Embellishing Sixteenth-Century Music by Howard Mayer BrownReview by: Gilbert L. BlountNotes, Second Series, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Jun., 1978), pp. 868-870Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/898058 .

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bles the search for a needle in a haystack. Lesure and Smith deserve much praise for their work up to this point.

Undoubtedly, students and scholars will want to consult both the French and English editions of Debussy's writings. Both vol-

umes are a "must" on the list of acquisitions for libraries which are building a collection of nineteenth-century source materials.

Elizabeth R. Harkins New Haven, Connecticut

Embellishing Sixteenth-Century Music. By Howard Mayer Brown.

(Early Music Series, 1.) London: Ox? ford University Press, 1976. [xiv, 79

p.; paper, $9.95.]

Although it is possible to document a tradition of performance flexibility?not to mention the actual expectation of im- promptu musical initiative?from the early Christian era on, it is not until the Renais? sance, with its new emphasis on music as a fine art instead of a liberal art, a craft instead of a philosophy, that one encounters a number of treatises and didactic manuals that attempt to deal systematically with various aspects of musical performance. One of the most important of these aspects is the widespread practice of improvisation, the central subject of Howard Brown's Embellishing Sixteenth-Century Music.

In the thought-provoking introduction to his work, the author correctly states that Renaissance composers entrusted to singers and instrumentalists a significant role in the interpretation of any given piece, and that these performance decisions often re- sulted in variant executions each time the piece was attempted. Alien to our contem? porary concept of absolute fidelity to the composer's every intention, this Renais? sance tradition of active performer collabo? ration at the moment of execution was preserved well into the eighteenth century.

Brown also suggests that performers had to know "how and where to add accidentals" and "how to place the words under the notes in vocal music." He is probably correct on both accounts, but problems of musica ficta continue to haunt musicologists, few of whom seem to be willing to consider the possibility of dialectical preference in this area. That we tend to thrive on stock notions such as "una nota supra la . . ." and to employ principles of unity of phrase, precautionary and hexachordal/solmiza-

tion accidentals, or whatever device we can to "correct" problem situations may be symptomatic of the modern Western men- tality that likes to see all of its ducks in a row. This is not to degrade or belittle the competent efforts of Brown's highly respected and footnoted colleague, nor the equally competent efforts of Roger Bray Frank D'Accone, Gaston Allaire, Andrew Hughes, Don Harran, and others, but it is intended to suggest that the secret chro? matic arts, the riddles, the puzzles, and other evidence of compositional games- manship may prove the exception rather than the rule.

As far as the performer's knowledge of text underlay is concerned, an attitude of skepticism should probably prevail here as well. Concordant sources display consider? able variants in both textual placement and spelling. Compositions notated as melis- matic may, without any written indication, imply repeats of words, textual phrases, or even complete sentences. We know these were earmarked in general terms by short - hand signs in later Renaissance manu? scripts, but text repeats were probably left to the performer's discretion much earlier. Also, Renaissance specialists are well aware of the difficulties of transcribing French chanson texts of the same period. They are often incomplete and corrupted by misleading incipits and/or linguistic in- competence, and one wonders if Renais? sance vocalists were so well equipped that their capabilities could spontaneously tran- scend the treacheries of a Pixerecourt ron? deau such as that described by Dragan Plamenac (Journal of the American Musico? logical Society 30 [1977]: 320-324). Brown's position is accurate, I suspect, to the extent that word placement was a problem that singers frequently had to deal with, but once again contemporaneous regional and even individual preferences likely prevailed, despite attempts to standardize the process today.

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The author's introduction continues by accurately citing the diversity of demanding improvisatory skills expected of profes? sional musicians, among them the ability to improvise compositions "over a series of chords" (p. viii). Brown conjectures with caution that the origin of chordal patterns themselves may have been given birth by the lira da braccio, or possibly the lute? instruments both widely used by improvis- ing fifteenth-century Italian poet/musi? cians. He might have added that the comprehensive scope of the Christian icon- ography of musical instruments in use dur? ing, and in many instances before, the European Middle Ages would suggest that prelute and zither types, harps, flat-bridged bowed fiddles, and so forth, all had "har? monic" capabilities and all antedated the lira da braccio.

The author later argues that treatises on keyboard technique, as well as keyboard and lute intabulations, can shed light on vocal and instrumental ensemble embel- lishment techniques. If it is true that the fifteenth-century German organ fundamen- ta "give detailed information about the practice of ornamentation" for that century, then we should be able similarly to apply the transcriptions in the Faenza Codex to fourteenth-century improvisatory practice. The hypothesis here, however, is question? able. What is idiomatic for one instrument is not necessarily so for another, especially the human voice. Granting the sixteenth- century theoretical stance that vocal and instrumental divisions are interchangeable, one must assume some discretionary selec? tion of idiom on the part of the performer according to ability and voice or instrument employed. The author would probably agree with this, although he may be placing a little too much blind faith in the capability of the Renaissance virtuoso, even though it is clear that many were extraordinarily competent performers, as measured by today's standards. What is more problem- atic about the last paragraph of the intro? duction is the author's contention that the corpus of lute and keyboard intabulations can serve as a check on the reliability of sixteenth-century embellishment manuals. The complex array of division examples that one often finds grouped according to interval and order of complexity up to and including very difficult asymmetrical com? binations?there are over 3,000 examples

in the Ganassi Fontegara alone?make it virtually impossible to use one medium as a check against any other, or any single resfacta as a check against a didactic manual or theoretical treatise. The degree of indi- vidualism evident in the extant musical and literary sources would seem to preclude the reduction of the complex array to a system of interchangeable common denominators or meaningful subclassifications.

