This étude is No. 18 of Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. It is a study in chromatic scales, so be careful to play all 32nd notes evenly. Also remember to play with dynamics, to imitate the blowing of the wind!
The earliest version of this tune is found, as an untitled jig, in Book 3 of the large music manuscript collection of County Leitrim fiddler and piper Stephen Grier (c. 1824–1894).
The title “The Angry Peeler” is first seen in Francis O'Neill's 1903 collection Music of Ireland. “Peeler” was (and to an extent, still is) a slang term for a policeman in the British Isles, as well as in America until the end of the 19th century. Originally, it was a nickname for a police constable who was a member of the first modern professional police force, the Metropolitan Police in London, formed by Sir Robert Peel in 1829.
Johann Martin Blochwitz, a flutist in the Dresden Court Orchestra around 1717, composed many pieces of dance music, some of them appearing in Quantz's collection “Fantasies and Preludes” in 1740. This beautiful minuet is one such piece. Sadly, the appearance in Quantz's collection has led many to attribute the piece to Quantz, rather than to its rightful composer.
Thanks to Peter for suggesting this piece!
During his stay in America, when Dvořák was director of the Conservatory in New York from 1892 to 1895, the composer collected many interesting musical themes in his sketchbooks. He used some of these ideas in his American compositions, notably the “From the New World” Symphony, but some of them remained unused. While in holiday in the summer of 1894 in his beloved home in Bohemia, he worked out some of these sketches into a cycle of 8 piano pieces. Initially, the composer considered naming them “New Scotch Dances” (after an earlier set of Ecossaises he wrote) but eventually settled for the title “Humoresques”.
Of the eight pieces, the seventh is without any doubt the best known; as with all of Dvorák's most successful piano works, it exhibits his talents for rhythmic originality and idiomatic textures that lie gratefully under the fingers. Indeed, the piece quickly became one of the most popular classical pieces in existence, and the publisher made vast amounts of money on it by publishing it separately in arrangements for all imaginable instruments and ensembles.
The original key of the piece is G-flat major (with six flats), but we decided to transpose it up a semitone to G major in order to make it more accessible. Since the piece contains few accidentals, the fussy among us can easily try to play it in the original key by considering a six-flat key signature instead of the printed one. Unfortunately this trick does not work in the minor-mode part, where an enharmonic transposition to F-sharp minor would be needed.
This “Largo cantabile” is étude No. 10 from Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt petites études, or Twenty Studies. While it is a Largo, it shouldn't be played too slowly.
This jig is taken from Chicago Police Captain Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection Music of Ireland, published in 1903. A Cape Breton jig titled “Northside Kitchen” shares a closely related first strain.
Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld (Orphée aux enfers) is an irreverent parody and scathing satire on Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, culminating in this well-known “galop infernal” which has often been copied and has widely been used as the background music for the can-can dance.
The can-can is regarded today primarily as a physically demanding music hall dance, performed by a chorus line of female dancers who wear costumes with long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings, that hearkens back to the fashions of the 1890s. The main features of the dance are the lifting up and manipulation of the skirts, with high kicking and suggestive body movements.
As you will notice, the main theme is first presented in G major, and then reiterated in D major.
Riccardo Primo (Italian for Richard the First) is one of Handel's unjustly neglected operas, and musically speaking it is arguably one of his finest. The German-English composer wrote the work as homage to the newly crowned King George II and to the nation of England, where he had just received citizenship.
The plot of the opera is based around the eponymous hero, King Richard the Lionheart, and his marriage to Constanza, a Spanish princess. On her sea journey to be married to Riccardo, Costanza and her party are shipwrecked off the coast of Cyprus, where they find shelter at the court of the local governor, Isacio. Upon seeing Costanza, Isacio makes violent advances towards her, and has the idea to send his daughter, Pulcheria, in place of Costanza to Riccardo, whilst keeping the real Costanza for himself.
The triumphal march we present today is taken from the end of the third and final act of the opera. It is played after Riccardo triumphs over Isacio, so that he can finally pledge eternal fidelity to Costanza. In the original setting, the march is played by two trumpets, oboes and strings.
This is étude No. 10 from the first book of Ernesto Köhler's Progress in Flute Playing, Op. 33. From its very beginning it is evident that this is mainly a study in thirds. It starts off in D major, and explores the keys of G major and E minor before going back to the original key to restate the initial theme.
The earliest appearance of this tune is in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903.
Dingle is a small port town on southwest Ireland's Dingle Peninsula, known for its rugged scenery, trails and sandy beaches.
This minuet is one of the pieces attributed to the famous German flutist and composer Johann Joachim Quantz to have survived in a manuscript titled Fantasier og Preludier. 8. Capricier og andre Stykker til Øvelse for Flöÿten af Quanz (“Fantasies and Preludes. 8 Caprices and other Pieces for Exercise for the Flute by Quantz”). This manuscript has been kept in the Giedde Collection (named after its founder, Danish composer W.H.R.R. Giedde) in the Royal Library of Copenhagen, which hosts a fairly comprehensive collection of flute music from the second half of the 18th century.
This is the third movement from the second of Telemann's “Sonatas without Bass for Two Transverse Flutes, or Two Violins, or Two Recorders”.
This is étude No. 11 from Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt petites études, or Twenty Studies. It is a 2/4-time Allegro in ternary form, with a central part marked grandioso, i.e., “majestic”, “grand”.
This melody appears as an untitled jig in the 1841 music manuscript collection of Dublin dentist and collector Henry Hudson. Old Scottish variants can however be found in the Skene Manuscript, dating back to c. 1630-1640, under the title “Hare in the Corn”.
This Allegro is the second 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.
This lighthearted gavotte is part of French Suite No. 5 in G major for harpsichord, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1722–1723.
Each of the six French Suites contains the four dance movements that Bach made standard for the genre: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. In Suite No. 5 Bach inserts three movements between the Sarabande and Gigue. The first of these is the famous Gavotte, a sprightly, French ballroom dance in 2/2 meter with a modulation to the dominant key of D major at the end of the first half.
This étude is No. 16 of Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. Its title, “Cantabile alla Moderna”, could be literally translated as “singable piece in the modern style”.
The earliest printing of this jig is in R.M. Levey's Dance Music of Ireland (1872), as an untitled jig. The title “Felix the Wrestler” is found in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1903).
Scottish Great Highland Bagpiper G.S. McLennan picked up the tune while stationed in Ireland, although he called it “Biddy from Sligo”.
This well-known string quartet, like many others, was long thought to be by Franz Joseph Haydn, but is now attributed to another scholar: Roman Hoffstetter, a Benedictine monk who admired the famous Austrian composer almost to the point of imitation.
This is the second movement from Telemann's Sonata No. 2 in D major for two flutes/recorders, published by the great Baroque Composer himself in 1727. This movement is marked “Allegro” and should thus ideally be played at a quick, lively tempo. As usual, take your time, and don't try to play along with the MP3 recording straightaway.