French baroque Notes Inégales on the piano

Rubens

I work at home today, so naturally I couldn't stop myself from going to the piano.

So here I am presenting to you a project have been working on for some time now. A quest to find a set of stylistic rules toward a modern piano version of the Notes Inégales performance practice that was the norm for french baroque keyboard music such as Rameau's.

As you may know, french baroque music was written with the expectation that the music be performed in a specific way. As such, a modern, literal execution of such music would yield a product that would be a severe distortion of the intended one. Of course there is the argument that we play on modern instruments, and that the baroque performance stylistic rules should be completely discarded, but I find this approach to be incorrect, especially considering such a drastic practice as the original Notes Inégales. Conversely, I don't think one can play the piano as if it were a harpsichord, because I believe the Notes Inégales were tailored to the specific sound properties of the harpsichord. As such, I believe the modern performer should strive to achieve a musically equivalent version of the baroque style, but adapted to the sound properties of the modern piano.

Here is yet another attempt at determining the rules of such a performance practice. Please pardon the extreme roughness of the sample, as I could only record one take, which I could not even finish, as the result of being interrupted by an unruly child. As such this is but a crude approximation, with the additional limitation of my sight reading, played on a digital piano.

I do welcome your feedback , notably on the way I use rubato, which is my attempt at a piano version of the Notes Inégales. If this does not sound authentic then I am yet to achieve my goal.

I shall get back to my work duties now. Thank you for listening.

BartK

Wow Rubens! If you call this extremely rough then my playing is nothing but noise.

Anyway, my understanding of notes inégales is that it's similar to swing feel. I didn't really hear that in your recording but to be honest I didn't look at the music so maybe you are playing some notes unequally. To me this is how this suite always sounds. Maybe the interpretations I listened to were also playing notes unequally.

Rubens

BartK Anyway, my understanding of notes inégales is that it's similar to swing feel

You are absolutely correct in that one of the characteristics of the Notes Inégales was to pair notes into a long-short rhythm execution whenever the performer saw two notes in diatonic succession (which occurs very often in that music, well in almost any music), hence the "swing" feel. However, I think such a pairing sounds much better on the harpsichord than on the piano. Notes Inégales literally simply means uneven notes (in terms of rhythm in this context ). As such, I believe the piano calls for a completely different kind of rhythmic unevenness, in other words a certain kind of rubato that I have been striving for. Many thanks for your kind words.

Josephine

There is no roughness at all, I think you played this in a very sensitive way. Beautiful!

Rubens

Josephine

Thank you for your kind words! I often make the mistake of comparing myself with professional studio recordings. No contest. But they have more than one take!

Sidokar

Hi Rubens, I think you are a little mistaken about the subject if inequality. It is not specific at all to the harpsichord. It is a general way of playing irrespective of the instrument. It corresponds to the aesthetic of the time not playing equally notes that are notated equally. In fact one can already find such practice in the 16th century in a treatise of Tomas de Sancta Maria.
Inequality would apply to singers, organ players, violinists, flutists, ..... Quantz for example explains that in his essay in 1752.
Caccini gives examples of such inequality in his Nuove Musiche in 1601 when singing madrigals. The pair of notes can be played couler or lourer ie in a snapped or lilted rythm.
Regarding your version, I think the main issue is that by trying to play some note unequally you are loosing the pulse by putting true rubato which is not what notes inégales are. They dont modify the basic rythm. I think a good example of such would be the Tharaud version of this Allemande (suite in A if I am not mistaken).
Also the notes inégales is a form of embellishment, therefore it shouldnt be constant. And it appears mainly in moderate and slow tempo.
Now you can decide to add true rubato, which isnt what Notes Inégales are but that is another choice. See below

Sidokar

For more information, you can refer to the excellent article in the Grove Dictionary.

Rubens

Thanks for your reply @Sidokar !
I agree that the Notes Inégales were not conceived specifically for the harpsichord. However I find that it sounds better on the harpischord than on the piano, but that may just be my own personal taste that may or may not shared by many. Funny that you mention the Tharaud, which is one of my least favorite versions because I find that he plays the piano too much in a harpsichord way. And thank you for the link to the Kudritskaya version, which is MUCH more in line with what I've been striving for. I just wish I could find a systematic pianistic syntax to apply to such music on the piano. But maybe Ms. Kudritsaya has already figured out the wheel that I've been trying to reinvent. Fantastic playing, in my opinion of course!

