
die nicht nach der geistlichen Herzens, sondern iippigen Welt-Freude zielen! . . .
Weil dan nun nicht allein die hier gemelten Gottsgelehrten / sondern auch
andere mehr den heutigen Stylum luxiuriantem nennen einefleischliche/ iippige /
gar zu bunte und krauspe Musik / so die verstandigen argere / und die einfaltigen
betriibe / ja weder Gott gefalle / noch die Gemeine erbaue; derowegen sie auch
solche in der Kirchen gar nicht leiden wollen (Ahle 1704, pp. 81-3)

Many other writers also show a somewhat ambivalent attitude to the

performer's unilateral insertion of ornamentation, something which might
point to a wide variety of practice and opinion. Mylius's comments on
variatio notae outline some important developments in the attitudes towards
coloratura practice during this period:
Of this there was formerly such abuse that neither singers nor instrumentalists
were at all regarded if they could not vary a piece throughout in innumerable
ways, but nowadays this is better done by the famous instrumentalists, when
they give to one another a theme (a few notes of the bar, making variations over
this and varying it a hundred and more times, each mindful to exceed the
other), but in singing today it has simply ceased, because such coloraturas or
variations of the notes only cause one not to understand the text; thus one
should add only the slightest variations in vocal pieces, particularly when a piece
is set with simple notes; so I now introduce merely a few examples up and down-
wards, so that young people have only a foretaste of this, because the remainder
are in the composition and cannot be grasped so easily by their understanding.
Vor diesem war hierinnen ein solcher MiBbrauch / daB weder Sanger noch
Instrumentista etwas geachtet wurde / welcher nicht ein Stiicke durchaus auf viel
und unzehlige Arten verandern kunte / welches aber heutiges Tages, bey denen
beruhmten Instrumenfisten am bessern Gebrauch ist / daB sie einander ein Thema
(etliche wenige Tacte Noten) geben / (uber solche variiren / und solche zu hundert
und mehremahlen / nach dem einer den andern zu iibertreffen gedencket /
verandern /) welches aber im Singen heutiges Tages billich abgebracht worden /
weil solch Coloriren oder verandern der Noten, nur verursachet / daB man den
140 Music education and the art of performance

Text nicht verstehet; derowegen man in Singe-Sachen gar wenig variiren soil /
zumahl wenn ein Stuck mit schlechten Moten gesetzet ist / daher ich hiernechst
nur wenig Exempla Auf- und Abwarts beybringen wollen / damit die Jugend
hiervon nur einen Vorschmack habe / wcil doch das Ubrige in die Composition
laufft / und mit ihrem Verstand so leicht nicht kan begriflen werdcn.
(Mylius 1685, ch. 5)
Mylius concludes that if a boy does sing with the kind of variations he
prescribes, it should only be done in solo passages or at most when
another is singing with him; otherwise, in polyphonic music compositional
errors will doubtless arise. The same provisos are necessary for his next
category, passagio, the diminution of a longer note into smaller ones; it is
not entirely clear how this differs from variatio notae, other than that it is
to be used mainly in cadential gestures. Mylius adds that well-practised
singers introduce such passages with much licence and freedom, so that
the organist must determine by ear when to play. If other singers are
involved they must make trills on their held notes until the virtuoso
comes to a close; each should have his turn to show off his art. 32 As
usual the bass is excluded from all this glamour, unless of course he is
singing solo above a continuo line.
If Mylius's attitude to improvised ornamentation seems somewhat
ambivalent - what he gives with the right hand he seems to take away
with the left - his attitude is perhaps best summed up in his concern for
applicatio textus: all other considerations must be subservient to the text. As
ever, it is imitation and experience which produce the surest path to a
correct application of the various ornaments:
So a boy should take care that, if he is not well led by a capable teacher, or
has not learned particular passages, to content himself with the trillo, accent and
the above-mentioned graces, until he hears and understands more and better
from others, which he can achieve through the grace of God and the application
of diligence.
Daher soil ein Knabe sich hiiten / dafi / so er nicht von einem tiichtigen
Lehrmeister wohl angefiihret worden / oder sonderbahre Passaggien erlernet / er
sich an dem Trillo, Accent und obangesetzten Manieren begniigen lasse / biB er
ein mehrers und bessers von andern horet und begreifft / woran er durch
GOttes Gnade und angewenderen Fleifi wohl gelangen kan. (Mylius 1685)
Two of Mylius' points are typically to be found in late seventeenth-century
writing: the renewed concern for the understanding of the text (exactly
the reason Praetorius had for introducing these figures in the first place);
the growing role of the composer in the choice of coloratura. Ahle (1704),
in his discussion of abuses of coloratura practice, even notes that the
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 141

performers are often not so much at fault as the composers themselves,

who seldom know the correct time or appropriate place to add figuration.33
He takes a historical precedent to justify the dominance of the composer,
an anecdote about Josquin who complained of singers adding notes:
You ass, why do you add a coloratura here? If I liked that, I would certainly
have written it myself. If you want to correct well-composed pieces, write your
own and leave mine uncorrected.
Du Esel / warum tuhstu erne Coloratur hinzu? Hatte mir dieselbe gefallen / so
wolte ich sie wohl selbst gesetzet haben. Wan du recht gecomponirte Gesange
wilst corrigircn / so mache dir einen eigenen / und laB mir meinen ungeromgirt.
(Ahle 1704, p. 80)34

This change of perspective is also evident in Stierlein's account, De Figuris

Superjicialibus. He opens with a modified paraphrase of Bernhard's
quotation opening this chapter (see p. 121 above), including the conclusion
that today's music (and this is several decades after Bernhard) can be
compared to a rhetoric. There is an interesting twist here, though; Stierlein
implies that the composers first thought of these devices and that the
performers followed suit. Furthermore, he gives an extra justification for
the use of figures which stresses their role in serving both consonances
and dissonances.35 Does this subtle editing of Bernhard's original suggest
that Stierlein - writing at the end of the seventeenth century - could not
conceive that performers may have influenced composers? Certainly this
seems to substantiate Mylius's view that the composer was taking over
the singer's role in adding ornamentation. Furthermore Stierlein's
inclusion of Bernhard's compositional account of figures after this passage
suggests that performers were being encouraged to learn more about the
compositional theory underlying ornamentation: it comes as no surprise
that this is precisely the period when theorists were again defining musica
practica as the art comprising both musica poetica (composition) and musica
modulatoria (performance). Indeed Stierlein's treatise as a whole attempts
to give the performer an encylopaedic knowledge of all three fields of
music (see p. 35 above).
What is important here then is not so much Stierlein's particular
choice of the figures from Bernhard (or indeed his definitions per se) but
his attempt to show the harmonic justification for certain licenses. He
first mentions Bernhard's terms superjectio and subsumptioy which he does
not explain further since these have already been covered by the genus
accentus. The passagio is loosely defined as the countless diminutions over a
longer note, which can be made by both composer and singer. Ellipsis is
142 Music education and the art of performance

the omission of a consonance on the beat, so that the note following the
inserted rest is a dissonance: this is obviously similar to Printz's suspirans.
Retardatio is the upwardly-resolving suspension and heterolepsis - to be used
only in solo singing, with viols accompanying - is the taking of notes
which technically belong to another voice (i.e. voice-exchange which
would not be allowed in linear counterpoint). 36 Quasi transitus is the
accented dissonance, often approached by leap, which Stierlein allows
only in the recitative style, since here the beat is less strictly observed
(another direct quote from Bernhard). Finally abruptio is the rather curious
ending of a melodic line before the bass reaches the final note of a cadence.
Several writers, accepting the composers' dominance, still recommend
that the singer learn something about coloratura:

Although nowadays in singing it is no longer the practice to add much

coloratura to the notes where the composer has not indicated it — and it does
not lend itself well even to long notes — I have however specified just a few
here, and also a few variations on cadences, merely as exercise for the young.
Ob zwar in Singen die Variatioties notarum heutiges Tages nicht mehr in Usu, daB
man auf denen Noten viel Coloraturen mache / wo sie der Componist nicht gesetzt /
auch sich solche bey langsamen Noten nicht wohl anbringen lassen; so habe doch
nur etliche wenige / wie auch die Variatioties Cadentiarum zum blossen Exercitatio
der Jugend / mit anhero setzen wollen. (Beyer 1703, p. 60)

Thus coloratura is to be practised merely for the technique and facility it

affords. As Fuhrmann implied, the performer's task is primarily one of
recognition:

Truly one could complain here that the various graces specified in this chapter
need to be understood not at all by the vocalist but only by the composer.
Answer: it is true, but whoever does not peer with only one eye, sees without my
reminder that I have cited these poetic delicacies for the good of the student, so
that the same may learn to understand, at the side of the composers, something
of their language, if they label these graces with Italian names. For if a singer
sings away at a piece with enjoyment, but does not know how the virtuosi name
this or that grace, it is rather like the case of a peasant who devours a delicately
prepared concoction with great appetite, but does not know what type of dish he
has eaten, if one were to ask him.
Zwar mochte hier jemand einwerflfen: Es waren in diesem Capitel unter-
schiedliche Mankrtn specificirt, so ein Musicus vocalis gar nicht / sondern nur ein
Musicus Poeticus verstehen miiste. Antwort: Es ist wahr / aber wer nicht cochsch.
gucket / der siehet ohn mein Erinnern / daB ich diese delicias Poeticas einem
Tyroni zum besten mit angefiihret habe / damit derselbe bey Zeit der Componisten
ihre Sprache in etwas verstehen lerne / wenn dieselbe diese Manieren mit
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 143

Italianischen Namen exprimiren. Denn wenn ein Sanger ein Stuck schon mit Lust
wegsinget / weiB aber nicht / wie die Virtuosen diese und jene Manier darin
nennen / so gehets ihm fast eben als einem Bauer / der eine delicat zugerichtete
Potage zwar mit grossen Appetit hineinschlinget / weifi aber nicht / was er vor ein
Gericht gegessen / wenn man ihn fraget. (Fuhrmann 1706, p. 71)

Presumably Fuhrmann's general intention is to cultivate the skill of

recognising figures - thus to perform them in the appropriate manner -
and to give the singer the capability for adding them if necessary. His
vitium multiplicationis makes clear his assumption that ornaments are now
generally on the paper: singers who add as many figures as those already
notated often create graces that fit the Generalbass as well as a fist in the
eye.37 As Ahle stressed with his anecdote from Josquin, Fuhrmann notes
that if the composer had desired such elaboration he could easily have
composed it.38 Nevertheless, in Fuhrmann's condensed version of this
treatise in 1715 (from which one can learn music in six days) he not only
reprints his chapter on coloratura but expands it with some of the figures
from the Printz tradition (e.g. corta, messanza and suspirans).39

Eighteenth-century developments

After the first decade of the eighteenth century there seem to be far
fewer treatises addressed specifically to the Lutheran cantorates. However,
the influence of the earlier writings is still evident in Mattheson's chapter
'On the art of singing and playing with graces' (1739). It is here that he
outlines the basic requirements and common deficiencies of a good
singer (see p. 86 above), which suggests that matters of technique and
performance style were still indissolubly associated with matters of orna-
mentation. He notes that the distinction between graces for singing and
those for instruments has not sufficiently been emphasised in the past,
although singing should always form the basis for all musical inter-
pretation.40 In his study of modulatoria (cf. Printz's title of 1678), he alludes
to the somewhat ambiguous situation that was becoming evident at the
end of the seventeenth century: the singer should observe the composer's
intentions, yet at the same time perform with ornament and artistry:
True, it is not necessary that a singer, as such, would compose his melodies
himself, which is what the word 'modulate5 would mean to many; but it is
necessary that he knows how to perform a pre-composed melody not only
without the slightest offence against the directions but especially with much
grace, ornament, and artistry: the first is bad reading; the second is reading with
expression and good style. (trans. Harriss 1981, p. 265)
144 Music education and the art of performance

Zwar wird nicht erfordert, daB ein Sanger, als solcher, seine Melodien selbst
mache oder setze, wohin ihrer viele das Wort, Moduliren, deuten wollen;
sondern daB er eine bereits verfertigte Melodie sowol ohne den geringsten
AnstoB nach der Vorschriflt, als insonderheit daB er dieselbe anmuthig,
geschmiickt und kiinstlich herauszubringen wisse: das erste ist schlecht lesen; das
andre mit Nachdruck und guter Art lesen. (Mattheson 1739, p. 110)
Quoting Finck from the mid sixteenth century, Mattheson stresses that
'the matter is not merely determined by rules but more so by usage, long
practice and experience'. The ornaments he specifies are those that are
everywhere in favour and not simply determined by one's individual
experience. Thus just like Praetorius over a century before, Mattheson
implies a normative approach to musical expression and elaboration.
Mattheson begins predicatably with the accentus, now often called
appoggiatura and port de voix. Since so many textbooks have already dealt
with the conjunct varieties, Mattheson concentrates on leaping appoggia-
turas. Unable to cope with the concept of historical change in matters of
definition, he considers any view that the tremolo is a two-note ornament -
in particular Printz's - to be wholly erroneous and states that it basically
means a vibrato. To his mind, most earlier writers have also confused
the tremolo with the trilloy the trill in the modern accepted sense. The
groppo he defines as a large circling figure, the circolo mezzo as a similar
figure of half the size (again in contradistinction to earlier writers). He
continues with tiratas and smaller slides, ribattuta (the accelerating dotted
alternation of two notes) and transitus (the passing note), the definition of
which probably goes back to Bernhard's theories of dissonance. The last
two terms belong more to the eighteenth century than to the German
tradition: mordant (prefigured in Praetorius's tremolo) and acciaccatura, which
Mattheson curiously defines as a mordent on a whole tone. He omits
any explanation of those figures which he terms Very large and long',
such as the passaggi, bombi and mistichanze since these are the domain of
the composer rather than the performer.41
In all, then, Mattheson's definitions and terminology show the survival
of the seventeenth-century ornamental tradition but they are adapted to
the contingencies of his own age. Some of the older ornaments also survive
in Kiirzinger 1763 (e.g. groppo, tirata) but most writers after Mattheson base
their definitions solely on the newer Tosi/Agricola tradition (see p. 88
above). The Vorschlag and its compounds (Nachschlag and Doppelschlag) is the
principal grace (similar to the old Accentus) for Kiirzinger, Doles, Marpurg
and Petri. Almost as important are vibrato {Tremolo/Bebung) and trills.
Only Marpurg (1763) enters into a detailed examination of the
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 145

relationship between ornamental devices and the fabric of composition,

with his chapters on passages and manners. He separates 'mechanische
Setzfiguren', which comprise the 'willkuhrliche Auszierungen' - optional
improvised ornaments for the performer - from the 'Manieren', the
standard notated graces (Vorschlag, Schleifer, Triller etc), which he terms
'wesentliche Manieren' (essential ornaments). In other words he is making
a distinction between the basic figures of diminution which constitute
passages in music and can sometimes be improvised by the performer,
and the 'essential5 graces which are more a matter of good taste. Some-
thing of this distinction was evident in Bernhard's differentiation of 'plain
singing' (which did in fact include some ornaments, notably the accentus)
and singing with passages.
It is with Marpurg that we sense a more modern conception of orna-
ments as something distinct from the basic fabric of the music. His com-
ments on passages and their component figures hardly prescribe what the
singer should add; rather they provide the basis for analysis of the music.
Just as with Beyer and Fuhrmann, it is the recognition of the figures
which is most important:
The mechanical setfigures,which one simply calls setfiguresand which have in their
use a certain affect, originating in the rhetorical setfigures,are made either in the
tying together or in the diminution of the beats.
Die mechanischen Setzfiguren, die man schlechtweg Setzfiguren nennet, und in deren
Anwendung auf einen gewissen Affect, die rhetorischen Setzfiguren ihren Grund
haben, nehmen entweder aus der Zusammenziehung oder der Verkleinerung
der Tacttheile ihren Ursprung. (Marpurg 1763, p. 144)

Here then Marpurg is continuing the German tradition in compositional

theory, going back to Bernhard, in which most elements of the musical
surface (i.e. anything other than beat-by-beat movement) are explained
in terms of certain figures. The reference to the rhetorical basis for this
style of ornamentation has its origins in traditional German composi-
tional theory, something which is also evident in Praetorius's seminal
instructions on singing. Marpurg's terminology also shows the same
mechanistic thinking that is evident in Bernhard's compositional theory:
for instance, notes which come between the 'Hauptnoten' are defined as
'neighbour-notes' ('Nebennoten'), both harmonic and melodic (i.e.
consonant or dissonant); a neighbour-note which sounds on the beat in
place of a structural note is a 'changing note' ('Wechselnote'); a harmonic
neighbour-note which comes as a Nachschlag is an 'escaped note' fdurch-
gehende Note'; Marpurg 1763, pp. 144-5).
146 Music education and the art of performance

Tosi and Agricola represent the new 'specialised' level of singing,

something which was no longer directly associated with liturgical music.
It is significant that while they document detailed improvised passages,
mid eighteenth-century school primers do not. Petri does however give
some tantalising evidence of a form of improvisation which may have
had a long tradition: improvised harmony in chorale singing. There are
virtually no references to this practice in the standard school treatises of
the previous century,42 but Petri's comments imply that it was still a well-
ingrained tradition in the mid eighteenth century (indeed he still refers to
this practice in his extended treatise of 1782, p. 211):
How can one ensure that, when a choir sings well-known church chorales
without music, as must often happen, there are not such terrible transgressions
against a pure harmony in the bass and middle voices? And is it possible that
many heads in a choir can have a single mind? . . . One teaches each and every
one the most necessary rules of harmony and makes them acquire, through
frequent repetition of faults, a distaste for the same
Wie ist dem Uebel abzuhelfen, daB ein Chor, wenn es bekannte Kirchen-Chorale
ohne Noten singet, wie oft geschehen muO, im Basse und den Mittelstimmen
nicht so schreckliche Vitia machet gegen eine reine Harmonie? Und ist es
moglich, daB viel Kopfe eines Chores einerley Sinn haben konnen? . . . Man
lehre alien und jeden die nothigsten Regeln der Harmonie, mache ihnen durch
ofteres Wiederholen der vitiorum einen degout vor denselben
(Petri 1767, p. 63)
After giving a few rules of thumb on how to avoid the worst problems,
Petri states that the technique of singing improvised harmony is best
learned by initially using a figured bass line. What seems clear from his
description is that, in his time at least, many improvised in this fashion
without really understanding the rules of harmony.

If, as this study has suggested, the composer gradually took over the
singer's prerogative for adding the freer, improvised ornaments, but the
singer was increasingly encouraged to understand the composer's newly-
acquired art, one may question whether the average German singer ever
understood the fundamentals of composition, especially during the time
when he was still freely elaborating the composer's work (i.e. up to the
late seventeenth century). In other words, did the concept of musica
practica involve anything of the art of musica poetical Certainly Praetorius,
himself a first-rate composer, notes at the outset of the German Baroque
that the singer must not only have the natural gift of a good voice, 'but
also must have a good understanding and complete knowledge of music.' 44
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 147

However, it is clear from the context here that the 'complete knowledge
of music' is a knowledge of the ornaments and coloratura that he is
about to demonstrate. He does add that the singer cannot apply these
anywhere, but only at the appropriate place and with regard to the rules
of music. These points he probably intended to demonstrate in the third
section of the chapter ('Exercitatio') which he never wrote. Herbst like-
wise breaks off his narrative at the same point and merely adds
examples. Perhaps his Arte prattica & poetica (1653), which gives rules on
counterpoint, improvised 'contrapunct a mente' and Generalbass (mostly
plagiarised from Italian sources), is designed to provide the necessary
instruction for specialists.
Friderici and Bernhard imply that the singer must have some regard
for the rules of music, since they recommend that diminutions in the
bass (as the 'fundament') be avoided and that all elaborations should
return to the prescribed notes. Printz warns the singer to be particularly
cautious in polyphonic pieces, and pay heed to the 'fundament' in solo
pieces (Printz 1678, p. 44). However, like Praetorius and Herbst, these
authors do not state that the singer should understand composition; these
rules merely ensure that the notated composition is not ruined. The
reference to the bass as the 'fundament' clearly reflects the thinking of
the 'thoroughbass age': diminution is the melodic corollary to the
arpeggiated elaboration of a specific chord.
Tutors which give 'complete' singing instruction from rudiments to
ornamental figures also show that the latter could be learned without a
formal grounding in composition: for Dieterich (1631), coloratura was
the fourth body of skills to be learned after clefs, note-lengths and Italian
terms (which comprise only forte and piano here). Griiger introduces
ornamentation immediately after dealing with intervals and the various
signs used in music; he recommends that the singer discern to which trias
harmonica the piece belongs, but he does not seem to require any deeper
awareness of the harmonic structure (Criiger 1660, p. 18). Printz intro-
duces figures in the second part of his Compendium (1689), after a discussion
on the pronunciation of text; this sequence of tuition is essentially the
same as that in his first vocal treatise of 1671 (Printz 1689, pp. 42f).
Evidently, if Bernhard was correct in observing the influence of per-
formers on compositional practice, the influence flowed only one way.
There seems to be no evidence that improvising German performers were
necessarily acquainted with the rules of composition. Ornamentation and
diminution seem to have been treated merely as elements of performing
style. Ironically, it is only in the later seventeenth century - when singers
148 Music education and the art of performance

were enjoined not to disturb the composer's notated ideas - that there
are attempts to educate the performer in the rules of composition. Here
then it is appropriate to examine sources on musica poetica - treatises which
offer instruction in composition - to determine whether the composer
indeed absorbed the performer's art, as Bernhard affirmed.

O R N A M E N T A L F I G U R E S IN C O M P O S I T I O N A L
T H E O R Y AND P R A C T I C E

Bernhard's assertion, opening this chapter, is significant as a retrospective

view of the early years of the Baroque era. His theory was designed to
show that music of the tradition begun by Monteverdi (i.e. the seconda
prattled) could, by means of reductive analysis, be reconciled with the
traditional rules of counterpoint which were still fundamental to compo-
sitional instruction (i.e. the prima prattled). This he may have developed in
response to the polemics of Artusi, with which he probably became
acquainted during his visit to Italy.45 Artusi's complaints focus precisely
on that which 'charms the ears' rather than reason, and on composers who
adopt the accenti (usually upper neighbour-note ornamentation) traditionally
improvised by singers (preferably with discretion and judgement at that).46
Dahlhaus suspected that the Figurenlehre of Bernhard was a Germanic
apology for Italian vices, one which did not necessarily accord with the
motives or theoretical concerns of the Monteverdi school. Nevertheless
Bernhard's comment does resonate with that purely sensual (and thus
anti-mathematical) view of music propounded by Vincenzo Galilei,
which Dahlhaus considered so important to Italian musical aesthetics at
the outset of the seventeenth century (Dahlhaus 1986, pp. 141-50).
Bernhard's historical assertion that performers influenced composers
and compositional style is well substantiated by Newcomb's penetrating
study of the madrigal at Ferrara: the virtuoso style of the celebrated
women singers both necessitated the notation of diminution in order to
avoid clashes between the polyphonic parts and inspired composers to
use diminution as part of their regular language (Newcomb 1980, vol. I,
p. 59). Several Italian works published in the 1580s show diminution
used 'not merely as an incidental feature in a single voice but as an
essential and identical feature of the thematic material in several voices'
{ibid., p. 76).47
That Bernhard's theories were still significant in German-speaking
lands for several decades after his death is reflected by the numerous
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 149

copies of his treatises (for instance by Kuhnau and Stierlein),48 and by

the fact that his figural treatment of dissonance was assimilated by
writers located as far apart as J. B. Samber and Mattheson. Particularly
interesting is the appearance of substantial passages from Bernhard -
including that opening this chapter - in J. G. Walther's Praecepta of 1708,
perhaps the most significant theoretical source of compositional theory
for the early environment of J. S. Bach.
As has been noted above (see p. 141) the only treatise aimed speci-
fically at performers which contains a version of this statement is
Stierlein 1691. Nevertheless, Kuhnau 5s introduction to his publication of
keyboard sonatas, Frische Clavier Friichte of 1696, shows the close relation-
ship between his views as a practising composer and performer and his
opinions as a theorist, the latter seemingly derived from Bernhard's
comment. This gives us a very useful insight into the way a composer of
the late seventeenth century may have thought about his art and its
relation to history:

Now and then something can be seen which appears to correspond little with
the rules of the old composers. For I have written many movements or passages
of which I myself would have approved little a few years ago in the works of
other authors, however famous, and which often struck me like sour grapes or
other premature fruit. But the authority of the same practised virtuosi at that
time brought me to other thoughts, and allowed me to consider that the nature
of their works was rather like that of the so-called Ritter or green pears: these
are in appearance almost never ripe; but however suspect this fruit may be on
account of its colour, how ripe and delicious it can nevertheless be. And so I beg
forgiveness of these new artists from my heart . . . and recognise that they have
not sinned against the rules of the ancients at all but have merely sought in
accordance with reason to conceal the simple and natural mixing of the
consonances and dissonances as it were under the figures of oratory; or in
imitation of many gardeners, who wish to know the trick of producing a foreign
and lovely colour in common flowers.

