Censured music from the Baroque (aka: It's the little things)

This weekend, I had a nice little concert with @musicapoetica at the National Theatre in The Hauge. It was a bit of an interesting concert, as the backbone pieces of the concert were two cantatas that were reconstructed from a Baroque Opera (Les Amours de Vénus, 1712) by Andre Campra that was banned by the Sun King, Louis XIV. The original comic opera was banned after several performances as it was seen to be promoting the twin dissident views of female promiscuity and the neglect of the governing authority.

The story revolves around Venus, and her lack of faithfulness to Vulcan. When Vulcan complains to Jupiter, the God of Gods essentially declines to punish Venus and refrains from interacting with his pantheon. At the time, Louis XIV was seen to be retreating into the the religious influences of Madame de Maintenon, and this opera was seen to be a comment on his lack of concern for his empire and subjects. It was also seen to be at odds with the Catholic ideas of marital (read: female) faithfulness, as the wandering goddess is left unpunished (an amusing double standard, as the male roles of the time were generally allowed to get around quite a bit!).

However, Baroque composers were ever resourceful, never letting compositions go to waste. Campra recast some of the arias with new text into two cantatas, of which one required a violin (the other I wasn't playing in!). Basically, it is a story of a drunkard who is set upon by Silene (a companion of the god of wine, Dionysus) and Bacchus (Dionysus... there is a bit of pantheon mixing?). It does make for some very interesting writing in the music, as Campra tries to portray the drunken concept across in music!

Anyway, the manuscripts are from a time when they utilised a method known as block printing... where each note (length and position on the stave) were actually individual blocks... where were all fitted together on a plate before printing. This means that all the notes are not joined up like on a modern piece of music (or even modern Classical music editions) but each are seperated. It's an older form of printing which was superceded by the Amsterdam printing methods that appeared in the 18th century.

However, for me... it is a form of printing that I find especially difficult to read. When I read music, I can see patterns ahead which makes it much easier to read music... when I essentially am reading several blocks of notes in advance. With this sort of single block printing, my brain gets tricked into reading each single note individually. Needless to say, this is a huge loss in efficiency... and when combined with the French Violin Clef (G is the lowest line on the stave, instead of the second line from the bottom), it severely reduces my ability to read ahead and be reactive in performance... as so much concentration is being spent in reading the notes... it's not a disaster, but it is the difference between feeling completely "in the zone" and batting off and endless sequence of notes in real time.

It's funny, I read all sorts of ancient clefs and terrible printing styles and handwriting from original sources, playing on a wide variety of violins, violas, viola dámore in different tunings... but time after time, this block printing is the one that trips me up and grinds me to a halt!

So, a small fix... just joining the barring of the notes with a pen makes a world of difference! My brain finally lets go of notes, and can go back to reading several bars ahead. I'm free again to interact in real time to all the unexpected nuances that make up a real live musical performance!

It really is strange how the brain works... one very minor change in perception, and the brain behaves completely differently!