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Go For Baroque
June 9 2007, 2:00 and 7:30 at the Barshinger Center (2007 Schedule)
Have you attended a wedding lately? I have, in fact I was at one yesterday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster . As a trumpet player, I tend to make an appearance at these somewhat stressful ceremonies just at the moment of truth, the bride's entrance. As a side note, it is not recommended that the hired musicians engage the bride within six months of “the event”. These sweet young ladies sadistically evolve into BRIDEZILLA! As I listened to yesterday's musical prelude, I couldn't help but reflect on the repertoire that is traditionally performed for a couple's most important day. Yes, they chose music of the Baroque period (1600-1750) and specifically “Pachelbel's Canon in D” and “Air on a G String”, both titles featured in tonight's concert. Do couples choose these pieces because the beautiful melodies are timeless? Is there purity and elegance in the simplicity of the harmonic structure? Yes and Yes! Again, as I scanned the eight preludes listed in the wedding program, all of the music originated from this one time period of musical history. Allegro's president, T.J. Titcomb, has been campaigning for a program of Vivaldi, Bach, and Pachelbel as long as I can remember attending Allegro board meetings. Well T.J., your wish has been granted, an afternoon/evening of Baroque favorites….oh yeah, and a rather well-written symphony by that guy Mozart.
Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Pachelbel was a German Baroque composer, organist and teacher who brought the southern German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque.
Pachelbel's works enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime; he had many pupils and his music became a model for the composers of south and central Germany . However, he did not have much influence on the most important composers of the late Baroque such as Johann Sebastian Bach. Today Pachelbel is best know for his” Canon in D ”. Did I mention that he only wrote one canon during his lifetime? Thank goodness for that, brides across the world can rest assured that they've chosen the correct piece.
The Canon was written around 1680 and was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo. It was originally paired with a gigue in the same key, although this composition is rarely performed or recorded today. “Canon in D” is a strict three-part melodic canon based, both harmonically and structurally, on a two-measure bass line. Feel free to count the number of times the bass line is repeated or simply watch the smiles on the lower string's faces as they arrive at the 30th or so repetition. Simplistic elegance that is timeless and much beloved across the world, Pachelbel's Canon.
Concerto for Guitar, RV 93 by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Known by his vocation and the color of his hair as “The Red Priest”, Vivaldi spent most of his career as music master at a girl's orphanage in Venice , creating for his pupils some five hundred concerti. He never actually wrote a concerto for the guitar. ( please sit back down, that's no reason to feel duped by this well-meaning chamber orchestra) This now famous work actually began as a trio sonata, not a concerto, and was originally scored for lute, two violins, and continuo. It was a relatively easy matter to transpose the lute part to guitar and expand the violin parts to a full string orchestra and thus add to the guitarist's repertoire a new concerto.
This work was rediscovered in the 1920s, mostly likely written around 1730 at the specific request of the royal governor of Bohemia , who may have played the lute himself. The melodic and memorable outer movements consist of an exciting and spirited opening Allegro giusto with a closing Allegro. The finest of all is the central movement Largo with one of the most beautiful melodies ever played on the lute, or in this case guitar. Like Pachelbel's Canon, this score could certainly be regarded as one of Vivaldi's greatest hits. We are honored to include Allen Krantz, solo guitarist, chamber music artist, and gifted composer, as an Allegro soloist.
Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068 by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
“The opening is so pompous and dignified that one can really envision an
assemblage of important people descending a grand flight of steps. – Goethe
This was Goethe's reaction upon hearing Bach's Overture to “Orchestral Suite No. 3”, performed on piano by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830. The French overture form, which Bach used to open the Suite, still conveyed the impression of royal pomp and majesty stemming from opera and other musical and dramatic acts of homage to Louis XIV at the court of Versailles.
We do not know just when Bach composed his orchestral suites; the original manuscripts have all disappeared. Our best guess is that these gems were written around 1723, shortly before Bach moved to Leipzig . The earliest surviving copies indicate that he conducted all four orchestral suites at concerts of the Collegium Musicum. These would have been modest public gatherings held in coffeehouses. (Can you imagine walking into Starbucks and catching J.S. conducting his Orchestral Suites, casually ordering your iced cappuccino or latte?)
“Orchestra Suite No. 3” is divided into five sections with dance forms following the Overture. The melody of the second movement has become popular under the title “Air on a G String.” German violinist, August Wilhelmj (1845-1908) is to credit for transposing Bach's original melody a ninth lower in order to exploit the rich sonorities of the lowest string on the violin. (Remember when you first found out that the Easter Bunny might have been a hoax? Prepare yourself!) In Bach's original, the violin part does not require the G string at all.
If indeed you enjoy this particular selection in today's concert, feel free to flood me with kudos during intermission. Dr. Norcross (see conductor) asked me for a suggestion of a great piece of Baroque literature that had tasty (probably my term) trumpet parts. That was easy, “Orchestral Suite No. 3” by Bach. Thanks for asking, Brian!
Symphony No. 41, (Jupiter) K.551 by W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
“It is the greatest orchestral work of the world which preceded the French Revolution”
- Sir George Grove, author of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Mozart was a miracle of creativity that walked in the form of a man. Legend has it that he composed his last three symphonies, Nos. 39, 40 and 41, in a mysterious burst of inspiration in the summer of 1788, without a request from a publisher or a performing organization, and then even more mysteriously put them all away without ever hearing them performed. Like the similarly popular myth of his having been done in by his “jealous rival” Antonio Salieri, however, this story simply has no basis in fact. It would have been highly unlikely for so productive, so experienced and so thoroughly professional a composer as Mozart to create any music without either a commission, a request from a publisher, or at the very least a fairly definite assurance of a performance. He did create his three final symphonies as a set, as indicated by the conspicuous contrasts from one to the next in terms of character and instrumentation, and he accomplished the production of all three in less than two months, amazing!
- Allegro vivace : The very opening bars establish the two basic moods of the entire Symphony. A heroic figure for full orchestra alternates with a serene, reflective phrase for strings alone.
- Andante cantabile : The slow movement begins conventionally but soon the Mozartean undercurrent of suppressed agitation begins to stir. The muted violins create a special mood of intimacy.
- Menuetto : This Minuet suggests the playful serenity of mvt. 1 while the droll woodwind phrases of the trio recall Haydn.
- Molto allegro: Mozart gives the opening theme to five string sections in succession, as in the beginning of a fugue. After abandoning the fugal style, we experience a richly symphonic development with dazzling contrapuntal sleight-of-hand. (including a famous passage of quintuple counterpoint- Is that even legal?) The Symphony ends with an exultant blaze of trumpets and drums.
This June 9th concert by Allegro, the Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster, has something for everyone: the elegant simplicity of Pachelbel and Bach; now familiar repertoire of 21st Century weddings, the energy and subtle tones of Vivaldi's Guitar Concerto, and the creativity and genius of a mature Mozart. If you find yourself smiling throughout this performance, join the club. Allegro concerts are for joyful people .
Doug Albert