- Music, Musicology, Music History, Music and Liturgy, Milan, Baroque Music, and 45 moreBaroque Violin, Baroque Violin Playing Technique, Council of Trent, Ambrosian Rite, Baroque Instrumental Music, Instrumental Music, Swiss History, Monasticism, Catholic Church music, Zwingli, Music and Ritual, Musical Iconography, Iconography (Music), Music Iconography, Organology, Performance Practice, String Instruments, Private Music Making, Arcangelo Corelli, Cultural History, Sociological Impact of Music, Violin performance practice, Violin Performance, Violin, Italian Baroque Music, History of music, Sacred Music, Switzerland, Printing History, History of the Book, Print Culture, Patronage (History), Historically Informed Performance (HIP), Swiss Music history, Music Printing and Publishing, Renaissance music, Renaissance Music Theory, Performance Studies, Performance Studies (Music), Improvisation, Music Improvisation, Musical Improvisation, Music performance and improvisation, Historical Pedagogy, and Historical Musicology & Vocal Pedagogyedit
Why did Beethoven’s Violin Concerto Op. 61 have such limited success after its premiere in 1806? This article addresses the various traditions of string playing in Beethoven’s time. I show that Beethoven was perfectly informed about... more
Why did Beethoven’s Violin Concerto Op. 61 have such limited success after its premiere in 1806? This article addresses the various traditions of string playing in Beethoven’s time. I show that Beethoven was perfectly informed about coeval violin schools and disclose how this awareness influenced his compositions. Beethoven was not only himself a violinist and former violist of the Bonner Hofkapelle but also met notable violinists and cellists such as Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode, Jean-Louis Duport as well as Andreas and Bernhard Romberg. The virtuosi represented playing styles that varied remarkably in sound and articulation, and primarily resulted from the multiple bow types in use. The Tourte bow was favored by the French violin school (Viotti, Rode, Baillot, Kreutzer etc.), which allowed for expressive singing as well as a pithy and powerful sound, while representatives of transitional bows (the Cramer bow and alike) were distinguished by their staccato playing, finesse and elegance. As a matter of fact, Beethoven took into account these different playing styles in his compositions.
The Viennese violinist Franz Clement, a representative of the transitional bow, premiered the Violin Concerto Op. 61 in 1806. As Clive Brown has shown, Beethoven clearly designed it for the dedicatee, since it shares much in common with Clement’s own concerto in D major composed the year before. Due to the increasing success of the French violin school and the Tourte bow beginning in the early 19th century, however, Clement’s violin playing began to be considered outdated. This ongoing change in taste seems also to have influenced the reception history of Beethoven’s violin concerto: it only became popular in the 1840s, not by chance after the bowings had been adapted by Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim.
The Viennese violinist Franz Clement, a representative of the transitional bow, premiered the Violin Concerto Op. 61 in 1806. As Clive Brown has shown, Beethoven clearly designed it for the dedicatee, since it shares much in common with Clement’s own concerto in D major composed the year before. Due to the increasing success of the French violin school and the Tourte bow beginning in the early 19th century, however, Clement’s violin playing began to be considered outdated. This ongoing change in taste seems also to have influenced the reception history of Beethoven’s violin concerto: it only became popular in the 1840s, not by chance after the bowings had been adapted by Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim.
Research Interests: Music, Music History, Musicology, Beethoven, Instrumental Music, and 15 moreViolin, Performance Practice (Music), Historically Informed Performance (HIP), Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin performance practice, Joseph Joachim, Giovanni Battista Viotti, Bernhard Romberg, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode, Jean-Louis Duport, Andreas Romberg, Ferdinand David, Tourte bow, and Cramer bow
Treatises, reports and iconographic documents testify to the great variety of violin techniques coexisting in Corelli’s lifetime. Cristofor Schor’s famous engraving of Corelli leading an orchestra at the Piazza di Spagna in 1687 shows... more
Treatises, reports and iconographic documents testify to the great variety of violin techniques coexisting in Corelli’s lifetime. Cristofor Schor’s famous engraving of Corelli leading an orchestra at the Piazza di Spagna in 1687 shows Corelli holding his instrument against the chest. This technique is also documented for the Italian violin virtuosi Matteis, Geminiani, Veracini, Locatelli and others and was, according to drawings by Pier Leone Ghezzi, widespread in the Roman milieu long after Corelli’s death. Taking sociological, functional, regional and chronological aspects into consideration, there is strong evidence for the credibility of Schor’s document.
