Performing Bach's Keyboard Music Notes Ingales: A Brief History and a Summary

Author(s): George A. Kochevitsky

Source: Bach, Vol. 4, No. 4 (OCTOBER, 1973), pp. 27-35
Published by: Riemenschneider Bach Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41639907
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 Performing Bach's Keyboard Music-
Notes ingales: A Brief History
and a Summary
By George Kochevitsky
New York City

Origins and Definitions

RITING in 1717, Franois Couperin stated:

It seems to me that there are faults in our method of writing

music which are like faults in the spelling of the French lan-
guage. The fact is that we do not write as we play. What we
see does not correspond to what we hear. This causes foreigners
to play our music less well than we do theirs. On the contrary,
Italians write their music with the true time values that they
intend. For example: when there are several eighth-notes in
diatonic succession, we dot them; yet we write them as equal.
Our custom has enslaved us ... 1

Couperin was referring here to the so-called notes ingales ("unequal

notes"), an alteration of rhythm customary in French performance prac-
tice during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

Actually there existed three kinds of conventional rhythmical altera-

tions: 1) the notes ingales proper; 2) "double-dotting," "over-dotting,"
and "extra-dotting" of undetermined value (i.e., the prolongation of the
dot after a note and the corresponding shortening of the following note;
it should be remembered that up to the middle of the eighteenth century
double-dots were not in use and that there is evidence which seems to
point to Leopold Mozart's introduction of them about 1755); and 3) a
deviation from normal dotting applied for the purpose of synchronizing
dotted-note rhythms with simultaneously presented patterns of a different
type.

The notes ingales proper were subject to definite, rather compli-

cated rules. For instance, several notes of equal value were to be executed
unevenly only when they moved in diatonic succession and were shorter
than the metrical unit of a piece (i.e., quarters in 3/2 meter, eighths in 3/4,
sixteenths in 3/8 or in 6/8). In this case, the first, third, fifth, etc.,
notes were to be prolonged at the expense of the shortened second, fourth,
sixth, etc. The rate of such inequality varied according to the character
of a composition and was more or less arbitrary. When a composer in-

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tended the written value of notes to be preserved, he marked them 'equal."
This manner of performance seems to have been abandoned by the end
of the eighteenth century. It was last mentioned, in so far as we know,
by Dom Bedos de Celles about 1778.3

Renewed Interest in the Problem

After that, the practice was evidently forgotten for a long time. The
first modern author who seems to have mentioned it (discussing only
"over-dotting") was Edward Dannreuther, writing in the last decade of
the ninteenth century. Then, in 1908, Adolf Beyschlag wrote fleetingly
about the notes ingales proper .4 In 1916, Arnold Dolmetsch discussed the
whole problem at length. He insisted that the French manner should be
applied in the performance of Bach's music without reservation and went
so far as to suggest the performance of Bach's Prelude VIII in E-flat Minor
( Well-Tempered Clavier , Bk. I) and of the Sarabande from the French
Suite in D Minor in highly distorted ways - in the case of the Sarabande,
even going so far as to change the meter from 3/4 to 9/8! (See Examples
la and lb at the close of this article.)5

After that, more and more authors started to busy themselves with
the notes ingales question - a subject which has been attacked with
increasing frequency during the last two decades. Considered and careful
analyses of the problem have been presented by such writers as Frederick
Dorian, Walter Emery, Thurston Dart, Erwin Bodky, and Wanda Lan-
dowska. Several authors, including Robert Donington and Sol Babitz
(whose controversial article appeared in 195 2), 6 have followed Dolmetsch
in applying almost unreservedly, the French convention to German music.
In I965, Frederick Neumann set out to prove that the convention of
notes ingales was confined exclusively to French music.7

Bach and the Techniques of Inequality

Bach definitely knew the technique of inequality. As Frederick
Neumann has stated, he certainly used "rhythmic flexibility for the sake
of a definite Affekt . . . , applied agogic accents, used rubato techniques
of all kinds, varied the tempo, sharpened rhythm here, softened it there."8
It is Professer Neumann's judgment, however, that the formal rules of
notes ingales did not govern this performance style of inequality, the
modus operandi of which must have been based upon musical instinct
and arbitrary judgment.

Professor Neumann goes on to make the point that "the discipline

of a convention that prescribes, independent of Affekt, a certain rhythmic
alteration in certain definite contexts of melodic design and meter - [i.e.,]

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note-value relationships, . . . the peculiar phenomenon of a regulated
irregularity" cannot be applied to the performance of Bach's music.

