Voices of Music
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B Flat Major BWV 1051, Voices of Music 4K UHD
updated
The opening Allegro combines grand scales with trumpet like flourishes, and includes one of the original cadenzas from the time of Vivaldi. This concerto is one of the ones Bach selected to transcribe for organ as BWV 594.
Live, 8K video from our concert in NYC, October 6, 2022.
GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes the artists and organizations in New York devoted to Early Music— the music of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods. Visit them on the web at gemsny.org
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Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler, directors
Aniela Eddy, Kati Kyme, Isabelle Seula Lee, Augusta McKay Lodge and Shelby Yamin, baroque violin
Kyle Miller and Maureen Murchie, baroque viola
Ana Kim and William Skeen, baroque cello
Doug Balliett, baroque bass
Dongsok Shin, baroque organ
Hanneke van Proosdij, harpsichord
David Tayler, archlute
Live from Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, Manhattan.
Producer: John Thiessen
Video director: Murat Eyuboglu
Audio Engineer: David Tayler
Harpsichord by John Phillips
#vivaldi
Soloists: Kati Kyme, YuEun Kim, William Skeen & Elisabeth Reed.
#vivaldi
“A breathtaking interpretation of Bach’s Cello Suites. A spellbinding set that is arguably Podger’s finest recorded achievement to date.” --BBC Music Magazine
Visit SFEMS at www.sfems.org and Rachel Podger at www.rachelpodger.com
8K video by Voices of Music: David Tayler, Hanneke van Proosdij, Lloyd Hryciw & Rob Clevenger. Audio and video by Zach Miley.
Post production by David Tayler, Hanneke van Proosdij & Augusta McKay Lodge.
#bach #RachelPodger
This work is presented for the first time in 8K video.
In addition to our standard microphone array, the audio was recorded in parallel with an 8 channel, 2nd order ambisonics microphone from Core Audio. The video was filmed using Sony A1 cameras.
The concerto was published in Amsterdam in 1711 as part of L'Estro Armonico (literally, "furious harmony"). Michael Talbot described Opus 3 as "perhaps the most influential collection of instrumental music to appear during the whole of the eighteenth century," and although that honor is usually reserved for Corelli's Opus 6, Vivaldi's collection influenced generations of composers, including J.S. Bach.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler , directors
#Vivaldi #8K #ambisonics
One of Vivaldi's best known concertos, the work has been covered by many soloists and is very well known to students, as it appears in Suzuki Violin Book 4.
0:00 I. Allegro
2:43 II. Largo
4:54 III. Presto
P.S. If you are learning this piece it is good to practice it slow!
This video is part of the Voices of Music solo recordings during Covid19. Please consider a donation to support our artists:
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Visit Rachell on the web: rachellwong.com
0:00 I. Adagio
4:18 II. Fugue
15:50 III Largo
19:22 IV. Allegro Assai
#Bach #JuilliardThrives
Full version now online! youtu.be/uQNJDowTuvk
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This work is presented for the first time in 8K video.
In addition to our standard microphone array, the audio was recorded in parallel with an 8 channel, 2nd order ambisonics microphone from Core Audio. The video was filmed using Sony A1 cameras.
The concerto was published in Amsterdam in 1711 as part of L'Estro Armonico (literally, "furious harmony"). Michael Talbot described Opus 3 as "perhaps the most influential collection of instrumental music to appear during the whole of the eighteenth century," and although that honor is usually reserved for Corelli's Opus 6, Vivaldi's collection influenced generations of composers, including J.S. Bach.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler , directors
#Vivaldi #8K #ambisonics
One of Vivaldi's best known concertos, the work has been covered by many soloists and is very well known to students, as it appears in Suzuki Violin Book 4.
The Largo from Vivaldi's Concerto in A Minor, performed on original instruments by the award winning ensemble Voices of Music. Augusta McKay Lodge, baroque violin.
Please subscribe to our channel youtube.com/VoicesofMusic/?sub_confirmation=1
This work is presented for the first time in 8K video.
In addition to our standard microphone array, the audio was recorded in parallel with an 8 channel, 2nd order ambisonics microphone from Core Audio. The video was filmed using Sony A1 cameras.
The concerto was published in Amsterdam in 1711 as part of L'Estro Armonico (literally, "furious harmony"). Michael Talbot described Opus 3 as "perhaps the most influential collection of instrumental music to appear during the whole of the eighteenth century," and although that honor is usually reserved for Corelli's Opus 6, Vivaldi's collection influenced generations of composers, including J.S. Bach.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler , directors
#Vivaldi #8K #ambisonics
One of Vivaldi's best known concertos, the work has been covered by many soloists and is very well known to students, as it appears in Suzuki Violin Book 4.
The opening Allegro of Vivaldi's Concerto in A Minor, performed on original instruments by the award winning ensemble Voices of Music. Augusta McKay Lodge, baroque violin.
Please subscribe to our channel youtube.com/VoicesofMusic/?sub_confirmation=1
This work is presented for the first time in 8K video.
In addition to our standard microphone array, the audio was recorded in parallel with an 8 channel, 2nd order ambisonics microphone from Core Audio. The video was filmed using Sony A1 cameras.
The concerto was published in Amsterdam in 1711 as part of L'Estro Armonico (literally, "furious harmony"). Michael Talbot described Opus 3 as "perhaps the most influential collection of instrumental music to appear during the whole of the eighteenth century," and although that honor is usually reserved for Corelli's Opus 6, Vivaldi's collection influenced generations of composers, including J.S. Bach.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler , directors
#Vivaldi #8K #ambisonics
One of Vivaldi's best known concertos, the work has been covered by many soloists and is very well known to students, as it appears in Suzuki Violin Book 4.
Bach, in his cello suites, creates the perfect blend of five musical senses: individual expression, technique, counterpoint, rhythm and harmony; this music has been endlessly adapted and arranged, and every cellist studies these compositions at different points in their lives.
Much has been written about the suites, yet little is known. It seems likely that the music was composed by Bach in his usual grouping of a set of six around the year 1720, when Bach was Kapellmeister at Köthen. The date is really just a guess, based partly on the style of the music as well as the fact that we *do* have a date—1720—for the autograph copy of the violin sonatas. We are fortunate indeed to have the copy of the music written down by Bach’s wife, Anna Magdalena, as well as an autograph version of one of the suites in an arrangement for lute in Bach’s own handwriting.
According to legend, the suites were unknown until the cellist Pablo Casals discovered them in a thrift store in Barcelona at the age of thirteen; the legend does not explain how the music could be completely unknown even if it was readily available in several printed editions. As is the case with the Brandenburg concertos, highly embellished histories of many of Bach’s works appear in the 1930s coinciding with the marketing of recordings and concert tours; invariably, these stories take the form of a “rescue,” in which masterpieces are first overlooked and then saved from perpetual obscurity owing to an improbable series of events. Such stories have made good liner notes for decades: a more balanced view is that many of Bach’s works were continuously performed and studied after the composer’s death; for example, the Well Tempered Clavier influenced generations of composers.
The performance history and transmission of manuscripts for the cello suites begins with one of Bach’s favorite students, the composer and organist Johann Christian Kittel; Kittel was devoted to Bach’s musical style and shared Bach’s works with his own students, including the virtuoso cellist and composer Johann Friedrich Dotzauer. The other major historical figure is one Johann Peter Kellner, who copied many of Bach’s works in the late 1720s. Anna Magdalena and Kellner provide the two contemporaneous sources for the suites that survive to the present day. Kittel’s student, Dotzauer, may have been working from one of these copies or a later copy when he began the study of the works, and by 1826 demand for the music of Bach as well as for works for the cello in general had grown to the point where the suites were published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1826. Even though Dotzauer could trace his musical style directly back to Bach, by the 1820s—one hundred years after Bach composed the suites—performers were more interested in adapting the music to the style and taste of the time as opposed to recreating a performance from the time of Bach, and Dotzauer’s influential version had the effect of obscuring the two primary sources of the music until the 1960s.
