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• 1 2025-06-13T14:03:27+00:00 VCS Vol. II No. 19 Allegro Moderato 'mit strengem Takt' 5 Embodied analysis and discussion plain 2025-11-27T10:05:02+00:00

  Overview

  In the original piano part, this study carries the additional marking ’Tempo di menuetto’. As with other studies, work on this focussed on exploring the area of tempo and character as a route to interpreting the large number of detailed dynamic and accent markings, with a key decision being what exactly ‘Tempo di menuetto’ might mean to Baermann. Like No. 18, it also offered a space to explore the characterisation of different sections through tempo modification. Understanding of the key characteristics of G major in nineteenth-century sources was helpful in settling on a relatively calm and poised character, with a definite feeling of a menuet in the rather than on beat in a bar. Early recordings by the Wittemberg and Wendling quartets playing Beethoven and Mozart were also used as reference points to arrive at this calm dignity of character. The breath structure of this piece is less challenging than some others, though it is notable that Baermann still uses breaths to create variety and momentum in phrase length and structure. It was ultimately found necessary to show this strong harmonic and melodic structure through nuance in the sound at points where the breath structure seemed to work counter to this. The effect was to prevent the material from feeling too square by creating a momentum or legato across obvious structural joins.

  Player’s guide: Key ideas to explore

  • ‘mit strengem Takt’ is generally an indication that the piece should have a clear rhythmic character, rather than an insistence of mathematically strict rhythm or pulse. Don’t be afraid to explore a different tempo for the minor-key material.
     
  • Exploit the different dynamic, articulation and phrasing markings on the return of the main theme after B to create a difference in character compared to the opening.
     
  • Work on transitions between the characters in terms of timing and phrasing: you may find that you need to take more time, for instance, over the breath after D or before the final Fortissimo. It may be helpful to play the preceding gesture already in a different character that points to what is coming. Taking a little time over a corresponding gesture earlier in the same phrase can also be helpful to ‘set up’ the more exaggerated rubato needed for the following transition.

   

  Research documentation and reflection

  From the start, this study invited the contrasting characteristion of the different sections through changes of tempo. We initially started with a fairly swift, 1-in-a-bar menuet feeling, but quickly moved to something more sedate in order to incorporate the detail. After our initial workshop, my individual work focussed on trying to understand what it mean to Baermann to write a Menuet. Having established there were no other corresponding studies or movements in this style with metronome marks, I turned to reference recordings for inspiration. I observed that recordings by [details] offered a more legato, approach and quietly dignified character than the typically lighter and bouncy HIP Classical approach to a dance movement.
  
  As a result I turned to working on a more sustained approach to sound and phrasing, aiming to emulate the solid, well-formed sound that characterised the recordings. I also found the recordings helpful as a model for changes of character and playing style between sections. This work paid dividends when I brought the movement back to a second workshop with Daniel, helping us find a shared sense of characterisation of each section and laying the foundation for the incorporation of more detail in individual gestures and at structural points.
  

  For the final phase preparing for the recording, returning to these videos was extremely helpful in re-capturing the work done and also refining the approach further. Referring to notions of key characteristic reinforced my intuition that this movement best suited a fundamentally calm and dignified character, with more agitation and anxiety in the minor section – something that could correspond with Pauer’s descriptions of both the written key of G/e (“youth, expresses sincerity of faith, quiet love, calm meditation, simple grace, pastoral life, and a certain humour and brightness; “grief, mournfulness, and restlessness of spirit”) than the sounding tonality F/d (“full of peace and joy, but also expresses effectively a light, passing regret”; “a subdued feeling of melancholy, grief, anxiety, and solemnity”). Less important than correspondence with external sources was the firming up of my own conviction of the character of the piece.