Royer - Pièces de clavecin - Le Vertigo

I randomly happened upon this piece on YouTube today and thought I would share it.

From listening to some (admittedly overplayed) pieces from the Baroque era (Vivaldi's Four Seasons; Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No.1, BWV 1052; etc.), I had wondered whether the metallic tone of the harpsichord was ever really taken advantage of. I remember reading about its poor projection in concert halls and that its metallic tone was basically the only thing that was audible in larger orchestral pieces.

But, finally, today I found a piece that really brings the "metal" out of the harpsichord. Interestingly enough, it comes from a French Baroque era composer by the name of Pacrance Royer, who wrote a whole book of Pièces de clavecin. From this book, I stumbled into Le Vertigo (Rondeau). I really enjoy the performance by French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau (what an awesome and fitting name!). The ending is ... unexpected — and I really like the video itself.

If, after watching the performance video, you'd like to follow along in the music, it starts on page 19 of the typeset edition by Nicolas Sceaux via IMSLP.org.

I didn't know before that Royer is known for his virtuosic harpsichord writing, but the last piece in the book, La marches des Scythes, is the most well-known. If you like a particular piece from Pièces de clavecin (perhaps Le Vertigo), leave it in the comments!

A harmonic analysis of this piece would be a good exercise for a beginning music theory student, but maybe I'll do it for fun and edit this post later — for now, hope you enjoy this fun piece!

Couperin - Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou les Maillotins

Today, I've just got a short piece I'd like to share! It's a miniature by Francois Couperin called Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou les Maillotins for piano. Its hand-crossings (more like the two parts are intertwined), the fast pace, the light touch, and the rapid rearticulation of notes are all really impressive. Sokolov's performance is so much fun to listen to. Hope you enjoy it!

Bach - Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

J.S. Bach’s inventiveness and creativity of the theme and variations and fugal forms are on display in his Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 for pipe organ. This fantastic video by musician and software engineer Stephen Malinowski graphically visualizes the score.

The piece opens like a traditional passacaglia, in triple time, with the ground bass stating the melody as the theme in a grave sarabande-like manner.

The first variation lasts two iterations of the theme, with a syncopated figure. At the small scale, the contour is rising and falling, whereas the large scale shows a mostly falling figure.

The first variation has a relatively consistent rhythm throughout, and the second variation continues with constant eighth notes, with more variant contours, with rising and falling figures.

The third variation introduces a 1+a 2+a 3+a (𝅘𝅥𝅮 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅮 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅮 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯) figure, with a continuation of the full-length bass figure. 

The fourth variation has a similar figure, but instead of having a linear stepwise figure, there is instead an arpeggiated motion, and the bass line no longer has whole and half notes the entire time, replacing that with a more bouncy [1 (2) (3)+a | 1…] (𝅘𝅥 ⋮ 𝄽 ⋮ 𝄾 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯) figure.

The fifth variation has rising sixteenth notes, with 3 per voice and a longer tone following it, with the return of the original ground bass.

The fifth variation morphs into the sixth, replacing the rising sixteenths with falling sixteenths.

The seventh variation blends the contour of the fifth and sixth variations.

The eighth variation has staccato arpeggios to lighten up the texture after three very thickly scored variations, including mostly arpeggios of chords in the root position.

Variation nine has identical rhythms in the ground bass, tenor, and alto voices, with the soprano voice moving up and down in a scalar fashion.

At variation ten, two voices drop out and the ground bass’s theme moves to the soprano voice, with another scale moving up and down the keyboard in the left hand.

The soprano carries the melody through the eleventh variation, and the other voices return with eighth notes and sixteenth notes in falling thirds.

The twelfth variation is more lightly scored once again, with the melody from the soprano staying in the alto and tenor voices in a [3e+a | 1] (𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 | 𝅘𝅥) figure with a twisting contour.