Es lasset sich zwar hin und wieder etwas blicken / welches mit denen Regufen
der alten Componisten wenig iibereinzukommen scheinet. Denn ich habe manche
Satze oder Gange gemachet / die ich vor etlichen Jahren in anderer / wiewohl
beriihmter Autorum Wercken selbst nicht approbivtn wollen / und sind sie mir
offters wie Herlinge / oder ander unzeitiges Obst vorgekommen. Aliein die
Autoritat selbiger exercirten Virtuosen hatte mich damahls sollen aufT andere
Gedancken bringen / und erwegen lassen / daB es mit ihren Wercken fast die
Beschaffenheit habe / wie mit denen so genandten Ritter- oder griinen Birnen:
Diese sind dem Ansehen nach fast niemahls reiff; Doch so verdachtig als dieses
Obst wegen seiner Farbe ist / so reiff und wohlgeschmack kan es hingegen seyn.
Und also bitte ich es diesen neuen Kunstlern in meinem Hertzen . . . wieder ab /
150 Music education and the art of performance

und bekenne / daB sie wider die Regulen der Alten durchaus nicht gesiindiget /
sondern bloB gesuchet haben / die schlechte und natiirliche Vermischung der
Consonanticn und Dissonantien gleichsam under denen Oratorischcn Figurcn
vernunfftmafiig zu verstecken / oder es etlichen Gartnern nachzuthun / welche
das Kunst-Stucke wissen wollen / denen gemeinen Blumen eine frembde und
liebliche Farbe beyzubringen. (Kuhnau 1696, foreword)

The conception of the compositional style as heavily influenced by

ornamental figures is certainly an interesting view of the relationship
between the roles of composer and performer in the German Baroque. If
the music can indeed be viewed from the standpoint of its status in that
relationship, modern concerns for historical performance can more
profitably be directed towards that which lies notated in the music itself.
Analysis would play a more important part in the determination of a
legitimate interpretation, since much of the desired historical perfor-
mance style lies already encoded in the music, itself a distillation of
'original' performance practices.
Do the ornamental figures described in treatises specifically directed
towards composition reflect Bernhard's view that the composers were
absorbing and synthesising the mannerisms of performers? If so, was this
a literal annexation of the figures concerned, affixing them to an existing
musical structure, or were ornamental devices to be integrated more
tightly into the compositional fabric? A study of selected compositions
showing composers consciously notating ornamentation derived from
performance practice - and particularly those providing a simpler,
unornamented version concurrently - will help to establish how closely
the theories correspond to compositional practice.
While some Italian theorists (e.g. Zacconi and Diruta) do to some
extent absorb diminution into their treatises on counterpoint, the newer
dissonances are never really explained, only exemplified (see Gallo,
Groth, Palisca and Rempp 1989, pp. 288-90 and 347-8). All German
writings on compositional theory during the seventeenth century are
essentially manuals on late Renaissance counterpoint. Therefore any
concern with figuration or diminution is secondary and never evident in
the chapters dealing with the fundamentals of composition. What is
remarkable in the context of this study is that most references to ornate
composition correspond closely to their counterparts in the singing tutors.
Lippius 1612 introduces the matter of florid composition - as Praetorius
did for the singer - with reference to the nature of the text and the effect
of the music on the listeners; the composer can use these ornaments to
polish his harmonic oration. Coloratura is reserved for the upper voices,
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 151

while the bass proceeds slowly. Just as Bernhard was later to observe,
Lippius notes that 'in this style ordinary musicians often embellish a
basic composition when appropriate, using pleasant elegance like an
elaborate scriptural flourish5 (see p. 47 above).
Cruger 1654 falls into three parts, the first dealing with the rules of
harmony, the second with the ornamentation of melody and the third
with thoroughbass. The second section is essentially a Latin translation of
Praetorius's instructions to singers (which Cruger later incorporated into
his singing tutor). Clearly, then, the composer was to assimilate the
techniques used by performers (both ornamental figures and thoroughbass)
in order to perfect and refine his style. Praetorius's comment that singers
must not overstep the 'laws of music' and ruin the work with too much
coloratura is repeated, again without any real indication of how this is to
be achieved. Presumably the composer's study of counterpoint, his
knowledge of the text and experience in oratory will prevent him from
succumbing to the worst excesses of singers.
Printz's most detailed study of ornamental figures appeared in the
second part of his Satyrischer Componist (initially published in 1676-7, one
year before the vocal tutor of 1678, and after that of 1671), a treatise in
composition which, exactly like Criiger's, ends with an explication of
thoroughbass. As he states in the introduction to Figuren, the material is
equally useful for the composer and singer.49 The chapter is designed
expressly for composers who, although skilled in their art, lack their own
inventiones; working with these figures as elements of 'variation' will not
fail to stimulate the imagination. Given the title of the chapter -
'Tractatus de Variationibus & Inventionibus' - Printz clearly views
variation and invention as being two sides of the same coin. He schools
the composer in the arts of ornamenting pre-existent lines, and creating
new ones out of the available formulae. The only difference between this
text and that of his singing treatise of 1678 - for the most part the two
are identical - is the greater attention Printz gives here to the statistical
possibilities opened up by the use of each particular figure. There is
something rather mechanical about Printz's approach to figures: the
number of permutations for each is meticulously calculated, leading to
the remarkable conclusion that a single crotchet beat can, using figures
comprising quavers and semiquavers, be varied in 2,897 ways (Printz
1696, part 2, p. 61). The composer proceeds in just the same manner as
a singer schooled by the exhaustive examples in Italian diminution
treatises. To Printz the figure was something which was added to
melodic invention, somewhat in the manner of salt to food.50
152 Music education and the art of performance

It is not precisely clear how the composer is to use these figures since
Printz does not relate them to the rules of dissonance in composition
(these having already been covered in the first volume); the main inten-
tion is to stimulate invention.51 The prospective composer should proceed
from figure to figure; after weeding out those figures which have 'too
great an ambitus' or 'some other defect', he must thereafter
take one after another of the same, and add on to each another suitable figure,
first on just the same pitch as the last note of the first figure, as far as it is
appropriate, since few suchfigurescan prettily be employed in vocal pieces; after
that in all the other suitable intervals, both ascending and descending.
Hernach nimmt er eine nach der andern von denenselben / und setzt zu ihr
eine jewede andere schickliche Figur, erstlich in eben der clave, in welcher die
letztere Note der ersten Figur stehet / wofern es sich nur schicken will; sintemahl
wenig solche Figuren in ForaZ-Sachen hiibsch angebracht werden: Darnach in
alien andern geschickten IntervaHtn / so wohl auff- als absteigenden.
(Printz 1678, p. 66)
Therefore the composer assimilates figures originally used in performance,
and employs them during the actual process of composition.
The Leipzig cantor Johann Kuhnau gives a vivid picture of a composer
working with figures, along the lines of Printz's theories. In the intro-
duction to his cantata cycle of 1709 his primary intention is to explain
word-setting as a catalyst for invention and variation; however, he shows
that 'invention and variation' can be understood in another - specifically
musical - sense too:
Certainly the discussion here is not about the art and manner of variation and
invention, which I have considered in another place, namely how, for example,
four notes of a single quantity can be varied in such a way according to the
precepts of the art of combination 24 times, and five notes 120 times, and so on,
in that one multiplies the last product with the following number of notes to be
varied in arithmetic progression, so that soon each combination has a different
effect in the heart of the hearer. Such variations would be almost unending, if
one wished at the same time to change the quantity of notes somewhat.
Zwar ist hier nicht die Rede von der Art und Weise zu variiren und inventiren,
davon ich an einem andern Orte gedacht, wie nehmlich, zum Exempel, vier
Noten von einerley Quantitat nach denen Praeceptis artis combinatoriae 24.
mahl, und 5. Noten 120. mahl, und so fort, da man das letzte Productum mit
dem in Progressione Arithmetica folgenden Numero Notarum Variandarum
multipliciret, solcher gestalt konnen verwechselt werden, dass bald jede
Combination einen andern Effect in dem Gemuthe der Zuhorer operire. Welche
Variation fast unendlich seyn wiirde, wenn man an der Quantitat der Noten
zugleich etwas changiren wolte. (Kuhnau 1709, in MJMG, 1901, p. 150)
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 153

In this elaboration of Printz's system Kuhnau perhaps comes as close as

any author to suggesting the affective connotations of the note combi-
nations comprising diminution. However, it is clear that he is working
from a hypothetical standpoint; so infinite are the combinations and the
concomitant stirrings of the soul, that it is virtually impossible to describe
or analyse them, not to speak of relating them to a verbal language.
Just as Printz the theorist shows clearly that the art of variation is
shared by composers and performers alike, so one of Kuhnau's prede-
cessors as Leipzig cantor, Tobias Michael, adds diminution (or rather
substitutes simpler lines with diminution) in the manner of the singer in
some of the vocal lines for the second part of his Musicalische Seelen-Lust
(1637). The preface to the Quinta vox shows that he is very much of the
opinion that coloratura is the privilege of singers. He is openly apologetic
for having included lines of coloratura, since, in his experience, talented
singers perform better if they are given free rein in adding diminution,
and he cannot agree with those who want to tie everything down to one
manner. 52 His patently formulaic coloratura (following 'Kapsberger's
style') is provided as an alternative for certain parts of the extant lines
and is included merely by way of example to assist the inexperienced
(Example 9). Here he may have been following his predecessor as cantor
of the Thomasschule, J. H. Schein, who had likewise added some
passages in a publication (Diletti pastorali, Hirten Lust 1624), in full
awareness of the fact that composing was the duty of the composer,
'passaging' the privilege of the singer. Schein notated the diminution -
following the example of other 'foremost composers' - because many
German singers were still not particularly familiar with the contemporary
Italian style of singing.53
Despite Michael's claims that performers could have done this just as
easily, it is difficult to conceive how they could have improvised so freely
from the notated line (preserving only the first and last notes of the original)
without knowledge of the bass part, or, in the case of b. 31, of each
other's line. This consideration aside, Michael gives little attention to the
musical implications of the figured versions, just as if he were a singer
applying his favourite figures: in bb. 25-7 the rhythmic and melodic
elements of the original imitation are obscured by the diminution; the dimi-
nution of b. 31 more successfully (and necessarily) relates the simultaneous
vocal parts of the original, although the contrary motion is abandoned.
One of the most interesting commentaries on the relationship between
performing and composing practice in the latter part of the century is to
be found in J. G. Ahle's Musikalisches Gesprdche (1695-1701). In two of the
154 Music education and the art of performance

dialogues, Ahle (his Latinised name thinly disguised by the anagram

'Helianus') answers a student who complains of forbidden parallels caused
by the figuration in the music. His response is that if such a figure were
removed, the singer would surely add it (since figures of the accentus
variety are so often added in progressions involving thirds). Such notes
Example 9 Tobias Michael, Musicalische Seelen-Lusty part 2. No. 34, 'Kommet her
zu mir' (from the print of 1637; clefs modernised)
25

y * J. J>J i
Neh - met auff euch mein Joch/ Neh met auff euch mein
(Cantus diminutions]

m
Basso Continuo

Joch/

I Joch/

J
f *r
8
P
Neh • met auff euch
u u mein

mein Joch/

30.

«r ^ Ti r ir
Neh - met auff / auff euch mein Joch/ neh - met auff euch mein Joch/

neh - met auff euch /auff euch mein Joch/ neh - met auff euch mein Joch/
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 155

are so short in time that they cannot cause offence. Why should one
forbid in notation that which is common in singing and playing? If
performers give such elegance and gracefulness with the various figures
(here there is a list of references to many of the vocal treatises already
encountered) how can it be wrong if the composer does the same?
(Ahle 1695, pp. 32~4). Helianus later substantiates this argument by
observing that 'intrinsically short dissonances' can neither mitigate an
error nor cause one.54
Here the composer is explicitly recommended to imitate performers,
since much is to be gained from the style therein and any passing
parallels can be tolerated just as they would be in performing practice.
J. G. Walther - who also borrowed Bernhard's comment (p. 149 above) -
quotes Ahle on this matter, adding that figures must be employed with a
respectable moderation, so that any illegal consecutives pass by without
the ear noticing.55 Obviously singers had made their mark on musical style
with their expressive devices (of which diminution practice was a com-
ponent) and composers were anxious not to lose their share of the credit.
It is significant that Ahle's later comments (1704) added at the end of
an enlarged edition of his father's singing treatise of 1673 suggest that
complaints about coloratura practice should be addressed not so much to
performers as to the composers themselves, who so seldom understand
the correct time and suitable places to add the 'figures of music' (see
p. 141 above). Although this could imply a contradiction in Ahle's
thinking - i.e. the references to the 'correct time' and 'suitable places'
might suggest that the performer/composer should assiduously avoid
errors of musical grammar - it is more likely he is concerned with the
appropriateness of such devices to the text, and that the work is not
deformed and rendered unrecognisable. As a poet laureate, Ahle was
greatly concerned with text setting and the transfer of poetic rhetorical
devices to music. Strictness of musical grammar was perhaps subservient
to the affect and meaning of the music, matters which were understood
innately and learned by example rather than through theory:
Whoever has a musical ear and good judgement, and understands the musical
passions, he will know well when, how, and where he should use dissonance.
Wer ein Musikalisches Gehor und gutes judicium hat / und die Pathologiam
Musicam versteht / der wird die Discordanzcn wohl zugebrauchen wissen / wan /
wie / u. wo er sol. (Ahle 1699, p. 39)
It is not difficult to find composers of Ahle's era who give little attention
to the harmonic accuracy of coloratura. Example 10 shows two extracts
156 Music education and the art of performance

Example 10 Johann Schelle, Chrislus, der ist mein Ijeben (text from Johann Schelle: Six
Chorale Cantatas, ed. Mary S. Morris, Recent Researches in the Music of the
Baroque Era, 60-1, Madison, 1988)

Violin 1

Violin 2

Violin 3

Violin 4

Continuo

from the florid instrumental parts in the cantatas of Johann Schelle, yet
another cantor at the Thomasschule, Leipzig. Clearly this is the sort of
notated coloratura which Ahle excused: the harmonic problems could be
mitigated by the speed at which they pass (but the composition hardly
seems perfected to the degree we might expect from Schiitz). On the
other hand this may provide us with a good notated example of the kind
of coloratura improvised by performers of the period.
What is significant, if not unexpected, about these theoretical and
practical views of composition, is that they not only substantiate Bernhard's
point that composers had in the past absorbed the devices of performers
but also imply that composers of the present should behave exactly as if
they were performers: much was to be gained by adopting the latters'
'mannerisms'. Only Printz (and to a certain extent Kuhnau) went so far
as to suggest that figures might be the catalyst for invention, but this is
merely a possibility opened up by the study of figures, one which is
essentially identical to that offered to performers.
However, as the overview of vocal tutors has revealed, the composer
seemed to be gaining precedence over the performer towards the end of
the seventeenth century. Werckmeister - somewhat more cautious than
Ahle - was quite unequivocal in his distaste for composers contravening
the fundamentals of musical grammar:
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 157

One always seeks that which is new, which is good, but there must be a reason
for it . . . Whoever understands the firm progressions and true resolutions of
dissonance, will also introduce the graces cautiously. Therefore no one should
show off until he has first a certain grounding in his art.
Man suchet immer was Neues / ist wohl gut / aber es muB ein Grund dabey
seyn . . . Wer die SaBe / progressions, und rechte resolutions der dissonantien
verstehet / der wird auch die Manirm behutsam anbringen. Darum prale doch
ja niemand / er habe denn erstlich einen gewissen Grund von seiner Kunst.
(Werckmeister 1700, p. 18)
As a writer who still saw all arts as grounded in the order of nature,
according to God's plan, Werckmeister saw dangers in adopting dimi-
nution practices which contradicted the fundamentals of composition.
Obviously the German composers whom we now consider to be the
greatest of their age employ figuration in a manner which reflects
Werckmeister's concern for the integrity of the compositional style. The
one school of compositional theory which did attempt to account for
composers' use of figures in terms of traditional compositional proce-
dures was that of Bernhard himself. Bernhard's work on figures - 'a
certain manner of using dissonances so that these do not sound repulsive,
but much more pleasant, and bring the composer's art to the light of
day' 56 - is well documented in modern literature. All manners of
dissonant licence are discussed, so ornamental figures of the kind
encountered in practical tutors form only one part of Bernhard's wider
survey of 'figures' (which, for example, also covers the resolution of
dissonances by other voices, and chromatic progressions). Although the
two treatises in composition are designed as prescriptive methods for the
student composer, it is quite clear that Bernhard's treatment of figures
(particularly the figurae superficiales which are used in the modern stylus
luxurians) is essentially analytical, an account of how the figuration in the
compositions of his age could be explained in terms of a background
adherence to the rules of dissonance prescribed by the prima prattica.
Many examples show how certain passages make sense musically when
they are understood in terms of the proposed reduction (Example 11).
Federhofer's study of 1989 and an earlier one by Rifkin (1972) have
convincingly shown that Bernhard's methods are a viable method of
analysing music of the Schiitz era (especially in view of Schiitz's own
prescription of strict counterpoint for the incipient composer, in the
preface to the Geistliche Chor-Music of 1648) in a manner which would not
merely permit any random succession of notes to be justified according
to strict rules of counteipoint. Bernhard's approach is unique in taking
158 Music education and the art of performance

Example 11 Ghristoph Bernhard, Tractatus, Chapter 33 (Miiller-Blattau

1926/1963, pp. 81-2; clefs modernised)

Stehet natiirlich also:

y.r r f i§

=F=^

the figured version as the starting point rather than as the elaboration of
a simple version. The reduction (as in Example 11) reflects the com-
poser's subconscious absorption of the fundamental contrapuntal rules
and is therefore not necessarily a proposed compositional sketch which
must have been written first. He thus shows how many composers of his
age were creating music of greater depth than that purely derived from
the conventions of performing embellishment.
However, it is significant that Bernhard still frequently notes that
figures of embellishment and diminution originated in performance
practice; indeed in the second treatise he introduces figurae superficiales
with the historical conception of figures opening this chapter. Further-
more, many of the figures (i.e. methods of using dissonance) are exactly
those which he also specifies in his treatise on singing (i.e. methods of
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 159

embellishment). The first figure in both compositional treatises is the

supetjectio or accentus, shortly followed by subsumtio or cercar della nota and
variatio or passagio (Muller-Blattau 1926/1963, pp. 71-5, 147-50). In the
last category, intervals - beginning with the second - are embellished in
turn, exactly in the manner of an Italian diminution treatise. Bernhard
even goes so far as to suggest that the composer remain alert to current
fashions in performance, avoiding variations that are too old-fashioned.57
He carefully explains passages of diminution in terms of figures he has
already described:

it is clear that variation upon the third is nothing other than the transitus . . . that
upon the fourth originated from the quasi-transitus. The rising or falling fifth,
since it is naturally composed of two thirds, is therefore varied in the same
manner as thirds are - that is with the true transitus.

NB. Aus diesem Exempel erhellet, daB die Variation der Terlie nicht anders ist, als
ein Transitus . . . daB die Variation der Quarte aus dem Quasi-Transitu herflieBe.
Die steigende oder fallende Quinte, wie sie natiirlich aus 2 Tertien bestehet, also
wird sie auch wie die Tertien variiret und ist daher ein wahrer Transitus.
(Muller-Blattau 1926/1963, pp. 73-4)

As has already been noted, Bernhard's method of analysing the figures

used in composition was adopted by several later theorists: (e.g. Stierlein,
Samber, Walther, Heinichen, Mattheson and Marpurg). As late as 1752
Ruetz remarks that the quantity of figures in the music of his day is that
which most distinguishes it from that of earlier generations. However the
requirements of perfection ('Vollkommenheit') - perhaps more of a
concern to mid eighteenth-century aesthetics than to those of Bernhard's
time - demand that the more varied the figuration adopted, the more
necessary it is that everything be united and directed to one end.58
Although Bernhard's theory clearly acknowledges the influence of
improvised diminution on compositional practice, the figures are viewed
from the standpoint of an experienced composer, immersed in late
Renaissance conventions. This rather contradicts Ahle's view that com-
posers should loosen their pedantic rules of voice-leading in favour of the
immediacy of expression achieved by singers. R. P. M. Spiess (1745)
effects, to some extent, a compromise between the two views, since he sep-
arates the figures constituting the decoratio of music into two types: those
which are notated by the composer and those to be improvised by the
performer.59 It is difficult always to discern a clear distinction between
these two fields, since general figures of ornamentation are common to
both; however, the figures specified for the composer are of a more
160 Music education and the art of performance

rhetorical nature, relating to the poetic effect of the music (abruptio,

anabasis etc) rather than to the specific motives employed. 60
In sum, there are two basic attitudes to notated figuration in
seventeenth-century Germany, both of which clearly acknowledge the
influence of performance conventions. First, there are the writers and
composers (Michael, Printz, Ahle and Schelle) who take over the
performer's art wholesale and recommend that the composer apply it in
his written compositions, as a free embellishment of a simpler structure.
Secondly there are those (Bernhard and his followers) who - while
adopting many motivic patterns used in performance - give more
attention to the role and development of the figuration concerned,
justifying it in terms of an underlying system and ultimately changing the
norms of the compositional language itself. Clearly the actual state of
affairs is hardly likely to be clear-cut, but the hypothetical distinction is a
useful tool by which to gauge the attitude of any particular composer to
the task of composition.

T H E R E L A T I O N S H I P BETWEEN C O M P O S E R AND
P E R F O R M E R : M U S I C A P O E T I C A AND P R A C T I C A
The most interesting cases of notated ornamentation are those where the
composer seems to be taking over the performer's art, but tends to use
the figures in a manner which could not possibly have been achieved by
the improvising performer. Praetorius's notated coloratura in his
Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619) is an obvious attempt to introduce the 'latest
Italian manner' into German church music and is, as such, the corollary
of his vocal tutor. He clearly states in his 'Ordinantz' that the 'simplex'
version has been added above the more elaborate lines so that boys,
especially in schools, can still perform the works if they are unfamiliar
with diminution practice.61 He clearly considered his ornamented lines as
the 'official' text and the simpler versions as a means of rendering the set-
tings more usable; this is quite the opposite of the case in Tobias Michael's
publication (some twenty years later) where the composer seemed almost
embarrassed to specify coloratura (see p. 153 above). Praetorius remarks
that boys can use the given examples as models by which to simplify
other passages; as a rule of thumb, the first note of diminution over the
syllable of text is usually the principal note for the simple version. All
this suggests that Praetorius composed the versions with diminution first.
On the other hand, since most of the works are chorale-based, much
of the diminution was obviously composed around the notes of the
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 161

original melody; indeed Praetorius states in the introduction to no. 14

'Wir glauben all' that 'your humble servant has somewhat diminished
the Chorale in the vocal parts in the current Italian fashion'. 62 However
what is significant is that in some places the diminution presents a rather
more coherent musical structure than that of the simplified version. In
the second part of no. 15, 'Aus tiefer Not' the ornamentation links the
parts in bb. 9-10 by sequential movement in thirds (Example 12). This
produces a far more unified texture than that of the simplified parts
which bear no melodic relation to each other and lack the sequential

Example 12 Michael Praetorius *Aus tiefer Not', part 2 (Polyhymnia caducealrix,

1619). Bar numbers from M. Praetorius: Gesamtausgabe, ed. Friedrich Blume
(Wolfenbiittel, 1928-40), xvii; music text revised from original print of 1619.

simplex

Cantus 1
mm
[ - en trau - ]

und sei - ner Gii

simplex
1 I
Cantus 2

und
Mf
sei - ner Gii

m
10

m
162 Music education and the art of performance

movement. Likewise, in no. 24, 'Siehe wie fein und lieblich ist', the
imitation from the word 'und' is more consistent than that in the simpler
version (Example 13). In the third part of this piece the two ornamented
voices imitate each other in short phrases; however, the simplified
version in slower note values often lacks this consistency, since literal
imitation would have led to awkward dissonances.
Significant conclusions can be drawn from the case of Praetorius. First,
as a composer, his practice was more sophisticated than that advocated
by the compositional theorists who suggested merely that the composer
imitate singers. The very act of notating coloratura caused its nature to

Example 13 Michael Praetorius, 'Siehe wie fein und lieblich ist' (Polyhymnia caduceatrix,
1619). Bar numbers from M. Praetorius: Gesamtausgabe, ed. Friedrich Blume (Wolfenbiittel,
1928-40), xvii, music text revised from original print of 1619

20

simplex
Cantus 1 rv
Sie - he wie fein und lieb - lich ist lieb

simplex
Cantus 2

JIJ. J. J»
Sie-hewie fein_ fein und lieb - lich

23

frr
y ' y\

lich ist wie fein und lieb-lich ist

llJ J

ist lieb
pilich ist
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 163

change, from added ornament to musical substance, something which

was also evident in the Italian repertory in the last decades of the
previous century.63 It may well be the composers' assimilation of figures
of diminution and the - probably unconscious - subjection of them to
the standard processes of composition which accounts for some of the
basic compositional changes during the German Baroque. The increas-
ingly authoritative use of figures by composers has also been amply
demonstrated by the comments in vocal treatises of the late seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries. However, this process was clearly not a
linear historical development, since composers can be found in both
categories throughout the period concerned: while the role of the figurae
superficiales might be equivocal in Praetorius, dispensable in Michael and
questionable in Schelle, it is difficult to see the notated figuration in the
music of J. S. Bach as optional or capriciously formed; here diminution
is indispensable and (as Printz recommended) the very substance of the
'invention'.
However, this does not mean that performers were to give up their
responsibilities in understanding the figuration. Several writers in the
latter part of the period stress - quite to the contrary - that the per-
former must be familiar with the art of composition too (see p. 141
above). Werckmeister's distaste at incompetent diminution is supported
by a large quotation from Kuhnau's Der musicalische Quacksalber which
centres on the qualities of the true musician. A performer who does not
know the rules of composition is no better than a bird; likewise a
composer who does not understand practice is like a dumb orator. 64
Niedt similarly suggests, in the preface to the second part of his
Handleitung (1706), that 'A true musician's equally composer' (Poulin and
Taylor (trans.) 1989, p. 60). The vogue for relating music to rhetoric (as
is evident in the quotation from Bernhard at the opening) may also have
played a part in this association of composer and performer: he who
writes a speech must equally be capable of delivering it, and vice versa.
There may also be a strong social case for the closer association of
composers and performers and the growing versatility of musicians in the
latter part of the seventeenth century in Germany. First, the cantor's role
was moving from that of schoolmaster or musical instructor towards
that of a more purely practical musician who was expected both to
compose ever more demanding music and to direct the performance (see
p. 17 above). Secondly, the roles of organist and cantor were drawing
closer together, so that such posts could be - and often were - filled by
someone capable of fulfilling both roles (consider the careers of Buxtehude
164 Music education and the art of performance

and J. S. Bach). Thirdly, the cantor, as a more practical musician, often

achieved higher status as town music director (J. S. Bach) or even opera
director (Telemann). Such increased mobility contributed to a greater
mingling of musical functions and styles. A glance at the achievements of
the pupils of Bach and the surviving testimonials he wrote for them give
a remarkable insight into the versatility expected of the more talented
practical musicians: most sang, played several instruments and also
composed.
The growing importance of thoroughbass is another symptom of this
development: composition was increasingly learned through the most
practical method, one which cultivates fluency in both composition and
performance. It is interesting that in the early eighteenth century compo-
sition was taught in the sequence thoroughbass - strict counterpoint (e.g.
Niedt, Heinichen, and later, Kirnberger) while in the preceding century
the sequence was precisely the reverse (e.g. Herbst, Criiger and Printz).
The interaction between composer and performer is also reflected in
some of the definitions of music from the latter part of the seventeenth
century. Printz and Walther define musica practica as an art encompassing
both musica modulatoria (performance) and musica poetica (composition) while
earlier German authors tended to reserve musica practica for performance
alone (Printz 1676 (vol. I)/1696, p. 17; Walther 1708, pp. 14-15). The
definition of Printz and Walther persists in the writings of Murschhauser
1721 (p. l ) a n d M a i e r 1741 (p. 23).

Performers of German Baroque music today are obviously no longer the

composers. However, this study has suggested that much of the musical
style itself derived from the continuous and changing dialogue between
composer and performer. Indeed many major issues in performance
practice can be reduced to the basic inquiry into the bias of any par-
ticular text or repertory toward composer or performer. Is the performer
expected to add coloratura? If the composer has notated it, has he done
so as a casual performer or has he reformed the figures concerned and
integrated them into a deeper imitative structure? Modern performers
may also alter their attitude to their task when they appreciate how the
composer probably gained just as many ideas from what he heard
performed as from what he had formally learned as a composer; thus as
performers we must learn from the composer what 'we' originally taught
him. Differences and subtleties in interpretation will reside in the
subjective assessment of the details of a simpler 'background' and of how
each ornamental figure relates to it.
 Ornamentation and the performer and composer 165

The performer also has a variety of historical opinions to choose

from: while many vocal tutors - particularly the earlier ones - imply that
he was a 'blind' elaborator of the composed musical structure, some of
the later theorists suggest both that the notated music is becoming more
didactic and that the performer should understand the essentials of
composition. There is an interesting dichotomy here: the performer
appears in one category as a Composer' who need not understand com-
position, while in the other he is purely an 'interpreter' who is expected
to understand the whole theory of composition and the relationship
between the figural texture and the contrapuntal and chordal structure.
Perhaps then, as musical compositions became more 'fixed' in notation
at the outset of the eighteenth century, it became crucial that performers
did not lose the interpretative colour that improvisation would formerly
have lent their performances; they still had to view the music from
'inside' in order to bring across its rhetorical properties.
 6

The decline of the Lutheran cantorates

during the eighteenth century

This study has thus far centred on the musical period commonly termed
the Baroque; as chapter 2 suggested, this is the era of the greatest
flowering of Lutheran church and school music. Nevertheless, both the
changes in educational stance and the internal developments of music as
a specialist art, growing away from its academic roots, sowed the seeds
for the eventual demise of this rich tradition. This final chapter examines
the literature relating to this period of decline, from three angles:
evidence for the stagnation and decline of many cantorates; new develop-
ments in performance practice and pedagogic stance and their influence
on the more secure establishments (and thus a continuation of chapters 4
and 5); and finally, a consideration of changing attitudes to the function
and status of music (thus concluding the study of such topics in chapter 2).

