PROGRAM NOTEs

PAVANA LACHRYMAE JOHN DOWLAND (1563-1626)

WILLIAM BYRD (1539-1623)

“Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!

Exiled forever, let me mourn;

Where night’s black bird her sad infamy sings, There let me live forlorn…”

Thus begins English Renaissance composer and lutenist John Dowland’s most famous ayre, “Flow, my tears.” Though best known in this song form, Downland initially penned the tune as a piece for solo lute under the name “Lachrimae pavane” around 1595. This original lute tune received many subsequent keyboard arrangements, and among them William Byrd’s Pavana Lachrymae reigns supreme. One of the most influential of all early music composers, Byrd arranged Dowland’s tune for the virginal, a precursor to the harpsichord. Here transcribed for piano, the relatively short piece but is brimful of rich harmonies and lavish ornamentation. Byrd’s darkly ruminative arrangement captures all the heartrending sorrow inherent in the song the tune eventually became

15 SINFONIAS, BWV 787-801

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

Though remembered today primarily as a composer and organist, Johann Sebastian Bach was also an influential teacher who devoted much of his time and energy to the musical education of his own offspring (the composer had 20 children in all, though only 10 survived to adulthood). In early 1720 Bach began compiling a small notebook for keyboard training – a Clavier Buchlëin – to serve as an instruction and exercise booklet for his eldest son, then 9-year-old Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. The book included 30 short compositions: 15 inventions, fantasy pieces in two-part counterpoint, and 15 sinfonias, which add a third contrapuntal voice.

Three years later Bach revised the notebook’s pieces for publication under the name Inventio and Sinfonia, commonly known today as Two- and Three-Part Inventions. He stated his pedagogical purpose for the works in a preface to the 1723 manuscript:

“Straightforward instruction, whereby lovers of the keyboard, and especially those eager to learn, are shown a clear method, not only (1) of learning to play cleanly in two parts, but also, after further progress, (2) of managing three obbligato parts correctly and satisfactorily; and in addition not only of arriving at good original ideas but also of developing them satisfactorily; and most of all of acquiring a cantabile style of playing while at the same time receiving a strong foretaste of composition.”

These inventions and sinfonias are still in use three centuries later as common teaching repertoire and are regarded as essential literature for mastering keyboard polyphony with Bach’s emphasis on technique, musicality, and composition.

The 15 three-part sinfonias cover 8 major and 7 minor keys, starting with C major and systematically ascending the chromatic scale to B minor. They are all brief – most just one or two minutes long – yet rife with musical significance. The works explore a wide range of tone and character within their small scope while showcasing virtually every contrapuntal and expressive device Bach had at his disposal. Some key musical moments to listen for include the elegant simplicity of No. 5’s duet-like texture, the descending two-note “sighing” figures strewn throughout the melancholic No. 9, and the whirlwind of intricate passagework that makes up the No. 15 finale.

Franz Schubert

SEVEN BAGATELLES, OP. 33

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Beethoven composed bagatelles – short, light instrumental pieces usually composed for solo piano – throughout his career, compiling them at intervals for the popular market. The seven bagatelles of Op. 33 published in 1803 make up his first such collection. Each a miniature masterwork of balance, articulation, and figuration typical of Beethoven’s classically-influenced early style, they are also suffused with an undercurrent of the composer’s irrepressible humor. “Bagatelle” is the French word for “trifles,” and Beethoven indeed trifles with his listeners continually within these works; musical mischief abounds in the form of subverted expectations, over the top phrasing, and abrupt contrasts at every turn.

The Op. 33 set is comprised mostly of light, upbeat pieces set (with a few expressive exceptions) and takes just under 20 minutes to perform. Bagatelle No. 1 opens the set with an innocent tune heavily embellished with intricate improvisatory runs. The melody becomes more and more comically ornamented with each repeat of the theme, transforming it from simple and sweet to somewhat agitated. The humor of No. 2 (labelled a scherzo, or “joke”) lies in its rhythm. Metrical manipulation and offbeat accents make it nearly impossible to nail down the piece’s pulse, lending it a jumpy feel. No. 3 is gently pastoral with a folk-like melody played over arpeggios; the melody’s second phrase, however, modulates suddenly to both a remote key and dynamic level, then continues to shift back and forth in this unbalanced manner.

In No. 4 we at last find a truly lyrical number, its gentle melody weaving through the various voices – and lulling listeners into a false sense of seriousness. In the middle section the melody drops out entirely, leaving bare accompaniment in its wake. The most technically challenging of the set, No. 5 is filled with lightning-quick passagework and decorative figurations. No. 6 is the jewel of the set, and perhaps the only wholly sincere piece of all with its singing lyricism and intimate character. Offering a striking contrast to the preceding number, No. 7 uses crisp staccato textures and extreme repetition as drivers of musical wit to fittingly round off the set’s humorous journey.