Tuesday 29 October 2024
Traditional Irish jig
This melody was first printed by Dublin publisher Smollet Holden in A Collection of Old Established Irish Slow and Quick Tunes, vol. 2 (c. 1805) as “Bear leigean doibh” (“Better let them be”). However, the now-common title “Paddy in London” is only first found accompanying the tune in W. West's Irish Country Dances (London, c. 1820).
Monday 28 October 2024
from “20 Petites Etudes”
Here is a new study in the Italian style from Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt petites études, or Twenty Studies. Play this piece as a light waltz, keeping a steady tempo throughout.
Sunday 27 October 2024
Allegro from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16, arranged for Flute duet
The Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was described by Mozart himself in his own thematic catalogue as “for beginners”, and it is sometimes known by the nickname “Sonata facile” or “Sonata semplice”, which in Italian mean “Easy sonata”. Although the piece is very well known today, it was not published in Mozart's lifetime, first appearing in print in 1805.
The relative ease of K. 545 has ensured that it has become the most famous of all Mozart's piano sonatas, a work that scarcely a student of the instrument fails to learn at some point in his or her career.
The opening Allegro movement, written in Sonata form, is often quoted as a paradigm of the ambiguity of Classical “simplicity”. The familiar opening theme is accompanied by an Alberti bass, a particular kind of accompaniment often used in the Classical era, consisting of broken chords where the notes of the chord are presented in the order lowest, highest, middle, highest (e.g. C-G-E-G). It was named after Domenico Alberti, who used it extensively, although he was not the first to use it.
Saturday 26 October 2024
from Flute Sonata in D major
This Largo is the opening movement of the fifth of the six Op. 7 flute sonatas with bass accompaniment by French flutist and composer Jean-Daniel Braun, published in Paris in 1736.
Friday 25 October 2024
Traditional Irish jig
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903, but it is almost certainly significantly older. The title, at any rate, can be traced all the way back to the 1778 comic opera “The Flitch of Bacon” by English composer William Shield.
There was an old English custom, recalled in plays, ballads and anecdotes, whereby a flitch of bacon (a side of unsliced bacon) was awarded to married couples who could swear to not having regretted their marriage for a year and a day.
Thursday 24 October 2024
from “25 Romantic Studies”
This is the second-to-last étude from Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. It is titled “Gavotte”, like the French folk dance it takes inspiration from. The main technical difficulty of this piece resides in its unusual broken chords, and in the ever-changing accidentals, that require a wise use of the B-flat lever. Also make sure not to hold the eighth notes too long when they are followed by a rest.
Wednesday 23 October 2024
from Flute Sonata No. 12
This is the third movement of a sonata in A minor for two flutes by the German Baroque composer and music theorist Johann Mattheson. It was published in Amsterdam in 1708.