Baroque Music

Concerto in G Major for oboe, strings and basso continuo by Antonín Reichenauer (c. 1694-1730), which is edited for the first time, is a significant and rare sights instrumental works by Czech composers of the late Baroque. The work was composed probably in the third decade of the 18th century for Count Wenceslas Morzin band for whom Reichenauer worked at that time. This ensemble was one of the best bands in the Czech Republic and as "Maestro di Musica in Italia" for him composed music also Antonio Vivaldi, who dedicated this Morzin a collection of the Concertos op. 8 with the famous "Le quattro stagioni". Also, the Reichenauer's handwriting on the Concerto in G major is obvious direct influence of Vivaldi's music. This critical edition prepared a music historian and musician Lukáš M. Vytlačil to satisfy the scholarly community and also meet the needs of musicians. The score is therefore complemented by Czech and English commentary, complete facsimile copy of the Dresden manuscript and instrumental parts. The concerto is possible without transposition also play on the flute.

Matsumoto, Naomi. 'The Operatic Mad Scene: Its Origins and Early Development up to c. 1700' (PhD Dissertation, University of London, 2005).

This thesis investigates the origins of the operatic mad scene, its development up to c.1700, and questions of its definition and meaning. Chapters 1 and 2 trace the traditions behind musico-theatrical portrayals of insanity from ancient times through to the Renaissance, and in Chapter 3 seventeenth-century Italian examples of “mad” operas are codified and examined. Chapters 4 – 6 discuss the dissemination of the “mad” opera through France, England, Spain, Germany and Austria, and the relevant indigenous musical and theatrical conventions of each country are discussed.
        Having reconstructed the surviving repertory, in Chapters 7 and 8, the textual, prosodic, behavioural and musical topoi used in association with such works are examined. The difficulties of attempting to establish purely musical signifiers for operatic insanity are demonstrated, and other means of approaching a definition are suggested. In Chapter 8, the forms and uses of aria, recitative, recitative soliloquy and arioso are analysed, and their contributions to the musical characterisation of the insane explored. In Chapter 9 the insights already gained are brought together in a case study of Iro from Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria.
        The final chapter attempts to construct a typology of madness in seventeenth century opera based partly on literary criteria. It theorises the notion of fictive truth as a contract between the audience, the composer and librettist, and the protagonist on the stage. Next, the functions of mad characters within the plots are analysed in relation to the distinctive dramaturgical effects achieved by “fictive personalities”, “roles” and “character-types”. Finally, there is an attempt to locate our understanding of madness in opera within wider critical horizons, and to explain the cultural work that mad scenes do for us, as we listen to examples from the historically situated traditions of opera.

This paper was read at the 2021 annual conference of the Musicological Society of Australia. It is drawn from my forthcoming book, edited with David Dolata and Philippe Vendrix: "Tablature: Alternate notations 1350-1750" to be published by Brepols. It presents a new vision of tablature and its role in Western culture resulting from a ten-year study of tablatures, 1350-1750. The surviving repertoire of more than 70,000 works for more than forty instruments, including human voice, is preserved in a variety of notations that are alternatives to conventional mensural notation. We examined all kinds of tablatures, from the widely accepted mainstream forms to the more idiosyncratic and experimental varieties that gained little traction in the real world of musical practice. On the notational side, this paper explores the nature of tablature, the essence of its graphic system, the commonalities between systems and the contemporary challenges to renewing the associated terminology. From another perspective, it considers the marginalisation of tablature music in our cultural heritage, and the attendant historiographical deficiencies that result from the near-total exclusion of the repertoire from musicological thinking. Tablature can be revealed as more than a simple notation for "playing by numbers,” instead an alternative way of thinking about music and transmitting it. Tablature fulfilled special and necessary functions, not only as the first viable system of score notation, but also permitting the expression of dimensions of performance-related information that were impossible in conventional notation. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tablature was a mainstream notation, essential to the social fabric of music, and important whether in their broader use as conducting scores, or in facilitating the popular transmission of elite repertoires.

