Articulation from a woodwind perspective

The attack of the note in the bassoon may have different shades depending on the degree of intensity involved. Frequently, the ordinary or most commonly used attack is described in nineteenth-century tutors by the pronunciation of the syllable TU. Then, generally a softer attack, played with less strength, should be designated by DU, because the pronunciation of D consonant is softer than T³. In order to describe a harder, sharper attack, some bassoon tutors double the consonant, suggesting TTU. However, although TU is normally used to describe the basic attack, there are some exceptions. One bassoonist who seems to differ is Almenräder, who also stands out from the others by using the consonant with no vowel. In his tutor, he describes two types of attacks: soft and hard (weich/doux; hart/dur).

According to Almenräder (1843: 7), the softer attack should be used when there is no articulation mark or if there is a dot on the note. Technically it should be played by pronouncing the letter D. On the contrary, the hard attack requires the letter T, and it should be used when the note is marked by a stroke or indications like fp or sfz.

The fact that writers use different terminology to designate the attacks or that they describe them under different terms, leads us to think that the bassoonists have a different understanding of their performance. However, under the changing descriptions it is possible to grasp a similar approach, the variants of which are due in some cases to the differences in the language spoken by the bassoonist (for instance German vs. French). Therefore, for instance, when Jancourt (1847: 25) claims he performs the marked stroke (') using TTU and the dot (·) by TU, the main idea is that he establishes a hierarchy where the first attack is stronger than the second. When contrasting his claim with a German speaking author, like Almenräder (1847:

7) who relates the stroke with T and the dot with D attack, any strict comparison may lead to misunderstanding. However, even if both authors

3Willent-Bordogni, in the Louré, changes the vowel using Do instead of Du, as in most cases.

The reason for this change is because with the O it is intended to get a even softer attack.

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use different consonants to refer to the different attacks, the main point is that in both cases they describe a similar idea when they present the attacks, where the one, usually designated by the stroke, is stronger than the other.

With regards to the end of the note, it is not always shaped by the natural resonance offered by the reed vibration. Occasionally, in order to gain some specific effects, the sound is abruptly interrupted by closing the air entrance from the reed with the tongue. This resource is very rarely used nowadays in the performance of nineteenth-century repertory⁴. However, several historical sources for double reed instruments mention the practice, like the oboist Henri Brod, who offers a description of the articulation in the Grande méthode de hautbois. Brod (1826-35: 5) claims that the sound must be stopped by the action of the tongue against the reed with the precaution of keeping the airstream until the sound stops⁵. As a result, the ending of the note is abrupt and dry (TUT). This articulation is also described by bassoonists like Berr (1826b: 19) or Willent-Bordogni (1844: 77). It is normally used to obtain a particular effect, for instance in the case of the so-called jetée articulation⁶.

The types of attacks mentioned until now share in common the fact that they are all produced by the action of the tongue against the reed. The contact can be made more or less strong, by the use of T or D, resulting in a harder or a softer attack. One might wonder, however, about the use of other types of attacks that do not necessarily imply the action of the tongue on the reed. That is, attacks in which the needed vibration on the reed is produced by an air stroke or by the action of the lip on the reed, but without the participation of the tongue in any case.

The references to these aspirated or breath attacks are not numerous and they involve some controversy because through this technique the attack loses the clarity and distinctive precision obtained by those produced by the tongue. Nevertheless, several early nineteenth-century woodwind tutors refer to breath attack as a common practice. However, its use is relegated to two specific cases. On the one hand it is used to facilitate the sound emission in a particular register of the instrument (the high register in the case of the

4 In modern bassoon performance practice this resource is used only as a one-off effect explicitly required by the composer in some contemporary music.

5 C’est aussi en remettant la langue sur l’anche que le son doit être arrêté, et sans ôter au vent la force qu’on a donné (Brod 1826-35 : 5).

6 see chapter “6.6 Particular accents”.

bassoon); on the other hand, it is used to gain a special effect at specific times.

The clarinettist Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen (1768-1830) represents a good example of a musician who normalizes breath attacks. In the first version of his tutor, Anweisung zur Klarinette, Backofen (1803: 12) includes among the different types of attacks one that is not produced by the action of the tongue against the reed. In the later edition of his tutor, revised by himself in 1824 Backofen goes deep into the subject relating two types of attacks that are not performed by the tongue with musical passages or registers where they should be employed. Therefore, while Backofen (1824:

14) advises the use of tonguing for brilliant and fast passages, for delicate, cantabile and slow phrases he suggests attacks produced by the action of the chest (Brust) or lips (Lippen). Regardless of the type of passage he also recommends in general a lip attack (Lippen) for the high register and chest attack (Brust) for the low register.

