Music #339 - Some Other Composers

Some Other Composers in the Baroque Era

ITALY

Giacomo Carissimi 

(1605 – 1674)

- one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or more accurately, the Roman School of music.

** Jephte (1648) - oratorio (神劇)

* 拉丁語歌詞(oratorio latino) 

* 六聲部及數字低音(basso continuo) * 於劇場舉行首演

(L) “Cantemus omnes Domino” (齊來為主高歌)

 
(R) “Plorate filii Israel” (哭吧，以色列的子民) 

Giuseppe Tartini  

(1692 – 1770) 

An Italian baroque composer and violinist.

“Devil's Trill” Sonata

Alessandro Marcello    

* Oboe Concerto in C minor

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi   

(1710-1736)

A highly talented Italian composer, violinist and organist, who died young (age 26) of TB, he is remembered for:
* La serva padrona / The Servant Mistress - opera buffa / comic opera

* Stabat Mater Dolorosa /聖母瑪利亞悼歌/ Sorrows of Mary during crucifixion of Jesus -  a sacred music

(L) I. Stabat Mater Dolorosa (聖母瑪利亞悼歌) duet

 
(R) IV. Quae moerebat et dolebat (她是何等愁苦悲傷) aria

XIII. Amen

* Querelle des bouffons / Quarrel of the Comic Actors

'In the early 1750s, there was a war of words between admirers of Rameau's traditional French style, and admirers of the newly imported Italian style of Pergolesi. 
        'In the long run, the Italians won, and Rameau's operas finally dropped out of fashion. They were resurrected some 200 years later...'

Source: The Great Composers by Wendy Thompson.

Girolamo Frescobaldi 

(1583-1643)

* II Libro di Toccate / Second Book of Toccatas - Toccata VI

* Fiori musicali / Flowers of Music (organ music for Mass) - Bergamasca 

Francesco Geminiani

(1687-1762)

* Sonatas for Violin, Op.1, No.1 - I. Adagio - Presto

Domenico Paradies 

(1707-1791)

No.6 of 12 “Sonate de gravicembalo”

FRANCE

François Couperin 

​[fʁɑ̃swa kupʁɛ̃]  (1668 – 1733)

A French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist, working for the courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV. 

        He was known as Couperin le Grand ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.
        His most famous and extremely influential book, L'art de toucher le clavecin ("The Art of Harpsichord Playing"), contains suggestions for fingerings, touch, ornamentation and other features of keyboard technique.

Click here for a 3-hour version

Pièces de Clavecin

* La visionaire / The Visionary

* La misterieuse / The Mysterious One

* La Monflambert (named after the wife of a local councillor)

* La muse victorieuse / The Victorious Muse

Marc-Antoine Charpentier  

[maʁk ɑ̃.twan ʃaʁ.pɑ̃.tje]  (1643 – 1704)

- circa 1666, he followed Giacomo Carissimi in Italy for 3 years

- active during the reign of Louis XIV, but never achieved a position at Louis XIV's court

- instead, he produced a wide variety of music for theater and church 

* In nativitatem Domini canticum, H.416 (聖誕歌) 

- dramatic motet (oratorio)

- in oratorio latino, i.e. Latin; sounds more pleasant in French Latin

- II. Memorare testament (記住承諾)

GERMANY

Johann Adolph Hasse  

(1699–1783)

In the mid-1700s, Hasse's operas made him famous throughout Europe. His emphasis on beauty rather than complexity paved the way for the Classical style.

* Artaserse opera

* Cleofide opera

* Lucio Papiro opera

Hasse stages lavish productions at the Dresden Semperoper (opera house built by architect Semper):

 Georg Philipp Telemann 

(1681 – 1767)

A German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist.

* 12 Paris Quartets
* Musique de table
* Bourlesque de Quixotte (Don Quixote) 

BOHEMIAN-AUSTRIA   

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber   

(1644-1704)

* Battalia

ENGLAND

Orlando Gibbons

(1583-1625)

* O Clap Your Hands (8-part anthem):

* The Silver Swan (a madrigal)

* This is the Record of John (a sacred motet)

Jeremiah Clarke

(c.1674-1707)

Trumpet Voluntary / Prince of Denmark's March

(familiar from wedding ceremonies)

Thomas Augustine Arne

(1710-1778)

(L) Rule, Britannia!

