In an age of scientific acoustics, we control sound in theaters, opera houses, and concert halls electronically. Not so during the 150 years or so of baroque music. Whereas acoustic engineers can tweak sound to place, baroque composers lived in a time when place tweaked sound. Thus, Giovanni Gabrieli (1556?-1612), upon hearing how sound reverberated within Venice’s St. Mark’s, composed music that took into account the building’s echoing effects. Within a large echo chamber like St. Mark’s a quick harmonic change is difficult to discern because one harmony can overlap another. Compositions meant for such large stone buildings, required a composer to account for the “reverberation time.” In contrast, today’s sophisticated acoustics allow composers and performers to make abrupt changes in both volume and harmony.
If you want to get a sense of that baroque “echoing,” listen to the brass instruments in Canzon Francese detta ‘La Carissima’ a 8 – antichi organi by Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634), a contemporary of Gabrieli. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BInY7cNUaY&list=PL0BevI8_8TCzUEFVYCCkaOtLIz2uO29hs&index=5 ) . Of course, not all baroque music was played in massive edifices. Smaller venues served for the sites of chamber music, and within more confining rooms, performances were a bit quieter. Crescendi and decrescendi weren’t in vogue. We seem to like more contrast, especially abrupt contrast.
But this isn’t about the music. It’s about you, the composer whose “music” reaches people in different venues, some large, others small. Most of us, of course, play to small houses in which abrupt changes in volume are highly noticeable. But in almost every venue, we need to account for the architecture of reverberation. Sometimes our performances reverberate. That can be both good and bad. All of us have to take into account both the purpose and the venue of our performances if we want others to appreciate our compositions.
Baroque musicians performed in three venues: The theater (opera house, ballet), chamber, and church. The first and third were very public; the second was quite private. The quieter performances without exaggerated crescendo and decrescendo were effective in chamber. In the larger venues, reverberation was a problem to be overcome by clever manipulation of harmony.
What are the acoustics of your performances? Do you find yourself having difficulty with reverberations overwhelming the sounds you wish to play? Do the walls (or the audiences) interfere with your lyrics? Do you create your compositions with the architecture and the audience in mind? Maybe we can learn something about communicating from the music of Gabrieli, Banchieri, and their contemporaries. Study the architecture before you compose.
If you want to get a sense of that baroque “echoing,” listen to the brass instruments in Canzon Francese detta ‘La Carissima’ a 8 – antichi organi by Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634), a contemporary of Gabrieli. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BInY7cNUaY&list=PL0BevI8_8TCzUEFVYCCkaOtLIz2uO29hs&index=5 ) . Of course, not all baroque music was played in massive edifices. Smaller venues served for the sites of chamber music, and within more confining rooms, performances were a bit quieter. Crescendi and decrescendi weren’t in vogue. We seem to like more contrast, especially abrupt contrast.
But this isn’t about the music. It’s about you, the composer whose “music” reaches people in different venues, some large, others small. Most of us, of course, play to small houses in which abrupt changes in volume are highly noticeable. But in almost every venue, we need to account for the architecture of reverberation. Sometimes our performances reverberate. That can be both good and bad. All of us have to take into account both the purpose and the venue of our performances if we want others to appreciate our compositions.
Baroque musicians performed in three venues: The theater (opera house, ballet), chamber, and church. The first and third were very public; the second was quite private. The quieter performances without exaggerated crescendo and decrescendo were effective in chamber. In the larger venues, reverberation was a problem to be overcome by clever manipulation of harmony.
What are the acoustics of your performances? Do you find yourself having difficulty with reverberations overwhelming the sounds you wish to play? Do the walls (or the audiences) interfere with your lyrics? Do you create your compositions with the architecture and the audience in mind? Maybe we can learn something about communicating from the music of Gabrieli, Banchieri, and their contemporaries. Study the architecture before you compose.
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