Tracing the “thrift store” copy, we see that Dotzauer’s version was most likely passed down to his student, Karl Dreschler, and thence to Dreschler’s student, Friedrich Wilhelm Grützmacher who “edited” the copy found by Casals, bringing the suites into the 20th century complete with a turgid layer of markings, additional chords, and ornamentation reminiscent of the silent movie era. In addition to being an outstanding cellist, Grützmacher arranged and re-arranged a number of important historical works including Boccherini’s Cello Concerto in B flat Major: Grützmacher’s work fits the pattern in which composers throughout the 19th century adapted the works of Bach, Handel, Boccherini and many others for contemporaneous audiences, often adding their own musical material.
The Bach cello suites became a permanent part of the Early Music revival in the 1960s when the Musical Heritage Society contracted Nikolaus Harnoncourt to record the set. A decade after Harnoncourt, players began to perform the suites using historical techniques in earnest, with notable recordings by Anner Bylsma and Sigiswald Kuijken.
Voices of Music will film all six suites using our innovative 4K, ultra-high definition video process. The videos will be part of our digital library and will be free for anyone to view, anywhere in the world.
#Bach #CelloSuites
#EarthDay
#Bach
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Cynthia Miller Freivogel, Carla Moore & Alana Youssefian, soloists.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler , directors
These concertos were individually performed live in our concerts from 2015–2018, using a similar recording setup. Audience noise and applause have been removed in this version in preparation for an album release of the full version. You can also view the concerts with applause as a playlist here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5r9vx6vJSwZndy2ZgD1vqb86g4YTssyG
The subtitles in this video were written 300 years ago in the form of a sonnet, presumably by Vivaldi, and engraved directly onto the music. You may view the original Italian or an English translation by using the CC button.
Of all of Vivaldi’s concertos, the Four Seasons are the most widely performed of his works today. Vivaldi managed to change the course of music history by writing these four concertos; composers had set the seasons, the hours, the months and many other programs of music in the 17th century, but no one had written a set like the Four Seasons. Vivaldi did not just create a new kind of musical program, he refined the way in which all of the elements of the program work with the music, and he spun his programmatic flourishes over a very detailed harmonic and contrapuntal plan. Composers had previously written music that shivered with the cold, created storms and winds, imitated birds, and so on, but not to the extent and not with the careful planning of these concertos.
Vivaldi provided a detailed commentary for his work in the form of individual sonnets keyed exactly to different movements in the music, along with tempo indications, ornaments and articulation marks (please see the text and translations opposite the program). It’s an interesting question as to how to interpret Vivaldi’s design, and part of the charm of the works is that the program is very clear, yet the possibilities are endless: the main challenge is to choose between a mimetic and allegorical interpretation. In a mimetic interpretation, the performers would use extended techniques on their instruments to imitate as directly as possible the sounds of the program, including chattering teeth, raindrops, wind and stamping feet. In an allegorical performance, the players would play in such a way as to allow the listeners to use their imaginations to freely recreate the program: each musical line could convey a different layer of meaning. Similarly, by using different textures and phrasing in each of the musical lines as well the different sections, the performers can build up a tapestry of textures, without necessarily pushing each texture too far. It’s clear from contemporaneous accounts that a purely mimetic performance was frowned upon as too obvious, yet it is also clear that in Italy and Germany, string players were inventing new techniques to include a wider variety of sounds in their playing. Thus, it is quite possible to read the words “raindrops” and create a new, imaginative musical version of a rainy, wind-swept landscape without presenting the music pre-interpreted for the viewer.
Spring: Allegro - 0:00
Largo - 3:32
Allegro - 6:13
Summer: Allegro non molto - 10:09
Adagio - 15:31
Presto - 17:46
Autumn: Allegro - 20:42
Adagio molto - 26:14
Allegro - 28:25
Winter: Allegro non molto - 31:56
Largo - 35:29
Allegro - 37:25
Credits 40:44
#Vivaldi #FourSeasons
Composed c1497, Josquin's composition is attributed as "Josquin d'Ascanio" in both original sources, and it is likely that this is Josquin des Prez. The "Ascanio" refers to the Sforzas: the poet and musician Serafino dall’Aquila, who was in the service of Ascanio Sforza between 1484 and 1491, wrote a dedicatory sonnet ‘Ad Jusquino suo compagno musico d’Ascanio’ ('To Josquin, fellow musician of Ascanio,' see: New Grove dictionary). The performance is a typical renaissance ensemble of three shawms and a sackbut (trombone). Filmed as part of the Voices of Music award winning "Leonardo da Vinci: A Musical Odyssey" program.
Adam Gilbert, shawm
Malachai Bandy, shawm
Rotem Gilbert, shawm
Adam Bregman, sackbut
You may see all of these fabulous musicians perform with Ciaramella here (and with many other ensembles!) http://bit.ly/CiaramellaVideo
Voices of Music, directed by Hanneke van Proosdi and David Tayler, is a 510(c)(3) nonprofit. With your donations, we can make more videos like this one voicesofmusic.org/donate.html
#Josquin500
This concerto, from Opus 3, was studied by Johann Sebastian Bach.
A fleet stretto for the two solo violins opens the work, followed by a pointed Adagio which flows into an extended, angular fugue with extensive development, fragmentation and inversion of the subject and the stepwise countersubject. The fugue is followed by poignant slow movement for solo violin accompanied by the high strings, and brilliant, coda-like allegro closes out the concerto. The concerto highlights Vivaldi's mastery of complex counterpoint.
The third violin: in the opening stretto, the pedal point is shared by the two soloists in alternation, creating the illusion of a third player.
I. Allegro 0:00
II. Adagio e spiccato 0:43
III. Allegro 1:09
IV. Largo e spiccato 3:51
V. Allegro 6:09
Credits 9:03
#Vivaldi
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All Four Seasons now online! youtu.be/aryDMAP6oug
For the Four Season, Vivaldi created four different styles of composition for each season. In Autumn, the composer uses a complex, dual ritornello form with the thematic material shared by the soloist. In addition, there are some "surround sound" effects to imitate the sound of the hunters, as short themes are rapidly exchanged across the sound stage. To show the interplay of the soloist and the ripieno, we filmed using ultra wideangle lenses with "deep stage" focus that renders all of the performers clearly.
Other innovative compositional elements include moving the rhapsodic adagio for solo violin into the first movement, then providing a second adagio for harpsichord as the middle movement with muted strings. A pianissimo ending concludes the rollicking third movement.
The subtitles in this video were written 300 years ago in the form of a sonnet, presumably by Vivaldi, and engraved directly onto the music. You may view the original Italian or an English translation by using the CC button.
For this video, a new edition was prepared from the original sources, prints and manuscripts for Vivaldi's music. In Vivaldi's original engraved score, the title is given as the older, Latin word Autumno, not the Italian Autunno. However, in the Manchester partbooks the title is given as Autunno, so we have chosen the more common spelling. You can see the original engraving on IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP126434-rv_293_violinos.pdf
Visit us on the web at voicesofmusic.org
Carla Moore plays an 18th century violin by Johann Georg Thir, Vienna, Austria, 1754, one of only a few violins in the world to have remained completely in its original, unaltered form. In the 19th and 20th centuries, almost all baroque violins were modernized which dramatically changes the sound: this is the original sound.
The unusual harpsichord solo in the second movement is improvised and performed by Hanneke van Proosdij. Ms van Proosdij plays a harpsichord based on Bartolomeo Cristofori made by Joop Klinkhamer.
