La Jolla Music Society - Age of Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

Concerto Grosso in D Major, Opus 6, No. 5
George Frideric HANDEL
Born February 23, 1685, Halle, Germany
Died April 14, 1759, London

The late 1730s found Handel at a difficult intersection in his career. His twenty-year effort to establish Italian opera in England had met with a final failure that had cost the composer his fortune and his health, and over the next few years he would turn to the oratorio as his principal mode of expression (he would compose Messiah in 1741). But now Handel spent some time recovering his health, and in the fall of 1739 he turned to instrumental music. This music poured out of him: working at white heat, he composed the set of twelve concerti grossi that make up his Opus 6 in the space of one month. There were probably two reasons behind the composition of this music. First, Handel needed instrumental music that he could perform during the intermissions of his operas and oratorios, and several of these concertos were introduced in this way. But–perhaps more to the point–he needed money, and the first edition of this music was underwritten by a subscription list that included not just many of London’s finest musicians but also members of the royal family.

Handel’s treatment of concerto grosso form in his Opus 6 is both traditional and wildly original. Throughout these concertos he preserves the expected set of soloists– two violins and a cello–yet he rejects the traditional Italian structure of three movements in a fast-slow-fast sequence in favor of his own individual sequence of movements, which varies from concerto to concerto. This music is full of grandeur, sweep, excitement, good tunes, and some terrific writing for strings: Handel was himself an accomplished violinist, and the writing here is graceful and idiomatic at every instant.

Part of the reason Handel was able to write these twelve concertos so quickly was that he borrowed many of his themes from music that had already been composed. Often he borrowed from himself, but in many of these concertos he appropriated themes from other composers. There was nothing wrong with this (such “borrowing” was a common and accepted practice of that era), and Handel transformed his borrowed themes so subtly that their actual origin was in some cases not discovered until centuries later.

It took Handel two days to write the Concerto Grosso in D Major: he began on October 8, 1739 and had it done on October 10. The opening slow movement and the quick fugue that follows were derived from Handel’s own overture to his Ode to St. Cecelia’s Day. The opening Larghetto e staccato, built on the dotted rhythms of the French overture, contrasts solo and tutti sonorities; the spirited fugue that follows is based on a poised, bright subject. The Presto, in a quick 3/8, makes use of a theme from one of Domenico Scarlatti’s Essercizi per gravicembalo, which had been published in London the previous year. The stately and somber Largo moves to B minor, while the Allegro (once again based on material from Scarlatti) contrasts its opening theme, full of trills, with a second subject built on driving repeated notes.

Handel makes an interesting choice for the final movement:he concludes with a Menuet, and its main theme is once again derived from his own Ode to St. Cecelia’s Day. The Menuetbegins quietly and gently but gradually grows in strength, and finally it brings the Concerto Grosso in D Major to grand conclusion.

String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 76, No. 4 “Sunrise”
Franz Joseph HAYDN
Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria
Died May 31, 1809, Vienna

Haydn wrote the six string quartets of his Opus 76 in 1797, shortly after returning to Vienna from his second visit to London. At age 65, he was about to give up writing purely instrumental music (the quartet performed on this concert is the 78^th of his 83 string quartets) in favor of choral music–Haydn was in fact beginning work on his oratorio The Creation even as he composed these six quartets.

The nickname “Sunrise” has sometimes been attached to the fourth quartet of this set, presumably because of the very opening, where the first violin rises smoothly and nobly over a quiet chord from the other voices. That nickname did not originate with the composer, though Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon has called the first few moments of this movement “one of the greatest openings in chamber music.” The movement is impressive for other reasons as well. Haydn had long experimented with building sonata-form movements on a single theme; here he inverts the opening melody and uses the (now falling) phrase as his second subject. The rather long development section moves into minor keys before returning to B-flat major for the recapitulation and extended coda. The brief Adagio opens with a simple theme, though this figure is treated to florid development before the movement’s somber close. The vigorous minuet features a trio section that has seemed to all observers to evoke the folk dances of Eastern Europe; the theme, however, appears to have been Haydn’s own. The Quartet in B-Flat Major concludes with a sunny rondo full of more original touches. Haydn decorates his main theme with grace notes that give the effect of wild swoops amid an otherwise straightforward tune. There are also some unexpected modulations along the way, including a lengthy episode in D-flat major, before the real surprise, which comes in the coda. Here Haydn pushes the tempo suddenly forward (più Allegro)–and then does it again (più Presto)! The smooth intermeshing of the four voices at this blistering tempo is a marvel of quartet writing, even from a master of the form like Haydn.

Church Sonata in C Major, K. 278
Church Sonata in C Major, K. 336
Church Sonata in C Major, K. 329
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg
Died December 5, 1791, Vienna

The stereotype of the young Mozart as a boy genius– applauded throughout Europe and sitting in the laps of doting empresses–has become such a cliché that it is easy to forget an important truth about the Mozart family: they made their living as church musicians. Leopold and his gifted son were in the employ of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and while Wolfgang’s duties might include composing instrumental music or operas for specific occasions, his first responsibility was to write liturgical music.

As a part of these duties, Mozart composed seventeen church sonatas between the years 1772 and 1780. This brief form is sometimes called “epistle sonata” (because it comes between the Epistle and the Gospel in the mass) or “organ sonata” (because all use an organ as part of the small orchestra). Intended as a brief musical interlude within the mass, Mozart’s Church Sonatas are all miniature sonata-form movements, complete with a brief development and recapitulation. In this music, Mozart employs the orchestra he used for much of his church and dance music in Salzburg: two violin parts, no violas, and a continuo line that could be shared by cello and organ. All seventeen of Mozart’s Church Sonatas are in major keys, all are marked some form of Allegro, and (to observe the Archbishop’s stricture that church music should be neither lengthy nor learned) all last only a few minutes.

