Traditions Abound
Italian-born Jean-Baptiste Lully (born November 28 or 29, 1632, Florence, Italy; died March 22, 1687, Paris, France) spent the bulk of his career climbing to the uppermost ranks of the royal court in France. At the height of his power, he was not only the musical composer to the king and music master to the royal family, but he had also acquired the patent rights for operatic productions, whereby no opera could be produced in all of France without his permission. Luckily for him, he wrote a lot of operas. Scandal involving a live-in page boy would finally topple his musical hegemony, but along the way, his compositions would come to define the French Baroque style, including the establishment of the French overture style, characterized by a stately opening section featuring dotted rhythms (dum da-dum da-dum), followed by a quick tempo section and a restatement of the opening material. And so it is in the featured work on this program, a reduced version of two movements from Lully’s opera Armide, the “Overture” and “Passacaille.” The Overture is triumphal, and immediately brings one in through its liveliness and its bracketed restraint.
Jean-Baptiste Lully
The second section flows with more freedom, like a prance across a field. The Passacaille comes from the final act of the opera, in a dramatic moment when the titular sorcerous Armide has placed the Christian knight Renaud under a spell meant to keep him entranced and in her realm. In his delirium, she sends visions (all danced) representing a pair of lovers, music, food and wine, poetry, and finally love itself.
Considered by contemporaries to be the greatest living composer of his time, Georg Philipp Telemann (born March 24, 1681, Magdeburg, Germany; died June 25, 1767, Hamburg, Germany) created thousands of secular and sacred works, and was equally at ease with Italian, French, and German musical traditions, with forces big and small. His contemporary, JS Bach, was seen at the time as second or third best by comparison. Telemann’s inventive works blended the best from styles across Europe, including Italian melodic invention, French elegance, and German counterpoint. All can be heard in the sublime Concerto for Flute, Two Violins, and Continuo in A minor.
Georg Philipp Telemann
Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (born November 5, 1705, Paris, France; died October 1, 1770, Paris) was, like Lully, a violinist, and he also spent the majority of his time in the employ of French Royalty. However, where Lully left Italy in his youth, Guillemain was sent to Italy as a youngster to finish his musical training. His time there had a profound effect on his musical writing and taste. He eventually returned to Paris as a musicien ordinaire for King Louis XV, becoming one of the highest paid musicians at the court, where he frequently performed private concerts for the King and Queen, including his own compositions. Among them is the Quartet for Flute, Violin, Viola, and Basso Continuo No. 3 in D minor from 6 Sonates en Quatuors, a delightful example of his writing style, combining French elegance with Italian flair, featuring beautiful melodies and equality among the voices. The works full title – Six sonates en quatuors ou conversations galantes et amusantes entre une flûtte traversiere, un violon, une basse de viole et la basse continüe – describes these works as conversations among the instruments, and that is exactly what we hear. It is also notable that the instrumentation of these works is quite similar to Telemann’s Flute Quartets, written just five years earlier while Telemann was in Paris. This is certainly no coincidence.
Cover Page of Guillemain's
Six Sonates en Quartuors
Italy continues to loom over the program as we turn to Arcangelo Corelli’s (born February 17, 1653, Fusignano, Italy; died January 8, 1713, Rome, Italy) Trio Sonata in A major, Op. 3, No. 12. Though his musical output was quite modest in comparison to many of his contemporaries – he left behind just six sets of compositions (totalling 72 works) – Corelli was among the most influential composers of the Baroque period, establishing the preeminence of the violin (he, like Lully and Guillemain, was a fantastic fiddler), laying the groundwork for both the sonata and concerto forms, and defining the Italianate style. Today’s A major Trio Sonata is a marvel. Don’t worry too much about following the movements: they mostly flow organically one into the other, giving the violins and cello a workout along the way.
Arcangelo Corelli
George Frideric Handel (born Feb 23, 1685, Halle, Germany; died April 14, 1759, London, England) studied in his hometown before going on to positions as a violinist (another one!), organist, and harpsichordist in Hamburg, where he premiered his first opera. He then spent a four-year stint in Italy, where he met Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. Enthralled by the Italianate style, he gained international acclaim through new operas and oratorios composed during this trip. He was lured back home to work for Hanover's Prince-Elector, who would later be crowned King George I of England (it’s good to know people, then and now). Handel, however, made it to England before the future monarch, wowing London’s cognoscenti with his operas, and impressing royalty with music written in their honor.
The program closes on a summer evening along the River Thames. Around 8pm on July 19, 1717, King George I, now three years into his reign, boarded a barge along with his party for an excursion from Whitehall towards Chelsea. An orchestra was assembled on another barge to perform music written specifically for the voyage. This set of three suites came to be known as Handel’s Water Music. We end the program with the Suite No. 3 in G major, likely performed on shore that evening, given its intimate instrumentation. It pulls together German, French, Italian, and English traditions in a beautiful suite of elegant dances, which will hopefully keep our hearts warm until we are back together in the spring. Now that's something to celebrate. Happy Holidays!
–ML
