The
Development of Mozart's Slurring and its Possible Functions in Performance
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The
Development of Mozart's Slurring and its Possible Functions in Performance
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Preface - Mozart's Slurring, this Research and this Thesis
PhD thesis (University of Manchester)
Beth Pei-Fen Chen
| In musical
notation, the use of slur signs for grouping notes of different pitches
already existed in the early 17th century. Many of Mozart's predecessor
and his contemporaries applied slurs, and the usage of slur signs was introduced
and indicated in several 17th - and 18th- century treatises (see chapter
1). Mozart, however, seems to have indicated many more slurs than most of
his contemporaries, and he was very careful about the details of his slurring;
he would change a slur by extending it merely a note further (e.g. bar 6
of his variations K. 360, f. 1r, see Ex. 12.8) or he would change slurring
in a whole section by deleting slurs and indicating new ones (e.g. K. 590,
IV, ff. 24v-25v, see Ex. 13.4). Even when he was bored at writing pieces
for mechanical organ, he still indicated many slurs, as in K. 616 Andante
(Ex. 14.17).[1] This suggests that slurs were
important elements in his notation. Later in the 19th century, Franz Liszt
also gave the impression that slurs were important signs in his notation;
he deliberately indicated almost all his slurs and other articulation signs
in red ink after he had written the notes in black ink.[2]
Why did composers spend their time indicating slurs and sometimes altering
their previous slurrings?
Their efforts were not wasted. Some musicians today are spending time thinking about the details and meanings of these past composers' slurs. For instance, the fortepianists Malcolm Bilson and Alexei Lubimov tend to play Mozart's slurs as they see them in facsimiles or Urtext editions, and so whether a slur crosses a bar line or not is really a matter of importance to them, as they will treat the two versions of slurring differently when they perform it.[3] When the organ recitalist and performance practice specialist David Sanger edited Louis Vierne's (1870-1937) Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, he was also in a dilemma concerning whether Vierne's slurs did cross a bar line or not, as each version had a different meaning for playing.[4] Following Daniel Gottlob Türk's and Carl Czerny's treatises on the keyboard performance, the Beethoven specialist Barry Cooper stated that if composers wanted one note to be joined to the next by a full legato or a whole passage to be played legato, they notated a slur to indicate this. For this reason, Cooper attempted to retain Beethoven's original slurring when editing the Beethoven sonatas. In order to retain the original slurring, he needed to understand every detail of the composer's slurring for the transcription.[5] To the violinist Vilmos Szabadi, a tiny detail of slurring is relevant to his decision on the bowing, and thus a subtle change could alter the resulting music.[6] Having played Mozart's string quartets for decades, the violinist Peter Cropper continues to discover the hidden messages from Mozart's indications.[7] Even for the composer John Casken today, in order to get the string bowing right, he will sometimes alter slurs in rehearsals in consultation with the players, as in his Concerto for Orchestra (Premièred in 2008); his wish is to leave scores in the best possible way to represent what he intends.[8] It appears that slurs are a means of communication between composers and the musicians who read their music. The question is whether musicians today can really understand the messages of past composers' slurrings: do they know how to transcribe past composers' slurs and how to play them correctly (see chapter 2)? Regarding Mozart's slur signs, there are still several unanswered questions. Why did Mozart indicate slurs? What was the röle of slurs in Mozart's music? What were the factors that affected Mozart's slurring indications? And what were the functions of his slurs? Mozart indicated many slurs in his music. Has he taken bowing, breathing, keyboard touch, and syllable underlay into consideration when indicating slurs (see Part II)? Musicians of the present day, even those who have made a serious effort to understand them, are still unsure as to how to interpret Mozart's slurs. This is mainly because from the perspective of present day musicians, some of his slurrings appear to be either very unusual or not very practicable. In addition, there is in fact very little information about the practicability of Mozart's slurring. With regard to notation and performance, there are some problematic issues to consider. For example, did Mozart expect a continued legato line when he actually indicated separate slurs rather than a longer one in a single phrase? What did he mean when he ended a slur at a bar line, when the phrase actually ends on the first note of the next bar? Did he really mean to indicate inconsistent slurrings? Did he always want players to follow his slurs as execution guidance, as with bowing, tonguing, breathing, and touch instructions? Also, what are the functions and meanings of his unusual slurrings? There have been several attempts at exploring Mozart's slurrings. With regard to the issue of continuation or separation between slurs, both Rosenblum and Suderman discussed the importance of the accentuation on the first slurred notes, but they were still uncertain about the separation between Mozart's slurs. However, they tended not to suggest linking several slurs into as a single long slur.