However, three of the sonatas employ larger orchestras, and this program offers two of these. Both K.278 (composed March-April 1777) and K.329 (March 1779) add two oboes, two trumpets, and timpani to the orchestra, and K.329 adds two horns as well. The trumpets of Mozart’s day sounded best in C major, so both of these sonatas are in that key, a key which usually called for festive music from Mozart. But these two sonatas–both very impressive pieces of music–are not so much festive as they are dramatic and varied: they are two of Mozart’s longest church sonatas, both employ a wealth of thematic material, and both make full use of the big-orchestra sonority available from the extra instruments.

The Church Sonata in C Major, K.278 opens with a series of bright fanfares, but there are darker hints here as well, sudden key changes and syncopations that suggest an unexpected depth beneath the shining surface. Mozart quickly gives us a sprightly second theme and an almost languorous third idea that the two violin sections sing together. He then treats these quite varied ideas over a broad span before bringing the music to a close on the fanfare-figure that opened the sonata.

The Church Sonata in C Major, K.336 is Mozart’s final work in this form–he composed it in March 1780, a year before he left the Archbishop’s service and moved to Vienna. This sonata differs from the others in that it gives the organ a much more individual and brilliant part–Mozart’s biographer Alfred Einstein has suggested that this sonata becomes in effect a miniature concerto movement, complete with a pause for a cadenza just before the close. Einstein further believes that the brilliance of the solo part indicates that it may have been intended for piano rather than organ, though there is nothing in the score– or in the tradition of epistle sonatas–to suggest that Mozart might have performed it on the piano during the mass. Orchestra alone opens this sonata, with the organist quickly entering on a variant of this opening idea–the entire movement is characterized by such rapid exchanges. The extroverted solo part–full of runs, trills, and turns–does require a brilliant performer, and Mozart leaves it up to this soloist to supply the cadenza just before the brisk cadence.

The Church Sonata in C Major, K.329 also gets off to a grand start, one that seems to anticipate the beginning of the “Jupiter” Symphony, still eleven years in the future. The second subject, which feels almost Italianate in its relaxed lyricism, is quite different from that powerful beginning–the range of expression in this music is clear just from the sharp contrast between its main ideas. Mozart is also quite alert to sound in this sonata–the two horns enrich textures and add strength to the climaxes, and the organ is allowed brief solo passages of its own. Again, the sonata unfolds over a generous span, and Mozart brings back the powerful opening gesture to drive the music to its emphatic close.

Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 552 “St. Anne”
Johann Sebastian BACH
Born March 21, 1685, Eisenach, Germany
Died July 28, 1750, Leipzig

As Bach moved into his fifties, he became concerned to gather and publish his keyboard music, and to this end he began to publish a series of volumes he called Clavier-Übung. (“Keyboard Practice”). In a delightful introductory note in the published score, the composer described these works as having been “Composed for Music Lovers, to Refresh their Spirits, by Johann Sebastian Bach.” The third volume–which appeared in 1739, when Bach was 54–was a collection of organ pieces. It consisted for the most part of short pieces, but these were framed by two massive pieces: the volume opened with a Prelude in E-flat Major (which contains contrapuntal episodes of its own) and concluded with a massive triple fugue, also in E-flat major. Joined together, as Bach surely intended them to be, they became the Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major. This later acquired the nickname “St. Anne” because of the resemblance between the fugue theme and the old English hymn-tune St. Anne. That resemblance is almost certainly coincidental (Bach had probably never heard the hymn, and he never heard his prelude and fugue called “St. Anne”), but audiences will recognize the similarity between the opening fugue subject and the hymn-tune, where it sets the words “O God, our help in ages past.”

This is exuberant music–powerful, joyous, and big-scaled–and it comes as no surprise that it has been arranged for many other instruments. Ferruccio Busoni made a notable arrangement for piano, and there have also been arrangements for band, brass ensemble, string orchestra, and other ensembles. It has also been arranged for full symphony orchestra by two distinguished musicians. The first of these was Arnold Schoenberg, who made his arrangement in the fall of 1928; the other arrangement, less familiar, was made by Frederick Stock in 1931.

This program offers the opportunity to rare opportunity to hear the Prelude in E-flat Major in two quite different versions: for string quartet and then on the organ.

Medley of Baroque Masterpieces
Anthony NEWMAN
Born 1941

A quodlibet is a musical technique that dates back to about the sixteenth century. That title means literally “what you please,” and a quodlibet is a composition that includes a sequence of well-known melodies joined together to entertain or–sometimes–to demonstrate a performer’s virtuosity. One of the best-known examples occurs in the final variation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, when he weaves two popular songs of the day into the texture of his own music. Mozart wrote at least one quodlibet, and some have felt that Charles Ives’ symphonies, with their stringing-together of hymns and popular tunes, represent a more recent use of that ancient technique. In any case, the whole point of a quodlibet is to have fun: the audience has the pleasure of recognizing familiar tunes, sometimes assembled in unexpected combinations.

Anthony Newman has made use of this technique in his Medley of Baroque Masterpieces. Here he combines at least ten of the most famous themes from baroque music, including Purcell’s Trumpet Tune in C Major, Stanley’s Trumpet Voluntary, Purcell’s Trumpet Tune in D Major and Trumpet Tune in D Minor, Labeque’s Trumpet Tune in C Major, Clarke’s King William’s March, Dandrieu’s Rondeau, Charpentier’s Rondeau from Sinfonie de Fanfares, and J.S. Bach’s Dramma per Musica. This medley is scored for a festive ensemble of three trumpets, organ, and timpani. Below is a complete listing of the themes in this work: