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English Suites
The ''English Suites'', BWV 806–811, are a set of six suites written by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach for harpsichord (or clavichord) and generally thought to be the earliest of his 19 suites for keyboard (discounting several less well-known earlier suites), the others being the six French Suites (BWV 812–817), the six Partitas (BWV 825-830) and the Overture in the French style (BWV 831). They probably date from around 1713 or 1714. History These six suites for keyboard are thought to be the earliest set that Bach composed aside from several miscellaneous suites written when he was much younger. Bach's English Suites display less affinity with Baroque English keyboard style than do the French Suites to French Baroque keyboard style. It has also been suggested that the name is a tribute to Charles Dieupart, whose fame was greatest in England, and on whose ''Six Suittes de clavessin'' Bach's English Suites were in part based.Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the ''Goldberg Variations'' and ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''; organ works such as the '' Schubler Chorales'' and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the ''St Matthew Passion'' and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph, after which he continued his musical education in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gigue
The gigue (; ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 2008 and usually appears at the end of a suite. The gigue was probably never a court dance, but it was danced by nobility on social occasions and several court composers wrote gigues.Louis Horst, ''Pre-Classic Dance Forms'', (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, 1987), 54–60. A gigue is usually in or in one of its compound metre derivatives, such as , , or , although there are some gigues written in other metres, as for example the gigue from Johann Sebastian Bach's first ''French Suite'' (BWV 812), which is written in and has a distinctive strutting "dotted" rhythm. Gigues often have a contrapuntal texture as well as often having accents on the third beats in the bar, making the gigue a lively folk dance. In early French theatr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Galling
Martin Galling (born 1935 in Halle (Saale)) is a German pianist, harpsichordist and chamber musician. Galling first took cello lessons and studied the piano from 1945 at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory of Mainz with Louise Wandel. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz, counterpoint with Günter Raphael, and chamber music and musicology with Günter Kehr. In 1956 he was in the master class of Hans Leygraf, followed by concerts in Germany and tours of Western Europe, the U.S., Israel and Japan. Galling was a soloist on numerous tours of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra under Karl Münchinger, and collaborated with Helmuth Rilling. From 1970 to 2000 he was professor of chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik Saar (Music Academy of the Saarland). In 2003 he founded the piano duo Galling-Olivieri. Galling recorded the complete harpsichord music of Bach for a series of six three-LP sets released on the Vox label (repackaged in 1970 as an 18-disc set by Murray Hill Records). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helmut Walcha
Arthur Emil Helmut Walcha (27 October 1907 – 11 August 1991) was a German organist, harpsichordist, music teacher and composer who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters. Blind since his teenage years, he is known for his recordings of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, entirely played by memory. Biography Born in Leipzig, Walcha was blinded at age 19 after vaccination for smallpox. Despite his disability, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory and became an assistant at the Thomaskirche to Günther Ramin, who was professor of organ at the conservatory and cantor at St. Thomas (a position held by Bach himself). Some two decades later, Ramin would teach to another renowned Bach interpreter and organist at St Thomas, Karl Richter. In 1929, Walcha accepted a position in Frankfurt am Main at the Friedenskirche and remained in Frankfurt for the rest of his life. From 1933 to 1938 he taught at the Hoch Conservatory. In 1938 he was appointe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Kirkpatrick
Ralph Leonard Kirkpatrick (; June 10, 1911April 13, 1984) was an American harpsichordist and musicologist, widely known for his chronological catalog of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas as well as for his performances and recordings. Life and work Kirkpatrick was born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1911 and began studying piano at a young age. He continued his piano studies in Cambridge while studying art history at Harvard University. He became interested in the harpsichord at Harvard and gave his first harpsichord recital there in 1930. After graduating in 1931, he traveled to Europe on a John Knowles Paine Fellowship. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and harpsichord revival pioneer Wanda Landowska in Paris, with Arnold Dolmetsch in Haslemere, Heinz Tiessen in Berlin, and Günther Ramin in Leipzig. In January 1933 he made his European debut in Berlin performing Johann Sebastian Bach's ''Goldberg Variations''. In 1933 he also performed several concerts in Italy, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wanda Landowska
Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959) was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century. She was the first person to record Johann Sebastian Bach's ''Goldberg Variations'' on the harpsichord in 1933. She became a naturalized French citizen in 1938. Life and career Life in Europe left, alt=Polnische Frauen, Polnische Frau, femmes polonaises, Polish women,mujeres polacas, Leonid Pasternak. ''Concert of Wanda Landowska in Moscow'' (1907), a pastel from the Tretyakov Gallery. Landowska was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother a linguist who translated Mark Twain into Polish. She began playing piano at the age of four, and studied at the Warsaw Conservatory with the senior Jan Kleczyński and Aleksander Michałowski. She was considered a child prodigy.Kottick, Edward L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jesu, Meine Freude