Variation thirteen has two consistent interlocking rhythms: [1+ (2)e+a (3)e+a] (𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮 ⋮ 𝄿𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝄿𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯) in the right hand  and [(1)e+a 2 3e+a)] (𝄿𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯) in the left hand, with arpeggios of root position chords through the variation.

The arpeggios continue in variation fourteen, instead leaving only one note played at a time, all rising arpeggios. The ground bass notes appear on beats 1 and 3 as they have the entire piece, but lasting only one quarter of the beat.

Variation fifteen has an interesting motion, with notes of triads characteristic of C minor being approached from the note below, starting with the top note and moving down. This once again uses the full ground bass, underlining the [(1)e+a 2e+a 3+] (𝄿𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮) rhythm of the variation.

Variation sixteen breaks out into triplets in two voices, rising and falling down the keyboard, occasionally straying from the general rhythmic feel.

The seventeenth variation resembles the third in rhythm, but uses a down-up contour with the [(1)+a 2+a 3] (𝄾𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅮 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥) rhythm. 

Variation eighteen uses an up-down-down-up, circling around the note of each chord, with a dialogue of this figure between the soprano and tenor voices.

The nineteenth and final variation finishes off the passacaglia with the entrance of a fifth voice, so that the outer of the top 4 voices (1 and 4) have the twisting figure at the same time and the inner voices (2 and 3) have it at the same time as well, with the ground bass stating the theme one last time before the fugue allows it to rest.

The fugue has constant [(1)+2+3+] (𝄾𝅘𝅥𝅮 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮) in the first countermelody and constant sixteenth notes in the second countermelody. It continues as a typical Bach-style fugue with some short departures from the original theme for a little bit of variety.

For the first time the theme is presenting in a major tonality (first in E♭, later in B♭).

A set of trills signals the last statement of the theme in the soprano voice, the countermelodies in alto and bass, and the tenor filling in the space to create a wide texture.

A [1 (2)+ 3+ | 1...] (𝅘𝅥 ⋮ 𝄾𝅘𝅥𝅮 ⋮ 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮 | 𝅘𝅥 ...) figure slowly opens to a fermata on a first-inversion D♭ chord, the Neapolitan sixth (N6).

The piece ends with a movement between the tonic major I (C) and iv (Fm) chords via the secondary dominant V⁷/iv (C⁷), throwing in the D♭ of a C^7♭9 chord to emphasize the final expansive resolution to C major, ending with 5 voices and both feet of the bass for the final chord.

Hope you enjoyed this fantastic piece! Check back for more posts, share your comments below, and let others know about this post!

All score excerpts are taken from the 1867 Bach-Gesellschaft edition by Breitkopf and Härtel (Leipzig) via IMSLP.org.

Bach - Italian Concerto, BWV 971, III. Presto

Just wanted to quickly share the third movement, III. Presto of Bach's Italian Concerto, BWV 971 (also Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto "Concerto in the Italian taste") for harpsichord, played on piano by Evgeni Koroliov. Energetic, upbeat, and unwavering in its drive, Koroliov's performance gives the piece a happy frantic energy that is irresistible. Enjoy!

Bach - Double Violin Concerto, BWV 1043, II. Largo, ma non tanto

The first time I remember listening to this piece, I was in sixth grade and my brother had just bought (for fun) a bunch of classical music tapes (I remember one of Vivaldi concerti with Jaime Laredo as the soloist) that I really enjoyed while doing homework and reading.

Laredo plays Vivaldi

At around that time, I searched YouTube for other Baroque violin concerti and fell in love with the second movement of Bach's D minor Double Violin Concerto, BWV 1043. The original recording I listened to is no longer on YouTube, but I've instead linked two other recordings below: one for those who just want to listen and one for those who would like to see the music animated (you can appreciate it even if you don't play or read music!).

(1) Audio only; this orchestra takes a slower tempo which feels more meditative, and the recording in general is much mellower in tone, which I personally prefer for this movement.

(2) With scrolling animation; this orchestra takes a faster tempo and the recording is crystal clear, and the tone quality is much brighter than the previous recording - a fantastic listen.