Hearing 'completely new music'

Baroque music (from about 1600 to 1750) played on period instruments sounds quite different from the same music played on modern ones, according to Tomas Hurnik.

The Christchurch musician has had a fascination for period instruments and their clarity of sound since he first heard baroque music played on them as a student in the Czech Republic.

Now he wants to bring such music to South Island audiences.

He and a consort of musicians will give a concert on period instruments in St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin, on September 8 at 2pm as part of a South Island tour.

''There's something special about the sound of period instruments played together. They keep their individual colours and don't disappear into a sea of other instruments' sounds.

When symphonies like Mozart and Beethoven are played on period instruments you can hear all the details, even the hard-working second violins and violas - it's fantastic, like you discover completely new music.''

Although by baroque times the violin, viola and cello had mostly replaced the earlier family of viols, they were strung with gut instead of the steel strings used today.

''The response of gut is different from steel. When you play on gut it stops when you stop playing and there is no sound.

"When you play on steel strings there is still something vibrating and you can't completely stop the sound.

"The response on a baroque instrument is much faster and it's clear, but on a modern instrument it will be cloudy. Gut strings don't make a big sound but it has a lot of colours.''

The baroque bow was narrow but had since widened as it was developed to produce a louder sound, he said. Also in the consort will be a theorbo, an unusual instrument like a long-necked lute that was once widely used.

''It's disappeared now. It wasn't so loud and couldn't compete with the next generation of instruments. That's why the viola da gamba disappeared and the cello took over,'' he said.

The harpsichord, since replaced by the piano, is a keyboard instrument which plucks strings instead of hitting them as the piano does. However, it is difficult to vary the dynamics and play loudly or softly on it, he said.

In baroque times the pitch of instruments varied from place to place and was somewhere between 410Hz and 460Hz. Now it is standardised at A=415Hz, a semitone lower than the international concert pitch of A=440Hz which was established in the middle of the 20th century, he said.

However, just using period instruments doesn't ensure playing in authentic baroque style, he explains. In later times instructions such as ''faster'', ''slower'', ''louder'', ''softer'', were written in scores, but in baroque times only the structure of the piece was written.

It was usual for pieces to have a basso continuo or figured bass, a simple bass line with small numbers underneath that indicated the chords and intervals the harpsichord and other bass instruments could play. Hurnik is presenting the concerts in churches because of their acoustic suitability.

''When you play on gut strings without vibrato you need a vibration that will put it all together - in Europe any church or castle has a really vibrant acoustic. What is interesting, somehow it's like an amplifier when you start to play on gut strings and you can really hear it.''

Hurnik, who is also associate cello principal with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, is establishing a charitable trust to promote and support baroque music in New Zealand.

Be there
''Music for a While, a concert of baroque music in authentic interpretation'' will be given on September 8 at 2pm at St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin. For more information visit www.baroquemusic.net.nz