DECLINING STANDARDS OF PRACTICAL MUSIC

INSTRUCTION
There are many indications that the standards of singing both in school
and in German musical life had declined precipitously by the mid
eighteenth century. One first-hand report even suggests that the choir of
the Thomasschule in Leipzig was virtually non-existent in the last years
of J. S. Bach's life (see Frode 1984); Quantz alludes to the general
poorness of singing in German schools (1752, ch. 18/80),1 and Agricola
states at the outset of his translation of Tosi's renowned singing treatise
that the Germans have not perfected singing to the same level as the
Italians. His extensively annotated translation of 1757 is clearly an
attempt to remedy a situation for which the decline of the basic music
education in schools must partly have been responsible. Burney's
chronicles also paint a grim picture of indigenous German singing

166
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 167

in establishments less exposed to Italian performers, such as the

Leipzig playhouse.2
The situation is well illuminated by a consideration of the life and
writings of the most notable figure in German music education during
the latter half of the eighteenth century, Johann Adam Hiller. To begin
with, he spent much of his career outside the traditional church and school
establishment. 3 Indeed he was instrumental in fostering the concert
tradition in Germany, and founded the first German music conservatory,
that institution which was to replace the Latin school as the central
authority in practical music instruction. His departure from the norms of
the conservative church/school tradition is shown even more clearly by
his advocacy of the musical education of women, who should have every
right to sing church music; the fact that it was traditional to exclude
women from church music was, in itself, no good reason.4 He became
cantor of the Thomasschule, Leipzig only at the end of his career, revi-
talising an old (but still venerable) institution with the hindsight of the
more modern systems of music education.
The introduction to Hiller's first singing treatise gives perhaps the
clearest picture of German singing in the 1770s and its relation to the
school environment. The author opens with the bold statement that,
while everyone sings, the vast majority sing badly. 5 And, although he
considers German composers superior to Italian ones, German singing is
significantly backward, primarily because of the standard and style of
tuition in schools. Here Hiller uncovers what he sees as an unthinking
attitude towards learning, one that evidently seemed anomalous in the
Age of Enlightenment; now young people had to understand the structures
underlying any system of rules before they could transfer and apply those
rules in other circumstances:
In singing I enjoyed instruction, communally along with others, from my twelfth
year onwards, as is usual in schools. To be sure, pitching and rhythm were
certainly the goal towards which we had to run; but the way was so uncertain
and uneven that it took much time before one learned to go without stumbling.
The example of this or that interval, written on the board according to the
succession of scale degrees, was always soon learned; but if one of these intervals
should be given out of order, we were like the honourable Corporal Trim in
Tristram Shandy, who knew the fourth Commandment very well; but only when
he could begin with the first. Of the good use of the voice, of the comfortable
drawing of breath, of a pure and clear pronunciation, however essential these
elements of singing were, little or nothing was mentioned.
Im Gesange habe ich, von meinem zwolften Jahre an, den Unterricht, wie er auf
Schulen gewohnlich ist, mit andern gemeinschaftlich genossen. Treffen und Tact
168 Music education and the art of performance
war freylich wohl das Ziel, nach welchem vvir laufen mufiten; aber dcr Weg war
so unsicher und Holpricht, daB viel Zeit dazu erfordert ward, ehe man ihn ohne
Stolpern gehen lemte. Die nach der Stufenfolge der Tonleiter an eine Tafel
geschriebenen Exempel dieses oder jenes Intervalls waren immer bald gelernt;
aber wenn eins dieser Intervalle auBer der Reihe angegeben werden sollte, so
gieng es uns, wie dem ehrlichen Corporal Trim beym Tristram Schandy, der das vierte
Gebot sehr gut wuBte; aber nur, wenn er beym ersten anfangen durfte. Vom
guten Gebrauche der Stimme, vom bequemen Athemholen, von einer reinen
und deutlichen Ausspruch, so wesentliche Stiicke sie auch beym Gesang sind,
ward wenig oder nichts erwahnt. (Hiller 1774, *Vorrede')

Clearly some cantors in the mid eighteenth century were still teaching
singing in exactly the same manner as outlined by the primers from
nearly two centuries before. 6 Secondly, the advances in performance
technique and details of inteipretation which became more prominent in
the 'middleground' seventeenth century treatises seem to have all but
disappeared. Certainly it has already been noted that the sixteenth-
century format - and indeed treatises such as Faber's - survived well into
the Baroque period and that there seemed to be a noticeable decrease in
publications during the first decades of the eighteenth century. As
Quantz observed in 1752, German school choirs sang with a uniform
volume of tone, knew nothing of uniting the vocal registers and aspirated
much of the passage-work, creating a choppy, unrefined style (Quantz
1752, ch. 18/80).7
In 1781 Hiller made explicit his opinion that the backwardness of
German singing lay in an unthinking, mechanical attitude to the art, an
opinion that might well be shared by a modern reader of much of the
literature relevant to the present study:
Good voice production, clean and clear pronunciation, smooth breathing is
nowhere thought of, though everything depends on it. One sees from this that
the study of singing is as deficient as ever in Germany. The endeavour of most is
directed purely towards the achievement of great mechanical dexterity.
An gutes Tragen der Stimme, an reine und deutliche Aussprache, an bequemes
Athemholen wird uberall nicht gedackt, worauf doch alles ankommt. Man siehet
daraus, daB das Studium der Musik immer noch mangelhaft in Deutschland ist.
Das Bestreben der meisten ist bios auf eine Erlangung einer groBen mechanischen
Fertigkeit gerichtet.
(Introduction to Hiller's Duetten 1781, quoted in Weimar 1795, p. 4)

The situation that Hiller describes may have developed because the
better musicians (such as himself) were no longer attracted to service in
school and church, and because the authorities were turning away from
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 169

the appointment of musically outstanding cantors (see p. 189 below).

Many supported the appointment of cantors of the traditional 'academic'
type who taught music along very conservative, if not archaic lines. 8
Hiller was aware of the extent of the German pedagogic literature on
singing in schools and how this far exceeded the amount published in
Italy.9 He reckoned that this vast corpus of literature was not properly
used and did not in any case give sufficient practical instruction (he even
criticises Marpurg's treatise for its dearth of practical examples). However,
he does admit that the Germans are better at sight-singing than the
Italians, since they learn instruments as well. Furthermore, since church
musicians had to sing so much for the regular services with little time
for adequate preparation, they often became reliable choir singers even if
they were not fine soloists.
Here it seems appropriate to ask why earlier writers did not anticipate
Hiller's views. Certainly many of the earliest Lutheran primers were
designed to cultivate nothing more than fluency of reading. But, as has
been shown, there was a growing number of writings which did introduce
elements of voice culture. However, most elements of technique were
related to other, more pressing concerns, namely ornamentation, expres-
sion and the presentation of the text. By Hiller's time, singing technique
was being studied in the more modern sense as a 'Wissenschaft' in
itself. As music evolved as less of a functional, unquestioned part of
education and society, its component techniques became more abstracted.
Significantly Hiller divides the art of singing into two separate treatises:
the first concerns 'Richtigkeit' ('correctness', 1774), the second 'Zierlichkeit'
('grace', 1780).
Petri's expansion of his 1769 treatise in 1782 is another good
testimony to the changing circumstances, attitudes to, and demands for
music. Petri was still actively engaged as a school cantor, but he notes at
the outset that the enlarged treatise addresses the 'Verbesserung der
Kirchen- und Konzertmusik' ('improvement of church and concert
music'). It is essentially an encyclopaedic work offering the incipient
musician as many facets of performance as possible. While pupils should
be trained so that they can sing music directly according to the intentions
of the composer and conductor, they should also gain some critical
knowledge themselves so that they can avoid the provincial and ignorant
attitudes of many teachers (Petri 1782, foreword).
Like Hiller, Petri recommends that singing be taught with more
practical emphasis and he believes that even without Italian-style conser-
vatories, music in schools could be so much better if it were taught with
170 Music education and the art of performance

knowledge and understanding.10 Petri later outlines some specific reasons

why the church choirs sing so poorly: if the ensemble and pronunciation
are poor, the cantor is at fault; cantors also often let soloists perform
without adequate ornaments or conversely permit chorus singers to
perform with them. Citizens do not pay enough to secure good music
and the young performers are lazy, often singing from memory (Petri
1782, p. 209).
Some twenty years later, the second volume of ForkePs Allgemeine
Geschichte der Musik (1801) provides the most comprehensive and deva-
stating account of the decline of singing instruction in German schools.
Forkel notes that chorales used to be taught in schools and that cantors
once paid great attention to the purity of tone and intonation in singing,
bringing melodies to those who were ignorant of them.11 The status of
church music had greatly changed by the end of the eighteenth century:
Thus it has come to pass that [chorale singing] in most churches has for the
most part lost its edifying quality, there is often more howling than song, and the
standard has sunk to that which Luther even in his time named lazy chorale
singing, in which no life, no confidence, in short, no expression reigns.
Daher kommt es denn, daB er jetzt in unsern meisten Kirchen seine
Erbaulichkeit groBtentheils veloren hat, oft mehr Geheul als Gesang, und zu
dem herunter gesunken ist, was Luther schon zu seiner Zeit den faulen Choral-
gesang nannte, worin kein Leben, keine Zuversicht, kurz kein Ausdruck herrscht.
(Forkel 1801, p. 15)
Forkel is quite scathing of the general ignorance of teachers, who know
little about 'true works of art' and teach little more than dance, folksong,
ariette, or at most a sonata of the same kind. 12 Thus even if some
schoolmasters were still interested in teaching music, it seems it was
entirely for secular pleasure.

L A T E R D E V E L O P M E N T S IN E D U C A T I O N A L S T Y L E
AND C O N T E N T
Some writers, even late in the eighteenth century, preserve a remarkably
conservative format and educational style. Nopitsch's treatise of 1784 was
addressed to complete beginners, specifically the lower classes of the
Trivialschulen. The format is roughly that of traditional 'middleground'
treatises, covering all the basics of notation in the first part and issues of
performance and interpretation in the second. However, unlike most
writers, he introduces correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants
as the content of the opening chapter. Later he stresses the supreme
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 171

importance of coupling the sense of the text with the appropriate

musical expression:
If he attains these indispensable principal parts of art - if his voice, his perfor-
mance matches exactly the sense of the words - then the text set to music
receives its true life, and it achieves a completely irresistible power over the
nervous system of a sensitive listener.
Erlangt er diese wesentlichen Haupttheile der Kunst - trift seine Stimme, sein
Vortrag, mit dem Sinn der Worte genau iiberein, so bekommt der in Musik
gesezte Text sein wahres Leben - und eine ganz unwiderstehliche Kraft, bei
einen empfindsamen Zuhorer auf das seinere Nervensistem zu wiirken.
(Nopitsch 1784, p. 35)
Thus, just like the writers from the outset of the Baroque period,
Nopitsch sees music as primarily a medium for textual expression, and
one with a quantifiable affective power.
Wolf (1784), more than any other contemporary writer, shows a
strong adherence to the German school tradition. Although he acknow-
ledges the influence of many recent writers (Marpurg, Hiller and Tosi/
Agricola), he was also indebted to Printz, that seventeenth-century writer
who seems most to endure in the next century. Not only are Printz's
recommendations on lifestyle clearly evident but his advice on choir
organisation is reprinted in its entirety. It is interesting that the division
of singers into concertists and ripienists still seems to pertain.13
Wolf also preserves traditional methods of learning notation: boys
should take turns to point out on a board the notes being sung.14 The
rules on forming the voice in the throat rather than between the lips,
the avoidance of singing through the nose, and the direction to sing the
higher notes quietly, could easily have been written a century before.
Wolfs teaching format is likewise remarkably traditional: he proceeds
with instructions on scales and staves, vocal ranges, intervals (best
learned with the help of a keyboard), and how to sing a simple song with
note names and Graun's syllables. The first part concludes with note
values, rests, the signs used in music, keys and metre. Predictably, part
two, in the traditional manner, concerns the art of graceful singing:
appoggiatura-type ornaments, trills, mordents and slides. Next Wolf dis-
cusses correct pronunciation of the text, breathing and the various styles
required for different musical genres and different places (church,
concert, theatre).
While the majority of cantors apparently gave little attention to the
standard of singing and other elements of practical music in the latter
part of the eighteenth century, the better teachers kept abreast with the
172 Music education and the art of performance

recent developments in singing technique and educational philosophy.

Indeed the approach can be quite radically different from that of the first
two centuries of the Lutheran tradition, something which underlines the
vast changes in culture and thought during the latter half of the
eighteenth century.
Already, Marpurg's treatise of 1763 shows great attention to the
structure and ordering of instruction, even though the initial stages
correspond quite closely to traditional methods (compare with the plan,
p. 56 above). The pupil should first sing with the letter names of the
notes or solmisation syllables, without the text. Then the teacher should
proceed with slow, even note values, steadily introducing more complex
rhythms and metres. The principal departure from the traditional
Lutheran methods is the introduction of keys after this point, arrayed in
a circle of fifths. Pupils must learn to beat time (in rehearsal only) and,
above all, accustom themselves to singing from notation and not from
memory (Marpurg 1763, pp. 3-8). Given that the early Lutheran
primers seemed intended for rote-learning (see p. 8 above), something
which was a feature of education per se, it may be that memorising of
information, texts and music was still widespread in the mid eighteenth
century. In Marpurg's age the excessive reliance on memory was
evidently seen as an inhibition to true understanding.
Maipurg includes several points of practical advice which are seldom
to be found in earlier treatises: the pupil should not hold the score in
front of his mouth; the singers should be rehearsed alone and in pairs
before singing together as a group; pieces should be practised at several
speeds, presumably so that the pupil can cultivate flexibility and confi-
dence in performance. He still sees the tremendous advantage in using
canons and fugues for preparing the pupil for all musical styles (including
even the galant idiom - Marpurg 1763, pp. 8-9).
Marpurg also distinguishes the concept of a teacher from that of the
virtuoso (it is the implication of most previous authors that the out-
standing musician will naturally be an outstanding teacher, since so
much was learned by direct imitation). The teacher should have a good
sense of intonation and pronunciation, a knowledge of harmony and
'good taste'. He should be clear and understandable, introducing the
right amount of material in each lesson, with an ability to distinguish the
easy from the difficult. Again, in traditional German teaching the writers
give no indication of which fundamentals are likely to require more time
(although some lay great stress on the importance of experience and
practice in the field of diminution and ornamentation). Foremost among
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 173

the cantor's qualities should be honesty, enthusiasm, patience and praise

of industry (Marpurg 1763, pp. 11-13).
The principal development is the utilisation of the pupil's own
rationality within the learning process (although the seeds of this attitude
are evident in the early seventeenth century; see p. 66 above). Marpurg
outlines how a teacher can cure a seemingly incurable block in pitching
the notes of the scale with a little insight into the mental processes of the
pupil (p. 14). Like several earlier authors, he insists that the pupil learn
the keyboard and later the rules of harmony, presumably so that he
gains an awareness of the entire context surrounding the line he sings
(p. 15). Exactly the same point is made by Hiller a few years later.15 All
this complements the movement observed in the latter part of the
Baroque era (chapter 5): the pupil was encouraged to delve deeper into
the rules of composition and understand something of the creative
processes underlying the notation.
Some of this new approach to educational method was doubtless
inspired by the growing philanthropic movement, influenced by the
naturalistic philosophy of Rousseau. Some schools, for example in the
Palatinate, show this influence directly (Finkel 1978, pp. 258, 280-3): all
teachers should know all the arts, aesthetics should be a primary element
of education, and music should be treated as a beautiful 'Wissenschaft'
rather than as a craft. Methods of instruction were often remarkably
imaginative: Christmann's Elementarbuch der Tonkunst, for instance, employed
many mnemonic techniques, including the use of colours to learn notes
{ibid.y p. 283; see also Schiinemann 1928, pp. 255-76). The philanthropic
movement was one of the only aspects of Enlightenment thought that
contributed to an improvement in school music education. However, it
could not directly revitalise the cantorates, since it was primarily secular
in nature and not directly related to the traditional establishments of
church and school. Furthermore, it tended to favour the cultivation of
instrumental over vocal performance (Schipke 1913, p. 52).
The most radical break with traditional methods of 'mainstream'
school singing comes with Hiller's treatise on 'correct' singing of 1774,
which (given that Hiller was yet to become cantor of the Thomasschule)
was more of a prescription than a reflection of actual practice in school
music. It doubtless reflects Hiller's experience as a teacher in his own
music conservatory. Like Marpurg, he stresses that the length of time
spent on each lesson (each chapter of his book is called a 'lesson') should
correspond to the singer's achievement and not be restricted to the
confines of a single hour. Again, singing from memory is to be
174 Music education and the art of performance

discouraged, and the pupil should work from an example book, pub-
lished simultaneously with the main treatise at a cost which each pupil
can afford. The examples comprise two basic categories (a distinction
never observed in earlier writings): those which function as explanations
and those which are to be used in practice to cultivate facility in the
matter in hand; both are to be studied industriously so that singing
becomes not a mechanical art or profession but a 'Wissenschaft', an art
that requires the same degree of rationality as a science.
Hiller considers that all fourteen lessons may be learned in six months
with four lessons per week (he may have been thinking of the unusually
liberal allocation of music lessons at the Leipzig Thomasschule here); 16
even if this took a year, it would still be short compared with the courses
of Italian conservatories, which lasted three to four years. Of the recent
publications on singing he recommends Agricola's translation of Tosi, but
he notes that it is not really designed for the beginner in school.
Furthermore, Marpurg does not include enough practical examples
(indeed this author had stated at the outset that the cantor would do best
by choosing these from his own store).
Despite the originality of his pedagogic approach, much of Hiller's
advice on the qualities of a suitable singer conforms surprisingly well to
the German tradition: by nature he or she should have a sense of pure
and clear pronunciation, good intonation and rhythm, a sense of 'correct*
expression and elegance; singing through the nose is, as usual, proscribed
and the falsetto register is of use only as an extension of the natural
range. Hiller's recommendations on diet and lifestyle likewise seem to
be based directly on those of Printz from nearly a century before
(Hiller 1774, p. 13).
Hiller does make some use of solmisation syllables (Graun's system of
'da, me, ni, po' etc), but not until lesson 6, and then for the primary
reason that they use all the principal vowel sounds. His method of
teaching intervals is more subtle than traditional solmisation (perhaps
because of his own experience as a pupil, see p. 167 above): the simpler,
triadic intervals appear in lesson 7, fourths and sixths in lesson 8, sevenths
and ninths in lesson 9, and larger, compound intervals in lesson 10.
Given that this first volume of Hiller's singing method is addressed to
'Richtigkeit', it is remarkable how many ornamental devices are presented.
Vorschldge (i.e. the successors to the accentus ornaments) appear in lesson 7,
trills (originally introduced in lesson 1) are dealt with in greater detail in
lesson 12 and the following lesson concerns passages. In other words,
certain elements of ornamentation are relevant even at a comparatively
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 175

early stage, before 'Zierlichkeit' is officially introduced. This primacy of

ornamentation is not unlike that often observed in some seventeenth-
century treatises: while Bernhard, Criiger and Mylius reserved ornamental
passages for a particular, advanced style of performance, they all regarded
the relatively simple ornaments of the accentus type as fundamental to the
simplest style of singing (see chapter 5).
While some of the later seventeenth-century treatises show that the
performer's role in adding coloratura was declining and that notation
was becoming more specific, it is noticeable that certain figures, par-
ticularly of the For^A/dg/appoggiatura type and trills, are common in
sources from the mid eighteenth century onwards (for Marpurg, Petri
and Doles, see p. 144 above). This undoubtedly reflects the renewed
influence of Italian singing, particularly with the publication of Tosi's
treatise and its expanded translation by Agricola. Furthermore, Italian
singers themselves were increasingly to be found in important operatic
centres (e.g. Hamburg and Dresden) from the 1730s onwards. 17 In this
light it is interesting to examine Scheibe's critique of Bach, namely his
opinion that the composer indicated too many things in the notation
which were the privilege of the singers. Clearly it was common for singers
to be responsible for a certain amount of expressive embellishment
during the late 1730s, so perhaps Bach's didactic notation (and indeed
his compositional personality) reflected more the trends of the turn of the
century, when, as is suggested in chapter 5, the composer was taking
over much of the performer's prerogative. 18
The greatest innovation in Hiller's method is the division of material
into 'lessons', each of which introduces the pupil to a variety of material
(rather than taking one subject at a time and studying it exhaustively):
for instance, in lesson 1 the pupil learns about vocal ranges, the notes, their
names and the system. But he also learns the fundamentals of the trillo,
so that he can begin practising this from the very beginning of his studies.
In other words, one of the most difficult techniques, one which is indis-
pensable to the interpretative style of the age, is ingrained even before
many of the more basic fundamentals are encountered. Lesson 2 like-
wise introduces the concept of long and short notes as a form of musical
expression (i.e. 'good' and 'bad' notes) together with the upper tetrachord,
intervals, the major and minor modes and an extensive introduction to
metre. The succeeding lessons also introduce 'musical' points and elements
of technique: a fundamentally legato articulation, conservation of breath,
where to take breath and the messa di voce, an ornament which is not only
musically useful but also a good means of cultivating breath control.
176 Music education and the art of performance

Hiller thus seems to show a deep insight into the learning process -
or, rather, his method conforms to a more 'enlightened', psychological
awareness of the pupil's natural learning abilities. Several techniques and
dimensions in performance - musical rudiments, singing technique,
matters of musical style - are introduced a little at a time, so that the
pupil's understanding, facility and insight are developed simultaneously
during the course of several lessons. As we have seen, most primers in
the German tradition tend to introduce the rudiments separately in a
specific order and only then (if at all) cultivate elements of performance
technique and interpretation.
To generalise, this entire study has shown the change from an
impersonal, 'uninterpretative' and memorised learning method to one
which fosters the pupil's understanding, facility in performance technique
and rhetorical awareness. Some of the seeds for this change were laid in
the seventeenth century with the pedagogic approach of such reformers
as Comenius and the widening of the definition of musica practica;
however, the changes after 1750 are that much more striking. It is hardly
a simplification to suggest that this development is paralleled in attitudes
toward the function of music and in the changes of musical style itself.
With the second volume of Hiller's singing course, that concerned
with 'Zierlichkeit' (1780), the subject is almost entirely musical expression
and ornamentation. Now that the singer is more advanced, Hiller
abandons his division into lessons and follows the more usual chapter
format. He shows the influence of recent Italian writers, particularly
Mancini, and is fully conversant with the practices in Italian conser-
vatories. In contrast to the German treatises on ornamental singing from
the previous century, Hiller lays great stress on the thoroughness of
Italian music education; the principles of music and harmony, and
knowledge of the keyboard are absolutely mandatory if good taste in
expression and ornamentation is to prevail. Predictably, ornaments of the
appoggiatura variety form the basis of good ornamentation, 'arbitrary
embellishments, which for our taste have become a necessity'.19 Like
Agricola, Hiller believes that there is no harm in the composer indicating
some of these (Tosi's scorn notwithstanding), since not all singers can be
expected to have the same ability and knowledge.20
The introduction of unnotated dotted rhythms is another feature that
can be traced back to the Italianate ornamental methods of the early
Baroque. Hiller introduces progressively more complex forms of the
appoggiatura: e.g. simple and double Nachschldge and sliding figures;
varieties of the trill. The one-note tremolo, which was the principal trill a
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 177

century before, is now considered old-fashioned, though still worth prac-

tising (Hiller 1780, pp. 65-6). The expressive Bebung remains important,
however, as does the cultivation of dynamic flexibility on long notes.
Following Tosi (and indeed Bernhard from the mid seventeenth
century), Hiller includes a chapter on the various genres within which
vocal ornamentation is appropriate: the most sober style is appropriate
for church, while the character and affect of the part define the style for
the theatrical singer; the singer must be most brilliant in the context of
the concert (a relatively new phenomenon, for which Hiller's pioneering
work as an impresario was partly responsible).
A glance at the basic format and complexity of this second treatise
shows that Hiller was hardly addressing the average cantorate here. Like
Agricola, in his translation of Tosi, Hiller was concerned with the more
advanced, potentially professional singer, in an attempt to raise the
general standard of singing in Germany. Petri 1782 notes that Hiller's
method was strongly influenced by Agricola and that Hiller's 1774
treatise is more useful for individual singing lessons than for choral
preparation (Petri 1782, p. 195). Furthermore, he notes that even Hiller's
carefully planned example book is too advanced in places for the beginner.
On the whole, Petri himself retains the traditional format of instruction,
from staves, clefs and notes to diatonic scales and intervals. After learning
Graun's syllables in order to attain pure pronunciation of vowels, the
pupil can progress to chorales in numerous keys, then to small canons,
fugues and motets.
Wolf 1784 finds fault with the major singing treatises of his time;
Marpurg's is incomplete, Hiller's is too expansive and rambling. His
primary complaint with the latter method concerns just that element which
made Hiller so revolutionary, the mixing of several topics within a single
lesson. Wolf was not alone in his criticism of Hiller's format. Reichardt
believes that Hiller's unsystematic (but perhaps psychologically progres-
sive) approach clashes with the traditional tenets of the Enlightenment:
This work of Herr Hiller appears to me good enough as a practical instruction; I
find conscientiousness and experience therein. Only it still has something of the
error of the majority of our teaching books: when regarded specifically as
practical instruction, there is not enough order or conciseness in it.
I understand the fully systematic succession of things in the former just as
little as the compactness of style in the latter. I would have wished to avoid the
mixing of materials that should simply follow one another, and the verbosity.
Mir scheint dieses Werk des Herrn Hillers, als ein praktischer Unterricht recht
gut zu seyn; ich finde Fleifi und Erfahrung darinn. Nur hat's immer noch einen
178 Music education and the art of performance

Theil der Fehler der mehresten unser Lehrbiicher: es ist selbst als praktischer
Unterricht betrachtet, nicht Ordnung und Kiirze genug darinnen.
Ich verstehe unter jener eben so wenig die vollig systemathische Folge der
Dinge auf einander, als bey dieser das Gedrungene des Styls: Nur Vermischung
der Materien, die schlechterdings aufeinander folgen sollten, und Weitschweifigkeit,
die wiinschte ich vermieden. (Reichardt, quoted in Boecklin 1790, p. 44)

In 1792 Hiller - now cantor at the Thomasschule at Leipzig - produced

a further singing treatise, specifically designed and condensed for tuition
in town and village schools. Although he claims that his treatise of 1774
is still the most complete and best commentary on singing, he abandons
the lesson format and writes in a sequence of topical paragraphs. Such
are the constrictions of the school schedule that Hiller seems to have
returned to the more traditional format for German school treatises.
Ironically, he places 'TrefFen' and 'Tact' (pitching and rhythm, Hiller
1792, foreword) at the head of his priorities, just those elements which
he saw as being the overriding concern - to the detriment of everything
else - in his own early education (see p. 167 above). However, he also
includes the subjects of 'Vortrag' and 'Vorbereitung' (performance and
preparation) as equally essential issues.
The format of Hiller's school primer follows fairly predictable lines.
Although the mixing of subjects which made the first treatise so
revolutionary is no longer evident, Hiller is careful to introduce pertinent
elements of technique at an early stage. He introduces the notion of
saving breath and holding the tone through to the end of each note
when the pupil first learns to sing scales.21 Hiller introduces the trill -
'the most necessary ornament of singing'22 — directly after scales, and,
probably in direct emulation of Printz (see p. 79 above), recommends
that the pupil practice trills during the singing of chorales. 23
Particularly interesting are Hiller's recommendations on the singing of
passages (which come directly after the subjects of rhythm and metre):
A singer who wishes to have a flexible throat, must industriously practise the
same [passages]. Furthermore they [passages] do not always comprise continuous,
scalic figures, but sometimes circular, broken, even leaping figures. Clear per-
formance demands that the first note of such a figure should always be com-
pletely clean; for if this is not the case, the following ones will be even less so.
Also it is greatly beneficial to clarity when the first or even the first two notes of
four or eight notes are strengthened with a gentle pressure.
Ein Sanger, der Fertigkeit der Kehle zu haben wiinscht, mufl sich fleiftig in
denselben iiben. Audi bestehen sie nicht immer in grade fortlaufenden Figuren,
sondern bisweilen in zirkelfbrmigen, in gebrochenen, auch in aus Sprungen
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 179

zusammen gesetzten Figuren. Der deutliche Vortrag fordert, daB immer die
erste Note einer solchen Figur vollkommen rein sey; denn wenn diese es nicht
ist, so werden es die folgenden noch weniger seyn. Auch tragt es zur
Deutlichkeit viel bey, wenn von vier oder acht Noten, die erste, oder auch die
beyden ersten Noten durch einen gelinden Druck verstarckt werden.
(Hiller 1792, pp. 49-50)

While Hiller might have drawn the directive to emphasise the first note
of a metrical grouping from Tosi/Agricola,24 the reference to the variety
of figures and the clear delineation of each recalls precisely the advice of
Printz over a century before (see p. 132 above). This advice seems
extraordinary in the context of late eighteenth-century music; it is also to
be found in Hiller's long treatise on 'ornamented' singing (1780) and
might reflect his conscious emulation of previous authors of German
school books.25
Nevertheless, Hiller was clearly not blindly copying his predecessors in
this treatise, since so many elements of his teaching are directly applic-
able to the needs of his age. He introduces the student to the principal
genres of church music: chorales, choruses, arias and recitatives (Hiller
1792, pp. 67-74); he covers the essential trills and appoggiaturas in
considerable detail. Particularly conscientious is his advice on coordinating
breathing with the syntax of the text, ensuring that breaths are taken
after a strong beat and never before (ibid., p. 57). His careful blending
of tradition with innovation and his sensitivity to the contingencies of
his age are shown in his choice of examples in the closing pages of the
treatise: new chorale melodies, arias and songs appear side by side with
canons and fugues.
Hiller's concise treatise for school singing did not lie unused. In 1795
G. P. Weimar produced a book of practical exercises to supplement
Hiller's advice. Weimar believed that Hiller's examples on pitching and
intervals required amplification and he added much advice on the actual
practice of teaching intervals in class. Again it is interesting to note that
canons still form a significant part of basic classroom practice.

It would be grossly incorrect to assert that these thorough and

'enlightened' treatises mark the end of the German singing tradition.
Significant methods (e.g. Lasser 1798; Schubert 1804) were soon to be
written, and singing at both amateur and professional levels blossomed
during the course of the ensuing century. Indeed Bach's vocal works
might never have come to light without the remarkable developments in
amateur choral singing. However, Hiller's treatise of 1792 is the last major
180 Music education and the art of performance

work in a literary tradition connected with Lutheran school education,

one which reached back over two hundred years.

