Reviving the Eighteenth-Century Musician
Practice Research into Historical Solfeggio
NICK’S BLOG:
Elinor and I met in January 2024, when she joined my online class. This course finished soon after, so we decided to continue with private practice sessions. In the first ones we went through the basics and Cotumacci’s first solfeggi. But by lesson 5, it was clear that Elinor was not content merely to study the method. She wanted to apply it her performance. We began to work together on several projects:
(1) Using Cotumacci’s solfeggi, Elinor will undertake a complete 18th-century course of lessons, with the aim of acquiring fluency in the language of galant melody.
(2) Elinor is composing a new piece for herself to play on 2 April 2025 in Montreal. We are working together on composition lessons involving historical solfeggio, partimento, and schema theory.
(3) Elinor is booked to perform the C. P. E. Bach cello concertos at a concert in October 2025. We are working together to on the concerto Wq172, using a reduction to syllables and bass of the slow movement. We used this as a foundation for improvisation practice.
(4) As an experiment, we are trying to get Elinor to play Leo’s cello concertos without a score, using solfeggio!
(5) We will use solfeggio to improvise variations.
(6) We will present the findings of our collaboration in Oxford and Montreal.
ELINOR’S BLOG:
My career-long interest in historical performance led me to work on and research how to gain the skills demanded of an 18th-century cellist. I like to imagine the lives of my favourite cellist-composers, such as Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco or Antonio Vandini, and how they would have played the cello.
Lately, it felt more and more necessary to understand music from within the language of the music itself, especially in terms of bass and melody. In the middle of studying how to add chords to a basso continuo line, I discovered and read Nick’s incredible book and sought out more information about hexachordal solfeggio in galant music.
Through working with Nick I hope to have insights into both composition and performance practice that will significantly impact my work as a cellist.
What were the musical activities of the great 18th century cellists?
Create their own music (vehicles for their own career)
Compose and prepare for publication for others to play.
Play other people’s music, yet include/demonstrate and their own voice
Play other people’s music with an understanding of the language and musical stories/paths offered by each piece
So… for the moment, doing this has led me to start working on the solfeggios of Carlo Cotumacci… more to come!
