Musica Pacifica - Program & Notes

P R O G R A M

Suite from Abdelazer (1695)                                                  Henry Purcell
Overture - Air - Rondeau – Minuet – Air- Hornpipe - Jig       (London, 1659-1695)

Suite in D major, Book III                                                  Nicola Matteis (d.1714)
Preludio - brisk
Fuga- prestissimo
Arioso
Adagio
Jigg - prestissimo

A Jacobean Masque
The Temple Anticke                                                               Anon.
Cuperaree or Graysin                                                             Anon.
La Volta                                      William Byrd (c.1543-1623) after Thomas Morley
The L. Zouches Maske                                             Giles Farnaby (c.1563-1640)
The Fairey Masque                                                  Robert Johnson (c.1583-1633)

Suite No. 4 in C major, from the Broken Consort,     Matthew Locke (1621/2-1677)
Part I (1661)
Fantazie
Courant
Ayre
Saraband

Traditional Scots Tunes                                           arr. E. Blumenstock
Johnnie Faa
The Gordon
My Lame Leg
Tullymet Hall
Lord Saltoun

INTERMISSION

English Country Dances                                        arr. Musica Pacifica
Newcastle
Rufty Tufty
Irish Lamentation
Scotch Cap
Jack’s Maggot

Three Parts Upon a Ground                                          Henry Purcell

A Sonata of Scots Tunes (1740)                                   James Oswald
Largo - O Mother what shall I do                         (Scotland/London, 1710-1769)
Adagio - Ettrick Banks
Andante - She rose and let me in
Largo - Cromlit's Lilt
Andante - Polwart on the Green

from Sonata in A major, Op. 2, No. 9                          Francesco Veracini
Scozzese: un poco andante et affettuoso                      (Italy, 1690-1768)


Traditional Irish Tunes                                                arr. E. Blumenstock
Bridget Cruise (Turlough O'Carolan)
Planxty Toby Peyton II (O'Carolan)
Larry O'Gaff
The Kid on the Mountain
The Mountain Rose





Program Notes

During the 17th and 18th centuries, an astounding range of musical styles and influences co-existed in the British Isles. At the same time that the most fashionable continental musicians were transforming the cultural life of London, centuries-old Irish and Scottish culture was being preserved in the rural villages of the rugged northwestern outerlands, where Celtic languages are spoken to this day. An increasing fluidity added to this mix, so that composers and audiences began to grow accustomed to a blending of musical styles and idioms from across the British Isles and throughout the European continent.

The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy, following the death of Cromwell, was a period of cultural experimentation in England unlike any before or perhaps since. It was marked by a fascination with foreign music, literature, costume and design: the re-opening of public theaters provided many opportunities for playwrights and composers alike.

Henry Purcell composed incidental music for Abdelazer (or The Moor's Revenge) during the last year of his life, for a play by Aphra Behn, the consummate Restoration dramatist, novelist, libertine, royal favorite, alleged spy and independent woman-of-wit. The suite is a typically Purcellian mixture of musical styles, including a French overture, an English hornpipe and the composer's rendition of an Irish jig. The Hornpipe was used as the tune for an English Country Dance titled “Hole in the Wall”, though for a slow dance at about half the tempo! The Rondeau is perhaps most familiar to modern audiences as the central theme for the set of variations in Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra”.

Composer Nicola Matteis, while not exactly a household name, has recovered a measure of his former fame in recent years, as researches into early music continue. Born in Naples, probably between 1640 and 1650, he made his way to London in the early 1670’s. Roger North, a chronicler of the music scene of that time, writes that, when he arrived in London, Matteis was too “inexpugnably proud” to deign to perform with local musicians, but “good counsel and starving” soon changed his attitude. North comments further that Matteis was “a very tall and large bodyed man” who held the violin “against his short ribs.” He apparently was a compelling performer: North comments that his bowing style was “as from the clouds,” and that he “could do wonders upon a note.” Matteis wrote four books of violin music, with optional second violin parts. The pieces are neither regular sonatas nor suites, but include preludes, fugues, dances, and airs, grouped by key, suggesting that the performer is at liberty to create his own favorite suite. The Suite in D major, from the third of his four books, is relatively typical, Italian in style, and full of vigor, sweetness, and good humor.

