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GEORG PHILIP TELEMANN Sonata Polonese a 3, No. | in A minor

Trio Sonata in F minor

Suite for Violin and Harpsichord in A major

JOHAN N PACHELBEL Partita No. 1] in F major

Partita No. 2 in C minor

Canon and Gigue

WASHINGTON WLP 9463 | |. STEREOPHONIC Music of the Baroque Period:

Georg Philip TELEMANN | Johann PACHELBEL GEORG PHILIP TELEMAN (1681-1767) was born in

Magdeburg, the son of a clergyman. He began as an operatic composer at the age of 12 with “Sigsmundus,” the main result of which was that his parents denied him further permission to compose, and halted his piano and organ instruction. (The neighbors had warned that his musical activities would only lead to his becoming “a simpleton, a tightrope walker, a playboy, and a con- spirator in the playing of marbles”— as he later noted in his autobiography.) He was sent away to school in the Hartz Mountains, but his talents were quickly dis- covered there, too, and Telemann was commissioned to write and direct the music for a festival. This encouraged him to continue his musical education on his own.

After his schooling he was again required to give up music, to study law in Leipzig. However, he was soon busy with composition again, this time with his mother’s approval. He wrote Cantatas for the Leipzig Thomas- kirche, and in 1702 founded the famous Collegium Musicum, later to be directed by Bach. He studied counterpoint with Johann Kuhnau, Thomaskirche’s famous choirmaster, and discussed music frequently with Georg Friedrich Handel, whom he had met in 1701.

In 1704 Telemann became conductor in Sorau, and in the course of two years wrote nearly 200 overtures, modelled after Lully and Campra. The number should not be surprising, since Telemann was one of the most industrious of composers: the exact number of his com- positions is not known, but there seem to be several thousand, including 44 Passions, musical services for 12 entire church years, and countless motets, organ fugues, cantatas, and instrumental works. In 1708 he was ap- pointed concertmaster to Eissenach, and soon was made conductor. Four years later, Teleman was named con- ductor in Frankfurt am Main, but continued to write music for the church and court in Eissenach. In 1721 he came to Hamburg, where he spent the remainder of his life; he served as choirmaster for the five principal churches. In 1737 he went to Paris on a leave of absence; the visit made a lasting impression on his music.

Telemann was by no means an unworldly or imprac- tical person: in 1723, he applied for the office of cantor of the Thomaskirche; the City Council of Leipzig ex- pressed great eagerness to engage the famous composer,

and he used this lever to improve his position in Ham- burg, where the council was equally eager to have him stay!

Telemann strongly felt that technical competence is one of the most important prerequisites of musical creation. Handel attested to this fact when he declared that Tele- mann could write an eight-part motet with the same facility as others could write a letter. It is this technical ability, which, together with his taste and artistic inven- tiveness, secured for Telemann his position as one of the key Baroque composers.

The Sonata Polonese is, like the F minor Sonata, a Trio Sonata. Despite the “Trio” designation, this sort of composition was designed for four players, since the bass part called for two players: a harpsichord and cello; together they constituted the Baroque Continuo Group. (The composer himself used the reference “Trio,” since in writing the parts he made use of only three sets of notes; the harpsichord voice was not written in notes, but was indicated below the cello part with numbers, in the so-called figured bass system.)

The Trio Sonata in F Minor utilizes that par excellence amateur instrument of the Baroque period, the Blockflote,

WASHINGTON RECORDS ARE PRODUCED BY BILL GRAUER PRODUCTIONS, INC.

Performed by members of the SOCIETAS MUSICA Chamber Orchestra (Copenhagen, Denmark); JORGEN ERNST HANSEN, harpsichord.

Side 1: TELEMANN (1681-1767)

1. SONATA POLONESE 33, No. 1, in A minor (Andante, Allegro, Dolce, Allegro)

- 2. TRIO SONATA in F minor (Adagio, Allegro, Largo, Allegro)

3. SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND HARPSICHORD, in A major

(Overture, March, Plainte, Gavotte, Passepied, Double, Gigue)

Side 2: PACHELBEL (1653-1706)

1. PARTITA No. 1, in F major (Sonata, Allemande, Courante, Ballet, Sarabande, Gigue)

2. PARTITA No. 2, in C minor : (Sonata, Gavotte, Treza, Aira, Sarabande, Gigue)

3. CANON AND GIGUE “E... 0070

or recorder. The extraordinary popularity this instrument enjoyed from the 16th to the 18th Century depended on its beautiful tone, well-suited for chamber music, and the fact that it is relatively easy to play. Almost all of Telemann’s works for the recorder, including this one, are written for the alto recorder. This composition is a typical example of Baroque “house-music,” that is to say, there is nothing too demanding in its performance, and it is essentially designed to provide pleasure in both playing and listening.

The Orchestra Suite in A major. has seven movements: Overture, March, Plainte, Gavotte, Passepied, Double, and Gigue; as such, it is a typical French Baroque instru- mental form. It was customary for the French composers to present the sections of their operas as purely instru- mental music: the overture was played first, followed by the popular dance numbers. A number of German com- posers, including Muffat, Fischer, Bach, and Telemann, took over the form; however, their suites used no pre- viously-written materials. They wrote new overtures, in which the movements followed the form of the dance- styles of the time. Their movements became more richly polyphonic than their French models, undoubtedly be- cause of the German tradition of contrapuntal writing, which both Telemann and his predecessors continued.

