Pietro Antonio Locatelli

Pietro Antonio Locatelli (b. Bergamo, 1695–d. Amsterdam, 1764) was an Italian composer and a virtuoso violinist. He started his career in his hometown, among the violinists of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. In 1711 he moved to Rome, probably to study with Arcangelo Corelli, the maximum musical authority of the time. The severe illness and the death (1713) of the great master frustrated the young violinist’s plans, however. Probably Locatelli had to fall back on Giuseppe Valentini, a virtuoso violinist trained at Corelli’s school. In the meantime, Locatelli worked in many places and institutions. His first employment was with Michelangelo X Caetani, duke of Cisterna and Sermoneta and prince of Caserta; he then performed with the musical chapel of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and Monsignor Camillo Cybo, the latter the dedicatee of Locatelli’s Op. 1. From 1716 to 1722 he was a member of the Congregatione generale dei musici di Santa Cecilia. Locatelli was in Rome until the spring of 1723. He then started a tour that led him to the main European musical centers. In 1723 Locatelli was in Venice, where made the acquaintance of the patrician Girolamo Michiel Lini, Op. 3’s dedicatee. In 1725 he was in Mantua, where was appointed “virtuoso di camera” by Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadt. In 1727 Locatelli left Italy, never to return. He had short stays in Munich (1727), Berlin, Frankfurt, and Kassel (1728). In 1729 he moved to Amsterdam, where remained until his death. There he started to print his nine Opus numbers composed during the years of pilgrimage. Locatelli wrote only instrumental music, in the genres of concerto grosso, violin concerto, violin sonata, and trio sonata. Le Cène, Van der Hoeven, and Covens were the publishers of his orchestral works, while his chamber works were instead published at his own expense. In addition, he gave weekly private concerts, taught a few rich patricians of the city, and traded in prints, books, and musical items. Studies on Locatelli’s time, life, and works are covered in several book-length studies, a complete edition, and numerous articles.

Bartók, Biography, and the Violin

Biography takes the scant facts of a life that are available to scrutiny, like the waypoints on a journey to be mapped, and attempts to form a coherent narrative from them. That coherence is, to at least some degree, contingent upon the ideological position of the author and as Michael Benton has noted, “the biographical subject is a textual creation as much as a historical recreation.” While fully acknowledging that one cannot “read back” from the works of an author to their life, Benton has described the substance of literary outputs as “quasi-facts” to be set beside “historical facts” and argued that these “can be seen as reflecting some contemporary events or as sublimating some experiences in the writer’s past or mirroring some authorial state of mind.” This article draws on the First Violin Sonata as such a quasi-fact of Bartók’s life to question whether biographical information can or should impact the ways that we understand and perform his music. The article additionally considers whether the content of individual works as mental products may have something tangible to impart about their composer’s personality. Given the broad consensus around the so-called “Five-Factor Model” of personality measurement within the field of psychology, it speculates whether this might offer a tool to refine our portrait of Bartók through analysis of his music.

Imre Waldbauer, an Important but Little-Known Violinist Partner of Béla Bartók

Imre Waldbauer (1892–1952) attained his greatest stature as a performer in his position as the first violinist of the Waldbauer–Kerpely Quartet, named after him and cellist Jenő Kerpely. This ensemble premièred Bartók's String Quartets nos. 1, 2 and 4 and his early Piano Quintet. Although Waldbauer's name is mostly mentioned in the Bartók-literature primarily because of his quartet, he was also important for Bartók as a “standalone” violinist as well. Waldbauer and Bartók played numerous sonata recitals from the 1910s to the 1930s, and Waldbauer also played the first performance of important violin works by Bartók: the “One Ideal” from the Two Portraits, (première: Budapest, 12 February 1911), the Violin Sonata no. 2 (première: Berlin, 7 February 1923) and nos. 16, 19, 21, 28, 36, 42, 43, 44 from the Forty-Four Duos (concert hall première: Budapest, 20 January 1932). Although Waldbauer seems like an individual of special importance, very little is known about his relation to Bartók and about his life in general (unlike his violinist contemporaries, e.g. Joseph Szigeti or Zoltán Székely). The present paper focuses on the relationship between the composer and the violinist, using materials from the yet unexplored Waldbauer legacy held in the Budapest Bartók Archives (recent donation from the Waldbauer family).

CHALLENGING THE WORK CONCEPT: METAPHOR, EMBODIMENT AND STRUCTURE IN MUSIC ANALYSIS

<p>Metaphorical depictions, embodied experiences, and by extension structures within the music, are distinct between performances of both the same works and across works of different styles. Traditional forms of musical analysis focus on the score as a discrete, concrete “object”, replete with meaning and fully representative of the composer’s intentions. As a result, performance has been treated as inessential and not recognized for its significant role in the co-creation of music and its ability to generate meaning. This research examines performative differences through close listening in recent recordings of Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor BWV 1001, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor Op. 30 No. 2, and the Sibelius Violin Concerto Op. 47 in D Minor. With regard for the effects of metaphor, embodiment and structure, it shows how interpretive decisions within performance have profound implications on our emotional experience and perception of the music, well beyond what is notated in the score.</p>

