Sheridan Haskell

I'm a keyboard performer studying the harpsichord and organ. I also am a church organist and a thoroughbass accompianist. You will mainly find here my musings related to historical performance practice.

[sheridanhaskell]

This is an article I wrote this week. It's on the tempo account Quantz wrote in 1752 based on the human pulse rate. I included a number of graphs based on his data too.

[sheridanhaskell]

Est-ce Mars - Sweelinck

Recorded this tonight. Used paired fingering on all scales.

[sheridanhaskell]

… There is a certain hidden power, as I learnt by experience, in the thoughts underlying the words themselves; so that, as one meditates upon the sacred words and constantly and seriously considers them, the right notes, in some inexplicable manner, suggest themselves quite spontaneously.

William Byrd, 1605. The Interpretation of Early Music p. 112 by Robert Donington.

[sheridanhaskell]

I really love Robert Donington's books on early music interpretation. However I disagree with his opinion that we should perform many great works such as Bach's Matthew passion with orchestral forces larger than what the composer expected under the notion that that's supposedly what the composer really wanted but couldn't have at the time. It seems reasonable to me to think that the orchestral forces that the composers had at the time would influence the way the way they wrote. Would a composer really think "Ok, I only have 3 violins but I'm going to write as if I had 12"? 

[sheridanhaskell]

I never met with any man that suffered his passions to hurry him away so much whilst he was playing on the violin as the famous Arcangelo Corelli, whose eyes will sometimes turn as red as fire; his countenance will be distorted, his eyeballs roll as in an agony, and he gives in so much to what he is doing that he doth not look like the same man.

François Raguenet, 1702. Reproduced in The Interpretation of Early Music (New Revised Edition) by Robert Donington. 

[sheridanhaskell]

Latest Counterpoint Exercises

I've been doing a lot of new exercises out of Peter Schubert's Modal Counterpoint book.  Here are some from the last three weeks. You can read more about them here, here, and here.

[sheridanhaskell]

Reading Joel Lester's "Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century." Bought this book a year ago but never completely read it before. The chapter that shows pre-Rameauian analytical methods that are based purely on thoroughbass and the régle de l'octave is interesting.

[sheridanhaskell]

Adriano Banchieri: Festino (Op. 18) - XII. Contrappunto bestiale

I wish my church choir would do this.

[sheridanhaskell]

I've made over 1000 thoroughbass flashcards in the past month on my computer. Front of each of card has a chord written out in treble and bass clef and the back of the card has the figure that would produce that chord. Have many chords represented including 5/3, 6, 6/5, 6/4/2, 6/4/3, 7, and 7/6/4/2 in all of their possible positions in 8 major and 8 minor keys. If you run the set as a fast slideshow in a flashcard application, it can be challenging.

[sheridanhaskell]

Got some studio monitor speakers. Sound great. Yamaha HS50M.

[lhomme-banni]

more Praetorius

the mythical geigenwerk of Nuremberg - a bowed-string keyboard instrument

[sheridanhaskell]

This isn't mythical anymore.  A Japanese builder has been making some prototypes: http://homepage1.nifty.com/obuchi/Geigenwerk/index.htm#Streichklavier-j

[sheridanhaskell]

Counterpoint studies update

I'm currently in 2nd species 2 part writing in Peter Schubert's Modal Counterpoint book. I love this book. Most of what it has covered so far I already know from when I read and completed all of Jeppesen's modal counterpoint book last year. The rules for melodic balance are mostly the same. In some ways they're a bit more lax than Jeppesen's rules probably because they're based on 16th century music in general whereas Jeppesen's rules were based specifically on his studies of Palestrina. But the book has a much greater concentration on the modes. The first chapter is on the modes and it has you look at them from the perspective of "species of 4th and 5th." I'm currently memorizing the whole and half step patterns of the modes, and also trying to improve my ear's understanding of them by singing them and recognizing them.  The rules of melodic contour include things such as (in 2nd species) covering the whole modal octave every 4 or 5 semibreves. 

After the first few chapters of basic two part writing (which aren't very difficult), it gets into more complex things like invertible counterpoint. I haven't studied that much before so I'm looking forward to those chapters. Towards the end of the book, it includes chapters on text setting and how to write entire compositions. 

[sheridanhaskell]

Yesterday, as a prelude for the church I work at, I performed a slow movement of one of Vivaldi's cello sonatas on the organ. Played the continuo line (with no chords) with the left hand and played the solo cello line with the right hand on the swell manual. Sounded quite nice. The solo cello line was written almost entirely in tenor clef but thankfully I learned how to read that clef in one of the counterpoint books I've studied from.

[sheridanhaskell]

bachsweets said: Is that the set with Musica Amphion? If so, I’ll be very interested to see what you think of it. I’ve been eyeing that set myself.

Yes.  From the samples I've heard, it has at least the best recordings of the trio sonatas that I've found so far. There aren't very many recordings produced in the past 10 to 15 years I can find on Amazon (CD or download) or iTunes of the complete set of trio sonatas. The closest I found are recordings done in the late '90s by Ensemble Aurora and Il Ruggiero. Il Ruggiero has all four sets of trio sonatas and Ensemble Aurora has selections of each set. I bought a few of their albums and they're not bad. They both feature a nice variety of continuo instruments and they're both use period instruments. The problem though is that both groups' playing isn't very articulate. Notes are played heavy and legato and there isn't much dynamic contrast. It sounds a bit like period orchestras from the 1960s and '70s.

Musica Amphion recordings sound much better than what I've found. I'm mostly buying them for the trio sonatas. I already have great recordings of the solo violin sonatas and the concerti grossi. Modo Antiquo's recording of the concerti with the reconstructed brass, recorder, and oboe parts are the best I've heard.

Musica Amphion has some other works that aren't heard often, like a few extra trio sonatas, another concerto, and I think a trumpet sonata.

[sheridanhaskell]

I'm addicted to Corelli right now. I just ordered a 10 box CD set of all of Corelli's works performed by a period ensemble. 

[sheridanhaskell]

Corelli - Sonata No. 3 in La Mag Op. 4

One of the most beautiful pieces I've ever heard. 

[sheridanhaskell]