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Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation by Lindley
Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation by Lindley
Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation by Lindley
CHAPTER IX
Why have the old keyboard techniques been more talked about than put into
use? The answer is, presumably: because in taking up some early style of
fingering, anyone with a good modern technique has deepset habits to
overcome and no longer feels at home with the instrument a condition not
only wanting in historical verisimilitude but also so annoying that the exotic
appeal (which has to sustain the first stages of this kind of recreation) is exx.2 and 3, the actual duration of the first bass note (which completes a
soured. Thus many of the best players have tended to forgo the best method phrase) has to match the crotchet or quaver in the middle voice. If various
of research, the mastering of pieces which are fingered throughout in the other minims are not also to be truncated drastically, the hand must perform
original sources, in favour of a selective reading of the old tutors^, taking what some rather novel gymnastics (see fig.l). Probably the semiquavers in
they like perhaps Diruta's placing of the wrist but not his fingerings, some ex.4 want to be played with the back of the fingers facing left and the tips
of Santa Maria's scale fingerings but not his style of articulation, François .touching the keys as shown in fig. 2. Only a player quite at home with
Couperin's substitutions, certain remarks about the thumb from C. P. E. manoeuvres of this kind can hope to distinguish between interesting finger
Bach etc — and saying that the more troublesome fingerings are less ings and the mistake in ex.2, where the c was overlooked and the c' fingered
significant than a broad synthesis of this kind. This approach is now going accordingly. The proper emendation is to play the octave with 5 and 1, like
out of fashion, ' but for quite a few years it helped to preserve a naïve contrast all the other octaves; but b is still played with 3, as in the next bar.
between 'primitive' and modern. A closer look at the evidence suggests
rather that there was a great variety of techniques in Germany, Italy, Spain
and England during the 16th and early 17th centuries, and that early 18th
century playing was, like the music, as different from ours as from that of the
Renaissance.
Ex. 1 Summary of the rules for quick notes in Buchner's Fundament Buch
4 3 2 S 4 S S S 2 3 4 3 2 3 2 3
' ^ 1 1 « 1 1'^
2 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 4 3 2 3 4 3 3 3
Ex.2
' ' C 3 ^ S ^
(a) (b)
3 3 3 3
1 Likely leßhand position (a) for the seventh in bar 5 of Buchner's 'Quem terra pontus'
The oldest known fingering rules for fast notes, summarized in ex.1, are (middle of the first bar of ex.2, opposite) and likely righthand position (b) in the first half of
from a manuscript of Hans Buchner's Fundament Buck, dated 1551 (some 13 bar 10 of the same piece (middle of the third bar of ex.3, above).
ill
years after his death).^ Did he really reserve 3 for weak notes, or is it only
that none of these groups begins in the middle of a threenote span?
Fortunately the manuscript gives the fingering for an entire piece. Here 3
takes all notes which have a mordent, and various minims weak or strong;
but is generally reserved for weak crotchets, quavers and semiquavers. In 2 Likelypoints of contact with the keys in ex.4.
186 187
The Baroque Era Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation
Ex.5 Erbach, Ricercar, bb.23 (r.h.), 67 (l.h.) thirds in the right hapd (ex.7), not to mention the harmonic fourths so
fingered elsewhere in the same piece.
In Elias Ammerbach's two sets of fingered exercises (1571, 1583), 3 is used
(Ä) Ul 41232323 4323 2323 234323232
on weak or strong notes indifferently (exx.89), and the left thumb is applied
to the last note of certain groups (ex.910), even if it may be a chromatic
note. The right thumb is not explicitly called for in any German Renaissance
Ex.6 Erbach, Ricercar, b.l3 source. Ammerbach fingered most groups independently of each other, and
often the same finger has the last note of one group and the first of the next.
The weak note may have been played with merely a finger motion, but the
following strong note with a hand motion as well. Ammerbach may well have
used a moderately low wrist as in fig.4.
In these exercises and in Erbach's ricercar, to slur all those notes which
1<
1 1<
1<
2 15
can most readily be slurred would often make a very silly, hiccuping effect
(see ex.11), so the phrasing is best achieved by shadings of articulation and
Ex.7 Erbach, Ricercar, bb. 19—20
tempo in a patina of marginal detachments. This is probably what the early
tutors meant by terms like 'legato' and 'smooth'.