0:00 I. Allegro
5:32 II. Adagio molto
7:42 III. Allegro
11:40 Credits
#Vivaldi #Autumn #FourSeasons
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For his second movement, Vivaldi gives the harpsichord a solo turn, marking the part "Il cembalo arpeggio." The strings are given a silky smooth accompanying role, with only a few moving notes. The concerto is diplomatically balanced by including a finely crafted solo movement for the violin within the first movement.
Although it may be tempting to perform "adagio molto" slowly, the movement is not a largo, and the term "adagio" in the baroque often referred to the figuration as opposed to some sort of absolute tempo. The arpeggiation effectively creates two layers of tempo: the flowing notes of the harpsichord and the palatial alternations of the suspensions in the strings. Taken as a whole, the Four Seasons is clearly intended to be performed with a heightened sense of musical layering and textures, with many unique orchestrations for the individual movements.
For this video, a new edition was prepared from the original sources, prints and manuscripts for Vivaldi's music. In Vivaldi's original engraved score, the title is given as Autumno, not Autunno. However, in the Manchester partbooks the title is given as Autunno, so we have opted for the more common spelling. You can see the original engraving on IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP126434-rv_293_violinos.pdf
Ms. van Proosdij plays an Italian harpsichord after Cristofori by Joop Klinkhamer.
Visit us on the web at voicesofmusic.org
This video marks the conclusion of our musical odyssey to film the complete Four Seasons of Vivaldi in 4K, ultra high definition video. Many people worked long hours to make this happen :)
As of this date, October, 2021, these videos have received more than 30 million views worldwide.
The videos will shortly be assembled into one complete video.
Thanks to all of our brilliant musicians and all who contributed, including preparing the scores, audio and video, post production, and managing the concerts. Thanks to our donors, who made this possible, and the ongoing support of our board.
#Vivaldi #Autumn #FourSeasons
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The third movement of Autumn seems at first glance to begin a simple, rustic dance, but Vivaldi adds more than a few compositional flourishes by varying the length of the ritornellos as well as using contrapuntal transformations of the opening themes for the solo episodes.
For this video, a new edition was prepared from the original sources, prints and manuscripts for Vivaldi's music. In Vivaldi's original engraved score, the title is given as Autumno, not Autunno. However, in the Manchester partbooks the title is given as Autunno, so we have opted for the more common spelling. You can see the original engraving on IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP126434-rv_293_violinos.pdf
Visit us on the web at voicesofmusic.org
Carla Moore plays an 18th century violin by Johann Georg Thir, Vienna, Austria, 1754, one of only a few violins in the world to have remained completely in its original, unaltered form. In the 19th and 20th centuries, almost all baroque violins were modernized which dramatically changed the sound: this is the original sound.
#Vivaldi #Autumn #FourSeasons
Praised as “the real thing, a true virtuoso” and “an exceptional violinist” (Seen and Heard International), Ms. McKay Lodge is a historically informed violinist based in Paris. She performs in France with world-renowned ensembles such as Ensemble Marguerite Louise, Les Arts Florissants, Les Ombres, Opera Fuoco, to name a few. In the USA she is a member of Bach Akademie Charlotte, Teatro Nuovo, The American Classical Orchestra, and Voices of Music.
As we approach 100 million views, Voices of Music is sharing all aspects of our award winning videos and technology. Visit us on the web at voicesofmusic.org
Keep up to date with Augusta at augustamckaylodge.com
Cover photo by Casey Leigh.
#ClassicalMusic #EarlyMusic #VideoBasics
The first movement of Autumn from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, performed on original instruments by the award winning Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. Carla Moore, solo baroque violin.
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For this video, a new edition was prepared from the original sources, prints and manuscripts for Vivaldi's music. In Vivaldi's original engraved score, the title is given as Autumno, not Autunno. However, in the Manchester partbooks the title is given as Autunno, so we have opted for the more common spelling. You can see the original engraving on IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP126434-rv_293_violinos.pdf
Visit us on the web at voicesofmusic.org
Carla Moore plays an 18th century violin by Johann Georg Thir, Vienna, Austria, 1754, one of only a few violins in the world to have remained completely in its original, unaltered form. In the 19th and 20th centuries, almost all baroque violins were modernized which dramatically changes the sound: this is the original sound.
#Vivaldi #Autumn #FourSeasons
Elisabeth Reed, viola da gamba
Hanneke van Proosdi, baroque organ
David Tayler, archlute
From Wikipedia: The concerto delle donne (the 'ensemble of ladies'; also concerto di donne or concerto delle (or di) dame) was a group of professional female singers in the late Italian Renaissance, primarily in the court of Ferrara, Italy. Renowned for their technical and artistic virtuosity, the ensemble was founded by Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, in 1580 and was active until the court was dissolved in 1597. Giacomo Vincenti, a music publisher, praised the women as "virtuose giovani" (young virtuosas), echoing the sentiments of contemporaneous diarists and commentators.
The origins of the ensemble lay in an amateur group of high-placed courtiers who performed for each other within the context of the Duke's informal musica secreta (lit. 'secret music') in the 1570s. The ensemble evolved into an all-female group of professional musicians, the concerto delle donne, who performed formal concerts for members of the inner circle of the court and important visitors. Their signature style of florid, highly ornamented singing brought prestige to Ferrara and inspired composers of the time.
Link to the original engraving of 1601: ks.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/4/4d/IMSLP104404-PMLP213271-luzzaschi_madrigali.pdf
I mi son giovinetta (based on Boccaccio)
“I mi son giovinetta e rido e canto a la
stagion novella.”
Cantava la mia dolce pastorella,
Quando l’ali il cor mio
Spiegò come augellin subitamente,
Tutto lieto et ridente
Cantava in sua favella:
“Son giovinetto anch’io,
E rido e canto a più beata e bella
primavera d’Amore
Che ne begli occhi suoi fiorisce”, et ella:
“Fuggi se saggio sei”, disse, “l’ardore
Ch’in questi rai
Primavera per te non sara mai.
“I am young, I laugh and sing
to the new season.”
Thus sang my lovely shepherdess,
When my heart suddenly
Spread its wings like a bird,
Joyful and laughing
It sang in this way:
“I too am young,
And I laugh and sing to the more
beautiful and happy springtime of love
which blossoms in your fair eyes.” She replied:
“Flee ardour, if you are wise;
flee, for in these rays
there will never be spring for you!”
Copyright 2018 Voices of Music
The sixth flute is a recorder pitched six notes above the alto recorder, in D. Smaller than a soprano recorder, but larger than a sopranino, it plays in the same range as the baroque piccolo and has a complex, refined sound.
'Le rossignol en amour' (the nightingale in love) appears as a character piece in in the 14th 'ordre' of Couperin's Troisième Livre de pièces de clavecin.
Couperin gave the following instructions: "It is not necessary to follow the beat too closely in the variations: place the emphasis on expression, play the fast notes cleanly, and round off the marked ornaments. This “Rossignol” can be performed with the great success on the flute if well played." #Couperin
Tartini gave his own account of his sonata:
"One night, in the year 1713, I dreamed I had made a pact with the devil for my soul. Everything went as I wished: my new servant anticipated my every desire. Among other things, I gave him my violin to see if he could play. How great was my astonishment on hearing a sonata so wonderful and so beautiful, played with such great art and intelligence, as I had never even conceived in my boldest flights of fantasy. I felt enraptured, transported, enchanted: my breath failed me, and I awoke. I immediately grasped my violin in order to retain, in part at least, the impression of my dream. In vain! The music which I at this time composed is indeed the best that I ever wrote, and I still call it the "Devil's Trill", but the difference between it and that which so moved me is so great that I would have destroyed my instrument and have said farewell to music forever if it had been possible for me to live without the enjoyment it affords me."
Published as "Le Trille du Diable" and also known as "Il trillo del diavolo," the sonata comes down to us with an accompaniment; however, many violinists prefer to incorporate the harmonies into the work and perform it as an unaccompanied violin solo--certainly Tartini does not mention a harpsichord in his dream.
