Figured Bass, Handel, and Good Habits: An Update

As described here (January 11 entry), I have tried to work on figured bass and score reading this spring.

Many times before I have begun the new year with a new Project, and it has fizzled within a few weeks, as Lent and Easter approach. I sought this year to at least keep a "placeholder" in my day for this work. I might only work at it for five or ten minutes on a busy day. That is not enough to make any progress, but it is enough to keep it habitual.

In January, I began working partly a page at a time with C.P.E. Bach's "Essay on the True Art of Playing the Clavier," and mostly with the final part of Handel's Messiah (see here), which we sang on April 14 as I mentioned the other day. In terms of the figured bass aspects, it went well. Over these three months I developed a moderate facility with the piece and my skills improved.

But until mid-March, I had overlooked one step, which I now realize is crucial:

After the day's work on a passage of music, take the score away from the keyboard and conduct it.

The results amaze me: I have a greater understanding of the musical score -- even the parts of the "Amen" fugue that are complex -- and a good comfort level of reading the score, and hearing the sounds in my ears. I might actually learn to do this!

Two Wednesdays ago, I used the full score in the youth choir rehearsal and discovered some weaknesses. Most notably, I got lost in the Amen in the long passages where there is not much text underlay in the vocal parts -- they are simply singing "Amen." I repeatedly drifted from the soprano/treble line to the staff above it, which is the viola part. This was decidedly unhelpful to the choir as I sought to play their parts in places to help them. After rehearsal, I took a pencil and drew lines across the score pages to set the choral parts off from the string parts more clearly. This helped. Last Wednesday, I had to lead the adult rehearsal from the score, playing the bass line and chords and cueing the trumpets at appropriate places, as well as the vocal parts. I am proud to say that it worked! A careful listener would have disapproved of some of my chord realizations, but they were sufficient for the purpose.

And on Sunday, I felt thoroughly comfortable as a conductor. This would not have happened without these three months of work with the figured bass and full score, and the similar preparation of the Mozart piece that we did in January, a much simpler score to follow than the Handel.


I also decided in January that I would not turn on any computers until midday. Instead, I would undertake the important work of the day: Matins, then Practice. I begin after Matins with vocal warmup and practice (again, this is very often a "placeholder," and at most is fifteen or twenty minutes), then Figured Bass/Score Reading, then a bit of Fingering on an organ or piano piece that lies ahead, then my main session of Practice at the piano and organ. I then try to get my office work done in the afternoon (and on Sunday, the evening).

It worked well until mid-March, when it became clear that something had to give in order to get through Holy Week, Easter Day, and the Second Sunday of Easter. I laid the vocal practice and sight-singing aside, and the C.P.E. Bach book. It was tempting to lay Matins aside -- this is, I think, one of the greatest temptations that stands in the way of regular observance of the Daily Office: a busy time comes in one's work or home life, and the Tempter whispers "You could get a lot done in this half-hour. What harm will it do to skip a day?" Then the next day is even busier, and it is easier to skip the Office. Before long, it is a thing of the past. The funny thing is that if one succumbs, one ends up wasting far more than that precious half-hour at other points in the day.

I have been there. Many times. Sometimes -- including this March -- all that saves me is the obligation that for three days of the week, Matins is a public service of worship for which I am responsible. On two of those days, almost no one ever comes, but it remains a fixed Duty. For which I am grateful. Also, I am under a Vow as a Brother of St. Andrew, which includes the Daily Office at least once a day. There have been times that this, too, has been enough to carry me through.

So now, it has been almost a month since I have done my daily sight-singing, any proper and systematic vocal practice, or work with C.P.E. Bach and figured bass (beyond work with the Handel score). Holy Week is past. Easter Day is past. Two Sundays have passed. Now is The Test. Can I pick up where I left off? Today was not an especially good start; I spun my wheels and wasted a lot of time this day. Too much.

Jesu, juva.