Handel Errata & Quantz's vertical lines

1. Tempo of Presto in Handel Sonta no. 2 G minor

Dear Jen,
Sorry to bother you but I have a question relating to a specific piece. I am playing Handel's Sonata No.2 from the book "Selected Flute Solos" , page 123"Everybody's favorite series" - Amsco Publication (copyright 1958).
It is the final movement of this piece that is confusing me. The tempo marking is this: "Presto. M.M. (quarter note)=108". Does this mean I am supposed to play the movement at 108? This movement is very rhythmic, with many staccatos and accents, and 108 seems very slow (it is in common time). Again, I am sorry to bother you and thank you greatly for your time.N.

Dear N,
I don't know if you've come across a lot of misprints before, but there are plenty in sheetmusic. Perhaps the sheetmusic copyists stay up all night, drinking espresso, and then fall asleep with their pens (or quills!) still moving. Or the printshop workers in the 17th and 18th centuries, (those late night workers who used to set the tiny metal characters into the printing presses )suffered an occupational hazard, becoming progressively more squinty with atomized ink in their eyes. As a result of such hazards, sheetmusic misprints have been occuring for centuries, and seemingly appear every 200-2000 pages of sheet music or so.

One day we hope, we will catch and correct them all.
But for now we just scratch through them with pencil. :>)

Metronome markings are always highly suspect too; you'll find musicians who slavishly follow written mm's, and others who denounce them as inaccurate due to the faultiness of early metronomes. Don't get them started on Beethoven's metronome. Ha ha!
So, in general, every possible tempo that feels and sounds musical to you is worth considering when you first approach a new piece of music that you've never heard before.

And you are very clever to have spotted this misprint yourself, so serious kudos for you. 108 is definitely not "Presto", and makes a dirge from this exciting Finale movement.
So good instincts.

And since you've written to me online, I'll share that it's very interesting to consider how the internet can change the way we research tempo and where we turn when we have misprint/edition questions.

In the old days, pre-internet, you may have waited until your next flute lesson to check the tempo with your teacher, or tried to purchase a recording.
Most likely, as you're already doing, you would have had simply trusted your marvellous musical instincts, read through the score, played through (or outlined mentally) the keyboard accompaniment, and decided on the best tempo on your own, while waiting for another musician's corroboration.

Finally you would have run through the piece with your teacher at a dress rehearsal, and/or at a masterclass and perhaps discussed the various tempo ranges that would be appropriate depending upon the instrumentation and the sound in the hall you were performing in (echo-filled churches require slower tempos for clarity, for example).

But nowadays, you can easily find out a generally accepted tempo range in about twenty minutes or so, using a google search for online sound samples of the exact piece you're working on.

First thing to do, because it's a flute piece, is to check the printed flute sheetmusic "Errata" page created by Flutist John Wion: http://homepage.mac.com/johnwion/errata.html This is mostly for more advanced works.

Using the "Find on this page"( hit: Control-F or drop down the Edit menu to see "Find"), look on the Errata page for Handel, or look for "Selected Flute Solos", or look for Amsco.

I don't actually find anything on Handel Sonatas on the errata page, (probably because there are about a hundred editions and 48.2 errata per edition) so then I move on to looking for recordings to see if I can hear the full sonata and make an educated guess from the various tempi it has been recorded at.

From a google search of Handel's Flute Sonatas, and a quick look at the title and key-signature, I find that this is Sonata no. 2 in G minor, originally for alto recorder.

If looking up other Baroque Sonatas, you also can check the numbering of all pieces written by composers such as Handel, CPE or JS Bach or Vivaldi (several of whom can have re-numbered and confusing titles to their sonatas) by googling the composer's complete list of compositions to insure you have the most widely used title numbered or named correctly for your search. For example, here is Handel's list.

Next, you've got the name of the Sonata, but you want to hear recordings to guage the tempo typical for the final movement, the Presto or IV.
So you google that, plus the word "listen" or "mp3" or "sample".
See below:

Checking your tempo on the fourth movement of Handel's Sonata no. 2 in Gminor by listening to a professional performances on mp3/CD: Example:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/zucker2
Scroll down to track no. 22.

Or look up and listen to:

You tube performances of the work by title:
Example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEjm64n3WjE
Go to minute 5:30

Or find to listen to and play along with:

Playalong backing track and midi: Handel Sonatas are likely midi-playalongs.
Example: http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=540

Hear also recorder playing same sonata mvmt: Amazon CD recorder Sonata.