Sidokar

Yes Tharaud plays the piece with a typical lilted rythm which is very common in french music. It is not really specific to the harpsichord even if obviously that would also appear in keyboard music. I think that probably since you listen mostly keyboard music that you see that as "harpsichord". See below an example that is not keyboard. And indeed most harpsichordists would play in a baroque style thus get something similar to the Tharaud version. Like Rousset below.
If you look to a score, you also have to know that french baroque notation uses specific signs. Slurs and dots dont mean the same thing as they do today.
Yes I like Kudritskaya a lot, but indeed she is playing in a modern style with a lot of rubato but not really inequality.

Rubens

@Sidokar

It is true that I've been applying the term Notes Inégales very loosely (and literally, and probably inappropriately) on the piano, in the sense that I think of rubato as a way of playing notes "unevenly". I'm just hoping that there is a kind of rubato that could be devised for specifically for french baroque on the piano, and that it would be different from the "usual" romantic rubato. I believe an ideal balance could be achieved. I do hear it with Kudritskaya and with Trifonov, whereas I'd consider Barto to be an example of an "inappropriate" use of rubato, although even then I find his version to be pleasant to the ears. But maybe it's all in my head, and maybe rubato is rubato and wrong for french baroque. I concede that possibility.

I think this discussion just illustrates the "problem" with pianists approaching that repertoire. To me french baroque (especially Rameau) is a forbidden fruit that pianists can't help biting into, because it is so beautifully written.

twocats

I am hardly an expert on this topic, although I have heard this style of music on the classical station over many years and occasionally go to Baroque concerts. It does sound like too much rubato to me and many of the trills seem much louder than the other notes as if they were accented. That said, I do like the other aspects of your playing 🙂

Rubens

twocats many of the trills seem much louder than the other notes as if they were accented

Yes that would be the extremely rough aspect I mentioned earlier, from having one take.. actually not even an entire one.
And the excess rubato was to illustrate a point, but I agree I may have overdone it and stepped into Barto territory.

PianoMonk

Well, I like it just like it is. Great piece, nicely played. Sometimes, I feel like rubato is like breathing, and offers an extra level of expressiveness that is left entirely to the mood of the player. There's much to be said about keeping good time. But giving a piece of music a pulse, like waves, or a bird that floats on an updraft for a second before continuing on it's way, is one way of personalizing that piece. Andre Previn had a trio, but also liked playing solo piano because of the freedom, and he often altered the tempo, hung on to notes, changed the music or the timing if he felt like it.
What digital piano are you playing? Sounds very nice.

Rubens

PianoMonk
Thank you very much, PianoMonk. I'm glad you liked it.

PianoMonk But giving a piece of music a pulse, like waves, or a bird that floats on an updraft for a second before continuing on it's way, is one way of personalizing that piece.

This is exactly what I'be been aiming for. I think this music calls for a kind of rubato that plays with the pulse without killing it. I'm glad at least one person here was able to hear it, but I know that many people don't hear it, or don't want to hear it. I realize that the enjoyment of this music is often hampered by rigid preconceptions, and new ideas are often rapidly rejected . Even playing it on a piano is perceived by some as a sacrilege.

PianoMonk What digital piano are you playing? Sounds very nice.

Kawai ES920, with dual sounds (a mix of the SK Concert Grand and EX Concert Grand onboard sounds).

PianoMonk

Rubens To me, playing a piece of music is not unlike reciting poetry, or telling a story. Inflection, emphasis, pausing, whispering, changing the timbre of the voice, speaking louder, or softer, slower, or faster, are all ways that the storyteller personalizes the interpretation. Yes, we'd all like to play all of the correct notes, in the correct order. But as musicians, or musical artists, shouldn't the performer, or artist, be given the freedom to tell the story in their own way?

There were plenty of timepieces pictured in paintings long before, and after, Salvatore Dali gave us his melted watches in "Persistence Of Memory". But which painting does everyone remember? Music is Art.

Sidokar

It is interesting to understand why the notes inégales exists. After all, why notate equally notes that can be played unequally ? I would say there are probably 3 main reasons.

One is that baroque music, in particular french is based on diversity of accentuation. There is an aesthetic choice here. Playing evenly and smoothly runs of notes is not part of the aesthetic. Bach notation is much more explicit and we can see that he is often changing the rythmic figures to create a sense of diversity. The french baroque music is using a lot of ornamentation and dotted rythm.
Two, the notation at the time was usually much less precise. In particular duration of notes can always be adjusted. Dotted notes can be more or less dotted depending on the piece and context (and interpret).
And finally, a certain lack of precision leaves the choice to the interpret to decide how to phrase the piece. The amount of unequality is left to the decision of the musician who can adjust as he/she see fit.

Adagiette

I will have to say that I liked your version better than the other recordings that are posted here, even though you think it is rough. It sounded more delicate and, dare I say it, elegant! 🙂

Rubens

Adagiette
Thank you, Adagiette! That's very encouraging to hear.