This reconstruction of the sonata differs from modern editions, notably in the improvisations and ornaments. For reference, the chapters reproduce the original tempo markings of the first edition of "L'art du violon" (Paris, 1799). The allegro assai at 12:10 is performed with an introduction in free time, as is for example found in the concertos of Vivaldi.
4K video and HD audio Ronald Haight
Director of Music Technology, Seattle Pacific University
Post production: David Tayler, Hanneke van Proosdij, William Skeen & Andrew Levy
#Tartini
0:00 Larghetto affectuoso
6:24 Tempo giusto della scuola Tartinista
7:19 Andante (Sogni dell autore)
8:11 Allegro assai
8:55 Trillo del diavolo al pie del letto
9:21 Andante
10:10 Allegro assai
10:53 Trillo del diavolo
11:15 Andante
12:10 Allegro assai
13:02 Adagio
Live stream from October 25, 2020
Much of Bach's music is based on the rhythms of the court dances of his day,
not just in the Suites and Partitas with named dance movements but also,
less obviously, in the Cantatas and Passions. This talk aims to show how
deep this vein of the dance runs in his music, and. in addition, what characters
each type of dance had for musicians of the Baroque period.
#Bach
The ensemble Vox Luminis, led by Lionel Meunier, specialises in English, Italian and German repertoire from the 17th and early 18th century and is internationally acclaimed for its unique sound. A core of vocal soloists is supplemented, depending on the repertoire, with an extensive continuo, solo instruments or a complete orchestra.
Visit Vox Luminis on the web at voxluminis.com/en
And the San Francisco Early Music Society at sfems.org
Audio and video recorded by Voices of Music at BFX2018
Notes from Wikipedia: "Jesu, meine Freude is one of the few works by Bach for five vocal parts. It may have been composed for a funeral, but scholars have come to doubt a 1912 dating to a specific July 1723 funeral in Leipzig, a few months after Bach had moved to that town. [Musicologist and Bach scholar] Christoph Wolff suggested that the motet may have been composed for education in both choral singing and theology. Unique in its complex symmetrical structure juxtaposing hymn text and Bible text, the motet has been regarded as one of Bach's greatest achievements in the genre. It was the first of his motets to be recorded, in 1927."
For this live concert video, a matched pair of Sennheiser microphones in ORTF was placed in the center for a clear and transparent audio image along with five, 4K Sony and Panasonic video cameras.
Singers:
Zsuzsi Tóth, Maria Valdmaa, Caroline Weynants, sopranos;
Victoria Cassano, mezzo-soprano
Alexander Chance, Jan Kullmann, counter-tenors;
Robert Buckland, Philippe Froeliger, tenors
Sebastian Myrus, Lionel Meunier, basses
Haru Kitamika, organ
Text
Jesu, meine Freude,
Meines Herzens Weide,
Jesu, meine Zier,
Ach wie lang, ach lange
Ist dem Herzen bange
Und verlangt nach dir!
Gottes Lamm, mein Bräutigam,
Außer dir soll mir auf Erden
Nichts sonst Liebers werden.
Unter deinem Schirmen
Bin ich vor den Stürmen
Aller Feinde frei.
Laß den Satan wittern,
Laß den Feind erbittern,
Mir steht Jesus bei.
Ob es itzt gleich kracht und blitzt,
Ob gleich Sünd und Hölle schrecken:
Jesus will mich decken.
Trotz dem alten Drachen,
Trotz des Todes Rachen,
Trotz der Furcht darzu!
Tobe, Welt, und springe,
Ich steh hier und singe
In gar sichrer Ruh.
Gottes Macht hält mich in acht;
Erd und Abgrund muss verstummen,
Ob sie noch so brummen.
Weg mit allen Schätzen!
Du bist mein Ergötzen,
Jesu, meine Lust !
Weg ihr eitlen Ehren,
Ich mag euch nicht hören,
Bleibt mir unbewusst!
Elend, Not, Kreuz, Schmach und Tod
Soll mich, ob ich viel muss leiden,
Nicht von Jesu scheiden.
Gute Nacht, o Wesen,
Das die Welt erlesen,
Mir gefällst du nicht.
Gute Nacht, ihr Sünden,
Bleibet weit dahinten,
Kommt nicht mehr ans Licht!
Gute Nacht, du Stolz und Pracht!
Dir sei ganz, du Lasterleben,
Gute Nacht gegeben.
Weicht, ihr Trauergeister,
Denn mein Freudenmeister,
Jesus, tritt herein.
Denen, die Gott lieben,
Muß auch ihr Betrüben
Lauter Zucker sein.
Duld ich schon hier Spott und Hohn,
Dennoch bleibst du auch im Leide,
Jesu, meine Freude.
Jesus, my joy,
pasture of my heart,
Jesus, my adornment
ah how long, how long
is my heart filled with anxiety
and longing for you!
Lamb of God, my bridegroom,
apart from you on the earth
there is nothing dearer to me.
Beneath your protection
I am free from the attacks
of all my enemies.
Let Satan track me down,
let my enemy be exasperated –
Jesus stands by me.
Even if there is thunder and lightning,
even if sin and hell spread terror
Jesus will protect me .
I defy the old dragon,
I defy the jaws of death,
I defy fear as well!
Rage, World, and spring to attack:
I stand here and sing
in secure peace.
God’s might takes care of me;
earth and abyss must fall silent,
however much they rumble on.
Away with all treasures!
You are my delight,
Jesus, my joy!
Away with empty honours,
I’m not going to listen to you,
remain unknown to me!
Misery, distress, affliction, disgrace and death,
even if I must endure much suffering,
will not separate me from Jesus.
Good night, existence
chosen by the world,
you do not please me.
Good night , you sins,
stay far behind me.
Come no more to the light1
Good night , pride and splendour,
once and for all, sinful existence,
I bid you good night.
Go away, mournful spirits,
for my joyful master,
Jesus, now enters in.
For those who love God
even their afflictions
become pure sweetness.
Even if here I must endure shame and disgrace,
even in suffering you remain,
Jesus, my joy
Translation from Bach Cantatas Website by Francis Browne
0:00 Jesu, meine Freude
1:08 Es ist nun nichts Verdammliches
3:46 Unter deinem Schirmen
5:02 Denn das Gesetz
5:56 Trotz dem alten Drachen
8:15 Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich
10:58 Weg mit allen Schätzen!
12:12 So aber Christus in euch ist
14:07 Gute Nacht, O Wesen
18:11 So nun der Geist
19:37 Weicht, ihr Trauergeister
#VoxLuminis #Bach
0:00 Allegro
3:04 Largo
6:24 Allegro
#Vivaldi #CelloConcerto
Praised as a "rising superstar" (The Georgia Straight), Canadian violinist Chloe Kim has performed as soloist and concertmaster in prominent concert venues around the world. The recipient of many prestigious awards including the 2020 Mercury-Juilliard Fellowship and the 2016 Early Music America Scholarship, Chloe was most recently nominated for Canada's distinguished Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award.
Chloe's most memorable engagements include a Vivaldi women's tour led by Monica Huggett, as well as recent trips to France for collaborations with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. In the summer of 2019, Chloe performed across Scandinavia with Yale's Schola Cantorum and served as concertmaster of Juilliard415 for productions of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in London's Holland Park and the Royal Opera in the Palace of Versailles.
In 2020, with her European tour engagements cancelled due to the pandemic, Chloe pivoted to create, direct, and produce Victoria's hugely successful Music for the Pause series, presented with her beloved West Coast colleagues. Recent highlights include features in the CBC's 30 under 30 and the Juilliard Journal for her achievements. This season, Chloe is looking forward to solo appearances with Early Music Vancouver and Music on Main, San Francisco's Voices of Music, New York's Gotham Early Music Scene, as well as debuts at the Isabel Bader Centre and the National Arts Centre. She is especially indebted to her dear friends Elizabeth Blumenstock, Jeanne Lamon, Christina Mahler, and Heilwig von Königslöw.