In conclusion, you are absolutely correct.
That 108 to the quarter note tempo marking is far too slow.
Printing errors in metronome markings are fairly common.
The tempo should be anywhere from 138 to 168 depending on the instrumentation, the venue and the player's skill level.
So good for you!
And hopefully this new method of finding the answer will help everybody looking for tempi as well as errata!
Best Jen
___________________________________________________

2. Vertical slashes in Quantz

Dear Jen,
I just purchased an edition of Quantz Sonatas that have the occasional vertical line above a note, but there's no explanation
as to what they mean. How do I find out how to interpret those vertical lines?

Dear Student,

You may find most music symbols, articulations and other markings here: Music Theory online (free):

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory21.htm
Scroll down about 1/8th of the way at the above page, until all the articulation notation types are shown.
Do you see your vertical line listed? If not, then it is possibly a marking that has found its way to the particular printers
of the edition that you have. It could mean marcato, staccato, or it could mean simply "tongue-this-note" while all other notes should be slurred (legato).
Very often the printer of a particular version of a piece is using a faulty copy, a faulty type-setting, or is trying to create a marking that they are not sure of either.

I researched Quantz's book on markings such as these online, using the preview at googlebooks, and I've discovered that there was confusion even in the time of Quantz as to what a vertical slash above a note was supposed to mean.
So feel free to interpret it as musically and convincingly as you can, until more definitive resources become available.

Articulated (tongued) clearly would be my first guess. But making the vertical-slash marked notes stronger, shorter, or more detatched should all be good options to try.

Best, Jen

Note: The student scanned in the markings and here is the sample below.
Any additional teacher-input appreciated. Just click on COMMENTS below.


click on picture to enlarge.

Whole Tone scales & Dom-Dim Sevenths

I have been playing flute for around 7 years and have my ABRSM exam,grade 8 in 4 weeks and I'm getting stressed over all the whole tone scales, dominant 7ths and diminished 7ths etc. Any tips?

Dear student flutist,
I know what that used to feel like.
Is this depiction about right? (see picture below)

I know that feeling well: Dum dum Dom Dim!!!!
click on picture to enlarge.

But if you can stack major second intervals (C goes to D, D goes to E, E goes to F#) and if you can imagine being able to stack minor thirds (C goes to Eb, G goes to Bb etc.), just as in the major and minor arpeggios you already know, then no worries mate! Your theory and flute playing are about to have a wholesome collision!

Here are my speed-learning tips and tricks:

Whole Tone Scales.You may already know this, but for whole tone, there are only TWO!

C - D - E - F# - G# - A# - C

and

C# - D# - F - G - A - B - C#

All you have to do is memorize the two scales above, and then start them on any note in the scale.
Even easier, if you're learning whole tone scales for the first time, you can easily memorize them by using clumps of white notes in the C-major scale as your starting point.

Step 1: First find the natural set of whole tones that already exist in a C major scale.

Let's start with CDE.
To continue the CDE scale in whole tones, I'd need to add F#, G#, A# to arrive back at C.

So now I'd memorize those two sets of notes, the white ones CDE, and the sharp ones, F#,G#, A#, put them together and then play one octave.



Step 2: Next, create whole tones from the second set of natural whole tones that are found in the C major scale. These are the other four white keys. They are: FGAB.



To continue from B, and to avoid the semi-tone of B-C, you would go to: C#, D#.
There are only two sharps this time, and then we're back at F and can play FGAB again! So that one is even easier to remember.

Step 3: Review at the keyboard - There are only two places in a C scale where two white keys are side-by-side, as we all know. E to F, and B to C are both semi-tone intervals, so when you create a whole tone always move from B to C# and from E to F# (!) to get whole tones.

Whole Tone Scales

See sample below and play through it.


click on picture to enlarge.
Notice the white-key plateaus after each small raft of black keys.

Step 4: To review all versions of the two whole tone scales, play through starting on each note in turn, feeling of the fingerings, proceding slowly, and listening to the tone.

Eventually, once memorized (takes a day or so for these two whole tone scales), you then play the scales on any starting on any pitch. Fun to use during tone warmup with different exotic rhythms. Very Debussy !
If you can add ten more minutes to one of your many daily pracitice sessions, return to the whole tones, gradually increasing the two scales in tempo, changing the start note, going up two octaves and back down, and eventually articulating as per your exam requirements for whole tone scales.

For Dominant and Diminished Seventh chords.

The diminished and dominant sevenths are fun to to learn and memorize if you start with the major chords you already know. Since you have already memorized your majors from previous exams, you can simply use those scales now to count up to find the dominant note of any scale. Build your dominant 7th chords on that dominant (5th) note of any scale; use a 1-3-5 triad just like any other major chord, and then with a flourish of bravery, add the 7th that was the subdominant (4th) note when you first counted.

