121 121 Also Available from Avie: Flights of Fantasy Early Italian Chamber Music Benvenue Fortepiano Trio Monica Huggett Monica Huggett, Tanya Tomkins, Eric Zivian Irish Baroque Orchestra Mendelssohn: The Piano Trios Chamber Soloists AV2187 120 Monica Huggett and Ensemble Sonnerie J. S. Bach: Four Orchestral Suites for a young prince AV2171 36 1 121 121 Flights of Fantasy: Early Italian Chamber Music Dario Castello (fl. 1st half of 17th century) Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-90) 1 Sonata decimaquarta à 4, due soprani e due tromboni overo violete .......6:37 6 La Fugazza Sonata à 5 (1671), (2 violins, viola da gamba, bass violin and continuo – organ, harp, theorbo) due violini, alto viola, tenore viola et viola da brazzo ................................................... 4:51 Allegro - Adagio - Duo - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Adagio (2 violins, alto viola, tenor viola, viola da gamba and continuo – bass violin, organ and theorbo) Carlo Farina (c.1604-39) [no tempo indication] - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro 2 Capriccio Stravagante ................................................................................... 15:45 Dario Castello (violin, 2 violas and continuo – bass violin, harpsichord and theorbo) 7 Sonata Seconda à sopran solo ........................................................................ 5:13 [no tempo indication] - La Lira - Il Pifferino -Lira Variata - Qui si batte con il legno - Presto - Adagio (violin and continuo – bass violin, theorbo, harp, lirone and organ) La Trombetta - Il Clarino - La Gallina - Il Gallo - Presto - Il Flautino pian piano - Forte - Presto Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Tremolo - Allegro - Adagio - Adagio - Adagio - Adagio Adagio - Il Tremulo - Il Piferino della Soldatesca, Il Tamburo - Il Gatto - Il Cane - Presto - La Antonio Bertali (1605-69) Chitarra Spagniola - Adagio, sempre più adagio. 8 Sonata à 5 ..................................................................................................... 8:16 120 Francesco Cavalli (1602-76) (2 violins, alto viola, tenor viola, viola da gamba and continuo – bass violin and organ) 3 Sonata à 6 (1656) ...............................................................................................5:30 Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (1583-1643) (2 violins, alto viola, tenor viola, bass violin, theorbo and continuo – organ) 9 Canzona Terza (1627/1637) .................................................................... 4:23 [no tempo indications] (harpsichord solo) Biagio Marini (1594-1663) Dario Castello 4 Passacaglio à 4 ................................................................................................5:23 10 Sonata decima sesta à 4 per stromenti d’arco .................................. 6:37 (2 violins, tenor viola and continuo – bass violin, organ, lirone, harp and theorbo) (2 violins, tenor viola, bass violin and continuo – organ, theorbo and harp) Introdutione - Prima Parte - Seconda Parte - Terza Parte - Finale Allegro - Adagio - Adagio - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) 5 Harmonia Artificiosa Partia VI ...................................................16:14 (2 violins and continuo – bass violin, lirone, harp, harpsichord and theorbo) Adagio - Allegro (Harpeggio) - Aria - Variatio I-XIII - Finale (Adagio - Presto) Irish Baroque Orchestra Chamber Soloists Monica Huggett, Director 2 3 121 121 Flights of Fantasy: Early Italian Chamber Music on instruments, and dance forms were often supplied with texts. However, by the seventeenth century composers began to write music specifically and idiomatically for instruments (e.g. he composers featured in this recording represent not only the remarkable diversity greater use of tone repetitions, wide leaps, rapid passage work etc.). During the sixteenth T(despite the shared style) in Italian chamber music throughout much of the seventeenth century treble instruments were gaining increasing prominence because of the homophonic century, they also demonstrate the strength of its influence throughout Europe. In 1739 character of the music; instead of the (multi-voiced) polyphony of renaissance music, Charles Jennens (the librettist of some of Handel’s best known oratorios, including Messiah) Baroque music was characterised by a polarisation of the outer voices, treble and bass. The described Italy as ‘the Land of Musick’. Jennens was being deliberately ironical: by this time birth of opera and the development of the recitative and aria had a considerable influence Italy’s musical dominance was in decline. However, it is fair to say that the image conjured by on instrumental music of the period. But perhaps the most significant development was the Jennens was