Muhlenberg High School

24.  Prelude

Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1666 - 1729)

34.  Instrumental Preludefrom Samson

35. "Tempête" ("Tempest") from Le Sommeil d'Ulisse (The Sleep of Ulysses)

It is the genre of the French cantata that provides the following two musical examples.  With the 1703 publication of Cantatas françoises by Jean-Baptiste Morin (1677-1745), the French cantata became established as a type of chamber entertainment, in which instrumental numbers, recitatives, and airs told dramatic biblical stories or heroic myths. Aside from la Guerre, who wrote her first cantatas just four years after Morin's publication, other composers of the new French genre included Andre Cazzora (1660-1744), Michel de Montclair (1666-1737), Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738), and Philippe Courbois (ca. 1705-1730).

La Guerre's early cantatas are based on biblical stories, in keeping with the emphasis on sacred music at Versailles during the last decade of Louis XIV's rule.  Her third book of cantatas, dedicated to the Elector of Ba­varia, includes three extended cantatas, based on mythological subjects, which may have been intended for stage performance. Typical of the form, both Samson from Book 2 (1711) and Le Sommeil d'Ulisse (1715) contain a Prelude, resembling the French Overture in its slow, dotted rhythms, an "Air Furieux" or a "Tempest" number, and a Finale that provides "the moral of the story."  These characteristic features alternate with the usual recitatives and airs.  Both cantatas are scored for voices, strings, continue, and a wind instrument, either flute or bassoon (Jezic 41).

Text Translation

Jezic, D. P. (1994). Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York.

Stevens, D. (1967). From The Renaissance. New York, NY, USA: Time-Life Records.

Early Baroque Exam Study Guide

Topics covered:

1)      Transition from Renaissance to Baroque

a)      Music in Venice

b)      Extravagance versus Control

c)      Important differences between Renaissance & Baroque

2)      Style Features

a)      Rhythm & Meter

b)      Texture: Basso Continuo, Ground Bass, Bass Ostinato

c)      Functional Harmony

3)      Opera

a)      Recitative

b)      Aria

4)      Instrumental Music

a)      Dance suites

b)      Virtuosity

c)      Fugue

d)      Sonata da chiesa

e)      Sonata da camera

Short Answers

           Definitions, trends, descriptions of form (i.e. – how many movements in a sonata da chiesa and how do they differ from each other)

Listening Examples:

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) The Christmas Oratorio

Francesca Caccini (1587 - 1640)

·         Selections from the opera la Liberazione di Ruggiero (1625) - recitative, aria

·         Chi desia si saper, 'the cos' a amore (1618) - a canzonetta for voice and Spanish guitar

Barbara Strozzi (1619 – 1666) Tradimento! ("Betrayal!") from op. 7, Diporti di Euterpe

Isabella Leonardo (1620 - 1704) “Kyrie” from Mass op. 18 1696

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687) Les Amants Magnifiques

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637 – 1707) Prelude & Fugue in G minor

Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695) Dido and Aeneas

Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713) Sonata da Chiesa in F, op. 3, no. 1

Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1666 - 1729)

·         Instrumental Prelude from Samson

·         "Tempête" ("Tempest") from Le Sommeil d'Ulisse (The Sleep of Ulysses)

Don Giovanni excerpt: "Là ci darem la mano" (Mozart) 

      Mature Baroque – Vocal Music: Supplement to Listen (Chapter 10)

Opera

1.       Julius Caeser “La guistizia” by G. F. Handel – refer to p. 143

Oratorio

2.       Messiah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!” (aria) by G. F. Handel

3.       Messiah, “There were shepherds” by G. F. Handel; this includes a series of recitatives, both secco and accompanied that precede the chorus, “Glory to God”. – refer to p. 146

4.       Messiah, “Hallelujah” by G. F. Handel – refer to p. 147

Passion - These tracks are from The Passion According to St. Matthew by J. S. Bach (refer to class notes)

5.       Chor: “Kommt, Ihr Töchter, Helft Mir Klagen” – features choir

6.       Evangelista: “Die Aber Jesum Gegriffen Hatten” – solo tenor; the evangelist is something of a narrator that ties together the story told by soloists and the chorus.  Both secco and accompanied recitative forms are used throughout the Passion. This particular recitative is secco

7.       Choral: “Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen” – features choir singing a hymn

8.       Aria (Alto) “Buß und Reu”

Cantata - all examples by J. S. Bach

9.       Solo cantata No. 55, Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, 1^st mvt.: "Ich armer Mensch, ich Sundenknecht", aria for tenor (refer to class notes)

10.   Cantata No. 4, “Christ lag in Todesbanden”, stanza 3 (tenor solo) – refer to p. 150

11.   Cantata No. 4, “Christ lag in Todesbanden”, stanza 4 (chorus) – refer to p. 150

12.   Cantata No. 4, “Christ lag in Todesbanden”, stanza 7 (hymn) – refer to p. 150

13.   Chorale Prelude, “Christ lag in Todesbanden” by J. S. Bach – refer to p. 152

Mass - refer to class notes

14.   Domine Fili Unigenite from Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi

15.   Osanna in excelsis from Mass in B minor (JS Bach), eight-part chorus: All choral parts are split to form two antiphonal choruses for a number taken from Cantata No. 215, “Preise dein Glücke.”