The English court masque was a form of entertainment that combined music, dance, costume, scenery, and machinery, that was popular from the late 16th century to the late 17th century. The dances in the masque fell into two broad categories: The Antimasques (or Antickes) were burlesque dances performed by professional dancers and acrobats. Their music was characterized by frequent changes of meter and tempo, swift modulations, alternation of contrasting moods, and often ending with a lively dance of popular origin. The Temple Anticke and The Fairey Masque are such dances. These were in strong contrast to the Maine Masques, which were performed by the royalty, and nobility currently in high favor at the court. Their music was more sedate, dignified, and harmoniously structured, often consisting of deceptively simple tunes that were repeated several times during the course of the Masque. Cuperaree or Graysin (probably wrongly attributed to Coperario) and L. Zouches Masque were main masque dances. L. Zouches Masque, probably referring to the sponsor of the masque, Baron Edward Zouche, is a set of variations on the popular tune All in a Garden Green/Onder de Linde groene, also set by van Eyck and Sweelinck. Scholars now believe that Byrd’s La Volta has no connection whatsoever with his famous pupil, Thomas Morley. Rather, it was dedicated to Lord or Lady Morley, patrons of the composer. Byrd set a simple corranto (a lively dance in triple meter) called "Italiana" in English and Scottish lute sources. Ottorino Respighi used the same tune three centuries later in his "Ancient Airs and Dances" suite.

Renowned as a composer of instrumental music and opera, Matthew Locke flourished with the return of the Stuart monarchy and renewal of the arts that followed. He composed incidental music for the coronation of Charles II in 1661, and the following year was appointed to the positions of Organist and Composer in Ordinary to the King. Records indicate that he was an extremely cantankerous and difficult individual. Nevertheless, he became close friends with the young Henry Purcell, who learned a great deal from him and eventually succeeded Locke to his positions at court. Locke was a fervent believer in upholding the indigenous English musical character and resisting the fashionable influences that were then sweeping in from Italy and France. The little Suite in C major is a fine example of Locke's bracing and original style: The opening Fantazie is distinguished by mercurial shifts in mood and dramatic harmonic contrasts; the Courante makes use of clever imitative techniques; the melancholy Almande keeps us off balance with its irregular and unpredictable phrase lengths; the Saraband (a quick dance during this period) startles with its rhythmic games--only the most confident could possibly dance to this music!

The boundaries between folk and classical music from Scotland and Ireland are blurry, to say the least. Scottish and Irish dance tunes retain the two-part structure and continuous driving rhythms of many baroque dances, and popular song continues to be cherished in both countries as part of a living tradition of performance and composition. This music has enjoyed an enormous resurgence in popularity in the last few decades, with folk, rock, crossover, and “fusion” performers all adding their own spin to this wonderful and adaptable repertoire. Elizabeth Blumenstock has arranged suites for Musica Pacifica in this spirit. It is likely that the earliest versions of Scots and Irish tunes were performed without even the accompaniment of a bass line; some tentative and often uninspired bass lines were composed during the 18th century, but there was little in the way of counterpoint or countermelodies offered during the Baroque era.

