The Performer as Orator - Dikmans on Historical Performance

# The Performer as Orator ![[Cicero-statue.jpg]] First published: 2002 > [!call-out]- **Abstract** > 17th- and 18th-century musicians and theorists saw many parallels between the Greek and Roman **art of rhetoric** (oratory) and **music**. > > A dominant assumption underlying musical thought in the 17th and 18th centuries is that the ancient Greeks were correct in their belief that music plays a fundamental role in society because of its power to have a direct effect upon the soul and actions of mankind. > > According to ancient writers, such as Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian, orators employed rhetorical means to control and direct the emotions of their audiences and so persuade and move them. > > It is not surprising to find Marin Mersenne in ***Harmonie universelle*** (1636) describing musicians as ‘**harmonic orators**’. #rhetoric --- ## Introduction I believe the concept of the **performer as orator** is fundamentally important in any discussion of performance practice, in particular the performance of Western music from the 17th and 18th centuries. Baroque musicians and theorists saw many parallels between the Greek and Roman art of rhetoric (oratory) and music. According to ancient writers, such as Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian, orators employed rhetorical means to control and direct the emotions of their audiences and so persuade and move them. It is not surprising to find Marin Mersenne in *Harmonie universelle* (1636) describing musicians as ‘harmonic orators’. **Rhetoric** (the theoretical art of speaking) and **oratory** (the practical application of rhetoric) are synonymous terms for the art of discourse and communication, of speaking with elegance and eloquence. In *On Rhetoric* Aristotle states that there are three equally important elements in oratory: - the speech itself (in music this is the piece being performed), - the speaker (the performers) and - the audience. The audience plays an important role and can influence a live performance in a very real way. > [!call-out] Direct communication with an audience was the primary motivation of most music from the 17th and 18th centuries. Let’s begin with a quote from Quantz: > **Musical delivery can be compared with the delivery of an orator**. > > An orator and a musician share the same basic aim – whether in the elaboration \[the ‘working out’ or creation] of what is to be delivered or in the delivery itself – namely: > > **to gain control of the hearts, to arouse or to calm the passions, and to move the listeners now to this, now to that affect**. > > It is to the advantage of both if one has some knowledge of the duties of the other. > > — Johann Joachim Quantz: _Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen_ (Berlin, 1752) This is how Quantz opens the chapter titled ‘Of **Good Delivery** in Singing and Playing in General’. He uses the word ***Vortrag***, which can also be translated as ‘expression’ or ‘manner of performance’. In oratory this is called **delivery**. I first read this passage in the mid 1970s when I was an undergraduate at Sydney University. I had been a member of The Renaissance Players (directed by Winsome Evans) for a few years and had started playing the baroque flute. It struck me as important because it described something I had experienced when playing and listening to music, though at the time I did not fully understand its meaning. I have spent the years since then on the long search for [[Historical Performance/What is Historically Enlightened Performance?|understanding]]. --- ## Performance Practice In Western music today, performance is usually conceived as an **interpretive art**. Shai Burstyn, in an article in the journal *Early Music* titled ‘In quest of the period ear’, writes that underpinning this concept is the idea of a ‘communication triangle’, a division of labour whereby > composers create musical works and notate them in scores from which performers perform [i.e. interpret] for the edification and pleasure of listeners (Burstyn, 1997). [^1] [^1]: Shai Burstyn. ‘In quest of the period ear’. _Early Music_ 25.4 (1997): 693–701. This deeply entrenched view reflects the ‘**romantic glorification of the inspired composer**’, who is seen as the ‘**creator of original musical edifices**’ (Burstyn, 1997). One of the more significant contributions of the early music movement in the 20th century, with its shift of emphasis from the composer and the composition to performance practice, is that it has demonstrated that ‘at least as far as pre-classical music is concerned, \[the concept of a division of labour] is far from accurate and in many cases simply false’ (Burstyn, 1997). > [!call-out] By bringing together musicological research and practical music making, performance practice studies have revealed a more