Supported and Sponsored by Music Network 58 ELECTRICITY SUPPLY BOARD Music Network in association with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland present 1/495 Chandos Baroque Players Henry Purcell Tercentenary Programme With Music by Purcell, Bach Handel ARTS COUNCIL Grani-alded by the Counall Grant-alded by imro

Chandos Baroque Players he Chandos Baroque Players are recognised as one of the fore- most ensembles specialis- "...liquid grace... and North America. flawlessly controlled execution... an evening of music-making richly varied in performing styles". The Los Angeles Times ing in Baroque music. The group is characterised by its combination of wind and string instruments, and has a repu- tation for lively and carefully researched programmes of both well-known and unusual works. The number of players can vary from five (recorder/flute, oboe, violin, cello/gamba, harpsichord) to twelve or more musicians for works such as the Brandenburg Concertos. Since its formation in 1981, the ensemble has performed throughout Britain and Europe, including tours of England, Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They have participated in the Gottingen Handel Festival, the City of London Festival, the Bach Festival in Braunschweig, Germany and numerous festivals throughout Great Britain. Last autumn, they under- took a very successful tour of Canada page two Besides regular broadcasts for BBC Radio Three, The Chandos Baroque Players have recorded for both Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Danish Radio. The ensemble has made four recordings, including chamber music by Telemann and chamber concertos by Vivaldi. Both of these recordings, issued on the Hyperion label have enjoyed consider- able critical acclaim. More recently. The Chandos Baroque Players have recorded Cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti with the Canadian Soprano Nancy Argenta for EMI, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Zelenka with Michael George, Michael Chance and John Mark Ainsley on Hyperion. Malcolm Proud Harpsichord Rachel Beckett Recorder Maya Homburger Violin David Watkin Cello Robin Blaze Countertenor

Chamber Music in the Age of Purcell and Handel by Dr. lan Woodfield England in the 18th Century witnessed an amazing growth in the popularity of chamber music. Increasing wealth from the new manufacturing processes of the Industrial Revolution and the fortunes made in India meant that more people had more money to spend on leisure activities. The growing market for music was supplied by publishers such as Robert Bremner who produced long and varied catalogues of chamber music. Music shops provided afflu- ent customers with the latest instruments, tuition in their own homes, repair services and basic instruction books. Newspapers were full of ingenious advertisements for the latest fashionable instruments. In 1786 one trader dared to hope that no house- hold would wish to be without' a new invented ladies commode, solid mahogany, furnished in high style, containing a curious Piano Forte to draw out'. The phenomenon is appropriately known to historians as the 'commercialisation of leisure'. The rapidly expanding demand for chamber music was supplied by hundreds of composers, most of whose names have long since been forgotten, but a significant new trend was emerging: interest in the music of the past. By the mid-18th Century, the works of Purcell, Corelli, Geminiani and Handel had already achieved the status of 'classics'. Specialist clubs such as the Academy of Ancient Music and the Madrigal Society were formed, while even ordinary concerts began to include both 'ancient' and 'modern' music. Increasingly rich and varied though 18th-century programmes were, no audience of this period (even in London) could have heard a concert like today's. The chamber music of J.S. Bach was completely unknown in the British Isles, while the elegant, sophisticated works of French composers made little impression. Playing chamber music in 18th-century England was as much a social as a musical activity. Modem groups strive for authenticity in their instruments and performing styles, but none has yet attempted to recreate the social conditions. There were strong views on which instruments were appropriate to each sex: men played the flute and the violin, women, the harpsichord. A young lady flautist accompanied by her 'beau' at the keyboard would have been an unthinkable lapse taste which would have deeply shocked the audience! Men and women approached music in fundamentally different ways. For middle and upper class men, playing a musical instrument was not something to be taken seriously. To strive too hard after even a modest level of accomplishment was incompatible with male dignity. The low standards of the English male dilettante were legendary. page three.

One amateur was surprised upon hiring a cello to be given the instrument that he had previously wrecked by 'screwing (i.e. tuning) him an octave too high'. For young women, however, music was a domestic 'accomplishment' like drawing or embroidery. Tuition began early and intensively with the governess and continued with a music master, an Italian or a German if one were available. All this was in preparation for the 'marriage market'. An accomplished display on the harpsichord was agreed to be an asset in making a good match. Once the all- important marital status had been achieved, many women promptly gave up music, doubtless, in some cases, to the profound relief of their families. It would of course be wrong to suggest that chamber music was regarded only as a social act. The letters of many amateur musicians reveal a deep commitment to improving their musical skills. Pieces to suit all tastes were readily available, ranging from light Irish airs to serious fugues. The most important genres were the solo sonata and the trio sonata. Corelli's works for solo violin were particularly popular and continued to be reprinted throughout the 18th Century. Geminiani and other English composers cashed in on the fashion, writing sonatas which exploit the brilliant, extrovert Italian manner of violin playing. In a typical solo sonata a melody instrument is accompanied by a keyboard instrument page four playing from a bass line and improvising chords from a figured bass, in a trio sonata there are two melody lines over the bass line, although there are not necessarily three players. Bach's solo violin sonatas are effectively trio sonatas because they have a fully composed melody in the right hand of the harpsichord. These works herald another important change: the reversal of the traditional roles of soloist and accompanist which occurred in the 'accompanied sonata'. 'Sonatas for Pianoforte with the accompaniment of a violin' became a common title after the 1760's. It could be argued that this reversal expressed not just the move to the 'galant' style but a kind of musical emancipation for women, with the role of the (male) violinist now being entirely subordinated to that of the (female) pianoforte player. 'Ancient' music for singers meant the works of Handel and Purcell, whose Orpheus Britannicus (a large collection of songs) achieved classic status in the 18th century. The work was very widely distributed, and several copies were in the possession of English amateurs in Calcutta. The unfeigned delight of a young lady who encountered the 'striking and varied' style of this composers' songs during the long, sultry Indian afternoons serves as a reminder that for the devoted amateur the pursuit of music was far more than a mere social affectation.