CHANGING ATTITUDES T O MUSIC IN CHURCH

AND SCHOOL
The early eighteenth century

The increasing 'artistry' in practical music and the adoption of an ever

more elaborate notated style by composers had engendered many com-
plaints towards the end of the seventeenth century (see p. 25 above).
Orthodox Lutheran music theorists were not slow to respond. Werckmeister
reaffirmed the Pythagorean perspective of the God-given priority of
music as a reflection of the cosmic order, something which was not
revoked by worldly misuse. The following comment was still in print
during the latter half of the eighteenth century:
But just as a trumpet contains in itself the entire order of harmony, G c g c e g
c, and no others [notes] can be used in between, so God has wished to show
with this, that we cannot do other than lead and regulate our lives and religion
in harmony according to the order and will of God . . . But because the Devil is
the enemy of the holy order and wisdom of God, he always rouses evil people
who must misuse this creation and use it for all kinds of voluptuous songs and
frivolous dances; indeed all the multifarious misuse cannot be described.
Therefore devout hearts must also take care not to despise this wisdom of God
on account of the misuse, to detach music from public worship and pour out the
baby with the dirty bath water . . . We will nevertheless sing and maintain the
Harmony and the eternal Holy. Music is and indeed remains good if the intention
of the musician is solely good and holy; likewise with the pure instrumental
music . . . which thrived in the first church.
Wie aber eine Trompete die ganze Ordnung der Harmonie C . c g c e g c i n
sich halt, und keine andere darzwischen konnen gebracht werden; also hat GOtt
hiermit andeuten wollen, daB wir nicht anders, als nach der Ordnung und
Willen GOttes in der Harmonie unser Leben und Religion halten, und
anrichten sollen . . . Weil aber der Satan der heiligen Ordnung und WeiBheit
GOttes feind ist; so erwecket er immer bose Leute, die dieses Geschopfe miissen
miBbrauchen, und zu allerhand iippigen Liedern und leichtfertigen Tanzen
gebrauchen, ja der vielfaltige MiBbrauch ist nicht alle zu beschreiben. Darum
haben sich auch fromme Herzen vorzusehen, daB sie nicht wegen des
MiBbrauchs diese WeiBheit GOttes verachten, die Musik von dem offentlichen
Gottesdienste absondern, und das Kind sammt dem unflatigen Bade ausschiitten
. . . Wir werden doch die Harmonie und das ewige Heilig singen und behalten.
Die Musik ist und bleibet doch gut, wenn die Intention des Musici nur gut und
heilig ist; auch die blosse Instrumentalmusik . . . welcher in der ersten Kirche
gelebet. (Werckmeister 1700, in Steffani 1699, ed. Albrecht 1760, pp. 30-1)
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 181

Werckmeister's outlook matches closely that in Niedt's treatise (published

at virtually the same time) which is especially celebrated for its direct
influence on J. S. Bach.26 Although Werckmeister stresses the importance
of the human intention in guaranteeing the divine status of music, it can
be inferred that the mere substance of any music can reflect the Godly
order. As Niedt and Bach remark, it is the good use of music, together
with its perfect crafting according to the seemingly eternal laws of
thoroughbass, which are of foremost importance. The question of the
devout intention of the musician points to another level of musical signi-
ficance: the affective status of music and consequently its power to
influence the listener. A pious composer/performer will communicate -
quasi-mechanically - the state of his soul to the congregation.
Albrecht reiterates in a later footnote (1760) that many use evidence
of the misuse of music as a weapon against church music per se;27 the
content and grounds of the debate seem just the same as they were at
the turn of the century. Indeed the debate can be traced throughout the
first half of the eighteenth century. In 1703 and 1708 Motz produced
lengthy books defending church music against the attack of the Pietist
pastor Christian Gerber. Armed with a predictable array of Biblical
quotations in support of music, Motz addresses each of Gerber's points
in turn. When, for instance, Gerber complains that many establishments
are infested with musicians from divers religions and nations - in
particular papist Italians - Motz replies that the identity of the singers is
irrelevant provided that what they sing is not contrary to Lutheran
teaching.28 He similarly castigates Gerber for objecting to the presence of
ordinary citizens such as labourers in the choir, merely because their
virtue is not to be guaranteed; Motz observes that much the same can be
said for the congregation as a whole, and this would hardly be a reason
to ban the singing of chorales (Motz 1703, pp. 32—3).
Regarding the nature of music itself, Motz affirms that elaborate music
does not chop up the text; indeed repetitions contribute to the essence of
the text (just as in Psalm 136).29 As has already been noted (see p. 26
above), the Pietists laid great emphasis on the precise wording and original
meaning of a verbal text, since it is from this that the reader acquires the
correct sense. Orthodox theorists, however (and to these belonged the
most enthusiastic supporters of elaborate music), tended more towards
essentialist thinking: words allude, perhaps imperfectly, to eternal truths
which the human being can experience through several forms of com-
munication and artistic creation.
The influence of Pietist thought is evident for instance in the ordinances
of Schleswig-Holstein: in 1745 singing of the Gospel and Epistle was
182 Music education and the art of performance

banned, in the following year the singing of the Creed and Gloria
(Detlefsen 1961, p. 240); musical pieces were banned from the communion
in Freiberg in 1729 (Krickeberg 1965, p. 116). In Calvinist Prussia, King
Friedrich Wilhelm even published an edict for the preachers in his state
(1739), stating that they could not go far enough in their proscription of
music.30 Instrumental music in church was particularly vulnerable at this
time; according to Gerber it was banned by the king of Denmark in 1730,31
and Mattheson noted a papal ban during the 1740s (see p. 185 below).
The introduction of musical forms deriving from operatic practice
during the first decades of the eighteenth century has already been
observed (see p. 44 above). While some writers (e.g. Scheibel) were eager
for the expansion of this practice, others, including Gerber, were quite
incensed by the development (see Stiller 1970/1984, pp. 263-5). Meyer's
desire to return to the practices of the early church immediately recalls
the prescriptions of Vockerodt, in the last decade of the seventeenth
century (see p. 26 above):

For the sake of this I have referred to ancient times, those of the Jewish
churches as well as even the heathen and subsequently the first churches, and
wish to demonstrate, having observed through their example and uses of their
church music, that they always had a loathing for theatrical music in their
services, and especially saw to it that the hearing was not so much flattered as
the glory and praise of God was broadcast, and that the enlivening of the
listeners' devotion might be achieved.
Ich habe mich um des willen auf die alten Zeiten so wol der Jiidischen Kirchen /
als auch so gar der Heyden und nachgehends der ersten Kirchen beziehen /
und durch deren Exempel und Gebrauche / so sie bey ihrer Kirchen-Music
beobachtet / erweisen wollen / daB sie jederzeit einen Abscheu vor der
Theatralischen Music bey ihren Gottesdienst getragen / und vornemlich darauf
gesehen / daB damit nicht so wol dem Gehor geschmeichelt / als die Ehre und
das Lob Gottes ausgebreitet / und die Ermunterung der Zuhorer Andacht
bewircket werden mochte. (Meyer 1726, p. 4)

Meyer proceeds to discuss the origin of what he terms 'Cantaten', and

how the new works banish the Scriptures and render the texts incompre-
hensible (Meyer 1726, p. 53). In all, this sort of criticism stands in a
direct line from that at the end of the seventeenth century. Whereas the
complaint before was about the florid coloraturas of singers in the
seventeenth-century concerto style, the attention is now drawn to the
new integration of secular cantata forms. In other words, the earlier fears
that church music was becoming too operatic were more than substan-
tiated by the subsequent developments in musical style itself.
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 183

The defences of church music likewise greatly resemble those of the

previous century, showing that, as far as basic attitudes were concerned,
nothing had changed:
Singing is an art and science of singing all kinds of arias, cantatas and songs in an
artistic and ingratiating way according to the prescribed notes at the correct
pitch and with a measured beat, to an accompanying instrument. The singing is
a particular component in the church service, which contributes greatly to the
enlivening of the heart. Those who completely abolish the songs and their
singing and believe that it does not make sense that when one asks something of
God, one steps out and sings something with a beautiful sound, are mistaken.
Singen, ist eine Kunst und Wissenschafft allerhand Arien, Gantaten und Lieder
auf eine kiinstliche und schmeichelhafte Manier nach der vorgeschriebenen
Noten in richtigem Tone und abgemessenem Tacte, in ein darein spielendes
Instrument abzusingen; Das Singen ist ein besonderes Stuck bey dem
Gottesdierist, welches zu der Ermunterung des Hertzens sehr vieles beytragt. Es
irren also diejenigen, welche die Lieder und deren Absingen ganzlich ververffen
und meynen, es reime sich nicht, wenn man was bey GOtt erbitten wolle, daB
man hintrete, und in einem lieblichen Tone etwas hersinge.
(Zedler vol. XXXVII, p. 1,656)

Scheibe is another illuminating source on adverse attitudes to church

music in the late 1730s. While he is usually celebrated as a figure who
criticised Bach's music - particularly his supposedly unmelodic style -
Scheibe was quick to come to the defence of church music per se. In his
article for 24 March 1739, he asks why so many have such an unreason-
able view of music, considering it to hinder all spiritual matters (Scheibe
1739, pp. 281-6). Like Luther, he states that the inclination towards
music was implanted by God himself, and that music both inspires piety
and soothes the person burdened by worldly affairs.32 In acknowledging
that music is often misused, Scheibe does not concur with those who are
wary of its associations with the theatre and inns: indeed he affirms that
the theatre can be a school of virtue and that there is hardly a Godly ban
on enjoyment in itself. Just like his colleagues in the previous century,
Scheibe stresses the distinction between the instrinsic value of art and its
misuse.
Scheibe's article for 15 September 1739 gives a useful account of the
functions of church music as he saw it. In focussing on the recent pro-
scription of music on a penitential day, he seemingly ignores the fact that
music was traditionally excluded from fasting periods and days of peni-
tence; for him it is 'a necessary and indispensable component of a
reasoned and well-ordered church service'.33 He notes that we no longer
184 Music education and the art of performance

live in a time of sackcloth and ashes and that the New Testament has
come; in any case the Old Testament itself contains psalms of penitence,
which were obviously sung. Although organists and church musicians
often leave much to be desired, this does not mean that music cannot
lead to greater devotion on all occasions.
In his study of the origins and age of music, published in 1754, Scheibe
tackles another prejudice about music, affirming that many educated
people now consider music to be beneath them:
In short, almost all our scholars today, with only a few exceptions, know little or
nothing about music . . . Thus it has come to pass that they are even ashamed
of themselves if they read musical writings or books
Kurz, unsere heutigen Gelehrten fast ingesamt, nur wenige ausgenommen,
wissen wenig oder nichts von der Musik . . . Daher kommt es denn, daB sie sich
so gar schamen, musikalische Schriften oder Bucher zu lesen
(Scheibe 1754, foreword, p. xxiv)
Scheibe's assertion immediately engenders questions concerning the
status of music as an adjunct to general education during the eighteenth
century. The Bendeler dispute of 1706 centred on the somewhat ambigu-
ous jurisdictional relationship between the cantor and rector within the
school hierarchy (see p. 31 above). This conflict seems to have been
uncannily replicated with the dispute between cantor J. S. Bach and
rector J. A. Ernesti during the 1730s. Both cases can be seen as evidence
of the direct confrontation between the old Lutheran orthodox view of
music as an essential component of education and worship and the
educational stance of the early Enlightenment, which saw music more
as an optional luxury.34 Indeed Ernesti's Saxon school ordinance of 1773
contains no mention of music at all (Schunemann 1928, p. 227). Doles
and Hiller, both of whom gained great renown for their work as cantors
of the Thomasschule in the later years of the century, experienced very
similar difficulties in their relations with certain rectors (Schering 1941,
pp. 396, 657).

The mid eighteenth century

While Bach's dispute with Ernesti is that which is best remembered
today, the most celebrated pamphlet war of the time was that instigated
by the publication of J. G. Bidermann's De vita musica in 1749. School
and church music had flourished in Freiberg under the leadership ofJ. F.
Doles and this had almost inevitably led to conflicts between the cantor
and rector Bidermann (for an extensive summary see Banning 1939,
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 185

pp. 17-40). Matters came to a head in 1748 when the pupils of the
Freiberg Gymnasium performed a Singspiel to celebrate the centenary of
the peace of Westphalia. The text was prepared by Bidermann and the
music by Doles, but the latter's work achieved far more renown than the
former's (Mattheson 1749, p. 8; Banning 1939, p. 24). Bidermann's
insulting underpayment of Doles for his part in the venture may well
point to his chagrin, and, if Mattheson is to be believed, Bidermann's
pamphlet was the direct result of his envy.
De vita musica is startlingly similar to Vockerodt's writings from the end
of the previous century: the programme affirms that music can easily
lead to an unsavoury lifestyle and examples from antiquity, such as
Caligula and Nero, only go to show how true this is; therefore the young
cannot adequately be warned of the ruinous influence of the art. It was
no coincidence that Mattheson published his Mithridat wider den Gift einer
Welschen Satyre later in the same year (1749). He took as the main text for
his polemical commentary the anti-musical satire by the Italian landscape
painter Salvator Rosa, La musica. Into this he wove many pertinent
comments on the status of music in contemporary education and worship:
Now there are great goings-on concerning sacred music, which, sadly, has been
made by very many godless peasants of the Christian Church into a stone to be
cast away; whereas it is no small cornerstone of godly veneration.
Nun gehet es mit aller Macht iiber die geistliche Musik her, welche, leider! von
sehr vielen gottlosen Bauleuten der christlichen Kirche zu einem Stein gemacht
wird, der verworfen werden soil; da er doch kein geringer Eckstein gottlicher
Verehrung ist. (Mattheson 1749, p. 54)

He cites several examples of this attitude (in addition to Bidermann): the

present pope has recently banned all musical instruments from the
church (ibid., p. 75); a certain Leipzig professor has excluded music from
the seven liberal arts (ibid., p. 189). One anecdote might well refer to
Bidermann himself: recently a man, taking his son to a certain
Gymnasium, asked the rector whether any of the pupils played the
harpsichord: 'Yes', replied the rector, 'there are such strummers here, but
I wish there weren't.' 35
Among the many other pamphlets published during this dispute is the
Christliche Beurtheilung des von Herrn M. Bidermann edirten Programmatis de Vita
Musica, prepared by the Nordhausen organist and theorist C. G. Schroter
at the end of 1749. According to a contemporary, Georg Einicke, this
response was commissioned by J. S. Bach (a fellow member of Mizler's
elite music society) during the last months of his life. Furthermore
186 Music education and the art of performance

Bach - despite his reported protestations to the contrary - apparently

altered and embellished the text in several ways while preparing the
pamphlet for publication, much to Schroter's disapproval (see Banning
1939, pp. 33-4, Bach-Dokumente II, pp. 461-4).
Schroter affirms that it is not the fault of music itself if it is misused by
its practitioners. This defence reads very like those of the late
seventeenth century (see p. 180 above); indeed the author even refers to
the pamphlet war between the Gotha rector Vockerodt and J. Beer. He
shows that music has a respectable origin in Scripture, since JubaFs
father, Lamech, was a pious and brave man; in any case, as Mizler has
argued, music is neither more nor less noble, on account of its inventor
and his father. Furthermore, if music is ordained by God through
Scripture as a vehicle of his praise, it cannot be godless, unless God
himself has ordained something godless.
Bach's presumed additions include the title, 'Christian Judgement . . .',
something which incensed Schroter, since it was not suitable for the
matter concerned.36 Schroter's review is, after all, one attacking the
structure and logic of Bidermann's argument rather than one centring
on Christian dogma. Bach (?) also adds, in a more mundane tone, that
music is also ordained by the Kirchen-Ordnung of the prince of the land.
Furthermore, if no one studied music, as recommended by Bidermann,
how would the church music, opera and royal establishments be
furnished? And finally he asks - somewhat cryptically — what would
those collecting tax on liquor have to say about this?37
Bidermann wrote a scathing response to all these criticisms in 1750,
terming Schroter's text a 'MiBgeburt' ('misbirth', p. 11) and reminding
his readers that he was not critical of music in and of itself, but merely of
its misuse. In this respect he strikes a note very close to that of the Pietist
critics of music who were writing in the last decade of the previous
century (see p. 28 above).
The most comprehensive analysis of the status of church music in the
middle of the eighteenth century is offered by the Liibeck cantor C.
Ruetz in the three volumes of Widerlegte Vorurtheile (1750-3). The first
volume contains a protracted discussion of the importance of music in
both Old and New Testaments, followed by a survey of more recent
developments. Ruetz is particularly complimentary of the stylistic
developments of recent years which have greatly increased the affective
power of music (see p. 44 above). The second volume is a prescriptive
survey of contemporary musical style and the requirements of unity and
perfection. It is the third volume which gives the most vivid picture of
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 187

the contemporary situation. He first points out the importance of the

choral foundation for its nurturing of the future citizens, just as Schroter/
Bach did in 1749:
Indeed the Liibeck choir has been, so to speak, the vegetable garden in which
not only did there grow learned men, who were skilled to serve the church and
the public good, but also through which many musical services for the church
were furnished with capable people. The good Lord has used you through this,
most worthy fellow citizens, to be tools of his providence, to maintain the music
as the ornament of our worship, and not a little to contribute to the building of
the kingdom of God here and abroad.
Ja der Liibeckische Chor ist, so zu sagen, der Pflantzgarten gewesen, darinn
nicht allein gelehrete Manner, die der Kirche und dem gemeinen Wesen zu
dienen geschickt waren, erwachsen, sondern auch daraus viele musicalische
Kirchenbedienungen mit ttichtigen Leuten besetzet worden. Der liebe GOtt
hat Sie, Wehrteste Mitbiirger, hierdurch zu Werckzeugen seiner Vorsehung
gebraucht, den Schmuck unsers Gottesdienstes die Kirchenmusic aufrecht zu
erhalten, und zum Bau des Reiches GOttes hier und an auswartigen Orten
nicht wenig beyzutragen. (Ruetz 1753, introduction)

He observes that the Liibeck choirs have never been in such a state of
decline; it was as if Satan had had his way and the most dire prophecies
of God had been fulfilled.38 Not only does Ruetz present a long discussion
of common complaints against music, he also gives attention to the effect
music has on the listener, cultivating hearing and enjoyment, awaking
and stilling the affects (Ruetz 1753, pp. 32~3). While he believes that the
grounds for music's power are largely hidden from human understanding,
he notes that certain musical progressions relate to certain affects. Above
all, the musician should follow one of the most important rules of oratory:
he who wishes to move others must himself experience the same affect.39
Ruetz's treatise is lavishly illustrated with biblical examples justifying the
use of music in church, something which was typical of so many writings
from the previous century.

The end of the eighteenth century

Already it is becoming clear that music as a regular component of

education was losing its battle against the reformers. The testimony of
Forkel in the second volume of his Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik (1801),
gives a good perspective of the decline in church and school music during
the latter half of the century. ForkePs four reasons for the decline of the
entire fabric of church music begin, interestingly enough, with the 'all
188 Music education and the art of performance

too frequent use of music in general'. Sensing that music had changed
from a necessity into an object of mere superficial pleasure, he inveighs
against the easy tastes of the 'Liebhaber':
The little which the unpractised amateur knows of music belongs purely to the
superficial beauties of the same, whose charms soon pale and induce satiety, if
the inner beauties do not stand by them and serve as support. This last class of
musical dilettantes has at all times been the most numerous and is so still. It is
also actually that which has always in the main stood against the true perfecting
of the art, and because its knowledge is much too superficial for it to be able to
raise itself to the height of the style of a worthy composition, it is also in
particular that class which has most harmed the reception of church music, and
has, little by little, brought it as low as it is now. Its satiation with purely
outward beauties has altogether cooled its inclination towards [church music], so
that in particular good church music, which can least satisfy its pampered and
degenerate taste with adventurous novelty, must be either of no consequence, or
even entirely repugnant and unpleasant to it.
Das Wenige, was hingegen der ungeubtere Liebhaber von der Musik kennt,
gehort bloB unter die auBern Schonheiten derselben, deren Reitze bald stumpf
werden, und UeberdruB erwecken, wenn ihnen nicht innere Schonheiten zur
Seite stehen und zur Unterstutzung dienen. Diese letztere Glasse der Musik-
liebhaber ist zu alien Zeiten die zahlreichste gewesen und ist es noch. Sie ist
auch eigentlich, die von jeher hauptsachlich der wahren Vervollkommung der
Kunst entgegen gestanden hat, und weil ihre Kenntnisse viel zu seicht sind, als
dafi sie sich bis zur Hohe des Styls einer wiirdigen Composition erheben konnte,
so ist sie auch insbesondere diejenige Classe, welche dem Aufnehmen der
Kirchenmusik am meisten geschadet, und sie nach und nach soweit herunter
gebracht hat, als sie es nun ist. Ihre Sattigung an den bloB auBern Schonheiten
hat ihre Neigung dazu iiberhaupt erkaltet, so daB insbesondere cine gute
Kirchenmusik, die ihren verwohnten und ausgearteten Geschmack durch
abentheuerliche Neuheit am wenigsten befriedigen kann und darf, ihr entweder
gleichgiiltig, oder gar widerlich und unangenehm seyn muB.
(Forkel 1801, pp. 20-1)
Of course Forkel was reflecting the aesthetic stance of his own age when
he conceived of the inner, eternal beauty of great art. Yet his perception
of the growing 'amateurisation' of music does contain a grain of truth:
music as an object of personal choice and fashionable enjoyment was
anathema to a system which saw music as an indispensable component
of education and worship.
ForkePs second diagnosis of the decline in church music is the general
lack of knowledge. While music had been an important element of
education since the Middle Ages, music teachers now were interested in
little more than secular trifles. The widespread ignorance of music led
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 189

many to become suspicious of the art, maintaining that it would destroy

the inclination to study other subjects; again this was entirely contrary to
Luther's prescription that all our strengths and abilities should be
developed to the full (Forkel 1801, pp. 21-3).
ForkePs third reason is already a familiar one: the misuse of the art.
Organists often use something out of the newest comic opera for their
preludes; modern church musicians know little about the differentiation
of affects; musicians are often appointed for their technical facility rather
than for the substance of their art (ibid., pp. 23-5). His fourth and final
reason is the thriftiness of the authorities. While there are many biblical
precedents for paying musicians well and the Catholic churches still put
much money into church music for special festivals, nothing of the kind
happens in the Protestant churches (pp. 26-7).
ForkePs view might partly derive from the changing attitudes towards
vocational music; in his opinion the performer must spend much of his
time practising, so he should avoid earning his bread through other
means which will consume his valuable time; the composer should have
a Tree spirit' untroubled by living problems and other employment.40
This trend towards the specialising musician can be traced back to the
seventeenth century with the metamorphosis of certain cantors into the
Director Musices, and the tendency for the more active musicians to turn
away from their traditional academic duties. Forkel, as a pioneering
music historian, shows a remarkable awareness of the changes in the
cantorate since the time of the Reformation, the expansion of music in
church and the increasing demand for novelty and fresh composition.
However, cantors of the later eighteenth century were still being paid
well below the rates for the leading musicians of their age, and were
moreover treated as traditional schoolmaster-cantors with only a trivial
interest in music (ibid., pp. 28-31).
Forkel is also aware of the social importance of the dying cantorate
tradition. The money for school choirs came from various individuals
and endowments, and this tradition produced the majority of great
musicians in all walks of life. Furthermore, the pupils themselves grew
up to be more charitable and to encourage the education of their
successors in a similar manner. Forkel sees this system as having evolved
over many years, and thinks that it is far easier to destroy than to build
(ibid., pp. 31-3). Indeed he believes the decline will bring with it many
other unforeseen consequences, including the destruction of many
benefits in traditional education.41 Hiller likewise alludes to the social
value of school music in the preface to his singing treatise of 1780: not
190 Music education and the art of performance

only does it support poor pupils, it also invites endowments out of which
teachers' salaries are paid. Forkel proceeds with a remarkable defence of
the somewhat Spartan street-singing tradition ('Currende'): it strengthens
the constitution and personality of the pupils through its very hardship
{ibid., pp. 34-40).42
In all Forkel sees school music as the principal means of caring for
poorer children and believes that its decline reflects a general inclination
to give less attention to poor children than to the offspring of the rich.43
It may well be that Forkel's stance was influenced by the recent demise
of the choir at the Michaelisschule in Liineburg, from which he had
acquired his own musical education.44 Many other cantorates were
abolished around this time.45 Indeed Hiller stated in 1793 that Dresden
was about the only town in Germany that retained church music of the
quality of Leipzig.46
On the other hand, Forkel also offers extensive prescriptions for the
improvement of church music, believing that there is hope for this since
only in a few of the larger towns has music already been abolished and
reduced to the standard of the village church; the Enlightenment has
brought improvements in all aspects of worship except music (ibid.,
pp. 48-9). Furthermore, he considers that good church music is crucial
for the edification of the uneducated masses, since only the more
educated classes have the option of attending concerts. In other words,
the church should lay the foundations for beauty as well as goodness.47
This he sees as being the case in Italy, despite the perfidious influence of
opera buffa (pp. 49-52). ForkePs obvious conservatism notwithstanding,
it is clear that he views church music with an Enlightenment conception
of intrinsic beauty rather than from the more traditional rhetorical and
affective viewpoint.
The foremost priority is the appointment of good cantors, and as a
prerequisite for this, the choice of more musically informed school
officers, competent to make a satisfactory appointment. Furthermore the
cantor must be relieved from teaching duties, since wherever the musical
and teaching duties are separated, the standard of music has improved
immeasurably. Forkel illustrates this point with the examples of Galvisius,
Kuhnau, Telemann, J. S. and C. P. E. Bach (p. 56). Once a suitable
cantor has been acquired, the singers must be drawn from the locality,
since those from distant places cost too much and are not supported by
local parents (p. 57). Forkel advocates a restoration of the original
Lutheran practice of educating all pupils in singing (even figural singing),
since it is more useful than any other art and encourages people to be
 The decline of the Lutheran cantorates 191

joyful and skilled in many other activities (pp. 57-61). All this contributes
to better public chorale singing and also to a better body of potential
teachers who will, in turn, choose better cantors. He adds the frequently
encountered opinion that singing aids all the other practical musical arts.
Moreover, far from discouraging the pupil to study of other subjects,
music cultivates many skills which are transferable to other activities. 48
Forkel's second approach to the improvement of musical standards is
to ensure a good selection of music, music which is appealing both to
experts and to laymen. Forkel demands a 'noble simplicity' of style:
One must understand this simplicity of style to be not that simplicity which
arises out of the lack of competent artistic knowledge and is actually nothing
other than an empty, low wretchedness, but rather that noble simplicity which
can only be the fruit of the highest culture in the art of music . . . Nothing other
than the highest culture in the art, the most correct taste and the most correct
concepts of the means and purpose of holy music can lead to this.
Man muB aber unter dieser Simplicitat des Styles nicht jene Simplicitat verstehen,
welche aus dem Mangel an hinlanglicher KunstkenntniB entsteht, und eigentlich
nichts als leere, niedrige Armseligkeit ist, sondern jene edle Simplicitat, welche
nur eine Frucht der hochst Gultur in der musikalischen Kunst seyn kann . . .
Nichts als die hochste Cultur in der Kunst, der richtigste Geschmack und die
richtigsten Begriffe vom Wesen und Zweck der heiligen Musik kann dahin fiihren.
(Forkel 1801, p. 66-7)
Just as writers throughout this study have exhorted the singer to choose
the 'correct' ornaments, or to cultivate the appropriate affect, Forkel
assumes that the correct choice from the increasingly wide range of styles
is self-evident to the discerning musician. Likewise typical of his age is
the supremacy he accords to the chorus in church music: choruses are
suitable both for relatively inexperienced singers and for the common
listener, particularly if he can understand the words; but arias are 'too
personal' for general use in church, and recitatives are unappealing and
unedifying (Forkel 1801, pp. 67-8).
It is striking that Hiller (at the outset of his school treatise of 1792)
also voices concerns for the type and quality of music that the singer is
expected to perform:
But it is less pleasing to me when I see a good man wasting his industry and
time that he does not have to spare on such platitudes and miserable doggerel,
out of which the majority of our so-called church cantatas are constituted. May I
here, most beloved friends, give you some good advice? Do as I do. Abolish, for
the most part, recitative from church. Draw from your Sunday sermon an
inference, look in your store [of music], or write for it a suitable chorus and aria
192 Music education and the art of performance

and then append to this an appropriate and meaningful chorale verse; thus will
you certainly have the best church cantata.
Unangenehmer aber ist es mir, wenn ich sehe, daB ein guter Mann seinen FleiB
und seine Zeit, die er nicht iibrig hat, an solche Plattitiiden und elende Reimereyen
verschwendet, aus denen die meisten unserer sogenannten Kirchencantaten
bestehen. Darf ich Ihnen hier, theursten Freunde, einen guten Rath geben? Machen
sie es wie ich. Schaffen Sie die Recitative groBentheils aus der Kirche weg.
Ziehen Sie aus Ihrem Sonntagsevangelio ein Resultat heraus, suchcn Sie in
ihrem Vorrathe, oder schreiben Sie ein dazu passendes Ghor und Arie, und
hangen noch einen schicklichen und bedeutenden Choralvers daran, so haben
Sie gewifi die beste Kirchencantate. (Hiller 1792, foreword)
Treatises from the German Lutheran tradition do not usually provide a
critical or normative commentary on the type of music to be performed
(although seventeenth-century writings might make a point of preparing
the pupil for the 'new Italian style'). The comments of Hiller and Forkel
imply several changes: church music was now subject to a wider and more
'aesthetic' criticism; it was no longer an elevated craft involving a relatively
narrow spectrum of styles; as it was no longer central to the music life of
the age, it was prone to be musically inferior to more important genres;
the recitative style, so enthusiastically introduced at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, was now considered inappropriate. Particularly sig-
nificant is the much greater emphasis placed on communal singing
(Hiller's own performance of Handel's Messiah in 1786 involved several
hundred performers),49 and it was indeed the amateur choral society
which would, during the ensuing decades, preserve some of the most
impressive Lutheran church music. But, in creating this new breeding-
ground of musical culture, it was the same Enlightenment - with its
secular leanings, its cultivation of music as an aesthetic, non-functional
art - which had also brought about the demise of the tradition within
which some of the newly-canonised 'masterworks' were written.
 Notes

1 Tlie establishment of Lutheran musical practice in the sixteenth century

1 For a more detailed survey, see Schunemann 1928, pp. 76-82; Niemoller
1969, p. 617.
2 An die Radherrn alter Stedte deutsches lands: dass sie Christliche schulen auffrichten und
halten sollen (Wittenberg, 1524); WA XV, pp. 9-53.
3 These ordinances, and the many others that succeeded them are to be
found in R. Vormbaum, Evangelische Schulordnungen, vol. I (Giitersloh, 1860),
pp. 1, 8.
4 That Luther himself saw music as an element of the trivium is suggested in
WA Tischreden V, no. 5603: 'S. Maria ist mehr celebrirt worden in der
Grammatica, Musica und Rhetorica, denn ihr Kind, Jesus.'
5 Clearly there is a close terminological relationship between Musica choralis and
the genre which in English is usually termed chorale. However, while Luther
took many of his chorale melodies from the existing repertory of Gregorian
hymns, he and his contemporaries generally used terms such as Lieder and
Gesdnge; moreover these pieces were printed in the measured notation of
musicafiguralisrather than the chant notation of musica choralis. Nevertheless,
the fact that chorales were generally sung monophonically by the congregation
and came to take over much of the role of Gregorian chant suggests that
they could have been considered a part of musica choralis too.
6 For a further study of the negative influence of humanism on music-making,
see Bremer 1976, especially pp. 6-7. While there was (and still is) a popular
belief that the Lutherans advocated the complete abolition of Latin, it was
rather the case that Luther encouraged the use of the vernacular together with
Latin (see, for instance, his alternative versions of the Mass, the Latin Formula
missae and the German Deutsche Messe). Not only did Latin remain the
principal language of education right through to the eighteenth century, but
Latin was still retained for many parts of the liturgy.
7 'und die musica mit der gantzen mathematica lernen'.
8 'Musica ist eine halbe Disciplin und Zuchtmeisterin, so die Leute gelinder
und sanftmuthiger, sittsamer und verniinftiger machet.'

