Pastoral (instrumental music)

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The pastoral or pastorella (from Latin pastor , or Italian pastore : "shepherd") is a genre of instrumental music , especially in the baroque era . A distinction can be made between pastoral music in the narrower sense, which is typical Christmas music, and other types of pastoral music in a broader sense, including pastoral dances.

The pastoral can be an independent composition, but it can also appear as part of a composition with several movements . It is usually in three time (e.g. 12/8 time) and in major ; the rhythm is often reminiscent of a Siciliana . Typical is a moderate to calm tempo and above all a lovely, swaying but cheerful character; sometimes pieces appear at a happy tempo. Organ points , i.e. long bass tones, often (but not always or not always consistently) allude to the drone bass of the shepherd's instruments bagpipes or hurdy-gurdy . There are pastorals for organ or for string instruments , sometimes typical shepherd instruments such as shawms , oboes or recorders are used. Even after 1800 the pastoral as a genre was sometimes the subject of various instrumental works, especially in pastoral symphonies .

Christmas pastoral

The Christmas pastoral reminds of the shepherd music for the birth of Christ, who is also referred to as the Good Shepherd . It probably has its origin in the Christmas music-making of the Pifferari , Italian shepherds who played music in front of images of the Madonna in Rome at Christmas time . The Italian conductor Nicolo Pasquali, who worked in England in the middle of the 18th century, explained in connection with the pastoral of Arcangelo Corelli's Christmas concert: “... at Christmas every family in Italy would have a manger with the baby Jesus, and on this happy day they left Boys and shepherds with their bagpipes from house to house, introduced themselves to the child and played funny shepherd's tunes. "

Organ works

An early example from organ music is Girolamo Frescobaldi Capriccio Pastorale in G from the 3rd edition of his first toccaten book from 1637. Several Italian organ pastorals go back to this model: The long four-part pastorale by Bernardo Storace in D (Venice 1664) is part of it their chiseled and repetitive figurations are evidently a very precise imitation of real Italian bagpipe music; the four parts merge directly into one another and are in both even (C) and odd time signatures (3/2, 6/4). Bernardo Pasquini's Introduzione e Pastorale in G major (in 3/4) has only a few (written out) passages with drones. Domenico Zipoli's three-movement pastoral in C major (op. 1, Rome 1716) with harmonious and melodically piquant deviations from the minor key in the last part is known and loved . Even Johann Sebastian Bach's Pastorale (or Pastorella ) in F major BWV 590 is a multi-movement work. Above all, the first movement corresponds to the pastoral in the narrower sense with its deep drone in the pedal and its 12/8 time, the second movement leads to C major (in C time and also with drone, but not in the pedal), the third movement after C minor (in 3/8), the last is a cheerful fugal giga (in 6/8). The work as a whole resembles some examples of contemporary concert literature in its multiple movements.

Concert works

  • Perhaps the most famous pastoral was and is the final movement (in G major) of Arcangelo Corelli's Concerto grosso Op. 6 No. 8 in G minor with the subtitle fatto per la notte di Natale ("Made for Christmas Eve"), published in Amsterdam in 1714.
  • Francesco Manfredini Concerto op. 3 No. 12 in C major with the subtitle Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale (“Pastorale for the most holy Christmas”; published in Bologna 1718). There are only occasional drone passages in the first and third movements, but the first movement has the typical swaying character; the third is an allegro and corresponds to a happy shepherd's dance.
  • The seven-movement Concerto pastorale in F major for 2 recorders, strings and basso continuo by Johann Christoph Pez , and especially the first movement Pastorale (Adagio, in 3/2 time) and the fourth movement, which consists of a fast aria ( Presto, in 4/4 time) and another slow pastoral (Adagio, in 3/2 time).
  • The Pastorale per la Notte della Nativitate Christi (“Pastorale for the night of the birth of Christ”) by Johann David Heinichen .
  • The Pifa (12th movement) in the oratorio Messias (1742) by Georg Friedrich Händel .
  • Bach's instrumental introduction to part 2 of the Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 with a lovely instrumentation of transverse flutes , oboes damore and tenor oboes is a pastoral par excellence, especially since this movement introduces the events of the shepherds on the night of the birth of Christ; Albert Schweitzer saw in this sentence the shepherds making music with the angels.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Christmas oratorios were also sometimes referred to as pastorella or pastorale , without a typical instrumental pastorale having to appear in these works (e.g. Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Pastorale sur la naissance de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (“ Pastoral on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ ”), H. 482 and H. 483 (1682–1684)).

Shepherd dances and country music

Op the final movement of the spring concert. 8 no. 1 in E Major from the four seasons by Antonio Vivaldi is designated Danza pastoral ( "Hirtentanz"). It is, however, an artfully stylized shepherd's dance that takes over some elements such as the drone tones and the triplet rhythm from the Christmas pastoral; the tempo is allegro , and the virtuoso solos for the violin are rather untypical for a pastoral (but of course not for a solo concert). Vivaldi himself wrote in a handwritten sonnet about this concert: "... to the festive sound of the peasant bagpipes / nymphs and shepherds dance under their beloved canopy, / since spring appears shiny".