Although a violin hold against the chest complicates shifting at first, virtuosi of the time were able to manage the most difficult passages very well with this particular violin technique. While anecdotes report Corelli’s failure as a violinist in the highest hand positions, it was certainly not because of this hold, nor was this the reason for the fairly modest technical requirements of Corelli’s Op. 5. In fact, it is not at all sure that Corelli intended to show his virtuosity with the sonatas of Op. 5. Corelli’s playing was in fact praised by his contemporaries; his skill as a violinist lay not in the high left-hand positions, but rather in his complete control of the bow. Robert Bremner reports that this was a criterion for Corelli’s choice of violinists in his orchestras. The ability of Roman orchestras to play with nuanced dynamic control, as described by contemporary observers, confirms this feature of Corelli’s violin school.
See also: https://www.academia.edu/36319446/Corelli_Op._5._Susanne_Scholz_Barockvioline_Michael_Hell_Cembalo_2018
Although a violin hold against the chest complicates shifting at first, virtuosi of the time were able to manage the most difficult passages very well with this particular violin technique. While anecdotes report Corelli’s failure as a violinist in the highest hand positions, it was certainly not because of this hold, nor was this the reason for the fairly modest technical requirements of Corelli’s Op. 5. In fact, it is not at all sure that Corelli intended to show his virtuosity with the sonatas of Op. 5. Corelli’s playing was in fact praised by his contemporaries; his skill as a violinist lay not in the high left-hand positions, but rather in his complete control of the bow. Robert Bremner reports that this was a criterion for Corelli’s choice of violinists in his orchestras. The ability of Roman orchestras to play with nuanced dynamic control, as described by contemporary observers, confirms this feature of Corelli’s violin school.
See also: https://www.academia.edu/36319446/Corelli_Op._5._Susanne_Scholz_Barockvioline_Michael_Hell_Cembalo_2018
Research Interests: Music, Baroque Music, Performance Practice, Violin, Iconography (Music), and 19 moreHistory of music, Rome, Baroque Violin, Musical Iconography, Music Iconography, Sir John Hawkins, Early music and historically informed performance practice, Pier Leone Ghezzi, Italian Baroque Music, Arcangelo Corelli, Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Charles de Brosses, Baroque Violin Playing Technique, Francesco Maria Veracini, Antonio Montanari, Francesco Geminiani, Robert Bremner, Cristofor Schor, and Matteo Fornari
The contractual agreements about Corelli’s Op. 6 between the composer and Estienne Roger reveal above all that the former was a clever businessman. Because there are, as yet, no other documents known which could give insight into... more
The contractual agreements about Corelli’s Op. 6 between the composer and Estienne Roger reveal above all that the former was a clever businessman. Because there are, as yet, no other documents known which could give insight into Corelli’s publication strategies, we must pursue an indirect path in order
to approach these issues. Tracing the former buyers, owners, and interpreters of his music allows us to identify somewhat more precisely the audience that Corelli was consciously targeting. Corelli’s reception in Switzerland deserves an inquiry of its own: because of the cultural and denominational diversity of the country, a variety of different milieus emerge in which Corelli’s music was received, such as the English circle in Geneva.
to approach these issues. Tracing the former buyers, owners, and interpreters of his music allows us to identify somewhat more precisely the audience that Corelli was consciously targeting. Corelli’s reception in Switzerland deserves an inquiry of its own: because of the cultural and denominational diversity of the country, a variety of different milieus emerge in which Corelli’s music was received, such as the English circle in Geneva.
Research Interests: Music, Musicology, Zurich, Baroque Music, Geneva, and 12 moreHandel, Switzerland, Basel, Music Printing and Publishing, Arcangelo Corelli, Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Gaspard Fritz, The Common Room of Geneva, Collegium Musicum, Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee, Pierre Fatio, and Estienne Roger
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... more
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.