Our only 16thcentury Italian source of information, part i (1593) of
Girolamo Diruta's II transilvano, prescribes that the wrist be 'a bit high'
('alquanto alto') to keep the hand and arm level. Diruta dwelt upon the
A ricercar by Christian Erbach is preserved with fingerings in a Bavarian importance of a quiet hand, relaxed as if caressing a child, except that in
manuscript of the 1620s. Once again, 3 has mostly weak quavers and dances one might instead strike the keys, 'harpsichordstyle . He said t e
semiquavers (ex.5), and here also one finds certain fingerings which even a arm should guide the hand, and the fingers should be 'alquanto marcate ,
German tutor might not explain (as in ex.6, where the 4 on d' entails a which has been rendered by various translators as 'slightly', 'somewhat' or
cadential rubato and a relatively deliberate articulation). A very high wrist 'rather' curved.
as in fig.4 can facilitate some of the fingerings, such as I for certain harmonic
Ex.8 Ammerbach, exercise (1583)
.rJi. 3 4 2
(gLh. 3 2 4
Ex.9 Ammerbach, exercise (1571), excerpt
.rJl.3 2S4432S42343234 3
IJl.2 321232324322321 2
Ex.10 Ammerbach, scale (1571, 1583)
Lh.4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
. 3 3 4 3 ^ 4 ^ * 3^
^ 4
3 Detail of the painting 'Interior of. Augsburg Cathedral' (1616) by Tobias Maurer in 3 2 3
2 3
2
2
Augsburg Cathedral: Christian Erbach was cathedral organist at the time 4 3
188 189
Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation
5. Detail of the painting 'St Cecilia and St Catherine of Alexandria' (1566) by
B. Carpi in the church of S Sigismondo, Cremona
191
The Baroque Era
Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation
or nonentilie, (see apropos fi¿). ar^eXe^S Tr ÍT" w™'" (b) Dandrieu, Gavotte in D, bb.35
l ' I d i j If
SVrefelred^o"lsL^^^^
psssi^i^
the body (4)3232 even thnnél?" either hand should move towards
with 1 aúd 2 in ,heieft ha"d ¿0® Tl »«"<1 (c) F. Couperin, 'Les Ondes', 4th couplet, b.l (r.h.)
4 8 2 1 4 3 2 4 [etc]
[two octaves lower]
Ex.14 (a) Erbach, Ricercar, bb.1517
(b) A. Scarlatti, 'Toccata prima', bb. 1357
[left hand two octaves lower] ^ *
_ 8 3 3
5 4 3 2 3 2 1 2 S 2 i a 3 2 3 2 3
Ex.21 D. Scarlatti, Sonata
. . . , . . , 9 ( K K 9 6 ) , b b . 1 4 0 4 4
Ex.20 Härtung, Minuet, bb.12
Ex.16 Bull, Prelude, b.4
3 4 S 2 3 4 3 4 „ 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4
K m late 17th century English manuscripts contain finpred
Ex.18 Anon., 'An easy one for a beginner' {Lbm 36661), bb.13
194
The Baroque Era Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation
2 1 S 2 S 4 6 1 2 1
4 3 2 1 6 4 3 2 1
Ex.31 F. Couperin, 'Le moucheron', bb. 1415
During the first half of the 18th century the main trend was to add new
technical devices without rejecting the old ones,® so the fingerings were
rather unsystematic and dependent upon the immediate musical context.
Given a suitable occasion, 4, 3 or even 2 might cross beyond 5 (ex.26); 5
might cross over I (ex.27) or under 3 (ex.28); 2 and 4 might cross past each
other (exx.29 and 31); the thumb might take a chromatic note (ex.30) or
Ex.32 Rameau, 'Les tourbillons' (1724), bb.3637
might not (ex.31), and scales might be rendered by an elaborate choreog
rJi. I
raphy of both hands (ex.32). It was in this context of nimble permutations
that the old Spanish unpaired scale fingerings apparently began to be taken
up outside Iberia in the 1720s: in Rameau's Traité de l'harmonie (1722, for
slow bass notes as in ex.33), in a contemporary manuscript of Handel's G
major Ciacona (ex.34), in Delia Giaja's Sonate, op.4 (1727), and no doubt
elsewhere. Various tutors from 1730 on prescribed them (ex.35); Härtung in
1749 referred to 3434 and 3232 as 'that impoverished fingering',® and in 1789 Ex.33 Rameau, bass lines (1722, 'p.iW.ff)
Türk recalled that Friedemann Bach had been able to play, with only two
fingers (3 and 4), certain runs straightoffand with an astonishing velocity'.