Brown's chapters on sixteenth-century graces and passaggi are clearly written, and he characterizes not only the musical con? texts in which certain improvisatory styles appear to be most appropriate, but also the specific attitudes, organizational fea? tures, and teaching methods found in the various treatises consulted. His chapter on compositions complete with written-out embellishments is informative, but not as useful as it might be. His unexplained unwillingness to furnish even a single frag? ment of a piece complete with all vocal parts presents a distorted picture of what the author refers to as decadent virtuosity typi- cal of the late sixteenth-century treatises of Girolamo dalla Casa, Giovanni Bassano, and others. To equate "flights of fancy" with "virtuoso egomania" is a value judg? ment that would probably not have been condoned by the writers of the time.

Brown's chapter on solo versus ensemble performance is concerned primarily with the limitations and restrictions placed on the improvising performers in the ensem? ble, while admitting that the theorist/ composers don't always practice what they preach. His chapter on voices and instru? ments tempers his introductory statement concerning the congruency of vocal and instrumental embellishments to indicate that basic techniques of ornamentation may be modified to take into account the idio? matic capabilities of specific instruments, and that, while all instrumentalists were expected to be able to embellish their parts, not all singers were. The chapter closes with a brief introduction to Renaissance tech? niques of bowing and wind articulation.

Brown's final chapter is a bit puzzling in view of his broad experience as a scholar and Collegium director. He seems to underestimate the capabilities of really good singers and to be unaware of the tradition of sixteenth-century English "sol- faing songs" described by Warwick Edwards (Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association

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97 [1970-71]: 113-123). His insistence on "the fundamental incompatibility of com? poser and virtuoso, and on the basic conflict between expression and ornamentation" cannot go unchallenged, particularly since they contradict, in large part, his position on pages 66 and 67. Excerpts referring to the barbarism and bad taste of Rogniono and Bovicelli, to the improvisatory treat? ment of all genres of sixteenth-century composition in the same disrespectful man? ner, to the narcissism of offensive virtuoso cultists, and to the abuses of performance freedom that flourished unchecked seem to reveal a lingering bitterness from frus- trating personal experiences.

All of this aside, the book is very well written, and its word text is virtually error- free. The only style problems or oversights worth noting are as follows: the bass clef in Conforto's last quoted example of the groppo on page 4 is incorrect; the repre- sentation of "Ortiz's embellishments for an ascending second" (p. 18) is misleading owing to incompleteness, despite the par- tially clarifying comments on page 21; and the references to example 19c on page 47 and 19d on page 48 are confusing, since the example to which they refer on page 43 contains no alphabetic subdesignations. One would like to see more of the original versions of compositions included in the volume to be able to see what is old and what is new for comparison purposes. One would also like to see internal references to distant examples by page number and the inclusion of measure numbers?par? ticularly with the longer examples, such as Arcadelt's Ofelici occhi miei, which occupies a full five pages of text, a luxury in a book of this length.

On the more positive side, I have read few monographs that present as much core information in such a short space. This book speaks to both amateur and professional performers of Renaissance music. It also speaks to directors of performing ensem? bles, to private and university vocal and instrumental instructors, and to the blatant flood of continuing unauthentic discs and tapes from the recording industry. May it also speak to those whose banner proclaims absolute personal fidelity to the composer's intentions regardless of resultant musical dependencies, and may it speak loudly to those who would deny the existence of an historical tradition that frequently calls for

more than the notated products would suggest.

Gilbert L. Blount University of Southern California

Musica sacra zwischen Symphonie und Improvisation: Cesar Franck und seine Musik fiir den Gottesdienst. By Armin Landgraf. Tutzing: Hans Sch? neider, 1975. [229 p., no price given]

Cesar Franck was, if modestly, a leader in the late nineteenth-century revitalization of French nonoperatic music. His teaching inspired a transitional generation of com? posers and resulted in the founding of the Schola Cantorum. Not many of his compositions remain well known today, yet his influence cannot easily be dismissed.

A small but respectable bibliography has accumulated since Franck's death in 1890, from the laudatory publications by his former students to larger historical studies, such as Laurence Davies's Cesar Franck and His Circle (1970). In most of these biogra? phies and articles, the authors recognize that not only Franck's teaching but also his musical style had an immense effect on a group of French composers recently intro- duced to the German symphonic styles of Brahms, Liszt, Wagner, and earlier nine? teenth-century composers. Most studies of Franck's works, then, contain at least per- functory analyses pointing out the impor? tance in Franck's music of the cyclic princi? ple and melodic-rhythmic cells as well as extreme chromaticism, circling melodies built around the mediant, and modulations by descending thirds. Most writers concen- trate on the same works we know today, the symphony and chamber pieces.

All these sources either avoid or depre- cate most of Franck's music written before 1879, slighting both its musical value and its historical position. In his recent German dissertation, Armin Landgraf attempts to fill part of that gap and to counter some of the adverse judgments. Within the con- text of nineteenth-century church music traditions, the author concentrates on Franck's liturgical music, most written dur? ing the first part of the organist's tenure at Sainte-Clothilde, from about 1858 to about 1872. As Landgraf states in his pre? face, he investigated five areas: (1) the

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