16.   Benedictus from Mass in B minor (JS Bach), tenor with flute: This thoughtful solo may have come from a now-lost original.  Bach did not specify a solo instrument.  Earlier practice called for a violin, but Sir Donald Tovey pointed out that the part is better suited to a flute.

Motet

17.   Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225 (Motet 1) - double chorus, chorus and chorale, double chorus, fugue (refer to class notes)

Magnificant

18.   Magnificat in D major, BWV 243: 1. “Magnificat” by J. S. Bach (refer to class notes)

Coronation Anthem

19.   Zadok the Priest, Zadok the Priest,

“Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet anointed Solomon King.”

20.   Zadok the Priest, And all the people rejoic'd,

“And all the people rejoic’d, and said:”

21.   Zadok the Priest, God save the King,

“God save the King, long live the King, may the King live for ever!”  - 1 Kings 1:38 - 40                      

Mature Baroque - Instrumental Music

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 -1741)

See page 117 (4^th edition)/page 130 (5^th edition) in Listen for information Violin Concerto in G, “La stravaganza”, op. 4, No. 12

1.    First movement - ritornello form

2.    Second movement - variation (ground bass) form

3.    Third movement - ritornello form

The Four Seasons

The sonnets that serve as unheard lyrics for these concerti were possibly penned by Vivaldi himself.  Underlined in each sonnet is the text that is highlighted in the example.

4.    Concerto in E, op. 8, no. 1: I. Allegro “Spring's awakening”

Spring

5.    Concerto in G minor, op. 8, no. 2: III. Presto “Summer storm”

6.    Concerto in F, op. 8, no. 3: III. Allegro “The hunt”

7.    Concerto in F minor, op. 8, no. 4: I. Allegro non molto “Shivering in the icy storm”

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 - 1767)

8.    Suite in A minor for recorder and strings - Overture

Georg Philipp Telemann was among the most distinguished composers of his time, a rival to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach in reputation, and the certain preference of the Leipzig authorities for the position of Kantor at the school of St. Thomas, where Bach was eventually appointed in 1723.  Telemann had, in 1721, taken the position of Kantor of the Johanneum in Hamburg, with musical responsibility for the five principal churches of the city.  His negotiations with Leipzig a year later proved the means to secure better conditions in Hamburg, where he remained until his death in 1767.  He was succeeded by his godson, Carl Philipp Emanual Bach, son of Johann Sebastian.

Born in Magdeburg in 1781, Telemann belonged to a family that had long been connected with the Lutheran Church.  His father was a clergyman and his mother the daughter of a clergyman, and his alder brother also took orders, a path that he too might have followed, had it not been for his exceptional musical ability.  As a child he showed some precocity, but it was while he was a student at Leipzig University, which he entered in 1701, that a career in music became inevitable.  He founded the university collegium musicum that Bach was later to direct and in 1703 became musical director of the Leipzig Opera.  At the same time he involved fellow-students in a great deal of public performance, to the annoyance of the Thomaskantor, Bach's immediate predecessor Kuhnau, who saw his prerogative now infringed.

After Leipzig Telemann went on to become Kapellmeister to the Count of Promnitz, a nobleman with a taste for French music, and in 1708 moved to Eisenach, following this with a position as director of music to the city of Frankfurt am Main in 1712.  There were other offers of employment elsewhere, but ft was to Hamburg that he finally moved in 1721, to remain there for the rest of his life.

As a composer Telemann was prolific, providing an enormous body of work, both sacred and secular.  This included 1043 church cantatas and settings of the Passion for each year that he was in Hamburg, 46 in all.  In Leipzig he had written operas, and he continued to involve himself in public performances in Hamburg, arousing some opposition from the city council, his employers.  Once he had strengthened his position he took additional responsibility as musical director of the Hamburg opera, while he was active in publishing and selling much of the music that he wrote.

