Norwegian Wind Ensemble - Baroque Concert

 If you need another example of some absolutely amazing baroque brass playing you absolutely should check out this concert led by Mark Bennett.

I have translated the text from the Youtube video below. (Thank you google translate)

"Baroque expert Mark Bennett would utilize the brass section of the Norwegian Wind Ensemble in this concert. The result allows the baroque trumpet to be a leading star around Europe. The concert is part of HaldenSessions – a free, digital music festival"

I don't have much to say about this recording because the playing does all the talking for me. This is outstanding playing. It is very easy to close your eyes and not realize that these are period instruments. The fact that this was live playing is even more incredible. 

 

It is amazing to see that there are ensembles such as this and Balsoms that bring so much ability and special talent to these period instruments. Modern music just doesn't do this and without the ensembles this music wouldn't continue. Try to listen to this ensemble and tell me that baroque music doesn't have a place in brass literature. I argue that it deserves way more attention than it currently receives.

Coperario - The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble

 Another composer that I feel is less known from the baroque era is John (Giovanni) Coperario (Cooper), this could partially be due to the fact that he supposedly changed his name after visiting Italy even though there is no evidence that he was in Italy. As Italian music was becoming popular he may have changed his name to capitalize on its impact. 

I find it incredible the amount of unknown and assumed information that we have on composers from this century due to lack of documentation. See my earlier post about Pergolessi.

Coperario was a viol player and wrote mainly for strings. He wrote almost 100 fantasies many of which were transcriptions of his Madrigals. This particular recording from the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble was originally written for strings, but is a great arrangement for early brass instruments. I have never seen or heard a tenor cornetto before this recording. The Bass Sackbut is more common to see.

Dark Horse Consort - Viedanck

The Dark Horse Consort is an early brass ensemble that is still touring and performing on period correct instruments. This recording of Johann Viedanck's Sonata 31 is a beautiful example of the pretty sounds that these instruments are able to produce.

Viedanck may be a lesser known composer so a little information about him was that he was a student of Schutz at the Dresden court chapel. He was a German violinist and cornettist as well as a baroque composer in the early 1600's.

The Dark Horse Consort often brings in other instruments and vocalist into their performances, but primarily consist of  brass quintet using 2 cornettist and 3 sackbuts. I point this out of the popularity of brass quintets and because of its similarities to the first brass quintet with the Distin family quintet that used 3 horns and 2 trombones.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and his 2 cornetti

 One of my personal favorite baroque composers is Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber. Much like Justin Bieber he crossed both secular and sacred works. 

As a violinist, he wrote many instrumental works he often used 2 cornetti in with the orchestra. He also wrote vocal works for the church in the form on masses and motets. The use of cornetti is why I like him as a composer. It has nothing to do with his personal life where he illegally left his post to move to Salzburg where he eventually became kopplemiester.

Here is an example of 2 cornetti being used in his instrumental works.

 Another example is his sacred work, Missa Salisburgensis. Originally credited to Benevoli, but when the score was found being used to wrap vegetables almost 100 years later. They were able to give credit to the original composer. This huge choral work for 53 voices also uses to cornetti. Here is a recording of the whole work, the 4th choro really shows the 2 cornetti parts around 24:00 minutes into this recording.

Trio Sonatas of Dieterich Buxtehude

 If you are unfamiliar with Dieterich Buxtehude then you should study up on organists from the 1600's. But in all seriousness Buxtehude is one of the most important composers of the 1600's and had a major influence on J.S. Bach. 

Buxtehude wrote many works for keyboard and we have many vocal pieces that have survived. But its the trio sonatas that interest me the most. 14 trio sonatas that were originally written for strings and organ. They work extremely well for brass; Trumpet and Trombone, or cornetto and sackbut.

William Dingoes and the Le Concert Brise; an early music ensemble worked together to record many of these trio sonatas and some vocal works for cornetto and sackbut with organ. Here is an example from their album that demonstrates the versatility of Buxtehude's trio sonatas for brass players. 

Royal Fireworks - Alison Balsom

 Alison Balsom is one of the leading baroque trumpet. This album is a group known as the Balsom Ensemble. There each play on period correct instruments on an album full of arrangements of Baroque Era Music. Here is a video on Alison talking about the project and the album.

And is here a live recording of the Balsom Ensemble. It is wonderful playing and on natural trumpets. It is absolutely mind blowing example of period instruments.

Happy Birthday Queen Anne - Apple Classical Discovery

As promised, here is an example of Apple Classical Music discoveries due to their new search criteria. Although I think they need improving this new idea already is mind-blowing and changing the way we discover music.

