Luke Judge

by Michael Church

Monday, 20 December 2010

Messiahs come in all shapes and sizes, and did so from the start. The oratorio’s first performers, in Dublin in 1742, doubled as soloists and chorus.

Handel then adapted it in many different ways to suit the circumstances of its revivals, but he settled, when he could, for a chorus of 32. these days it’s sometimes done with a cast of thousands, but there are brave spirits at the opposite end of the spectrum, the newest of whom is Christian Curnyn with his pocket-sized Early Opera Company.

Curnyn’s approach to Handel – beautifully exemplified by the recording he and the EOC released this week of Handel’s early opera ‘Il trionfo del tempo e del Disinganno’, on the Wigmore Live label – is to follow what he regards as the ‘inner pulse’ in all Handel’s music. This is the heartbeat rate, reflecting the fact that, like all Baroque music, Handel’s is based in dance. And if Curnyn’s forces were small, they proved perfectly suited to this acoustic. The four soloists were balanced by a chorus of eight and a 13-piece period-instrument ensemble with Curnyn directing from harpsichord and organ, but the tiny stage still seemed full to bursting.

There was no weak link in the soloists’ line-up, with tenor Nicholas Watts singing the opening aria, ‘Comfort ye’, with searing intensity, and soprano Sarah Tynan standing in for an indisposed Sarah Fox. But in counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and baritone Derek Welton the EOC had trump cards. when Welton thundered ‘I will shake the heavens and the earth’, he did pretty much that: every aria he sang had an easy, unforced majesty.

Davies scooped the pool in this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society awards after a string of brilliant operatic performances, and his voice is now acquiring a clarion quality. looking like a thoroughly dissolute fallen angel, he sang here like one from heaven; his delivery of ‘He shall feed his flock’, over shuddering strings, was one of the evening’s many magical moments. But others came thick and fast, notably the short a cappella interlude before ‘Since by man came death’, and above all the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, which, egged on by thunder from the timpani, brought the entire hall to its feet. a fabulous evening.

harpsichord baroque music, christian curnyn, eoc, heartbeat rate, spectrum, spirits

Two more of the Harpsichord Quilt blocks done.  It has been quite a while since I worked on these little beauties.  On the weekend I got out my Patchworks of Lucy Boston book and was again so inspired by all the beautiful patchworks she made.  The original patchwork made by Lucy Boston using this design is called the Keyboard Patchwork but because of the gorgeous harpsichords we saw two summers ago I decided my version of that patchwork would be called the Harpsichord Quilt.

The back of the blocks:

Yesterday, Karen Dianne

harpsichord harpsichord, lucy

Leonardo da Vinci has been dead for about 490 years now, but we still haven’t gotten over the fruits of his boundless creativity. If his art isn’t mysterious, beautiful or functional, it at least leaves people scratching their heads. This is what happened in New York’s Discovery Times Square yesterday, where a group of da Vinci enthusiasts revealed their peculiar instrument that was, according to The Guardian

harpsichord creativity, leonardo da vinci

Among its many important contributions, music has constituted an important element of Austria’s and, particularly, Vienna’s, cultural life. Vienna has been and continues to be an important center of musical innovation. It is impossible to think about and discuss Austria without giving serious consideration to its long and profound musical presence in the history of Western music.

Vienna’s position as a cultural center took hold in the early 1500s, with focus centered around instruments such as the lute. By the 18th and 19th centuries, composers were drawn to Vienna thanks in large measure to the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Vienna’s greatest musical “sons,” such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827), and Johann Strauss II (1825 – 1899), became associated with the city. During the Baroque period, Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music.

Classical MusicThe 18th century, one of the highpoints of classical music, brought Vienna to the forefront of this genre. Three composers in particular created and developed powerful and innovative musical genres: Beethoven and his symphonies, concertantes, chamber music, piano sonatas, operas, and choral music; Mozart, also through similar forms, developed a balance between melody and form; and Franz Joseph Haydn, through the invention of the string quartet and sonata form.

During this period, a division between popular compositions for entertainment and “serious” art music began. At first, the division was less pronounced, with most composers, such as Franz Schubert, and Joseph Strauss, writing in both camps.

But it is with Strauss where a clear departure to popular music takes shape, making Strauss the most celebrated composer of the era, and indeed the first popular Austrian musician. His “Tales of the Vienna Woods” and “Vienna Waltzes” have become staples of the Western musical canon. By the mid- to late 19th century, other composers, such as Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, and Richard Wagner, hailing from either Vienna or closely associated with the city, continue to make Vienna the unrivaled center of Austria’s musical life. Later musical geniuses, particularly Arnold Schönberg, Richard Strauss, Anton von Webern, and Alban Berg, perpetuate Austria’s stronghold on classical music.

Folk musicThe flip-side of Austria’s musical record is its long and strong folk music tradition. The ländler, as the name suggests, is the music of the countryside, the land, the peasantry. The ländler, a folk dance in ¾ time, was popular in Austria, as well as in south Germany and German Switzerland at the end of the 18th century. It is a couples’ dance, featured by strong hopping and stamping. At times, it was purely instrumental, and at others had a vocal part, which sometimes included yodeling. With the popularity of dancehalls in 19th century Europe, the ländler adopted a quicker pace and more elegance; men shed the hobnail boots original to the dance and donned more graceful footwear. It is believed that the dance evolved into the waltz.

Yodeling: Mountain musicMaybe it’s the Alps that have something to do with it. In fact it does: Yodeling is a type of throat singing that developed in the famed mountain range. In Austria, it was called juchizn, and featured the use of both non-lexical syllables and yells, which were used to communicate across the mountains. Yodels usually begin with a single voice melody, then joined by several more voices. The presence of an echo is vital for producing a correct sound.

harpsichord austrian music, austrian musician, johann strauss ii, ludwig van beethoven, serious art, sonata form