Baroque Music

Baroque trumpet and organ, produce an incredibly powerful sound together. Given a well-selected program and a competent performance, the result is often quite thrilling. Add to this the specific artistry of an Edward Tarr--considered by many the finest baroque trumpeter today--and the combination should be superb. But last Wednesday's recital at Memorial Church was a disappointment. Though the playing was excellent, the program was second-rate: and no amount of techinical accomplishment can redeem medicore music.

Girolamo Fantini and Giovanni Viviani were two minor seventeenth-century composers whose works blend into the amorphous mass of early Italian baroque music. The musical content of three of their sonatas was so slender that all attention was drawn to the majestic sound of the trumpet. Baroque trumpet is a far different instrument from its contemporary counterpart. A narrow bore gives it a piercing sound, and pitch production is based on the natural overtone series, produced solely by lip inflection without the aid of keys. The result is a melodic scale available only in the third octave above fundamental pitch--a very high range. Sheer tonal brilliance readily distracts listeners from other aspects of the music.

The surprise of the program's first half was a pair of modern works. Gyorgy Ligeti's Etude I is a collection of tone clusters that build to a defeating climax only to subside to a single note as the zymbalstern stop tinkles in the background. The Ligeti is very much an organist's piece for it experiments continously with varieties of tone color in the different stops rather than relying on pitch differentiation. George Ken: performed well, demonstrating an impressive sensitivity to the possibilities of the big Fisk organ.

The most impressive duo playing of the evening was in the Benno Ammann Repons du Matin: Two Pieces for Trumpet and Organ. Composed in 1969 for Tarr and Kent, the demands on the trumpet player are extraordinary. With amazing precision, Tarr coped with various jazz-like fragments, brutally syncopated rhythms, and the closest of harmonies. Even when using a mute, he did not lose subtle shadings of tone.

After the intermission, Kent played Bach's Prelude and Figue in A Major (BWV 536). With so many masterpieces of the form to choose from, it is unfortunate that Kent should have come up with such an uninspiring example. The A Major does posses the architectural perfection of Bach's composition, but the long strings of 7-6 suspensions, obvious pedal points, and exposed pedal solos do not produce anything striking. Even the fugue theme was dull. Through it all, Kent's playing was beautifully clear and devold of irritating mannerisms. His style is a convincing blend of new scholarship with old values--striking a balance between Tony Newman's nonconformly and E. Power Biggs' traditionalism.

Despite a lifetime of bad church anthems. Maurice Greene (1695-1775) showed the particularly English fondness and skill with brass music. His little Suite of Trumpet Voluntaries belies an unflattering reputation as a feeble Purcell. Only in this set of pieces did Tarr display the kind of virtuoso talent for which he is generally known. The sense of ensemble--excellent throughout the evening--was pertect here in the brilliant parallel thirds where the organ registration sounded like a second trumpet. Equally successful was the encore, a Telemann Air de Trompette, performed with a tremendous sense of style galant grace. An entire Telemann suite would have been vastly preferable to fragments of early baroque sonatas.

With any concert involving organ in Mem Church there are serious problems for the audience. The Fisk instrument has two entirely separate characters. In Appleton Chapel, it is a magnificently powerful baroque organ. But for the majority of listeners in the nave of the Churc, the top-heavy registrations are not backed with sufficient fundamental tones to carry through sucha a large structure. The result is exactly what happened last Wednesday: the small group in Appleton is far more satisfied with the playing than the bulk of the audience who are listening, essentially, to a scaled-down version. The performers have an insoluble dilemma: settle for balance within their hearing, or attempt to reach the back of the Church.

In any case, the playing of Tarr and Kent was excellent. Tarr handled four different varieties of trumpet extermely well; and his mastery of the valveless trumpet is a great wonder considering the art was lost for nearly two centuries. The program had unusual offerings, but except for the Greene suite those that were not unusual were dull. There are far better ways to employ the skills of first-rank artists.