Bigaglia Cantatas summary (original) (raw)

General_Introduction_A_Voi.pdf

This edition for WLSCM presents settings by seven composers - close contemporaries - of the cantata text 'A voi che l'accendeste' by Francesco Maria Paglia, librettist for operas by Alessandro Scarlatti during the 1690s. The cantata settings are by Scarlatti, Lulier, Perti, Pollaroli, G. Bononcini, Filippo Colinelli and Antonio Mangiarotti - a fascinating mix of composers and approaches to this remarkable text of four recitatives and arias, first documented in the Ottoboni Giustificazioni, 1692. The editions can be found on http://www.sscm-wlscm.org/main-catalogue/31

A Busy Copyist and a Shy Composer: Two Sides of Francesco Barsanti (ca.1690-1775)

Francesco Barsanti is best known to musicians and musicologists as a prominent member of the Italian musical community in Britain in the central decades of the eighteenth century, and especially as the composer of attractive and original sonatas for recorder and flute, concertos for strings with added wind instruments and timpani, instrumental arrangements of Scottish airs, overtures for strings and trio sonatas. These diverse instrumental compositions, which constitute the bulk of his output, appeared at intervals in published collections brought out from 1724 onwards. Less well known, however is his even more interesting vocal music (consisting of motets, cantatas, catches, chansons and one madrigal), much of which is linked to his active participation, in London and Edinburgh, in the cultivation and imitation of “ancient” as well as “national” music. Barsanti chose an unusual route for putting these compositions into circulation. Like many other rank-and-file orchestral musicians of his day, denied the opportunity (or lacking the courage) to appear as soloists, he earned additional income by copying music. Over twenty known manuscripts containing a variety of contemporary and older music are wholly or partly in his hand, and about a third of these contain vocal compositions by him that have been surreptitiously added, often omitting the composer’s name. Barsanti’s musical handwriting is very distinctive: its identification was made after comparison of underlaid text with the handwriting of unquestionably autograph documents (a letters and a receipt) and also in the light of compositional corrections in certain manuscripts bearing his name. The fact that the manuscript music attributable to him is almost without exception written in the same hand only reinforces this perception. After a general discussion of the role played by music copyists, particularly within Britain, in the dissemination of music, Barsanti’s known “oeuvre” as a music copyist is reviewed, item by item. Special attention is given to the purpose and destination of the copies, collaborations with other copyists and the “supernumerary” compositions (mostly by Barsanti himself but also including music by a few other composers of special interest to him) that appear to have been inserted or appended on his own initiative as a means of disseminating, or perhaps simply preserving, his vocal music. These added compositions include both very short and very long pieces, ranging from one-page French airs to multi-sectional polyphonic motets, and some of them display an attractive individuality – most strikingly in a madrigal-like setting, with Hebrew text, of a Sephardic sacred melody probably collected during a visit to Amsterdam during the 1740s. Thanks to this discreet self-promotion, which seems to have been carried out without objection from those who commissioned the copies, we possess today a very respectable corpus of vocal music by Barsanti, both sacred and secular. His case also illustrates how, given the opportunity, a copyist who was also a composer could combine “mechanical” and “creative” activity to his own advantage.

"Controversial Church Music: Then and Now"

Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology, vol. XX, no. 1, pp. 33-43, 2011

In the 17th and early 18th centuries, Lutherans were divided over a new style of church music as well as church music that was secular sounding. This paper traces the spread and influence of the new style of church music from Italy through Germany, as well as the controversies surrounding it. This style, known today as the Baroque style, divided Lutherans into two main camps. What is interesting is that the Pietists generally opposed the new style in the church, while the orthodox generally accepted it. Some prominent theologians from this 17th- and early 18th-century debate will be examined, such as Selneccer, Spener, Dannhauer, Erdmann Neumeister, as well as important contributions by minor writers such as Theophilus Großgebauer, Gottfried Ephraim Scheibel and more. The musicians of the time will also be considered, examining the perspectives of Praetorius, Schutz, Johann Kuhnau, Telemann, and more. This historic divisions over the new Italian and secular styles of church music will be examined for application to today’s divisions and discussion over contemporary worship.

'Birthday Tribute or Cantata Contest: Alessandro Scarlatti's 'A voi che l'accendeste'

Devozione e Passione: Alessandro Scarlatti nel 350 anniversario della nasciata. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Reggio Calabria, 8-9 ottobre 2010. , 2013

The cantata 'A voi che l'accendeste' is the subject of a reference In the Giustificazioni of the Fondo Ottoboni , dated July 1 1692, copied ‘per Sua eminentissima’. This cantata with four recitaties and arias presents an intriguing web of connections around Cardinal Ottoboni, including the poet Abbate Francesco Maria Paglia, the seven composers who set this text, and the castrato Andrea Adami, who owned a manuscript containing the remarkable setting of Alessandro Scarlatti himself. This paper considers the six sources of Scarlatti’s cantata, and in particular the manuscript held in Dresden State Library, which contains the five settings of the same text by Perti, Bononcini, Lulier (Giovanni del Violone), Mangiarotti, and Scarlatti. Further settings of the poem are found in separate sources by two more contemporaries of Scarlatti, Carlo Pollaroli and Filippo Colinelli. The opportunity to compare these settings enables us to observe connections between the settings, and some of the most characteristic and imaginative aspects of Scarlatti’s creative response to text – his use of word and phrase repetition in recitative, the fluid transition between recitative and arioso, his exploration of a bold range of tonal gestures within a work, and his ability to create strongly contrasting types of aria. It may not be possible to reconstruct the full story of the cantata; however, the intense care evident in Alessandro Scarlatti’s setting - and its unique performance indications - suggest that this cantata held a special place for him within the context of his relationships with poet, patron, and performer.

A Critical Edition of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Missa sopra Christ lag in Todesbanden (TWV 9:3)

The purpose of the treatise is to provide a modern edition of one of Telemann's “Lutheran masses” and a discussion of the work in its historical, stylistic, and liturgical context. In his lifetime, Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was one of Germany’s, if not Europe’s, most famous and most prolific composers. Though many of Telemann’s works were published by him, many are today assumed lost or remain unknown. Presented here is a performing edition of one of Telemann’s missae breves based on the Lutheran chorale melody Christ lag in Todesbanden. This setting is one of five in a manuscript collection in the library of the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (Royal Conservatory, Brussels). Chapter One presents a survey of Telemann’s life and career, church music, and historical reception, both in his day and to the present. Because this mass setting resulted from the reform movement of Martin Luther, Chapter Two addresses the role of the mass in the Lutheran liturgy. Included in this chapter is a discussion of some of the elements Luther retained from the Roman liturgy and some of those elements which he discarded or changed, namely those elements which relate to the use of music in the liturgy. Unlike his fellow reformers Jean Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, Luther was a lover of music and gave a prominent position to music in his new liturgy. Chapter Three focuses on the importance of music in the Lutheran liturgy, especially the significance of the chorale. Chapter Four presents the chorale melody and the manner in which Telemann employed it in this mass setting. There is also a discussion of performance considerations and suggestions. The score of the edition is included as Appendix A.