The Development of the Keyboard;

Purcell to Mozart.


Amy Moar: Harpsichord and Piano




















27
th
May 2014: Sighthill Campus, Edinburgh College



The Development of the Keyboard; Purcell to Mozart.
Traditionally the harpsichord was a continuo instrument, underpinning compositions
for chamber ensembles or voice. Purcell and Bach wrote music for the solo
instrument as there was a fledgling market for this. Mozart took keyboard playing to
another level with the development of pianoforte, first with the use of knee lever
damping and later with early pedaling techniques to create varied dynamics and
articulation. These three composers were also teachers on the keyboard therefore
they would have had to think about making their music accessible to their pupils.
Much of the solo keyboard music of Purcell and Bach was written for teaching
purposes. Mozart taught the pianist/composer Hummel and the English composer
Thomas Attwood.

Harpsichord
Henry Purcell (16581695) Suit no. II in G minor (1696 posthumously)
Purcell was born in the parish of Westminster near the cathedral where he would,
become tuner then organist under John Blow 1649 - 1708). After Purcells death
John Blow returned to the post. During his short lifetime Purcell was employed under
three royal patrons Charles II, James II and then William and Mary. He witnessed the
Little Ice Age, scientific innovation and the development of opera and the Tragdie
Lyrique. Purcell was an active performer during the beginning of an era of public
performances and theatres re-openings. After Purcell there were no well-known
British Composers until Edward Elgar (1857-1934) and Benjamin Britten (1913 -
1976).

The Suite as a form is a piece of dance or background music used for social
occasions, which was developed in the Baroque era but also featured in the
Renaissance. Purcell wrote eight such suites for the keyboard one of which is suit no
2 in G minor, which includes six dances.
The characteristics of these are as follows:
Prelude - an introduction to the proceeding movements in a Suite.
Almand - translates from the French word, Allemande, for German and is a
slow stately dance in the time of 4/4.
Courante - is a slow French dance in 3/2.
Saraband - is a slow and stately Spanish dance in 3/4.
Chacone - a dance in 3/4, which contains variation over harmonic progression
and a recurrent chord structure. The Chacone is famous for the short insistent
bass line also known as ground bass.
Siciliano - is a dance in 6/8 time involving syncopation. Although it is in a
minor key, which may sound somber, I am interpreting this piece as light and
cheerful using a light touch on the keyboard.
All these movements are in binary form A-B-A. and rotate around a circle of fifths in
the key of G minor.

The English harpsichordist and conductor Trevor Pinnock played Suite No.2 in G
minor for his solo debut concert as a Harpsichordist in 1968. The Siciliano was used
in Luis Bunuels film The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1954).





J.S. Bach (1685 -1750) Minuet I and II from English Suite no 4 BWV 809 F major
(1724-5)
Born to a musical family J.S. Bach worked in Germany all his life. Serving under
noble patronage he held several musical posts as Kapellmeister (director of music) to
Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Kthen, Cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, and Royal
Court Composer to August III. The composer H.N. Gerber, a pupil, noted that Bach
began teaching with his Two Part Inventions, progressing to The French and English
Suites and concluding with the 48 Preludes and Fugues. In this way he gradually
initiated a wide variety of works whilst teaching technical elements of their
performance. As a composer Bachs accomplishment was to give attention to the
natural qualities of the keyboard instruments he used. These included the
harpsichord, clavichord, lute-harpsichord and fortepiano.

Bachs English and French Suites were composed in sets of six. The French Suites
are in the style of the composer Francois Couperin (1668 -1733). The English Suite
no4 is comprised of a Prelude before the dances of the Allemande, Courante,
Sarabande, Minuet I, Minuet II and the Gigue.

The first Minuet is in the tonality of F major and the second is in the relative minor of
D. Both are in binary form (A-B-A). Each section has two parts, each sixteen bars
long. The A section of Minuet I is in the tonic of F major then the tonality moves to the
dominant, C major, for the B section then resumes the tonic in the return to A. In the
second Minuet A, the tonic, is in D minor and moves to the dominant, A major, in the
B section. However the work then does a complicated shift through F and C major all
in the B section before returning to the tonic, D minor for the final A section. Then we
have a recapitulation of Minuet I. Both Minuets include moto perpetuo; an
unchanging rhythm played with a quaver movement in the bass. The treble and bass
contain regular four bar phrases, which is a key feature in Baroque music. In my
interpretation I have added extra ornaments to both Minuets. This is appropriate, as
Baroque composers did not specify the ornaments to be played but left the
interpretation to the musician; a form of early improvisation.


Piano
W. A. Mozart (1756- 1791)Fantasia in D minor, K. 397/385g (1782)
Mozart was a prolific composer of over 600 works. He travelled broadly throughout
Europe performing and meeting many of his musical peers. Johann Christian Bach
whom he met in London in 1764 influenced him. In Vienna by the end of 1781 Mozart
had established himself as an outstanding pianist. Emperor Joseph II initiated a
piano contest between Mozart and Muzio Clementi (1752 - 1832). Mozart was judged
to have won. Clementi praised Mozarts playing afterward but Mozart, unsettled by
the contest, criticised his rivals musicianship in correspondence.

Mozart elevated solo keyboard performance to a new level with rich, contrapuntal
musical textures. He had the ability to capture the transience of improvisation and
embed it in his compositions. In the Fantasia in D minor Mozart uses a variety of
dynamics as well as harp like opening cadenzas. The work introduces style gallant
which contrasts with Baroque counterpoint being less complicated and easier to
listen too: fluent, light and sometimes playful. Style gallant rejects the figured bass
and replaces it with the Alberti bass: a smooth arpeggiated accompaniment. This is a
key feature in Mozarts piano compositions. The Fantasia in D minor features this
stylistic technique of the melody (tune) in the right hand and the left hand
accompaniment.

The sad sounding emotional passages within the Fantasia are expressed in the use
of minor chromatic scales, interrupted twice by explosions of ornamental playing.
Towards the end of the piece, melancholy is replaced by the happier sounding D
major theme in the style of Opera Buffa (comic opera). The different styles we hear
within the sections of this piece slightly echo the movements of a Suite. Mozart did
not finish the work. Paul Hirsch suggests that the final bars were added by drawing
on the themes heard earlier in the work by the Breitkopf editor August Eberhard
Mller (1767 1817), Thomascantor of Leipzig.






Bibliography



Books
Gill, D. ed. -(1981) The Book of the Piano, Phaidon Press Ltd, Oxford
Jones, R. ed. (2001) Mozart, Mature Piano Pieces, ABRSM (Publishing) Ltd.,
London
Scholes, P.A. (1992), The Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford University Press
Oxford
Wolff, C. (1984), The New Grove Bach Family Macmillan Publishers Ltd., London

Essay
Moar, A- (2012) Henry Purcell, Programme Note

Web: Oxford Music Online
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/41799pg3?q=He
nry+Purcell&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1 - S41799.3.3 25/5/14
Harris A. (16m30s) 16/11/12
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01q6qj6/Tales_of_Winter_The_Art_of_Sn
ow_and_Ice/
www.jsbach.org 23/5/14
www.mozartproject.org/ 14/5/14

































MH0920H Principal Study Programme Note
Amy Moar - EC1303459 (1307602)