The volume collects all of the known instrumental works by Joseph Brentner (1689–1742). His collection of six four-voice concertos Horae pomeridianae op. 4 was published 1720 in Prague, and it represents the only locally produced printed title from that time that was devoted to secular instrumental music. Two similar concerti da camera have been preserved at the Vatican Apostolic Library. In the context of the given genres, the instrumental Pastorella and the Partita a 5 with the unusual instrumentation of viola d’amore, two oboes, horn, and bass are unique among the compositions of Bohemian origin that have been preserved.

The Viennese fondness for the chalumeau is confirmed by the prominent role it played in the repertory throughout the 18th century. These composers were amongst the most innovative in writing for the instrument in all its four sizes. In music for the stage, the chalumeau was most often used to accompany pastoral and romantic scenes. Its treatment at the hands of Fux, the Bononcini brothers and Joseph I is particularly exquisite in their anticipation of Mozart’s use of the clarinet in Così fan tutte. Gluck chose the chalumeau for the Vienna versions of Orfeo and Alceste. Florian Gassmann, who settled in Vienna after studies in Italy, was amongst several composers still writing for the chalumeau at a time when clarinets were readily available. In chamber and orchestral music too, the chalumeau made its mark. Wenzel Pichl wrote for the instrument in the 1770s and only later did he develop an enthusiasm for the clarinet. Further proof of the instrument’s survival into the pre-Classical era is found in the divertimenti by Florian Gassmann and Carl Dittersdorf. An important concertante work is the concerto for soprano chalumeau by Franz Hoffmeister. Mozart was aware of the chalumeau, as his father’s copying of Joseph Starzer’s Musica da camera testifies. This work was later attributed to Mozart as K.187/159c and exerted a clear influence on Mozart’s own divertimento K188/240b for a similar combination. This article traces the development of the chalumeau repertoire in 18th-century Viennese opera, chamber, orchestral, and solo literature. Issues unique to the performance of chalumeau repertoire, such as reed-position and instrument size, are also discussed.

This contribution represents a chapter in the volume "Sozialgeschichte der Musik des Barock", the sixth part of the "Handbuch der Musik des Barock", and deals with the status and function of bowed and plucked instruments in the Baroque period. During this era, musical instruments were generally closely linked to a specific social class. Although the same type of instrument may have sometimes been present among different social strata, its building technique varied substantially. I illustrate this by considering the following division: lower classes (beggars, marginalized groups, minstrels and village musicians), middle classes (civic and court musicians and amateurs) and upper classes (virtuosos and aristocrats). During the Baroque period, certain instruments also triggered social mobility: the violin, for instance, enabled the best players to generate considerable wealth as well as a title of nobility, whereas the viola da gamba gradually disappeared among professional musicians. In order to observe these musical-social strata and their potential crossings, we must attend to the specificities of region and gender dynamics.

During the eighteenth century, we have a great amount of various keyboard literature left for us to study, analyse, and perform. Among the Baroque composers, the Italian Domenico Scarlatti is considered one of the least great when compared to his contemporaries like Bach, Couperin, and Handel. Some notable scholars like Sutcliffe 1 and Boyd 2 have labelled Scarlatti's keyboard works as more technical and designed for athletic development (compared to J.S. Bach fugues). Despite these critiques, his sonatas possess intellectual content beyond the flashy hand crossing, octave passages, and repeated notes. Aside from making a trademark and distinction for the Scarlatti sonata, he also was a man of sophisticated taste and culture; he was able to depict different cultural movements, local colour, and musical styles in 555 sonatas. Analysing in-depth Sonata K141 or "Toccata" in d minor exemplifies the fusion of Baroque and Classicist values during the eighteenth century through the influence of Spanish folk dance and music, unexpected harmony and dissonance, and current musical trends.

