As a performer I am always looking for rhetorical ways into the music. I can do this by ‘decomposing’ the piece – and then layering it back up, like putting on sheets of tracing paper. These different sheets are:
– Invention (idea)
– Elaboration (structure and harmonic outline)
– Decoration (ornamentation)
– Oration (performance)
(Invention) This base sheet of tracing paper is the core idea – the reason why the composition was created in the first place. This could be anything the composer wants to portray, ranging from an exercise to a story or an emotion (the list is endless).
(Elaboration) The next sheet of paper I can layer on is structure. Just as the great orators of antiquity carefully structured their arguments, so too did the great composers of the baroque period. Baroque librettos were formed around the rhetorical principles of introduction, narration, proposition, confirmation, argument, and close. The composer then fleshes out the structure with harmony and modulation. Through doing this, the composer creates the framework for an aria that can move an audience.
(Decoration) Then I can layer on decorative figures and ornamentation, the thread that ties the harmonic framework together.
(Oration) Once I have completed decomposing the piece and then layering up each sheet of paper, I then have the instructions on how to play. This is where interpretation comes in, for example I might choose to play something in a certain way and another cellist might choose to play it in another way, but as long as we are both playing what the composer fundamentally intended, both interpretations are valid.