INTERVIEW WITH JEAN-PIERRE CANIHAC, cornettist for ARTEK ~ March 18, 2014 EL: Well, good morning! I read that you’ve performed Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 over 150 times, and that you’ve recorded it 8 times. JP: Yes. EL: Well in my book, this makes you a Monteverdi expert. JP: (laughs) EL: Of the composers in the March 28 program, Monteverdi is the earliest, but they’re mostly contemporaneous (all 17th century). Since this and all ARTEK concerts are historically informed performances: how did you go about researching the relevant techniques to apply for each composer? Is there a difference for example in the way the cornetto was played in Italy for Monteverdi, versus in Germany for Scheidt? How do you know that even the way you hold the cornetto is historically accurate and the way they would have played it back then? JP: Well, basically, the way we play 17th century cornetto originated in Italy, with the Bassano family. Giovanni Bassano in Venice was one of the famous cornettists of the time. He wrote a detailed book on instrumental ornamentation which we have today as a resource. The commentary we have on the cornetto is mostly from Bassano in Italy. The style of this school in Venice was transported to Germany via Schütz, when Schütz came to Venice to learn with Gabrieli one time, and the second time with Monteverdi. And when Shütz came back to Germany, he brought back all the instrumental knowledge of Venice, including that of the cornetto. Therefore, the playing of the cornetto in Germany is very similar to that of Venice. It is absolutely different in Spain, where the playing of the cornetto came from the Middle Ages. The instrument was originally made from the horn of an animal, most likely the sheep; and then later, with wood. The wind orchestra with cornetto would have performed quite differently in Spain, although the instrument itself is basically the same. The music was more intended to be performed outdoors, therefore louder. The cornetto was played with the early oboe, and with bassoon and sacbut. To learn to play the Renaissance cornetto is quite difficult, because there’s only this book describing the ornamentation, no actual description of the method. EL: So then how have you decided to play it? JP: I place it in the middle of my mouth. I first learned to play the trumpet, and the position for that is in the middle. I suppose it depends on what kind of lips you have. Also, the mouthpiece I use is relatively big – there are many quite smaller. The smaller mouthpiece is better in the corner of the mouth. Marin Mersenne wrote about this in the 1630’s that players who stood on the right side edge of the audience view hold the cornetto to the right, and on the left side for the players who played on the left side of the audience – for the visual enjoyment of the audience, as well as the blending of the sound. EL: So Mersenne was writing about the French style. Is the French style like the Spanish, or more like the Italian/German? JP: Italian/German. The example for the French was an Italian player who played in the court of Versailles. Mersenne himself played the organ, but he wrote a large encyclopedia of all the instruments. Another reason to hold the cornetto in one or the other corner of the mouth came from the fact that a lot of music in the 17th century was composed for double choir. If you play from the right side of the mouth, you’re holding the cornetto to the right, so it would depend on where you were physically standing when you were performing a particular piece, to achieve the proper balance of sound for the audience. EL: So do you have to find out before a concert or rehearsal from Gwen exactly where your position is, where you’ll be standing? (Laughs) JP: Well, nowadays we don’t do this any more. As a standard, the cornetto player plays on the right side. It makes it easier for multiple rehearsals/performances. So I’ll be playing on the right side for this particular program. EL: In each of the pieces you’ll be performing for this program on the 28th, what is the role of the cornetto and where does it fit in? Will you be imitating or replacing a human voice, or playing in harmony with a human voice, to accompany it; or just blending with other instruments in the orchestra? JP: In the Monteverdi sonata from the Vespers (6’ Sonata sopra Sancta Maria), that’s written for 3 cornettos and 3 sacbuts. This is a virtuoso part under the cantus firmus, the purpose of which is to showcase the skill of the cornettist in playing extremely quickly and lightly, beneath the very beautiful cantus firmus of a woman singing, representing the Virgin – in this case Barbara Hollinshead. In the Scheidt la Bergamasca piece (5’ Canzon la Bergamasca), it’s quite different. This one is from a very important book written by Scheidt, “Ludi Musici” which means “musical game.” It’s written for two cornetti and three sacbuts. This book is dedicated to the famous cornetto player in Halle, Germany, where Scheidt was Kapellmeister. EL: So Scheidt used an Italian name for the book, although he was writing in Germany. JP: Yes, because the Italian influence was brought by Schütz earlier. This