This most recent edition of the bibliography contains almost 21,200 titles in English (64%) and French (36%), with an introductory section on historiography. It deals with every aspect of Italian history and culture from the Late Renaissance to the French Revolution.

In this project I wish to establish a seventeenth century popular concept focusing on the lute in France between 1650 and 1700. By promoting a more culturally based understanding of French lute music, I try to unveil some of its functions as social phenomena. The argument takes a starting point in Robert Middleton’s popular as presented in his book Studying popular music (1990), together with selected writings by Foucault; and from that I map different cultural groupings within the French society as to unveil how lute music was articulated. Following, I investigate how the construction of musician and music fits into and fulfill the conception of seventeenth century popular music that I propose. This study presents an internally contradictory concept of lute music that participates in dialogues between internal and external, self and other, individual and society.

Key words: Popular music; seventeenth century; lute; French society; cultural studies; performance studies.

- Facsimile of the 12 sonatas in ms. 177 (Biblioteca del Sacro Convento di S. Francesco)
-Musicological introduction by Guido Olivieri
- Critical notes by Enrico Gatti
- Critical edition in a separate file, suitable for performance
Texts both in Italian and English

Una vez más, el onomástico se impone como pretexto para discurrir en torno a tres pilares de la música barroca contemporáneos entre sí: Handel (nacido el 23 de febrero de 1685), Antonio Vivaldi (4 de marzo de 1678) y el primaveral Johann Sebastián Bach (21 de marzo de 1685). Los primeros dos dominan la escena musical de su época gracias a su audaz, moderna y virtuosa inventiva melódica (vocal e instrumental) mientras que Bach, en su dominio absoluto del viejo y despreciado contrapunto polifónico siempre quedó relegado a un frustrante segundo plano.

Studies of pre-existing music in narrative cinema often focus on a
single film, composer or director. The approach here adopts a wider
perspective, placing a specific musical repertoire – baroque music – in
the context of its reception to explore its mobilisation in post-war
cinema. It shows how various revivals have shaped musical fashion, and
how cinema has drawn on resultant popularity and in turn contributed
to it. Close analyses of various films raise issues of baroque musical style
and form to question why eighteenth-century music remains an
exception to dominant film-music discourses. Account is taken of
changing modern performance practice and its manifestation in
cinema, particularly in the biopic. This question of the re-imagining of
baroque repertoire leads to consideration of pastiches and parodies to
which cinema has been particularly drawn, and subsequently to the role
that neo-baroque music has played in more recent films.

This catalog lists the solo and chamber works written specifically for the instruments of the viola da gamba family through the entire course of its historic development.

- Solo compositions for viol
- Compositions for one or two viols and thorough bass or a keyboard instrument
- Concerts for viol and orchestra
- Duets for viols
- Chamber music with more instruments where the viol takes a solo role, including pieces for lyra consort, since the lyra viol assumes within these ensembles a clearly defined solo role.

Lost works are included when there is evidence, for example, in advertisements or catalogues of publishers or music suppliers, so that this catalogue can serve as a point of referral for followup research.

Every entry contains the following:
- The original title.
- indications of the place of publication, publishing house and date of printing or, for works in manuscripts, sigla of the library and shelf location.
- Annotations.
- A listing of modern editions with particular attention to critical editions and facsimiles.
- Abbreviated indications on the scoring. This field is intended to be only a practical help for the consultation of the catalogue without replacing all the detailed information and circumstances offered in previous fields.

There follows an index in which the works are listed by instrumentation with reference to the first part by indicating the names of the composers.

Note: The "Catalogue  of Solo and Chamber Music for Viola da Gamba" is out of print. The paper version is substituted by an online database, hosted by Violadagambanetwork, https://www.violadagambanetwork.eu/catalogue/.