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Because church music served no liturgical function in the Zwinglian cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy, music was largely pushed into the private sphere. From 1600 on, the thirst for music in parts gave rise to the development of... more
Because church music served no liturgical function in the Zwinglian cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy, music was largely pushed into the private sphere. From 1600 on, the thirst for music in parts gave rise to the development of Collegia Musica in the reformed cities of German-speaking Switzerland. These organizations recruited their members from the middle classes, who enjoyed a musical education from a young age. The statutes of the Collegia Musica show that their members brought their own instruments and sheet music to the Collegium and occasionally took them home as well. Gifts of sheet music, instruments or money from individual donors to the Aargauer Musikkollegium demonstrate the widespread importance of music within the middle class, and documents from Winterthur show that certain musical townspeople made extensive donations of music to the Collegia. The breadth of the musical repertoire documented is quite astonishing, ranging from music published in German-speaking regions and northern Italy to compositions from Catholic areas and even some pieces from the 16th century. At the same time, however, figures such as the Zurich merchant Salomon Ott (1653-1711) owned the latest musical prints and also favored much-frowned-upon dance music.
Research Interests: Early Music, Zurich, Zwingli, Protestantism, Baroque Music, and 21 moreInstrumental Music, Early Childhood Music Education, Historical Musicology, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Cultural History of Music, Antonio Vivaldi, Switzerland, Hausmusik, Winterthur, Praetorius, Basel, LASSO, Heinrich Biber, Music Collections, Amateur Music-making, Private Music Making, Collegium Musicum, Private Music Collection, Psalm singing, Aarau, and Private Music-Making
In the Baroque, beating time was a musical gesture par excellence: it physically embodied and visually transmitted musical meaning. Today, however, the beating of a tactus has largely been neglected in research into the history of... more
In the Baroque, beating time was a musical gesture par excellence: it physically embodied and visually transmitted musical meaning. Today, however, the beating of a tactus has largely been neglected in research into the history of musical interpretation. As approaches to early music become more historically informed or inspired, the question of the importance and effect of the timekeeper becomes more pressing. In today’s historically-informed performances, it is now common to see a harpsichordist or first violinist leading the ensemble, yet most early music conductors still use a baton—a development of the nineteenth century. The practice of beating time has yet to be rediscovered.
First, therefore, I will investigate the ways in which tactus-beating was practiced in different areas. In Catholic and Lutheran church music, for example, musicians were divided into multiple choirs, which necessitated the role of two timekeepers coordinating beats—it was this system, in fact, which made polychoral music feasible.
Then, I will show how the timekeeper’s beating patterns, which varied over time, plainly manifested changes in the musicians’ sense of bar and musical meaning. The time-beating figure of Monsieur de Saint-Lambert (Les Principes du Clavecin, 1702) and Étienne Loulié (Éléments ou Principes de Musique, 1696) will then be compared with the bowing rules of Georg Muffat (Florilegium secundum, 1698), revealing an interesting parallel. The accented bow strokes of the strings almost always correspond with the downward movement of the timekeeper, and the unaccented with the upward movement, so that the beats felt as heavy are also played with more emphasis. As Monsieur de Saint-Lambert puts it explicitly in his treatise, the hand of the timekeeper shows to the eye an image of the cadence which the ear must hear.
First, therefore, I will investigate the ways in which tactus-beating was practiced in different areas. In Catholic and Lutheran church music, for example, musicians were divided into multiple choirs, which necessitated the role of two timekeepers coordinating beats—it was this system, in fact, which made polychoral music feasible.
Then, I will show how the timekeeper’s beating patterns, which varied over time, plainly manifested changes in the musicians’ sense of bar and musical meaning. The time-beating figure of Monsieur de Saint-Lambert (Les Principes du Clavecin, 1702) and Étienne Loulié (Éléments ou Principes de Musique, 1696) will then be compared with the bowing rules of Georg Muffat (Florilegium secundum, 1698), revealing an interesting parallel. The accented bow strokes of the strings almost always correspond with the downward movement of the timekeeper, and the unaccented with the upward movement, so that the beats felt as heavy are also played with more emphasis. As Monsieur de Saint-Lambert puts it explicitly in his treatise, the hand of the timekeeper shows to the eye an image of the cadence which the ear must hear.
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Research Interests:
The “Geistliches Meyenlied” is a sacred contrafactum of a secular May song made by the itinerant singer and poet Benedikt Gletting (1500–ca. 1565). From the 1560s on, the song spread outwards from Bern and the Old Swiss Confederacy; it... more
The “Geistliches Meyenlied” is a sacred contrafactum of a secular May song made by the itinerant singer and poet Benedikt Gletting (1500–ca. 1565). From the 1560s on, the song spread outwards from Bern and the Old Swiss Confederacy; it was published as a song leaflet in Strasbourg, Augsburg, Konstanz, and other cities, first by Protestant, and, from 1607 on, also by Catholic printers. The “Meyenlied” continued to be printed and disseminated as a private devotional song in both Protestant and Catholic circles into the eighteenth century, the solus-Christus principle inherent in its text facilitating its reception in Catholic settings.
