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The DWR Baroque Interlude – J.S Bach Invention No.2 in C Minor
September 11, 2015 in Music | Tags: Bach Invention No.2 in C minor, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | Comments closed
he Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772–801, also known as the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, are a collection of thirty short keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): 15 inventions, which are 2-part contrapuntal pieces, and 15 sinfonias, which are 3-part contrapuntal pieces. They were originally written as musical exercises for his students.
Bach titled the collection:
Honest method, by which the amateurs of the keyboard – especially, however, those desirous of learning – are shown a clear way not only (1) to learn to play cleanly in two parts, but also, after further progress, (2) to handle three obligate parts correctly and well; and along with this not only to obtain good inventions (ideas) but to develop the same well; above all, however, to achieve a cantabile style in playing and at the same time acquire a strong foretaste of composition.
We’ve featured Invention No.2 already, but as a keyboard piece. I love this rendition of it. :)
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – Concerto for Two Violins, Strings and Continuo in D minor, BWV 1043
August 14, 2015 in Music | Tags: BWV 1043, Concerto for Two Violins, J.S. Bach, Strings and Continuo in D minor, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | 1 comment
The Concerto for Two Violins, Strings and Continuo in D minor, BWV 1043, also known as the Double Violin Concerto, is perhaps one of the most famous works by J. S. Bach and considered among the best examples of the work of the late Baroque period. Bach wrote it between 1717 and 1723 when he was the Kapellmeister at the court of Anhalt-Köthen, Germany.[1] Later in 1739, in Leipzig, he created an arrangement for two harpsichords, transposed into C minor, BWV 1062.[1] In addition to the two soloists, the concerto is scored for strings and basso continuo.
The concerto is characterized by the subtle yet expressive relationship between the violins throughout the work. The musical structure of this piece uses fugal imitation and much counterpoint.
The concerto comprises three movements:
- Vivace
- Largo ma non tanto
- Allegro
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – Bach – March in D major, BWV Anh. 122
August 7, 2015 in Music | Tags: Bach, Piano, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | Comments closed
Another deceptively simple looking pieces from the Master. I’ve tackled this one and well, it still has the best of me. That chromatic transition at the end of the A section is just death, let me assure you. :)
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The DWR Baroque Interlude – Francois Couperin – The Israel Sinfonietta.
March 6, 2015 in Music | Tags: Couperin, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | 1 comment
Couperin was born in Paris. He was taught by his father, Charles Couperin, who died when François was about 10, and by Jacques Thomelin. In 1685 he became the organist at the church of Saint-Gervais, Paris, a post he inherited from his father and that he would pass on to his cousin, Nicolas Couperin, and other members of the family. In 1693 Couperin succeeded his teacher Thomelin as organist at the Chapelle Royale (Royal Chapel) with the title organiste du Roi, organist by appointment to Louis XIV.
In 1717 Couperin became court organist and composer, with the title ordinaire de la musique de la chambre du Roi. With his colleagues, Couperin gave a weekly concert, typically on Sunday. Many of these concerts were in the form of suites for violin, viol, oboe, bassoon and harpsichord, on which he was a virtuoso player.
Couperin moved to the Rue Radziwill, close to the Académie Royale de Musique, in 1724. He stayed there for the rest of his life. He died in Paris in 1733.[1]
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – Bach, Gavottes I & II (Cello Suite V, BWV 1011, guitar)
February 6, 2015 in Music | Tags: Bach, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | Comments closed
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – Les Barricades Mystérieuses
January 30, 2015 in Music | Tags: Couperin, Les Barricades Mystérieuses, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | 1 comment
Les Barricades Mystérieuses (The Mysterious Barricades) was composed in 1717 for the harpsichord by François Couperin. It is the fifth piece in his “Ordre 6ème de clavecin” in B-flat major from his second book of collected harpsichord pieces (Pièces de Clavecin).[ It is emblematic of the style brisé characteristic of French Baroque keyboard music.
Les Barricades Mystérieuses was originally published with the spelling Les Baricades Mistérieuses [“single r” in the first word, and “i” rather than “y” in the second word]. All four possible spelling combinations have since been used with “double r” and a “y” being the most common. There has been much speculation on the meaning of the phrase “mysterious barricades” with no direct evidence available to back up any theory. Nevertheless, of those that link the title to features of the music itself, Evnine believes harpsichordist Luke Arnason’s is the most plausible:
“The title Les Barricades Mystérieuses is probably meant to be evocative rather than a reference to a specific object, musical or otherwise. Scott Ross, in a master class filmed and distributed by Harmonia Mundi, likens the piece to a train. This clearly cannot have been the precise image Couperin was trying to convey, but it is easy to hear in Les Barricades the image of a heavy but fast-moving object that picks up momentum. In that sense, the mysterious barricades are perhaps those which cause the “train” to slow down and sometimes stop… This hypothesis seems to fit in with the pedagogical aims of Couperin’s music, since the composer presents himself as something of a specialist in building sound through legato, style luthé playing…Moreover, it seems to form a set with the following piece, Les Bergeries. This latter piece, though more melodic than Les Barricades, set in a higher register and more bucolic in feeling, is also an exercise in using a repetitive motif (in this case a left hand ostinato evocative of the musette) to build sound without seeming mechanical or repetitive. Both Les Barricades Mystérieuses and Les Bergeries, then, are exercises in building (and relaxing) sound and momentum elegantly.[5]
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The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude – J.S. Bach Sonata for Viola da Gamba & Harpsichord in G minor, No.3,
January 2, 2015 in Music | Tags: J.S. Bach, No.3, Sonata for Viola da Gamba & Harpsichord in G minor, The DWR Friday Baroque Interlude | by The Arbourist | Comments closed
Although the circumstances behind Bach’s composition of three Sonatas for harpsichord and viola da gamba (BWV 1027-29) are unknown, recent research indicates that they were most likely written in the early 1740’s, when the greatest virtuosos of the viola da gamba were long a thing of the past. No original source combines all three sonatas into a cycle, but a single score of the Sonata in G Major (BWV 1027) that details performance instructions for ornamentation and articulation supports the idea that Bach wrote the sonatas for Carl Friedrich Abel, the son of Cöthen colleague Christian Ferdinand Abel, for performance during his 1737-1743 sojourn in Leipzig.
The viola da gamba emerged in Spain during the fifteenth century, perhaps as a hybrid between the North African rebab and the Spanish vihuela de mano. With six strings and a fretted fingerboard, this novel instrument in various sizes traveled quickly to Italy and was soon being produced by master luthiers throughout the Continent and England. Bach became acquainted with the North German instruments owned by Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, and an inventory of Bach’s possessions shows that he owned a hundred-year-old English “viol” at the time of his death.
A description of a harpsichord collaborating with a viola da gamba can be found in the Trattado de glosas published by Diego Ortiz in 1533, but instead of the harpsichord simply introducing themes to the viol for further elaboration, Bach calls for the harpsichordist’s left hand to play basso continuo while the right hand acts as a melody instrument.
The Sonata in G minor (BWV 1029) differs from the other two sonatas in that it is in the three-movement Italian concerto form. From the outset, the harpsichord’s accompaniment resembles the orchestral texture of the Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G Major (BWV 1048). In the adagio, Bach exploits the viola da gamba’s capacity to soar in a movingly, tender way, and the final allegro deftly handles a profusion of themes.
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