Concerto Grosso
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Georg Muffat Armonico Tributo SONATE DI CAMERA COMMODISSIME A POCCHI, Ò A MOLTI STROMENTI (Salzburg 1682) SONATA I (D major) 1. Sonata Grave 3:30 2. Allegro e presto 3:05 3. Allemanda Grave e forte 4:12 4. Grave 2:15 5. Gavotta Allegro e forte 1:12 6. Grave 0:49 7. Menuet Allegro e forte 1:42 SONATA II (G minor) 8. Sonata Grave 1:32 9. Allegro 4:07 10. Grave – Forte e allegro – Grave 1:32 11. Aria 1:31 12. Grave 0:38 13. Sarabanda Grave 1:31 14. Grave 2:05 15. Borea Alla breve 1:50 SONATA III (A major) 16. Sonata Grave 0:33 17. Allegro 2:42 18. Corrente 1:33 19. Adagio 1:10 20. Gavotta 1:30 21. Rondeau 1:15 SONATA IV (E minor) 22. Sonata Grave [– Allegro] 0:56 23. Balletto 1:57 24. Adagio – Presto – Adagio – Presto – Adagio 2:00 25. Menuet 1:46 26. Adagio 0:49 27. Aria Presto 0:56 SONATA V (G major) 28. Allemanda Grave 3:30 29. Adagio 1:55 30. Fuga 1:49 31. Adagio 3:17 32. Passagaglia Grave 10:29 TOTAL 70:25 precisely the reason why he should belong in the same GEORG MUFFAT – ARMONICO TRIBUTO category as the great composers. Anyone, whether musicologist, performer, or Georg Muffat was born in 1653 to French- simply music lover, who has even slightly immersed Scottish parents in the Savoy region of France in the himself in Georg Muffat's work, eventually comes to town of Megève. His family moved to Alsace when he the realisation that in today's music culture, Muffat was a small child, and at the age of ten the young has not been awarded the honorable recognition Muffat was sent to Paris in order to study music. which he actually deserves. His merits in the fields of Louis XIV had been crowned king just two years composition and education are generally acknowl- before, and in the same year Jean-Baptiste Lully, the edged in musicological literature, but for the time French composer with Italian ancestry, was appointed being, he still remains in the shadows of his really to his Surintendant de la musique de la chambre. Muffat »great« contemporaries such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, remained in Paris for six years, and although it has Arcangelo Corelli or Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber – to not been officially verified that he actually was Lully's name a few with whom he personally had contact. student, he was certainly able to closely observe the This lack of recognition is perhaps attributed to the alliance between the king and Lully. Their union was fact that very little of Muffat's work has been preserved significant as the two were responsible for creating the and from that almost exclusively instrumental music. ballet de cour during that period. This royal ballet The fact that the composer never once in his entire life depicted an artistic image of the emerging absolutism achieved employment in any of the large European at large and an ode to the expanding French music centers, cannot be the reason for this – other monarchy. It is very possible that Muffat more than musicians working under similar conditions were once heard the famous Vingt-quatre violons du Roy, able to obtain fame and acclaim for their work. Could and perhaps occasionally Lully's elite troop, La petite it be that Muffat's style is so difficult to categorize? bande as well. Both string ensembles, composed of 19 His compositions and related performance practice to 25 members, were admired for their elaborate tech- are comprised of at least three different styles and tra- nique of bowing and ornamentation, as well as for their ditions. This was by no means a coincidence, rather unusual »orchestra discipline« – a phrase which here, conversely it represented the central point of Muffat's incidentally, is applicable for the first time in history. personal aesthetic goal. This, along with the fact that Muffat had personally declared himself to be the first he was one of the first who so emphatically and contin- to introduce Lully's ballet style in Germany and ually strived for and masterfully realized this goal, is Austria. Long after that, in 1698, he wrote an extensive 4 essay about this style and the related performance In 1678 Muffat obtained his first job as cathedral practice. This essay, which can be found in the fore- organist and valet in the court of Maximilian Gandolf word of his Florilegium secundum, is still, to this day, von Küenberg, the music loving archbishop from the most important source of information about this Salzburg. There he met Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, a genre. third influential representative of the Austrian- German school. Having already worked eight years in Back in Alsace Muffat finished his studies at the this position, Biber had acquired an admirable reputa- Jesuit