This author would point out that in Bach's entire work there is no
evidence that such an implied practice should be followed. It is a well-
known fact that Bach often wrote his ornaments out in full, as if to show
the performer exactly how they should be executed. The question then
quite naturally comes to mind: Had Bach embraced the notes ingales
practice, would he not at sometime have indicated in his music the notes
ingales rhythmical values? Although Michael Collins mentions measures
8 and 9 of the sixteenth '"Goldberg" variation as "at least one place in
Bach's works where there are telltale dots that could be convincingly
interpreted as symbols requiring cancellation of inequality"10 to prove
that Bach used the notes ingales convention, his interpretation does not
seem convincing, since the dots are written above sixteenth-notes which
do not move exclusively stepwise.

Frederick Neumann has established the fact that Johann Quantz (the
main source of Dolmetsch's delusion) was misunderstood, pointing out
that what Quantz wrote was not the testimony of a generally accepted
Baroque practice, but simply a teacher's suggestion to follow the "French"
manner.11 Quantz and Georg Muff at (who wrote about sixty years earlier)
seem to have been the only two German authors to have written spe-
cifically on the subject of notes ingales. Both of these men spent some
time in Paris and were influenced by the French style, which they adored
and wanted adopted into German musical practice.

It does seem, however, that the French manner of over-dotting could,

with definite discreteness, be applied to those German compositions
written in the French Overture style, although there are still open ques-
tions concerning the validity, even of this limited over-dotting practice.
The beginning of Bach's second Partita is, for instance, written with
dotted notes. (See Example 2.) Did Bach want it executed as if it were
double-dotted? (See Example 3.) Perhaps! But, as Bodky has noted, a
complication would arise in measure 6, if it were to be so performed.
(See Example 4.) 12

Bodky also points out the fact that in the earlier autograph versions
of the duet aria ( Die Armut, so Gott auf sich nimmt ) from Bach's Can-
tata 91 ( Gelobt seist du, Jesu Christ) the heads of the dotted-rhythm
phrases appear throughout as sixteenth-rest, upbeat sixteenth-note, fol-
lowed by reiterations of the dotted-sixteenth-thirty-second-note figure. In
the later (final) autograph version, however, Bach wrote out the opening
figures of the phrases as dotted-sixteenth-rest, upbeat thirty-second-note,

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followed by reiterations of the dotted-sixteenth-thirty-second-note figure.
Likewise, in the violin part of Cantata 108 (Es ist euch gut , dass ich
hingehe) , we see in measures 7 and 8 several dotted-sixteenth- thirty-
second-note figures with upbeats. Here, again, Bach is careful to distin-
guish between the sixteenth-rest followed by an upbeat sixteenth-note and
a dotted-sixteenth-rest followed by an upbeat thirty-second-note. (See
Example 5.) 13 Confronted by examples such as these, this writer agrees
with Bodky that "it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that
the differentiation between sixteenths and thirty-seconds was planned and
meant to be executed."14

What do all these cases imply? Can we come to any definite con-
clusions as to the validity of applying the notes ingales practice to Bach's
music?

Conclusions and Suggestions

In some cases, the context in which the dotted notes appear would
seem to rule out any possibilities of over-dotting. For instance, the over-
dotting which some musicologists have suggested as appropriate to Bach's
Prelude X in E Minor ( Well-Tempered Clavier [Bk. I]) and his Prelude
XVII in A-flat Major ( Well-Tempered Clavier, Bk. II) would distort
the leisurely and quiet dignity implicit in these pieces.

The inexactly written rhythm, dotted-eighth-note plus three thirty-

seconds, is, of course, executed in Bach as an eighth-note tied to the first
of four thirty-second-notes. Bach, himself, wrote in this more precise way
in the score of Die Kunst der Fuge which he prepared for the engraver.
(See, for instance, the Berlin autograph of the final page of the seventh
fugue [1752 Edition, Contrapunctus 6 a 4 in Stylo Francese ] of that work
measures 3, 8, and 14 as reproduced as Plate I following this article.)