[9] Based on the 18th-century treatises, Rosenblum and Suderman's searches appear to be very limited because past treatises provide only information on the general practice of slurs at the time, but not the specific answers on Mozart's slurring. Those who attempt to interpret Mozart's slurs as Mozart indicated might be disappointed if they realize that sometimes they are actually not playing Mozart's intended slurrings. For instance, fortepianist Malcolm Bilson followes Mozart's slurs for the detailed articulation thinking that eighteenth-century music is like speech and it must be inflected properly.[10] That is, he would not play several slurs as a single legato line and he would be careful about articulatory silence. However, he might not always have had a chance to notice that there are actually slurring discrepancies between an Urtext transcription and Mozart's original autographs, and as a result he played unspecified editorial slurrings without knowing it (see Chapter 2). Regarding the functions of Mozart's slurs, Clive Brown pointed out in his Classical & Romantic Performance Practice 1750 - 1900 that slurs were indicated for different purposes. He gave various examples to illustrate the possible functions or meanings of slur signs, yet there were no detailed explanations of various usages of Mozart's slurring because his focus was not on Mozart's slurs.[11] Concerning slurring transcriptions, recent scholarly editors, such as Ulrich Leisinger and Cliff Eisen have attempted to transcribe Mozart's slurs more faithfully in their new editions than had previously been the case. In spite of the fact that such attempts give a more faithful slurring transcriptions, there are still no answers as to why Mozart gave inconsistent slurrings and unusual slurs, or suggestions on how such slurs might be played. The reason for these uncertainties is that there is no overall and detailed information about Mozart's use of slurs in different periods and for different instruments. This thesis aims to provide, for the first time, an overall picture of Mozart's slurrings as well as the details of his various applications. In order to trace his use of slurs for strings, keyboard, wind instruments and vocal music from his youth to his final years, this thesis investigates approximately a hundred and fifty of Mozart's autograph scores. Moreover, it hopes to trace the possible functions of his slurs through the examination of how he indicated slurs during each period of his composition and in different instrumental or vocal music. In addition, several 17th - and 18th- century treatises are probed for clues as to how and why slurs were used or introduced. The survey also encompasses a brief search of other composers' slurring from the end of the 17th century to the 18th century. In addition, knowledge of Mozart's musical environment gives important clues about his usage of slurs and motivation for indicating them. This thesis begins with an overview of issues with terminology, the use of slur signs in some 17th - and 18th- century treatises, and the issues regarding problems of interpreting Mozart's slurs in transcription and performance. The core of this thesis is in Parts II and III. The purpose of these two parts is to give a picture of how Mozart's slurring developed from his early writings to his final works: Part II investigates Mozart's slurring from his youth to his move to Vienna in 1781, and Part III investigates Mozart's slurring in his Viennese period from 1781 to 1791. Although there is chronological overlap between some chapters, each chapter deals only with slurring in a specific year or a specific period for the instrumental or vocal music which is discussed. The conclusions in this thesis, especially with regards to practical performance issues, are based on the current state of the knowledge of this research and the concern of practicability at the time. Notes on formal matters and on the use of some words in this thesis Regarding sources, footnotes provide only brief information. If a translation is either quoted from a source or given by others, this will be indicated in the footnotes or immediately after the text. The usage of slur names particularly designed for this thesis, such as two-quaver slur or four-quaver slur, is indicated in Appendix A. In order to avoid unnecessary confusion between the father and the son, this thesis uses Leopold Mozart's first name 'Leopold' to indicate the father whereas 'Mozart' is used to indicate Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In addition, the word 'accent' used to indicate how the first slurred notes are played does not necessarily imply audible dynamic accent, but rather a technical one, using various degrees of gentle articulatory emphasis to elongate the note, with a resulting rhythmic accent. In addition, the word 'practicable' as used in this thesis is intended to convey whether a particular performing technique is playable or not. It has a different meaning from 'practical' which has a close link to modern players' perception of modern technique, or relates to musical or notational function. There are hundreds of musical extracts and examples from Mozart's autographs (facsimiles) used in this thesis. The background spots and the parts that are not relevant to the main discussions are cleaned or deleted by means of editing software in order to make it easier for readers to read the main text. -- FOOTNOTES 1.
See facsimile. |