colleges in Sélestat and Molsheim, where he was tion as musician and composer and relished having a also offered his first employment as organist. preferred position in the court. Muffat's feelings However, in 1674 as Louis XIV's troops forayed into toward his colleague must have been mixed. On the Alsace and the region started to become acquainted one hand, there is a notable conformity between both with the less musical side of French absolutism, Muffat Biber's sonatas in 1680/1 and Muffat's sonatas from moved to Ingolstadt in Bavaria in order to enroll in the his Armonico Tributo in 1682; this is a sign that Biber, university there. Following that he travelled to Vienna as a composer, was an important inspirational source and Prague in search of employment. He was not for Muffat. On the other hand, it is entirely possible offered a permanent position, but had the opportunity that Biber, as a violinist, served as a model for Muffat's to become acquainted with the ballet suites and less than flattering image of the German violin vir- sonatas by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer and the key- tuoso. Muffat described this image in the forewords in board music written by Johan Caspar Kerll. Both were both of his Florilegia. He wrote that the German violin leading composers at the imperial court, and around virtuoso was usually extremely talented and for this 1650 had played a part – each in his own domain – in reason admirable, but was more interested in per- creating a typical Austrian-German musical language forming varied technical tricks and displaying exten- by combining the local traditions with elements from sive virtuosity rather than in acquiring a controlled both the French and Italian styles. Muffat, still in his and refined musical style. early twenties, doubtlessly gained the necessary inspira- tion during his years in Prague to cultivate and con- In the beginning of the 1680's, Muffat gained per- tinue to develop this »mixed style« (vermischter Stil) in mission to make an educational journey to Rome. his own work. During this period of training he first visited Bernardo Pasquini, the leading Italian keyboard virtuoso. At that time he also naturally came in contact with Arcangelo Corelli, who, between 1680 and 1712, was responsible 5 for the organisation, coordination, and execution of Corelli's role is put into perspective, and Muffat's role nearly all instrumental ensemble music in the Eternal is sizeably increased. It is indeed true that the concerto City. Not only did the performances that were directed grosso style that Muffat used undeniably reflects by Corelli leave a deep impression on Muffat, but the common musical practice in Rome around the end of German composer was also lucky enough to be able to the 17th century. This can be observed in, among play some of his own compositions for the Italian others, the scores of Graves, Adagios and Allegros master musician and receive helpful suggestions as from Armonico Tributo. These movements make use of well. The compositions in question were the five the Roman musical language as we know from the ensemble sonatas, Armonico Tributo. This work was compositions written by Pasquini and from Corelli's composed, at this time, for the purpose of acknowl- Opus 1 in the year 1681. However, the concerto grosso edging his employer and to mark the festivities for the style had not been invented by Corelli: it had been 1100th anniversary of the archbishopric of Salzburg. practiced by Alessandro Stradella in the 1670's, already The release of the volume – clearly precipitant – before Corelli had even stepped foot in Rome. The occured immediately upon Muffat's return to Salzburg model of three soloists, who alternate with a five part in 1682. A thoroughly revised, sizeably extended, and tutti group, was also being applied at this time by Lully carefully corrected second edition, entitled Außerlesene in France. Furthermore, it is still questionable exactly Instrumental-Music, followed this publication in 1701; which Corellian orchestra music Muffat actually did the work was released in Passau, where Muffat spent hear in Rome. Possibly he heard orchestral transcrip- the last 14 years of his life. The foreword of this publi- tions of trio sonatas or four and five part simfoniae, cation discloses information about the origin of the which Corelli had joined together at a much later stage sonatas as well as detailed suggestions for their correct and finalized in his famous Opus 6 of the concerti performance practice. grossi. We must not forget that this work had first been published posthumously in 1714. It is notable that all Armonico Tributo is rightly considered Muffat's other works by Corelli, especially the trio sonatas op.