193
194 Notes to pages 3-14
9 'Auch bleibet alle Lehre viel fester im Gedachtnis, so sie in den Gesang
gefasset ist.' Niemoller 1969, p. 619.
10 See Bremer 1976, especially pp. 37-40.
11 'Mus der Cantor in Figural die knaben vorsuchen, ihrer funff vnd funff lassen
zusammen ein stuck singen, damit er zur nott zugleich an zweien orttern
konne die Cantorey bestellen.' Schiinemann 1928, p. 87.
12 Niemoller 1969, pp. 709-10, lists all the known references to specific
published books in sixteenth-century ordinances.
13 'habe ich gedacht / die selbigen aufFs aller kiirtzte und leichtest / als ymmer
zuthun muglich / allein der Jugent des gantzen Deudschen lands zu gut und
nutz / ynn unsere rechte Deudsche muttersprache zubringen'; Agricola
1528, foreword.
14 Agricola 1532, ch. 6: 'Der Tact odder schlag / wie er alhie genomen wird
ist eine stete und messige bewegung der hand des sengers.'
15 'Und ist solche Musica der art und aygenschaflt / das die Kinder daraus lernen
singen / contrapunct setzen / auff der Lautten / Geigen und Pfeyffen / auch
ander instrument'; Singer 1531, fol. 2r.
16 'Nun ist zu mercken / welches vicia sein das ist / welches eine iibelstandt ist
oder nit / und welcher das nit waiB / der klumpert und liirlet umher hin /
vermaint wenn er nur vill colores / das ist / vill lauffwercks mach / so sey er
girt / so doch die Gomponisten den gesang woll mochten zu reissen un
coloriren / das mancher nit vil laufFens machen mochte / so er nit die vicia
vermeyden wolt / und die holtseligkeit und siissigkeit siichet im gesang.'
Singer 1531, fol. 7r.

2 The role ofpractical music in education c.1600-1750

1 'The Italians or instrumentalists, violinists and cornettists can perform sixteen

semiquavers to a beat better than the Germans. Indeed they even manage
thirty-two demisemiquavers to the beat.' ('Sechtzehen semifusas auff einen
Schlag / konnen die Welschen oder Instrumentisten / Geiger unnd Zincken-
blaser besser Musiciren als etliche Deutschen. J a / sie setzen noch semisemi-
fusam 32. auff einen Tact dazu'; Quitschreiber 1607, ch. 5.)
2 'Music ist ein nicht geringes Ornamentum und Zierrat dieser Stadt'; Kriiger
1933, p. 6.
3 'die edle Musk oder Singe-Kunst / welche man billig eine recht Himmlische /
ja Gottliche Gabe oder Geschenck kann nennen / alien Traur- und Freuden-
Spielen weit / weit sey furzuziehen'; Rist 1666, p. 157.
4 'die Musik . . . in Kirchen und Schulen Ein schones Ornament und
Wohlstand . . . so . . . Ein sonderbahres condimentum der Studien sein
Pflegt'; Finkel 1973, p. 328.
5 'Ich sehe sehr gern / das die Jugend . . . unterrichtet und geubet wird /
nicht allein GOtt den HErrn damit zu ehren / sondern auch / weil
mancher armer Schiiler sich mit der Cantorey / in diesen so kumerliche
 Notes to pages 15-20 195
Zeiten / durch die Welt reiset / sein Panem propter Deum ersinget / beym
Studiren erhalten / und letzlich zu einem feinen gelehrten / Kirchen unnd
Schulen wolanstandigen Mann wird'; Biittner 1625, foreword.
6 'Also wil [der Teuflfel] auch die edle Musicam ausrotten / Wie ers dann bey
den Calvinisten schon so weit bracht / daB sie MusicamfiguralemabgeschaflV;
Rosinus 1615.
7 'So ist nun die Music in der Christlichen Kirchen auch heutiges tags nicht
nur ein feiner Christlicher Wolstand / sondern auch ein nutzliche ubung';
Anwander 1606, p. 28.
8 'Das Hertz des Menschen sey der Organist / welcher durch des himlische
Capel-Meisters des h. Geistes Gnad und Krafft den Gesang Gott gefallig
fuhren und regieren musse.'
9 See also Kalb 1965, pp. 146-7, who quotes a similar analogy between
musical performers and heavenly order, made by Saubert in his sermon for
Cantate Sunday 1623.
10 'was fur Stiicke zu dem recht-zierlig und kiinstlichen Singen gehoren';
Preussner 1924, p. 418.
11 'die itzige, neue Art und wie dieselbe in Ghur- und Furstlichen Gapellen
heutiges tages hergerichtet wird'; Krickeberg 1965, p. 108. It is interesting to
see that the Leipzig school ordinance of 1634 recommends that the cantor
strike a balance between old and new styles, following the tastes of the city
officials and citizens rather than being solely influenced by those desiring only
the most modern music: 'In den Cantionibus sacris sol er auch einen Unterscheid
halten / und weder die newen so gar offt einfuhren und gebrauchen / noch
auch der alten Moteten gantz vergessen / Sondern sich hierinn mehr nach
den Biirgern und Einwohnern / als nach den jenigen / so allein die moderna
belieben / richten.' Leipzig Ordnung 1634, ch. 6/5.
12 'auch ettwa 7-8 Knaben in der Lateinischen Schul, welche er dazu
qualifizirt vnd tuchtig befinden werde, gutwillig und ohne einige Accompens
in der Musica vnd mit allem FleiB underrichten'; see Allerup 1931, p. 19n.
13 'denn es stehet schlimm / wenn der Organist kliiger als der Cantor . . . ist';
Fuhrmann 1706, pp. 12-13.
14 Even in Leipzig, though, other musicians were sometimes responsible for
certain musical parts of the service: at the Neue Kirche the cantor of the
Thomasschule provided boys only to sing chorales and motets, while the
organist was permitted to direct the 'modern' figural music (see Stiller
1970/1984, p. 193).
15 'Bey denen Stifftern ist auch der Name Cantor bekannt, welches eine
besondere wtirde ist.'
16 'Er sey im Ghoro Musico oder nicht'; Krickeberg 1965, p. 138.
17 Leipzig Ordnung 1733, p. 13.
18 'durchs Musicieren manche schone Lehren und Glaubensspriiche sowohl den
Singenden als Anhorenden bekandt werden und ins Hertze dringen'; J. C.
Lange, quoted in Preussner 1924, p. 429. Demelius's (undated) treatise even
includes Latin grammar as the text to vocal exercises (Preussner 1924, p. 429).
196 Notes to pages 21-6
19 'Und heut zu Tage wird die Musica in Schulen fleissig geiibet / und in
vielen wol destalten Kirchen dieser Lande hat und findet man beydes
Musicam vocalem ac instrumental \
20 'wofern er nicht capabel zur Vokal- doch zur Instrumental-Music konte gebraucht
werden'; Gradenthaller 1687, 'Nutzlicher Vorbericht'.
21 Indeed the sons of rich parents in Leipzig usually went to the Nicolaischule
and therefore did not have any of the singing commitments of the
Thomasschule pupils (Krickeberg 1965, p. 117).
22 'denen Knaben so wohl in Schulen / als in der privat-information . . .'
23 'dieweil sichs aber offt zutraget / daB der Cantor wegen fiirfallender Leichen
die ordinari Singestunden nicht halten kan / auch ohne das nicht muglich /
daB in einer Stunde alle und jede absonderlich gehoret und informiret werden /
welches gleichwol / wann sie zur perfection kommen sollen / von nohten / als
wird der Cantor dorauff bedacht seyn / daB er auch zur andern jhm bequemer
Zeit einen und den andern / bevorab die jenigen / welehe feine naturalia und
lust zu singen haben / erfordere / und pr'watim in Musicis hore und unterweise.'
Leipzig Ordnung 1634, ch. 6 / 1 .
24 'Alle zu solchen Cantoreyen gehorige Schiller sollen taglich, um die gesetzte
Stunde, sich in Musicis fleiBig iiben, diejenigen aber, welehe von solcher
Sing-Stunde weg bleiben, von dem Cantore, oder wer dessen Stelle vertreten
mogte, bestrafet werden.' Leipzig Ordnung 1723, p. 74.
25 'In der dazu verordneten Singstund sol der Praefectus mit seinen Chor-Schiilern
so viel moglich alle / oder doch zum wenigsten die unbekantesten und
schweresten Stiicke / so er die Woche iiber singen wil / versuchen / und
nur diejenigen gebrauchen / die ohne einigen Fehler getroffen werden.'
Printz 1678, p. 4.
26 'Die Verachter der wunderschonen Musickunst / solten nur das gruntzen
der Saw und das Geschrey der Esel horen.' Biittner 1625, foreword.
27 'Es hat die liebe Music fast vor alien andern Kiinsten und Disciplinen nun
etzliche Jahr her wunderliche Abwechselung / Ab- und Zunehmen gehabt';
Michael 1637, preface to Quinta vox.
28 'Ey die meisten lieben und lernen nur gern solche Kiinste / die den Beiitel
schmiicken und fallen / oder sonst eintraglich seyn'.
29 See Kalb 1965, pp. 149-50.
30 See Ibid., pp. 142-9 for a discussion of the reservations within Orthodoxy.
31 There is a certain amount of confusion in the literature concerning the defi-
nition of Lutheran 'Pietism', particularly when J. S. Bach's faith is the issue.
Above all it seems important to preserve a distinction between 'Pietism' as a
movement and 'piety' as a description of personal devotion. For a clear
exposition of the movement (which began c.1675) specifically within the
Lutheran Church, see Leaver 1991.
32 It is interesting to note here that Anwander's organ-dedication sermon of
1606 is based on Paul's letter to the Ephesians 5:19, with the text 'singet und
spielet dem HERREN in ewerm Hertzen' (Anwander 1606, p. 7); however he
later admits that the German text strictly reads 'singet und psalliret' {Ibid.y p. 15).
 Notes to pages 26-32 197
33 'Also sehen die lieben Herren Musicanten / daB ich so wohl die Stimmen-
als Zeug-Music NB in ihrem rechten Gebrauch viel hoher und werther halte
/ als sie selbst'; Muscovius 1694, p. 28.
34 '1st nun die Music ernsthafft / ansehnlich und fein / so sind auch die Leute
ernsthaflt / haben cine gute Autoritat / und befleifiigen sich der Erbarkeit';
Ibid., p. 29.
35 'todte Pfeiffen / und etliche kiinstliche Stimmen-Dreher'; Ibid., p. 36.
36 'und geklaget haben / daB sie gerne mit singen woken / wenn sie vor
solchen unerbaulichen / ja argerlichen Musiciren dazu gelassen / deutsche
Lieder / dazu die Orgel zugleich mit geschlagen / langsam und andachtig
gesungen wtirden'; Ibid., p. 37.
37 'Was dem Caligulae, Claudio und Neroni geschadet hat / das schadet alien
Fiirsten. Nun hat das Musiciren / Tantzen und die Lust-Spiele Caligulae,
Claudio und Neroni geschadet / ergo schadet tnusiciren / tantzen und die Lust-
Spiele alien Fiirsten.' Beer 1697, p. 15.
38 'so bald die Predigt angehet / aus der Kirchen laufFen / und wenn die
Predigt geschlossen wird / erst zu ihren Brausen wieder kommen'; Muscovius
1694, p. 45; see also Selle's comments about the Hamburg musicians (p. 23
above).
39 See K. Snyder, 'Scheidt, Samuel', in NG XVI, p. 605.
40 'Derowegen bey reception und Auffnehmung der Knaben / ungeacht eines
oder des andern commendation, billich dohin zu sehen / dafi dieselben / wann sie
uber das zwolflfte Jahr sind / und in dieser Schul sich auflzuhalten begehren /
in arte Musica nicht rudes, sondern deroselben guten theils erfahren / und ein
Stuck fertig und artig musiciren konnen.' Leipzig Ordnung 1634, ch. 7 / 1 .
41 'und do er auB Mangel der Stimme zur Musica entweder gantz nicht tiichtig /
oder auch selbige nicht lernen wolte / Sol . . . nach gelegenheit seiner
prqfectuum, eine gewisse Zeit gesetzt werden / binnen welcher er seiner Stell /
so er in der Schulen gehabt / resignire, darmit also durch ihn und seines
gleichen die Bestellung der Musica&schcn Ghor nicht verhindert / auch
andere / so in dem Singen geiibt / und darmit der Kirchen unnd Schulen
dienen konnen / darvon auflgeschlossen werden.5 Ibid., ch. 7/4.
42 'Dann es ist ja eine bey alien vernunfltigen Menschen ausgemachte Sache;
daB derjenige / welcher das Hauptwerck zu verwalten hat / selbiger auch
das Haupt in derselben gantzen Sache sey. Die Kirchen-Music aber ohn-
widersprechlich das Haupt aller Musiquen ist: so ist auch der Cantor nach
dem ZeugniB des Gewissens aller verniinfftigen Menscfien / sie mogen
heissen Christen / Jiiden / Tiircken oder Heyden / das Haupt der Musici
und nicht der Rector.' Bendeler 1706, p. 2.
43 'Und gesetzet / es informiretc der Rector die Schiiler auch in Musicis, wie man
denn biBwellen Rectores findet / welche die Music verstehen; so reichete es
doch / wie aus obigen gnugsam zu ersehen / bey weitem noch nicht hin.'
Ibid., pp. 5-6.
44 'Dafern nun dem Cantori die Macht einen Chor-Schiiler zu excludiren gelassen
wiirde / so konnte er demselben die Subsistenz beynehmen / daB er genothigt
198 Notes to pages 32-7
wurde die Schule zu quiArcn / dadurch denn viellecht der Rector eines
guten Subjecti beraubet wurde. Der Schuler komme hauptsachlich um der
Schule willen in die Stadt / oder nicht / gnug / daB er ein Ghor Schuler /
und nicht wegen der Schule; sondern wegen der Kirchen-Music hauptsach-
lich in Ghor genommen wird.J Bendeler 1706, p. 23.
45 'Jedoch kan ein Rector wider des Cantoris Willen keinen Praefectum bestellen /
weil der Cantor von seiner Capacitat in der Music zujudiciren / und einen
haben muB / der in Nothfall seine vices zuvertreten tuchtig'; Ibid., p. 9.
46 lDie Musicalischen Aufwartungen sind eine Sache fur Concertisten. Concertisten
aber als Concertisten dependiren nicht vom Rectore; sondern vom Cantore, als von
welchem sie lediglich zur Concert angenommen und angewiesen werden.'
Ibid., p. 10.
47 'die Bestellung der Music dem Cantori privative zustehet'; Ibid., p. 11.
48 'In Stierlein's definition Musica theorica refers to all the rudiments that are
generally discussed within the standard primers. An extensive section on
ornamentation and diminution forms a protracted appendix to this 'theo-
retical' section (one which, incidentally, relies extensively on Bernhard's
composition treatises - see p. 136 below). Musica practica is an introduction to
thoroughbass, that art which so succinctly links the practice of performance
and composition ('Der General-Bass ist das beste und vortrefflichste Fundament /
nach welchem sich ein gantzes musicalisches Stuck / so wohl in der Composition,
als Auflluhrung und Machung desselben richten muB'; Stierlein 1691, p. 24).
Stierlein's definition of musica poetica, however, is totally absurd: it is little
more than a proposed system of notating music with a system of numbers
(i.e. in the manner of a tablature) and, despite Stierlein's frequent use of the
term componiren, it has absolutely nothing to do with the art of composition.
49 Magirus 1596; Gumpelzhaimer 1600 (an amplified translation of Faber);
Galvisius 1602; Orgosinus 1603; Eichmann 1604; Kretzschmar 1605;
Demantius 1607; Kraft 1607; Quitschreiber 1607; Grappius 1608; Harnisch
1608; Beringer 1610; Walliser 1611 - to cover merely the first decade or so.
50 Hase 1647; Zerleder 1658; Stenger 1659 (with the amplification of Hizler,
almost word for word).
51 Ulich 1682; Lange 1688 (with Hizler's addition); Falck 1688 (which adds the
playing of instruments to singing); J. G. Ahle 1690 (a reprint o f j . R. Ahle
1673).
52 'qui bene cantat, bis orat, wer wol singt ist so viel / als wenn er doppelt bettete',
a maxim which was commonly attributed to St Augustine.
53 'Die Musik ist eine Wissenschaft und Kunst, geschickte und angenehme
Klange kluglich zu stellen, richtig an einander zu fiigen und lieblich
herauszubringen, damit durch ihren Wohllaut Gottes Ehre und alle
Tugenden befordert werden.'
54 One later source, Anton 1743, offers an unusually scientific definition
concerning the nature of sound, the composition of melody and harmony
and the practice of the same. But despite this latter-day union of the three
ancient arts of music, the treatise itself covers only the rudiments of notation.
 Notes to pages 38-44 199
55 'welcher alles geordnet hat mit MaB / Zahl und Gewichte'; Ahle 1690,
'Anmerkungen', p. 2.
56 'Wer (lieber Gott!) erfrewt sich nicht? Wer lasst die Ohren nicht begniigen /
Wenn er so viel Gethon hort fugen In rechte MaaB / Zahl und Gewicht?'
Ribovius 1638, foreword.
57 'die Natur / als mater sonorum, und die Kunst des Tohnmeisters oder MusicV
Ahle 1690, 'Anmerkungen', p. 2.
58 'die Bewegung des Menschen zur Tugend / und zu maBiger Froligkeit / wie
auch dienlicher Traurigkeit'; Ibid., p. 3.
59 Feyertag 1695, p. 3.
60 e.g. Friccius 1631, pp. 53, 56: 'des Menschen Seele sey eine Harmonic?.
61 'Ob auch outers eine starcke Dissonans sich ereignet in Greutz und Absterben /
so bringts der HERR JESUS doch wieder zur Ordnung.' Hack 1676, introduction.
62 The eternal qualities of music are also mentioned by Herbst in the
introduction to his primer on Italian manners; for him these qualities place
music above all the other free arts (Herbst 1642/1653, Introduction).
63 'Ich habe die Weise / wo gute Noten bosen Text haben / da gebe ich solche
Noten einen guten Text'; Friccius 1631, p. 34, quoting D. Erasmus Alberus.
64 The fact that Printz recommended the use of a monochord to learn intervals
(Printz 1678, p. 23) suggests that the pupil still had an awareness of the
mathematical basis of musical intervals (something which was probably
emphasised in mathematics lessons too). Nevertheless, the subject does not
seem to have been consciously studied within the context of practical music
instruction.
65 'So begreift derselbige in sich zehen zu dieser Action gehorige Concerten . . .
Insonderheit aber darbey mit stillschweigen nicht zu iibergehen ist, daB der
Author dieselben in Druck heraus zu geben dahero Bedencken getragen hat,
alldieweil Er vermercket daB auBer Furstlichen wohlbestalten Gapellen, solche
seine Inventionen schwerlich ihren gebiihrenden effect anderswo erreichen wiirden'.
66 'Das gantze Gemiith des Menschen wird durch Gesang regieret und
gefuhret'; Friccius 1631, p. 87.
67 Anwander similarly describes good music as acting like a magnet on the
human heart (Anwander 1606, p. 18).
68 'so mus man sich wundern / wariim doch die Componisten in den
Kirchensachen nicht den Stylum recitativum . . . brauchen: maBen ja derselbe
mit der natiirlichen Aussprache am besten iibereinkomt / und den Text gar
deutlich und annehmlich macht.' Ahle 1704, p. 83.
69 'Die Music aber hat in dem Jahrhundert, darin wir leben, eine merkliche
Veranderung zu ihrem groBten Vortheil und Aufnahme erlitten'; Ruetz
1750, p. 78.
70 'Da nun aber die itzige status musices gantz anders weder ehedem beschaffen,
die Kunst iim sehr vicl gestiegen, der gusto sich verwunderens-wiirdig geandert,
dahero auch die ehemalige Arth von Music unseren Ohren nicht mehr
klingen will . . . Es ist ohne dem etwas Wunderliches, da man von denen
teiitschen Musicis proetendiret, Sie sollen capable seyn, allerhand Arthen von
200 Notes to pages 46-53
Music, sie kommen nun aus Italien oder Franckreich, Engeland oder Pohlen, so
fort ex tempore zu musiciren'; Bach-Dokumente I, p. 63.
It is interesting that Bach's Leipzig predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, in the
introduction to his cantata cycle of 1709, still saw fit to avoid the new styles
(their advantages in grace notwithstanding), on account of their theatrical
connotations: 'Nichts desto weniger bin ich doch bey der einmahl gefasten
Resolution geblieben, und zwar um so viel mehr, weil ich, indem ich ietzo
von dem Madrigalischen Stylo, der in Arien und Recitativ bestehet, nichts
sehen lasse, dem Verdachte der Theatrischen Music desto leichter zu entgehen
gedencke.' Kuhnau 1709, in MJMG 1902, p. 149.
71 'Die Musik allein aber ist unbeseelet, und unverstandlich, wenn sie nicht an
Worte halt, die gleichsam flir sie reden mussen; damit man wisse, was sie
haben will.' J. C. Gottsched, Auszug aus des Herrn Batteux Schonen Kiinsten
(Leipzig, 1754), p. 207.
72 See N. Frye, Anthony of Criticism (Princeton, 1957/1900), p. 245: 'Rhetoric
has from the beginning meant two things: ornamental speech and persuasive
speech. These two things seem psychologically opposed to each other, as the
desire to ornament is essentially disinterested, and the desire to persuade
essentially the reverse.'
73 'Optimus Orator est vir canoms, qui in dicendo animus aodienctium delectat, & permouet.
Cosi, ricercasi al modern copositore di Musiche nelPesprimere vn Madrigale
Motetto 6 quali sieno altre parole, dene operare imitando con l'armonia
gi'afetti dell'Oratione, accio che nel cantare habbino diletto non solo il proprio
conpositore, n'aparimentc gli cantori & audienti'; Banchieri 1614, p. 166.
74 'es sey dann / das es viva Praeceptoris voce & ope geschehe / und einem
vorgesungen und vorgemacht werde / darmit es einer vom andern / gleich
wie ein Vogel vom andern observiren lerne.' Praetorius 1619, p. 237.
75 Dating according to Hilse 1973, p. 8; this was the time that Bernhard
directed the choirboys of the Dresden court chapel.
76 Feyertag (1695, p. 234) defines Coloriren as a combination of singing
according to the words (Moderiren) with Diminuiren, added diminution.
77 For an application of this hypothesis to the case ofj. S. Bach, with regard to
his notated articulation, see Butt 1990.

3 The contents, layout and style of instruction books

1 See for example, Feyertag 1695, introduction: 'Dahero ich dieses Biichlein
auB denen vornehmsten ?nusicis zusammen getragen und fast nichts neues /
weder sehr zierliche noch hochtrabende Worten darinnen gesetzet'.
2 Demantius 1592 was replaced by a new version in 1607 which was
republished at least until 1684, Vulpius 1608 was printed several times up to
1665, Friderici 1618 until 1677, Hizler 1623 was reprinted in 1628, Herbst
in 1642, 1653 and 1658, Quirsfeld 1675 until 1717. Printz 1678 was rewritten
in 1689 and republished in that form until 1714 (for a full list of surviving
editions, see RISM catalogue).
3 e.g. Bernhard, Burmeister, Calvisius, Crtiger, Herbst, Praetorius.
 Notes to pages 53-61 201
4 For instance the title page of Praetorius 1574 notes that the book was used in
the schools of Liineburg; Gumpelzhaimer 1591 records the author as cantor
at Augsburg; Harnisch 1608 ends with rudiments specifically addressed to the
quarta class at Gottingen; Beringer 1610 introduces the author as cantor at
Weissenburg; Friderici 1618 is dedicated to schools in Rostock; Trautmann
1618 was used in the schools of Lindau; Hase 1657 was written for the
school in Osteroda. Even in the eighteenth century a published treatise
might be designed for schools of a specific locality: e.g. Anton 1743 was
written for students in Bremen.
5 'Newe und zuvor nie erfundene Singekunst / dadurch Manns- und
Frawenspersonen alle Gesange leichtlich singen lernen konnen'.
6 My inquiry to the editors of RISM for a list of manuscript treatises of the
Baroque era was answered with the statement that they intended to make no
such catalogue, since there were so few unique manuscript treatises which
never at some point appeared in print.
7 'In dem Compendio Tlieologico, Dialectica, RJietorica und andern Kiinsten / so den
Knaben gelesen werden / Sollen sie die Praecepta unnd Regulas leuchtlichen
nicht andern / Sondern eben dieselbige Wort behalten . . . Auch insonderheit
darauff sehen / domit die Knaben die nothwendigen Praecepta und Exempla . . .
so in gewisse qvaestiones und Responsiones verfasset seyn / fleissig auBwendig
lernen / solche offt mit sich selbst repetirerC\ Leipzig Ordnung 1634, ch. 3/13.
8 The anonymous Kurze Anweisung of 1752 is likewise designed for the use of
the teacher or the pupil himself.
9 Hase 1657 (p. 26), Cruger 1660 (p. 14), HofTmann 1693 (p. 30) and Feyertag
1695 (p. 18).
10 'Ists derwegen an der discretion eines Direcloris gelegen / daB er / nach dem
die Worte des Textus es mit bringen / den Tact so wol in Tripla als in
sesquialtera, langsam oder geschwinde schlage'; Friderici 1618/24, ch. 6.
11 'wird aber heutiges Tages von vielen nicht in Acht genommen'; Hoffmann
1693, p. 10.
12 'doch in Ansehung des Accords und Zusammenstimmung kommt es alles auf
die Tertia des Basses an'; Wesselius 1726, p. 9.
13 The same point is later taken up by Printz 1671, ch. 1.
14 'sind also nicht gar ungleich einem trunckenen Manne / der zwar in sein HauB
kommen ist / weiB aber nicht / welchen Weg er gegangen sey'; Hase 1657, p. 7.
15 The well-known anonymous Wegweiser includes elements of a lost treatise by
Carissimi and was reprinted many times between 1689 and 1753; other
Catholic treatises include Eisenhut 1682 (reprinted 1702 and 1732); Munster
1748; Schmelz 1752.
16 'Welche in einer einfachen oder auch mehren Sing-Stimmen, ohne
Instrumenten bestehet; wie zum Exempel unsere Kirchen-Gesange sind.'
17 Schneegass 1591; Quitschreiber 1598; Burmeister 1601; Calvisius 1602;
Leisring 1615; Friderici 1618, to cover the first two decades.
18 e.g. Gengenbach 1626; Demantius 1632 (an addition to his earlier tutors);
Sartorius 1635.
202 Notes to pages 61-7
19 'Signa Soni Lati Die sind zur Zeit noch nicht verhanden / die Italianer
gebrauchen an ihrer statt viel verwirrete / und beydes den Sangern und
Druckern unbequeme Worter / unter welchen hier nur Forte und Piano zu
mercken ist.' Dieterich 1631, p. 12.
20 'so sollen die Knaben mercken / sonderlich welche auff dem Clavichordio
oder Instrument lernen wollen / daB man wegen der Hohe oder TiefFe /
jeden Gesang eine Quart oder Quint hoher oder tieffer setzen konne';
Quitschreiber 1607, ch. 10.
21 See Moyer 1992, especially pp. 25, 27.
22 Ibid., pp. 71-3.
23 Demantius 1632 contains one hundred canons, some in seven voices;
Stenger 1659 contains sixty-seven.
24 'in theils Schulen ist man gewohnt / bey ihrer alten Manier noch zu
verbleiben / damit die Jugend noch mehrer verhindert / als befbrdert wird /
tribuliren dieselben so lang mit allerley characteribus und signis, damit sie der
Music miissen gram werden / da doch der Jugend mit viel leichterer Miih
kan und mag geholffen werden / vermittelst Gottlicher Hulfl? Gradenthaller
1687, 'Nutzlicher Vorbericht'.
25 Comenius's program for a universal education recommended a much closer
attention to the coordination of the pupil's readiness and ability to learn with
the various stages of instruction. All components of a subject should be
linked with what was previously learned and the teacher should search for
suitable examples, precepts and stimuli. Particularly important was the
cultivation of a favourable environment for learning, with the subject so
arranged that the pupil studies 'as if of his own accord. See J. E. Sadler,
J. A. Comenius and the concept of universal education (London, 1966), especially
pp. 196-206; also Petzoldt 1985, p. 13 and Rainbow 1989, pp. 83-5.
26 'Gegen die Knaben sollen sie freundlich seyn / und dardurch bey ihnen zu
fbrderst rechte Liebe der Praeceptorum, und so dann Lust und Frewde zum
Studiren erwecken / dargegen aber alle Unfreundligkeit und tyannische
Gebarde meiden / und die Jugend damit von den Studiis nicht abschrecken.'
Leipzig Ordnung 1634, ch. 1/6.
27 'die solle ein Discipulus Musices alle und jede erstlich recht lehrnen verstehen /
darnach von Wort zu Wort . . . auswendig lernen / und stehts in frischer
GedachtnuB behalten.' Hizler 1623, Introduction.
28 'Die Musicque nimmet ihren Platz gleich neben der JJieologie, und stehet iiber
den iibrigcn Kunsten und Wissenschafften alien.' Eisel 1738, Vorrede.
29 'Sie ist auch eine nothige WissenschafTt; indem Sie unter die Requisita eines
galant-Home gezehlet wird, und konnen die in Italien, Frankreich und andern
Koniglichen und Furstlichen Hofen Europae befindlichen Virtuosi zur Geniige
bezeugen, daB sie auch eine nuBliche und eintragliche WissenschafFt sey.'
Maier 1741, p. 2.
 Notes to pages 68-73 203