Example: Play C-major scale and arpeggio like a brilliant flutist, then stop and soulfully longtone up the first five notes of the scale. Count up five notes by saying mentally : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Take note of the 4th* and 5th notes above the tonic. They are F and G.

Hold the dominant, G and give it great tone. Remember the F for the next step.*

This fifth note G will the root of the Dom7th chord of the major key you're in.
Build a G major triad (which would be spelled GBD, as you already know from your major arpeggios), and then add the seventh above that G. Add the F natural: GBDF. And the simplicity of it is that *the very seventh you need is actually the fourth note of your C-scale, the F, that you already counted in the step above.

Note as you count up 1-2-3-4-5 that the subdominant or 4th note will always be the top note or "flatted-seventh" that you need in a dominant seventh chord.

By counting this way you become aware of the home key of a dominant seventh.

You would play:

C E G C
then
G B D F (the dom7)
and then return to
C E G C.
Very satisfying math, and you only have to count to five!

Now to the famous Diminished Sevenths.

Thankfully, once again, there are far fewer than you think of these types of four note dim7 chords. For example: If I stack minor third intervals from all possible notes, there are only three stacks possible:

B-D-F-Ab

C-Eb-Gb-A

C#-E-G-Bb

If I were to continue to build a stack of minor-thirds on the note D right now, it would be the same as the first one above: D F Ab B.

So you actually only need to learn the three sets of four notes above, and then can simply start on any note in them and continue upward, and you have all possible diminished sevenths.

See sample method below of playing I, V7, dim7, I chords as arpeggios.
I wrote them out fancifully, but they're just the dom and dims for C-major and D-major. You can use your own rhythms and patterns to explore all major keys with an extra 10-20 minute session for 1-2 new keys per day.

click on jpg to enlarge above.

C Major and D Major are shown. Count up to the 5th note and the 4th note by playing, later just "thinking" the counting. Move on to all other keys using the majors you already know.

Also, if you need a second way to find the top note of a diminished seven chord, perhaps your brain starts to drift, and you need another brain-anchoring device, the top note of a dim7 is always a half-step above the root of the V chord in that key. (Ex: In C major, Ab is a half step above G when you counted up 1-2-3-4-5 to G). So adding reference points really helps, and it's another "jazzy sounding" way to find the new note in the chord series.

That's why I like this pattern, I, V7, VIIo7, I, because it tells me what the notes are going to be in advance and I can build the chords from well-known anchor points. Plus it makes me feel like a clever explorer rather than hopelessly reading through non-memorizable pages of chords from a method book.

After two or three weeks of playing Dom and Dim 7ths in all keys using the above arpeggio pattern, fairly swiftly you'll find that your mathematical brain will figure out the easiest way to remember these very few numbers. You'll be amazed! And as an added bonus it sounds so musical when it resolves to the home key and you review your majors at the same time.

I'm not sure of the ABRSM requirements for tempo and articulations, you'll have to send a link to the format the site says is on "Page 85", if you want more help. I can't see the page that gives the necessary rhythm or other patterns.

Abrsm grade 8 flute scale and solo requirements.

In general when preparing for an exam:
Work on only two to four new scales or chords a day, and learn them while your mind is fresh. Mornings sessions are freshest. Review later in the day once or twice more. Take deep breaths, pause and think exploratively. Don't panic, don't rush, and learn new patterns in a musical way, feeling the sense of them, before adding any more. Keep a notebook of which ones you've learned, and review often. Proceed slowly on new chords, and focus on the quality of the sound. The math will start to sink in after about a week.

Later when you speed up and add articulations, keep that fabulous tone that you've had since the start of this practice, and let fingers be light. Play with panache and grace. Listen back to recordings of yourself, and listen for musicality, evenness of fingers, and precision in articulation.


Remember that you'll likely only be asked a few of these chords, and if you miss one, you can still pass the exam.

Everyone feels a bit freaked out at this point just a few weeks before their exams, but it all works out in the end. The fear and trepidation is your cue to take some deep slow breaths, slow your brain down to a point of learning and focus, and breath easily through the whole experience.
Without a deadline such as an exam, that we set for ourselves, funnily enough (!) :>) we never quite know what heights we can reach.
Once you know all these chords and scales, you'll be able to freely improvise for the rest of your life, and even compose flute music!
With that in mind, you'll find it's all pretty fun to figure out the patterns.
Best of luck, and hope this helps. Jen