The devotional song subsequently found its way into the realm of art music, with the publication of Johann Benn’s “Missa ober das Geistliche Meyenlied” in Luzern in 1644. At least one other mass setting and two instrumental compositions over the melody also existed in the seventeenth century; in the liturgy of the Collegiate Church in Beromünster, these compositions were performed on May 3, the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross. This liturgical placement had a double significance: not only is the song seasonally appropriate for May, making a connection to the secular world, but “Meyen” ultimately also refers to the Cross.
The devotional song subsequently found its way into the realm of art music, with the publication of Johann Benn’s “Missa ober das Geistliche Meyenlied” in Luzern in 1644. At least one other mass setting and two instrumental compositions over the melody also existed in the seventeenth century; in the liturgy of the Collegiate Church in Beromünster, these compositions were performed on May 3, the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross. This liturgical placement had a double significance: not only is the song seasonally appropriate for May, making a connection to the secular world, but “Meyen” ultimately also refers to the Cross.
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Tra rito ambrosiano e rito romano: la musica nelle chiese di Milano e la circolazione delle sue fonti, in: La musica sacra nella Milano del Settecento. Atti del Convegno internazionale (Milano, 17–18 maggio 2011), Cesare Fertonani, Raffaele Mellace & Claudio Toscani (Hrsg.), Milano 2014, S. 1-24.more
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„Um die Music mit gröserer auferbauligkeit [...]“ – Einblicke in die Organisation der Musik in der Benediktinerabtei Einsiedeln in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts am Beispiel der 'Grossen Engelweihe', in: Musik aus Klöstern des Alpenraums, Giuliano Castellani (Hrsg.), Bern 2010, S. 177–216.more
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in: Enzyklopädie der Kirchenmusik, Bd. 3, Der Kirchenmusiker: Berufe – Institutionen – Wirkungsfelder, Joachim Kremer & Franz Körndle (Hrsg.), Laaber 2015, S. 273–274.
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Interrelazioni tra stile musicale e liturgia: discontinuità e permanenze nella Milano del Settecento, in: La cultura della rappresentazione nella Milano del Settecento: Discontinuità e permanenze, Roberta Carpani, Annamaria Cascetta & Danilo Zardin (Hrsg.), 2 Bde., Milano 2010, Bd. 1, S. 415–441.more
Research Interests: Music, Liturgy, Mozart, Bach, Milano, and 5 moreMilan, Catholic Liturgy, Duomo Di Milano, Ambrosian chant, and Ambrosian Liturgy
Research Interests: Music, Music History, Musicology, Liturgy, Mozart, and 24 moreExtended Durations (Art), Religious congregations and monastic orders, Sacred Music, Haydn, Jesuits, Duration, Benedictine Monasticism, Monastery, Milan, Sequence, Longue durée, Catholic Liturgy, Funeral Rites, Dies Irae, Shortening, Music Reception, Congregations, Borromeo, Office of the Dead, Einsiedeln, Ambrosian Liturgy, Swiss monastery, Litta, and Sinfonist
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Most Mozartians, when they hear the name Bernasconi, will first think of the soprano Antonia Bernasconi, who created the roles of Alceste in Gluck’s Alceste and Aspasia in Mitridate re di Ponto. But another Bernasconi also contributed to... more
Most Mozartians, when they hear the name Bernasconi, will first think of the soprano Antonia Bernasconi, who created the roles of Alceste in Gluck’s Alceste and Aspasia in Mitridate re di Ponto. But another Bernasconi also contributed to Mozart’s musical milieu. Antonia’s stepfather Andrea Bernasconi (1706–1784) served from 1755 as maestro di cappella at the electoral court of Munich, a musical center that exerted considerable influence on Salzburg. Mozart, on his many visits to Munich (1762, 1763, 1766, 1774–75, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1780–81, 1790) almost certainly heard Bernasconi’s music.
