Week 24-25: Four Musical Instruments of the Baroque Era (continued)

1. Stuff done these week

- Continued my research on 4 Baroque instruments. This time the flute and viol.
- Listened to various compositions that employ these instruments. I included youtube reference sources in this blog.

2. Listening done this week

Here an example of Baroque flute music composed by Michel de la Barre (1675 -1743 or 1744), who was known as a virtuoso on the instrument. The clip shows a fine specimen of the instrument built by the Hotteterre family. The music is a suite, a dance in binary form.

Moreover, I was researching performances of Baroque compositions featuring the Viola da gamba and found this performance of music composed by Francois Couperin from "Les Goûts réunïs" (1724). The sound of the instruments is rather mellow as compared to a violin family instrument.
 

3. What I learned

The Transverse Flute (woodwind)

The wooden transverse flute or Baroque flute became very popular in the second half of the 18th century. It was also referred to as the flute d'Allemagne (German flute) or Schweitzer-Pfeiff (Swiss pipe). This was probably because it was used as a military instrument by German soldiers who were the successors of the earlier Swiss mercenaries (Montagu, 1979: 42).

It's name suggests otherwise, but a first version of the instrument was almost certainly invented in France by the Hotteterre family.  They were a family of players and instrument makers at the French court.

The transverse flute consists of three separate joints:

• the head with the embouchure, the hole across which the player blows;
• the body with six finger holes (two less than the recorder)
• the foot, a short joint which carried a single brass or silver key.

Traverso (baroque flute) by Boaz Berney, after an original by Thomas Lot, Paris ca. 174 (by I, Aviad2001 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons)

The instrument has a cylindro-conical bore, widest at the end near the embouchure and gradually narrowing towards the foot, with a brief expansion of the bore from the key-hole to the end. The key was the first chromatic key to be fitted to either a recorder or a flute. On the transverse flute it was sprung so that it stood closed and it covered a a hole between the open end of the instrument and the first finger hole.The lowest note that could be achieved was D, by covering all the finger holes. By opening the lowest hole, an E note could be sounded. By opening the key, the player could obtain an E flat or D sharp.

The division in separate joints provided important advantages. It enabled the makers to drill the tube more easily (Sadie, 2001: page 777) and stored more easily (Montagu, 1979: page 45). Additionally, because pitch standards varied considerably from place to place and because the flute's pitch was affected by temperature alterations, the provision of alternative joints of slightly different lengths, allowed the player to keep in tune with other instruments.

A major development in the history of the instrument occurred in the early 1720's, by dividing the middle joint in two sections of three holes each (Sadie, 2001: page 778). Building it in four rather than three sections enabled the makers to supply a set of interchangeable replacement joints (corps de rechange), each of slightly different size, so players could change the pitch of their instruments. The player could also control the pitch by rolling the instrument slightly towards or away from the lip and by cross-fingering (opening some holes and covering others below them, or else by half-covering them). This way, all other chromatic notes could be achieved, other than the natural notes D, E, F sharp, G, A, B and C sharp produced by sequentially covering the finger holes (Montagu, 1979: page 45).

By the early 18th century the one-keyed conical Baroque flute  had become a favourite instrument of the virtuoso and amateur alike, first in France and later in Germany and England. The 18th century is regarded as the golden age of flute music; supply of new compositions for the instrument could scarcely meet the demand (Sadie, 2001: page 784). Important composers of the time, such as Bach and Händel have written sonatas  for flute and basso continuo, that still have a central place in the repertory of modern flute players (Sadie, 2001: page 785).

 

The Viol

The viol, or viola da gamba (literally "leg viol", or more informaly gamba, is a bowed string instrument with frets (Sadie, 2001: page 736) which is played between the legs. During the Baroque era, the viol was established in its best known form. It looks like a cello, but it has broad ribs, sloping shoulders and a fairly flat, fretted neck. While its expressive far cousin the violin was very suited for opera and dance music, viols were mostly used for ensemble or consort music (Montagu, 1979: page: 13).

Historically, the viol came in many shapes and sizes: 

• Pardessus (high treble)
• Treble
• Alto
• Small tenor
• Tenor
• Bass
• Violone (contrabass)

However the treble, tenor and bass emerged as regular members of the viol consort.

The name of the instrument in various languages may cause confusion. In Italian the members of the family as a whole are called viole da gamba (="viol for the leg") to distinguish them from the viole da braccio (="viol for the arm") or violin family. In England the term viola da gamba was used specifically for the bass viol. The other members were called treble viol, tenor viol, and so on. The term viol was used to denote the whole family of these string instruments. Also in France the term viole was used to name the family as a whole. On the contrary, in Germany it was the second part of the name "gamben" that was used to describe the whole family.

