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The DWR Friday Musical Interlude – Capricho Arabe
September 16, 2016 in Housekeeping, Music | Tags: Classical Guitar, Francisco Tárrega, The DWR Friday Musical Interlude | by The Arbourist | Comments closed
About the composer (Francisco Tárrega) – Today’s guitar repertory contains centuries of music of various forms and stories. One particular man from Spain has redefined the modern guitar as a serious solo instrument by transcribing music from piano, contributing to the development of technique, composition of music, and furthering pedagogical studies. His name, Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), is synonymous with the Spanish guitar.1 If one examines the music of Tárrega, different influences from Chopin to the folk music of the Iberian Peninsula utilize and require different performances of particular aspects of the music. Understanding the history also yields information to determine an appropriate affect of the piece. I believe these nuances help bring out the characteristics of and strengthen the affects of Tárrega’s pieces.
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The DWR Friday Choral Interlude – “Cantique de Jean Racine” Gabriel Fauré
September 9, 2016 in Music | Tags: "Cantique de Jean Racine", Fauré, The DWR Friday Choral Interlude | by The Arbourist | 2 comments
Recently sung this at a choir bootcamp. We sight read, but it turned out pretty not so bad.
Verbe égal au Très-Haut, notre unique espérance,
Jour éternel de la terre et des cieux;
De la paisible nuit nous rompons le silence,
Divin Sauveur, jette sur nous les yeux!
Répands sur nous le feu de ta grâce puissante,
Que tout l’enfer fuie au son de ta voix;
Dissipe le sommeil d’une âme languissante,
Qui la conduit à l’oubli de tes lois!
O Christ, sois favorable à ce peuple fidèle
Pour te bénir maintenant rassemblé.
Reçois les chants qu’il offre à ta gloire immortelle,
Et de tes dons qu’il retourne comblé!
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – Scarlatti, Sonate K.141
September 2, 2016 in Music | Tags: Scarlatti, Sonate K.141, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | Comments closed
Scarlatti, Sonate K.141 by Martha Argerich.
Marked Allegro, the work’s opening is striking: the sound world of a mandolin is immediately invoked in the manic character of the repeated notes. Some listeners may identify this rapid-fire, tremolo-like effect more with the guitar, another instrument Scarlatti often imitated in his keyboard works.
The main theme scurries about playfully, but with a sense of urgency in its hyperactivity. The material of the second subject is just as driven, but focuses less on repeated notes, more on heightening the sense of conflict and resolution, but always with elegance, if a breathless elegance. Midway through Scarlatti turns to development of his thematic material, as was his usual course. Here the music maintains the same busy mood in expanding largely on the secondary material, and in those nervous repeated notes as well. Without a doubt this three-and-a-half minute gem is one of Scarlatti’s finest and most challenging sonatas.
