Medieval music & tremelo

[Joseph Baker]

Last weekend, I received my winter project in the mail - Allan Alexander's Mandolin Music for Medieval Faires and Mandolin Music for Renaissance Faires.

As I listened to the CDs which came with the books, I noticed that tremolo was not used at all. Well, I thought, it's lute music. If the lute did not tremolo, the mandolin wouldn't either.

Later in the weekend, Martin Jonas posted his very nice "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", dating from the 15th Century France. No tremolo in this either. When I play this at church, I do use some tremolo.

My question is: Are there eras of music or styles of music when using tremolo is entirely inappropriate?

Joseph Baker

[Martin Jonas]

It's mostly down to personal preference and context. The general rule of thumb for pieces that were originally for mandolin or related plucked instruments (in which category I would include the lute, the mandore and the renaissance cittern) is that tremolo in pre-romantic pieces was probably a rare accent rather than part of the principal texture of mandolin playing as it was to become from the romantic era onward until the backlash in the mid-20th-century by Woelki etc. So, I would use little if any tremolo in the Beethoven or Mozart pieces, or the Italian 18th century mandolin sonatas.

If you're going earlier than that, the music was intended for quite different instrumentation anyway, and in medieval and early renaissance music usually a capella choral music. They can be adapted to just about any instrument (and indeed were so at the time), but style-wise anything that suits the music and the mood you want to evoke is fair game -- authenticity is an irrelevant aim when playing this music on modern instruments. I tend to find extensive tremolo distracting in early music or baroque pieces, so rarely use it. I make two exceptions:

1) Trills marked in baroque scores are sometimes better translated as short bursts of tremolo rather than actual trills, which are much harder to execute cleanly on mandolin than on violin, flute or keyboard (or whichever baroque instrument was intended) and can break up the flow of a piece.

2) In slow pieces written legato for wind or string instruments, the mandolin's lack of sustain means that a languid melody line can be better expressed in tremolo than single note, even in early or baroque music. Thus, I have used tremolo for the violin part (but not the flute) in this flute/violin duet by Allessandro Scarlatti, marked "largo e piano".

As far as Emmanuel and other carols and hymns are concerned, while these are often pieces with renaissance or earlier roots, when they are sung at church or when carolling at home they are not usually performed in anything like an early music style, so I wouldn't worry about using as much or as little tremolo as feels right to you.

On the other end of timeline, any pieces written after, say, 1950 often have explicit marks telling you where the composer wants tremolo. If so, it usually means that you should use tremolo only where marked.

Martin

[zoukboy]

With medieval repertoire we simply do not know that tremolo was unused on the lute. Keep in mind that the medieval lute was a plectrum instrument up until about 1470. The new contrapuntal fingerstyle started first (so far as we know) in northern Italy and it was pretty firmly established by about 1500. I think it is at least possible that medieval lutenists used tremolo, especially considering that the plectrum was similar to the risha/mizrab used for the oud with probably a very similar technique, and tremolo is a basic technique used in various oud styles.

[DavidKOS]

It's mostly down to personal preference and context. ..... tremolo in pre-romantic pieces was probably a rare accent rather than part of the principal texture of mandolin playing as it was to become from the romantic era onward until the backlash in the mid-20th-century by Woelki etc. So, I would use little if any tremolo in the Beethoven or Mozart pieces, or the Italian 18th century mandolin sonatas.

If you're going earlier than that, the music was..... fair game -- authenticity is an irrelevant aim when playing this music on modern instruments. I tend to find extensive tremolo distracting in early music or baroque pieces, so rarely use it. I make two exceptions:
....
2) In slow pieces written legato for wind or string instruments, the mandolin's lack of sustain means that a languid melody line can be better expressed in tremolo than single note, even in early or baroque music.

With medieval repertoire we simply do not know that tremolo was unused on the lute. Keep in mind that the medieval lute was a plectrum instrument up until about 1470. The new contrapuntal fingerstyle started first (so far as we know) in northern Italy and it was pretty firmly established by about 1500. I think it is at least possible that medieval lutenists used tremolo, especially considering that the plectrum was similar to the risha/mizrab used for the oud with probably a very similar technique, and tremolo is a basic technique used in various oud styles.

At least older Arabic styles, like that of Farid Al-Atrash, used tremolo with the risha. (I play 'oud). Lately the Turkish influence on 'oud playing has minimized this somewhat, but even then it's a part of the tool kit.

As for medieval European plucked strings, it seems most were originally played with a plectrum of some sort.

Now, one of the things any plectrum player eventually does is a tremolo. How much that becomes part of a style of music will vary, from a rarely done ornament or effect to a almost consistent thing.

My take after reading many learned sources is that it's a lot like violin vibrato. Is it a constant or an ornament? Used a little or a lot? Even the German school, though it did reject the Neapolitan style of consistent tremolo, did use it some.

"For those in some way familiar with attitudes to the mandolin around the world, who have perhaps heard such untrue generalizations as 'German orchestras do not use the tremolo', the book should help to eliminate some preconceptions..."

Keith Harris, preface to "History of the Mandolin" by Konrad Wölki#

So the debate among early music scholars is still unresolved as to how much tremolo was used at any time period. I like to study performance practice, but we really do not KNOW in what style a lot of early music was actually played.

The harpsichord has a similar attack and decay as a mandolin, although one is a mechanical plucked string and has a long lower tension string,the mandolin of course having short higher tension strings, and in a lot of Baroque harpsichord music (not counting unwritten ornaments) would often write - or assume the player will just execute - a trill on long notes that need to be sustained, even in the bass register. Also the violins have used a bowed tremolo since the Baroque era as a special effect.

My assumption, based on harpsichord practice, would be that a player of the mandolin ( or whatever similar small lute-like instrument), play might use a repeated note tremolo or a picked trill to sustain important long notes. I could be off-base, but it seems likely.

[billkilpatrick]

might be of interest - she says it's hard to imagine an early musician telling themselves they musn't play vibrato or tremolo ...

the advice is to use it sparingly and on the long notes

[JeffD]

My question is: Are there eras of music or styles of music when using tremolo is entirely inappropriate?

Another related question has to be answered in each particular case, I think. How important is it to play this "authentically". Its a real decision, as we have sound systems, and even acoustically our instruments are very modern, and even when recreating a medieval musical experience, so much is left out. Its really an aesthetic decision. Do we play it as they would have played it or do we play it as our audience thinks they would have played it, or do we play it as it sounds best for Medieval music in a modern world.

I have that Allan Alexander book, and I really love it. I don't know how authentically I actually play however.

Of course we want to avoid what might be totally inappropriate, at least in most cases.

[billkilpatrick]

if it feels right, do it. nuff' said.

[August Watters]

Most of us fall between the two ends of the spectrum: at one end, "play whatever sounds good" and on the other, "play it the way it was played." (JeffD brings up some great points above, if you're in the latter camp.) I think every era of music deserves to be appreciated on its own terms, rather than through the aesthetic lens of later developments.

Paul Sparks book "The Classical Mandolin" documents a kind of 18th-century tremolo -- not connected between notes, like a Romantic tremolo, but reattacking longer notes throughout at least part of their duration. This is documented in the 18th-century tutors (such as Gervasio, Denis, Fouchetti). Current practice, however, in most cases is to avoid tremolo in 18th-century music.

[Joseph Baker]

"I think every era of music deserves to be appreciated on its own terms, rather than through the aesthetic lens of later developments"

I agree - and that's why I asked my question about tremolo.
Thanks to all who have kindly taken the time to answer my question.

As I work on songs in Mandolin Music for Medieval Faires I find myself not using tremolo at all.

Joseph Baker