JAVS Spring 2011

Example 6. J. S. Bach, Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011, Prelude; mm. 63–65.

Enjoy its jolting unevenness, with a condensed down bow for the first three notes, followed by a very light and fast up bow—It can offset the more stodgy detaché stroke that we often use for separate notes. After the first three-note slur, we find ourselves scrambling away from the tip by walloping the up-bow with too much bow in too little time. First, the forearm needs flexibility, not a stiff elbow, connecting the whole arm into one mass. The elbow gives weight and release. Practice forming waves in the arm on just one note, as if conducting. I prac ticed this slowly to train the right arm and hand, to find the exact part of the bow needed, and to find the right combination of speed and weight to get a good sound on the single note while keeping the rhythmic vitality. The idea of note inégal , weight/non weight, or down bow/up bow, is the single most essential element of Baroque playing, according to Mr. Riebl. Separate notes fall into this pat tern of down/up, but it also appears in grander forms. Relative weighting of beats (strong, weak, medium, weak beats in 4/4) is an expression of note inégal on two levels. Beats one to two and three to four release from strong to weak. On a larger scale, the stronger first beat also releases to the weaker third beat. Broad and minute patterns of weight/non-weight inter mix to create complex and beautiful syntactic patterns. To play a stream of equal note-values in the note inégal style, begin by sep arating the feeling of weight from stress. Also, the first down bow is more weighted than the second.

Example 7. J. S. Bach, Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007, Sarabande; mm. 7–8.

Example 8. Schubert, “Arpeggione” Sonata, movt. II, mm. 67–71.

Practice this by slurring strong to weak notes together, then imitating that sound in their original, separate form. When playing a full bar of equal note-values, phrase in a circle toward the down beat, and in duple time, the half-bar (ex. 6). For works evoking a peaceful mood (ex. 7), smooth over the phrase with fewer pulses and less separation. In passages with some separate inégal notes and other uneven groupings, exaggerate this asymmetry by condensing bow use at the start of slurs, even when they create a syncopation. Certain large slurs contain smaller note groupings that can be emphasized. “Arpeggione” Sonata contain this possibility (ex. 8). The rising, bro ken scale in the third-to-last meas ure is broken into three two-note groups, with a fourth group begin ning the penultimate measure of the movement. Technically, the arm gives one pulse or wave for each group in order to define it while leaving it connected in the V OLUME 27 NUMBER 1 57 The final measures in the second movement of Schubert’s

phrase. After the fourth impulse, the apex of the phrase has been reached and can cascade down ward into the third movement. The third movement of the “Arpeggione” Sonata introduces the necessity to add phrase mark ings of one’s own, based on har mony and phrase structure. To accent each downbeat equally is to chop each phrase into eight tiny, equal pieces (ex. 9). We must artic ulate each slur, giving impulse to the accents. However, connecting the fifth and sixth slur, then bring ing out the slight syncopation in the seventh bar, highlights the con trast between the predictability of the first four measures and the change in the last four. The second eight-bar phrase begins with the same regularity (ex. 10). Begin its last four bars without emphasis, in a new color, to emphasize the searching character of this phrase. One of Mr. Riebl’s favorite ques tions for students is whether or not they have read Leopold Mozart’s