4 The development ofperformance practice and the tools of expression and interpretation in
the German Baroque
1 Indeed the tradition of regarding singing as something rather more than
accurate pitching can be traced back as far as Conrad von Zabern (1474) in
the German writings; see Ulrich 1973, p. 18.
2 *NB. Wer keine Beliebung zu der Abwechselung mit pian: und fort: traget /
kan solche in folgendem Stuck wol ubergehen.' See Adrio 1961, p. 117.
Ribovius 1638 describes changes of dynamic and tempo as musicalfigures,in
other words exceptions to the norm which are neccessitated by the
contingences of the text (Ribovius 1638, pp. 131-2).
3 The German writers reflect the situation in many Italian writings: Avella 1657,
a sizeable compendium on the rules of music, including composition, contains
but two pages on vocal technique, pp. 33, 127. Even a treatise as comprehen-
sive as Banchieri 1614 concentrates primarily on matters of ornamentation.
The description of head and chest voice is the only additional technical infor-
mation on vocal production; see Cranna 1981 (translation of Banchieri), p. 302.
4 Praetorius 1574, ch. 5/3: 'Vocem etiam verbis conformare studeant, ita ut in
re hilari hilarem, in tristi tristem concentum promant, & auditorum animos
suauiter afliciant, & ad affectum aliquem traducant.'
5 See Allerup 1931, pp. 32-4; Bartels 1989, p. 31 apparently mistakenly
attributes these comments to a 1645 edition of Calvisius's work. Although
JVG dates this treatise to 1594, the RISM catalogue shows no surviving
exempla before that of 1602; in any case Calvisius died in 1615.
6 Allerup 1931, p. 33: Mattheson 1739, remarks that this good advice was
generally forgotten by his own generation.
7 'Haueranno etiandio li Cantori questo auertimento, che ad altro modo si
canta nelle Chiese, & nelle Gapelle publiche, & ad altro modo nelle Priuate
Gamere: Imperoche ini si canta a piena voce; non pero se non nel modo
detto di sopra; & nelle Gamere si canta con voce piu sommessa, & soaue,
senza fare alcun strepito.' Zarlino 1558, p. 204.
8 Friderici's statement that cantors should not sing with the uppermost voice if
they have no 'false voice' suggests that singing with falsetto was a fairly
common practice: 'Those unskilled cantors therefore err not a little, who,
when they cannot sing fictd voce with the discantists, will sooner take the
octave and make a tenor out of a discant part and introduce not a few faults
of [parallel] fifths.' ('Irren derowegen die ungeschickten Cantores nicht wenig /
Welche / wenn Sie bey den Discantisten nicht konnen fictd voce singen / alsbald
zur Octava greiflen / und einen Tenorem aus dem Discant machen / und nicht
wenig vitia von quinten einfiihren'; Friderici 1618/1624, ch. 7 rule 14.)
Erhardi implies that a falsettist - or a castrato - might be employed in an
emergency when the alto is missing: 'Zu weilen muB man auB der Noth eine
Tugent machen / und in Ermanglung eines Alfaten / dieselbe Stimme von
einem Discanteten / FalseAsten / oder Eunucho, in octava superiore singen / und
musiciren lassen.' Erhardi 1660, p. 103.
204 Notes to pages 74-81
9 Caccini's exclamation describes a lowering of the voice followed by an increase
(see trans, in Strunk 1981, vol. Ill, pp. 22—3). Either Praetorius misunder-
stood Caccini's definition, or he modified it for his own purposes.
10 Friderici's rules are translated into Latin as the final chapter of J. Praetorius
1629; Zerleder 1658 contains a virtual word-for-word copy of Friderici's
rules, showing that his treatise was transmitted at least as far as Bern.
11 For the purposes of this study we follow the orthography of the later 1649
edition.
12 'Auch welche ruffen und schreyen / daB sie gantz schwartzroth wie ein
Kalkuhnischer Hahn'; Friderici 1618/1624, ch. 7, rule 1.
13 Demantius 1607; Walliser 1611 (exhaustive study of each interval);
Gengenbach 1626 (exercises for intervals and varied note-values).
14 The fact that an early hand has added Praetorius's rules at the end of a 1649
edition of Friderici preserved in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer
Kulturbesitz, only goes to reinforce the impression that vocal ornamentation
and diminution played an enormous part in the vocal performance practice
of the age (see chapter 5).
15 His other singing treatises include the precursor (1671, probably first published
in 1666) and the shortened version of Printz 1678 published in 1689, and
still in print in 1714.
16 He later remarks that trills and trilletti can be added to long notes and that
this is preferable to the common mistake of restriking every division of a
long-held note (p. 22).
17 See Foreman 1969, p. 28 and Ulrich 1973, p. 10.
18 Mylius 1685, performance rule 7, gives a graphic description of the prob-
lems of those who have difficulty in mutating to bass at the time of the
voice-change. They make appalling gestures and shout unnaturally like the
tooth-breaker: 'noch daB er im Gesichte und mit dem gantzen Leibe keine
heBliche Geberden und garstige Verstellungen von sich blicken lasse /
dergleichen dieienigen am meisten von sich spuren lassen / welche zum Bass
mutiren / da sich die Stimme noch nicht recht gesetzet / und mit grossem
Zwang gern tieff singen wollen / da es unmuglich ist / und in der Mitte wie
die Zahnbrecher unnatiirlich schreyen / als wenn sie gespisset werden
solten / welches denn ein hcBlicher Ubelstand ist.' See also Mattheson 1739,
p. 84 below for an attempted physiological explanation of the relationship
between the 'increasing ardours and humours' and the voice-change.
19 Most Italian sources stress, like those in Germany, that runs must be formed
in the throat. Maffei 1562 seems to be the only writer who actually describes
the action of the glottis. See Greenlee 1987, pp. 50-1.
20 'Wenn der Knabe einen Gesang anfahet / soil er nicht alsobald mit vollem
Halse schreyen / sondern Anfangs fein linde / und hernach immer starcker
und starcker; doch also / daB er die Stimme nicht wieder sincken lasse /
sondern biB aus Ende in gleicher starcke behalte.' Quirsfeld 1675/1688,
pp. 27-8.
 Notes to pages 82-102 205
21 'auch der Singer die Stimm also moderiret / daB sie bald starck / bald
schwach / bald lustig / bald traurig &c. an gebiihrenden Orten / sich
vernehmen lassef; Falck 1688, p. 89.
22 'Solche Wissenschafft war in alten Zeiten von der Erheblichkeit, daB man
eine eigene ProfeBion daraus machte. Itzo kennen viele Ton-Meister kaum
den Nahmen, geschweige dessen rechte Bedeutung; obgleich die Welschen
Sanger, und zvvar, so viel mir wissend, dieselben schier allein, noch ein
wenig davon beibehalten, und bisher gewisser maassen, nicht ohne Nutzen,
gebraucht haben.' Mattheson 1739, p. 95.
23 'denn die Grade der Schwache und Starcke menschlicher Stimmen sind
unzehlich, und ie mehr einer davon zu finden oder zu treffen weiB, ie
mehrerley Wirckungen wird er auch in den Gemuthern seiner Zuhorer zu
Wege bringen'; Ibid., p. 97.
24 'Die Sache nicht bloB auf Regeln, sondern vielmehr auf den Gebrauch, auf
grosse Uibung und Erfahrung ankomme'; Ibid., p. 112.
25 See Beitrdge zur Bach-Forschung vol. VII, ed. A. Schneiderheinze (Leipzig,
1989) for a full text and commentary.
26 Indeed Petri still refers to Printz's advice on diet in 1782, p. 215.
27 'durch Starke und Schwache der Stimme'; Doles, in Schneiderheinze 1989,
p. 68; Petri 1767, p. 61.
28 'Pian, submisse, wen sie die Stime moderiren und zugleich gar stille intoniren url
Musicire sollen. Sonsten ist Plan so viel / alB pfacide, pedetentim, lento gradu: daB
man die Stimen nicht allein messigen: sondern auch langsamer singen solle.'
Praetorius 1619, p. 132.
29 'Diesem Chor kan auch der Capellmeister / oder wer sonst das Werck dirigiret,
beywohnen / und einen rechtmessigen langsamen appropriirten tackt / (darinnen
gleichsam die Seele und das Leben aller Music bestehet) darzu geben.'
30 'Gegen das ende des Gesanges / in penultima consonantia, das ist / ohn eine /
der letzten Noten / so da klinget / sollen alle Stimen auBhalten / und ein
sanfftes / fein messig gezogenes Confinal mache / und nicht also bald dz final
dem Gesange anhengen. (Denn solches den Zuhorenden gar verdrieBlich
und unangenem zu horen vorkdmmt. Und nimmt auch dem Gesange eine
gutes theil der lieblig- und anmutigkeit hinweg / wenn man also bald den
Gesang abbricht / und kurtz abreist.)
Sonderlich wol aber zieret der Bass den gesungenen Gesang / wenn Er
vor andern Stimmen / so wol im confinal als im rechten final ein wenig langer
protrahiret, und ein wenig zuletzt absonderlich / doch fein gelind und sanfft /
mag gehoret werde. (Sol demnach ein Cantor seinen Knaben im Discant und Alt
nicht gestatten / am lengsten auBzuhalten.)' Friderici 1618/1624, rules 20-1.
31 Staden 1648 adds that the penultimate notes stands outside the measure to
allow for the improvisation of cadential figures. See Dammann 1967/1984,
p. 392.
32 'und nicht selber mit dem FuB oder Hand tachren.9 Hoffmann 1693, p. 3.
33 'Es ist aber der Tact eine gewisse richtige Bewegung des Arms, oder auch des
FuBes, wodurch die Music in genauer Ordnung gehalten wird.* Anton 1743,
206 Notes to pages 103-8
p. 28. 'Wiinscht man, zumahl bey stark besetzten Musiken, ein auserliches
Kennzeichen zu sehen, nach dem sich alle Musicirende in der strengsten
Richtigkeit des Tacts . . . zu achten haben, so ist das masige Auf- und
Niederschlagen der Hand oder des Fusses des, der die Music dirigirt, das
Bequemste. Das Niederschlagen macht die lste Halfte, das Aufheben die
zwote Halfte jedes Tactes . . . in der ungeraden Tactart aber, ist die Zeit des
Niederschlags noch einmahl so lang als die Zeit des Aufschlags.' Doles, in
Schneiderheinze 1989, pp. 57-8.
34 *Er thut am besten, wenn er den Musikdirector bittet, ihm sein piano oder
fork bey jeder Note vor zu schreiben'; Petri 1767, p. 46.
35 Quitschreiber's advice on giving the singers their starting-notes clearly
formed the basis of a similar passage in Leisring 1615.
36 Friccius suggests that church pieces be sung at a low pitch, not only because
this makes it easier for the singers and listeners, but because it evokes the
appropriate 'lowliness': 'so mussen wir allhie im niedern Chor unser Lobsagen
nicht aus hoflartigem sondern demutigem Hertzen verzichten'; Friccius
1631, p. 269.
37 'Die Transposition ist zwar unterschiedlich; Ordinam aber / geschichts in ein
quart oder quint.' Gradenthaller 1687, p. 27. The author proceeds to specify
how the performer can effect a transposition by changing the clefs.
38 'Der vornemsten Musicorum Meynung ist diese; Man soil den Gesang (wenn
die Transpositio nicht nothwendig) wie der Componist derselben gesetzt / am
sichersten / sine transpositions behalten.' Erhardi 1660, p. 113.
39 'Vox alia aliam non obtundat, Sed sint omnes in aequabili intensione, &
inuicem ad alias attendant.' Calvisius 1602, rule 3.
40 It is interesting that the call for a strong bass line is still heard in the mid
eighteenth century: according to Petri the bass should be strong but propor-
tioned to the rest of the music ('Der Bafl sey stark, aber doch der iibrigen
Musik proportion^; Petri 1767, p. 42).
41 'Wo die Gelegenheit des Ortes und der Adjiwanttn es leiden wil / konnen die
Stiicken / in welchen Capelleny Symphonien und dergleichen zu finden / also
ausgetheilet werden / daB die Symphoni an einem besondern / die Capell an
einem besondern und zunahest zu dem Wercke oder Orgel / die concer&renden
Stimmen auch besonders / und sonderlich der concer&rende Bass von dem Bass.
Contin. etwas weg und an einen besondern Ort gestellet werde / zu welchen
alien sehr dienlich ist.' Michael 1637, preface to Quinta vox.
42 'In disposition und Anordnung der Capellen so zwey Choricht / kan man in
acht nemen / daB die Chor creutzweiB gesteUet werden / und daB Capella 1.
dem andern Cow Fauorito, und hingegen Capella 2. dem ersten / etc. am
nechsten sey / so werden die Capellen den gewiindschten effect erreichen.'
43 Indeed Praetorius observes that the terms concerto, motet etc. are often
used indiscriminately by Italian composers themselves; Praetorius 1619,
p. 6.
44 'Diewel dieser Chorus fast meistentheils zugleich mit einfallet / wenn die
andern Chor alle zusammen kommen'; Praetorius 1619, p. 133.
 Notes to pages 108-13 207
45 Praetorius's suggestion that the cantus and tenor, alto and bass parts
sometimes be printed in the same book so that the two singers harmonise
better with each other, also implies that he had only a few - if not single -
singers in mind; Praetorius 1619, p. 90.
46 'Es habe ihn aber hierzu sonderlich bewogen / dieweil er gesehen / daB
offtmals eine Mutet von 5,6. oder mehr Stimmen in die Orgel gesungen
worden / der Sanger oder Cantom aber / sonderlich in den Klostern / selten
uber zwey oder drey gewesen / und also aus mangel der andern Stimmen
der Symphony an Liebligkeit und Zierde viel entzogen / sonderlich / weil die
auBgelassene Stimmen mh fugis, Clausulis, & c. (Welchen in den andern
Stimmen / so mit Musicanten bestellet / lange Pausen zu respondiren pflegen)
erftillet seyn', Praetorius 1619, p. 4.
47 'Chori favoriti sind / welche mit den besten Vocalisten und Instrumentisten
bestellet werden sollen / da denn entweder nur eine Stimme allein . . .
gesungen wird / oder zwey / drey / oder vier miteinander certiren, und also
guten favor und Ruhm zu erlangen / sich bemiihen.' This advice is repeated
- almost word for word - in Falck 1688.
48 'Aus diesen sechs Concertat Stimmen konnen ferner (wo da Wort Capella
stehet) sechs andere Stimmen / biB auff die nechstfolgenden Strichlein /
abgeschrieben / und also noch ein absonderlicher Chor oder Capella mit
angestellet und eingeflihret werden.'
49 'So seyn die . . . Complementer!, in vier absonderlichen Biichern / zu befinden
. . . dieselbigen doch / (wann sie noch einmahl abgeschrieben werden)
dupliret / und gleichsam in zwey Chor / als Vocalem und Instrumentalem
vertheilet / und mit angeordnet werden konnen.'
50 'In obgesetzten wird Com Secondo fur eine Capell gebraucht / und dahero starck
bestimmet / weil aber Choro 1. welches ist Chow Fanorito hingegen schwach /
und nur von vier Sangern ist'.
51 'welches er leicht thun wird konnen / wen alle Stimmen durch andere
bestellet seyn'; Printz 1678, p. 8.
52 'Die Stimmen miissen so eingetheilt seyn, daB eine Proportion unter ihren ist,
und keine Stimme die andre iiberschreyet, und also nicht zwey Discantisten
oder Sopranisten, 1 Altist, 6 Tenoristen und 3 Bassisten. Wo aber ja dieser
Fehler in einem Stadtchore ist, und man die Sanger nicht anders hat, so
muB man die Stimme, die zu starck besetzt ist, gewohnen schwach zu
singen, oder man stellt die hochsten Tenoristen an zu tiefen Altisten oder
der tiefsten Tenoristen zum Basse, denn die BaB darf nur ein weniges
starcker seyn, als die andern Stimen'; Petri 1767, pp. 50-1.
53 'Die meisten bringen es ja auch selbst in der Musik nicht gar zu weit, und
wenn sie vom Sopranisten bis zur Praefectus im Chore gekommen sind, so
singen sie wohl nach 8 und mehr Jahren noch ohne Zierlichkeit und ohne
Affect, wenn sie nur als Ripienisten stets mit gesungen, und den guten
Vortrag nicht studiert und geiibt haben, und keine Theorie haben erlernen
wollen.' Petri 1782, p. 196.
208 Notes to pages 113-18
54 However, according to Wolf 1787 the traditional definition of the
'Konzertist* - as someone who sang the solo sections but who was also
responsible for the performance of the entire part - was still valid during the
closing years of the century (see chapter 6, p. 171 below).
55 Two recent articles, Wagner 1986 and Schulze 1989, have challenged
Rifkin's conclusions. Yet the very fact that both cite contemporaries of Bach,
namely Mattheson and Scheibe, who speak out against performance of
choruses with single singers, suggests that such economical forces were
indeed still an option at that time. Both Wagner and Schulze privilege
considerations of historical context and 'external* factors over the internal
evidence of the original performing parts. Yet, as their studies and the
present examination show, the external evidence can point both ways.
Critics of Rifkin tend to discount his examination of the original parts
without even attempting to address the very convincing arguments he has
developed from their internal coherences.
56 'und ist nur der Unterschied / daB die andern mit dem Maul / sie mit der
Hand und Fingern die Notten nennen mussen.'
57 'Also ist an die andern / bevorab aber die jenigen / welchen der rechtmassige
Tact iiber vorgedachte heutige Music / und die schwartzen Noten / so wohl
auch der state ausgedehnete musicalische Strich auff dem Violin / bey uns
Deutschen / nicht bekand noch in iibung ist . . . mein freundliches bitten /
sie wollen / ehe und zuvor sie sich unterstehen / eines oder das andere
dieser Stucken / offentlich zugebrauchen / sich nicht schamen / deswegen
zuvor eines Unterrichts / bey solcher Manier Erfahrnen zu erholen / auch
an der Privat ubung keinen VerdruB zu schopffen'.
58 'die Coloraturen und geschwinde Laufflein vornen / wo der Bogen leicht ist /
machen und streichen.'
59 'Ich an meinem Ort will keinem seine Meinung verwerffen / wann nur die
Composition nicht deformirt / sondern deB Componisttn Scopus erreicht wird.
Jedoch stehets gar wol und fein / wann die Striche hiibsch mit einander
iiberein kommen.'
60 'Etliche ziehen einmahl herunter / und zweymahl hinauf / jedoch wird
dardurch der Strich in etwas verzwiket / indem der Aufzug ordinari kiirtzer /
als der Niderzug ist; Die erste Art ist besser.' Merck 1695, p. 10.
61 'Dieses ist Incipienten hochst nothig zu wissen / und Anfangs gleich anzuge-
wehnen; und zwar I. in der rechten Hand setzt man den Mittel-Finger auf
einen gewiesen clavem, so dann den Gold-Finger auf den andern clavem,
ferner schrencket man den Mittel-Finger wieder iiber den Gold-Finger auf
den dritten clavem, da dann der Gold-Finger auf den vierdten clavem kommt';
Speer 1697, p. 33.
62 'Nach diesem soil man ihnen mit beyder Hande Gebrauch / eine leichte /
vollige und kurtze Anstimmung auB jedem Thon zeigen / wovon einige
bequeme Exempel beysetzen wollen / auch gleich zu Moderanten und Triller
zu machen anhalten.' Speer 1697, p. 34.
 Notes to pages 119-28 209
63 'Ein Violinist hat sich ubrigens wie alle andere Instrumentisten, stets zu
befleissen die Singstimme vollkommen nachzuahmen.' Kiirzinger 1763, p. 70.
64 'Urn ein Musikus zu werden und Einsicht vom Ganzen der Musik zu
bekommen, lerne er ein Hauptinstrument, als das Clavier oder die groBe
Harfe und studiere den GeneralbaB, und endlich dadurch die Composition,
besonders lese und studiere er fleiBig Partituren von groBen Meistern.' Petri
1767, pp. 62-3.

5 Ornamentation and the relation between performer and composer

1 This chapter is a revised and much expanded version of an earlier article,
Butt 1991.
2 For a comprehensive survey of Italian practices in the sixteenth century, see
Brown 1976; for a general survey of diminution in composition and practice,
see Ferand 1956 and Horsley 1963.
3 'Instructio pro Symphoniacis Wie die Knaben / so vor andern sonderbare Lust
und Iiebe zum singen tragen / uffjetzige Italianische Manier zu informiren /
und zu unterrichten seyn.' Praetorius 1619, pp. 229-40.
4 Mylius relies heavily on Praetorius's study of intonatio in his description of
1685; to the latter's account of singers beginning up to a fourth below the
first note, Mylius adds that some also begin from above; but all of these are
undesirable if the text is to be pronounced more gently. His own advice is to
begin a semitone under the first note in a half-muted manner: 'Etliche
derselben fangen solchen . . . von oben / als auch von unten auf / welche
beyde letztere im Texte (wenn er mehr gelinde angesprochen wird) einen
unanstandigen Raptum oder RiB verursachen / daher ich davor hake / daB
man einen Gesang mit einem halb gedampften manierlichen / im Semitonio unter
dem ersten Thone anfange / und also ferner fortfahre'; Mylius 1685, ch. 5.
5 'Wenn die Noten folgender Gestalt im Halse gezogen werden.' Ibid., p. 232.
6 'und miissen scherffer alB die Tremoli angeschlagen werden.' Ibid., p. 236.
7 *Je geschwinder und scharffer nun diese Laufflein gemacht werden / doch
also das man eine jede Noten recht rein horen und fast vernemen kan: Je
besser und anmtitiger es sein wird.' Ibid.
8 'wie ein Vogel vom andern observiren lerne.' Ibid., p. 237.
9 'Sind geschwinde Lauffe / welche beydes Gradatim und auch Saltuatim durch
alle Intervalla, so wol ascendendo alB descendendo, uber den Noten so etwas gelten /
gesetzet und gemacht werden.' Ibid., p. 240.
10 Italian sources likewise give little indication of the connection between dimi-
nution and text sense; see Gallo, Groth, Palisca and Rempp 1989, pp. 288-90.
11 For a thorough survey of Herbst's extensions of Praetorius's definitions, see
Allerup 1931, pp. 14-18.
12 Falck 1688, p. 108; Herbst also specified this exercise as a preparation to
the trillo and tremolo; Allerup 1931, p. 14.
13 Allerup 1931, pp. 9-10.
210 Notes to pages 129-34