I did a simple search of my favorite trumpet player; Matthias Hofs.

Discovered that he had played on a NDR Radiophilhamonie album title My Christmas.

He played on the piece by Handel, Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne.

Hofs recording is not on YouTube but here is another recording so you can hear the piece.

Apple Music Classical

 I have to take a minute to share the news of the release of Apple Music Classical. I have only been waiting for the last 3 years for it to come out and it finally happened. 

Before Covid reached America, I heard that Apple Music was working on a completely classical app with much more in depth coverage of classical music. I preordered this back in January of 2020 and 3 years later it came out.

I wanted to take a blog post to talk about why this is exciting and what implications this new app has for us. The app uses metadata which allows you to search for music under different criteria. For example, before when looking for Boston Symphony performing Mahler 1, the artist would be Boston Symphony and the title would be Symphony 1. Good luck finding it. Everyone has a symphony 1, just click through and hope you find it, memorize its position or album art cover I guess. 

But now with Apple Music Classical you can search by composer, performer, title, even conductor. You can search by ensemble, instrumentation, even genre like baroque or romantic. This app is exciting not just because it is easier to find exactly what you are looking for but also because you can find new things quicker with more information.

The next post I will tell you about the new pieces I discovered with the new app.

In Gabrieli’s Day - ABQ

 

American Brass Quintet released an album of renaissance music in 1960. 

There is an interview with Raymond Mase in the Aspen Times where he says “brass music had its golden age during the Renaissance era, which roughly spanned the 14th to 16th centuries.Brass music fell away, however, when composers began to focus more on strings and piano for their chamber-music endeavors during what is commonly thought of as the golden age of classical music”

Although most music from the Renaissance Era is not specific about the instruments to be used and rather to be played on what is available, it got me thinking that rather than performing the same Gabrieli pieces that everyone knows why not arrange and use other works and other composers from the same era when looking to program Renaissance music. 

Check out my post about Claudio Merulo for example of other works. 

Claudio Merulo

During my recording presentation in class I had added a canzon by Merulo and I wasn’t familiar with this composer. Turns out Merulo was a composer and organist during the same time that Gabrielli was alive and writing music.

Merulo was  a member of what we today call the Venetian School using antiphonal and multiple small groups to play with or against each other. 

Merulo wrote 2 books of madgrigals in 5 voices, one book in 4 voices, and a book in 3 voices. Although it is hard to find arrangements for brass it would be very easy to make your own based of the scores available. 

I was unable to find any other brass ensembles performing Merulo’s works, but I did find this beautiful recording of solo Cornetto performing a canzona 

Recording Presentation

In class I shared this YouTube playlist of my most influential and inspiring brass ensemble recordings. 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSNySoQXIxo9zvutw8r-ozHDtbYLiPhVH

My favorite recording on the playlist is the Berlin Classics of Matthias Höfs and ensemble performing Samuel Scheidt. This recording is only a couple months old now. I first heard it on when Matthias shared it on his Facebook. It is phenomenal playing and example of matching. 

Pergolesi Mystery and Lies Uncovered

Sonata No. 4 by Pergolesi (arr. Schmidt)-

This arrangement I have is for brass trio; trumpet, horn, and trombone, but I do not have a score so I decided to look for a score thinking that it should be public domain and easily found. I was very wrong!

In my search for this score I could only find this arrangement done by Chicago Trombone Consort

I knew that Stravinsky's Pulcinella used many themes from Pergolesi so I thought I would listen to it to try to find this theme. Luckily, I heard it only 5:30 into the almost 40:00 recording at the Scherzino.

After painstaking researching for many moons (couple hours) I found that

"Stravinsky's ballet is a parody based on 21 pieces transmitted under Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's name and taken from various contexts. 4 are from Pergolesi's Frate 'nnamorato, 3 from Flamino, one from the cantata luce deli occhi mine, and one from the violoncello Sonata. The rest of the pieces have been incorrectly attributed to Pergolesi; one is a modern forgery." (1)

As it turns out this piece has not only a different composer, but also goes by a different name; Trio Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Major by Domenico Gallo. Here is a recording with the original instrumentation; 2 violin and basso continuo with harpsichord accompagnamento.

The score I found that resembles the last recording has a pick up to beat 3, whereas the parts that I have have a pickup to beat 1. This would change significantly the emphases placed on phrase and how it is performed.

Although I solved one mystery, many more have come up, such as; what Stravinsky quote is a forgery? Why are the brass arrangements titled Sonata No. 4? Where is the original score that Stravinsky claimed to write all over the top of? Why are not all 12 Sonatas on IMSLP? Why do the scores have different placement of the downbeat?