programme Sonata in C major for Recorder and Basso Continuo Op. 1 no. 7 Georg Frederich Handel 1685-1759 Larghetto Allegro Larghetto A Tempo di Gavotta Allegro Harpsichord Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Z. 661 Henry Purcell 1659 - 1695 Prelude Almand Corant Saraband Chaconne Handel's Opus I consists of a number of sonatas which he wrote in England in c. 1712 for recorder and the customary basso continuo accompaniment, although published editions describe them as sonatas for recorder, oboe, flute or violin. No. 7 in the set is a mature work in the traditional sonata da chiesa format which Handel favoured - four movements : slow-fast-slow-fast - with an extra dance movement added before the final Allegro. Several of the themes are derived from arias from his operas and the whole work shows a fusion of German counterpoint and Italian melody. He obviously took great care with the composition of this work, for the harmonic, rhythmic and formal structures show much more individuality than do the many 'assembly-line' sonatas of other Baroque composers. There are many concerts and broadcasts this year marking the tercentenary of the death of Purcell who was a composer of unparalleled genius in setting the English language. His keyboard music includes not only small-scale pieces such as dances and arrangements of vocal music, but also eight suites which appeared the year after his tragically early death, in a volume called 'A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnett,' page five

Welcome Great Sir. Here the Deities Approve. Henry Purcell 1659-1695 page six issued by his widow and including a valuable introduction explaining aspects of musical theory and ornamentation. The suites are conceived on a grand scale and consist of a number of dances, mainly French in style, although the Prelude of Suite no. 2 is in the Italian trio sonata style, quasi-fugal with semi- quaver movement and some imitation. The final Chaconne (a form of which Purcell was a master, also called ground bass which repeats a bass pattern throughout the work) does not actually belong to this suite, but it makes a very good ending. It is an arrangement of a 'curtain tune' from the end of the incidental music Purcell wrote in 1694 for a production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. These songs are from two of Purcell's odes which were settings for solo voice, chorus and instruments of lyric poems of an exalted style and tone which sometimes drew their inspira- tion from classical mythology and were some- times of sycophantic doggerel extolling the monarch. They were written for a variety of occasions, two of which are represented here. Welcome Great Sir is from the ode Fly bold Rebellion, and was written to reinforce the Crown's authority after the foiling of the Rye House Plot in 1683. This was an attempt to kill or overthrow Charles II on a narrow road on his way from Newmarket, because of his pro- Roman Catholic policies. However, the King left early and the plot was foiled. The song

Sonata No. 5 in F Minor for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV. 1018 Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750 Largo Allegro Adagio Vivace begins, "Be welcome then great sir, To constant, constant vows of loyalty, never to vary more". Here the Deities Approve is from one of Purcell's first really fine odes, Welcome to all the Pleasures, written in 1683 for the St. Cecilia Day celebrations. These were mounted by the Musical Society in London and took the form of a church service on 22nd November and a sermon which defended the place of music in religious services (in contrast to Cromwell's Commonwealth which had suppressed church music) and then the members adjourned to Stationers' Hall where they heard the new ode and enjoyed a good dinner. The song begins, "Here the Deities approve the God of Music and of Love". Like Handel and his Op. I Recorder Sonatas, Bach wrote his six violin sonatas (1720) in the four-movement Sonata da Chiesa format. However, Bach's writing for the harpsichord makes it an equally important partner of the violin, and so his violin sonatas are the earliest examples of the classical duo sonata. They were written when he was Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen a period when he was able to write a great deal of instrumental music, for his duties did not require him to write much church music. In the first movement the violin, with its lyrical musings, is subordinate to the firm three-part texture of the harpsichord. The next movement page seven

Sonata in D Minor for Cello and Basso Continuo, op. 5 no. 2 Francesco Geminiani 1687-1762 Andanta Presto Adagio Allegro page eight has the more familiar melodic interplay between the violin and the right hand of the keyboard part which acts as a second melody instrument. In the Adagio the violin once again accompanies the keyboard, providing a simple chord sequence for the harpsichord's easy- flowing lines, and the final Vivace is based on a rising chromatic subject which Bach treats as a duet between the two instruments. INTERVAL Geminiani was one of the last of the great Italian school of violinist composers and was a pupil of the influential Corelli. He came to England in 1714 and spent the rest of his life in London and Dublin. He died in Dublin and is buried there. He had a high reputation in Ireland and was an important means of bringing Italian musical ideas to Ireland. This Cello Sonata is from his Op. 5 set of six sonatas which he published in 1746 in Paris, then the leading centre of music publishing. The originality and technical challenge of the sonatas are valued by us today, but they puzzled his contemporaries. Geminiani was proud of them and, an inveterate recycler, he soon arranged them for violin and later drew upon them for some harpsichord pieces. He created an atmosphere of extemporisation in his music and both the cello and harpsichord parts have rhapsodic qualities.