14 For extensive but dated overviews, see Goldschmidt 1890/1978; Kuhn

1902/1969; Allerup 1931.
15 'Wenn ein Knabe / in denen Clavibus, Intervallen und Tact perfect ist / so ist
rathsam daB man ihn den Text singen lasse / da man ihn zugleich mit
allgemach die Figuren kan lehren.' Printz 1671, ch. 7.
16 'Dieweil aber solches auflf Anordnung derer Herrn Scholarchen in unsere
Stadtschul offentlich zu dociren schon Anno 1665 introduciret; auch solches an
andern Orten beliebet worden: Als bin ich gezwungen worden . . . zu
rediviren'; Printz 1671, foreword.
17 'und wanns nicht gehn will / mit der Hand an die Gurgel klopffen und also
gewohnen.'
18 e.g. Printz 1678, pp. 42-74. For a brief guide to Printz's figures, see Horsley
1963, pp. 138, 153, although this author confuses the Compendium musicae of
1668 with the different work of the same title of 1689.
19 'Wir kommen nun auf das achte Requisitum eines guten Sangers / welches
ist die Wissenschafft / und zierliche Formirung der Musicalischen Figuren /
welche gleichsam das Saltz der Melodeyen sind: Denn gleich wie eine
ungesaltzene Speise; also ist eine Melodey ohne Figuren wenig annehmlich.'
Printz 1678, p. 42.
20 'Pausa ist eine schweigende Figur / und ein sehr kurtzes Stilleschweigen
zwischen geschwinden Noten.' Printz 1671, ch. 7/23.
21 *Vitium Goncordantiarum ist / wenn der Sanger nicht wol auff das Fundament
und Neben-Stimme acht hat / und also eine Figur formiret / welche
verursacht / daB zwey Unisoni oder Quinten oder Octaven aufT einander
folgen.'/&</., ch. 8/16.
22 Feyertag 1695, an extensive treatise which is constructed from a number of
earlier accounts, adopts something of the spirit of Printz's terminology: figura
conjuncta is a figure comprising several simple figures; figures can be divided
into running (cursorial'lauffende), fluctuating (agitata/schwebende) and mixed
figures (mixta/vermischte) (Feyertag 1695, p. 225).
23 'jedoch so / daB die Stimme nicht gar geschleiffet werde.' Printz 1678, p. 45.
24 That these figures are specifically important in late Baroque music is
suggested b y j . G. Walther's specification of the corta and suspirans as part of
his definition of 'Figura' in his Lexicon of 1732, p. 244; the messanza has an
entry to itself, its description as a 'vermengte Figur' taken directly from
Printz; Ibid., p. 401.
25 'Wil aber jemand diese Figur recht lernen / so halt er den Athem in der
Kehle in etwas zuriick . . . zwinge die Stimme mit einem Beben und
mittelmassiger Vehemenz heraus / und imitire solche Sanger / die diese Figur
recht und \ieblich formiren konnen.' Printz 1678, p. 58.
26 Muller-Blattau 1926, pp. 31-9.
27 O. Gibel also makes a distinction between plain singing and that employing
diminution; see p. 49 above.
28 Bernhard also includes three devices which do not belong specifically to
what we now define as ornamentation: y^/rao, a firm, grounded voice, forte,
 Notes to pages 138-44 211
piano and ardire, a sort of vibrato that is only to be sparingly applied. This
points to the close, virtually indissoluble connection between expressive
singing and ornamented singing at this time.
29 But Feyertag on the other hand still defines it, after Praetorius, as the fast
trill or mordent used mainly by organists; Feyertag 1695, p. 221.
30 'ist ein hefliges jedoch mannirliches und liebliches Zittern und ganz geschwindes
Wancken der Stimme / dessen Anschlag soil in etwas scharf seyn / und mit
einem Accentu intendente geendigt werden.' Feyertag 1695, pp. 221-2.
31 Spener's famous tract was first published in 1675 and marked the beginning
of the Lutheran Pietist movement.
32 Venn einer aus denen Sangern sich sonderlich vornimt in einem volligen
Stiicke in einer SchluB- Cadentz zu passaggircn / die andern Sanger so lange
ihr trillo machen sollen / biB er zum SchluB komme / und ein ieder Raum
und Platz habe / in einem guten Stiicke seine Kunst horen zu lassen.'
33 'Allein man hat sich itzo wegen des passaggirens und diminuirens nicht so sehr
uber die Vocafistcn und Instrumentisten zu beschwehren / als iiber die
Componisicn selbst. Dan die wenigsten wissen die Figuras Musicas zu rechter
Zeit / und an gehorigen Orten an zu wenden'; Ahle 1704, pp. 80-1.
34 It may have been from Ahle that Mattheson drew the same comment in
1739; Harriss, p. 481.
35 'Die lieben Alten haben zwar von solchen Figuren wenig gewust / nach deme
aber die Componistcn schon vom vorigem Seculo an / haben angefangen / einige
Arten solcher Figuren zu setzen / welches gleich Judiciosen Musicalischen Ohren
wohl eingeleuchtet / dann solche Figuren sich so wohl der Dissonan&en / als
Consonan&en bedienen. Auch nach und nach / von vortrefflichen Singern /
und Instrumentisttn / ist immer hoher gebracht worden / und endlich so
hoch gestigen / daB die Music heutiges Tags / wegen Menge der Figuren /
absonderlich in dem / da mahl noch unerfundenen Stylo recitativo, wohl kan
einer Rhetoric verglichen werden.' Stierlein 1691, p. 18.
36 However, Stierlein's example seems merely to show the addition of various
appoggiaturas and runs.
37 ' Vitium multiplication^ ist / wenn ein £w/w-kluger Musicus immer noch einmal
so viel Noten und Manieven machet / als auffm Papier stehen / die sich zu
dem darunter General Bass oflft schicken / als eine Faust auffs Auge und ein
Igell-Fell zum Nase-Futter.' Fuhrmann 1706, p. 77.
38 'Lieben Herren verspart eure Kunst anderswo / wir verlangen solche hier
nicht zu horen; Streicht die Noten nur schlecht und recht / gerad und
gleichcs Strichs weg / so wie sie der Autor gesetzt / wenn der die Noten hatte
wollen variirty diminuirt und in kleine Stiicken als Liimmel zerhackt haben / so
hatte er sie eben so bund-krauB componircn konnen'; Ibid.
39 Fuhrmann's instructions on ornamentation are directly copied in the Swiss
treatise by Steiner 1728.
40 Mattheson 1739, p. 109.
41 'Was etwa von dergleichen Sachen noch riickstandig seyn mogte, insonderheit
wenn die Zier-Figuren sein groB und lang werden, als da sind die Passagiy
212 Notes to pages 146-57
Bombi, Mistichanze u.s.w. solches ist eigentlich des Setzers, nicht des Sangers
Werck'; Ibid., p. 120.
42 One exception - if it can be viewed as relevant to the literature used in
schools - is Herbst's Arte prattica & poetica 1653, the sections on improvised
counterpoint being a translation of a Latin treatise by G. B. Ghiodino.
43 In Italy it seems that singers in the more distinguished establishments were
quite fluent in counterpoint; see Ulrich 1973, p. 13.
44 'sondern auch mit gutem Verstande / und vollkommener Wissenschafft der
Music'; Praetorius 1619, p. 229.
45 Federhofer 1989, pp. 110-27.
46 G. M. Artusi, L'Artusi, ovvero, Delle imperfezioni delta moderna musica (1600), trans.
inStrunk 1981, vol. Ill, p. 33.
47 See also Horsley 1963, pp. 130-2.
48 Muller-Blattau 1926 pp. 8, 12; see also Federhofer 1964, pp. 76-90, esp. 86.
49 'es beydes einem Sanger / als auch einem Componisten sehr niitzlich seyn
konte'; Printz 1696, part 2, p. 44.
50 'Denn gleich wie eine ungesalzene Speise; also ist eine Melodey ohne Figurcn
wenig annehmlich.' Ibid., p. 46.
51 'Ich will aber hier nicht handeln de Variatione, so geschicht conjunctionibus &
Dissonantiarum, und dergleichen / davon du gnugsam berichtet bist aus der
Musica Poetica, sonder de Variatione, aus welcher alle und iede Erfindungen
eines Componistenfliessen.'Ibid.
52 'Daher ich derer Meynung nicht seyn kan / welche alles nur an eine Manier
binden wollen / vielweniger derer / welchen durchaus nichts gefallet / als
was sie selber geschaffen unnd was ihres Gebackes ist'.
53 'DaB ich in meine Compositonen je biBweilen ein klein Leuff- oder Schleifflein
zu inseriren pflege / geschicht nicht / wie etliche wol vielleicht ihne einbilden
mogen / ohne ursach / viel weniger aus Unverstand / als ob ich nicht
wuste / dafi einem Compositor / den Gesang zu componiren / einem Cantor
aber denselben zierlich zu passeggioniren, eigentlich zustiinde: Sondern zu
deme ich anderer vornemer Autorn Exempel vor mir habe / weil die
Italianische jetzo gebrauchliche anmutige manier zu singen in gemein noch
nicht sonderlich bekant / Als wil ich hiermit nur den einfeltigen (vornehmen
Capell-Musicis hiermit nichts praejudiciret) eine kleine anleitung / den Sachen
ferner nachzufragen / an die hand geben.'
54 'Verstandige Komponisten wissen wohl / daB die intrinsece kurzen Dissonanticn
keinen fehler hindern / und auch keinen machen konnen.' Ahle 1699, p. 20.
55 'Nur dieses ist darbey noch zu beobachten, dafi dergl. Figuren mit einer anstan-
digen moderation angebracht werden miifien, damit diejenigen Noten, so die
Consecution zweyer Quinten machen, gantz unvermerckt von unsern Ohren
vorbey streichen.' Walther MS 1708, part 2, p. 182 (see Benary 1955, p. 121).
56 'Figuram nenne ich cine gewiBe Art die Dissonantzen zu gebrauchen, daB
dieselben nicht allein nicht wiederlich, sondern vielmehr annehmlich werden,
und des Componisten Kunst an den Tag legen.' Bernhard, Tractatus compositionis
augmentatus (MS), in Muller-Blattau 1926, p. 63.
 Notes to pages 159-66 213

57 'Bey gefundenen solchen Variationen muB ein Componist gute Acht haben, daB
er nicht gar zu altvaterische erwehle, welches einem geiibten leicht zu wissen
ist' Ibid., p. 74.
58 'Die Vermischung der Figuren und mancherley Verzierung der Melodey ist
eines von den vornehmsten Stiicken, welche die heutige Music von der alten
unterscheiden . . . Die Reguln der Vollkommenheiten erfordern ja, daB
mannigfaltige Sachen mit einander vereiniget seyn, und zu einem Zwecke
mit einander vereiniget seyn, und zu einem Zweck mit einander uberein-
stimmen miissen.' Ruetz 1752, p. 54.
59 This is somewhat similar to Marpurg's distinction, see p. 145 above.
60 'Die Figurae Musicae, die sogenannte Manierae, Coloraturae & c. seynd die Zierd
und Geschmuck der harmonischen Composition. Die erste, nemlich die Figura
Musicas . . . setzet der Componist zu Papier. Die andere, s.c. die Manieren,
Coloraturen & c uberlasset man dem Judicio oder Beurtheilungs-Geist, und
Virtuosite der Herren Foflz/isten und Instrumenfalisten.' R. P. M. Spiess 1745,
p. 135; see also pp. 155ff. This division of figures into those for the composer
and those for the performer is very popular with writers of the mid
eighteenth century and is perhaps influenced in part by the French method
of notating the performer's ornaments in symbols within the notation.
61 Maybe this practice of notating two versions of the music was influenced by
the publication of B. Barbarino's Secondo libro delli motetti (Venice, 1614); see
Horsley 1963, p. 127. In any case there is a famous precedent in the aria
'Possente spirto' from Monteverdi's Orfeo.
62 'Dieweil ich auch in etlichen / dieser und dergleichen Art Concert-Ges&nge /
den Choral in den Vocal-Stimmcn auf die jetzige italianische Manier in etwas
nach meiner Wenigkeit diminuiret / und wie es sonsten genennet wird /
colenrct und zerbrochen habe'.
63 Newcomb 1980, vol. I, especially pp. 76-83.
64 '(denn wo er da nicht zu Hause ist / so mag er so gut und so delicat spielen
oder singen / als er will / wird er doch nicht viel besser seyn / als etliche
Vogel / welche ihre Lieder auch gar niedlich und wohl herpfeiflen) . . . Und
ist ein Musicus ohne Praxi eben so was ungeraumtes als ein Redner / der
aber stumm ist.' Kuhnau, Der musicalische Quacksalber (Dresden, 1700), p. 503;
Werckmeister 1700, pp. 43-4.

6 Hie decline of the Lutheran cantorates during the eighteenth century

1 'Sie singen daher meistentheils ohne Licht und Schatten, in einerley Starke
des Tones. Die Nasen- und Gurgelfehler kennen sie kaum. Die Vereinigung
der Bruststimme mit dem Falset ist ihnen eben so unbekannt, als den
Franzosen . . . Den simpeln Gesang hengen sie nicht genug an einander,
und verbinden denselben nicht durch vorhaltende Noten: weswegen ihr
Vortrag sehr trocken und einfaltig klingt. Es fehlet diesen deutschen
Chorsangern zwar weder an natiirlich guten Stimmen, noch an der Fahigkeit
214 Notes to pages 167-9
etwas zu lernen: es fehlet ihren vielmehr an der guten Unterweisung. Die
Cantores sollen, wegen der mit ihrem Amte immer verkniipfeten Schularbeiten,
zugleich halbe Gelehrte seyn. Deswegen wird ofters bey der Wahl mehr auf
das letztere, als auf die Wissenschaft in der Musik gesehen. Die nach solchen
Absichten erwahleten Cantores treiben deswegen die Musik, von der sie
ohnedem sehr wenig wissen, nur als ein Nebenwerk.'
2 Charles Burney, An eighteenth-century musical tour in central Europe and the
Netherlands, ed. P. Scholes (London, 1959), p. 154.
3 While Hiller affirms the importance of music to religion in the preface to
his second treatise of 1780, he notes, with approval, that the Italians make a
practice of employing famous virtuosos for special feasts. In other words the
German schools were clearly not providing musical performances of the
professional standards he desired. One solution Hiller proposes is to make
use of the recent developments in musical life by setting up concert societies
with weekly rehearsals which could take over the church music: 'Man
errichte, nach Beschaffenheit des Orts, Concertgesellschaften, wochentliche
Uebungen, wobey man hauptsachlich sein Augenmerk auf die Verbesserung
des Gesanges richtet.' Hiller 1780, Vorrede, p. xiv.
4 'Die Ursachen, warum es vor Alters nicht geschehen ist, passen nicht auf
unsere Zeiten; und wenn wir nichts gut finden wollen, was nicht vor Alters
auch so war, so sind wir gewiB von der Einrichtung dieser irdischen Welt,
und von dem Endzweck unsers Aufenthalts in derselben schlecht unterrichtet.
Ich dachte, wenn wir etwas besser zu machen wissen, daB es unsere Pflicht
ware, es besser zu machen, ohne erst die Alten darum zu fragen.' Hiller
1780, foreword p. xiii.
5 'Jedermann singt, und der groBte Theil Singt - schlecht!' Hiller 1774,
'Vorrede'.
6 See, for instance, the remarkably traditional format of Weselius 1726.
7 See note 1 above.
8 See Quantz's comments, note 1 above. Certainly at the time of Bach's
appointment as cantor of the Thomasschule, Leipzig in 1723, there was a
conflict on the town council between those members who desired the more
glamorous Kapellmeister-style cantor and those who supported a more
academic cantor of the traditional type. On Bach's death the council was
firm in recording that his tenure had been an exceptional situation and that
it was now appropriate to appoint a cantor of the traditional type. See
Siegele 1983, 1984 and 1986. Similar demands were made elsewhere: a
1788 directive from the Magistral of the Rheine in Westphalia decreed that
the principal purpose of the school was to teach Latin and not to fulfil the
church service. See Salmen 1963, p. 189.
9 'Freylich konnte ich leicht etliche Bogen anfullen, wenn ich alle Compendien
der Musik, alle Anleitungen zum Singen die seit zwey hundert Jahren in
Deutschland gedrukt worden, anfiihren wollte. Ich zweifle, daB ie in Italian,
wo man doch gewiB besser singt, so viel Biicher dariiber sind geschrieben
worden.' Hiller 1774, 'Vorrede'.
 Notes to pages 170-4 215
10 'Auf offentliche Singschulen, wie in Italien, durfen wir uns in unsern
deutschen Stadten noch lange keine Rechnung machen, besonders in
protestantischen Staaten, oder wenigstens werden diese Schulen sehr selten
seyn. Daher wird unser Unterricht immer gut genug seyn, wenn wir
gewissenhaft das unsrige thun, ob uns gleich in unsern verborgenen Winkeln
kein Kenner in unsern Lehrstunden besucht, noch unsre Schiiler durch
Belohnung ermuntert.' Petri 1782, p. 195.
11 'Unsere Vorfahren trugen Sorge, die Kirchenmelodien in den Schulen
lehren zu lassen; die Cantoren muBten dabey so viel nur immer moglich auf
Reinigkeit der Intonationen sehen; durch das Singen der Schiiler auf den
StraBen wurden die Melodien auch andern Personen nach und nach bekannt
und gelaufig, so daB durch diese Sorgfalt der offentliche Ghoralgesang der
Gemeinde wenigstens denienigen Grad der Reinigkeit und Sicherheit erhielt,
der bey einer Vereinigung so verschiedener, mehr oder weniger geiibter
Stimmen moglich ist.' Forkel 1801, p. 15.
12 Die Unwissenheit der Lehrer selbst ist es, die den Schiiler meistens mit
solchen Dingen um Zeit, Miihe und Geld bringt, die kaum Musik genannt
zu werden verdienen und ihn auf keine Weise zum GenuB und Urtheil
wahrer Werke der Kunst ftihren konnen. Ein Tanz, ein Volksliedchen, eine
Ariette aus einer komischen Operette, und wenn es recht hoch kommt, eine
Sonate im Styl und Charakter jener erheblichen Kunstwerke, ist fast alles
was unsere Meisten Lehrer der Musik vermogen, folglich auch fast alles, was
sie ihre Schiiler lehren konnen.' Forkel 1801, p. 21.
13 In his Lexicon of 1787, Wolf makes his use of the old terminology explicit:
'Konzertist . . . means those singers or players who both perform the
sections and complete pieces which are to be sung or played alone, and must
also be responsible for the performance of the entire part. The expression is
particularly useful with the singing choirs.' ('Konzertist . . . bedeutet
denjenigen Sanger oder Spieler welcher theils die Stellen und ganzen Stiicke,
welche allein gesungen oder gespielt werden, vortragt, theils fur die
Ausfiihrung der ganzen Stimme sorgen muB. Der Ausdruck ist besonders
bey den Singechoren gebrauchlich'; Wolf 1787, p. 110.)
14 'In Singestunden, wo von einer Tafel gesungen wird, lasse man einen
Schiiler mit einem Stocke auf die Noten zeigen, die eben gesungen werden,
dies erregt die Aufmerksamkeit, und hiilft zum schnellern Fortschreiten.'
Wolf 1784, pp. 14-15.
15 'Die Erlernung eines andern Instruments, besonders des Claviers, neben dem
Singen, ist nicht nur niitzlich, sondern sogar nothig. Ein Sanger kann sich
damit, wenn er sich allein iibt, in Falle der Noth, zurecht weisen; er lernt die
Grundsatze der Musik immer besser einsehen; und wenn er, vermittelst des
Clavierunterrichts, zu einer vollstandigen KenntniB der Harmonie gelangt,
so wird ihm dieB in der Folge beym Gesang die wichtigsten Dienste leisten.'
Hiller 1774, p. 29.
16 'Ubrigens sollen sie sich in der Stunde nach Tisch allezeit im Singen iiben';
Leipzig Ordnung 1733, p. 14.
216 Notes to pages 175-81
17 See R. Strohm, 'Die Epochenkrise der deutschen Opernpflege', in Johann
Sebastian Backs Spdtwerk und dessert Urnfeld, 61. Bachfest der Neuen Bachgesell-
schaft, Duisburg 1986, ed. G. Wolff (Kassel, 1988), pp. 155-66.
18 'Alle Manieren, alie kleine Auszierungcn, und alles, was man unter der
Methode zu spielen verstehet, druckt er mit eigentlichen Noten aus'; Scheibe,
critique of Bach, 14 May 1737, Bach-Dokumente II, p. 286; translation in
David and Mendel, p. 238.
19 'so sind die doch nicht das Wesentliche des Gesanges, sondern nur
willkuhrliche Auszierungen desselben, die aber, fur unsern Geschmack, zur
Nothwendigkeit geworden sind.' Hiller 1780, pp. 34—5.
20 'Es ist indeB kein Componist deBwegen zu tadeln, so lange nicht alle Sanger
gleiche Fahigkeit und Einsicht haben.' Ibid., p. 35.
21 'Die Kunst den Athem zu sparen, muB einem Schuler gleich anfangs
bekannt gemacht, und mit ihm geiibt werden. Man lasse zu dem Ende ihn
einen einzigen Ton mafiig starck, oder schwach mit zunehmender Starcke
aushalten. Die Brust gewohn sich dadurch nicht allein an das Zuruckhalten
des Athems, sondern die Stimme bekommt auch dadurch die gehorige
Festigkeit.' Hiller 1792, p. 15.
22 'die nothwendigste Zierde des Gesanges', Ibid., p. 19.
23 'In unsern Choralgesangen ist uberall Gelegenheit das Trillo zu iiben, und
ein eifrige Singschuler wird nicht unterlassen, sich diese Gelegenheit zu
nutze zu machen.' Ibid., p. 20.
24 'Ein groBer Vortheil nicht nur zur Deutlichkeit, sondern auch zu desto
sicherer Beobachtung einer gleichen Bewegung des Tacts, ist es, wenn man
von vier oder drey geschwinden Noten, allemal der ersten einen kleinen
Nachdruck giebt'; Agricola 1757, p. 129.
25 The information he gives on the possibilities of articulation (likening the
varieties of articulation to the varieties of string bowing) in his treatise of
1780 is perhaps the most detailed to be found in any treatise on singing to
be found within this survey.
26 'The thorough-bass is the most complete foundation of music. It is played with
both hands on a keyboard instrument in such a way that the left hand plays the
prescribed notes, while the right hand strikes consonances and dissonances, so
that this results in a well sounding Harmonie for the Honour of God and the per-
missible delight of the soul.' Niedt 1700, trans. Poulin and Taylor 1989, p. 28.
27 'Da es aber dennoch nicht moglich ist, alien MiBbrauch der lieben Musik
ganzlich abzuschaffen, wie es wohl zu wiinschen: so sind die Feinde der
Kirchenmusik geschaftig, aus solchem MiBbrauch Waffen zu schmieden, um
diejenigen damit zu bestreiten welche fest iiber ihr halten.' Steffani 1699, ed.
Albrecht 1760, p. 45.
28 'Das Singen der Italiaener in unsern Kirchen / weil ihnen nichts boses zu
singen verstattet wird / ist gut und bleibet gut / wann gleich die Italiaener
und Castrati boB und gottlofi sind.' Motz 1703, p. 20.
29 'Die Musici zuhacken / und zerstiimlen die Texte nicht / sondern sie thun
vielmehr das contrarium und repetiren gantze Sentenz, damit umb so viel mehr
die Eigenschafft des Textes exprimimt werden moge.' Motz 1703, p. 76.
 Notes to pages 182-9 217
30 'die Prediger sollen in ihrem Eifer gegen die Musik nicht zu weit gehen.'
Forkel 1801, p. 76.
31 'Es muB dieser MiBbrauch mit der eiteln Instrumental-Music in Koppenhagen
auch groB gewesen seyn, weil der letzt-verstorbene Konig in Dennemarck
im Jahr 1730 die Kirchcn-Music gantz und gar durch ein scharffes Edict
verboten und abgeschaffet hat, welches denen grossen Musicis sehr wehe
thun wird.' Gerber 1732, p. 226; Gerber also notes what he takes to be a
similar ban in Moscow, Ibid., p. 283.
32 'So verehren wir also dadurch unsern Schopfer; wir machen uns dadurch
edler und tugendhafter; und endlich so versiiBen wir auch damit die Last
unserer Geschaffte.' Scheibe 1739, p. 286.
33 'Es ist bereits eine ausgemachte Sache, daB die Musik ein nothiges und
unentbehrliches Stiick eines vernunftigen und wohlgeordneten Gottesdienstes
ist.' Ibid., p. 510.
34 For an illuminating analysis of the dispute, see P. S. Minear, 'J. S. Bach and
J. A. Ernesti: A case study in exegetical and theological conflict', in Our
common history as Christians: Essays in honor of Albert C. Outler, ed. J. Deschner, L.
T. Howe, and K. Penzel (New York, 1975), pp. 131-55.
35 'Ja, es sind solche Klimperer da; ich wollte aber, es waren keine zugegen.'
Mattheson 1749, p. 268.
36 'so schicke sich doch solches epitheton keinesweges zur vorhabenden Sache.'
Bach-Dokumente II, p. 463. The additions can be inferred by comparing
the printed pamphlet with Schroter's original text in Bach-Dokumente II,
pp. 462-4.
37 'Und endlich (mit wenigen viel gesagt) so laufft oben besagtes Programma
wider hohe Landes-Fiirstliche Kirchen-Ordnung, Plaisirs und Interesse; Denn
wann niemand mehr (nach des Autoris Abmahnung) Musicam studircn soil, wo
bliebe die Kirchen-Musick? wo wiirde man Operisten und Cappellisten
hernehmen? und was wiirde die Tranck-Steuer darzu sagen?'
38 'Hatte Satan schon damals seinen Willen bekommen, so wiirde es schon
jetzt bey uns eingetroffen seyn, was der HErr durch seine Propheten drohet:
Ich will heraus nehmen alien frohlichen Gesang. Jerem 25, 10. Ich will mit
dem Getone deines Gesangs ein Ende machen, daB man den Klange deiner
Harffe nicht mehr horen soil. Ezech. 26, 13'; Ruetz 1753, introduction.
39 'Daher es eine wichtige Regul der Redner Kunst: wer einen andern in einen
Affeckt setzet will, der muB zuvor denselbigen Affeckt annehmen.' Ruetz
1753, p. 68.
40 'Wer es prachtig auf Saitenspielen machen soil, muB sich taglich darauf
iiben, kann also nicht auf andere Art sein Brot erwerben. Wer eine erbauliche
feyerliche Kirchenmusik komponieren soil, muB freyen Geistes seyn, nicht
mit Nahrungssorgen gequalt, oder mit Arbeiten iiberhauft seyn, die den
dazu erforderlichen freyen Geist unterdriicken.' Forkel 1801, p. 27.
41 'Ueberall wird man uniibersteigliche Schwierigkeiten finden, und nur zu
bald gewahr werden, daB der ganzliche Verfall der Singechore, der Verfall
dieser in manchen Augen geringfiigig scheinenden Anstalt, auch den Verfall
218 Notes to pages 190-2
mancher andern niitzlichen und furs Ganze unentbehrlichen Anstalten
nothwendig nach sich ziehen muB.' Forkel 1801, p. 34.
42 The Leipzig Ordnung of 1733 still advocates traditional singing practices as
part of the curriculum: the singing lesson should take place directly after
meals, and the pupils benefit from the cold and harshness of their various
singing duties; pp. 14, 18.
43 'Aber die eigentliche Quelle aller solcher Beschuldigungen, die man den
Chorschulern macht, liegt in einer gewissen Neigung der meisten Menschen,
armern Kindern iiberhaupt wenigcr Nachsicht zu beweisen als den Kindern
reicher Aeltern.' Forkel 1801, p. 40. That music was often associated with
the upkeep of the poorest boys is suggested by the ordinance for Frankfurt
am Main in 1765, in which music is only mentioned under 'Leges, die
armen Schuler betreffend'. See Schipke 1913, p. 49.
44 'So ist noch vor kurzem an der Michaelisschule zu Liineburg eine betracht-
liche Anzahl von Freytischen fur Chorschuler nebst andern Beneficien unter
verschiedenen Namen, als Mettengelder eingezogen, und das Jahrhunderte
lang an dieser Schule befindliche Starke und gute Chor vollig aufgehoben
und alle Musik in der dazu gehorigen Kirche abgeschafft worden.' Forkel
1801, p. 63. See also Walter 1967, p. 84 for an account of the decline of the
cantorates in Liineburg during the last decades of the century.
45 e.g. Flensburg in 1797 (Detlefsen 1961, pp. 198, 249), where the music was
taken over by the Stadtmusiker and organists; the choirs of Halberstadt were
dissolved in 1774; the cantor at Liibeck was not replaced in 1801 and the
connections between school and church music were steadily loosened (Stahl
1952, pp. 108-9); the cantorate at Wurttemberg was dissolved in 1807
(Schipke 1913, pp. 51-2).
46 'Welche Stadt in Deutschland, ausser Dresden, hat etwas, das unserm
Alumnae gleich kame?' Berlinische Musik fitting 8 (1793), p. 29. See Schipke
1913, p. 51.
47 'Unsere Tempel sollen Sitze des besten Geschmacks in Kiinsten und
Wissenschaften seyn, so wie es bey den gebildetsten Volkern des Alterthums
gewesen sind.' Forkel 1801, p. 49.
48 'Die Schullehrer hatten selbst in ihrer Jugend den allgemeinen Musik-
Unterricht genossen, und die Erfahrung an sich gemacht, daB musikalische
und andere Kenntnisse gar wohl neben einander bestehen konnen, und dafi
ein Kopf, der die Lehren der Harmonie zu fassen vermag, auch den Homer,
Virgil, Cicero und Horaz nicht zu furchten braucht.' Forkel 1801, pp. 61-2.
49 See NG IV, 'Chorus', p. 351.
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 Index

Abendmusik (Lubeck), 19 Augsburg, 201

Abraham a Sancta Clara, 29, 222 Augustine, 35, 198
abmptio, 142 Auriemma, D., 219
accento/accentus, 125, 128-9, 133, 134, 135, Avella, G. d', 203, 219
136, 141, 144, 145, 154, 159, 174-5
acciaccatura, 144 Bach, C. P. E., xiv, 19, 113, 190
acoustics, 79 Bach, J. S., xi, xii, xiv, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 33,
addressees of primers, 53 166, 179, 181, 190, 196, 200, 208, 214
Adrio, A., 203, 226 Bidermann controversy, 185-6, 187
affective power of music, 26, 41-6, 64, 155, dispute with Ernesti, 33, 184, 217
181, 186, 187, 189 'EntwurfT (1730), 23, 44, 63
Agricola, J. F., 83, 88, 90, 91, 93, 144, 146, Scheibe controversy, 36, 39, 46, 113,
166, 171, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 149, 163, 164, 175
216,219 Symbolum Mcenum from B Minor Mass, 113
Agricola, M., 6-7, 8-9, 53, 194, 219 balance, 106
Agricola, M. G. L., Kapellmeister in Gotha, Banchieri, A., 47, 128, 134, 200, 203, 219
50 Banning, H., 184-5, 186, 226
Ahle, J. G., 15, 29, 37, 38, 39, 44, 57-8, 59, Barbarino, B., 213
64, 101, 138-9, 140-1, 143, 153-6, Baron, E. G., 63, 220
159, 160, 198, 199,211, 212, 219 Bartels, U., xv, 95, 99, 100, 106, 203, 226
Ahle, J. R., 37, 39, 57-8, 59, 64, 155, 198, bass as musical fundament, 39, 60, 106-7,
219 133, 206
Albrecht, J. L., 180-1, 216, 225 bass line, holding of at cadences, 100
Allcrup, A., 195, 203, 209, 210, 226 basse de violon, 119
Alumni, 5 bassoon, 119
amateur attitudes and market, 64, 188 Bebisation, 59
anticipatione delta syltaba/nota, 134, 135 Bebung, 177
Anton, J. E., 60, 102, 198, 201, 205, 219 Beer (Bahr), J., 27-8, 186, 197, 219
Anwander, G., 15-16, 195, 196, 199, 219 behaviour of boys in church, 28
applicatio texlus, 59, 136, 140 Beicken, S.J., 221
appoggiatura, 144, 171, 175, 176, 179 ' Belicius, 65
ardire, 70, 135,211 Benary, P., 212, 225, 226
aria, 191 Bendeler, J. P., 31-3, 184, 197-8, 220
Aristotle Beringer, M., 60, 198, 200, 220
music and morals, 27 Bern, 204
substance and form, 38 Bernhard, C., xv, 30, 42, 49, 50, 53, 54,
articulation, 79, 90-2, 175, 216 69-70, 74, 77, 82, 121-2, 134-8,
of figures, 133, 178-9 141, 142, 144, 145, 147, 148-51,
Artusi, G. M., 148, 212 156-7, 157-60, 163, 175, 177, 198,
attitudes of singers, criticism of, 29 200, 210, 212, 220