Among the early bassoon tutors, Fröhlich (1810: 58) considers the breath attack. Technically he describes its performance by the use of the syllable

“HIE”. Fröhlich suggests its use mainly to more easily produce the high register of the bassoon. However, the use of breath attacks is not wide spread, and it seems to be a question of personal taste when it causes a strong rejection to some musicians. Such is the case of the clarinettist and main teacher of the Paris Conservatory at the turn of the century Jean-Xavier Lefèvre (1802: 10), who disapproves of the practice:

Those who play with the chest get very tired and they cannot achieve evenness in their playing. There is nothing like the tongue which, due to its agility can bring expression to melodies and to the performance of traits. Those who do not use it, play consequently in a cold, poor and monotonous way⁷ (Lefévre 1802: 10).

The references to attacks produced by the lips, as those distinguished by Backofen, are, if anything, less frequent than the ones made by breath strokes. It is worth mentioning, however, one reference to the subject present in Joseph François Garnier (1755-1825) Méthode raisonée pour le

7 Ceux qui jouent de la poitrine se fatiguent beaucoup et ne peuvent avoir d’égalité dans leur jeu: il n’y a que la langue qui puisse par son agilité mettre de l’expression dans le chant et dans les traits d’exécution, ceux qui ne s’en servent pas ont naturellement le jeu froid, maigre et monotone (Lefévre 1802: 10).

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hautbois. Garnier (1798: 11) names a type of attack made by the action of the lips against the reed as “lip trembling” (frémissement de lèvres). In the studies (Études) that complement his tutor only one use for this articulation appears.

In it, Garnier (1798: 17) suggests its application in an accompaniment of quavers where the same note is repeated in a Grazioso written in ¾ (See example 6.6).

Example 6.6. Garnier Étude including an indication forfrémissement de lèvres (Garnier 1798: 17)

As happens in the case of Garnier’s frémissement de lèvres, often breath attacks or lip attacks are relegated to create one-off effects. Therefore, in some tutors they are explained as one more option to widen the types of articulations. One of the main references of this kind is found in Joseph Sellner’s (1787-1843) oboe tutor, first published in Vienna as Theoretisch praktische Oboe Schule (1824) and three years later in France as Méthode pour le hautbois (1827) where it was well received. Sellner (1827: iv) suggests as an alternative articulation to TI, or the softer DI, a type of attack performed without the participation of the tongue, and performed only with the lips⁸.

From approximately 1830 onwards the references to breath attacks in reed woodwind instrument tutors are more and more exceptional. One of the few musicians to mention them, Almenräder (1843: 7) explicitly recommends avoiding the use of an articulation made by breath by means of an aspirated letter like H. Almenräder claims that kind of articulation lacks the clarity needed for proper attacks. With this important recommendation Almenräder is implicitly pointing out two relevant facts: firstly, by referring to breath attack he is suggesting that it was a practice used by some musicians.

Secondly, it is worth considering that while to Almenräder it seems important to remark that this practice he considers inappropriate for the bassoon should be avoided, among the rest of bassoon tutors used in this research

8Si on prononce DI pour TI le son devient plus mou, aussi peut-on produire sans la langue, et seulement avec les lèvres des sons coupés (Sellner 1827 : iv).

written from 1830 until 1850, he is the only one referring to breath attack.

This leads us to think that it was a residual practice in any case.

A very important aspect of breath attacks produced by air strokes or even by the lips (like Backofen’s Brust and Lippen) is its relation with double tonguing: an articulation that alternates an attack made by the tongue with another made with an air stroke. In brass instruments and the flute double tonguing is an articulation that dates back to the sixteenth century and it has remained through the centuries (Tarr 2007: 20-28). However, the same is not properly documented in the case of reed instruments. In the Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen Quantz (1752: 72) is one of the rare writers to claim that double tonguing is possible in the bassoon (although surprisingly not in the oboe) similarly with the flute, with the exception of its low register. However, Quantz’s claim is not supported by any eighteenth-century bassoon tutor.