5 4 3 2 1 3 2 4 1 1 2
The effect of these developments upon articulation is not entirely clear. In
1735 Mattheson stated that a teacher should tell his pupil 'hever to apply the
Ex.34 Handel, Ciacona, var.6, bb.l and 78
next finger until he has lifted the previous one'. Marpurg in 1755 said that
while slurring and staccato were usually indicated by signs in the music, the
ordinary procedure, namely to lift the finger from the preceding key very
quickly just before touching the following note, was never indicated because
it was always presupposed. Dom Bédos in 1778 dwelt upon the necessity of
little silences at the end of each note on any keyboard instrument, without Ex.35 Prelleur (cl730), exercise
which the music would be like an inarticulate series of vowels without
consonants. Gzerny in praising Beethoven's legato referred to Mozart's
choppedup and clippedoff playing'. On the other hand, Duphly told Lord
Fitzwilliam, some time after 1754, that in le jeu français 'one must not quit
one key until after having taken another'." How then should we interpret
Forkel s statement (1802) that J. S. Bach — whom he never heard play — had Ex.36 Nivers (1665), 'Exemples du coulement des notes'
found a middle path' between too much legato and too much staccato, and
so achieved 'the highest degree of clarity ('Deutlichkeit') in the playing of
single notes as in the pronunciation of single words'?
196 197
The Baroque Era Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation
Ex.42 SaintLambert, slurred arpeggiation
Some earlier French sources are of particular interest in this regard. In
1665 Nivers, discussing distinction and coulement, said it was very appealing
to 'mark all the notes distinctly, and to slur ('couler') some of them' as a
singer would do. For instance, in a diminution or roulade of consecutive
notes, one should raise the fingets 'soon and not very high', whereas for ports
de voix and the like as in ex.36, one should still distinguish the notes but 'not
raise the fingers so promptly: this manner is between distinction and
confusion'. His illustrations of descending scales are shown in ex.25; for
Ex.43 Dandrieu, 'Gavotte tendre' in C, bb.34
ascending scales he prescribed; right hand (1)23 4343 4; left hand
(4)32 1212 1. rßTß »f, .
198 199
The Baroque Era Keyboard Fingerings and Articulation
^ 3
^ if ^
4
Ex.49 C. P. E. Bach, Versuch, tab.l, fig. 18 5
1 8 3 4 3 4 8 1 3
Ex.51 G. P. E. Bach, Versuch, tab.2, fig.50a and b
4 3 2 1 S 1 S I S
3 1 4 3 2 1 3 3 1
(St Louis, 1984), is an excellent account; but see M. Lindley, 'Early Fingering: Some Editing
Notes Problems and Some New Readings for J. S. Bach and John Bull', EM, xvii (1989), 60.
F. Niecks, Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician (London, 1888), ii, 186. For more on
' Representative of more recent trends are the section on fingerings in A. Bellasich et al. Il Chopin's technique, see J.J. Eigeldinger, Chopin vu par ses élèves (Neuchâtel, rev. 2/1979), and
clavicembalo (Turin, 1984), 161225; E. Fadini et al, 'La tecnica esecutiva degli strumenti a J. Holland, Chopin's Teaching and his Students (diss., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1973).
tastiera e del liuto nelle fonte storiche', Praxis, i (1983), 11553; and the writings of M. Boxall, The Henle editions of Chopin's music include some original fingerings in italics.
Q. Faulkner, M. Lindley, C. L. Lister, J. Rodgers, and B. Sachs and B. Ife cited below. See, for instance. Selection of Studies by J.S. Cramer with Comments by L. van Beethoven, ed.
Prophetic of these trends was A. Dolmetsch, The Interpretation of the Music of the XVII and XVIII J. S. Shedlock (London, 1893). Information on 19thcentury piano technique in general is to be
Centuries (London, 1915, 2/1946//Í1969), chap.5. For a learned polemic against them, see I. found in R. R. Gerig's lovable Famous Pianists and their Technique (Washington, 1974). Some
Ahlgrimm, 'Current Trends in Performance of Baroque Music', Diapason, Ixxiii (1982), April. studies in early 19thcentury organ technique are M. Schneider, Die Orgelspieltechnik des frühen
^ Buchner's rules are translated (and attributed mistakenly to an earlier source than the '1551' 19. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland (Regensburg, 1941), and S. J. Schwartz, An Examination of the
Fundament Buch) in B. Sachs and B. Ife, Anthology of Early Keyboard Methods (Cambridge, 1982). Performance Practices for the Organ circa 1800 based on the 'Orgelschule' of J. H. Knecht (diss.,
^ Ammerbach's 1571 exercises have often been transcribed, for instance in the works cited above Stanford U., 1973). 19thcentury organ techniques are placed in historical context in Soder
of Sachs and Ife (who attribute them to the 1583 edition as well) and of Dolmetsch; the 1583 land's work cited above. For more citations see M. Lindley, 'Early Keyboard Techniques: a
exercises are transcribed in M. Lindley, 'Ammerbach's 1583 Exercises', EHM, iii (April 1983), Selected Bibliography', EHM, iii (April 1985), 155.