complex and subtle picture about the relationships of performer and composer. We can now speak of the two tasks of the performer, which mirror the twin tasks of the modern rhetorician: that of **genesis** (creation) and **analysis**(interpretation). In other words, in addition to the concept of the **performer as interpreter**, we can speak of the **performer as composer**. Furthermore, I contend that these two concepts are in fact two interdependent branches of a higher concept: the **performer as orator**. Not only was this a dominant conception of the 17th and 18th centuries in Western musical thought, and therefore worth exploring by those interested in performing music from that time, but it may also be useful when thinking about music from other times and cultures. This is because rhetoric deals with both genesis and analysis, and has much to say about the role of the audience, an, until recently, neglected area. [^2] [^2]: See Burstyn, ‘In quest of the period ear’. His rationale is worth quoting: ‘At the third corner of the music communication triangle is, of course, the listener. In the heat of research efforts and arguments about the exciting topics of compositional intentions, the status of notation and the freedom of the performer, the listener has been neglected, left aside as a lesser problem; listening, after all, more than any other musical activity, is intuitively practiced and experienced by everyone. While the ‘intentional fallacy’ helped weaken the thesis of the composer’s centrality, its intense focus on the work itself tended to ignore the reader, spectator and listener. Thus, in spite of a steadily growing interest and activity in reception history and theory which have yielded some important studies, listening is, by and large, either still taken for granted, or entrusted to music psychologists—an astonishing state of affairs in the heyday of reader response criticism. In calling attention to the period ear, this article thereby attempts to shift focus from the musical work to the listener’s role in making it meaningful; it is a modest contribution to listener response criticism’ (p. 693). --- ## The Performer as Interpreter The concept of the performer as interpreter is a relatively recent one, coinciding with the development of musical notation. However, for many centuries various aspects of a piece of music were not notated, either because the performer was the composer, or because the composer was involved in directing the performance or because the system of notation used, or the technology available to reproduce it (for example, block-type versus engraving), was not adequate, or for other reasons to be discussed below. One of the tasks of performance practice studies is to elucidate these unnotated aspects (often termed **performance conventions**). While the trend has been for an increasing complexity of notation—from Beethoven onwards composers have attempted, more and more, to take back the responsibility for the creation and interpretation of their works—there will always be a need for performance practice studies because of the inherently limited nature of any type of musical notation. > [!call-out] However, a piece of music is not the notes on the page but the sounds that the audience hears, just as oratory is primarily a verbal rather than literary art. The musical ‘text’ should be seen as a set of ‘notes’ (as in guidelines or reminders) for a performance (musical delivery or oration): the ‘notes’ embody the ideas and arguments of the composer, which the performer (orator) then uses for the **primary task of communication**, which in music, as Quantz and his contemporaries attest, can best be described as moving the affections. Because, as rhetoric recognises, a particular performance takes place at a particular time and place, before a particular audience (even if is only the performer himself), in a particular venue and so forth (that is, within a particular context or situation), the performer (orator) needs to make judgements about how best to use the composer’s ‘notes’ in their delivery. This may include making anything from minor modifications or additions to major adjustments. **The act of interpretation is like an act of criticism** (in the sense of the analysis and judgement of the merits and faults of an artistic work). The aim is to make the piece of music meaningful (or moving) for a particular audience, and as such can be conceived as an act of renewal or completion. It is through exercising their judgement that the performer also takes on the role of composer; and at different periods in music history the performer had the responsibility of exercising this judgement to a greater or lesser extent. --- ## The Performer as Composer As we have seen, Quantz regarded a musician as both performer and composer. In the 17th and 18th centuries the performer of a piece often was its