There is debate more than which piece ofmusic qualifies as the first keyboard concerto. Handel wrote the very first organconcertos, with a set of six published in 1738, but utilized a concerto-likestructure much earlier, in his cantata 'Il trionfo del tempo e deldisinganno' of 1707, contrasting the organ from the orchestra inside a ritornellostructure.
Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 5,composed around 1720, is broadly held to be the very first harpsichord concerto, anddevelops the concept on the virtuoso soloist, featuring an extensive soloharpsichord cadenza for the end on the first movement.
However, recent look for suggeststhat, even earlier than this, William Babel was writing concerted movements forharpsichord. The dates of composition are uncertain, but appear to become at leastas early as 1718, and most likely 5 or 6 many years just before that (Holman 2003).
Handel's work, in addition todeveloping the keyboard concerto, provides intriguing insights to the natureof performance and developments in amateur music-making at the time. Handel hadmoved to London, exactly where he spent most of his adult life, in 1712, establishinghimself as a thing of a celebrity. Initially finding achievement withItalian-style opera, the wane during the reputation in the form caused him toswitch to oratorios. The virtuoso castrati, who had played a major role inopera, were not appropriate for oratorios, in which virtuoso performance wasconsidered not being from the spirit in the work. By composing organ concerti tobe performed alongside the oratorios, Handel preserved an element of virtuosoperformance popular with audiences, and as one in the leading organists of hisday, he was in a position to showcase his skills via these works..
As the English organ had nopedals, music written for it transferred effortlessly towards the harpsichord, andHandel's publisher could promote his second set of organ concerti as 'forharpsichord or organ', broadening its appeal (Rochester 1997).
Mid-Century Developments
The reputation on the Baroqueconcerto might have hindered the development in the concerto form. Wellesz andSternfield argue that even these kinds of original composers as Sammartini and C.P.E.Bach could not rid their minds of Baroque preconceptions. (1973: 434)
C P E Bach regularly employed theBaroque structure, having a number of tuttis punctuating solo passages in theritornello style, but was innovative in other respects: his device of runningone movement into another is additional always associated with 19th centurymusic.
Wellesz and Sternfield establishthree principal issues exactly where there is a clear differentiation in type betweenClassical and Baroque concerto forms: tonality, form and co-ordination ofmusical items (1973: 435-6).
Classical concerto type developsthe thought of opposing tonalities, placing tonic and dominant against every other,while the Baroque style, though always utilizing modulation, maintains morestability.
In the Baroque concerto, expositionand development are often combined, while from the Classical era there is clearerdemarcation, pointing for the sonata instead of ritornello form.
The Baroque type entwinescontrapuntal things on a additional independent bassline, although the Classicalform prefers all points - for instance harmony, melody, orchestration and rhythm- to become held together from the exact same overall plan.
Also key towards the development of thekeyboard concerto was the emergence in the piano. The prototype instrument wasdeveloped by Bartolomeo Cristofori inside final years of the 17thcentury and called the gravicembalo con piano e forte, meaning harpsichord withsoft and loud, while the dulcimer, wherever strings are hit by hammers, wasmore of an inspiration than the plucked harpsichord. This gave scope to developa keyboard instrument with greater dynamic versatility. However, composers wereinitially sceptical. In 1736, Gottfried Silbermann invited J S Bach to try oneof his instruments. Bach was critical, but Silbermann worked to improve hispiano, and Bach subsequently acted as an intermediary in its sales.
The new instrument also foundsuccess in Britain. During the 18th century, Britain, and especiallyLondon, was cosmopolitan: Handel had had excellent success, and records show thatmany musicians within the continent produced Britain home. Britain offered an environmentof relative political stability compared with several areas of Europe. There was akeen appreciation of music in between the upper classes, including a growing middle classwith funds to spend on leisure pursuits - for example music.
However, in 1740 there was only onepiano within the country. In 1756, the Seven Years War resulted in an exodus fromSaxony to Britain, and their numbers included a group of harpsichord makers,one of whom, Zumpe, started to make pianos and invented the square piano. It hadadvantages more than the harpsichord along with other types of piano which have been a similarshape towards harpsichord. It was quicker and cheaper to manufacture, andremained well-liked until the middle on the next century.
Johann Christian Bach, son of J Sand younger brother of C P E, arrived in London in 1762. He developed a rangeof commercial interests, and became Zumpe's London agent, providing anincentive to write material to show the instrument to its very best advantage. Hehad other business interests too: on arrival in London in 1762, he sharedlodgings with Carl Abel, also a German composer. They developed a partnershiprunning subscription concerts, which proved hugely well-liked until following J CBach's death in 1782, and had a stake within the Hanover Square Rooms, which theyused as being a venue for their concerts.
Johann Christian have been a pupilof his older brother Carl Philip Emmanuel, but it was the younger brother whowas the a lot more influential on a development on the concerto form, particularlywith regard to exposition themes. He always utilized a triadic main theme andmore cantabile secondary theme, suggesting points of sonata form, althoughritornello sort is still evident.
J C Bach wrote around 40 keyboardconcertos in between 1763 and 1777 (Grout 1987: 560). Midway, dating from 1770,are the Opus 7 concertos: 'Sei concerti per il cembalo o piano e forte' (sixconcertos for harpsichord or piano). The title itself is significant.Harpsichord manufacture was nonetheless on a increase from the 1770s, but theinstrument was soon to be overtaken in status by the square piano, and Bachwas the very first to use the instrument for public performance (Grout 1987: 562).Grout suggests how the E flat major concerto, no. Five in the set, hassignificant structural similarities to Mozart's K488 (Piano Concerto No. 23 inA major), with a similar combination of Baroque ritornello structure and sonataform, contrasting keys and thematic material.
While Johann Christian's jobs goessome method to realising the Classical concerto form, it was Mozart who pushed theform forward to build a precedent for concerto composition in subsequentcenturies:
Mozart's concertos are incomparable. Not even thesymphonies reveal this sort of wealth of invention, this sort of breadth and vigor ofconception, this kind of insight and resource during the working out of musical ideas.
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