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Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (circa 1623-1680): Sonata IX S 43 from Duodena selactarum sonatarum (1659)
0:00 Opening
0:18 Sonata IX
5:27 Credits
Cynthia Keiko Black, violin • William Skeen, viola da gamba • Steven Lehning, violone • Corey Jamason, harpsichord
Eddie Frank, video • Chris Landen, audio
American Bach Soloists • Jeffrey Thomas, Artistic Director
Filmed in March 2021 in the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (Davis, California).
How we made the video: americanbach.org/Videos-Backs...
During Johann Schmelzer’s tenure at the Habsburgs’ court, music (Hofmusik) was extremely important as it served as both a symbol and instrument of the dynasty’s magnificence and power, just as Jean-Baptiste Lully’s music was for the rival court of Louis XIV. Schmelzer’s first published works - Duodena selactarum sonatarum - include the Sonata on this program. Like seventeenth-century violin works by Italian composers - which had tremendous influence on his composing style - this sonata is divided into several sections that are inter-connected. There are no explicit tempo indications, but, very much in the Stylus Phantasticus style of the time, performers had freedom to express the music as if it were being improvised. Unlike compositions by his Italian contemporaries, rather than having multiple treble instruments against a bass, this sonata gives the second part to the viola da gamba, making a somewhat denser texture, and one that was favored by his Northern German colleagues.
© 2021, American Bach Soloists
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