 

(R) Thomas & Sally (all-sung? comic opera) 

William Boyce

(1711-1779)

(L) Trio Sonata No.2

 
(R) Solomon

“Praise the Lord O Jerusalem”

Coronation Anthem for George III

Music #338 - Tomaso Albinoni

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)

"a Venetian Baroque composer" 
     
Adagio in G minor  
* a neo-Baroque composition popularly attributed to Albinoni
* but actually composed in 1945 by musicologist and Albinoni biographer Remo Giazotto (1910-1998, Italian), based on a manuscript fragment by Albinoni, uncovered from the ruins of the Saxon State Library at Dresden, caused by Allied bombing in WWII.

(L) @ Basilica of the Pannonhalma Archabbey, Hungary

 

(R) Sissel

Il Divo

Music #337 - Gregorio Allegri

Gregorio Allegri  

(1582 – 1652, Italian priest)

Allegri joined the choir of the Sistine Chapel as composer and singer in 1629, and remained a member until his death.

Miserere  

- "Miserere mei, Deus" / "Have mercy on me, O God"

It was composed in c.1638 for use in the Sistine Chapel at Vatican during matins (during Holy Week) only. At some point, writing it down or performing it elsewhere was punishable by excommunication.

The Sixteen choir

 click for score to sing along with The Sixteen

According to the popular story, the 14-year-old Mozart was visiting Rome in 1770, when he first heard the piece during a Wednesday service. Later that day, he wrote it down entirely from memory, returning to the Chapel that Friday to make minor corrections. 
  
Later, Mozart met a British historian, who obtained the piece from him and took it to London, where it was published in 1771. 

Choir of King's College, Cambridge

King Henry VI founded King's College, Cambridge in 1441

to provide daily singing in his Chapel

Mozart was summoned to Rome by the Pope; only instead of excommunicating the boy, the Pope showered praises on him for his feat of musical genius. 

Since the lifting of the ban, Allegri's Miserere has become one of the most popular a cappella choral works now performed.                     

--- Wikipedia

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Notes:

Sistine Chapel - paintings by Michelangelo
enacted in 'The Agony & The Ecstasy' movie

The Miserere is a setting of Psalm 51 (50) composed for exclusive use in the Sistine Chapel during matins, as part of the exclusive Tenebrae service on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week.  
   
It is written for two choirs, one of five voices (SSATB) and one of four (SATB), and is an example of Renaissance polyphony surviving to the present day: one of the choirs sings a simple version of the original Miserere chant; the other, spatially separated, sings an ornamented "commentary" on this. 

From Allegri, to Mozart, to Mendelssohn

Music #336 - Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau  - 2 hours of Rameau at Louvre
​[ʒɑ̃filip ʁaˈmo];  (1683 – 1764)

One of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera.  He is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François Couperin.


Les Indes galantes / The Courtly Indies -  an opéra-ballet consisting of a prologue and 4 acts.

 - rondeau 

Orchestral suite (with score)
* Prologue
* Act 1 - Le Turc généreux  / The Gracious Turk
* Act 2 - Les Incas du Pérou / The Incas of Peru
* Act 3 - Les Fleurs / The Flowers
* Act 4 - Les Sauvages / The Savages of America

The premier menuet from Les Indes Galantes was used in the Marie Antoinette (2006) movie, when 15-year-old Louis-Auguste (future King Louis XVI) married 14-year-old Marie Antoinette from Austria.

Yes, both were beheaded in the subsequent French Revolution.

           
Castor et Pollux -  tragédies-lyriques - 5 acts
* Overture


Pièces de clavecin - harpsichord pieces
* New Suite

Source: Wikipedia

Music #335 - Domenico Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti 

(1685 – 1757)

An Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. 

He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. 

Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.   

                                      --- Source: Wikipedia

From 1719 to 1728, he worked in Lisbon, particularly teaching the king's musical daughter. 

When the princess was married to the Crown Prince of Spain, Scarlatti accompanied her to Madrid, and remained in her service for the rest of his life, and it was for her that he wrote the 550 one-movement keyboard sonatas on which his fame rests.

--- Source: The Great Composers

(L) Sonata in G major, K.2

 

(R) Sonata in D minor, K.517

Sonatas in A Major

(L) K181          (R) K182

 

K.322

Stabat Mater á 10 voix

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Alessandro Scarlatti

(1660 – 1725)

An Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera.

It was at the Teatro Capranica in Rome that he produced some of his finest and most expressive operas, including Telemaco, Marco Attilio Regoló, and Griselda.