#Matteis #ChloeKim
0:00 Adagio sostenuto
4:44 Allegretto
06:58 Presto agitato
The sound of the piano in the time of Beethoven was quite different than that of the modern piano, and in this video you will hear the original colors, textures, and the inner voices of the music as they sounded at the time of composition. This work is now available for the first time in 4K, ultra high definition video, with 96/24 audio on a period instrument.
This video is a coproduction of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival and Voices of Music.
Visit the Valley of the Moon Music Festival on the web at
http://valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org
and Voices of Music at voicesofmusic.org
After many years of exploring, performing and recording the chamber music of the Classical and Romantic periods on period instruments, founders Tanya Tomkins and Eric Zivian have come to the conclusion that these well-known pieces can be experienced in a completely new way, not only through the unique qualities of period instruments but also through a full understanding of period style. For the past ten years, directors Eric and Tanya have immersed themselves in Classical and Romantic music on period instruments: recording, performing, and teaching these pieces from a historic perspective; this experience led to the idea of starting a music festival devoted to performing and teaching this repertory on period instruments. The Valley of the Moon Music Festival is not just an exciting series of summer concerts in the beautiful town of Sonoma, but it is also a place for emerging musicians to thrive as they incorporate this chamber music into their professional lives.
This video is a unique collaboration between the Valley of the Moon Festival and the Voices of Music Great Works Project. The Great Works Project makes Classical Music available free anywhere in the world, and these materials can be used by students and teachers and as part of the curriculum of schools and conservatories. Our video channel is one of the largest and most accessible classical music channels in the world.Fortepiano by Paul Poletti, after Jean-Louis Dulcken, 1795
#Beethoven #MoonlightSonata
Sherezade Panthaki, soprano
Elisabeth Reed, viola da gamba
Hanneke van Proosdij, baroque organ
David Tayler, archlute
Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius.
Laudate eum in firmamento virtutis eius.
Laudate eum in sono tubae.
Laudate eum in psalterio et citara.
Laudate eum in timpano et choro.
Laudate eum in cimbalis bene sonantibus.
Laudate eum in cimbalis iubilationibus.
Omnis Spiritus laudat Dominum.
Alleluia. (Psalm 150)
Praise God in his sanctuary
Praise him in his mighty firmament
Praise him for his mighty deeds
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet
Praise him with kithara and psaltery
Praise him with tambourine and chorus
Praise him with well struck cymbals
Praise him with rejoicing cymbals
All souls praise the Lord.
Alleluia.
Selva morale e spirituale, Venice, 1641.
Copyright 2019 Voices of Music
#Monteverdi
Giulio Cesare was very popular during Handel's lifetime and was part of the Handel revival in the early 20th century, beginning with a production at Göttingen in 1922.
Aure, deh, per pietà (Giulio Cesare)
Dall’ondoso periglio
salvo mi porta al lido
il mio propizio fato.
Qui la celeste Parca
non tronca ancor lo stame alla mia vita!
Ma dove andrò? e chi mi porge aita?
Ove son le mie schiere? Ove son le legioni?
Che a tante mie vittorie il varco apriro?
Solo in queste erme arene
Al monarca del mondo errar conviene?
Aure, deh, per pietà
spirate al petto mio,
per dar conforto, oh dio!
al mio dolor.
Dite, dov’è, che fa
l’idolo del mio sen,
l’amato e dolce ben
di questo cor.
Ma d’ogni intorno i’ veggio
sparse d’arme e d’estinti
l’infortunate arene,
segno d’infausto annunzio al fin sarà.
Aure.... —Nicola Francesco Haym
From the perilous waves
I am cast ashore
By my benevolent fate
The destiny of heaven
has not yet severed the thread of my life!
But where shall I go? Who will help me?
Where are my troops? Where are the legions
that gave me so many victories?
Must the ruler of the world
wander alone, vanquished, in the desert?
Breezes, for pity’s sake,
breathe into my breast
to bring your comfort, oh God,
to my pain.
Tell me, where is
the idol of my faith
the beloved treasure
of this heart?
Everywhere I see
Littered with weapons, dead bodies,
A dismal scene--
Surely a dreadful omen
Breezes…
Copyright Voices of Music 2019
#Handel
This video is part of the Voices of Music Historical Performance series.
Praised as “the real thing, a true virtuoso” and “an exceptional violinist” (Seen and Heard International), Based in Paris, Augista McKay Lodge is performs in France with world-renowned ensembles such as Ensemble Marguerite Louise, Les Arts Florissants, Les Ombres, Opera Fuoco, and many others; in the USA she is a member of Bach Akademie Charlotte, Teatro Nuovo, The American Classical Orchestra and Voices of Music.
As a soloist, McKay Lodge has appeared in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Concertgebouw’s Kleine Zaal, the Metropolitan Museum, the Kosciuszko Foundation and Dans les Jardins de William Christie.
Her two solo albums (Naxos) have won major awards and reviews in publications such as The Strad, Diapason d’Or and Strings Magazine. She celebrates the release of a chamber music album with her sister Georgina (Brilliant Classics). Her solo videos with Voices of Music won the SFCV Audience Choice award in 2020 for best streaming performance as well as best recital.
McKay Lodge has claimed grand prizes in Concert Artists International, Juilliard’s Historical Performance Concerto Competition, the Indianapolis Baroque Concerto Competition, and her ensemble Voyage Sonique placed second in the international Lyceum Club de Suisse Concours de Musique. She is a founding member of two ensembles, Voyage Sonique (New York) and the Spielerei Piano Trio (Amsterdam).
As concertmaster, McKay Lodge has led under the baton of Kristian Bezuidenhout, William Christie, Gaetan Jarry, Ton Koopman, Nicholas McGegan, and Masaaki Suzuki. She has performed as concertmaster with Les Arts Florissants, Teatro Nuovo, The American Classical Orchestra, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Ensemble Marguerite Louise, and more.
Website: www.augustamckaylodge.com.
#Corelli
Bach intended this work for a five string cello, an instrument which was fairly standard in the 17th century well into the 18th. The Anna Magdalena manuscript copy shows the disposition of the tuning and the strings written at the top of the score. The title page of the set reads "Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso." (Suites for violoncello with no accompaniment). Although the work can be performed on any number of instruments, there is no evidence that Bach intended it to be played on the viola pomposa or the viola da spalla, in fact, Bach, who knew everything about his craft, did not ever use the term "da spalla." The viola pomposa, however, is mentioned a generation later in reference to Bach's works. There were of course instruments of all sizes that were played in Germany with different names, and there are many references to the violoncello piccolo. Typically, smaller, portable cellos were used, for example, when playing in an ensemble in a balcony, where the instrument was lifted above the railings to be heard. Although the evidence is clear that Bach is referring to the cello, one of the great things about baroque performance is the fun in arranging music for different instruments. So for this video, we have chosen what we think is the best instrument to represent the work, while at the same time acknowledging that musicians should have fun playing Bach on their instrument of choice.
The work is considered to be one of the most technically challenging pieces in the repertory.
In addition to the cello, the piece works very well on the baroque lute or theorbo, as is the case with the fifth suite.
Mr. Skeen plays one of the very few surviving original five string cellos from the late 17th century.
In his cello suites, Bach creates the perfect blend of five musical senses: individual expression, technique, counterpoint, rhythm and harmony; the music has been endlessly adapted and arranged, and every cellist studies these compositions at different points in their lives.
Much has been written about the suites, yet little is known. It seems likely that the music was composed by Bach in his usual grouping of a set of six around the year 1720, when Bach was Kapellmeister at Köthen. The date is just a guess, based on the style of the music as well as the fact that we *do* have a date—1720—for the autograph copy of the violin sonatas. We are fortunate indeed to have the copy of the music written down by Bach’s wife, Anna Magdalena, as well as an autograph version of one of the suites in an arrangement for lute in Bach’s own handwriting.
