In this workshop string players and educators will learn how to read Baroque music and translate the script into an adequate sound experience by using techniques specific for the string instrument. Besides that we will learn how to use our body and discover ways to an ideal performance.
Questions to be covered during the workshop:
1. How do I read Baroque music?
Available musical material needs to be considered in terms of its edition (manuscript, facsimile or transcription), musical period it belongs to and its form. Key, bass line, harmony, rhythm and tempo is also analyzed. A catalogue of emotions is then compiled to clarify the underlying emotional affects of the music. Historical sources from the time are also taken into account.
2. How do I turn the notes on the page into sounds and which specific instrumental techniques do I use?
There are particular exercises which help to mobilise the left hand and to learn how to play without a shoulder or chin rest. There are also exercises for the right hand to help with Baroque rhythmic patterns, structures and sound production. The following will be considered for each music piece: intonation, phrasing, sound development, resonance, fingerings and ornamentation.
3. What role does body posture have in sound production?
In order to release tension and promote better coordination between the right and left sides of the body, we will try different exercises with and without instrument and experience the body as a resonant space.
Depending on the needs of participants, the first 30 minutes of both sessions will be worked in groups, with or without the instrument. Comfortable clothing is recommended.
In case participants are looking to form chamber groups (trio sonatas, string quartets, etc.), there is time for it during the midday break or after 6pm to rehearse with the repetiteur, as well as to work with in lessons. Every active participant should have at least one half hour lesson, depending on numbers of participants.
The course is aimed at professional string players and teachers, for both "historical" as well as "modern" instrumentalists.
Schedule:
Irmgard Huntgeburth studied singing, violin and Baroque violin in Münster, Freiburg and Basel. Additionally, she attended numerous courses in Early Music and specialized on historical performance practices of Baroque string instruments in 1984.
She is a founding member of the Ensemble Sans Souci Berlin and regularly participates in concerts as well as radio and CD productions: a CD called Maggini: In the Footsteps of German Violin Virtuosos With a Maggini Violin From Early Baroque to Early Classical Music was released in 2017 in cooperation with the UdK label betont.
Since 1992 she has been teaching Baroque violin and viola as well as chamber music at the University of the Arts Berlin. She regularly instructs instrumental and vocal ensembles on historical performance practices. Since 2006 she has been working as musical director of opera productions of various ensembles, on linking musical and scenic content.
In addition to her work as a musician, she has been teaching the breathing techniques by Anna Langenbeck since 1999. Her artistic and pedagogical profile is characterized by the combination of work with breath, body, voice and instrument.