La Griselda 

- an opera seria ('serious opera' vs comedy) in 3 acts

- a king of Sicily and his messy marriage with a poor shepherdess, Griselda

Music #334 - Händel - Zadok the Priest

George Frideric Händel

(1685 - 1759) 

King George II

Zadok the Priest 

For the coronation of King George II, Handel composed four anthems, including: 

* Zadok the Priest, the coronation anthem. 

It has then been played in coronation processions at Westminster Cathedral, from KG2 (in 1727) to QE2 (in 1953).

Notes:  
Zadok was a priest in King Soloman's time.
The lyrics are from the Bible (1 Kings 1:38–40) - easy to sing along:

     Zadok, the Priest and Nathan, the Prophet anointed Solomon King.

     And all the people rejoic'd ... .... ...., and said:

     'God save The King, long live The King, 
     may The King live for ever! Amen, Hallelujah!'

= = = = =

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Coronation of Queen Victoria (1838) as in The Young Victoria movie. 

* Hear 'Zadok the Priest' in the background?

* The guy with a mustache is her husband Prince Albert (of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a German state). 
* In Hong Kong, named after him are two short roads embedding the Government House: the Upper and the Lower Albert Roads. 

* After Prince Albert’s death of typhoid fever, the Queen "entered a state of mourning and wore black for the remainder of her life. She avoided public appearances, and rarely set foot in London."  

5 Things You May Not Know About Queen Victoria
Her statue remains in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay
1. She was barely 5 feet tall.
2. She proposed to her handsome first cousin from a German state, Prince Albert, and married him, creating a royal house with a German name. (George V renamed it to Windsor during WW1 with Germany.)
3. She was raised by her widow mother, and later became a widow mother herself for decades. (Jubilee St and Victoria St in the Central marked her jubilee celebration; Queen's Streets, Victoria Peak/Park/Harbour.....)
4. She was the first known carrier (in the royal family) of hemophilia, causing premature deaths to her sons, and her daughters' sons (boys were victims whereas girls were carriers).
5. At least 6 serious assassination attempts were made against her.
How a royal love changed culture

Coats of Arms:-   

House of Hanover

* Queen Victoria inherited a German house name of Hanover from King George I. 

KG1 came to the English throne as a 54-year-old, dull and uninspiring man.  He cared little for life in Britain, and never learned to speak English.
   
His son KG2 spoke English in public, and English in private.

House of
Saxe-Coburg & Gotha

* Victoria found Prince Albert extremely handsome, and gave birth to 9 children in their 20 years of marriage.  Their children inherited Albert’s German family name. 

Anglo and Saxon were German tribes migrated to England, anyway.





               

House of Windsor

* During WW1, when the general British feeling was hatred against the Germans, law was passed in 1917 to rename the royal family of George V to the House of Windsor.  
            
And, thereafter, even issues of a Regina (e.g. QE2) are members of her House.

=====

1715 Forerunner founded The Three Choirs Festival, a music festival that held annually at the end of July, rotating among the cathedrals of the Three Counties (Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester) and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme.

 

1726 The Academy of Vocal Music was founded in London to "promote the study and practice of vocal and instrumental harmony", to perform music by such composers as Byrd and Purcell. In 1731 it was renamed the Academy of Ancient Music. 

1748 Holywell Music Room in Oxford was opened for concert.

Handel performed in
the Holywell Music Room

1776 Concerts of Ancient Music was founded to perform Baroque music, including that of Handel and Corelli.

Music #333 - Händel - Water & Fireworks

George Frideric Händel 

(1685 - 1759)

Handel & KG1 on the Thames

Water Music  (3 suites)

After the coronation of King George I (from Hanover) in London, there was a grand water party on the Thames River.  As the royal boats floated down the Thames to Whitehall, all the musicians on boats competed for his attention.  

Suddenly from a boat at the rear, Handel conducted his Water Music (with French horn), louder than all others. KG1 liked this piece, and re-hired Handel as court musician; a while ago at Hanover he had fired Handel who spent too much time at London.

