Probstück 7 · English translation

Seventh Probstück Annotations. §. 1. It can be noted daily, that no clef besides the high alto feels as strange as the common alto clef to a thorough-bass player. That is because when a boy has a good disposition and instruction in singing, there are among fifty merely two who sing altus: since everybody screams in the tiresome discant. Under those circumstances he only gets to know his clef and he does not concern himself with another one but with the bass clef. Therewith all his wisdom on keyboard instruments is revealed. Besides that, here in Germany we are disgusted by the French solo pieces, although we welcome in an accepting and imitative manner everything that seems and is called French, even beating the time. Every teacher considers his own births to be the best for teaching. However, I think that, even if he composed ever so excellently, and even if he equalled I-know-not-whom, he should always include the work of others, especially in teaching, and he should be told: Do not disrespect what others are doing and do not praise your own works. Anybody who has some skill in French pieces, will hardly find any difficulties in the clefs, since the changes of clefs appear nowhere else more frequently, though the pieces are easy to play. Thirdly, a boy who once thinks of becoming an organist is ashamed when taking a fiddle in the hand, almost as if it was humiliating. If you take this absurd respect from your subordinate and from time to time let him play a middle voice or a Braccio, the clefs will be better known to him. But enough for now, I just had to say that this flaw caused me to use the common alto clef here more often. §. 2. If the Prestissimo does not befit one immediately, nothing will happen to him if he plays the example a little bit slower. This is to be understood for students. To a want-to-be master, this freedom is not granted; he may have a look through the piece for some while. As soon as he starts playing however, this piece must go on as it should, i.e. very rapidly. §. 3. I cannot leave unmentioned here, what St. Lambert is saying about velocity for slow minds in his Traité d'accompagnement p. 58. I shall give his words in German: When the tempo is so fast (he speaks, however, only of triple time) that the thorough-bass player cannot conveniently play every note, he might be satisfied with striking only the first note on every beat of the measure and leaving it to the bass viols to play everything, for that is much easier for them, since on them one need not add any chords. The rapid passages and progressions do not suit the instruments on which the thorough-bass is played. Therefore, when such fast passages occur, the other instruments may play them alone; or, if one wants them heard on the keyboard as well, only the principal notes should be struck, which are the ones on the down- and upbeat of the measure. I have to confess, I like that invention and it is very easy-going. Soon it will result in what Kuhnau describes in his Quacksalber p. 23,Johann Kuhnau, Der musicalische Quack-Salber, Dresden 1700 where Signor Caraffa takes snuff with the left hand, as soon as rapid notes appear in the bass. §. 4. It should be known, that all the brilliance of this instruction is found, when someone plays note for note with the right hand - be it in thirds (which is most common), or in sixths and fourths just as the harmony requires it, in such a way, that it continuously moves on, as if both hands played the same, although they do very different things. I will anatomize a few bars for those who did not grasp it: For the first five notes thirds are required; for the sixth note a fourth; for the seventh note a third; and for the eighth a fourth; the ninth note has a third; and the tenth has a fourth; then six thirds are following and so on. In the first bar of the second section the four first notes have thirds, the fifth has a major fourth; (as expressed by the 6⃥ on the F#) the four following notes need thirds, and where the seventh is figured a third is played on the first note; on the second one a sixth; (which is the 7 of the F#) and for the third note a sixth in downward motion. In that way everything else has to be played. §. 5. The freedom I have taken here to step outside the ambitus of the key and to make a cadence on the second scale degree arises from the fact that I finally do not want to decline the fashion, since it usually is something rare for me to admit bizarre gallantries. Now and then it can be done, but I do not want to make it a habit. In the major keys it is still rather natural to end on the second scale degree. The minor keys prefer to finish on the seventh scale degree.