20 p., Niveau 3
Abendempfindung
Ave Verum
Corpus
Laudate Dominum
Das Veilchen
“The first song Abendempfindung
composed in 1787 has an expressive melody with the text in German. Later, others
further developed the genre in which it was written, notably Schubert. The
flowing movement of quavers in the guitar part make some of the lower notes hard
to sustain, but mostly this accompaniment flows well.
Ave Verum Corpus for
solo voice soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, strings and organ was written in 1791
- the last year of Mozart's life. It was a new style of religious music, which
was plain, simple and accessible. The Latin text dates back to the Middle Ages.
It is a compact and beautiful piece with an accompaniment of chords made easier
to play by the adagio tempo. Laudate Dominum composed in 1780 is again another
well-known religious piece in Latin. This has a long introduction played by the
guitar, into which the melody is interwoven into the flowing semiquavers. Three
out of the four arias are in the key of D with a string six D tuning. The last
song, Das Veilchen (1785) is the exception set in the higher key of G, to a poem
by Goethe, it is one of Mozart's most celebrated and original works. The other
three arias are also set in a medium voice range. Part of the reason why these
songs are still so widely sung today is that the standard for the singer varies
from a modest Grade III to approximately Grade VI and above. However the
standard is higher for the guitarist who needs to be a strong player to cope
with these detailed accompaniments.
The centrepiece of the cover, which is
bordered by bold slabs of antique gold and rich brown, is a full colour
reproduction of a painting by Michel Barthélémy Olivier. It portrays a group of
affluent 18thcentury men, some holding instruments enjoying a musical afternoon,
presided over by a woman sitting at the tea table; it is titled “The English
Tea”. In the preface there is a brief outline, in French, of the social and
artistic standing of the guitar at the time these songs were written, mentioning
that Francesco Molino (1768-1847) composed variations on a theme of Mozart and
Fernando Sor (1778-1839) did the same on a theme from Mozart's opera The Magic
Flute. Mozart was a composer of undeniable genius and his style is completely
unique.He
wrote in every major genre, so why not let the guitar have its
turn?”
Sandra Hambleton Smith (Classical Guitar Magazine)
