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| The opening to the 'Romantic' version. |
Voicing is the act of matching sounds to music. Not to be confused with arrangement.
In an arrangement we choose which instruments will play which notes and often some notes are added, accenting changed and tempo tuned. Arrangement is a complex and beautiful art but it leads to different pieces of music with a common root. Voicing is the the choice of sounds to match to exactly the same piece of music. Its use is most obvious with organs where the music is divided into voices already; then one can choose which manual to play each voice on and then which stops to apply to each manual.I love Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. I find it an amazingly powerful and ensnaring piece. If there is a upper limit to the number of times I can listen to it, I have not found that limit yet. Anyhow, my favourite style for this piece is MASSIVE. I a huge bass, so loud it is almost a fog-horn should blow you feet from under you and the finale must break your speaker cones. I love the power this piece can take; it there an upper limit?
Oh, but, Bach regretted never having plaid an organ with good reeds; in which case the Passacaglia was not written to be plaid with such power? What secrets does it hold which as hidden by a massive performance? Can it be successfully recreated in a gentle or romantic form?
Rather than rearrange the music, I have attempted to answer this question using just voicing. I have created three absolutely identical performances. Well, they are identical in everything but voicing. Each is in Werckmeister III temperament. Each is contains absolutely the same notes in length and position (computers are good at that sort of thing). Each is generated in the same space (a mathematically created small cathedral and/or large church). My voicings:
Massive:
- Reed in the lead - a trumpet like sound with majesty. I call in (incorrectly) a clarion.
- Strings (string organ pipes) and diapasons for the bulk of the other manual work.
- Trombones on the pedals. These are a huge sound, 32foot with a hit of 64. These do have something of the fog horn to them.
- Orchestral Oboes coming in as a separate voice later in the piece [at 6:40 minutes].
This is a full beans, socks blown off version.
Delicate:
- Flute sounds almost too pure through most of the manuals.
- Pedals on a brighter but windy flute.
- Vox Humana (really, voice synthesis) coming in as a separate voice later in the piece [at 6:40, they replace the Orchestral Oboes].
This attempts to envision a ancient organ and and singers quietly performing this piece in a intimate and beautiful way.
Romantic:
- Diapasons throughout, mainly these are quite a soft diapason.
- At the 6:40 moment a slightly brighter Diapason sound enters.
Really, it is that simple. This version is as though it were played in a completely traditional style using nothing but standard flue pipes. Such a performance has something of the Italian to it.
I did find secretes in there I did not expect. The 'romantic' version has a passion of its own and the 'delicate' shows an inner beauty of which I was not aware. I admit though, massive still 'does it for me'!
