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March 2005 Program Notes
Angels and Devils
by Mary Burke
When we are presented with a program of works for violin and keyboard, the natural thing is to suppose that the latter will be accompanying the former. Tonight, however, one would err in so supposing. The works on this program represent stages in a sort of emancipation process for keyboard instruments in chamber music that took place during the 18th century.
In typical Baroque-era chamber music, such as solo or trio sonatas, the keyboard played accompaniment in the basso continuo style: The composer provided a bass line (in counterpoint with the treble line or lines) and figures indicating the harmonies that belonged with it; the keyboard player then filled in those harmonies in any fashion he deemed appropriate. This is no simple task—indeed, it borders on magic in the hands of a skilled performer—but the keyboard indisputably plays a supporting role.
In the early 18th century, however, composers began to tinker with this traditional conformation of melody instrument as soloist and keyboard as accompanist, and within a few decades some even managed to invert the arrangement altogether.
Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1014
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Adagio — Allegro — Andante — Allegro
Johann Sebastian Bach laid the foundations for the process of promoting the keyboard to a more equal partnership in chamber music. During his years in Cöthen (1717-1723), he took a new approach to the trio sonata form: Instead of the traditional arrangement of two treble instruments with basso continuo, Bach gave one of the treble lines to the harpsichord, as part of a through-composed accompaniment.
The set of violin sonatas that includes BWV 1014 bears the title "Six sonatas for harpsichord concertato and violin solo, with a bass for the viola da gamba if desired." The expected billing of, say, "per violino solo e basso continuo" has been reversed, and the harpsichord promoted to concertato status; the sustaining instrument that would normally double a continuo bass line (here viola da gamba) has become entirely dispensable—and indeed, it is dispensed with more often than not. BWV 1014, however, doesn't quite let the harpsichord monopolize the second treble line for the whole piece. Bach sometimes gives that line to the violin, with the harpsichord playing above, or even lets it take both treble lines, as in the poignant harmonies of the first movement.
Sonata in D Minor, Op. 16 no. 4
Johann Schobert (ca. 1735-1767)
Allegro assai — Andante — Presto
Johann Schobert—not to be confused with Schubert, nor yet with Schubart—led a life largely shrouded in mystery. He might have been born in Strasbourg, Silesia, Nürnberg, or somewhere else. His known career lasted only about seven years, ending with his death in 1767. During that time, he worked for the Prince of Conti in Paris, and published a fair amount of his own music, much of it chamber music with keyboard.
By the time Schobert appeared on the musical scene, the keyboard had become so very emancipated from its basso continuo role that a new genre, the accompanied keyboard sonata, was enjoying great popularity. This was essentially a keyboard solo with a violin or flute part that often simply doubled the top voice; sometimes this "accompaniment" might be given to a vocalist, as in Mondonville's Pièces de clavecin avec voix ou violon (1743), or to a pair of instruments, as in Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concert (1741), to name two of the earliest examples of the genre. Schobert produced a number of these sonatas, with one, two, or even three accompanying parts.
Despite his brief time in the public eye, Schobert achieved a considerable reputation as a composer of fresh and innovative music, and he influenced Mozart quite significantly. Even in childhood, Mozart imitated, arranged, and adapted Schobert's pieces, and used them to teach his own students later in life. Sadly, though, Schobert will probably remain better known to history for his death than for his music: He was fatally poisoned, along with most of his family, by wild mushrooms that he himself had picked in the woods. (Out of respect for his memory, we have refrained from serving mushrooms at the reception.)
Sonata in D Major, Op. 5 no. 4
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Andante — Allegro assai — Rondo: Tempo di Minuetto
Although Luigi Boccherini was primarily a cellist, and wrote mainly for string ensembles or orchestras, he did produce a fine collection of accompanied keyboard sonatas. With his performing partner Filippo Manfredi, a violinist, Boccherini arrived in Paris late in 1767. They stayed only a few months, but in that time Boccherini published a fair amount of music, including his Op. 5, a set of accompanied sonatas with violin that he dedicated to Anne-Louise Boyvin d'Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy, an aristocrat and amateur keyboard player.
Boccherini, like Bach and many others, often cannibalized bits of his own compositions for use in later works. The first movement of the present sonata pleased him well enough that he imported it into his symphony in D minor (G. 506) in 1771. That symphony, in fact, is a veritable recycling center: The opening Adagio is followed by the cannibalized Op. 5 material; the third movement begins with the very same Adagio, followed by a parody of material from Gluck's 1761 ballet Don Juan. Boccherini inscribed that movement with the legend "The Chaconne depicting Hell, written in imitation of that of Mr. Gluck in The Stone Guest" [i.e. Don Juan]. Because of this reference to the underworld, the symphony has come to be known over the years as "La Casa del Diavolo" (The House of the Devil). Just to add another layer to this terrine of reappropriations, Gluck (who was a big fan of Boccherini, by the way) then reused the Don Juan music in the 1774 version of his opera Orphée et Eurydice.
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