Egy operaszerű passió és egy passiószerű opera egymásraolvasásának chiazmusában Isten művei (opera) egyedül a kereszt és a szenvedés által (per crucem et per passionem), önmaguk ellentétében (sub contrario specie) válhatnak hozzáférhetővé. A kereszt testbe íródó tapasztalata azonban nem történet – az önmagáról való beszéd ellehetetlenítése révén olyan nem-narratológiát igényel önmaga elbeszélésére, mely csak egy, kereszt előtti/mögötti valóság már érvénytelenített nyelvén szólalhat meg. Miről tehet tanúbizonyságot a Máté-passió és a Hálátlan dögök keresztalakzata, ha az azt leíró nyelvet a kereszt eseménye folyton érvényteleníti? Ha a tanúság egy távolléten, egy idegenné vált testen alapszik, szétroncsolva ezáltal a jelenlét, a tanú önazonosságát? Milyen seb rajzolódik ki a beáramló sztázis, anarratív halál által a saját testen, amelyet a passiónak és operának folyton hordoznia kell?

Présentation

Douzième volet de l’intégrale Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) pour clavier, le second volume du Clavier bien tempéré est présenté en deux récitals, chaque fois au clavecin, à savoir les préludes et fugues 1 à 12 (BWV 870 à 881), puis les préludes et fugues 13 à 24 (BWV 882 à 893), autrement dit la première moitié du recueil, de do majeur à fa mineur, puis la seconde moitié, de fa dièse majeur à si mineur.

Gregorio Allegri
Opere Inedite dai manoscritti della Collectio Altaemps
Musica Flexanima Ensemble

Dir Fabrizio Bigotti
Tactus Records 2014

Review with five stars by DAVID PONSFORD for the American Journal CHOIR AND ORGAN (May 2015):

Apart from the famous Miserere, Allegri’s other works are relatively unknown. Furthermore, the director of this ensemble of strings, cornetts, sackbuts, voices, lutes and organ, has edited and prepared no fewer than ten ‘new’ pieces that were included in the collection belonging to Duke Altemps, rediscovered in 1992 and recorded for the first time. Besides Allegri, composers include Bonomi and Anerio, all of whose canzonas and motets are excellently played and sung. Of special interest is Allegri’s Missa ‘In lectulo meo’for eight voices, based on Bonomi’s motet of the same name, and Lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae for four voices.


Review by JOHAN VAN VEEN for MUSICA DEI DONUM (February 2015):

...There can be no doubt that this is a most interesting disc which should contribute to the creation of a more differentiated picture of Allegri as a composer. In his moving back and forth between the "stile antico" and the "stile moderno" he was a precursor of many Roman composers of later generations who had to obey the ecclesiastical preference for the style of which Palestrina was the ultimate model. Even Alessandro Scarlatti composed some of his sacred music in this style. The Musica Flexanima Ensemble delivers fine performances. The singers have nice voices and create an optimum transparency. Bigotti rightly decided not to perform these works in the style of the 16th century, for instance in regard to dynamics. The instrumental pieces also receive good performances.

Schiller as Philosopher (2005) and ably builds on the best earlier books on Schiller in English, by Lesley Sharpe (1991) and David Pugh (1997). The coverage is wide: there are essays on all the major works, as well as on biography, relations with Goethe and reception. The emphasis is on conceptual clarity, historical accuracy and critical context. The contributors are a star cast of Schiller specialists.