230
 Index 231
Beurhaus, F., 220 Cerone, P., 80, 220
Beyer, J. S., 36, 58, 59, 82-3, 142, 145, 220 chamber music, 107
Beyschlag, A., 226 Charlemagne, 25
Biber, H.I. F. von, 117 choir director's role, 99-103
bicinia, 65 chorale(s), xiii, 19, 65, 111, 118, 170, 177,
Bidermann, J. G., 33, 184-6, 220 179, 193
Birnbaum, J. A., 33 singing and improvisation, 146, 178
Bobisation, 59 intonations to, 118
Boecklin, F. F. S. A. von, 178, 220 Chorofavorito, 109-10
Boethius, xiii c h o r u s , 171
Bolli, D., 134 Chorus musicus, 4
bombi, 144 Chorus symphoniacus, 4 , 5 , 9 , 111
Bona da Brescia, V., 220 Christmann,J. F., 173
Bononcini, G. M., 220 Cicero, 47
Book of Wisdom (apocryphal), 38 circolo mezfzjoy 133, 144
Bosken, F., 113, 226 city musicians, 17
Bovicelli, G. B., 72, 73, 125, 220 Claudius, 27 28
breathing, 71, 73, 75, 79, 84, 87, 89, 91, clavichord, 65, 65
112, 133, 167-8, 171, 175, 178, 179 clefs, 56
Breig school ordinance, 20 Coclico, A. P., 10-11, 122,220
Bremen, 201 Collegium musicum, 21-2
Bremer, H., 193, 194, 226 coloratura, see diminution
Brown, H. M., 209, 226 ComeniusJ. A., 66, 176,202
Brunswick school ordinance, 2 composition, 83
Bugenhagen, J., 2 concert style/tradition, 88, 167, 169, 177
BurmeistcrJ., 47, 49, 55, 59, 71-2, 95-6, concerted style, 103, 108
103, 122-3,200,201,220 concertists, 18, 22,23, 32, 171
Burney, C , 166, 214 concerto
ButtJ. A., xii, 200, 209, 226 textures, 13
Buttner, E., 14, 24, 65, 195, 196, 220 church, 110
Buxtehude, D., 19, 111, 129, 164 conciseness in presentation of material, 6, 65
conducting patterns, 100, 102
Caccini, G., 13, 47, 49, 72, 73, 83, 84, 125, Conforti, G. L , 220
127, 204, 229 Conrad von Zabern, 70, 203, 220
Caligula, 27-8, 185 consonance, rules of, 10
Calvinism, 15, 182 cornetto, 119
Calvisius, S., 30, 34, 53, 59 71, 72 74, 81, counterpoint, 164
103, 105, 106, 190, 198,200,201, court establishments, 17, 42
203, 206, 220 court musicians, 20, 62
canon, 7 8, 65, 172, 177, 179, 202 Cranna, C. A., 47, 203, 219
cantar d'qffelto, 49, 69 Crappius, A., 55, 198, 220
cantor passagiato, 49, 69, 134 Cretz,J., 220
cantor sodo, 49, 69, 134 CriigerJ., 57, 115, 117, 128-9, 147, 151,
cantata, 182, 192 164, 175,200,201,220
cantor, 3 4, 5, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22, 25, 30, Crusius, J., 220
31-2, 62, 103, 163 4, 169, 189, 190, Currende, 4, 9, 23, 190
214
Cantorei, 4, 5, 9, 14, 16, 22, 23, 30 da capo form, 44
capella, 108, 109-10, 112 Dahlhaus, C , 148, 226
Carissimi, G., 220 dalla Casa, G., 220
Carter, T., 226 Dammann, R., 16, 33, 38, 40, 205, 226
Cartesian view of affects, 101 dance-movements, 119
castrati, Italian, 112 Daubenrock, G., 220
castration, 80 David, H. T., and Mendel, A., 23, 29, 33,
Catholicism and Catholic practices, xii, xv, 216,226
15, 19, 189 Dedekind, H., 54, 55, 220
cercar delta nota, 134, 135, 159 definitions of music, 35-9
232 Index
Demantius, J. C , 22, 42, 131, 198, 200, 201, figurae (signs used in music), 56
202, 204 figural music, 16, 17, 22
Demclius, 195 figures, 132-4, 147, 157-60, 210
Denmark, 182 articulation of, 132-3, 178-9
Dctlefsen, H. P., 17, 23, 182, 218, 226 ornamental, 145, 151-3
Dietcrich, M., 61, 65, 129, 147, 202, 220 Jigura corta, 133, 143
digestion, music as an aid to, 3 Jigura suspirans, 133, 142, 143
diminution, see ornamentation messanza, 133, 143
Director Musices, 5, 17, 18, 30, 33, 189 Finck, H., 8, 9, 70, 71, 87, 122, 123, 144, 221
Diruta, G., 150 Finkel, K., 53, 173, 194, 227
dissonance, 92 flageolet, 119
Dodart, 86 Flensburg, 17, 23, 218
Doles, J. F., 57, 59, 89, 90, 91, 92-3, 102, flute, 119
144, 175, 184,205, 206,221 Fokkerodt, J. A., 33-4, 35, 221
Doni, G. B., 80, 221 Folie d'Espagne, 43
Doppelschlag, 144 Forchert, A., 50, 227
doppelter Accent, 138 Foreman, E. V., 92, 204, 227
dotted rhythm, 133, 176 Forkel, J. N., 170, 187-91, 192, 215, 217,
Dresden, 16, 24, 25, 69, 175, 190, 200 218,221
Dressier, G., 9, 221 forte, 135, 210
Durante, O., 221 Fortune, N., 227
dynamics, 69, 78, 82, 83, 84, 89, 90, 103 Frankfurt am Main, 18, 218
Freiberg, 21, 22, 25, 33, 182, 184-5
Eggebrecht, H. H., xii, 226 Friccius (Frick), C., 14 15, 16, 39, 40, 42-3,
Eichmann, P., 65, 198,221 110, 199,206,221
Einicke, G., 185 Friderici, D., 35, 42, 56, 57, 74-7, 81, 97-8,
Eiscl,J. P., 67, 202,221 99, 100, 104, 107-8, 111, 130-1, 133,
Eisenhut, T., 201,221 147, 200, 201, 203, 204, 205, 221
ellipsis, 141-2 Fricdrich, M., 14, 15,24,221
employment of outside singers, 23 Friedrich Wilhelm, King of Prussia, 182
Enlightenment, 26, 32, 167, 173, 177, 184, Frodc, C., 166, 227
190, 192 Frye, N., 200
Erfurt, 21 'Fuga', 65
Erhardi, L., 41, 57, 66, 105, 109- 10, 111, fugal passages, 71, 106, 119
203, 206, 221 Fuhrmann, M. H., 17-18, 19, 25, 36-7, 58,
Ernest the Pious, 17 67,83, 112, 113, 142-3, 145, 195,
Ernesti, J. A., 33, 184 211,221
Ewers, cantor at Flensburg, 17 funerals, 4
exclamatio, 48, 73-4, 81, 88, 124-5
exercise, bodily, 80 Gaflurio, F., xii, xiv, 64
exercises, vocal, 75, 86, 93 galant style, 91,93, 103, 171
Galilei, V., 148
Faber, H., 6, 8, 35, 37, 53, 55, 59, 65, 69, Gallo, F. A. (with R. Groth, C. V. Palisca
70,82,89, 168, 198, 221 and F. Rempp), 150, 209, 226
Falck, G., xv, 20, 25, 36, 53, 57, 8 1 2 , Gengenbach, N., 35, 56, 57, 59, 66, 69, 70,
115-17, 128, 129, 198, 205,207, 109, 201, 204, 221
209,221 Gerber, C , 181, 182,217,221
falsetto, 73,85, 174,203 Gerber, E. L., 89
faults of singing, 79 Gcrstenbuttel, J., 29-30
Federhofer, H., 157, 212, 226 gesture, 71, 74
Ferand, E. T., 209, 226 Gibel, O., 49, 53, 59, 210, 221
Ferdinand III, 25 Giganti, Herr Gottfried, 78
femw, 69, 135, 210 Goldschmidt, H., 210, 227
Fcrrara, 148 good and bad notes, 92, 175
FesserJ., 8, 221 Gorlitz, 21
Feyertag, M., 136, 36, 42, 82, 102, 138, 199, Gotha, 21, 27, 50
200,201,210,211,221 ordinance issued by Ernest the Pious, 17
 Index 233
Gottingcn, 201 Italian musical examples, xv, 128
GottschedJ. C., 46, 200 Italian style, new, 13, 15, 17, 25, 39, 41, 42,
Gradenthaller, H., 21, 25, 61, 65, 105, 196, 47, 50, 51, 68, 70, 71, 74, 76, 81, 88,
202, 206,221 97, 113, 115, '*-7, 153, 192
Graun, C. H., 59, 171, 174, 177 Italian terms, 61
Greenlee, R., 204, 227 Italy
Gregorian chant, 59, 193 performers and conservatories, xii, 167,
groppo, 125, 128, 133, 136, 138, 144 169, 174, 175, 176, 190, 212,214
Gruber, E., 15, 20,64, 138,221
Gumpelzhaimer, A., 8, 55-6, 198, 200, 221 Josquin Desprcz, 1, 4, 9, 10, 141, 143
Gymnasium pupils, 23 In exitu Israel, 9
Missa Hercules (canonic Agnus Dei), 9
Hack,J. G., 40, 50, 199,221
Halberstadt, 218 Kalb, F., 1,25, 195, 196,227
Halle, 17, 18, 30, 32 Kapellmeister, 17, 18, 19, 20, 214
Hamburg, 14, 19, 16, 20, 21, 23, 29, 175, 197 Reiser, T., 55, 59
Handel, G. F. keys, 57-8, 172
Messiah, 192 key signatures, 58
harmony, 10,60-1, 106, 172 keyboard
Harnisch, O. S., 60, 198, 200, 221 fingering, 118
Harriss, E. C., 84, 143,211 instruments, 83, 173
Hase, W., 59, 198,201,221 technique, 118
Heinichen, J. D., 159, 164 Kircher, A., 37, 43, 49
Helmstedt, 32 Kirnbergcr, J. P., 164, 222
HerbstJ. A., 18, 64, 82, 114 15, 116, 127, Kittel, K., 128
128, 133, 134, 147, 164, 199, 200, Kraft, H., 59, 65, 198, 222
209, 212,221 Kretzschmar, J., 59, 198, 222
heterolepsis, 142 Krickeberg, D., 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
high notes, 71 25^ 182, 195, 196, 227
HillerJ. A., 167-9, 171, 173-9, 184, 190, Kriiger, L, 16, 21, 22, 23, 30, 110, 111,
191-2,214,215, 216,221 194, 227
Hilse, W., 200, 220 Kuhn, M., 210, 227
history of music (ancient), 64 KuhnauJ., 17, 21, 22, 23, 29, 53, 149,
Hitchcock, H. W., 227 152-3, 156, 190,200,222
Hizler, D., 36, 53, 59, 61, 66, 69, 114, 198, Biblische Historien, 40, 4 5 - 6
200, 202, 222 ClavierObung, 136
Hoffmann, C., 56, 58, 82, 102, 205, 222 Frische Clavier Friichte, 149-50
Hofmann, E., 9, 36, 222 Der musicalische Quacksalber, 29, 163, 213
Hogarth, W., 88 Kurzinger, I. F. X., 36, 45, 89, 92, 94, 119,
HoltheuserJ., 8, 95, 222 144, 209, 222
Horsley, L, 209, 210, 212, 213, 227
humanism, xiii, 2-3, 36 La Marche, F. de, 5, 19, 87, 114, 131, 222
Lange, J. C., 195, 222
instrumental music, 21, 26, 40, 173, 182 LasserJ. B., 179, 222
instrumental performance modelled on vocal, Lasso, O. de, 9
119 Latin, xv, 2, 27, 193, 195,214
instrumental technique, 118 Lauben, 26, 138
instrument(s), 10, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 61-3, Leaver, R., 196, 228
67,83, 113-20 Leipzig, 17, 20, 22, 23, 30, 32, 33, 89, 113,
analogy with animals, 16 " 167, 185, 190, 195, 196, 200
criticism of, 27 instrumentalists, 21
human voice as, 85 Thomasschule and its ordinances
posture and position of, 115 (Ordnungen), 12, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,
tuning of, 105 31, 53, 54, 57, 59, 66, 89, 153, 156,
intervals, 56, 66, 79, 174 166, 167, 173, 174, 178, 184, 195, 196,
intonatio, 124-125, 209 197,201,202, 214,215,218, 222
Isaac, H., 9 Leisring, V., 21, 53, 61, 64, 201, 206, 222
234 Index
Leopold I, 25 monophony, 25
lifestyle of singer, 79, 171, 174 Monteverdi, C , 13, 134, 148, 213
and diet, 78, 8 0 , 8 2 , 8 7 , 174 mordant/mordent, 144, 1 7 1 , 2 1 1
ligatures, 56, 57 mo rdan ten, 125
Lindau, 201 mordantiae, 123
Lippius, J., 34, 37, 47, 51, 59, 150-151, 222 Moscow, 217
Listenius, N., xiii, 6, 7-8, 35, 53, 55, 65, 69, motet, 16, 65, 96, 102, 109, 111, 112, 177
70, 82, 89, 222 Motz, G., 1 8 1 , 2 1 6 , 2 2 3
Loban school ordinance, 22 Moyer, A. E., xiii, 202, 228
LorberJ. C , 27, 222 Mozart, W. A., xii
Lossius, L., 53, 222 Muffat, G., 116-117
Lubeck, 19, 187, 218 Muhlhausen, 29, 44
Liineburg, 1 9 0 , 2 0 0 , 2 1 8 Muller, G., 223
lute, 10, 65 Muller-Blattau, J., 54, 69, 159, 210, 212, 228
Luther, M., xiii, 1-2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 14, 25, 27, Minister, J.J. B., 2 0 1 , 2 2 3
36, 39, 40, 64, 183, 193 Murschhauser, F. X. A., 164, 223
MuscoviusJ., 26, 28, 29, 32, 138, 197, 223
madrigal, 13, 96, 148 music
Maflei, G. C , 79, 204, 222 and dogma, xiii, 15
Magdeburg, 9 and nature, 38
Magirus, J., 60, 198, 222 and science/mathematics, xiv, 37, 43,
Maier, J. F. B. C , 164, 202, 222 198, 199
Mancini, G., 176 and rhetoric, xii, 13, 46-50, 64, 70, 72,
Marbach, C., 222 74, 88, 126, 132, 141, 145, 155, 159-
Marpurg, F. W., 59-60, 89, 90, 9 1 - 2 , 93, 60, 165, 200
94, 102, 112-13, 144, 159, 169, 171, as mirror of heaven and God, xii, 40, 50,
172-3, 174, 175, 1 7 7 , 2 1 3 , 2 2 2 61, 180-1, 183
Martius, C. E., 222 as mnemonic, 20
Mattheson, J., 20, 30, 83, 84-7, 88, 143-44, as refreshment from academic subjects,
149, 159, 182, 185, 203, 204, 205, 20
2 0 8 , 2 1 1 , 217, 222 in the liturgy, xiii, 14, 183
mechanistic view of universe, 38, 50 music profession, low status of, 24, 184
Mediaeval theocentric thinking, xii, 36, 38 Musicant, 33, 41
Megerle, A., 18, 29, 222 Musicus, 33 4, 35, 41
Meissen, 15 music theory, 2, 3
Melanchthon, P., 2, 4 musica choralis, xvi, 2, 6, 7, 17, 56, 60, 193
memory, 78, 172, 173 musica Jiguralis, xvi, 2, 7, 17, 56, 50, 193
mensural system and tempo, 96 musica figuralis ornatay 82
mensuration signs and proportions in, 56 musica modulatoria, 141, 164
Merck, D., 61, 62, 63, 117, 208, 222 musica poetica, xii, xiii, 8, 19, 35, 38, 47,
messa di voce, 73, 88, 90, 175 141, 146, 148, 164, 198
metre and text, 101 musica practica, xii, xiii, xiv, 8, 10, 19,
Metzel, H., 222 34-5, 3 8 , 5 1 , 6 1 , 6 8 , 113, 122, 141,
Meyer, J., 182, 222 146, 164, 176, 198
mezza di voce, see messa di voce musica reservata, 10
Michael, T., 24, 69, 107, 153, 154, 160, 163, musica theorica, xiii, 8, 19, 35, 38, 198
196, 206, 222 speculative, 37
Minear, P. S., 217 musical grammar, 155
mistichanze, 144 Mylius, W. M., 22, 54, 81-2, 101, 105,
Mithobius, H., 14, 222 134-7, 149-50, 141, 175, 204, 209,
Mizler, L., 185, 186 223
moderanten, 125
moderiren, 82 Nachschlag, 144, 145, 176
modes, 56, 57 Nero, 27-8, 185
modulatoria, 143 Neumeister, E., 44
monochord, 40, 79 Newcomb, A., 148, 2 1 3 , 2 2 8
monody, 13, 110, 128 Niedt, F. E., 39, 163, 164, 181, 216, 223
 Index 235
Niemollcr, K. W., 2, 3, 4, 5, 53, 55, 193, posture, 71,82,84,89, 115
194, 228 Poulin, P. L., and Taylor, I. C , 163, 216, 223
Nopitsch, C. F. W., 170-1,223 Praetorius, C , 9, 71, 106, 122, 123, 200,
Nordhausen, 185 203, 223
ordinance, 5, 16 Praetorius, J., 204, 223
Praetorius, M., xi, 13, 17, 24, 41, 42, 43, 47,
ode, 3 49, 57, 61, 68, 72-4, 76, 81, 82, 84,
opera/theatrical practice, 20, 22, 30, 44, 84, 85, 88, 94, 96-7, 98, 99-100, 101, 105,
88, 164, 177, 182,200 106, 107, 108-9, 114, 115, 123-7, 128,
opera buffa, 190 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 140, 144,
organ, 16, 112, 119 146-7, 150, 151, 160-3, 200, 204,
dedications, 14, 15, 24, 39 205, 206, 207, 209, 211, 212, 223
organist, 19, 103, 127, 163-4 preludes, 105, 119
Orgosinus, H., 53, 59, 198, 223 Preussner, E., 21, 25, 195, 228
Oridryus, J., 8, 223 prima prattica, 49, 148, 157
ornamentation, 45, 48, 49, 72, 75-6, 78, 82, Printz, W. C , 22, 56, 64, 70, 77-81, 82, 83,
83, 87, 88-9, 93, 94, 114, 121-65, 86,89, 100, 101, 105, 111, 112, 113,
169, 172, 176, 177 129-30, 132-4, 142, 143, 144, 147,
criticism of, 27, 28, 49, 140-1 151-3, 156, 160, 163, 164, 171, 174,
diminution /passages (passaggi) /coloratura, 178, 179, 196, 199, 200, 201, 204,
10, 71, 73, 75-7, 79, 115, 205, 207, 210, 212, 223
125-6, 130-1, 136, 141, 144, 146, private instruction, 22, 32
148, 159, 174-5, 178-9, 182, 200 Profe, A., 59, 66, 223
instrumental, 116 pronunciatio qffectuosa> 7 1 , 1 2 3
optional and essential, 145 pronunciation, 78, 93-5, 147, 167-8, 170,
simultaneous application of, 112, 127, 140 171, 174, 177
vocal and instrumental differences, 86 proportion, 56-7
Ornithoparchus, A., 223 Pythagorean view of music, xiii, 33, 40, 180
Orthodox Lutheran attitudes, 44, 180-1,
184, 196 quadriviwn, xiii, 3, 12
Osnabruck, 113 Quantz,J. J., 166, 168, 214, 223
Osteroda, 201 Quasi iransitus, 142
Quedlinburg, 31-2
pagan tradition, 64 Quehl, J., 223
Palatinate, 53, 173 question-and-answer style (erotemata), 8, 9, 54,
Paris Academie, 88 67
pausa, 132 Quintilian, 47, 62, 71-2
pedagogic approach, 64 7 Quintilianus, 64
pedagogic reforms, 78, 172-8 Quirsfeld, J., 60, 81, 100, 101, 102, 200,
Pcetsch, P., 223 204, 223
Petri, J. S., 55, 89, 90, 91, 93, 102, 103, 105, Quitschreiber, G., 53, 56, 58, 60, 61, 64, 66,
113, 119-20, 144, 146, 169-70, 175, 71, 73, 95, 98, 100, 103, 104-5, 106,
177, 205, 206, 207, 209, 215, 223 194, 198,201,202,206,223
Petzoldt, M, 19, 202, 228
philanthropic movement, 173 Rainbow, B., 202, 228
physiology of singing, 70 range, vocal, 73, 89
awareness of, 84 Raselius, A., 223
piano, 135, 211 Rafsinstrumentisten, 23
Pietism, 25-9, 32-3, 43, 44, 181-2, 186, Rautenstrauch, J., 228
196,211 recitative, 110, 191
pitch, 56, 71,87, 167, 206 rector, 3-4, 12, 30, 3 1 2
setting of, 103-5 Reddemer, 65
placement of singers, 74 Redivivus, H., 41
Poland, N., 15, 223 Reformation, 1
polychoral music, 13, 106 registers, 92-3, 174, 203
port de voixy 144 blending of, 84
Portmann, J. G., 223 shift in male voice, 84-5, 204
236 Index
ReichardtJ. F., 177 Schornberg, H., 40, 224
Renaissance Schroder, L., 224
conventions of, 159 Schroter, C. G., 185-6, 187, 217, 224
polyphony (see also prima prattica), 13, 25, Schubert, J. F., 179,224
49, 150 Schulze, H-J., 20, 208, 229
retardatio, 142 Schiinemann, G., 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 21, 173,
Reusch, J., 3, 223 184, 193, 194, 229
Reyher, A., 223 Schutz, H., xi, 13, 24, 83, 129, 156, 157, 224
ribatutta di gola, 128, 144 Geistliche Chor-Music, 157
Ribovius, L., 14, 38, 64, 66-7, 199, 203, 223 Historia Der . . . Aufferstehung unsers einigen
rice rear, 43 Erlosers, 99, 107
RifldnJ., 113, 1 5 7 , 2 0 8 , 2 2 8 Historia, der Freuden- und Gnadenreichen
ripieno, ripienists, 108, 109, 113, 171 Geburth Gottes und Marien Sohnes, 42
Rist, J., 14, 194, 223 Kleine geistliche Concerted 25
Ritterakademien, xv Musicalische Exequien, 107, 110
Rivera, B. V., 33, 35, 37, 47, 222, 228 Psalmen Davids, 107, 110
Roggius, N., 224 Symphoniae sacrae part 2, 25, 42, 115
Rognoni, F., 128, 134 Symphoniae sacrae part 3, 110
Rosa, S., 185 Seay, A., 220
Rosinus, P., 15, 16, 195, 224 seconda prattica, 13, 148
Rostock, 201 Selle, T , 23, 110, 197
Rousseau, J.J., 173 Sevier, Z. V. D , 29, 229
Rovetta, G., 134 Siegele, U., 17,214, 229
Ruetz, C , 44, 159, 186-7, 199, 213, 217, Singer, J., 10, 194, 224
224 singer as orator, 126
Ruhnkc, M., xiv, 33, 47, 59, 70, 71, 96, 103, singing as specialist discipline, 169, 174
123, 228 Singspiel, 185
Smiles, J. E., 229
Sadler, J. E., 202 Smith, D. A., 220
Salmen, W., 53, 214, 228 Snyder, K., 19, 111, 197
Sambcr, J. B., 149, 159, 224 solmisation, 6, 8, 56, 58-60, 66, 172
Sances, G. F., 128 hexachords, 56, 58
Sanford, S. A., 228 mutation, 56
Sannemann, F., 228 sonata, 43
sarabande, 43 Sorau, 78
Sartorius, E., 64, 201, 224 Sorge, G. A., 224
Saxon ordinances, 2, 4, 9, 20, 53, 184 Speer, D., 36, 62-3, 83, 102, 118, 119, 208,
scale, 66 224
Scheibe, J. A., 33, 175, 183-4, 208, 217, 224 Spener, P.J., 138-9,211
Scheibel, G. E., 4 3 - 4 , 112, 113, 182, 224 Sperling, J. P., 63, 81, 83, 119, 224
Scheldt, S., 18, 30, 197 Speyer ordinance, 14
Schcin, J. H. Spiess, J. M , 224
Diletti pastorali, Hirten Lust, 153, 224 Spiess, R. P. M., 159,213, 224
SchelleJ., 156, 160, 163 Staden, S. T., 205, 224
Schering, A., 21, 22, 29, 184, 228 Stadtpfeiffer, 5 , 2 1 , 2 8 , 6 2
Schipke, M , 1 7 3 , 2 1 8 , 2 2 8 Stahl, W., 210, 229
Schleifer, 145 Staucha, 16
Schleiz, 20 Steflani, D. A., 180, 216, 225
Schleswig-Holstein, 181 2 SteinerJ. L. 3 6 , 2 1 1 , 2 2 5
SchleusingkJ. V., 224 Steinfurt, 53
Schmelz, R. P. S., 36, 201, 224 Stenger, N., 53, 54-5, 66, 198, 202, 225
Schmiedeknecht, J. M., 57, 224 SternstorfT, cantor of Flcnsburg, 23
Schmitz, A., 228 StierlcinJ. C., 35, 58, 60, 8 1 - 2 , 118, 136 8,
Schncegass, C , 9, 56, 60, 71, 95, 98, 100, 141, 149, 159, 198, 211, 225
106, 201, 224 Stiller, G., 182, 195, 229
Schneiderheinze, A., 57, 89, 93, 95, 96, 205, Stiphelius, L., 225
206, 2 2 1 , 2 2 8 street-singing, 22
 Index 237

string instruments, 15 variatio, 159

bowing, 114-15, 116, 117 variatio notae, 136, 139 50
tuning, 115 vernacular, 6, 8, 65
Strohm, R., 216 Viadana, L., 99-100, 109
Stroux, C , 229 vibrato, 70, 138, 144
Strunk, O., 204, 212, 229 viola, 115, 119
stylus phantasticus, 43 viola da gamba, 115, 119
stylus recitativus, 44 violin, 10, 66, 115, 119
sustained singing style, 91, 175 vocal forces
placement/positioning, 107
tactus, beating of, 55, 95, 99, 100 size and distribution, 106-13
taste, 44-5, 88, 172 vocal production, 71, 81, 84, 87
Taylor, R. M , 25, 53, 163,221 vocal registers, 88
teaching as vocation, 172 vocal scoring, 107-13, 207, 208, 215
Telemann, G. P., 19, 29, 22, 164, 190 voces concertatae, 108
tempo, 71, 56, 99, 101 Vockcrodt, G., 21, 27-8, 30, 31-2, 43, 182,
and mensural system, 96 185, 186, 225
variation of, 95, 97-99 Vogelsang, J., 225
text setting, xii, 155 voice teachers, 85
comprehensibility of, 26, 27, 181 Vormbaum, R., 193
underlay, 71, 92 Vorschlag, 144, 145, 174-5
textual expression, 83, 171 vowels, 70, 74, 84, 87
theatrical practice/style, see opera Vulpius, M., 200, 225
Thirty Years War, 17, 24, 39
Thomasius, rector in Leipzig, 20 Wagner, G., 208, 229
thoroughbass, 39, 83, 118 19, 164 W a l d e r J . J . , 225
Tilesius von Tilcnau, N., 225 Walliser, G. T., 57, 198, 204, 225
timpani, 119 Walter, H., 20, 218, 229
tirata, 125, 136, 144 Walther,J. G., 117, 149, 159, 164, 210, 212,
meza, 133 225
toccata, 43, 119 Weckmann, M., 22
tone, 71 weddings, 4
Tosi, P. F., 83-4, 88, 89, 98, 144, 146, 166, Weide, M., 4 0 - 1 , 6 0 , 64, 225
171, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 225 Weimar, G. P., 179, 225
transiius, 144 Weimar school ordinance, 21
transposition, 58, 103, 104 5 Weissenburg, 201
Trautmann, H., 201, 225 Werckmeister, A., 30, 34, 35, 39, 51, 156-7,
tremolo/iremulo, 69, 92, 125, 134, 136, 138, 163, 180-1, 213, 225
144, 176 Wesselius, F., 37, 58, 84, 201, 214, 225
triad, 39, 57 Westhoff,J. P. von, 117
trill/7W/fer, 79, 144, 145, 171, 174-5, 176, Westphalia, 53, 214
178, 179,204, 211 Peace of, 185
tnlletti, 79, 204 Wilflingseder, A., 8, 9, 225
trillo, 48, 79, 125, 128, 133, 134, 135, 136, Wolf, G. F., 171, 1 7 7 , 2 0 8 , 2 1 5 , 2 2 5
138, 144, 175 Wolff, H. C., 229
Tristram Shandy\ 167 women, education of, 53, 167
Trivialschulen, 170 Wurttemberg, 218
trivium, 2, 46-7, 70 Wustman, R., 20, 21, 229
trombone, 119
Triimper, M , 225 Zacconi, L., 150
trumpet, 103, 119 Zahn, organist at Halle, 17
Zarlino, G., xiii, 7 1 , 2 0 3 , 2 2 5
Ubert, M., 229 Zedler, J. H., 19, 30, 34-5, 36, 45, 183, 225
U l i c h , J , 198,225 Zerleder, N., 64, 198, 204, 225
Ulrich, B., 80, 203, 204, 212, 229 Zwingli, U., 44
university pupils as singers, 23