Black and White
Equal but opposite. Arrangements for 2 harpsichords of music by Vivaldi, Rodrigo & Pasquini. Featuring ‘Reflections’, the dual harpsichord partnership of Monika Kornel and Diana Weston. With repertoire for this combination practically non-existent, we beg, borrow & steal other instruments’. Joined by Angus Ryan, fresh from London, we continue the trend with arrangements for cello and harpsichord by Piazzola and da Falla.
20 JUNE 2.30PM 2010
ST LUKE’S CHURCH OURIMBAH RD MOSMAN
The repertoire for two harpsichords is meagre. This is despite the fact that Bach’s oeuvre includes concertos for two, three and four harpsichords. Bach stands unique in the use of the harpsichord as the solo instrument in a concerto, as Handel does for the organ. Yet the eight harpsichord concertos BWV 1052-1059 and the concertos for two or more harpsichords BWV 1060-1065 are all re-makes of previous compositions, not all Bach’s own. Bach has undertaken a practise he long-ago perfected, of transcribing and at the same time transforming idiomatically, the material written for one instrument to a different one. Bach’s transcriptions of Vivaldi’s (and others) violin concertos as a method of analysis and learning are well-known. He identifies what is unique, and original, in Vivaldi’s composition, uses and then extends that understanding in his own musical thinking.
Transcription, then, is a legitimate method of transforming previously composed works into a different form. In Bach’s hands, they could be considered new compositions due to alterations, reinvention and insertion of devices unique to the instrument.
Bach’s Concerto for two harpsichords in C major, BWV 1061, written between 1732 and 1735, although designated ‘concerto’, may not originally have had an orchestral accompaniment. Structurally it is complete without. Like all the harpsichord concertos, it is a reworking of a previous composition for a melody instrument, presumably lost in the distribution of Bach’s works amongst his heirs. It owes much to Bach’s study of Vivaldi’s violin concertos in its form (fast, slow, fast) and in the use of canonic imitation, sequences and chordal divisions, achieving Vivaldi’s high level of energy and vitality with the added complexity of motivic development and a dense contrapuntal texture.
Handel’s unique Suite in c minor for two harpsichords HWV 446 exists (as copies of the original) with only one of the keyboard parts intact, the other entirely missing. In this case, a second part has been carefully reconstructed from the thematic material derived from the extant part by David Vine. It is in French style, consisting of four movements – Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Chaconne. Vine feels that the suite is likely to have been an early composition of Handel’s. Stylistically, it is not dissimilar to his friend Johann Mattheson’s, especially in the use of repeated notes and in the French ‘lute’ way of breaking a chord. Mattheson is also one of the few known to have composed two-harpsichord works.
Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto Op.8 No.12 RV 178, published in 1725 in Amsterdam, also appeared in a version for oboe. It is part of the collection which includes the well-known ‘Four Seasons’ (Nos. 1-4). No. 12 provides the basis of a modern transcription for two harpsichords. Arranged by Steven Yates, the piece is in three movements (Allegro, Largo, Allegro). As in Bach’s transcription of his Concerto for two harpsichords, Yates makes the parts more or less a dialogue between equals so that the notion of solo and orchestra is sometimes blurred. Vivaldi’s principles of organization, continuity and proportion that Bach identified can be seen in the clarity of texture, the motivic development and the apposition of treble and bass. Apart from his legacy to instrumental composers, Vivaldi experimented with many different and uncommon combinations of instruments, though not, surprisingly, using the harpsichord as a solo instrument as Bach, or even Handel, had done. Yates’ transcription retains the lightness and exuberance of the original.