Baroque

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Basso Continuo

Basso Continuo (or thoroughbass) is a well-known term for regular listeners of Baroque music. But, what is actually meant with it, and where does it originate from?

Imagine being organist in a big church in Italy, around the year 1600. Composers tend to write for ever increasing ensembles. It can happen that a piece for twelve-voiced choir appears on your music stand. As an organist, you are facing the task to accompany such a composition, which, of course, is quite impractical, because you have to read twelve parts at the same time. Moreover, it would require a lot of precious paper. A simple solution for this is needed.

The observation is quickly made that many compositions can be considered as a sequence of chords. What if you would only write down those chords? That would save an enormous amount of work. But then one problem is left. The bass tone is very important. Playing another bass note than the one the choir is singing would violate the composition. So, the final solution is to only notate the bass notes together with indications for the cords. This is the very principle of Basso Continuo. Next to organ accompaniment in churches, this principle was also applied in secular music, for example in operas, or in sonatas for solo instruments.

In the seventeenth century, this way of accompaniment became standard, only to disappear at the end of the eighteenth century. Even composers didn’t take the effort to write all notes of the accompaniment. This was considered the task of the performer. He was expected to make up something intelligent above the bass line, based on the chord indications. These cords are denoted with figures. Hence, this notation is also known as figured bass. These figures indicate which notes the player should use in any case. It could, for example, look like this:

Voorbeeld Basso Continuo - Corelli, La Fiolla

Example Basso Continuo - Corelli, La Fiolla

A continuo-player could make this of it: (mp3source
Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5
Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5. By: Andrew Manze, Richard Egarr (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907298 99)

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)
. This is the accompaniment for La Follia by Arcangelo Corelli, as realized by harpsichord player Richard Egarr. As soon as the violin enters, Eggar reduces the number of notes he is playing, providing a more discrete realization of the same bass line: (mp3source
Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5
Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5. By: Andrew Manze, Richard Egarr (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907298 99)

Details: Amazon.com or Emusic.com
)
.

Often, a continuo part is performed by two instruments: a bass instrument and a chordal instrument; for example, a harpsichord and a cello, or an organ and a bassoon, etc.

Aanbevolen cd’s en dvd’s

Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5
Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5. By: Andrew Manze, Richard Egarr (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907298 99)

Details: Amazon.com or Emusic.com

Antonio Vivaldi

Anyone who is familiar with classical music knows the Italian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). Particularly famous are his Four Seasons, of which almost as many recordings exist as there are violists. It might therefore be surprising that Vivaldi and his music were unknown for more than one hundred years. From several decades after his death until the beginning of the twentieth century, Vivaldi’s compositions were rarely heard.

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi

During his lifetime, Vivaldi was famous; not only as composer, but also as a violist. Apart from being a musician, he was a clergyman as well. In 1703 he was ordained priest, but soon he resigned, maybe because of a chronic bronchitis, or because his musical ambitions were in the end stronger than his clergical ambitions.

He wrote many compositions for the choir and orchestra of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, a Venetian Institution devoted to the care of ophnaned girls, where he was appointed maestro di violino in 1703 and later maestro dei concerti.

Vivaldi was well known for his vanity. He stated, for example, that he was able to compose a piece in shorter time than someone else could copy it. This may be exaggerated, but it is definitely true that he was a quite prolific composer. The catalog that was compiled in 1973 by Peter Ryom (the Ryom Verzeichnis – RV), mentions more than 700 compositions, including aproximately 550 concertos.

Already during his lifetime, his reputation was declining. He probably died in poverty. He ows his rediscovery to another Baroque composer, Johann Sebastian Bach (who was actually forgotten for half a century as well). Bach transcribed some of Vivaldi’s concertos for harpsichord and organ. For example, the concerto for two violins and orchestra op 3.8 (mp3source
Vivaldi: Double Concertos
Vivaldi: Double Concertos. By: Akademie für alte Musik (Harmonia Mundi France HMC 901975)

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)
, was transcribed by Bach for organ: (mp3source
Bach: Organ Works, Vol. 15
Bach: Organ Works, Vol. 15. By: Gerhard Weinberger (CPO 777018)

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)
.