JOHANN PACHELBEL (1653-1706) was born in Nuremberg, a city with a rich musical tradition, dating back to the Meistersingers of the 14th Century. However, although Pachelbel was to become a great composer and organist, his father was a plumber, and the son appears to have been no sort of musical prodigy. But somehow, he was drawn to music. He studied with Schwemmer, organist at Nuremberg’s Sebaldus Church, and then set out, first to Regensburg, and finally (in 1672) to Vienna, center of the musical world. There was a flourishing school of organ- and Klaviermasters, among whom were Georg Muffat, Wolfgang, Ebner, Alexander Poglietti, and Joh. Kaspar Keril, the organist at St. Stephen’s, Pachel- bel’s teacher and co-worker. Pachelbel remained in Vienna for three years, and then left for an unknown destination in mid-Germany. His first reappearance is in 1677, as the church organist in Eisenach, where Johann Sebastian

Bach’s father was a violinist. He remained there a year and then was engaged as organist in Erfurt. From 1690. to 1692 he was court organist in Stuttgart. Finally, after a stay in Gotha, he went back to Nuremberg, where he took over the position of organist at the Sebaldus Church, re- maining in this post until his death in 1706. |

Partita in the Baroque period was an ambiguous name, used to mean either a succession of variations or a suite (a sequence of dance numbers). Pachelbel used the word. in its second sense. The two partitas are both introduced by a sonata, a movement which has nothing in common with the later Viennese classical sonata. The word must be interpreted literally, and stands in contrast to a Toccata, a piece for keyboard instruments, or Cantata, i a singing-work. The sonata movement is a prelude to the real work, which, for the F major Partita, appears as a set of movements. In Pachelbel’s time the suite had a suitably solid form, developing from a suite which con- sisted of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue, with the composer able to insert other movements between these dances. In his Partita No. 1, Pachelbel inserted a Ballet following the Courante; this was a vocal-composed form dating from approximately 1600, with a refrain which was used for dancing. The name, however, was carried over to the instrumental music, and often passed into the German suites of the 17th Century. Pachelbel equipped the piece with a Double, that is, a variation, based in this case on a very simple principle: the melody is played by one violin, while the second plays a counter part in a very fast note-series. The C minor Partita, which contains only two of the

common movements, Sarabande and Gigue, introduced several new el-ments. The Gavotte is a French dance with light and elegant style: Pachelbel was one of the first Germans to use it in a suite. A Treza is a dance similar in character to the Courante. The Aria, or Air, found its way to Germany from the Ballet and Opera of 17th Century France. Initially, one spoke of an Aria or a “Song for dancing.” In contrast to the other dances it did not fall into two clearly divided parts, and in the instrumental form its vocal parentage is clearly stamped: it is designed for singing, and in its way is the “song without words” of the Baroque.

The Canon and Gigue of Baroque times made use of one of the most elaborate techniques, the ostinato, a short and light, easily-recognizable melody, which in a multi- voiced composition is played by one of the voices, most commonly the bass. Here the ostinato is performed by harpsichord and cello, and above this bass the violins play a three-part canon. The cheerful gigue, which ends the composition, is in striking contrast to the serious canon.

———+—++-@-@»—»

JORGEN ERNST HANSEN, one of Denmark’s most outstanding organists, was born in 1929. He completed organ and piano studies with Soren Sorenson and Finn Videro, while his general musical training took place at the University of Copenhagen and the Kgl. Danish Conservatory, where he began his development as a conductor. He was the founder of the Danish music-circle SOCIETAS MUSICA, which has concentrated its reper- toire chiefly on Baroque music. — after Bent Olsen

THIS RECORDING IS AVAILABLE IN BOTH | STEREOPHONIC (WLP 9463) AND MONAURAL (WLP 463) FORM.

/ 235 WEST 46TH STREET / NEW YORK 36, NEW YORK

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| WASHINGTON Music of the Baroque Period:

GEORG PHILIP TELEMANN

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ay CS 1. SONATA POLONESE a 3, No. 1, in A minor

(Andante, Allegro, Dolce, Allegro) Za 2. TRIO SONATA in F minor

(Adagio, Allegro, Largo, Allegro) (©) 3. SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND HARPSICHORD in A major > (Overture, March, Plainte, Gavotte,

Passepied, Double, Gigue)

Members of the SOCIETAS MUSICA Chamber Orchestra ef Copenhagen; JORGEN ERNST HANSEN, harpsichord.

(WLP 9463 A)

Bill Grauer Productions Ine. New York City

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| WASHINGTON Music of the Baroque Period:

JOHANN PACHELBEL

WIP SIDE 9463 2

1. PARTITA No. 1, in F major {Sonata, Allemande, Courante, Ballet, Sarabande, Gigue)

2. PARTITA No. 2, in C minor (Sonata, Gavotte, Treza, Aira, Sarabande, Gigue)

3. CANON AND GIGUE

Members of the SOCIETAS MUSICA Chamber Orchestra of Copenhagen; JORGEN ERNST HANSEN, harpsichord.

(WLP 9463 B)

Bill Grauer Productions Ine.

New York City

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