CHALLENGING THE WORK CONCEPT: METAPHOR, EMBODIMENT AND STRUCTURE IN MUSIC ANALYSIS

<p>Metaphorical depictions, embodied experiences, and by extension structures within the music, are distinct between performances of both the same works and across works of different styles. Traditional forms of musical analysis focus on the score as a discrete, concrete “object”, replete with meaning and fully representative of the composer’s intentions. As a result, performance has been treated as inessential and not recognized for its significant role in the co-creation of music and its ability to generate meaning. This research examines performative differences through close listening in recent recordings of Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor BWV 1001, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor Op. 30 No. 2, and the Sibelius Violin Concerto Op. 47 in D Minor. With regard for the effects of metaphor, embodiment and structure, it shows how interpretive decisions within performance have profound implications on our emotional experience and perception of the music, well beyond what is notated in the score.</p>

Violin sonata fis-moll by Paul Natorp in the context of genre development

Исследуется творчество композитора-философа Пауля Наторпа, фигура которого в русскоязычном музыкознании практически не представлена. Отдавая себе отчет в том, что его творчество может вызывать интерес с самых разных точек зрения, мы фокусируем свой научный интерес на Сонате fis-moll для скрипки и фортепиано, созданной в период активного формирования новых художественных течений в музыке начала ХХ века. На примере произведений так называемого «второго ряда» Соната fis-moll может служить довольно ярким примером процессов обновления музыкального языка, в том числе на основе переосмысления классического наследия. Музыковедческий анализ Сонаты для скрипки и фортепиано fis-moll осуществляется в опоре на историко-стилевой метод и интертекстуальность. Доказано, что, будучи созданной в русле традиций Бетховена, Шумана и Брамса, Соната fis-moll для скрипки и фортепиано отмечена самобытностью и оригинальностью. Теоретическая значимость работы определяется заполнением лакуны в истории становления жанра скрипичной сонаты в немецкой композиторской школе. Практическая значимость связана с возможностью обогатить скрипичный репертуар за счет знакомства с камерным жанром, представленным в творчестве немецкого музыканта-философа. This work is dedicated to the work of the composer-philosopher Paul Natorp, whose figure is in practice not represented in Russian-language musicology. Realizing that P. Natorp's work can arouse interest from a variety of points of view, we focus our scientific interest on the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano, created during the active formation of new artistic trends in music at the beginning of the twentieth century. Using the works of the so-called “ second row” as an example, the fis-moll Sonata can serve as a vivid example of the processes of updating the musical language, including on the basis of rethinking the classical heritage. The musicological analysis of the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano is based on the historical-stylistic method and intertextuality. It is proved that, being created in line with the traditions of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano by P. Natorp is noted for its musical identity and originality. The theoretical significance of the work lies in filling a gap in the history of the formation of the violin sonata genre in the German school of composition. Practical significance is associated with the opportunity to enrich the violin repertoire through acquaintance with the chamber genre presented in the works of the German musician-philosopher.

Features of the embodiment of the genre of sonata for violin and piano in the works by Gabriel Fauré (on the example of Sonata № 2, in E Minor, op. 108)

Background. The article reveals the genre-style, form-building and dramatic features of G. Faur&#233;’s Sonata No. 2, in E Minor, op. 108. It is determined that this work, in contrast to his first sonata in A Major op. 13, written in the early period of the composer’s life and embodying romantic elation and inspiration, belongs to the late period of G. Faur&#233;’s work, which is distinguished by a complex harmonic and polyphonic writing, sophisticated form and dramatic content characteristic of the early 20th century music and the First World War. The purpose of this article is a characteristic of genre-stylistic and compositional-dramaturgical features of G. Faur&#233;’s Sonata for violin and piano № 2, in E Minor, op. 108. Results. The Second Violin Sonata by G. Faur&#233;, in contrast to the First, has a different dramaturgy and is built on the principle of dramatic antithesis. A special place – and this brings its logical patterns closer to Beethoven’s – is given to the sonata allegro of the first movement, the excitement and explosiveness of which contrasts not only with the lyrical Andante of the second one, in A Major, but also with the enlightened and carefree Allegro non troppo of the finale in E Major. The logic of the formation in the first movement is associated with the originality of the passage of musical events and has a spiral structure consisting of five turns. The musical image of the second movement’s theme is interesting, as it is born from the conjugation of several voices, combining the features of rhythmic variability. This gives the theme a special, truly French charm. There are several dynamic build-ups in the second movement throughout Andante, which shows the implementation of the wave dramaturgy principle. Rondo shows the freshness of musical colors and spontaneity of expression. The last refrain of this part is especially interesting from the dramatic, thematic and ensemble points of view. The general culmination of the Sonata takes place in the refrain. It includes the main intonational ideas and serves as a generalization of the key events of the composition. At the highest climax of Rondo the main and secondary themes from the first movement of the Sonata appear. Thus, the idea of concentric circles, which was noted in the sonata allegro, is implemented in the finale of the Rondo. Conclusion. The analysis of the Second Violin Sonata by G. Faur&#233; allows us to speak not only about a special implementation of the form in this work, but, in comparison with the First Sonata, about a great variety of ensemble writing, marked by the polyphonization of texture. The timbre contrast of the violin and piano allows the composer to set off the emerging replicas, arrange them in different sound spaces, which may resemble the organ register. The loss of any “character” by the members of the ensemble is most consistently traced in the sonata allegro. Another regularity can be traced in the reduction of the background, which is supplanted by the thematization of the texture. This is emphasized by the frequent change of role-playing functions of the instruments and the multitude of ensemble details that ensure the mobility of the musical texture and its multidimensionality. In this Sonata G. Faur&#233; shows a special sensitivity to the harmonic component of the musical language. This search for expressive possibilities of harmony subsequently becomes a distinctive feature of the modern French musical language, which affects the sound image of a chamber ensemble, leading to the interpretation of chamberness as a refined variability of sensations.