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Scarlatti, Sonate K.141 by Martha Argerich.

 

 This D minor effort is one of Scarlatti’s finest Sonatas and also one of his most unusual: it is really a toccata whose focus on repeated notes is said to be an attempt to imitate the sonorities of a mandolin. In addition, it makes considerable demands on the soloist with hand-crossings and other keyboard acrobatics executed at rapid tempos.

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.

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]

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.

I especially love the second movement.

 

Lamento della ninfa is the 18th piece from Monteverdi’s eighth book of madrigals (Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi, 1638). The three male voices narrate the story and offer empathy to the nymph while she is lamenting over her abandonment. This movement of the madrigal is a beautiful example for Phrygian progression with the ostinato of its bass line in four descending notes all the way through. The inner turmoil and sorrow of the nymph is mirrored in the music by the melodic and harmonic dissonances.

 

Text: Ottavio Rinuccini

Part I: Non havea Febo ancora (TTB)
Part II: Amor, dicea (STTB)
Part III: Si, tra sdegnosi pianti (TTB)

*****

Original text:

Non havea Febo ancora
recato al mondo il dì
ch’una donzella fuora
del proprio albergo uscì.

Sul pallidetto volto
scorgease il suo dolor,
spesso gli venia sciolto
un gran sospir dal cor.

Sì calpestando fiori,
errava hor qua, hor là,
i suoi perduti amori
così piangendo va:

“Amor,” dicea, il ciel
mirando il piè fermò
“dove, dov’è la fé
che ‘l traditor giurò?

Fa che ritorni il mio
amor com’ei pur fu,
o tu m’ancidi, ch’io
non mi tormenti più.”

Miserella, ah più no,
tanto gel soffrir non può.

“Non vo’ più che i sospiri
se non lontan da me,
no, no, che i suoi martiri
più non dirammi, affé!

Perché di lui mi struggo
tutt’orgoglioso sta,
che sì, che sì se ‘l fuggo
ancor mi pregherà?

Se ciglio ha più sereno
colei che ‘l mio non è,
già non rinchiude in seno
Amor si bella fé.

Né mai si dolci baci
da quella bocca havrai,
né più soavi; ah, taci,
taci, che troppo il sai.”

Sì tra sdegnosi pianti
spargea le voci al ciel;
così ne’ cori amanti
mesce Amor fiamma e gel.

Translation (by Massimo Ossi, slightly edited):

Phoebus had not yet
brought daylight to the world
when a damsel
came out of her dwelling.

Her suffering was plain
on her face,
and frequently she let
great sighs loose from her heart.

Thus trampling the flowers,
she wandered here and there,
and her lost love
she thus wept:

“Love,” she said, stopping
to look at the heavens,
“where, where is the faith
that the traitor swore to me?

Let my love return
as he was,
or else kill me, so that I
may no longer torment myself.”

Poor wretch, alas, nol longer
can she suffer such scorn.

“I don’t want him to sigh
except away from me,
I no longer want him
to confide his sufferings in me.

Because I suffer for him,
he is proud;
will he beseech me
if I flee from him?

She may have a more serene
brow than mine,
but even Love’s breast
does not harbor such beautiful constancy.

Never will he have such sweet kisses
from that mouth,
nor softer – be still,
be still, that he knows all too well.

Thus among scornful weeping
she scattered her laments to the sky;
thus in lovers’ hearts
Love mixes flame and ice.

We’ll quietly file this under things that I won’t be able to play anytime soon. :)

 

Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu in c sharp minor is a technically difficult but also very fun piece to play, and it’s easy to see why it’s among Chopin’s most famous and popular works. It is interesting to note that the middle section was used in the song I’m Always Chasing Rainbows, which was a very popular song in 1918.

Fantasie Impromptu was composed around 1834 but published only after the composer’s death, contrary to his express wish that all unpublished works and sketches should be burned. The version that is heard most often was prepared from Chopin’s sketches by his friend Julian Fontana.

It is a relatively short piece in ABA form. The A section has a sweeping melody of sixteenth notes running up and down the keyboard, accompanied by triplet arpeggios in the left hand. It’s very fast and almost a little chaotic, while the softer middle section with its wonderful cantilena provides a good overall balance to the piece. The coda begins passionately, but calms down little by little, reintroducing the theme from the middle section in the left hand. The work ends peacefully.

 

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