Not available / text

A collective description and analysis of the first three Prussian sonatas of Bach

At the end of the sixteenth century, Simone Verovio printed a series of canzonetta anthologies in Rome. These collections were unique, in that they contained keyboard and lute intabulations alongside their vocal parts. The keyboard intabulations seem primarily intended as accompanimental parts. As such, they inform us about the use of keyboard instruments in ensembles of mixed voices and instruments. This thesis examines how the printing format of Verovio's keyboard intabulations arose from a larger context. In particular, it asks what were the skills and training of amateur keyboard players (often women), when or when not to transpose pieces with chiavette (or high clefs), and how instrumental embellishments relate to the canzonetta's text as well as musical texture. This examination contributes to a better understanding of Italian sixteenth-century performance practice, especially of the ways in which instruments were used along with voices in domestic music making.

No description available.

During his lifetime, Johann Christian Bach (1739--1782) was considered the most famous musician of the Bach family throughout England and Europe. Although his music was highly regarded in the eighteenth century, little scholarly work has been undertaken on the historical and analytical aspects of his compositions. His keyboard compositions are valuable in tracing his musical development since this was the only genre that he wrote throughout his career in Berlin, Milan and London. Previous analyses of Bach's keyboard music have mainly focused on stylistic development, thus neglecting the importance of phrase and larger formal functions. / I adopt William Caplin's theory of formal functions to analyze Bach's solo keyboard sonatas: the Solo in A minor from Berlin (1750--55), three sonatas from the Milan collection (1755), six sonatas from London Op. 5 (1767), and six sonatas from London Op. 17 (1773--4). I demonstrate that Bach gradually refines phrase and thematic functions of the exposition of first-movement sonatas. I examine Bach's use of core technique and subordinate theme-like units in development sections and discuss the reasoning behind different recapitulation strategies. I also compare the sonata forms of the first movement to the second and third movements, and discuss other types of large-scale formal design (theme and variations, minuet and trio, and rondo). / Many sources indicate that Mozart was greatly influenced by Bach, but they remain vague in describing the type and extent of this influence. Building on previous melodic, motivic and stylistic studies, I draw important phrase-structural connections between the music of Bach and Mozart. I discuss the construction of Mozart's early piano pieces (KV 6 through K 284) and demonstrate that he adopts particular phrase-structural and thematic designs similar to pieces from Bach's Op. 5 and 17 collections. Through form functional analysis, I illustrate Bach's development of phrase and thematic structures and provide important phrase-structural evidence of his influence on the music of Mozart.

This work largely concerns the roles of Matthew Locke and Henry Purcell in the history of English keyboard music as reflected in their keyboard suites. Both, as composers of the Restoration period, integrated the French style with the more traditional English techniques--especially, in the case of Purcell, the virginalist heritage-- in their keyboard music. Through a detailed examination of their suites, I reveal differences in their individual styles and set forth unique characteristics of each composer. Both composers used the then traditional almain-corant-saraband pattern as the basis of the suite, to which they added a variety of English country dances. At the same time they modified the traditional dances with a variety of French and Italian idioms, thereby making distinctive individual contributions to the genre.

Due to the limited repertoire for the guitar from the Baroque period, classical guitarists who wish to perform music from this era have to work primarily with transcriptions. Guitarists draw from various sources from this period such as vocal and instrumental music for the five-course guitar, lute and the harpsichord. Of these sources, the repertoire for the harpsichord is perhaps the most frequently arranged for various guitar formations because its textures are greatly similar to those of the guitar repertoire. As a result, harpsichord music tends to transfer well to the guitar. Baroque harpsichord composers such as Domenico Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach, François Couperin, and Jean-Philippe Rameau-to name a few-have a permanent home in the classical guitar canon and represent the musical tastes and styles of Italy, Germany, and France. These composers exemplify the various stylistic differences between the above-mentioned countries; yet, the harpsichord music of Spain is largely underrepresented in guitar collections. One of the most noteworthy Spanish harpsichordists was Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783), who composed 120 sonatas for the instrument. When considering the ease with which some of his works transfer to the guitar, and specifically guitar duo, much can be gained by expanding the repertoire and exploring the Spanish Baroque style. The purpose of this study is three-fold: first, to present transcriptions of Antonio Soler's Sonata No. 85 and Fandango for guitar duo; second, to provide analysis of Sonata No. 85 with an emphasis on the intervallic features of the motives; third, to give an overview of the transcription process of Fandango for guitar duo while including a study of Spanish Baroque guitar and the appropriate stylistic effects drawn from its repertoire that can be incorporated in the arrangement.

No description available.

There is a puacity of original works from the Baroque Era for the guitar. Transcriptions, especially music originally for harpsichord, complement the guitarist's repertoire. Dominating the priviledged space in the guitar canon, represented by Baroque transcriptions, are the composers Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Domenico Scarlatti. Underrepresented in the Baroque guitar canon is the music of Spanish composers, most noteworthy, the harpsichordist Padre Antonio Soler, who composed more than 120 sonatas for his instrument. Music is culturally defined and it is clear, through an analysis of the keyboard works of Soler, that his music was imbued with the salient features of his place and time. There is an implicit connection between the guitar and the non-guitar music produced in Spain as guitar gestures are part of the national emblem; this study makes an explicit connection between the harpsichord music of Soler and the modern guitar. The Spanish Baroque style, epitomized by the works of Soler, provide a clear objective for transcription. The current study produces a transcription of Padre Antonio Soler's Sonata No. R.27 and Sonata No. R.100, as well as an analysis of the sonatas to facilitate interpretation for performance and an explanation of the transcription process. The lacunae of Spanish Baroque guitar transcriptions that exists in the repertoire will be partially filled by adding Soler to the distinguished list of composers that currently inhabit the guitarists's library.

This dissertation provides comprehensive performance perspectives for the interpretation of the published keyboard toccatas by Michelangelo Rossi (ca.1602-1656) in his collection, Toccate e Correnti d'Intavolatura d'Organo e Cimbalo (c. 1634). This document consults the following sources on keyboard practice in the early-Baroque period: Girolamo Diruta's Il Transilvano Dialogo Sopra Il Vero Modo Di Sonar Organi, & Istromenti da penna (1593); Adriano Banchieri's Conclusioni nel Suono dell'Organo (1609); Costanzo Antegnati's L'Arte Organica (1608); and the prefaces to Girolamo Frescobaldi's publications Toccate e Partite d'Intavolature di Cembalo, Libro Primo (first version 1615; second version 1615, 1616, 1628; and third version 1637), and Fiori Musicali (1635). These sources provide information on most aspects of keyboard—and specifically organ—playing in the decades leading up to, and at the time of, the initial publication of Rossi's toccatas: including the toccata as genre, Italian organs from the late-Renaissance/early-Baroque, registration, tempo, pedaling, fingering, articulation, and ornamentation. In addition to the performance perspectives, this dissertation also provides a new modern edition of the ten toccatas by Michelangelo Rossi. This edition is based on the 1657 Bologna facsimile. The goal of this edition is two-fold. First to present an accurate text of the facsimile and second to adjust certain beam-groupings, spacing on the staves, and the use of accidentals in a more modern sense.