Daniel Bacheler: Mounsiers Almaine Domenico Cimarosa (transc. Julian Bream): Sonata in D minor; Sonata in A major; Sonata in B minor J.S. Bach: Sonata for...
Daniel Bacheler:
Mounsiers Almaine
Domenico Cimarosa
(transc. Julian Bream):
Sonata in D minor;
Sonata in A major; Sonata in B minor
J.S. Bach: Sonata for
Flute and Continuo in E minor, BMW 1034 (transc. David Russell)
Johann Kaspar Mertz:
Fantaisie hongroise, Op. 65 No.1
Agustin Barrios
Mangore: Preludio Op. 5, No.1; Chôro da Saudade
Regino Sainz de la
Maza: Petenera; Zapateado
Eduardo Sainz de la
Maza: Habanera; Campanas del Alba
Jonathan Kulp: Danza
Dominicana; Danza Cubana
Biographical information on the English composer Daniel Bacheler is
sparse. He was born some time around 1574 and died after 1610, when Robert
Dowland made the last known reference to him in the Varietie of
Lute-Lessons, an anthology of lute music by both English and Continental
composers. At that time, Bacheler was employed at the English court of King
James I, apparently having been hired by the King's wife, Queen Anne of Denmark
(1574-1619). In Robert Dowland's Varietie, Bacheler is described as
"one of the Groomes of her Majesties Privie Chamber." He wrote
approximately fifty works for solo lute, as well as several consort pieces. The
Mounsiers Almaine appears in the Varietie of Lute-Lessons, one of
only two printed sources for Bacheler's music. Mounsiers Almaine is
essentially a theme-and-variations, and it displays to fine advantage the
various technical capabilities of the instrument, from rapid scales and
arpeggios to hymn-like chordal textures. The piece progresses in a somewhat
unpredictable fashion. Bacheler juxtaposes extreme virtuosity with relative
tranquility until, after a final variation in tremolo, he closes with a
most peculiar pentatonic flourish, a fitting end to this delightfully
capricious work.
The Italian composer Domenico Cimarosa was best known in his day as the
composer of some sixty operas, and was especially celebrated for his comic
opera Il matrimonio segreto (1792). He also wrote over eighty keyboard
sonatas most of which are short, single-movement works similar to those by
Domenico Scarlatti. Cimarosa's close association with opera is apparent in the Sonata
in A minor (D minor here), especially with its lyrical, aria-like
opening theme supported by a simple chordal accompaniment. By contrast, the Sonata
in A major is a lively duple-metre piece in a more idiomatic
keyboard style, featuring arpeggiated figurations, rapid repeated bass notes,
and wide melodic leaps. In the C minor Sonata (in B minor here), marked Larghetto,
Cimarosa shows both baroque and classical influences. On the one hand, he
derives all of the thematic material from the brief opening motif (which itself
sounds like a baroque ornament), creating a unity of affect reminiscent of the
baroque era. On the other hand, one can hear textural and tonal contrasts that
point toward classical sonata-allegro form. With their delicate and transparent
textures, Cimarosa's keyboard sonatas are well suited for performance on the
guitar in these transcriptions by Julian Bream.
Scholars disagree about the date of J.S. Bach's Sonata in E minor
for flute and continuo, BWV1034, but research suggests that it was most likely
written in the early l720s, either in Bach's last years at Cothen or shortly
after he moved to Leipzig in l723. Apart from occasional changes in register to
accommodate the range of the instrument,
the two notated parts of the original work remain essentially intact in this
transcription for solo guitar by David Russell. The four-movement structure of
the sonata (slow-fast-slow-fast) is characteristic of the baroque sonata da
chiesa as established by Corelli in the late seventeenth century. Perhaps
the most striking part of the present work is its third movement (Andante). It
is cast in the contrasting key of G major (the relative of E minor) and has a
markedly different style and overall affect from the other movements. The
lyrical, aria-like quality of this movement stands in stark relief against
Bach's customary equal-voiced contrapuntal textures and relentless rhythmic
drive.