The present book is devoted to a cultural phenomenon in the form of a collection of musical manuscripts written with a specific instrument in mind in a monastic milieu, but one which contains no liturgical compositions. The collection in question comprises handwritten lute tablatures from the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów (German: Grüssau). The author presents the Baroque lute in a humanistic perspective, a perspective of selected social phenomena in European culture of the
second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, as well as selected questions relating to performance practice. This concerns the functioning of the lute particularly in the musical culture of Silesia, the context of musical life in the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów and questions relating to musical source studies, questions like concordance based on European sources.
The book draws on a doctoral dissertation, written under the guidance of Professor Remigiusz Pośpiech at the Institute of Musicology, University of Wrocław, which in 2017 brought Dr G. Joachimiak the first prize in the Professor H. Feicht Competition, awarded by the Musicological Section of the Polish Composers’ Union.
The manuscripts of lute tablatures from the Krzeszów Abbey have never before been the subject of holistic research, which has required a number of detailed studies over many years. The author has used both the method of a music historian and a perspective based on experiences in music performance. Readers will find here the results of the author’s research, with details of the research process to be found in the doctoral dissertation. Given the limited publication possibilities, the material presented in the book has had to be reduced, which has affected largely ensemble music.
The analysed collection comprises fifteen manuscripts, which are currently dispersed. It contains over 2000 individual works, which makes the collection one of the largest of this kind in the world. The surviving sources contain only pieces for the lute in a popular eighteenth-century tuning. These are solo and ensemble pieces in which missing instrument parts are sometimes filled by concordances. The results of the research into the reconstruction of selected compositions make it possible to prepare the material for performance and to explore selected elements of monastic life in the eighteenth century, especially the music performed by the monks. This concerns, for example, the Tafelmusik
practice as well as limitations relating to the performance of this kind of music at the monastery or the way in which the Cistercians used the lute and secular compositions to develop monastic piety.
The book also contains information originating in the correspondence of monks from the Krzeszów abbey, including lute-playing monks like Father Hermann Kniebandl. In the last stage of his life he was associated with the Cistercian provostship in Cieplice Śląskie (German: Bad Warmbrunn), where his duties included, in addition to pastoral work, the running of the thermal springs which the monastery had received from the Schaffgotsch family. However, the relations between the family and the Krzeszów Cistercians are limited here to the context of musical patronage and support of musical activities associated with the analysed lute collection.
The lute tablature manuscripts also contain information which is significant from the perspective of the history of music theory — information in the form lute playing instructions, strictly practical
elements like marking of fingering for both hands in the various pieces, examples of playing exercises or explanation of the notation and embellishments in lute playing. This makes the whole material
twice as valuable, because every such “didactic source” is the best source in modern historically informed performance, providing scholars with an insight into reception of the repertoire and styles of playing. On the other hand it sheds light on the Krzeszów Cistercians’ actual participation in the cultivation and development of secular Baroque lute repertoire, popular at royal courts and among townsmen, irrespective of their confessional affiliation.
Compositions from the analysed collection include pieces which show that the Krzeszów Cistercians were stylistically well-versed in the solo or ensemble repertoire as well as pieces which are unique in Europe. This is undoubtedly linked to the great popularity of the lute in the first half of
the eighteenth century in Central Europe, where Silesia served as one of the most important European centres of lute music. This was the place from which came and where were educated the most sought-after lutenists in royal and courtly ensembles, lutenists like Esaias Reusner the Younger, Silvius Leopold Weiss, Ernst Gottlieb Baron and many others. This situation undoubtedly had a huge impact on the interest in the lute among the Krzeszów Cistercians. That is why the author of the book takes into account compositions not only by well-known composers and patrons of their music, but also pieces by local composers, including those from among the Krzeszów Cistercians. In the last chapter the author devotes some attention to the use of the lute in work associated with Cistercian spirituality, taking into account the specificity of the Krzeszów Cistercians — to be more precise, in spiritual exercises. The Krzeszów Cistercians took over the Exercitia spiritualis from the Silesian Jesuits and carried them out in accordance with St. Ignatius Loyola’s method.
All these elements provoke questions of why the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów became a friendly place for the making of lute tablature manuscripts and interest in the lute, an instrument used mostly
in court circles. How to describe the phenomenon of the Baroque lute in the monastery in the context of the musical culture of Silesia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? Is the Cistercian Abbey in Krzeszów the only such example of musical activity in the history of music? Answers to these and other questions can be found in the four chapters of the present book supported by an extensive introduction and three appendices.