As for the assimilation of simultaneous rhythmic patterns of differ-

ing designs, most composers and theorists of the mid-eighteenth century
seem to have solved this synchronization problem in such a way that two
eighth-notes or a dotted-eighth and a sixteenth-note when standing against
a triplet, would be played as if they were a quarter and an eighth-note
with a triplet indication (a number "3") over them. Some composers and
theorists, however, seem not to have accepted this solution. Writing not
long after J. S. Bach's death, Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg felt compelled
to state that there was a genuine need for a list of composers who desired
this way of synchronizing the above-mentioned rhythmic patterns and a
list of those who did not.15

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 Johann Joachim Quantz ( Versuch einer Anweisung die Flte trav-
ersiere zu spielen, 1752) recommended the "exact" execution of such
figures,16 and Daniel Gottlob Trk, writing in 1789, stated that although
such figures were meant to be played exactly as written, the difficulties
of such an execution would seem to dictate, for beginners, the use of a
simplified execution consisting of a quarter-note-eighth-note figure syn-
chronized with the eighth-note triplet pattern.17 Georg Simon Lhlein
(Clavier s chul 1779) agreed with such a simplified execution only in
cases of fast tempo, holding that, in other cases, the sixteenth-note must
be played immediately following the triplet figure.18

In discussing the performance of triplets in J. S. Bach's works, Michael

Collins suggests that triplets should resolve into binary figures when the
context is primarily binary, but that where ternary rhythm dominates,
the dotted figures should adjust to it.19 Some mid-twentieth-century musi-
cologists, believing that Bach was in this respect (as in some others)
quite progressive, think that he probably played the two antagonistic
rhythms literally, as did some of his contemporaries.20

It is obvious that the problems of inequality of notes in both Renais-

sance and Baroque performance are far from solved. Historical perform-
ance research is still in its infancy. Enormous difficulties arise from the
fact that the treatises of the times were inconsistent and, this author would
add, confusing. It then follows, as Robert Donington has logically stated,
that performances must also have been inconsistent.21 Furthermore, mod-
ern translations of these works are frequently of poor quality, disregarding
the correct implications of the author's words. Thus, confusion is com-
pounded. Another confusing factor is the fact that various geographical
areas employed rhythmical freedom in different ways. The relationship
between French and non-French rhythmic custom is, for instance, far from
clear. John Byrt summed up the situation well when he wrote . . . suf-
ficient misunderstanding of the rules of inequality seems to have arisen
in the early eighteenth century . . . "22

Frederick Neumann made an important contribution to the ameliora-

tion of this confusion and misunderstanding when he pointed out that
old treatises are often applied outside their legitimate fields of pertinence.
"This happens," according to Neumann, "through unjustified generaliza-
tion in two distinct ways: a) horizontally, so to speak, by projecting
[them] into contemporary space, b) vertically, by prolonging [them]
forward and backward in time. We shall have to be content," cautions
Neumann, "to arrive at greater or lesser probabilities and stop aspiring to
certainties."23 In a lecture, Neumann once introduced the concept of cate-
gorizing the various rhythmic performance practices as a dual notion of

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"may be done" and "must be done," rightly insisting that in Baroque
Germany the French convention of rhythmic alteration was a '"may," but
not a "must."24

It is interesting to note that even Robert Donington, one of the

ardent advocates of the idea that the French convention of notes ingales
(as a convention of "Baroque," not "national" style) should be applied
to German music, has confessed that he does not now know for sure
whether or not Bach made use of inequality.24

It is evident that, at least for the time being, it is impossible to

insist on purely "objective" affirmation concerning all the questions dis-
cussed in this article. As Yakov Milshtein has put it:

Where there are uncertainties . . . our [subjective] artistic

taste can help. It chooses, leaves out, compares, and chooses
again. It begets doubts, but also overcomes them. It shows the
propriety of these or other details, of these or other decipher-
ings.25

It is important, however, that broad and deep knowledge should

serve as the foundation for ones "subjective" choice. This would include
both a critical acquaintance with the available sources and a solution in
which long and deep reflection concerning the artistic merits of such a
choice - that is, the mind and the feelings - work together.

At any rate, if the use of notes ingales was, and is, necessary in
harpsichord performance to achieve accent through the prolonging of a
tone, to make a small pause or to add to performance some kind of
expression which will compensate for the absence of dynamic shadings,
such a device is not necessary in pianoforte performance and would be
perceived today as an unpleasant and strange distortion.