Obviously, Bach was very interested in these concertos. When the Bach research came to steam in the nineteenth century, it was for this reason that researches got interested in Vivadi’s music. They looked up Vivaldi’s originals of the Bach transcriptions, and they concluded that Bach actually made it better. Only in the early twentieth century, Vivaldi was fully rehabilitated when musicologists discovered the important role he played in the history of the concerto – and with that, in the pre-history of the symphony. The rediscovery of his personal music archive in 1920 made his star rise even faster. Today he is among the big money makers for the classical music industry.

Recommended cd’s

Vivaldi: Double Concertos
Vivaldi: Double Concertos. By: Akademie für alte Musik (Harmonia Mundi France HMC 901975)

Details: Amazon.com or Emusic.com

Bach: Organ Works, Vol. 15
Bach: Organ Works, Vol. 15. By: Gerhard Weinberger (CPO 777018)

Details: Amazon.com or Emusic.com

Download 25 FREE songs at eMusic.com!

The further one goes back into music history, the more authorship questions arise. It is even possible that one and the same composition is attributed to different composers in different historical manuscripts. Often, though not always, the availability of an autograph (the manuscript of the composer himself) provides sufficient evidence to attribute the piece. Of many pieces, however, only copies have survived. Therefore, it can be quite a puzzle to find the composer of a certain composition.

A recent solution of an authorship question added an interesting composer to Dutch music history. The compositions in question are six Concerti Armonici, a collection of concertos for strings and basso continuo, which were composed in the first half of the eighteenth century. To get an impression of the pieces, listen to these two fragments from the fifth concerto: Adagio-Largo (mp3source
Wassenaer: 6 Concerti Armonici
Wassenaer: 6 Concerti Armonici. By: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; Ton Koopman (Apex 0927495712)

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)
, and Da Capella (mp3source
Wassenaer: 6 Concerti Armonici
Wassenaer: 6 Concerti Armonici. By: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; Ton Koopman (Apex 0927495712)

Details: Amazon.com
)
. In 1740 these concerti appeared in print in The Hague. The edition was prepared by Carlo Ricciotti, who was a well known music publisher and violist. He dedicated the music to the Dutch nobleman Willem Bentinck. In his preface, Ricciotti tells us that this music was composed by an ‘illustrious hand’. He mentions no name, though. Since the compositions are of high quality, there has been quite some interest in the question to who this illustrious hand belonged.

In 1755, the score was printed again. This time in London by publisher Walsh. In those days, in which copyright was not regulated by law, such things could happen. Walsh attributed the pieces to Ricciotti. In later times further attributions were made to Georg Friedrich Handel, Johann Adam Birkenstock, Fortunato Chelleri and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. The attribution to Pergolesi has been the best known. Probably because he already was famous for his Stabat Mater, which makes an attribution to him interesting from a commercial perspective. Who will buy a recording of concerti by a certain Birkenstock?

The solution to this question was found in 1980 by the Dutch musicologist Albert Dunning, nearly 250 years after the concerti appeared in print for the first time. Dunning discovered a manuscript of the six concerti in the archives of the castle at Twickel. Attached to this manuscript he found a note of the composer stating that he wrote the pieces between 1725 and 1740, and that he, although reluctantly, gave permission to publish them in print. By comparing handwritings, Dunning showed that the note was written by Count Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, who lived at the castle at that time.

Graaf Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer
Graaf Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer

After this identification, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Willem Bentinck, to who the compositions were dedicated, organized house concerts at which Carlo Ricciotti played first violin. Van Wassenaer had an high social position and consorted with important politicians. Probably he wanted to keep his musical activities private. Anyhow, with this discovery music history has been enriched with an interesting composer.

Recommended cd’s

Wassenaer: 6 Concerti Armonici
Wassenaer: 6 Concerti Armonici. By: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; Ton Koopman (Apex 0927495712)

Details: Amazon.com


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