"" (; Jesus, my joy) is a hymn in German, written by Johann Franck in 1650, with a melody, Zahn No. 8032, by Johann Crüger. The song first appeared in Crüger's hymnal in 1653. The text addresses Jesus as joy and support, versus enemies and the vanity of existence. The poetry is bar form, with irregular lines from 5 to 8 syllables. The melody repeats the first line as the last, framing each of the six stanzas. Several English translations have been made of the hymn, including Catherine Winkworth's "Jesu, priceless treasure" in 1869, and it has appeared in around 40 hymnals. There have been choral and organ settings of the hymn by many composers, including by Johann Sebastian Bach in a motet, BWV 227, for unaccompanied chorus, and a chorale prelude, BWV 610, for organ. In the modern German Protestant hymnal, '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'', it is No. 396. Text The text is presented in six stanzas of nine lines each. It is in bar form; three lines form the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concerto Grosso
The concerto grosso (; Italian for ''big concert(o)'', plural ''concerti grossi'' ) is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the '' concertino'') and full orchestra (the ''ripieno'', ''tutti'' or ''concerto grosso''). This is in contrast to the solo concerto which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by the orchestra. History The form developed in the late seventeenth century, although the name was not used at first. Alessandro Stradella seems to have written the first music in which two groups of different sizes are combined in the characteristic way. The name was first used by Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori in a set of ten compositions published in Lucca in 1698. The first major composer to use the term ''concerto grosso'' was Arcangelo Corelli. After Corelli's death, a collection of twelve of his ''concerti grossi'' was published. Not long after, composers such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passepied
The passepied (, "pass-foot", from a characteristic dance step) is a French court dance. Originating as a kind of Breton branle, it was adapted to courtly use in the 16th century and is found frequently in 18th-century French opera and ballet, particularly in pastoral scenes, and latterly also in baroque instrumental suites of dances. In English the passepied has been spelled "paspy" as well as "paspie" or "paspe", phonetic approximations of the French pronunciation. History The earliest historical mention of the passepied was by Noël du Fail in 1548, who said it was common at Breton courts. François Rabelais and Thoinot Arbeau, writing later in the 16th century, identify the dance as a type of branle characteristic of Brittany. At this time it was a fast duple-time dance with three-bar phrases, therefore of the ''branle simple'' type. Like many folk-dances it was popular at the court of Louis XIV. The passepied was remodelled by Jean-Baptiste Lully as a pastoral concert da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menuet
A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accompanies the dance, which subsequently developed more fully, often with a longer musical form called the minuet and trio, and was much used as a movement in the early classical symphony. Dance The name may refer to the short steps, ''pas menus'', taken in the dance, or else be derived from the ''branle à mener'' or ''amener'', popular group dances in early 17th-century France. The minuet was traditionally said to have descended from the ''bransle de Poitou'', though there is no evidence making a clear connection between these two dances. The earliest treatise to mention the possible connection of the name to the expression ''pas menus'' is Gottfried Taubert's ''Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister'', published in Leipzig in 1717, but this source ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavotte
The gavotte (also gavot, gavote, or gavotta) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, according to one source. According to another reference, the word ''gavotte'' is a generic term for a variety of French folk dances, and most likely originated in Lower Brittany in the west, or possibly Provence in the southeast or the French Basque Country in the southwest of France. It is notated in or time and is usually of moderate tempo, though the folk dances also use meters such as and . In late 16th-century Renaissance dance, the gavotte is first mentioned as the last of a suite of branles. Popular at the court of Louis XIV, it became one of many optional dances in the classical suite of dances. Many were composed by Lully, Rameau and Gluck, and the 17th-century cibell is a variety. The dance was popular in France throughout the 18th century and spread w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bourrée
The bourrée ( oc, borrèia; also in England, borry or bore) is a dance of French origin and the words and music that accompany it. The bourrée resembles the gavotte in that it is in double time and often has a dactylic rhythm. However, it is somewhat quicker, and its phrase starts with a quarter-bar anacrusis or "pick-up", whereas a gavotte has a half-bar anacrusis. In the Baroque era, after the Academie de Dance was established by Louis XIV in 1661, the French court adapted the bourrée, like many such dances, for the purposes of concert dance. In this way it gave its name to a ballet step characteristic of the dance, a rapid movement of the feet while en pointe or demi-pointe, and so to the sequence of steps called . The bourrée became an optional movement in the classical suite of dances, and J. S. Bach, Handel and Chopin wrote bourrées, not necessarily intending them to be danced. History The bourrée originates in Auvergne in France. It is sometimes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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