cornetto player’s name was Zacharia Herter. The role of the cornetto is as part of the wind orchestra, in this instrumental piece. The Schmelzer piece (10’ Sonata XI a 3) illustrates another kind of music for the cornetto. This is also an instrumental piece (no singers). Schmelzer was in Vienna, from the Kromeriz court, which was the court in Austria in the early 17th century. (Nowadays it’s in the Czech Republic.) This court was very important for the music, because many of the players lived and played there. The ensemble would consist of one violin, one cornetto, one sacbut, and one bassoon. Rosenmüller himself played the organ, viol, and sacbut, which is why I suppose we find some Rosenmüller pieces with cornetto coupled with sacbut or viol da gamba. In the Rosenmüller, we play a ritornelle to accompany the singer. Mielczewski is a very nice composer from Poland, inspired by another Polish composer , a music director who lived in Kromeriz. So there’s an evident connection between Kromeriz and the music of Mielczewski. Mielczewski mixed wind and string, to accompany voices. In all these pieces, the intent is for the instruments to mimic the human voice. The cornetto is the best for this, because the sound, the articulation and intensity, is more like a human voice. The tone of it is the same as soprano. The sacbut is the same as tenor. EL: So which is the alto? (I sing alto in choir!) JP: (laughs) It’s a sacbut alto. Alto is too low for the cornetto. An alto cornetto is just one tone lower than the soprano cornetto, which is what I have here, and not very interesting in scale, so not used so much. EL: That leads me to ask about your particular cornetto. What type of cornetto is it? JP: It’s a soprano. My cornetto is made of boxwood, wrapped with leather, and is a reproduction. You can really not play any of the existing antique cornettos that are left, because the wood is too brittle. I had an antique instrument once that I bought in France, it was a very strange one that I suppose was Spanish. It was very short and double-curved. I wound up giving it to the museum in Barcelona, because it was pretty much broken inside and didn’t work. It would have been very dangerous to attempt to repair it. The tuning was very high, like that of the end of the sixteenth century. At Christ Church at the University of Oxford, there are two cornettos in very nice condition, that came from Italy, which we know because they both have the stamp of the Bassano family on them (two ears of a rabbit). They were made by Bassano to play specifically with the organ in Christ Church, which is at 440 pitch, which is very strange for that period. This is why those two cornettos are in such good condition, they couldn’t be played with any other organ for miles around. This cornetto I have here is a typical shape for a 17th century cornetto in Italy or Germany (single curve), reminiscent of the curve of a horn. The curved cornetto is carved from two pieces of wood which are glued together and bound with leather, to help hold them together. There are also straight cornetto types. One is called the “mute” cornetto, because the mouthpiece is sunk into the tube. The other straight cornetto with external mouthpiece is from Germany. There’s no real difference in the sound that’s produced. EL: How about the holes? Are they placed differently on different shapes? JP: All the instruments have seven holes, but the size of the holes depends on the diameter of the instrument. For tuning, the holes become sized differently. It depends also on the temperament which the instrument is tuned in. My cornetto is tuned in mean tone – the last hole is smaller. For playing in equal temperament, this would not be a good cornetto to use, as it would be out of tune with the other instruments that would be tuned to equal temperament. 17th century music would have been performed in mean tone. EL: The cornetto is no longer played in modern orchestras. Why did it just disappear? JP: There are two hypotheses for this. The first attempts to explain why compositions for the cornetto dropped off very sharply after 1630. In 1630, there was a very dire outbreak of plague in which 30% of the population of Venice died. Among them would supposedly have been many cornetto players. The second hypothesis is that the oboe was invented with mechanical action which is easier to play in several tones, and more versatile for a composer’s purposes. It’s not the same instrument, but has the same intensity and virtuosity. It was easier for a composer to compose for an oboe with some very nice modulation, than it would have been for the cornetto. EL: Well, we’re happy to have the cornetto back again for the upcoming performances in ARTEK’s tour of Texas and California, and for the big concert in New York on March 28. Thank you very much for your insightful comments! JP: You’re welcome. --At the Immanuel Lutheran Church, NYC rehearsal for the “Monteverdi to Mielczewski” concert to be performed March 28, 2014 By E.Lesar for ARTEK To buy tickets, please go to gemsny.org.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:17:54 +0000
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