The unifying principle of the viol family is that:

• They are held between the knees,
• The neck is fretted: There are usually seven or eight frets placed at intervals of a semitone Sadie, 1984)
• The bow is usually held with the palm outward (violin: inward)
• Most viols had six strings tuned in fourths (d-g-c'-e'-a'-d"), with a third in the middle (like a lute). The solo bass viol played on the Continent during the Baroque era often had seven and the pardessus five (Sadie, 1984).

The outline of the body comes in many shapes. The belly of the viol is usually curved upwards in a smooth arch commencing from the edges of the instrument unlike members of the violin family, where the arch starts at a point away from the edges. The back is usually flat and broken at the shoulder so that the upper part of the body is less thick from front to back than the rest of it. The strings are attached to a tail piece hooked over a bar glued to the end of the instrument.

A seven string viola da gamba

(By HaCeMei (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The soundboard of the viol is thinner than that of a violin and the string tension is lower.This results in a sweeter sound with less projection. The strings of viols, like those of violins and lutes, are made of gut.The lower strings were made from several strands of gut, twisted together as in a rope. The lowest three strings would be overspun with silver or another metal, to give them more mass (Sadie, 1984).

Because of the frets on the fingerboard, there is less difference of tone between stopped and open strings, as the fret acts as another nut. On members of the violin family, there is variation in tone between open en closed strings, as the string is terminated with the soft flesh of the finger. Montagu (1972: page 15) argues that this results in "more ringing resonance in sympathy with any note played" with the viol in comparison to the violin.
Furthermore, the strings of the viol are tuned a fourth or third apart, while violins are tuned in fifths. Because of the chosen smaller intervals, the viol has a more blended sonority, according to Montagu (1972).

This effect of the frets, combined with the lightness of the body construction, relatively lower tension of the strings, as well as the greater number of strings facilitates a sympathetic resonance with the note played. Being tuned in fourths and a third, there is less difference in tension and thickness between the strings of a viol as compared to the violin family members. (Montagu, 1972: page 15). Its tone is described by Sadie (1984) as of a "reedy, rather nasal quality which is quite distinctive and makes it ideal instrument for playing polyphony in which clarity is of greatest importance" (Sadie, 1984: page 738).

All this considered: the viol is a more restrained instrument, capable of intense emotion but more held-in within its compass than the, by comparison, brash and extrovert violin. It was very popular, particularly in England, which has a rich history of viol composers and performers. Between the late 17th and mid-18th centuries the bass viol was gradually superseded throughout Europe by the cello as the string continuo instrument. The mellow and subdued viol could not compete with the larger sound of the violin, the latter being more suited for large concert halls (Viola da Gamba Society of America, 2017).

4. Sources

Aviad2001, 2007. Traverso (baroque flute) by Boaz Berney, after an original by Thomas Lot, Paris ca. 1740. [electronic print] Available at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATraverso_007.jpg> [Accessed 3rd of July 2017].

EMILYPLAYSCELLO (2016), Baroque Violin Music: Corelli, Castello, Tartini, Uccellini, Biber - curated by Emily Davidson, Youtube, viewed 29th May 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gay1MX9Z0z4>

HaCeMei (2010), Bassviol (Viola da Gamba), 7 strings, Uilderks,  [electronic print] Available at: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/GambeUilderks.png> [Accessed 10th of July 2017].

LPLT, 2010. Spinet by manufacturer Daddi, Sienna, 1686, collections of the Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali di Roma. [electronic print] Available at: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Epinette_Daddi_de_1686.JPG> [Accessed 26th of June 2017].

Mole, P. (2008), The Keene and Brackley Spinet, Youtube, viewed 26th June 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8tBYCJQVos&list=PL9ucLkqjn5L7Q1HDrrd39TyT-5cLnxpsi&index=4>

MONTAGU, J. (1979) The World of Baroque & Classical Musical Instruments, New York: Woodstock. Pages 13-17, 71.

Opus33, 2009. False-color diagram of the arrangement of strings and jacks in a bentside spinet. Hand-drawn by User:Opus33 using Microsoft Paint, following an original by Stewart Pollens. [electronic print] Available at: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/ArrangementOfJacksAndStringsInASpinet.PNG> [Accessed 26th of June 2017].

Rottenburgh777 (2010), The sound of "Hotteterre Flute" (Baroque Flute) De la Barre Allemande, Youtube, viewed 3rd of July 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-iNPvoo4U0>

Sadie, S. (ed.) (1984) The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, Volume 3. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited. Pages 437-440.

Viola da Gamba Society of America, 2017, About the viol. [online] Available at: <https://vdgsa.org/pgs/the_viol.html>[Accessed 10th of July 2017].

WADE-MATTHEWS, M. (2010) Music an Illustrated History, London: Anness Publishing Ltd. Pages 102-107.

WIKIPEDIA (2017) Violin. [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin [Accessed: 29/05/2017].