EXAMPLES

Ex. la. J. S. Bach, Sarabande from French Suite , I, meas. 1-3

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Ex. lb. Bach, Sarabande, Arnold Dolmetscht Suggested Version (The
Interpretation of the Music of the XVllth and XVlllth Centuries
[London: Novello and Company, Ltd.; 1915], p. 86

Ex. 2. J. S. Bach, Sinfonie from Partita 11, upper voices, meas. 1-2

Ex. 3. Bach, Sinfonie, upper voices, meas. 1-2, using double dots

Ex. 4. Bach, Sinfonie, meas. 6

Ex. 5. Bach, Cantata 108, first violin part, meas. 7-8 (after Bodky, The
Interpretation of Bach's Keyboard Works, p. 195)

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 PLATE I

J. S. Bach, Die Kunst der Fuge, Final Page of

the Seventh Fugue, Berlin Autograph (S.9)

Footnotes

1 See Franois Couperin, L'Art de toucher le clavecin (1717), reprint, ed

Linde (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, 1933), 23.
2 Leopold Mozart, A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin P
(1787), trans, and ed. by Editha Knocker, 2nd ed.; (London: Oxford Uni
Press, 1951), 41-42.
3 Dom Franois Bedos de Celles, L'Art du facteur d'orgues (3 vols.; Paris:
tour, 1766-1778), Pt. IV (1778), 600-602.

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4 Edward Dannreuther, Musical Ornamentation (2 vols.; London: Novello and
Company, Limited [1893-95]), II, 74. See also Adolf Beyschlag, Die Ornamentik
der Musick (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1908), pp. 62, 76, and 79.
5 See Arnold Dolmetsch, The Interpretation of the Music of the XVllth and
XVlllth Centuries (London: Novello and Company, Limited [1915]), 53-87.
The specific examples cited occur on pages 64, 86, and 87.
6 Sol Babitz, "A Problem of Rhythm in Baroque Music," The Musical Quarterly,
XXXVIII (October, 1952), 533-565.
7 See Frederick Neumann, "The French Ingales, Quantz, and Bach," Journal of the
American Musicological Society, XVIII (Fall, 1965), 313-358 and "Communica-
tion," Journal of the American Musicological Society, XIX (Fall, 1966), 435-437.
8 See Neumann, "Communication," p. 435.
9 Ibid., p. 435.
10 Michael Collins, "Studies and Abstracts, III. Notes Ingales: A Re- examination,"
Journal of the American Musicological Society, XX (Fall, 1967), 482-483.
11 Neumann, "'The French Ingales," p. 316.
12 Erwin Bodky, The Interpretation of Bach's Keyboard Works (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, I960), 193-194.
13 Bodky, p. 195.
14 Bodky, p. 195.
15 See Robert Donington, The Interpretation of Early Music (London: Faber and
Faber, 1963), 402 for a paraphrasing of F. W. Marpurg's statement as recorded
in Anleitung zum Clavierspielen (2nd ed.; Berlin, 1765), 24.
16 Johann Joachim Quantz, On Playing the Flute (Berlin, 1752), trans, and ed. by
Edward R. Reilly (London: Faber and Faber, 1966), 68.
17 Daniel Gottlob Trk, Klavierschule oder Anweisung zum Klavier spielen (Halle:
Verfassers Ausgabe, 1789), 103-104.
18 Georg Simon Lhlein, Ciavierschule (Leipzig und Ziillichau, 1779), 68-70.
19 For a more detailed explanation see Michael Collins' article, "The Performance of
Triplets in the 17th and 18th Centuries," Journal of the American Musicological
Society, XIX (Fall, 1966), 281-328.
20 See Bodky, The Interpretation of Bach's Keyboard Works, pp. 197-200 and Robert
Donington, The Interpretation of Early Music (London: Faber and Faber, 1963),
401-403.
21 Robert Donington, "A Problem of Inequality," The Musical Quarterly, LUI (Octo-
ber, 1967), 504-505.
22 John Byrt, "Studies and Abstracts, II. Notes Ingales - Some Misconceptions,
Journal of the American Musicological Society, XX (Fall, 1967) , 480.
23 See Frederick Neumann, "The Use of Baroque Treatises on Musical Performance,"
Music and Letters, XVIII (October, 1967), 317 and 324.
24 See Robert Donington, "Communication," Journal of the American Musicological
Society, XIX (Spring, 1966), 113. Mr. Donington goes on to say that he does
not believe that this is the important question, especially since no one can supply
a certain answer to it. He then points out that the pertinent question (which he
answers in the affirmative) is: "Does Bach's music ever fall within the styles to
which we can be sure from German as well as French sources that inequality
might have been properly applied by good contemporary performers?"
25 See Yakov Milshtein, The W ell-T empered Clavter of J. S. Bach (Moscow:
Musyka, I967 ) .

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