I have to admit that I’ve never loved the “historically
informed performance” movement. This is
the whole scheme of playing the music of the Baroque and Classical eras, on
musical instruments of that era, in (what is supposed to be) the style of that
era. The movement is about as old as I
am, and become mainstream in the classical music world. I’ll concede that the
“period performance” movement has had a corrective effect on some 20th
century excesses. However, I still
prefer Bruno Walter’s Beethoven to Norrington’s, and Szerying’s Tartini to
Wallfisch’s. But, a recent scientific
breakthrough may lead me to change my mind.
To be completely honest, I’ve got several problems with the
“authenticity” thing. Some minor issues
are that I just don’t think Locatelli was that great; that the players usually
play too darn fast; that vibrato is, in fact, a good thing, and so on.
There’s a larger philosophical issue—we simply can’t recreate 18th century performance style. The 20th century is a complete
anomaly in the history of humanity and music, in that sound (and performance
practice) is no longer ephemeral, but the performances of Mozart and Bach—the
sounds they made—are lost forever.
However, the biggest problem I have with “authenticity” is
the instruments. I simply don’t like the
way they sound. I hate the timbre of the harpsichord, and “fortepianos” sound like
John Cage’s “prepared” pianos and can’t stay in tune. I’ve played excellent baroque violins, and
they’re interesting, but there are reasons that just about every Strad and
Guarneri and Amati has been modified to modern spec and played with a modern
bow. To my ears, authentic instruments
don’t sound good, so imagine my surprise when I found that problem is with my
ears, or what’s around them.
A really neat paper came out recently about the interplay of
acoustics, acoustical aesthetics, and fashion.
The lead author, D. Avril Poisson, is more noted as a researcher in the
biological sciences, but like the noted geneticists Jacques Monod and James
Crow, she is an accomplished amateur string player. Like me, she had always been irritated by the
sound of “period” instruments, and like me, she had always assumed the problem
was with the unique timbre of the instruments—their signature collection and
arrangement of overtones.
The bolt of lightning that inspired her to change her mind
was quite literal: it fried a transformer at an electrical substation near her
workplace, Miskatonic University, one evening last winter. Dr. Poisson is as
dedicated to her art as she is to her science, so the evening’s rehearsal of
the Miskatonic Pro(-Am) Musica went on according to schedule, in a chilly room
lit by candlelight. Dr. Poisson found
herself wearing a sort of hunter’s cap with earflaps and LED lights in the
visor so she could read her score, and found that her viola sounded radically
different. The ear flaps, though they
did not cover her ears, seemed to amplify certain frequencies of sound from her
viola and quench others, and her modern instrument took on a radically
different character.
As soon as she could, Dr. Poisson borrowed one of her fellow
enthusiast’s violins—a 2003 reproduction of an Andrea Amati in its “original”
condition with gut strings and a baroque bow, and played it with a variety of
headgear, ranging from the hunter’s cap to a sombrero. Although, to her ears, the fiddle never
sounded great, it sounded quite different with each topper—different enough to
spark a possible breakthrough in “authentic” practice.
Collaboration with Amy Vieuxtemps, a historian, and some creative work with a costumer provided Dr. Poisson with a
variety of periwigs and perukes such as might have been worn in the time of
Bach and Handel. These all featured
curls of stiffened wool immediately adjacent to the wearer’s ears, and
unsurprisingly, radically altered the wearer’s impression of modern and baroque
violins. Dr. Poisson found, to her
surprise and delight, that the annoying features of the baroque violin’s timbre
vanished when she wore a gentleman’s wig of the late-17th century
German style. The fiddle sounded
great.
Dr. Poisson, a noted experimentalist, realized that this was
an extremely subjective observation, and so, set about to gather some
data. She rigged up a manikin with
microphones and a variety of wigs, and collected sound spectra of several
modern and baroque violins. She was able
to identify certain clusters of tones that the wigs filtered out, and others that
they seemed to amplify. The result was
not surprising, given what anatomists knew about the effect of different shapes
of bats’ ears on their sound perception.
Also, the result was robust enough that she developed a computerized
filter that could be fed a digital waveform from a baroque violin, and would
produce a “wigged” version of the sound.
In a blind survey of the 107 Miskatonic students enrolled in a music
history class, 83 preferred the “wigged” baroque violin to the “naked”
fiddle. Similar results were obtained
with a reproduction of a 1691 Flemish harpsichord, and the university’s prized 1780
Stein fortepiano.
There is some fodder here for historians of fashion. Ornate wigs were absolutely required for men
of any standing in society from the mid-1600s on. Fashion, driven by royal vanity, is usually
cited as one reason, along with the desirability of a shaven pate and removable
hair in a milieu rife with head lice.
Along about 1800, such wigs rapidly become intensely unfashionable
(outside of the English legal system).
Given the eternal nature of both royal vanity and parasites, the reason
for the wig’s demise has long been a mystery.
At the same time wigs were on the way out, Francois-Xavier
Tourte revolutionized the design of the violin bow, giving the instrument much
more power, and the violins of the Cremonese masters were having their necks
replaced and strings tensioned. John
Broadwood was expanding the length and width of the piano, balancing the
increased tension of the strings on a stronger, cast-iron frame, and
harpsichords generally became kindling.
According to Poisson and her colleagues, this synchrony is
no coincidence. I have been taught that
the interplay between composer/performer and instrument builder was a closed
cycle: the musician wanted more powerful instruments, driving to the builder to
make a more powerful instrument. Then,
the instrument maker built something with even more oomph, and the composer
expanded his vision to encompass it.
Poisson suggests the radical hypothesis that this vicious cycle also
killed the periwig, as, by 1800 its major use (according to her) was as an
acoustic filter. The itchy, unpleasant
thing was no longer necessary and was summarily discarded.
Although fashion is constantly recycling old ideas and
calling them new, it is unlikely that the clock will roll back far enough for
the powdered periwig to re-enter the mainstream. The fashion of playing the music of the
Baroque on unimproved instruments is also unlikely to perish (especially since
so much money has been invested in modern reproductions of these
instruments). I am always hopeful that I will
be able to enjoy such performances, but must I go and get a wooly wig?
Not to worry.
Poisson, in conjunction with the global mega-instrument maker Yarnaha, has
developed a product called “BarokEerz.”
These are a disposable, clip-on set of curls made of synthetic fibers
that can be worn to any event featuring period performance practices. The concept is on firm scientific, artistic,
and financial ground. Yamaha
acousticians have confirmed that BarokEerz exactly replicate the acoustic
effect of a periwig, and can even be specially tuned to maximize enjoyment of
music from the early Baroque through the late classical period and account for
variations between Italian, German, French, and English fashion. Endorsements have been secured from a variety
of the most pure-minded and rigorous period performers. And, they are inexpensive enough that they
can be included in the price of a ticket to any major concert venue. I look forward to hearing the Baroque with
fresh ears—or, though I shudder at the spelling, Eerz.
Poisson, D. Avril, and Amy Vieuxtemps (2013). Acoustic and Perceived Timbre-Modifying
Effects of 17th-18th century Gentlemen’s Wigs. J.
Hist. Informed Perf. 33:
430-440.
Kuc, R., (2010).
Morphology Suggests Noseleaf and Pinnae Cooperate to Enhance Bat
Echolocation. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128 (5):
3190-3199.
Poisson, D. Avril, and Bella Sone (2013). Wigger: A Software Package for Modernizing
Ancient Instruments. Proc. Southeast. Indiana Acoust. Soc. (A),
12: 72-77.
Yarnaha (2013).
You’ve Never Heard Baroque Music Before—Hear It With New Eerz! [Press
Release]
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