Książka poświęcona jest kolekcji 15 rękopisów muzycznych z pierwszej połowy XVIII w., zapisanych specyficzną notacją muzyczną tabulatury lutniowej w odmianie francuskiej (literowej). Jest to jeden z największych zbiorów tego typu. Dlaczego zatem powstał na Śląsku i w środowisku opactwa cystersów w Krzeszowie? To pytanie towarzyszyło autorowi tej książki przez cały okres jej przygotowania. Odpowiedź jest złożona, dlatego w książce pojawiają się informacje wskazujące na specyfikę kultury muzycznej Śląska XVII i XVIII wieku, potwierdzające wyjątkowość tego regionu dla kultywowania muzyki lutniowej. W omawianych źródłach nie ma przykładów muzyki liturgicznej. Większość tego repertuaru wykonywano na dworach królewskich niemalże całej ówczesnej Europy, ale są też przykłady utworów kompozytorów działających wyłącznie lokalnie, w tym również z grona cystersów. W książce znaleźć można informacje o muzyce lutniowej przedstawione w perspektywie humanistycznej, z uwzględnieniem metodyki gry, wybranego repertuaru i zagadnień źródłoznawczych. Jak zatem scharakteryzować określenie zjawiska „fenomenu lutni barokowej w klasztorze”? Odpowiedzi na te i inne pytania znajdują się w czterech rozdziałach niniejszej książki, wspartych rozbudowanym wstępem i trzema aneksami.

With the vocal ensemble TENET, he has performed at the Festival Casals de Puerto Rico as well as at Berkshire Bach in Massachusetts. Last season he also appeared with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Chicago's Baroque Band, and New York Baroque Incorporated. He attended Yale University, where he received a BA in history and an MM in cello, and he graduated from the inaugural class of Juilliard's historical performance program. Described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as "a dignified and beautiful singer," Paul Max Tipton, bass-baritone, has soloed under such notable figures as Leonard Slatkin, Matthias Pintscher, Nicholas McGegan, and Martin Katz. Recent performances include Britten's War Requiem, all the masterworks of J. S. Bach, and a recording of Nicolaus Bruhns's solo cantatas for bass with Masaaki Suzuki for the BIS label. He studied on full fellowships at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Yale University. Robert Wiemken pursued modern brass for 18 years. Eventually he became inexplicably enamored of double-reed instruments and began playing early reeds in the Collegium at the University of Pennsylvania. That began a love affair with early doublereed instruments that has only crescendoed over the past 27 years of playing, exploring, studying, maintaining, servicing and, above all, making reeds for shawms, dulcians, bassoon, crumhorns and more, for himself and many others. As Artistic Co-Director of Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, he has performed worldwide, recorded extensively, built over 100 programs of Renaissance and early Baroque music and commissioned new works for early winds and chorus.

https://www.gmth.de/zeitschrift/artikel/1063.aspx

This article examines two movements from François Couperin’s Apothéose de Lully (1725) from the point of view of compositional technique and semantics. In the Accüeil, Corelli, the master of the Italian style admired by Couperin, receives his French colleague Lully in Parnassus. Lully thanks the god Apollo with a Remerciment. In both movements, Couperin juxtaposes the Italian and French styles quite abruptly before attempting to achieve a synthesis in the following movements. In this article, the author analyzes some compositional aspects which Couperin uses as cyphers of the national styles.

Вокальная техника является технологическим звеном «вокально-интерпретационной
модели», «продуктом» многосторонней работы певца по интерпретации музыкального
произведения. Характеристики голоса могут быть качественными только на основе еди-
ного комплекса всех остальных эффективно функционирующих компонентов. В эпоху
Барокко выбор приемов звукоизвлечения, звуковедения и пр. осуществлялся самими во-
калистами в соответствии с общепринятыми тогда правилами.