There are written references to English Country Dances going as far back as the 1400s, but it emerged as a distinct genre during the reign of Elizabeth I in the 16th century. The dances were most likely amalgamations of the Continental courtly dances brought to the Elizabethan court by Italian and other foreign dancing masters and the popular dances done by the English country "folk." In 1651, John Playford published the first printed collection of country dances, entitled "The English Dancing Master," which went through many different editions over the next 130 years, adding or deleting dances as fads and fashions changed. (Rufty Tufty and Scotch Cap are from Playford’s original edition.) Dances were written to folk tunes, popular ballads, and stage music, as well as music composed for the purpose. Country dancing gained popularity throughout England, as well as Scotland, Ireland, Europe, and the American colonies, and peaked in the late 18th century (as described, for example, by Jane Austen). After a hiatus of about 100 years in the 19th century, interest in these dances reawakened in the early 20th century and has continued through to today, with hundreds of new dances and tunes in English country dance style being composed by English, American, and European composers in the last 30 years.

The Chaconne Three Parts Upon a Ground is probably Henry Purcell's most extravagant work based on a ground bass (simple, repeated bass figure) commonly used by English composers of the time. Here, the ground is repeated 28 times, with a coda marked "drag," made from its last four notes. Based on stylistic evidence, it is believed that the piece dates from the period between 1680 and 1683: between the composition of the great early Fantasies for viol and the more "modern" violin sonatas of three parts. Purcell employs the complexities of the earlier works (particularly canons of all kinds) but begins to show some of the more virtuosic touches characteristic of the latter.

In London, James Oswald's compositions "in the Scotch Taste" proved similarly tantalizing to genteel audiences. Oswald was a composer, concert promoter and music publisher who began his career as a dancing instructor in the Scottish lowlands. His earliest compositions were fiddle variations on popular tunes, some of which he published anonymously or under the nom-de-plume "David Rizzio.” A variety of musical opportunities brought him first to Edinburgh and eventually to London, where he perfected his compositional skills in both "Scottish" and "classical" idioms, which he frequently combined. His Sonata of Scots Tunes is just such a hybrid: Oswald gives pre-existing Scots folk tunes a standard Italianate trio sonata treatment, juxtaposing pieces of different character and giving each a supportive basso continuo line.
During the intense and long-lasting period of infatuation with all things Scottish that swept the Continent in the 18th century, many composers and poets fell under the sway of the beautiful Celtic tunes. Veracini, Geminiani, Haydn and Beethoven, to name just a few, all made arrangements of them; Haydn set hundreds of them, and added a violin part to the keyboard and vocal lines. Veracini's homage to Scottish taste, in the movement from his Sonata for violin in A major, “Scozzese,” is a minor masterpiece of blended Italian and Scottish styles.

-- Musica Pacifica


About the harpsichord….

The harpsichord used for this concert was made by Mark Adler of Washington D.C. in 1994-5. It is copied, using the Smithsonian's published drawing, from a 1745 instrument made in Antwerp by Johannes Daniel Dulcken. The original is a centerpiece in the keyboard collection at the Smithsonian Institution. This type of instrument was well known to Bach, Telemann and their contemporaries and evolved from a Flemish design, popular throughout Northern Europe a century earlier.

Flemish harpsichord making in Antwerp reached a very high standard during the seventeenth century, with the entire virginal and harpsichord output dominated by the Ruckers-Couchet family. Flemish instruments were exported throughout Europe and both Americas. By 1700, Antwerp was no longer a world trading center, and its harpsichord makers were serving a domestic market with minimal exports.

Late in the eighteenth century Charles Burney in The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces (London, 1773) wrote: "The harpsichord maker of the greatest eminence, after them [the Ruckers] was J. Daniel Dulcken; he was a Hessian." Nine harpsichords from Dulcken's workshop survive today.

This instrument has a compass of five octaves FF-f'''; is disposed 8',8', and 4'; and has two manuals controlling four ranks of jacks. It is unusual in that it incorporates a lute rank which, when used as a solo stop, speaks with a delicate nasal sound. It is almost certain that both J.S. and C.P.E. Bach were well acquainted with this style of instrument, knew its tonal qualities quite well and wrote keyboard music that exploits them.

To play with other instruments at baroque pitch during this concert, the harpsichord has been tuned to A=415Hz in Vallotti temperament.

- Mark Adler, Cembaloworks