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – Georg Böhm – Praeludium, Fuga & Postludium in G minor
August 26, 2016 in Music | Tags: Fuga & Postludium in G minor, Georg Böhm - Praeludium, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | Comments closed
Two renditions, first for harpsichord, then organ. Let me know if you find someone performing the piece on the piano. :)
Böhm was born in 1661 in Hohenkirchen. He received his first music lessons from his father, a schoolmaster and organist who died in 1675. He may also have received lessons from Johann Heinrich Hildebrand, Kantor at Ohrdruf, who was a pupil of Heinrich Bach and Johann Christian Bach. After his father’s death, Böhm studied at the Lateinschule at Goldbach, and later at the Gymnasium at Gotha, graduating in 1684. Both cities had Kantors taught by the same members of the Bach family who may have influenced Böhm. On 28 August 1684 Böhm entered the University of Jena. Little is known about Böhm’s university years or his life after graduation. He resurfaces again only in 1693, in Hamburg. We know nothing of how Böhm lived there, but presumably he was influenced by the musical life of the city and the surrounding area. French and Italian operas were regularly performed in Hamburg, while in the area of sacred music, Johann Adam Reincken of St. Katharine’s Church (Katharinenkirche) was one of the leading organists and keyboard composers of his time. Böhm may have also heard Vincent Lübeck in the nearby Stade, or possibly even Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck, which was also close.[1]
In 1698 Böhm succeeded Christian Flor as organist of the principal church of Lüneburg, the Church of St. John (Johanniskirche). Soon after Flor died in 1697, Böhm applied for an audition for the post, mentioning that he had no regular employment at the time. He was promptly accepted by the town council, settled in Lüneburg and held the position until his death. He married and had five sons.[1] From 1700 to 1702 he must have met and possibly tutored the young Johann Sebastian Bach, who arrived in Lüneburg in 1700 and studied at the Michaelisschule, a school associated with the Church of St. Michael (Michaeliskirche).[2] Practically no direct evidence exists to prove that Bach studied under Böhm, and indeed studying with the organist of the Johanniskirche would have been difficult for a pupil of the Michaelisschule, since the two choirs were not on good terms. Yet this apprenticeship is extremely likely. Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, writing to Johann Nikolaus Forkel in 1775, claimed his father loved and studied Böhm’s music, and a correction in his note shows that his first thought was to say that Böhm was Johann Sebastian’s teacher.[2] On 31 August 2006 the discovery of the earliest known Bach autographs was announced, one of them (a copy of Reincken‘s famous chorale fantasia An Wasserflüssen Babylon) signed “Il Fine â Dom. Georg: Böhme descriptum ao. 1700 Lunaburgi”. The “Dom.” bit may suggest either “domus” (house) or “Dominus” (master), but in any case it proves that Bach knew Böhm personally.[3] This connection must have become a close friendship that lasted for many years, for in 1727 Bach named none other than Böhm as his northern agent for the sale of keyboard partitas nos. 2 and 3.[2]
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – J.S. Bach – Adagio from BWV 974 in D Minor
August 19, 2016 in Music | Tags: Adagio, Bach, BWV 974 2nd Movement, D Minor, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | 1 comment
Bach works his calculated magic once again.
So when we learn that the Concerto for keyboard No. 3 in D minor, BWV 974, is based on an oboe concerto composed by Alessandro Marcello, it seems most curious — Marcello was not the skilled, stylish, and innovative composer Vivaldi was, nor was he the nephew of Bach‘s employer, as was young Duke Johann Ernst. And the fact of the matter is that, though Marcello had a certain influence in Italian music circles, he was not really a particularly fine composer (he was as much mathematician as musician), and, unlike Vivaldi, cannot be said to have exerted any real influence on Bach. One is therefore tempted to speculate that Bach chose to transcribe the Marcello oboe concerto perhaps even just to test his own skill — with an inferior source, his adaptive acumen would have to be all the sharper. And as he was not at all averse to altering Vivaldi‘s music when making the transcriptions, imagine how much more willing he would be to edit, refine, and rewrite the music of a really second-rate composer!
The Marcello-Bach concerto is in the usual three movements of an Italian instrumental concerto. Here they are: 1. unmarked (Allegro assumed), 2. Adagio, 3. Presto. The shell of the first movement is very clearly Marcello’s work; but Bach is quick to thicken the lean, open textures of the original — at the center of the movement things grow very dense indeed, with imitative, hand-against-hand sixteenth notes building up to eight-voice chords. The Adagio has a limber solo line atop steady eighth notes, while the Presto finale is a 3/8 time romp in near-continuous sixteenth notes, and almost exclusively in two contrapuntal voices.
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – Cello Suite No.1 – J.S. Bach
August 12, 2016 in Music | Tags: Cello Suite No. 1, J.S. Bach, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | 2 comments
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – J S Bach, Sicilienne BWV 1031
August 5, 2016 in Music | Tags: J.S. Bach, Sicilienne BWV 1031, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | 1 comment


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