On the occasion of the publication of Rudolf Flotzinger's book "Johann Joseph Fux. Leben - musikalische Wirkung - Dokumente" (Graz 2015) this article assesses the situation of current Fux research. It reviews the symptomatic problems in Flotzinger's edition of documents and presents a great number of unknown Fux sources. This study intends to open a perspective for new way of Fux research, applying stricter and more accurate scholarly methods in the future

Michael Talbot: Robert Valentine and the Roman Concerto Grosso Robert Valentine (or Volentine), who was born in Leicester in 1673 or 1674 and died in Rome in 1747, was the most notable of a small group of English musicians who, in the wake of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, chose to make their home in Rome. From his family, several members of which were waits (civic musicians), he derived his proficiency on several instruments, both stringed (violin, cello) and woodwind (oboe, recorder, transverse flute). In Rome he became a member of the Congregazione dei musici di S. Cecilia, and his name appears on several surviving orchestra lists. But his musical activity, much of which was directed towards visitors to Rome from Britain and elsewhere in northern Europe, also embraced private performance, teaching, music procurement and copying and — especially — composition. Modelling his style on that of his near-namesake Giuseppe Valentini, Valentine had six collections of instrumental chamber music, all dedicated to patrons who presumably funded them, published in Rome and Florence in the first two decades of the eighteenth century, and two more nearer the end of his life. Concurrently, he produced numerous manuscript collections for patrons, several of which were published in London, seemingly without the composer's authorisation, by Walsh and others. As a composer, Valentine was, despite his high productivity, very mediocre. But he successfully tapped into the thirst for simple, concise music for instruments popular among amateurs — a phenomenon repeated in the modern revival of his music. His works include a set of previously unnoticed six concerti grossi for strings surviving in manuscripts in Uppsala and Manchester. In their character as 'amplified trio sonatas' these works exemplify perfectly the physiognomy of the early Roman concerto grosso and its capability of functioning equally as a sonata (without ripieno) and as a concerto (with ripieno).

This article is published in Ad Parnassum, 14 (April 2016), 1-36.

BÄRENREITER URTEXT
Editor: Sardelli, Federico Maria
Language of text: German, English
4 ° stampa 2017

It was in 1990 – more than 250 years after the publication of "Il Pastor Fido" – that the masterful forgery was exposed: not Antonio Vivaldi but in fact the French composer Nicolas Chédeville (1705–1782) turned out to be the true author of this sonata collection, which was subtly foisted upon the unsuspecting Parisian public in the middle of the 18th Century, at the height of Vivaldi's popularity in France. Vivaldi himself never came to know anything of the misuse of his name and musical intellectual property.

"Il Pastor Fido" offers a ‘Mélange‘ of very simple, movements and gallantries in the French style, as well as some throughout original movements of exceptionally fine music and powerful compositional ideas. Approximately ninety percent of “Il Pastor Fido” is Chédeville's own work; for the remainder, he adopted and built upon themes (or those which he thought to be) by Vivaldi, all the while demonstrating a thorough understanding of the style that he was striving to imitate.

As with all of Chédeville's other works and numerous other collections from the time, the original title mentions a series of instruments, all of which are suitable for performing these sonatas: the musette, hurdy-gurdy, flute, oboe and violin. Whilst the first two, which were popular instruments at the time and corresponded to the Arcadian sensibilities of the Age of Enlightenment, have long since been out of fashion, the flute is particularly well suited today to reflect the pastoral character – noted in the title of the collection (“Il Pastor Fido”: the Faithful Shepherd) – of the music.

The Bärenreiter Urtext edition was edited by the reputable Vivaldi scholar and conductor Federico Maria Sardelli. In addition to the musical text of the six sonatas, it contains a detailed preface (German/English), which not only tells the enthralling story of the forgery and reveals the "ingredients” required for such a composition. It also contains inspiring information on performance practice, whilst presenting a critical report with references to readings and editorial decisions.

- Bärenreiter Urtext edition by Federico Maria Sardelli
- Preface (German/English) and Critical Report (English)
- Inspiring information on historical performance practice