Description
Das Partiturbuch Instrumental music at the Courts of 17th Century Germany 17th-century German composers of every professional level, from Capellmeister to simple musician, wrote instrumental music. Jacob Ludwig (1623-1698), scribe of the so-called Partiturbuch Ludwig, selections of which make up the repertoire heard on this record, is an example of the latter, although he does not appear to have composed himself. Ludwig was a court musician in Wolfenb??ttel and then in Gotha. In 1662, having been in Gotha for several years, he presented his Partiturbuch, a collection of contemporary instrumental music written in score, to his former Wolfenb??ttel employer, Duke August, as a birthday present. This codex draws together about a hundred instrumental compositions from all parts of Germany, providing a snap-shot picture of the pieces being performed in the courts of Middle Germany around 1660. While primarily a collection of sonatas, Ludwig's source also contains many works on ground basses, including arias and ciaconnas. Whether newly composed or from the stockpile of basses used for improvisation, composition on a ground bass belongs to the earliest forms of written instrumental music. Variations of the bass ciaccona can be heard not only in the works titled as such (Bertali, Anonymous) but also in the Sonata a 2 by Adam Drese. Nathanael Schnittelbach's Ciaconna for violin runs through 66 variations over the descending tetrachord known as passacaglia before ending with a coda, and this same bass, while in a different mode, is found in the central section of Bertali's Sonata a 4. The Samuel Capricornus piece is a ground on a newly composed bass just as Johann Heinrich Schmelzer's Sonata variata. A free treatment of the bergamasca forms the final section of Johann Michael Nicolai's Sonata a 2 for violin and bassoon. The selections on this recording reflect the make-up of the entire Partiturbuch with composers from the most important regions of German musical culture: the imperial Viennese court in the south, the Hanseatic cities of the north, and the many small ducal courts throughout Middle Germany, Thuringia in particular, where Ludwig himself was at home. After the Thirty Years' War the Thuringian courts invested more and more money into those things that reflected the glory of the ruler, including new palaces and expensive musical establishments at court. Adam Drese (ca. 1620-1701), Capellmeister in Weimar, entered his position at court directly after the war, during which he had studied in Warsaw with Marco Scacchi. Duke Wilhelm IV of Saxe-Weimar sent him on a number of trips to important European courts enabling him to observe the practices of the most eminent music-making of his time. Today Drese is best-known as a composer of hymn-tunes. He became a Pietist at the end of his life while in Arnstadt, where he even burned all of his operas in response to his beliefs. Johann Michael Nicolai (1629-1685) started his career in Thuringia at