In modern technique used for wind instruments, the main function of double tonguing is to gain speed in fast staccato passages. In order to do so, one of the main objectives to develop in the technique is to gain equality between the attack made by the tongue and the breath attack. However, this was not the main function of double tonguing in the Baroque. From the sixteenth century until the eighteenth century, double tonguing was used to differentiate good notes from bad ones through the use of different consonants, therefore creating the effect of inégalité (Tarr 2007: 20-28). In the late eighteenth century, inégalité stops being a frequently used expressive resource, so this function of the double tonguing disappears.

Contrary to what happens when the objective of double tonguing is speed, the key for the inégalité lies in the fact that the attacks produced by different consonants should sound as different as possible. Therefore the musician’s technique develops to fulfil this objective; this is the opposite of what is needed in double tonguing today. Having this difference in function in mind, the question we are interested in is when was the first time that double tonguing was used to facilitate speed staccato passages in reed instruments?

A similar resource to double tonguing which can be first considered as a help in fast staccato passages is that previously mentioned by Garnier, “lip trembling” (frémissement de lèvres). However, the examples of its use suggested by Garnier indicate that this articulation was aimed, not so much to facilitate speed, as to obtain a soft accompaniment. In any case, if it were used with the same function as the double tonguing, that is to say, to facilitate speed in

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fast staccato, it would not be possible to consider it as proper double tonguing, because the change of note is made by the action of the lips and not by an air stroke. Other musicians, such as Neukirchner (1840: 18), solve the problem of fast staccato passages suggesting a very soft attack, DU, in which the tongue separates barely from the reed. The use of a soft articulation, together with the recommendation to control the tongue movement certainly helps in the performance of fast staccato passages, but it is still not double tonguing.

As in many other cases, it would be Almenräder who, in his search for new technical resources, would develop a type of attack to facilitate speed in staccato, which resembles double tonguing as it is understood nowadays.

Almenräder (1847: 48) makes it clear, however, that despite of Quantz’s claim, reed instruments like the bassoon cannot play double tonguing. The statement makes sense because after all, the objective of Quantz’s double tonguing was the inégalité while Almenräder is aiming at gaining speed through notes that sound as equal as possible. Moreover, what Almenräder is looking for, is an articulation that facilitates the performance of fast staccato passages in the bassoon. For this purpose Almenräder (1843: 48) contemplates double tonguing as a possibility, but he rejects it, claiming that

“there is not an articulation for the bassoon that used in fast passages has any similarity with double tonguing⁹” (Almenräder 1843: 48).

However, after his forceful claim neglecting double tonguing in the bassoon, Almenräder proposes a technique which, for him, would have the same effect as Quantz’s articulation, but it would allow the bassoon to acquire speed in staccato. To represent it graphically, Almenräder (1847: 48) writes two notes slurred and two staccato (see example 6.7). The last two notes in each figure should be performed with the softest attack, so the tongue brushes the reed quickly. Nevertheless, Almenräder claims that this marking is not accurate and the student should learn the technique by imitating his teacher.

Example 6.7. Articulation replacing double tonguing (Almenräder 1843: 48).

9 Il n’y a à la vérité, pour le basson une articulation qui, employée dans des passages rapides, […], a quelque ressemblance avec le double coup de langue (Almenräder 1843 : 48).

In the practice exercises for these articulations there are several cases where the same note is repeated through the whole bar. This indicates that the note Almenräder writes as slurred to the first one needs some kind of soft consonant. Thus, this articulation would be similar to double tonguing:

tu-ku-tu-tu; or, using softer consonants: du-gu-du-du. Almenräder assigns a marking to this new articulation for fast staccato passages. The marking he employs, only in the theoretical explanation and not in his studies, is the same one used by Garnier in 1798 when in the Methode raissonée pour le hautbois he refers to “lip tremor” (frémissement de lèvres) by using: . See example 6.8 below.

Example 6.8. Double tonguing (Almenräder 1843: 48).

Almenräder’s suggestion represents the effort of nineteenth-century virtuosos to expand their instruments technique. It is the product of research and study to obtain new resources that in many cases are understood as the identity mark of some individual performers such as Paganini at the violin, Liszt at the piano, Parish-Alvars at the harp or Bottesini at the double bass.

Although in many cases this expansion of the technical resources ends up being absorbed and assimilated by other performers, it is never a linear or immediate process. In the case of the bassoon, for instance, it is necessary to wait until the early twentieth century to consider the use of double tonguing in fast passages as a usual technical resource employed by most bassoonists.

Although Almenräder in his1843 Die Kunst des Fagottblasens has already stated the foundation for this technique that was probably used occasionally by his students or other bassoonists in the second half of the nineteenth century.