Henry Purcell is a Grandaddy in the world of early music. There are a couple of Big Names that most people who are into music, but not early music, have heard of, and Purcell is always one of them. He lived in the late 17th century, and was right on the border, getting baroque music started in England. He wrote the first English chamber opera, Dido and Aeneas, and wrote enough sacred music to fill about a hundred recordings. He's influenced everyone from Elgar to Pete Townsend of The Who, who said that his harmonies are based on Purcell's.
This week I've been listening to A Purcell Collection from Voces8, a vocal group based in the UK that has a recording contract with Decca, and must receive the award for the Bass with the Most Unique Name in the world: Dingle Yandell. Seriously, his parents thought that was a good name. Who names their kid Dingle? But I digress. The guy's super-cute, and he can sing, so who care's what he's called?
I like Voces8 a lot (though sometimes I call them V8 and pretend they're vegetable juice). Their new album is called Eventide, and has more modern music on it, but lately I've been in a Purcell mood, and this album from 2013 does it for me. It was a Classic FM "Choice for the Curious" pick, so if you're curious, have a listen (and then download the album on itunes. If you're into this stuff, it will be on regular rotation, I promise).
Showing posts with label early music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label early music. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Old Music Thursday: The Fasch's
Everyone who has studied even a smidgen of music has heard about the Bach clan. Johann Sebastian and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel (known as C.P.E. to increase his street cred). There's also the Strauss's, another prolific musical family. One lesser known family of musical note (ha ha, note, get it?) are the Fasch's.
Johann Friedrich was born in 1688 in Buttelstedt Germany. He studied in Leipzig (where the great Johann Sebastian was working, too, and, incidentally, the hometown of my dad) and wrote a prolific amount of concertos, cantatas and symphonies. The music he wrote was never printed in his lifetime, and he's largely forgotten today, though at the time he was highly regarded by his contemporaries. Johann Sebastian Bach actually made copies of some of his manuscripts to preserve and study them.
His most popular youtube offering is his trumpet concerto, below, which seems to show up on any anthology of trumpet music produced. There was a great album from 2013, Overtures in G Minor, D Minor and G Major, with Paul Dombrecht on oboe, that was all Fasch. Incidentally, this group is becoming a favorite of mine for all their early music recordings.
https://play.spotify.com/album/3zXQXQSItExg1zVVydwfW4
He also appears with one of my other favorites, Telemann, in a lot of Baroque anthologies.
Like the Bach's he gave birth to a musical son, Carl Friedrich Christian who was born when his dad was almost 50, and founded the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, which still exists today as a musical society (which Mendelssohn apparently wanted to become the director of in later years).
So the next time you're at a dinner party and some classical music snob is going on about the talent of the Bach family, you can come right back at them with the talent of the usually-overlooked Fasch's.
Johann Friedrich was born in 1688 in Buttelstedt Germany. He studied in Leipzig (where the great Johann Sebastian was working, too, and, incidentally, the hometown of my dad) and wrote a prolific amount of concertos, cantatas and symphonies. The music he wrote was never printed in his lifetime, and he's largely forgotten today, though at the time he was highly regarded by his contemporaries. Johann Sebastian Bach actually made copies of some of his manuscripts to preserve and study them.
His most popular youtube offering is his trumpet concerto, below, which seems to show up on any anthology of trumpet music produced. There was a great album from 2013, Overtures in G Minor, D Minor and G Major, with Paul Dombrecht on oboe, that was all Fasch. Incidentally, this group is becoming a favorite of mine for all their early music recordings.
https://play.spotify.com/album/3zXQXQSItExg1zVVydwfW4
He also appears with one of my other favorites, Telemann, in a lot of Baroque anthologies.
Like the Bach's he gave birth to a musical son, Carl Friedrich Christian who was born when his dad was almost 50, and founded the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, which still exists today as a musical society (which Mendelssohn apparently wanted to become the director of in later years).
So the next time you're at a dinner party and some classical music snob is going on about the talent of the Bach family, you can come right back at them with the talent of the usually-overlooked Fasch's.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Old Music Friday
I wish I could say that when I'm in the car I only ever listen to Sirius channel 76 - Symphony Hall - and never ever listened to Hits 1 with Nicole and the Morning Mashup (and I wish I could say that I didn't know that Nicole just had a baby, or that I was more familiar with the saga in the Ukraine than with Sypder Harrison's voice...).
But I digress...
Anyway, a few days ago I was sitting on the 210 freeway, and switched over to Symphony Hall where they were doing their regular Baroque show, and I was happy to hear music by two baroque English composers I hadn't known before.
Matthew Locke (https://play.spotify.com/search/matthew%20locke) was born around 1621 and trained in the choir of Exeter Cathedral under the direction of Edward Gibbons (brother to Orlando, one of the Renaissance Grandaddies). He was buddies with Orlando's son, Christopher, and partnered with him to write the score to Cupid and Death, a masque by James Shirley, and their score is the only surviving soundtrack for a dramatic work from that era. In 1673 he published a treatise on music theory, Melothesia, and in the introduction he was credited as being the "Composer in Ordinary to His Majesty, and organist of her Majesty's chapel" He was also Composer of Wind Music and Composer for Violins (he was succeeded in office by Purcell).
Christopher Simpson (https://play.spotify.com/search/christopher%20simpson) was born around 1602 in Yorkshire, and was the son of a Catholic theater manager. He fought in the English Civil War on the Royalist side, and then became a music tutor.
He's most famous for his music for viols, having written several books on how to play, and all his surviving works are for the viol or a viol ensemble. The viol or viola da gamba looked like a modern day cello, but had six strings rather than four, was tuned in fourths with a third in the middle like a lute, rather than in fifths, had frets, and several other differences)
Both of these composers are going into heavy rotation on Spotify for me.
But I digress...
Anyway, a few days ago I was sitting on the 210 freeway, and switched over to Symphony Hall where they were doing their regular Baroque show, and I was happy to hear music by two baroque English composers I hadn't known before.
Matthew Locke (https://play.spotify.com/search/matthew%20locke) was born around 1621 and trained in the choir of Exeter Cathedral under the direction of Edward Gibbons (brother to Orlando, one of the Renaissance Grandaddies). He was buddies with Orlando's son, Christopher, and partnered with him to write the score to Cupid and Death, a masque by James Shirley, and their score is the only surviving soundtrack for a dramatic work from that era. In 1673 he published a treatise on music theory, Melothesia, and in the introduction he was credited as being the "Composer in Ordinary to His Majesty, and organist of her Majesty's chapel" He was also Composer of Wind Music and Composer for Violins (he was succeeded in office by Purcell).
Christopher Simpson (https://play.spotify.com/search/christopher%20simpson) was born around 1602 in Yorkshire, and was the son of a Catholic theater manager. He fought in the English Civil War on the Royalist side, and then became a music tutor.
He's most famous for his music for viols, having written several books on how to play, and all his surviving works are for the viol or a viol ensemble. The viol or viola da gamba looked like a modern day cello, but had six strings rather than four, was tuned in fourths with a third in the middle like a lute, rather than in fifths, had frets, and several other differences)
Both of these composers are going into heavy rotation on Spotify for me.
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