59, and The Courant, ii (1984). The examples from Büchner, Ammerbach and Erbach are
treated in detail in M. Lindley, German Renaissance Keyboard Techniques (in preparation).
* The most recent booklength treatment of Diruta is E.J. Soehnlein, Diruta on the Art of
Keyboard Playing (diss., U. of Michigan, 1975). Of the many briefer ones see M. Boxali,
'Girolamo Diruta's "Il Transilvano" and the Early Italian Keyboard Tradition', EHM, i, (April
1976), 168, and 'New Ligbt on the Early Italian Keyboard Tradition', EHMn (October 1978),
71.
' For more on early Spanish fingerings see C. Jacobs, The Performance Practice of Spanish
Renaissance Keyboard Music (diss.. New York U., 1962) and the works of Sachs and Ife cited
above and of Rodgers cited below.
® Two major studies have been P. le Huray, 'English Keyboard Fingering in the 16th and Early
17th Centuries', in Source Materials and the Interpretation of Music: a Memorial Volume for
Thurston Dart (London, 1981), and M. Boxali, English Keyboard Technique up to the Death of
Henry Purcell (diss.. Trinity College, London, 1970). M. Lindley, 'Early English Keyboard
Fingerings', Raster Jb für Historische Musikpraxis, xii (in preparation). Specialized writings
include M. Maas, Seventeenthcentury English Keyboard Music, a Study of Manuscripts Res. 1186
and II86bis of the Paris Conservatory Library (diss.. Vale U., 1968); T. Koopman, "'My Ladye
Nevell's Booke" and Old Fingering', EHM, ii (Oct 1977), 5, and M. Boxali, ' "The Harpsichord
Master 1697" and its Relationship to Contemporary Instruction and Playing', EHM, ii (April
1981), 178. For a substantial account ofRenaissance fingerings in England and on the Continent
see J. Rodgers, Early Keyboard Fingering, ca. I520I620 (diss., U. of Oregon, 1971).
' For more on 17thcentury German fingerings see C. L. Lister, Traditions of Keyboard Technique
from 1650 to 1750 (diss., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979); S. Soderland, Organ
Technique, an Historical Approach (Chapel Hill, 1980, rev. 2/1984), chap.5; M. Lindley, German
Renaissance Keyboard Techniques, H. Gleason, 'A Seventeenthcentury Organ Instruction Book',
Bach, the Quarterly Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, iii/1 (1972), J. H. Baron, 'A
17thcentury Keyboard Tablature in Brusow', JAMS, xx (1967), 279; and R.Jackson, untitled
commuriication, JAMS, xxiv (1971), 318.
° Details in M. Lindley, 'Tecnica della tastiera e articolazione: testimoniqnze della pratica
esecutiva di Scarlatti, Bach e Händel', NRMI, xix (1985), 2161, of which a preliminary version
appeared in Bach, Handel and Scarlatti: Tercentenary essays, ed. P. Williams (Cambridge, 1985),
207^3. An analogous perspective on contemporary violin techniques can be gained briefly from
P. Walls, 'Violin Fingering in the I8th Century', and R. Stowell, 'Violin Bowing in Transition: a
Survey ofTechnique as Related in Instruction Books cl760cl830', EM, xii (1984), 300 and 3,17.
' The many excerpts from Härtung are one of the most valuable ingredients in 1. Ahlgrimm,
Manuale der Orgel und Cembalotechnik (Vienna, 1982).
See also D. Fuller, 'Analysing the Performance of a Barrel Organ', The Organ Yearbook, xi
(1980), 104, and, for an antidote. Fuller, 'French Harpsichord Playing in the Seventeenth
Century — after Le Gallois', EM, iv (1976), 22.
" W. Meilers, François Couperin and the French Classical Tradition (London, 1950), 345.
Details in W. H. Pruitt, The Organ Works of GuillaumeGabriel Nivers (I632I7I4) (diss., U.
of Pittsburgh, 1969). See also Pruitt, 'Un traité d'interprétation du xvii siècle'. L'orgue, no.chi
(1974), 99.
C. P. E. Bach, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, trans. W. J. Mitchell
(New York, 1949/7ÎI974). Q. Faulkner, J. 5. Bach's Keyboard Technique; a Historical Introduction
202 203