Sonata in G Minor for Violin and Basso Continuo Henry Purcell 1659-1695 Slow Fast Slow Fast Sweeter than Roses. Evening Hymn. Henry Purcell 1659-1695 This fine work was reconstructed very convincingly by Thurston Dart in 1959 as no original manuscript has survived. The source was an early 18th-century manuscript of works by composers such as Fiocco, Roseingrave, Gasparini, Geminiani, Loeillet and Purcell, but it has since disappeared. In the first and third movements the parts move together in a homophonic style, while the second and fourth movements are mostly contrapuntal and imitative. Sweeter than Roses is one of Purcell's finest songs from the incidental music he wrote in 1695 to a play called 'Pausanius, the Betrayer of his Country. The song, which was actually intended to serve as an aphrodisiac for the treacherous Pandora, has been glowingly described: "The characteristic melismas, the exotic harmony and the liberal chromaticism meld into an unforgettable evocation of sus- pended ecstasy". The text begins, "Sweeter than roses or cool evening's breeze on a warm flowery shore, was the dear kiss, first trembling made me freeze, then shot like fire all o'er". The Sacred song known as Evening begins, "Now that the sun hath veil'd his light, And bid the world goodnight, To the soft bed my body I dispose, But where shall my soul repose?" It is built on a ground bass, a figure five bars long that appears twenty-two times, including once in the relative minor and three times in the dominant. It is a flowing, beautiful, aria in triple time. page nine

Paris Quartet No. 6 in E Minor Georg Philipp Telemann 1681-1767 Prelude (a discretion - tres vite - a discretion) - Gai - vite - Gracieusement - Distrait - Modere The most prolific composer of his day, Telemann left his native Germany in 1737 for Paris where he stayed for eight months, probably at the invitation of a group of French musicians. Telemann was delighted with the musicians and the publishing business he was able to do in Paris, and he wrote a set of six Quatours Parisiens. Each Quartet has six or seven movements, each bearing a French title and many are in the style of French dances. The first movement of Quartet no. 6 is basically in the style of a French overture and the second is a gavotte. The third movement is very fast, thrilling music and the fourth is like a slow minuet. The remarkable Distrait fifth movement consists of choppy, syncopated phrases, for in Telemann's day syncopation was considered the most appropriate way to express instability. The final Modere movement is a magnificent, highly expressive Chaconne of such tragic intensity that it seems to transcend the boundaries of 18th Century style. Programme notes: Sarah M. Burn sponsor's message ESB sees Music Network as actively working to fulfil some of the needs of rural and regional communities, which were identified recently by the Arts Council. The fact that our involvement means that people who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to enjoy these recitals made this sponsorship very attractive to us. We look forward to the tour and I wish Music Network and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland every success in their collaboration for this series and for the future. Barney Whelan, Manager, Public Relations. page ten ES3 ELECTRICITY SUPPLY BOARD

Music Network Music Network was established by The Arts Council in 1986. Its function is to support and service local initiatives and organisa- tions interested in developing the musical life of their area. Music Network does this through a number of services: A large and rapidly expanding programme of subsidised concert tours of Classical, Jazz and Traditional music. 2 An advice, training and planning support programme for local organisations invol- ved in music development. An information and networking service providing information on music pro- moters, venues and musicians and facilitating the exchange of information between music promoters in both parts of the island. 4 A programme providing a series of education products and services to local music development organisations. how you can help Simply by being at tonight's concert you are helping to ensure the development of your local music scene. If you spread the word and persuade friends and relations to come with you next time, you' be doing an enormous amount to help your local promoter. If you would like to be more directly involved or be placed on a mailing list for future events, contact the local promoter after the concert or contact: Music Network, Ship Street Gate, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2. Telephone: 01 6719429 Fax: 01 6719430 Music Network events to watch out for... Forthcoming tours from Music Network: Colette McGahon & Kathleen Tynan 26th April 8th May 'Best of Irish' with Tony McMahon, larla O Lionáird & Seamus Tansey. 15th - 28th May The Barra MacNeills (Traditional) September John O'Conor (Piano) October For this tour we would in particular like to thank our generous sponsors the ESB and the British Council for their imaginative support. Music Network gratefully acknowledges the continued support of An Comhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Music Network programmes are also supported by major sponsorships from IMRO (The Irish Music Rights Organisation) and the Office of Public Works. page eleven

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