Shepherd dances were known before. They occur, for example, in lute suites of the 17th century, then called Pastorella and Chorea pastorum , and occasionally replace the Sarabande . A similar dance form is the paisanne or paysane , but it denotes a rural or peasant dance. Even Louis Couperin left a Pastourelle in D minor in 3/4 (harpsichord), which has a slightly different, more painful because of the character key, than all previous examples; there is also no drone, and what is striking about this piece is a three-bar structure, in contrast to the usual four- or eight-bar structure in most dance forms.

A pastorella is also among the numerous dances that Johann Heinrich Schmelzer wrote for the imperial court in Vienna. As an unusual hybrid, Bernardo Storace published a long passagli in 1664 , which modulates from D major via A and E to B minor, and contains three sections in modo pastorale ("in the style of pastorale"); in these, the normal descending ostinato bass of the passagli is exchanged for a quieter bordoon-like pastoral bass that goes over the respective tonic, subdominant and dominant.

The second movement from Johann David Heinichen's Concerto in C major (Seibel 211) is also referred to as Pastorell . With strings and oboes he faithfully imitates a rural, noisy bagpipe music.

There is also a close relationship between the Pastorale or the Pastorella and the purely secular French musette of the 18th century.

Other musical works in the pastoral style

With some pastorals, a clear classification into the categories mentioned so far is difficult or not possible. B. for Domenico Scarlatti's Pastoralen K 415 in D major and K 513 in C major. K 415 is an Allegro in 12/8 time completely without a drone, and it is not clear whether it is intended for organ or harpsichord, since its range could also be played on organ. Because of its ambitus up to the low GG in the bass, K 513 is relatively clear for harpsichord: It consists of three merging parts with the tempo markings Moderato (12/8) - Molto allegro (12/8) - Presto (3/8). So the pace is getting faster and happier. The first two tempos have a typical pastoral character, drone passages (partly with a fifth) occur mainly in the molto allegro.

The Pastorale as an instrumental piece can not be confused with the eponymous opera genre of the 17th and 18th century, from the idyll pean pastoral development of spoken theater. What connects both musical terms in terms of content, however, is the development of a special pastoral sound characteristic, both in pure instrumental music and in pastoral music theater or a pastoral cantata . The latter two are shorter operas or other multi-movement compositions with singing, with or without drama. Mozart's Singspiel Bastien and Bastienne , which is about a shepherd couple, belongs to this genre in terms of content. This piece contains string music (without a name) that has characteristic pastoral stylistic features: At the first appearance of the "village fortune teller " Colas , the preceding string piece in 6/8 time over a permanent drone bass unmistakably announces him as a (good) shepherd, who helps the two lovers get back on their feet again.

In the post-Baroque period, too, some works tie in with the tradition of instrumental pastoral music. Some examples are the pastoral from the 12 organ pieces op. 59 by Max Reger and a pastoral for violin and organ by Sigfrid Karg-Elert (op. 48b, second movement).

Pastoral Symphony

The pastoral symphony is a special case . The first example is Le portrait musical de la nature, ou Grande symphonie [Pastoralsymphonie] (Speyer, 1785) by Justin Heinrich Knecht , which at the same time, with its musical program, is considered to be the source of ideas for Ludwig van Beethoven's 6th Symphony , which is based on idyllic rural motifs alludes to and is therefore also called pastoral . In contrast to the traditional pastoral of the Baroque, Beethoven was primarily concerned with the musical description of a poetic-romantic experience of nature with imitations of birdsong, the splashing of a brook, a thunderstorm and the like. Ä .; he was inspired by Joseph Haydn's late oratorios The Creation and The Seasons . In the third movement (Allegro) of his Pastorale, Beethoven depicts a rustic peasant dance, it is referred to as "Merry Gathering of Country People". The last movement “Shepherd's Chants ...” takes over the triplet meter from the traditional pastoral. Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony had several successors, namely Symphony No. 7 Pastoral by Alexander Glazunov , the Third Symphony A Pastoral Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the Second Symphony A Pastoral Symphony by Alan Rawsthorne . In Bedřich Smetana's well-known clay poem The Vltava , the descriptions of nature such as the babbling of the brook at the beginning or the peasant wedding probably go back to Beethoven's pastoral .

