Dear Musicians and Music Lovers:
On January 31, for our second Community Music Monday of 2011, we’ll explore some promising beginnings. We’ll read music of Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola, George Frideric Handel, and either Franz Joseph Haydn or Roman Hoffstetter, depending upon your musicological leanings.
Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga was born on what would have been Mozart’s 50th birthday, January 27, 1806 – a heavy burden for an aspiring musical prodigy! Of course he was known as the Spanish Mozart, although technically he was Basque, having been born in Bilbao. Like Mozart, he wrote his first opera while quite young, at age 10, which was immediately produced locally and well-received. Only the overture and a few scraps survive, but with the unfortunate title “The Happy Slaves” it probably wouldn’t attract much of a following now anyway.
Arriaga’s first string quartet in d minor is one of three quartets written in 1821-22 at the tender age of 15, about the time his parents enrolled him in the Paris Conservatory, which were published in 1823. Unfortunately, the string quartets were both early and late works; Arriaga died just shy of his 20th birthday.
The quartet certainly shows the influences of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but it is by no means merely derivative; Arriaga demonstrates a true voice of his own. The quartet incorporates some Spanish themes and at times sounds strangely like Schubert, although it is unlikely that Arriaga would have known of Schubert, who was only nine years Arriaga’s senior, composing in relative obscurity and largely unpublished in Vienna, and not a frequent traveler to either Paris or Spain.
George Frideric Handel’s Concerto Grosso in G Major Opus 6 No. 1 is the first of a set of twelve he composed in his mid-fifties, after achieving much fame and success; indeed, he enlisted about 100 subscribers who paid him for the works (I know sounds like Bialystock and Bloom, but it was legit – really). They are somewhat uncharacteristic in that Handel seems to have laid aside substantial time to compose them – all of five weeks! (remember, this is the fellow who composed the entire oratorio Messiah in just 24 days)
The concerti were written to provide additional reasons to attend Handel’s series of London oratorio concerts in 1739-40, where they were first performed. The Opus 6 label might suggest that these were considerably earlier works, but Handel wrote them in the style of Arcangelo Corelli, whose own set of concerti grossi numbered opus 6 he greatly admired. Either Handel chose the opus number in homage to Corelli, or his publisher chose it to boost sales. Actually, only ten of these concerti were new; as was his habit, Handel stole from himself, rearranging two of his earlier organ concerti to complete the set. Perhaps five weeks wasn’t enough time after all.
Franz Joseph Haydn’s charming and inventive Opus 3 quartets also cost Haydn very little time and effort – in fact it seems he expended none at all on them. Intrepid armies of musicologists tell us they actually were written by Roman Hoffstetter, ten years Haydn’s junior and an admirer of Haydn’s music, although I would bet that Hoffstetter would have been miffed to know that Haydn would get credit for his work for a couple of hundred years. It is possible that a publisher slapped Haydn’s name on Hoffstetter’s quartets to boost sales, a fairly common practice that has provided careers for intrepid armies of musicologists for generations.
Hoffstetter became a Benedictine monk; could it be that vows of silence or something of the sort prevented Opus 3’s authorship from being cleared up earlier? He continued to write music, including a number of masses and other sacred works. He also wrote three viola concerti; perhaps this was the act that consigned him to the purgatory of misattribution and obscurity.
We had fun last week celebrating Mozart’s birthday, and we aim to have fun this week, too!
Let’s Play!
Jim
On January 31, for our second Community Music Monday of 2011, we’ll explore some promising beginnings. We’ll read music of Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola, George Frideric Handel, and either Franz Joseph Haydn or Roman Hoffstetter, depending upon your musicological leanings.
Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga was born on what would have been Mozart’s 50th birthday, January 27, 1806 – a heavy burden for an aspiring musical prodigy! Of course he was known as the Spanish Mozart, although technically he was Basque, having been born in Bilbao. Like Mozart, he wrote his first opera while quite young, at age 10, which was immediately produced locally and well-received. Only the overture and a few scraps survive, but with the unfortunate title “The Happy Slaves” it probably wouldn’t attract much of a following now anyway.
Arriaga’s first string quartet in d minor is one of three quartets written in 1821-22 at the tender age of 15, about the time his parents enrolled him in the Paris Conservatory, which were published in 1823. Unfortunately, the string quartets were both early and late works; Arriaga died just shy of his 20th birthday.
The quartet certainly shows the influences of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but it is by no means merely derivative; Arriaga demonstrates a true voice of his own. The quartet incorporates some Spanish themes and at times sounds strangely like Schubert, although it is unlikely that Arriaga would have known of Schubert, who was only nine years Arriaga’s senior, composing in relative obscurity and largely unpublished in Vienna, and not a frequent traveler to either Paris or Spain.
George Frideric Handel’s Concerto Grosso in G Major Opus 6 No. 1 is the first of a set of twelve he composed in his mid-fifties, after achieving much fame and success; indeed, he enlisted about 100 subscribers who paid him for the works (I know sounds like Bialystock and Bloom, but it was legit – really). They are somewhat uncharacteristic in that Handel seems to have laid aside substantial time to compose them – all of five weeks! (remember, this is the fellow who composed the entire oratorio Messiah in just 24 days)
The concerti were written to provide additional reasons to attend Handel’s series of London oratorio concerts in 1739-40, where they were first performed. The Opus 6 label might suggest that these were considerably earlier works, but Handel wrote them in the style of Arcangelo Corelli, whose own set of concerti grossi numbered opus 6 he greatly admired. Either Handel chose the opus number in homage to Corelli, or his publisher chose it to boost sales. Actually, only ten of these concerti were new; as was his habit, Handel stole from himself, rearranging two of his earlier organ concerti to complete the set. Perhaps five weeks wasn’t enough time after all.
Franz Joseph Haydn’s charming and inventive Opus 3 quartets also cost Haydn very little time and effort – in fact it seems he expended none at all on them. Intrepid armies of musicologists tell us they actually were written by Roman Hoffstetter, ten years Haydn’s junior and an admirer of Haydn’s music, although I would bet that Hoffstetter would have been miffed to know that Haydn would get credit for his work for a couple of hundred years. It is possible that a publisher slapped Haydn’s name on Hoffstetter’s quartets to boost sales, a fairly common practice that has provided careers for intrepid armies of musicologists for generations.
Hoffstetter became a Benedictine monk; could it be that vows of silence or something of the sort prevented Opus 3’s authorship from being cleared up earlier? He continued to write music, including a number of masses and other sacred works. He also wrote three viola concerti; perhaps this was the act that consigned him to the purgatory of misattribution and obscurity.
We had fun last week celebrating Mozart’s birthday, and we aim to have fun this week, too!
Let’s Play!
Jim
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