From: raybro@sun1x.actc.res.utc.com (Ray Brohinsky)
Subject: Re: Soprano(s) & Recorder(s)
Organization: United Technologies Research Center
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 18:14:51 GMT

JOLACEY@IRLEARN.UCD.IE (Joanne Lacy) writes:
: Does anyone out there reccomend any sort of baroque music pieces suitable
: for oboe / oboe and flute / flute??


My wife and I have been performing for years on violin and recorder  
(more properly recorder and violin 8^) for weddings and such. We've
used a couple of sources, but there's a wider world waiting.

First, for baroque music, you can expect to find little that is labeled
specifically `for two flutes' or `for two oboes'. In the Renaissance,
composers didn't label music as to instrumentation to the point where
the few pieces with such notations are pointed to (like `then there's
the pavane from banchetto musicale that is actually marked to be
played on krumhorns).

In Baroque music, the composers did make notations for the instrumentation,
but it usually read `for two equal instruments', `for two unequal
instruments', or `for two instruments, oboes, flutes, recorders, 
violins, musettes, or hurdie-gurdies.' or some such. Part of this
was because the ranges of all these instruments were not so
far different, and the other is that the musicians themselves
were skilled in adapting the written music to their instruments.

So we find in the latter category a number of duette pieces like
Telemann's Canonic Duets, which now exist in different keys. The
main reason for this is because the musicians would `choose their
cleff' according to their instruments. Played on violins, they would
use the French Violin clef. That would work for oboes and flutes
as well. Played on recorders, though (where the bottom note was
F, rather than D like flutes) they would read as if the G clef
sat on the bottom line, and adjust the key signature to fit.
for a piece notated in F (one flat) this would move the key to
D (two sharps, which would be found on what is `normally' percieved
to be the `d' line and `a' space).

As always, the lecture procedeth the real answer to your questions!

Look to the French high baroque for flute or oboe duets of both
surpassing loveliness and amazing simplicity. Names like Hottetere,
DeLavigne, Naudot, Courette, Boismoirter. Naudot, especially, if
you want simplicity. The pieces called `Babioles' (published together
in a set under that name) are so simple as to be monotonous.

Boismortier (there, I spelled it right. I think) wrote pieces for
two, three, and four flutes, as did Michelle Corette (another name
I over-frenched above, I think). Their music ranges from amateur
music for `musettes', french chambre pipes, to highly complicated
professional's music. These can be applied to flutes, oboes,
recorders, or mixes thereof. These folks weren't afraid to use
one flute for the bass part, either, and if played in tune,
the general weakness of the lower notes are reinforced by
subharmonics and difference tones made in human ears.

Some more offbeat sources: look in your nearest _music school_ library
for urtext collections of music. For instance, Some keyboard music
that falls out in two parts can be adapted with little effort to
beautiful duet music for two equal instruments by transposing
the bottom part (which is usually in tenor or alto clef)
up an octave.

Telemann has both the canonic sonatas and another set of duets which
are usually published as being for flutes or violins. If you see them
in an addition for violins, though, be prepared to move them up a fourth
or fifth.

:  
: Also I would appreciate the names of nice baroque recorder ensmeble pieces
: suitable for busking......
:  

I don't know of much baroque music that's appropriate for busking.
That's usually a job for perky music, and there's lots of that
in the Renaissance literature. Divisions from Der Fluyten Lufthof,
dances from Praetorius' Terpsichore or Susato's Dance books, English
lute songs (with or without the lutes) all make better fare.

If there's a chapter of the Song and Dance society near you, they
are a good source for busking music.

Then again, you can do what the Cambrige Buskers have done: take 
_anything_ musical that is pretty and likely to get attention, and
play it on a flute, recorder, etc. Buskers aren't in the business
of concertizing (regardless of their virtuoso capabilities): they're
out to entertain, and get a bit of money on the side.

: Thanks in advance...
:  
:                    Joanne

You're welcom, and I hope this helps.
raybro