According to legend, the suites were unknown until the cellist Pablo Casals discovered them in a thrift store in Barcelona at the age of thirteen; the legend does not explain how the music could be completely unknown even if it was readily available in several printed editions. As is the case with the Brandenburg concertos, highly embellished histories of many of Bach’s works appear in the 1930s coinciding with the marketing of recordings and concert tours; invariably, these stories take the form of a “rescue,” in which masterpieces are first overlooked and then saved from perpetual obscurity owing to an improbable series of events. Such stories have made good liner notes for decades: a more balanced view is that many of Bach’s works were continuously performed and studied.
The history and transmission of manuscripts for the suites begins with one of Bach’s favorite students, the composer Johann Christian Kittel. The other major historical figure is one Johann Peter Kellner, who copied many of Bach’s works in the late 1720s. Anna Magdalena and Kellner provide the two contemporaneous sources for the suites that survive to the present day. Kittel’s student, Dotzauer, may have been working from one of these copies or a later copy when he began the study of the works, and by 1826 demand for the music of Bach as well as for works for the cello in general had grown to the point where the suites were published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1826.
Tracing the “thrift store” copy, we see that Dotzauer’s version was most likely passed down to his student, Karl Dreschler, and thence to Dreschler’s student, Friedrich Wilhelm Grützmacher who “edited” the copy found by Casals, bringing the suites into the 20th century complete with a turgid layer of additions and ornamentation reminiscent of the silent movie era.
The Bach cello suites became a permanent part of the Early Music revival in the 60s when the Musical Heritage Society contracted Nikolaus Harnoncourt to record the set; these were quickly followed by Anner Bylsma and many others.
Voices of Music will film all six suites using our innovative 4K, ultra-high definition video process. The videos will be part of our digital library and will be free for anyone to view, anywhere in the world.
—David Tayler
#Bach #CelloSuites
This program won "Best Vocal Recital" and "Best Chamber Music Concert" in the Bay Area Audience Choice Awards, 2020.
Barbara Strozzi was one of the finest composers of the 17th century, her work embodies a wide ranging, vituosic style that melds word painting, ritornello techniques, motivic development and balanced harmonic structures. In her scared song, "O Maria", the invocational ritornello acts as a litany leavened with contrasting and passionate devotional scenes.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler,
Directors
Elisabeth Reed, viola da gamba
Hanneke van Proosdij, baroque organ
David Tayler, archlute
O Maria quam pulchra es (Per la Madonna)
O Maria quam pulchra es,
quam suavis, quam decora, quam pulchra es.
Tegit terram sicut nebula,
lumen ortum indeficiens,
flamma ignis, Arca federis
inter spinas ortum lilium.
Tronum Sion in Altissimis
in columna nubis positum.
O Maria quam pulchra es....
Ante sæcula creata
girum cœli circuivit sola,
profundum abissi penetravit.
Et in fluctibus maris ambulavit,
omnium corda virtute calcavit,
et in hereditate Domini morata est.
Tegit terram sicut nebula....
O Maria quam pulchra es. Alleluia.
To the Madonna:
O Mary, how lovely you are,
how sweet, how beautiful, how lovely you are.
She touches the earth like mist,
a light risen that never fails,
a flame, a fire, the Ark of the Covenant,
a lily among thorns.
The throne of Sion placed high
in the clouds.
O Mary, how lovely you are....
Before creation,
she circled the arc of heaven,
and transfixed the depths of the abyss.
And she walked among the waves of the sea.
She gathered the hearts of the virtuous,
and she delights in the heritage of the Lord.
She touches the earth like mist….
O Mary, how lovely you are. Alleluia.
Copyright Voices of Music 2019
#BarbaraStrozzi
Photo Credits: Robert Mealy, Voices of Music, Boston Early Music Festival, Juilliard415.
Video Credits: Voices of Music
This video is part of the Voices of Music "Recording at Home" program.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), an Italian music director, violinist and composer, has become one of today’s most famous figures in Baroque music. Born near Bologna, he made a career in Rome as a celebrated soloist. Today he is most well-known for his concerti grossi and his Opus 5 violin sonatas, the latter being the subject of today’s video. These sonatas display a range of virtuosity, technique, and musicality which never ceases to amaze. They were used then, and still today, as a source for violin technique and ornamentation. The fast movements are comprised of complex fugues, joyful dances, and virtuosic movements filled with rapid fire 16th notes. Of note today, however, are the slow movements. Keeping with the tradition of the time, these are meant to be profusely supplied with extra notes - ornaments - created and improvised by the performers themselves. An edition printed in 1710 serves as a useful example of what may very well have been Corelli’s own ornaments; however, a performer should be able to create their own ornamentation as well, preferably improvising “on-the-spot,” as was done during Corelli’s lifetime.
Just as Bach created a concerto for solo harpsichord, so did Heinrich Biber create a concerto grosso for violin a generation earlier. Biber skillfully combines double stops, fiery virtuosity, simple dance tunes and an over-the-top cadenza to create one of his finest works.
Temperament: meantone 415.3 Hz.
The Sonata in F Major shows the composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber at the height of his compositional powers. Written at the culmination of the German "fantastic style," the sonata is not as well known as his “rosary” sonatas, which include his passacaglia for unaccompanied violin; howver, this sonata showcases all of the virtuoso techniques that Biber could fashion into a well-balanced composition. The opening motive quotes the opening of the Corelli Concerto in F Major (Op. 6 No. 2); it is likely that Biber heard an early, unpublished version of the work. Using double stops, the violinist here imitates both of the violins of Corelli, a sort of playful joke at Corelli’s expense, and by imitating the sound of the solo and tutti sections of a double concerto, Biber announces that the listener is in for a special treat. The “concerto” is promptly interrupted by an improvisatory series of rapid scales, then Biber presents the opening themes in the dominant key, just as in Corelli’s work, but again playing both parts on one instrument. The next section is a delightful theme and variation set. This is followed by a wild storm section, with the violin now taking on the role of an orchestra tutti. The monumental variation set over a ground bass, which could stand alone as a complete work, evokes the structural weight of the ground bass in the Biber E Minor violin sonata. Biber concludes with a dazzling clarion call and an extended cadenza over an oom-pah bass line.
The baroque music theorist and historian Athanasius Kircher listed and defined the Stylus Phantasticus as one of his nine styli expressi (modes of expression) in his Musurgia Universalis (1650):
“The fantastic style is appropriate for instruments; it is the most free and most unrestrained method of composing, it is bound to nothing, not to any words nor to a melodic subject: it was developed to display creativity and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues. It may especially be seen in those works which are commonly called fantasias, ricercars, toccatas and sonatas.”
Writing retrospectively, in the 18th century, the music theorist and composer Johann Mattheson described the style thus:
“… now swift, now slow, now in one part, now in many, sometimes diverging from the beat, sometimes pianissimo, but never without a pleasing affect, to overwhelm and to amaze….”
At its heart, the Fantastic Style is defined by a true freedom from the text which had for hundreds of years been the basis for the sacred motet. In addition, the new style employed many of the new compositional techniques of the early baroque such as ritornello, fragmentation, thematic transformation and chromaticism. Some pieces for violin employ extended techniques to imitate the sounds of birds or of nature. Almost all works employ the technique of contrasting sections: each section or mini-section has a sharply defined character, meter and tempo. Lastly, the new style features a full measure of technical virtuosity for string, keyboard and wind instruments: freed from any considerations of “singability,” the instruments were allowed to use their full range and employ rapid arpeggios, extended passagework and double and triple stops to great effect.
