contrast with the Beethovenians, the swelling stopped short of its aim, and was followed instead by a sudden piano, as in the following example from the Trio Sonatas of Geminiani.
It is more than probable that the virtuoso players of Handel's orchestra also used this means of expression,[1] though we need not assume that Handel used them as abundantly as Geminiani or as the Mannheim players, whose taste had become doubtless a little affected and exaggerated. But what is certain is that with him, as with Geminiani, and indeed with all the great artists of his time, especially with the Italians and their followers, music was a real discourse, and ought to be rendered with inflections as free and as varied as natural speech.[2]
How was it possible to realise all the suppleness and subtleties of elocution on the orchestra? To
- ↑ Carle Mennicke notices the same sign for decrescendo ((
) on a long note in the Overture to Rameau's Acanthe et Céphise (1751).
- ↑ Geminiani says of the forte and the piano: "They are absolutely necessary to give expression to the melody; for all good music being the imitation of a fine discourse, these two ornaments have for their aim the varied inflections of the speaking voice." Telemann writes: "Song is the foundation of music, in every way. What the instruments play ought to be exactly after the principles of expression in singing."
And M. Volbach shows that these principles governed music then in Germany with all kinds of musicians, even with the trompettist Altenburg, whose School for the Trumpet was based on the principle that instrumental performance ought to be similar to vocal rendering.