one largely held throughout Europe from the late fifteenth century to the middle practice of the basso continuo, which (simply put) contributed to the polarisation of voices of the eighteenth. During this period Italy exerted the strongest musical influence throughout by restricting the bass to a chordal-accompanying role (rather than being a participant in a Europe, an influence felt even in countries such as France where a distinctive national style complex contrapuntal fabric). emerged (albeit through the Italian Jean-Baptist Lully). The Italian style was ubiquitous: by the Much of the early Italian solo instrumental music was closely modelled on solo vocal music: middle of the eighteenth century ‘the music of Europe had become an international language subjective, expressive and individualistic melody lines build on a clear harmonic accompani- with Italian roots’ (D. Grout & C. Palisca, A History of Western Music 4th ed. (London, 1988), ment. After 1600 instrumental techniques developed rapidly in Italian music, especially the p.347). (treble) violin, which took on a highly virtuosic role in both solo and instrumental music: by The rise of instrumental music in Italy in the late sixteenth century was in part a symptom contrast, in England (where violinistic virtuosity did not take hold until the 1650s) this role 120 of the increasing secularization of society. In the Middle Ages the Church was the primary pa- was taken by the bass viol. Italian musicians and composers sought to capture the spontaneity tron of the arts; their main requirements were for sacred polyphonic vocal music, instrumental of improvised performance in order to engage their audiences. This improvisational style can music was of only secondary importance. However, the gradual shift in patronage from the be heard in the early Venetian sonatas as well as in the solo keyboard music of Girolamo Ales- Church to the nobility and mercantile classes especially during the century of the Reformation sandro Frescobaldi of Ferrara (1583-1643), one of the finest and most influential keyboard brought with it a secularization of music; with the increased wealth of the merchants and composers of the early seventeenth century. The new techniques of virtuosity can be heard nobles of cities such as Florence, Venice and Genoa there developed an increased appetite for throughout this recording in the tremolos, wide leaps across several strings, notes up to sixth a new kind of music where emotion and individual expression were paramount. (Italy in the position, and rapid passage-work. Composers such as Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1554–7-1612) Baroque period is more properly thought of as a region than a country; it consisted of several developed new musical forms such as the sonata (from the Italian suonare meaning ‘to sound’), areas ruled by Spain and Austria, the Papal States, and several smaller independent states, which was composed without reference to any traditional form. wherein music was often richly patronised.) This socio-economic shift profoundly disrupted The trio sonata (a term applied to sonatas for two or three melody instruments and bass) the dominance that the Church had exerted on musical, artistic and cultural life throughout was developed in the first decade of the seventeenth century. It represented a significant the Medieval and Renaissance periods. compromise between instrumental solo and ensemble music, and also demonstrated the close The early Baroque period witnessed a change in musical styles. Throughout the sixteenth connection that existed between vocal and instrumental music at this time. However, the trio century (and indeed into the seventeenth), a close relationship was maintained between vocal sonata gradually became entirely independent of vocal forms; by around the middle of the and instrumental music. Polyphonic vocal compositions such as madrigals were often played century it became the most popular form of instrumental music in Italy, and remained so well 4 5 121 121 into the eighteenth century. Early in the seventeenth century composers began to reduce the the development of the late Baroque style in northern Italy. His music is often characterised number of sections prominent in the sonata and began to convert them into ‘movements’ by abrupt harmonic twists (generally to third related keys), which are used to emphasise the by increasing the length and gravity of each section. The change of tempo from adagio to independence of the individual movements, although the outer movements arethematically allegro became an important principle in this style; generally the adagios were brief, solemn and related. His printed collections (published between 1655 and 1682) are hugely significant in homophonic, while the allegros were