Hanneke van Proosdij, voice flute & sixth flute
Carla Moore, baroque violin
Elisabeth Reed & William Skeen, viols
Derek Tam, harpsichord
David Tayler, archlute
Harpsichord painting by Millicent Tomkins
#musette #ConcertsRoyaux
From our award-winning Leonardo da Vinci program, the Florentine Carnival song Canto Delle Parete (song of the net). Live, 4K ultra high definition video performed by Voices of Music, Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler, directors. Vocal soloists: Stefanie True and Deborah Rentz-Moore.
The canti carnascialeschi or Carnival songs flourished under the Medicis, in particular Lorenzo the Magnificent in the late 15th century. Lorenzo actively promoted the form, and even wrote his own verses, then required members of his court and entourage to perform them. Lorenzo often chose stories drawn from classical mythology; in contrast, the songs performed in the streets (presumably this example) were satirical, rowdy, and replete with double entendre and innuendo. After Lorenzo’s death, the radical friar Savanarola largely eradicated both the music and the musical instruments in his bonfires of the vanities, although the festivals were revived in 1498. The Canto delle parete is anonymous, as are most examples of the genre, but would have been familiar to Leonardo in the streets and courts of Florence, along with the related form, the frottola.
The music is from our Leonardo da Vinci program. We sourced manuscripts and prints from the cities, courts and places that Leonardo lived in and travelled to from c.1452-1519. The program, "A musical Odyssey" is tied together with a narration. In some cases, we have historical records that the music was performed at an event that da Vinci planned or attended. This program won the 2017-2018 San Francisco Classical Voice "Best of the Bay" award for "Best Chamber Music" concert.
Texts
Canto delle parete
Donne, se’l cantar nostro ascolterete,
ghustando quello a pieno,
a tutte insegnerèno
l’arte dell’uccellare alle parete.
No’ sappiàm ch’ ogni donna sempremai
D’ uccellar si diletta;
Et son di noi miglior maeste assai
d’ impaniar la fraschetta:
Ma perchè spesso_in van l’ uccel s’ aspetta,
Et pocho frutto fate,
Uccellare inparate alle parete.
Quando si vede volteggiar l’uccello,
nè di calar fa segnio,
mettete, donne, allor mano al zinbello,
usando industria e ’ngegnio;
perchè tirare a tempo et con disegnio
esser quel si puo dire,
c’ogni uccel fa venire sotto la rete.
Nel coprir ben consiste ogni inportanza
nel presente uccellare;
ma sopratutto abbiate per usanza
a ogni uccel tirare:
et non vi paia invano affatichare,
se nel calar vien solo,
ma tirando, al piuolo ben v’atterrete.
Song of the net
Women, if you will listen to our song,
Enjoying it fully
It will teach all of you
The art of catching birds in a net.
We know that all women always
delight in catching birds
And they are much better teachers than we are
of flirting with sticky goo.
But because sometimes you wait in vain for a bird
And harvest only a little fruit
Learn to catch birds with a net
When you see the bird flying around
And he doesn’t seem to be coming down
Women, put your hand on the decoy
Using industry and wit
To pull, shoot, grab in rhythm and with art
Is such that, it can be said,
it makes every bird come into the net
A good disguise is very important
In this bird catching
But above all, generally,
grab/aim/pull at every bird
And if only one falls/is caught
let the struggle not seem to you in vain
but by pulling, you will attach well to the pole/peg.
Copyright 2018 Voices of Music
Translation by Cynthia Craig Simon & David Tayler, with Lawrence Rosenwald.
#LeonardoDaVinci
Special thanks to Michael Talbot for his assistance with this project.
0:00 Allegro
1:59 Adagio
3:25 Presto
3:52 Adagio
4:30 Presto
#Torelli
The sound of the piano in the time of Beethoven was quite different than that of the modern piano, and in this video you will hear the original colors, textures, and the inner voices of the music as they sounded at the time of composition. Filmed in 4K, ultra high definition video, with 96/24 audio on a period instrument. The graceful and dance-like texture of the Allegretto is a perfect foil to the framing movements, Franz Liszt described it as "a flower between two abysses."
This video is a coproduction of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival and Voices of Music.
Visit the Valley of the Moon Music Festival on the web at
http://valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org
And Voices of Music at voicesofmusic.org
After many years of exploring, performing and recording the chamber music of the Classical and Romantic periods on period instruments, founders Tanya Tomkins and Eric Zivian have come to the conclusion that these well-known pieces can be experienced in a completely new way, not only through the unique qualities of period instruments but also through a full understanding of period style.
For the past ten years, directors Eric and Tanya have immersed themselves in Classical and Romantic music on period instruments: recording, performing, and teaching these pieces from a historic perspective; this experience led to the idea of starting a music festival devoted to performing and teaching this repertory on period instruments. The Valley of the Moon Music Festival is not just an exciting series of summer concerts in the beautiful town of Sonoma, but it is also a place for emerging musicians to thrive as they incorporate this chamber music into their professional lives.
This video is a unique collaboration between the Valley of the Moon Festival and the Voices of Music Great Works Project. The Great Works Project makes Classical Music available free anywhere in the world, and these materials can be used by students and teachers and as part of the curriculum of schools and conservatories. Our video channel is one of the largest and most accessible classical music channels in the world. More than two million viewers watch our videos each month, all completely free.
Fortepiano by Paul Poletti, after Jean-Louis Dulcken, 1795
#Beethoven #MoonlightSonata #Beethoven250
The pastorale from Corelli's Christmas Concerto was so popular that *everyone* wrote one, including Telemann. Telemann's version is for a solo instrument, not Corelli's trio sonata texture, but Telemann uses a similar drone ostinato in the sounding bass with some tinsel in the violins.
#Telemann
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Thank you for thinking of us!
Join us for a round table about the challenges and hurdles women
music directors experience today. With Chloe Kim, Artistic Director
of the Music for the Pause Festival in Victoria, BC; Rachel Podger,
Artistic Director of the Brecon Baroque Festival and Brecon Baroque
in the UK; Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director of the San Francisco
Girls Chorus, and Hanneke van Proosdij, Co-Director of Voices of Music.
Moderator: Jirachaya Kiriruangchai
About our panelists:
Violinist Chloe Kim has performed as soloist and concertmaster in prominent concert venues around the world, sharing the stage with internationally celebrated figures such as Rachel Podger, Masaaki Suzuki, Pablo Heras-Casado, and Richard Egarr.
Chloe's most memorable engagements include a Vivaldi women's tour led by Monica Huggett, as well as recent trips to France with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Last summer, Chloe served as concertmaster of Juilliard415 for sold-out productions of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in London's Holland Park and the Versailles Royal Opera.
With her European tour engagements cancelled due to the pandemic this summer, Chloe pivoted to create and direct Victoria's Music for the Pause series, presented with her beloved West Coast colleagues. She was recently featured in the CBC's “30 under 30,” as well as in the Juilliard Journal. She is looking forward to a concerto debut with the National Arts Center Orchestra in Spring of 2021.
Baroque violinist Rachel Podger has enjoyed performing and teaching internationally for the last 25 years or so, often as a soloist, but just as keen as a chamber musician and director. She leads and directs her own group Brecon Baroque, and she is artistic director at her own annual festival, the Brecon Baroque Festival which takes place every October in beautiful Wales. Being half German and having spent her formative years in Germany, Rachel spent many years studying and performing Bach’s works in particular, but feels passionate about most baroque and classical music. She is known to say a good day is a day with Bach in it!
As artistic director, Valérie Sainte-Agathe has conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013, including in performances with renowned artists such as Jon Nakamatsu, Deborah Voigt, Laurie Rubin, Philip Glass, Gustavo Dudamel, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
In February of 2018, she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Philip Glass Ensemble. Her first recording as the Girls Chorus Music Director, Final Answer, was released February of 2018.
