Day 132: Superb Performances!

HaydnCD132The first notes from the first track of today’s CD are from a guitar-like instrument known as a lute.

I had no idea Haydn composed for stringed instruments of that type.

Also, I had no idea that the lute was so revered. For example, the Lute Society has been around 60 years.

“What is a lute?” you ask.

Allow me.

According to its entry on Wikipedia,

Lute can refer generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table (in the Hornbostel–Sachs system), more specifically to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either fretted or unfretted) and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes.

The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud both descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from the Medieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance. It is also an accompanying instrument, especially in vocal works, often realizing a basso continuo or playing a written-out accompaniment. The player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist, “lewtist” or lutist, and a maker of lutes (or any string instrument) is referred to as a luthier.

Here’s what it looks like. Kupetzky_Lute_1711

I think I prefer the much shorter definition on the Merriam-Webster site:

a stringed instrument having a large pear-shaped body, a vaulted back, a fretted fingerboard, and a head with tuning pegs which is often angled backward from the neck

“A large pear-shaped body” is the perfect descriptor.

How many strings does the lute have, anyway? I’ve read that they can have up to 20 or 24 strings. Typically, they may have 12. Their strings are arranged in “courses,” of two each. But how many strings a lute has apparently depends on what kind of lute it is.

Regardless, a lute seems like a complicated instrument to play, but one with a lovely sound like that of a Classical guitar. I believe that sound comes from the fact that the strings are “gut” or nylon, and the body is mostly wood. So there’s a lot of resonance and an organic plucking sound when the strings are picked.

I like the sound of a lute.

The performers on today’s CD belong to the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble.

BaroqueEnsemble

which, according to the site Bach-Cantatas,

…shines brightly in the world of Baroque music. The ensemble’s delight in playing adds a special lustre to their period instruments. This special quality has characterized the ensemble since 1971 when it was founded by Lars Brolin, at the Royal Opera House Orchestra. Today, six musicians form the heart of the ensemble, but their ranks may swell to nine or even thirty members as the repertoire requires.

The 43-year-old ensemble consists of:

Nils-Erik Sparf violin
Lars Brolin viola
Olof Larsson cello

Playing the lute on today’s CD is Jakob Lindberg.

Today’s CD is an instant FAVORITE!

Here’s what I listened to today:

Cassation in B Flat HOB III: 1


Cassation in C HOB III: 6

Quartetto in D HOB III: 8

Sonata A 3 in F HOB IV: F2

A few more definitions are in order.

First: Cassation. According to its entry on Wiki,

Cassation is a minor musical genre related to the serenade and divertimento. In the mid-to-late 18th century, cassations commonly comprised loosely assembled sets of short movements intended for outdoor performance by orchestral or chamber ensembles. The genre was popular in southern German-speaking lands. Other synonymous titles used by German-speaking composers and cataloguers included Cassatio, Cassatione and Kassation. An equivalent Italian term was Cassazione. The genre is occasionally alluded to in the titles of some twentieth-century compositions.

Now…when were these composed?

That’s much more difficult to ascertain. I’ve been Googling for 15 minutes and I still don’t know.

Why is that? Why can’t web sites tell me when these were composed? Or for whom? Why did Haydn compose these pieces for lute and strings? How old was he?

I did find something quite interesting in one of my many Google searches: Haydn’s Last Will and Testament. Apparently, he was very generous to everyone, especially his servants. I read through his Will several times and was amazed by (a) his wealth, and (b) that he dispersed it so widely.

I also discovered a link to the Project Gutenberg web site’s biography of Haydn written by J. Cuthbert Hadden in 1902. That, alone, is worth the price of admission.

I did not, however, discover when Haydn wrote these pieces for the lute.

However, the Hadden bio did say this about Haydn’s cassations in a section titled “CHAPTER IV. ESTERHAZ—1766-1790.” So it’s possible they were composed during that large expanse of time:

His cassations, quartets and trios may be compared to a pure, clear stream of water, the surface now rippled by a gentle breeze from the south, and anon breaking into agitated billows, but without ever leaving its proper channel and appointed course.

If his “pure, clear stream of water” cassations were created between 1766 and 1790, Haydn would have been between 34 and 58.

One last comment. This CD was recorded in January of 1987, some 30 years ago. Despite that, the recording is fantastic. Very clear, crisp, clean, and resonant.

But what else can one expect from Brilliant Classics, the record label to beat in the world to day.

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