The Hungarian-born
Johann Kaspar Mertz was a child prodigy on both the guitar and the flute. As an
adult he moved to Vienna and enjoyed a successful performing career as a
virtuoso guitarist, garnering the support of wealthy patrons and touring widely
throughout Europe. He also gained recognition as a composer when his Concertina
in La took top prize in the 1856 Brussels competition for guitar
composition. Mertz's Fantaisie hangraise, Op. 65, No. 1, is a virtuoso
showpiece in the tradition of Liszt and Paganini, whose works were intended not
only to dazzle their listeners with breath-taking technical feats, but also to
move them with the beauty of their musical expression. Mertz's Fantasie
hangroise is highly rhapsodic, with frequent changes in tempo and
exaggerated contrasts in mood, ranging from outright bombast to the most
sublime lyricism. The thematic material in a "Hungarian" work such as
this one is typically not taken from actual Hungarian folk-music, but is
instead either newly composed or borrowed from published "Gypsy
Music" by dilettante composers imitating the music of urban gypsies in
Hungary. This is certainly the case with much of Liszt's music, and is most
likely true of the present work as well.
The Paraguayan
composer and guitarist Agustin Pio Barrios Mangore began his studies on the
guitar at an early age and was considered a prodigy by the age of thirteen. In
1910 he embarked on what was supposed to be a one-week concert engagement in
Argentina, but his success there launched a performing career that kept him
away from his native Paraguay for some fourteen years, during which time he
played throughout Latin America and in some of the major artistic centres of
Europe. In 1932 he took up the name "Nitsuga Mangore" and began
touting himself as "the Paganini of the Guitar from the Jungles of
Paraguay." He later dropped "Nitsuga" (Agustin spelled
backwards) and called himself simply Agustin Barrios Mangore. Barrios had broad
musical interests, ranging from the classical masters to Paraguayan folk-music.
His compositions for the guitar display the variety and scope of his
influences, as well as his remarkable technical command of the instrument. The Preludio
Op. 5, No. 1, is a virtuoso showpiece in apparent homage to J.S.
Bach. While it has baroque figurations and a relentless Bach-like perpetual
motion, its shifting chromatic harmonies and South-American flavour belong
entirely to Barrios. The Chôra da Saudade features the typical
syncopated Brazilian rhythms and surging chromatic melodies of the chôra bands
popular in early twentieth-century Rjo de Janeiro.
The brothers Regino
and Eduardo Sainz de la Maza were born in the northern Spanish town of Burgos.
Although both became accomplished guitarists and composers, Regino was the more
distinguished of the two. He is perhaps best known as the guitarist for whom Rodrigo
wrote the famous Cancierto de Aranjuez (1939). The zapateada and
the petenera are typical flamenco dance types from the Andalucian region
of Spain. Both genres feature extensive use of hemiola, a rhythmic
effect created by the mingling of duple and triple divisions of the measure.
The folk-like main theme of Regino Sainz de la Maza's Petenera (1964)
illustrates this effect perfectly, as it alternates between 3/4 and 6/8 metre
with each successive measure. The habanera is a Cuban song/dance genre
that gained immense popularity in Europe in the late nineteenth century.
Eduardo Sainz de la Maza combines the characteristic habanera rhythms
with the Phrygian modal inflections of Andalucia to create a haunting and
mildly exotic-sounding work. Campanas del Alba (Bells of the Dawn, 1963)
is a beautiful study in tremolo - the technique by which a guitarist
creates the illusion of a sustained, unbroken melodic line.
Jonathan Kulp (b.1970)
began his musical studies at the age of eight, taking up the classical guitar
in high school and going on to earn a degree in guitar performance from the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he studied guitar under Mario
Abril and composition under Peter Temko. In his Two Latin-American Dances, Kulp
attempts to recreate the effect of a typical Afro-Caribbean dance-band, with
its improvisatory
melodies and dense polyrhythmic textures. The Danza Dominicana is based
on rhythms from the merengue, a fast duple-metre dance of the Dominican
Republic. The most prominent rhythmic pattern is that played by the tambora (a
double-headed drum), which Kulp weaves into both the melodies and the recurring
accompanimental figure. In the Danza Cubana, the primary rhythmic
patterns are derived from the son montuno, an Afro-Cuban song and dance
genre from the 1920s-1940s. Most typical is the syncopated rhythm of the clave
(a Cuban clapper instrument consisting of two hardwood cylinders) which is
always present in the texture at some level. The Danza Dominicana (1996)
and Danza Cubana (1997) are written for and dedicated to Steve
Kostelnik.
Jonathan Kulp