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Suggested listening: Eighteenth-Century Miniatures, The Stuttgart
Chamber Orchestra, London (The Decca Record Co.) 417-781-2. This
CD is a digital remaster of an older recording. Contains the "Greatest
Hits" of the 18th- Century. Includes: Pachelbel Canon in D Major,
Handel Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Albinoni Adagio in G minor, Bach
Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, etc.
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Water Music, George Frideric Handel. The English Concert, Trevor
Pinnock conductor. Archiv Produktion, D-115306
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Mozart and the Organ, Joan Lippincott, Organist. Gothic Records,
G 49051 (Fisk Organ, Old West Church, Boston)
For examples of the forms listed below, try some of these CDs:
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Bach: Great Organ Works, Helmut Walcha, organist. Deutsche Grammophon,
453-064-2
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Bach: Organ Masterpieces, Marie-Claire Alain, organist. Erato, 4509-91931-2
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Dietrich Buxtehude
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Brahms: Variations in B flat major on a theme by Haydn, Opus 56a "St Anthony"
(the final movement is a Passacaglia)
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Brahms: Symphony no 4 in E minor, Opus 98 (final movement is also a Passacaglia)
Both of the Brahms works can be found on 1 CD: Conductor: Wilhelm
Furtwängler
Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Drive-Historic Collection
- #37049 ASIN: B00000K0QG
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Chopin: 26 Préludes. Pianist: Martha Argerich Deutsche Grammophon
- #31584
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Most requested wedding music at St. Martin in the Fields: Canon
in D Major, Pachelbel. Trumpet Voluntary in D Major (Prince
of Denmark's March), Jeremiah Clarke, Hornpipe from Water Music,
G. F. Handel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Handel.
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Music at my wedding: J.S. Bach's Wedding Cantata no. 202; Prelude in C
Major, J.S. Bach, Allegro (from Adagio and Allegro, K. 594) Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Mozart's Mass in D Major, K. 194
These first 3 forms mean basically the same thing...with some differences
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Prelude: From the Latin word praeludere, meaning to play beforehand.
Often spelled Präludium (German) or Prélude (French).
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Toccata (French), Toccare (Italian), Tokkata (German). Literally
means to hit or tap. Usually "flashier" than a Prelude. Brilliant passage
work. Often in 3 sections: toccata-fugue-toccata. First appeared
in 1536 as codas (endings) to sets of lute dances. Reached maturity with
the Protestant north German composers: Matthias Weckmann (ca. 1619-74),
Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707), Johann Adam Reincken (1623-1722), Georg
Böhm (1661-1733) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
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Fantasia (Italian), Fantasie (German), Fantasia, fantasy, fancy
(English). Means product of the imagination. An imaginative instrumental
composition, often characterized by distortion, exaggeration. A departure
from stylistic norms. In the 16th century, the terms fantasia and
ricercar are often substituted for one another. The fantasia has also been
equated with the capriccio, voluntary, toccata, canzona, fuga, and rhapsody.
These pieces are usually (but not always!) paired with another composition
(a fugue, Mass movement, motet, hymn, secular song, set of dances...)
All feature virtuosity, rhythmic freedom, loose thematic construction,
and were usually improvised.
The next 3 forms are different but similar...
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Passacaglia: A continuous variation form, based on a "basso ostinato"
or "ground bass" (a four-bar repeated bass line). Similar to the...
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Chaconne: A continuous variation form of the Baroque, based on the
chord progression of a late 16th-century dance imported into Spain and
Italy from Latin America.
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Canon: A contrapuntal sequence in which two or more voice parts
imitate each other note for note throughout an entire piece.
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Fugue, French, (Fuga, Spanish, Latin, Italian. Füge,
German): Literally "to fly". A polyphonic procedure that depends heavily
on the imitation and reappearance of a short melodic theme (the "subject").
In addition to repetition and contrast in the melodic material, the fugue
involves considerable modulation of keys. Returns to original key at the
end. Steps to the fully developed Baroque fugal form: In the Renaissance,
imitation. In the Middle Ages, canon.
*Beware! Terminology when applied to music prior to the 19th-century
is inexact. A Prelude may actually be a Toccata.Pachelbel's
Canon is
really a Chaconne.
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