Valerie served as Music Director for the Young Singers program of the Montpellier National Symphony and Opera in France from 1998-2011, training young singers for both opera and symphony productions. She participated in eight recordings with the Montpellier National Orchestra and The Radio France Festival. Her many awards include the Victoires de la Musique as well as the Orphée d’Or, as well as numerous San Francisco Classical Voice “Audience Choice” awards, including three, first-place prizes for the coproduction of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Voices of Music.
Hanneke van Proosdij is renowned for the elegance, virtuosity, and expressiveness of her playing. She performs regularly as soloist and continuo specialist and is principal early keyboard player with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Festspiel Orchester Goettingen and has appeared regularly with Concerto Palatino, the LA Phil and the Dallas Symphony, among others. She received her solo and teaching diplomas from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where she studied recorder, harpsichord and composition. Together with David Tayler, Hanneke cofounded and codirects Voices of Music. With more than 75,000 views every day on their YouTube channel, 2.2 million every month, Voices of Music is the most popular Early Music ensemble in America and was the first Early Music ensemble to receive the prestigious Silver Creator Award by YouTube.
This concert won the San Francisco Classical Voice "Best of the Bay" award in *three* categories: Best opera performance, best choral performance and best Early Music performance.
Complete performance here: youtu.be/hb1_GaI-1yI
The San Francisco Girls Chorus directed by Valérie Sainte-Agathe; Voices of Music directed by Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler. Visit us on the web!
SFGC: sfgirlschorus.org
VOM: voicesofmusic.org
#Dido #BestoftheBay
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“Silvia” refers to Rhea Silvia, the mythical mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, who founded the city of Rome. The original score of La Silvia is lost; fortunately, like Handel, Vivaldi was a compulsive recycler of arias, and it is possible to reconstruct most of the work.
This concert won the SFCV Audience Choice Award 2020.
Translation
Abbia respiro il cor (La Silvia)
del Lazio il reggio allor
già ben vedrai qual sia,
ma ciò, che all’alma mia
ch’io provo e dir nol sò.
Nè più t’innondi il sen
di gelosia il seren,
perche de tanti affanni
dell’anima tiranni
il duolo al fin cangiò.
—Enrico Bissari
Give the heart respite
As you will see what
Lazio’s reign is,
But I cannot say
What is truly in my soul.
No more will poisonous jealousy
Seep into your heart,
And from such troubles
From the tyrants of the soul
The sadness comes to an end
Notes from Vidita:
Here is Passereau's 'Il est bel et bon' (a song about spouses and chickens) sung in sargam (Indian solfege) followed by the fun original French.
Every choir kid has sung this piece, but it's still one of my all-time favorites. Part of the reason why this piece is so popular (my theory) is because it's written in one of the most attractive scalar modes of all time, 'Dorian' (in the western tradition), 'Kharaharapriya' as classified in the Carnatic system of 72 mela ragas or 'Kaafi' in the Hindustani thaat system: essentially a natural minor mode with raised scale degree 6. This creates a timeless soundscape and is heard in 9th/10thc Gregorian chant, all the way through the medieval periods and prominently in various folk music traditions of the world (notably English/Celtic). Indian classical ragas derived from this mode include Bhimpalasi, Reeti Gaulai, Miyan ki Malhar, only to name a few. Dorian chords are used in jazz theory and this mode is still heard in some of the 20/21st century's most iconic tunes like Thriller (MJ), Telephone (Lady Gaga), Mad World (Gary Jules), These are just examples off the top of my head, the list goes on and on!For the most part we simplify music into generic 'major' or 'minor' modes but the Indian theory system recognizes an almost infinite number of ragas/modes. It's fun to dig a little deeper and appreciate these patterns that make pieces that much more unique from one another. --VK
Il est bel est bon, commère, mon mari.
Il était deux femmes toutes d'un pays,
Disant l'une à l'autre: avez bon mari
«Il ne me courrouce ne me bat aussi,
Il fait le ménage,Il donne aux poulailles,
Et je prends mes plaisirs.
Commère c'est pour rire
Quand les poulailles crient.
Co co co co de,
petite coquette,
qu'est ceci
Il est bel est bon, commère, mon mari
#classicfm #frenchchanson #sargam
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Christopher Lowrey, countertenor
This concert won the SFCV Audience Choice Award 2020.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler, directors
Dove sei, amato bene!
Vieni, l’alma a consolar
Sono oppresso da’ tormenti
ed i crudeli miei lamenti
sol con te posso bear.
Dove sei... —Nicola Francesco Haym
Where are you, beloved?
Come console my heart!
I am beset by sorrow,
And my cruel grief
I can only bear with you.
Where are you…
Copyright Voices of Music 2019
#Handel
Malachai Bandy & Rotem Gilbert, shawms
Peter Maund, frame drum
"Rostiboli" (or Rostibuli) is one of the earliest dance tunes. The dance was very popular, and is mentioned in Italian, French, English and Scottish sources with many different versions of the name (in Scottish, "Rusty Bully"). The tune may have begun as a popular song, and most likely means "roasted and boiled."
The original manuscripts present just the unaccompanied tune along with detailed choreography for the dance steps; for this performance, the players have added a countermelody and percussion part, as was typical for the style of the time.
The tune is ascribed to Domenico da Piacenza, who authored the book "De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi", the first full book of dance instruction in Europe. The book is an important source for dance music as well as the dances and dance tempos in the early renaissance.
Live, 4K video from our Concerto delle Donne concert, October, 2019.
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler, directors
Elizabeth Blumenstock and Alana Youssefian, baroque violins
Elisabeth Reed, viola da gamba
Hanneke van Proosdij, baroque organ
David Tayler, archlute
#daggerbow
This video is part of the Voices of Music recording at home program. Please consider a donation to support our artists: voicesofmusic.org/donate.html
Set of Scottish Fiddle tunes:
Languor of Love, Simon Fraser
Ruffian's Rant, Robert Bremner
Lord Eglinton's Reel, Bremner
Duchess of Hamilton's Reel, Daniel Dow
Visit Augusta on the web: www.augustamckaylodge.com
#Outlander #JuilliardThrives #recordingathome
'Languor of Love' is a slow air and is the very first tune in the Captain Simon Fraser collection of 1815, 'The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles'. The Collection has both the English names as well as the Scottish Gaelic names of the tunes. This tune is also called 'Tha mi tinn leis a ghoal'. The Strathspey tune 'Ruffian's Rant' first appears in Robert Bremner’s Scots Reels or Country Dances (1757). Robert Bremner (c1713-89) was famous for publishing the first collection of specifically Scottish dance music (1757-61).
You can find the music here: http://bit.ly/SimonFraserAirs
Ruffian’s Rant is also known as 'Roy's wife of Aldivalloch' written by Mrs Grant and Robert Burns wrote the song 'Canst thou leave me thus, my Katie' to the same tune. Other names this tune is known by: Ben Nevis, Am Caimbeulach Dubh, Coig na Scalan, I'm Over Young to Marry Yet/I'm Owre Young to Marry Yet, Kilt is My Delight, Lady Francis Wemys' Reel, Old Virginia Reel.
You can find the music here: http://bit.ly/RobertBremner
SFCV Audience Choice, link:
surveymonkey.com/r/XJM5Y2Q
Category 2. Favorite Chamber Music Ensemble
Voices of Music
Category 5. Favorite Early Music/Baroque Ensemble
Voices of Music
Category 8. Favorite Conductor
Hanneke van Proosdij, Voices of Music
Category 9. Favorite Instrumental Soloist (alphabetical)
Augusta McKay Lodge (violin)
Rachell Ellen Wong (violin)
(Two brilliant musicians, impossible to choose, but you must choose one!)
Category 18. Favorite Early Music/Baroque Performance
Voices of Music, "The Art of the Violin"
Category 27. Favorite Streaming Performance or Series
Voices of Music, "Sundays at Ten"