The A minor Recorder Suite is a fluent example of the refreshing lightness of touch that Telemann brought to the music of the period, a reflection, often enough, of his wider educational background and cultural interests more typical among musicians of a later age.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 – 1^st movement

YouTube video of movement in one viewing

See page 123 (4^th edition)/page 135 (5^th edition) in Listen for information. The following tracks line up with the listening map in the textbook

9.    Ritornello

10. Ritornello (first phrase)

11. Ritornello (middle phrase)

Goldberg Variations

14.  Aria

15.  Variation I

16.  Variation II

17.  Variation III: Canone all’Unisuono

18.  Variation IV

The improbable story that has given the name Goldberg Variations to this monumental work comes from an early Bach biographer, Johann Forkel.  In 1736 Bach was appointed “Composer to the Royal Court of Poland and Saxony,” thanks to the active intervention of the music-loving Count Hermann Carl von Kaiserling, the Russian Ambassador to the Saxon Court.  The Count often suffered from insomnia, and on sleepless nights he enjoyed the distraction of music played from an adjoining room by the young court harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg.  Kaiserling requested of Bach a series of pieces “smooth but lively,” which would either induce sleep or enable him to pass wakeful hours more pleasantly.  Bach responded magnificently, and Kaiserling was so pleased with the variations that he always referred to them as “his” variations and rewarded the composer in princely fashion- one hundred louis d'or presented in a golden goblet.  However, as Forkel comments, “had the gift been a thousand times larger, their artistic value would not yet have been paid for.”

The origin of the theme upon which Bach built this amazing edifice is unknown, although it appears in the 1725 Notenbuch of his wife Anna Magdalena. It is a sarabande in G. Bach, however, does not resort to the melody for the source of his inspiration (as is more generally true in the composition of variations); rather he chooses the bass line for the foundation blocks.  The variations were conceived for an instrument with two manuals, but they can also be performed on the single keyboard of modern instruments.

In their entirety the Goldberg Variations can be likened to an immense passacaglia in which the harmonic implications of the bass fine are realized 30 times in different guises, changes in the bass line itself being kept to a minimum.  The overall layout is designed around 10 groups of three movements-the first in each group is in a free form, the second an arabesque, the third a canon.  Beginning with a canon at the unison in Variation III, the canons move by progressively increasing intervals to a canon at the ninth in Variation XXVII.

The work begins and ends with the Aria, and interspersed are those variations that so beautifully demonstrate Bach's astonishing versatility in the handling of the varied forms of his day.  For example, Variation III is a pastorate, Variation VII a saltarello, Variation X a fughetta, Variation XVI an ouverture à la française, Variation XVIII an alla marcia, Variation XIX a quasi-barcarolle, and Variation XXTV a gigue.

It is perhaps in the last variation that Bach exhibits the most daring exercise of wit. It is a quodlibet (“do what you will”) in which he mingles two folk songs, Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben, which can he roughly translated “Beets and cabbage give me indigestion,” and Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir g’west, again, roughly translated, “we’ve been apart so very long.”

19.  Fugue in C-sharp Major, from “The Well-Tempered Clavier”

        See page 123 (4^th edition)/page 135 (5^th edition) in Listen for information

20.  Fugue in C-sharp Major, from “The Well-Tempered Clavier”

        Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D

See page 123 (4^th edition)/page 135 (5^th edition) in Listen for information

21.  Air

22.  Gavotte I & II

George Friederic Handel (1685 – 1759)

23.  Music for the Royal Fireworks

The only major instrumental work of Handel's late years, apart from the Concerti i due cori, is his Music for the Royal Fireworks.  England had signed the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748, and in celebration a firework display was planned for Green Park in April 1749.  The king agreed that it be accompanied by music, as long as the music was for ‘warlike instruments’ (wind and percussion).  But Handel demanded strings too.  ‘Now Hendel’, wrote the Master of the Ordnance, ‘proposes to lessen the nomber of trompets, &c and to have violeens.  I dont at all doubt but when the King hears it he will be very much displeased ... I am shure it behoves Hendel to have as many trumpets, arid other martial instruments, as possible, tho he dont retrench the violins ... tho I beleeve he will never be persuaded to do it.’  Probably Handel was not persuaded.  The number of ‘martial’ instruments specified in the score (24 oboes, 12 bassoons, one double bassoon, nine each of horns and trumpets, percussion) falls well short of the ‘band of 100 musicians’ reported as having taken part.  There could have been at least 40 string players.  Further, the surviving autograph score carries clear indications for the addition of strings to the original wind-only scheme; and we know that Handel’s own later performances included strings, as did the text whose publication he authorized.

The work was publicly rehearsed - against Handel's wishes - in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens; 12,000 people are said to have attended, and the resulting traffic jam blocked London Bridge for three hours.  The performance proper, on 27 April 1749, was a mixed success; part of the specially erected building caught fire, and the weather was rainy.  But the music, it seems, was well received.