Suite Nº 2 - Mvt.2 Alla Hornpipe

Click here for all 3 suites (totaling 1-hour)

Dancing to the Water Music

 

Music for the Royal Fireworks Suite

* Mvt 1 - Overture

* Mvt 2-5 
   [0:00] Mvt 2 - Bourrée: a fast French dance
   [1:44] Mvt 3 - La Paix: Largo alla siciliana  
   [4:56] Mvt 4 - La Réjouissance / Rejoice 
   [7:19] Mvt 5 - Menuets 1 and 2

Music #332 - Händel

Georg Friedrich Händel 

[ˈhɛndəl]  /HAN-dle/   (1685 – 1759)

A German-born British Baroque composer, active in Italy (1706-13), famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos.

Messiah   

Handel's Messiah oratorio has 3 parts: The Birth, The Passion, and The Aftermath - of Jesus Christ.  

At the end of Part 2 is the Hallelujah Chorus, which has a convention for the audience to stand.  Here you'll notice 
* the standing audience
* its simple and repetitive lyrics is easy to sing along

* 英語演出 * 體裁大型 * 於劇場舉行首演

A full version (2-1/4 hours)

One legend was that two and half centuries ago, King George II of England stood up when hearing this chorus, and everybody else there had to follow.  That started the standing convention, for centuries and worldwide.              

This video has an open score, with separate Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass, for us to try them all.  Or, just sing along.

The following shows a creative way to display the lyrics intended for the audience to sing along.  But the audience chose to laugh along.

* Silent Monks

Handel conducting an oratorio
- anonymous 
- etching on paper (20 cm dia) c.1740
- (not on display) British Museum (London)

Israel in Egypt (在埃及的以色列人) 

- biblical oratorio

* 英語演出 * 體載大型 (雙合唱團) * 於劇院首演 (1739) 

- VIII. “He smote all the first born” 

(牠又擊殺他們國內所有長子)

Giulio Cesare

Full name: Giulio Cesare in Egitto ("Julius Caesar in Egypt") opera

Cleopatra sings to Julius Caesar

The Harmonious Blacksmith

- is the popular name of the final movement, Air and variations, of Suite No. 5 for harpsichord.
* piano

Did you sing it in grade school?  I did.

Alexander's Feast   

Click here for a 2-hour version

Sarabande  

A dance melody in triple metre (3/4 or  9/8) 

* Adapted in Barry Lyndon (1975)

* Maksim on piano

Organ Concerto Op. 4 No. 4

Concerto Grosso

* Opus 3, No.1-6
* Opus 6, No.1-12

Passacaglia for Cello and Violin 

- by Handel-Halvorsen

* a violin between 2 knees

* piano

Xerxes (or Serse) opera

* Largo is the first aria of the opera. Its Italian name is "Ombra mai fù" / “Never has there been a shade”.

* King Xerxes sings in praise of a tree's shade as he sits beneath it.  

The lyrics is simple and repetitive:

Ombra mai fù --- di vegetabile, 
--- cara ed amabile, --- soave più.

[Never has there been a shade --- of a plant 
--- more dear and lovely --- or more gentle.]

The score for King Xerxes was originally composed to be sung by a soprano castrato, but is now rearranged for other voice types (e.g. soprano or mezzo-soprano).

A castrato was a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of (female) soprano; he was castrated before puberty, so that no testosterone would change his larynx to a man's, but his lungs developed to a man's (a bigger resonance box than a woman's).

= = = = =
Extra:
* Lascia ch'io pianga / Let me weep
* Cara Sposa / Dear bride

Music #331 - Bach - Orch Suites

Johann Sebastian Bach 

(1685 - 1750) 

         

Orchestral Suites (BWV 1066-1069)

Bach has composed 4 Orchestral Suites

Orchestral Suite No. 2 
- Mvt. 7 is this "Badinerie" - a brief and lively dance

The badinerie has become a show-piece for solo flutists, 
due to its quick pace and difficulty.

Orchestral Suite No. 3 
- Mvt. 2 is this beautiful "Air". 

One violinist re-arranged it for violin and piano, and transposed the composition to C major, so that it can be played entirely on G string of the violin.  Later, Russian performer Mischa Elman called it "Air on the G String".
[Reminder: a violin has 4 strings: G, D, A and E.]

Brandenburg Concertos  

Bach composed 6 Brandenburg Concertos for the margrave of Brandenberg-Schwedt. 

* No. 2 in F major   
        Note specially Mvt.3 - Allegro assai

* No. 3 in G major

* No. 4 in G major

* No. 5 in D major

Italian Concerto  

- three-movement concerto for two-manual harpsichord solo

- BWV 971

* Mvt.2   * Mvt.3