Cadenza Notebook (LHS)

“Baroque music was written in outline form: melody, bass line and figured bass which indicated the chords and their inversions.  Musicians would improvise within this structure by ornamenting the melody and filling out the harmonies.  This was the standard notation with composers such as Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach and Handel.  As the custom of composers writing cadenzas became more established, classical musicians gradually lost the skill of spontaneous improvisation…

Handel originally wrote the Concerto in B flat for organ or harp.  The soloist would have been expected to make considerable embellishments to the original version…

This book is written to encourage harpists to improvise or write their own cadenza to demonstrate their musical and technical skills in the style of the baroque era…” Professor Skaila Kanga 2005

Download and read the first page of music