In addition to composing opere serie for Carnival performances in Munich’s splendid Cuvilliés-Theater (where Idomeneo was first performed in 1781), Bernasconi
also wrote much sacred music: the court chapel’s inventory lists 34 Masses, 35 Vespers, 9 settings of the Miserere, and many other works. Most of this music was lost in the destruction of the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche in 1944.
Only one of Bernasconi’s Munich Misereres survives, in copies made for churches outside of Munich: a fifteen-movement work in D minor for chorus, soloists, and
orchestra. Christoph Riedo’s recently published edition
https://unifr.academia.edu/ChristophRiedo
and a performance by I Barocchisti under Diego Fasolis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLS57Xg_YLE
have introduced to historians of eighteenth-century music a large-scale sacred work of outstanding quality.
This joint presentation will begin with a discussion of the Miserere within the context of liturgical practices at the Munich court, its re-use of music from Bernasconi's earlier Venetian period, its transmission in sources in Passau and Beromünster (Switzerland), and its publication in the series "Music from the Monasteries in Switzerland." It will continue with an analysis, illustrated with musical examples, of the Miserere. Demonstrating the effectiveness of Bernasconi’s tonal plan, his choice of meters and tempos, his alternation of learned and galant styles, and his use of galant voice-leading schemata, it will place the Miserere within a tradition of
tragic sacred music that extends from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater to Mozart’s Requiem
In addition to composing opere serie for Carnival performances in Munich’s splendid Cuvilliés-Theater (where Idomeneo was first performed in 1781), Bernasconi
also wrote much sacred music: the court chapel’s inventory lists 34 Masses, 35 Vespers, 9 settings of the Miserere, and many other works. Most of this music was lost in the destruction of the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche in 1944.
Only one of Bernasconi’s Munich Misereres survives, in copies made for churches outside of Munich: a fifteen-movement work in D minor for chorus, soloists, and
orchestra. Christoph Riedo’s recently published edition
https://unifr.academia.edu/ChristophRiedo
and a performance by I Barocchisti under Diego Fasolis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLS57Xg_YLE
have introduced to historians of eighteenth-century music a large-scale sacred work of outstanding quality.
This joint presentation will begin with a discussion of the Miserere within the context of liturgical practices at the Munich court, its re-use of music from Bernasconi's earlier Venetian period, its transmission in sources in Passau and Beromünster (Switzerland), and its publication in the series "Music from the Monasteries in Switzerland." It will continue with an analysis, illustrated with musical examples, of the Miserere. Demonstrating the effectiveness of Bernasconi’s tonal plan, his choice of meters and tempos, his alternation of learned and galant styles, and his use of galant voice-leading schemata, it will place the Miserere within a tradition of
tragic sacred music that extends from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater to Mozart’s Requiem
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Music, Early Music, Musicology, History of the Book, Performance Studies (Music), and 14 morePerformance Practice (Music), Historically Informed Performance (HIP), Baroque Violin, Early Musical Instrument Iconography, Musical Iconography, Violin performance practice, Music Printing, Early music and historically informed performance practice, Basso Continuo, Music Printing and Publishing, Arcangelo Corelli, Corelli, Music Publishing In the Baroque Era, and Baroque Violin Playing Technique
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Research Interests: Instrumental Music, Violin, Johann Adolph Hasse, Symphony, Geneva, and 21 moreHandel, Arcangelo Corelli, Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Violin Concerto, Charles Burney, Concert Spirituel, Capriccio, John Walsh, Francesco Geminiani, Jean-Marie Leclair, Gaspard Fritz, The Common Room of Geneva, Biovanni Battista Somis, Jean-Pierre Guignon, Gaetano Pugnani, Benjamin Tate, Thomas Dampier, Achilles Ryhiner, Thomas Pitt, Jean Sellon, and Robert Price
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This collective study aims to explore the dynamics of sound geography of the early modern Italy. They examine various contexts, offering new perspectives on the phenomenology of urban sound, investigated through different typologies of... more
This collective study aims to explore the dynamics of sound geography of the early modern Italy. They examine various contexts, offering new perspectives on the phenomenology of urban sound, investigated through different typologies of sources and innovative methodological approaches. Particular attention will be given to the sound of the urban ceremonial, to its declinations and local connotations, to its ability to interact with the public and private dimension, to its economic impact, to the social and aesthetic dynamics regulating it, to its contribution to define an image of the city, to the control policies of the urban noise, to its impact on the civic architectural space and the environment.