composer. David Fuller, in the introductory comments to a chapter titled ‘The performer as composer’, summarises the position as follows: > In the 17th and 18th centuries, the collaboration between composer and performer, without which no music can exist that is not improvised or composed directly into its medium (like electronic music), was weighted more heavily towards the performer than at any time since and perhaps before. > > A large part of the music of the whole era was sketched rather than fully realized, and the performer had something of the responsibility of a child with a colouring book, to turn these sketches into rounded art-works (Fuller, 1989). [^3] [^3]: David Fuller. ‘The performer as composer’. Ch. 6 in _Performance Practice: Music after 1600_, Howard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie, eds. London: Macmillan, 1989. 117–146. He goes on to mention and give advice about many of the problem areas that are now well known to students of performance practice, but his main focus is on three areas particularly related to **problems of notation** (or the lack of it): - **basso continuo** (which he sees as lying on the border between notated and unnotated music), - **ornamentation** and - **rhythm** (particularly, rhythmic alteration). What he does not do is attempt to explain why composers left so much up to the performer. This is a topic for another time. If the primary motivation of a composer is **self-expression** (as, for example, I would argue is the case in Romantic music), perhaps there is less need for the performer as composer. > [!call-out] If the **primary motivation is communication**, as is the case with 17th and 18th century music, the need for the performer as composer is clear (and a grasp of rhetoric is vital) in order to bridge the gap or make the connection with a particular audience at a particular time and place. --- ## The Qualities of the Ideal Performer The most important attribute of a performer is **good judgement**, or, as 17th- and 18th-century musicians and theorists described it, **good taste**. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the performer is constantly making decisions or value judgements. The **degree of judgement** a performer may or is expected to exercise varies from period to period, and even from repertoire to repertoire within any particular period (it may even vary from piece to piece within the corpus of one composer). It may also vary according to the expectations and taste of a particular audience at a particular time. This raises a number of important questions: - what informs good judgement or good taste?; and, - can good judgement or taste be taught? Classical (Greek and Roman) rhetoric also addressed such important pedagogical issues. For example, Quintilian’s ***Institutio Oratoria*** (*Education of the Orator*) (c.95 CE) discusses the education of the orator from birth to death. Put another way, we may ask: what are the qualities a performer needs to make good judgements or have good taste? These qualities relate to the Greek concept of ***ethos*** (‘character’, the moral character of a person, either the speaker or the listener), as expounded by Aristotle, who identified it as one of the three artistic or intrinsic means of persuasion (the other two are ***logos*** and ***pathos***). The answer to what qualities are required involves two parts or elements, both of which inform and complete the other, and both of which, ideally, need to be present: - intuition (talent) and - intellect (knowledge). Intuition is the talent or capacity to do the musically ‘right’ thing, seemingly without instruction or special consideration (also called musicality). Intellect has to do with the sources of musical insight, the means by which a musician increases their knowledge through the pursuit of relevant information and through reflection and analysis (criticism). The discussion of the **qualities required of a musician** (whether composer or performer) is not new. In the Introduction to the _Versuch_, titled ‘On the qualities required of someone who wishes to devote themselves to music.’, Quantz puts it as follows: - The first quality required of someone who wishes to become a good musician is ‘an especially good talent – or natural gifts’ (Introduction, § 4), and - secondly, that to excel in music the musician must ‘feel within themselves an indefatigable and unceasing inclination, love and desire: to spare neither diligence nor effort; and to endure steadfastly all the hardships that arise in this way of life.’ (Introduction, § 8). - He later calls this ‘the desire for music’ (Introduction, § 9). Quantz then goes on to caution that > A diligence … grounded in a burning love and insatiable desire for music must be joined with constant and earnest enquiry, and with mature reflection and examination. > > A noble obstinacy must prevail in this, one that does not allow a person to be immediately satisfied with themselves in all respects, but rather causes them always to strive to become more perfect. (Introduction, § 12). In all this a balance must be maintained, for > It is a great hindrance to diligence and further reflection when one relies too much on one’s talent. > > Experience teaches that, among those who possess especially good natural gifts, one finds more ignorant people than among those who have come to the aid of their moderate talent through diligence and reflection.(Introduction, § 14). > [!call-out] The process of constant and diligent inquiry combined with mature reflection and examination can be seen as a process of conceptualisation, **the search for explanations and understanding**. It is a process of education rather than just training: of asking, ‘Why should I do this?, rather than, ‘What should I do?’ > [!call-out] 🔥 See: [[Historically Enlightened Performance]] --- ## A multidisciplinary approach to the study of performance practice There is obvious utility in a multidisciplinary or holistic approach to the study of performance practice. One would expect that such an approach needs little justification, however there are practitioners and teachers today, as in the past, who view such an approach as ‘academic’ (in the negative sense of theoretical or intellectual rather than practical) and see those who follow such an approach as ‘specialists’ (in the sense of ‘non-mainstream’). These same people, and many can be found in music departments and faculties in Australia as elsewhere, regard the main function of (tertiary) study as training rather than education. I refute such a narrow view. > [!call-out] If one thing should become clear, it is that the approach I am advocating (and which I have followed myself) is intensely practical, of invaluable use in solving the many practical problems a performer encounters and in answering the many questions a performer should ask. The anti-academic view is not new. Again it is apposite to quote a telling passage from Quantz’s _Introduction_ to his _Versuch_, where he argues for a multidisciplinary approach. It reveals something of Quantz’s own background, and also that of his audience, one that included a knowledge of Greek philosophy and oratory, as well as an interest in pedagogy: > He who does not possess sufficient natural gifts for academic study probably has even fewer gifts for music. Yet if someone who gives himself to academic studies has sufficient talent for music, and devotes just as much industry to it as to the former, he not only has an advantage over other musicians, but also can be of greater service to music in general \[and thereby also to society] [^4] than others, as can be demonstrated with many examples. > > Whoever is aware of how much influence mathematics [^5] and the other related sciences, such as philosophy, poetry, and oratory, have upon music, will have to own not only that music has a greater compass than many imagine, but also that the evident lack of knowledge about the above-mentioned sciences among the majority of professional musicians is a great obstacle to their further advancement, and the reason why music has not yet been brought to a more perfect state. > > This seems inevitable, since those who have a command of theory are seldom strong in practice, and those who excel in practice can seldom pretend to be masters of theory. In these circumstances is it possible to bring music to some degree of perfection? To do so, serious counsel must be given to young people who dedicate themselves to music that they endeavour not to remain strangers at least to those sciences mentioned above, and some foreign languages besides, even if time does not permit them to engage in all academic studies. And for those who propose to make composition their goal, a thorough knowledge of acting [= delivery?] will not be unserviceable. > > — Quantz, *Versuch*, Introduction, § 19). [^4]: In §1 of the _Introduction_ Quantz states that: ‘Before I begin my instructions for playing the flute, and for becoming a good musician at the same time, I feel that it is necessary to give those who wish to apply themselves to music, and by that means make themselves useful members of society, some rules by which they may determine whether they are gifted with all the qualities necessary to a good musician.’ Quantz is here echoing the ancient Greek belief, espoused by philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, that music plays a fundamental role in society because of its power to have a direct effect upon the soul and actions of mankind. [^5]: It is probable that Quantz is here thinking of ancient Greek teachings on the nature of music: Pythagoras, for example, saw music as virtually a department of mathematics. St Augustine, at the end of classical antiquity, and St Thomas Aquinas, who reiterated Augustine’s beliefs in the Middle Ages, agreed with Pythagoras and held that music thereby reflects celestial movement and order (the harmony of the spheres). In the seventeenth century, René Descartes also saw the basis of music as mathematical. (He also followed Plato in believing music has an ethical dimension.) While we must acknowledge the context of Quantz’s work, that ‘it is the synthesis of the experience of one man active at a particular period in time in a certain milieu’ [^6] his observations and comments about the state of music are still relevant today, as is his call for a broader, multidisciplinary (holistic) approach. [^6]: Edward R. Reilly, translator’s introduction to _On playing the flute_, xi. --- ## Rhetoric and Music: Music as Eloquence > [!call-out] A dominant assumption underlying musical thought in the 17th and 18th centuries is that the ancient Greeks were correct in their belief that music plays a fundamental role in society because of its power to have a direct effect upon the soul and actions of mankind. This presupposes that music possesses a content beyond its purely musical syntax and structure (the ‘notes’), and that this content is describable in emotive terms (the passions). This is itself based on the view, first discussed by Plato and Aristotle, that music ‘imitates’ or ‘represents’ the characters and passionate tones of men with the aim of arousing such passions in the listener. **René Descartes**, in the opening sentence of his ***Compendium Musicæ*** (a treatise on music written in 1618 but not published until 1656), defines music in terms of its power to arouse the passions: > The OBJECT of this Art is a Sound. The END; to delight, and move various Affections in us.’ For Descartes, **music has the same primary function as rhetoric**. > [!nb] Descartes and his French contemporaries were Aristotelians. This reflects a shift of emphasis back to primary rhetoric in 17th-century France. The English and German emphasis at this time was more on secondary rhetoric. But musicians and theorists of the 17th and 18th centuries (and, indeed, those of earlier periods) saw parallels between rhetoric and music on the secondary or decorative level as well: the level that includes musical syntax and structure. In ***Harmonie universelle*** (Paris, 1636), **Marin Mersenne**, a friend and correspondent of Descartes, states that: > Airs in a way ought to imitate orations, in order to have members, parts and periods, and make use of all manner of figures and harmonic passages, as the orator does, so that **the art of composing and writing counterpoint will not be second to rhetoric**. This view was still current at the beginning of the 18th century, and, if anything, had become more widely accepted. **Michel de Saint Lambert**, in ***Les principes du clavecin*** (Paris, 1702), turns things around and states that an oration actually imitates a piece of music, and adds that music is more naturally rhetorical than speech. This view was also held by **Bernard Lamy** in ***L’art de parler*** (1675) who argued that passions could be aroused by sound alone. Saint Lambert’s treatise is not a philosophical work (like those of Descartes and, to a large extent, of Mersenne), but a practical handbook aimed at beginner harpsichordists. His statements occur in Chapter 8—‘Concerning the signs that indicate metre and tempo’—the type of chapter one would find in any music primer today that aimed to teach the beginning student how to read music. By making the analogy with rhetoric, Saint Lambert is assuming his readers already have a grasp of that discipline. He says: > A piece of music somewhat resembles a piece of eloquence (*une Pièce d’Éloquence*), or rather it is the piece of eloquence that resembles the piece of music. This quote directly links music with oratory and echoes Quantz’s words quoted at the start and so brings us back to where we began. --- ## Bibliography - **Burstyn, Shai**. ‘In quest of the period ear’. *Early Music* 25.4 (1997): 693-701. - **Fuller, David**. ‘The performer as composer’. Ch. 6 in *Performance Practice: Music after 1600*, Howard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie, eds. London: Macmillan, 1989. 117-146. - **Reilly, Edward R**. *On playing the flute*. London: Faber, 1966. New edition, London: Faber, 1985. - A translation of Quantz’s *Versuch*. --- > [!link] Related Links > - [[Rhetoric]] (Glossary) > - [[The Nature of Rhetoric]] > - [[Sources of Classical Rhetoric]] --- This page presents some of the PhD research I undertook at The University of Melbourne many years ago. I never submitted a final thesis (I was far more interested in playing), but the research has sustained and inspired me through most of my career as a performer. © Greg Dikmans. Licensed under [CC BY-NC 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). [[Rights and Sharing]] Written 2002.