Lesson 82: Virtuoso Studies, Part 2 — Articulation Patterns

Drill the four most common Baroque articulation patterns at performance tempo.
Apply each pattern to a Telemann fantasia and listen for the change in line.
Build a daily ten-minute articulation warm-up.

Lesson 41 — double tonguing.
Lesson 36 — advanced articulation techniques.

Four standard Baroque articulation patterns.
Mixed-pattern application.

How a note begins matters as much as what note it is.

Baroque players had a vocabulary of articulation patterns that modern performers can lose track of. The standard pattern in fast figuration is not all-tongued and not all-slurred — it is some mixture, chosen for the figure. The drills below cycle through the four most common mixtures so each is available when a passage calls for it.

Pattern 1 — slur 2, tongue 2 (the “two-and-two”)

The most common articulation for running eighth notes in moderate-tempo Baroque playing. Slur the first pair, tongue the next pair, slur the next pair. The grouping suggests a duple pulse.

Brackets in the notation show the slurs. Each pair is slurred; each next pair is tongued.

Pattern 2 — slur 3, tongue 1 (the “three-and-one”)

Common in dance movements with strong downbeats. The slurred three roll forward into the tongued downbeat.

Pattern 3 — tongue 1, slur 3 (the “reverse”)

The mirror of Pattern 2. The tongued note initiates each group; the slurred three trail behind. Creates a more dance-like, lifted feel than Pattern 2.

Pattern 4 — all double-tongued

The default for fast continuous sixteenth-note motion. From Lesson 41. Use only when the figuration is too fast for any other pattern.

The daily warm-up

Ten minutes per session, cycling through the four patterns:

Two-and-two on a major scale at quarter = 96.
Three-and-one on the same scale.
Reverse three-and-one on the same scale.
Double-tongued sixteenths on the same scale at quarter = 110.

Cycle daily for a month. The patterns become automatic; you stop choosing them in performance.

Now play these

Telemann: Twelve Fantasias, TWV 40:102: The second fantasia, with passages that benefit from every pattern above in sequence.
Telemann: Twelve Fantasias, TWV 40:101: From Lesson 81. Now play it with deliberate articulation pattern choices, varying by passage.

When all four patterns sit at performance tempo without conscious thought, and a recording of the same fantasia played with different pattern choices sounds audibly different from itself, move on to Lesson 83.