See also

Web links

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literature

  • Jesper Christensen (translated by Ingeborg Neumann): Rome around 1700: The Concerto grosso after Corelli. Booklet text for the CD: Corelli - Concerti grossi op.6.Ensemble 415, Chiara Banchini, Jesper Christensen, published by: harmonia mundi, 1992.
  • Manfred Fechner: Booklet text for: Francesco Manfredini - 12 Concerti op.3.Les Amis de Philippe, Ludger Rémy, published by: cpo, 1999.
  • Booklet for CD: Antonio Vivaldi: Le quattro stagioni (among others) Giuliano Carmignola, Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, published by: divox antiqua.

grades

  • Louis Couperin: Pièces de Clavecin (Le Pupitre LP. 18). ed. v. Alan Curtis & François Lesure, Paris: Heugel.
  • Girolamo Frescobaldi: Toccate d'Intavolatura di Cimbalo ..., Libro Primo , Rome 1615 and 1637. New edition by Pierre Pidoux, Kassel: Bärenreiter (originally 1948).
  • Bernardo Pasquini: Opere per tastiera - Vol. I (Bologna, Archivio Prov. Di Cristo Re) , a cura di (edited by) Armando Carideo, Colledara: Andromeda Editrice, 2000/2003.
  • Bernardo Storace: Selva di Varie compositioni d'Intavolatura per Cimbalo ed Organo , Venezia 1664. New edition (facsimile) by: Studio per Editioni scelte (SPES), Firenze, 1982.
  • Domenico Zipoli: Organ and Harpsichord Works, Volume I (Organ Works). ed. v. Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini , Süddeutscher Musikverlag, Heidelberg 1959/1988.

Recording

(Only documents are listed here)

  • Johann Heinrich Schmelzer: La Margarita. Armonico Tributo Austria, Lorenz Duftschmid, published by: Arcana 1996 (CD).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This anecdote was handed down in 1785 by the English publisher Robert Bremner. See: Jesper Christensen (translated by Ingeborg Neumann): Rome around 1700: The Concerto grosso after Corelli. Booklet text for the CD: Corelli - Concerti grossi op. 6. Ensemble 415, Chiara Banchini, Jesper Christensen. Harmonia mundi, 1992, p. 29.
  2. ^ Girolamo Frescobaldi: Toccate d'Intavolatura di Cimbalo ..., Libro Primo. Rome 1615 and 1637.…, Bärenreiter, Kassel (originally 1948), pp. 92–93.
  3. ^ Bernardo Storace: Selva di Varie compositioni d'Intavolatura per Cimbalo ed Organo. Venice 1664. New edition (facsimile) by: Studio per Editioni scelte (SPES), Florence 1982, pp. 94–100.
  4. ↑ Bernardo Pasquini: Opere per tastiera - Vol. I (Bologna, Archivio Prov. Di Cristo Re) ,… Andromeda Editrice, Colledara 2000/2003, pp. 2-4. It cannot be ruled out that drone tones are partially added to the pedal, as a self-evident but not written performance practice, especially since the piece has only been handed down by hand. On the other hand, the orchestral pastorals in Manfredini's Christmas concert only have a few and relatively short drone passages.
  5. ^ Domenico Zipoli: Organ and Harpsichord Works, Volume I (Organ Works). …, Süddeutscher Musikverlag, Heidelberg 1959/1988.
  6. ↑ Manfred Fechner: Booklet text for: Francesco Manfredini - 12 Concerti op.3. Les Amis de Philippe, Ludger Rémy . CPO, 1999, p. 6 & table of contents (without page numbers).
  7. ↑ See the following CDs: Un oratorio de Noël ( In nativitatem Domini canticum H. 416 & Sur la Naissance de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ H. 482). Les Arts Florissants, William Christie . Harmonia Mundi, 1983 (HMC 905130). And: 2) Pastorale ( Pastorale sur la Naissance de NS Jésus-Christ H. 483 & In nativitatem DNJC canticum H. 414). Les Arts Florissants, William Christie. Harmonia Mundi 1982 (HMC 901082).
  8. ↑ Booklet for CD: Antonio Vivaldi, Le quattro stagioni. Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca. Divox Antiqua, p. 4 (German translation), p. 9 (Italian original).
  9. ^ Konrad Ragossnig : Handbook of the guitar and lute. Schott, Mainz 1978, ISBN 3-7957-2329-9 , p. 113.
  10. ^ Louis Couperin: Pièces de Clavecin (Le Pupitre LP. 18). .... Heugel, Paris, p. 84 (No. 52).
  11. ↑ See the CD: Johann Heinrich Schmelzer: La Margarita. Armonico Tributo Austria, Lorenz Duftschmid . Arcana, 1996.
  12. ↑ Bernardo Storace. Selva di Varie compositioni d'Intavolatura per Cimbalo ed Organo. Venice 1664. New edition (facsimile) by: Studio per Editioni scelte (SPES), Florence 1982, pp. 56–65.
  13. ^ CD Johann David Heinichen. Dresden Concerti. Musica Antiqua Cologne . Reinhard Goebel . Archive production .
  14. ^ Mozart: Bastien and Bastienne. KV 50 (46 b), Bärenreiter piano reduction, therein No. 3, D major. Total duration about 50 minutes.
  15. ^ Rudolf Kloiber: Handbook of the classical and romantic symphony . 1st edition. Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 1964, ISBN 3-7651-0017-X , p. 144 f .
  16. ↑ Wolfram Steinbeck: 6th Symphony op. 68. In: Beethoven - interpretations of his works . Laaber 1996.