Musicians and composers
in the 17th and 18th centuries travelled
a lot, either to look for a job or at
the invitation of monarchs, princes
or bishops, who wanted to make use of
their talents.
Georg Muffat is an
example of a composer who didn't spent
much time at any one place. In a way
one could call him a truly 'European'
composer. He was born in the duchy of
Savoy, which is now a part of France.
But the roots of his family were in
Scotland; his ancestors settled in the
Alps in the early 17th century. Muffat
went to Paris to study with Lully. His
keyboard skills must have been developed
there too, but it is not known who his
teacher was. After his return to Alsace
he was appointed organist of the Jesuit
monastery in Molsheim. In 1674 Muffat
was in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt,
then went to Vienna. In 1677 he spent
some time in Prague, and in 1678 he
acted as organist and chamber musician
at the court of prince-archbishop Max
Gandolf in Salzburg. In about 1680 he
was sent to Rome, to study with Bernardo
Pasquini. Here he became acquainted
with Arcangelo Corelli, with whose orchestra
he performed some of his own orchestral
music. In 1690, after the death of Max
Gandolf, Muffat went to Passau, where
he became Kapellmeister to prince-bishop
Johann Philipp von Lamberg.
Nowadays Muffat is
mainly known for his orchestral music.
In this he mingles the French and the
Italian styles, which he had become
thoroughly familiar with. As a composer
of keyboard music his fame is exclusively
based on the 'Apparatus-musico organisticus',
a collection of toccatas for organ and
a passacaglia, a ciaccona and variations
for keyboard without pedal. In the article
on Muffat in New Grove his other keyboard
works aren't even mentioned. This disc
is therefore breaking new ground by
presenting music never recorded before.
The importance of this
recording isn't just that it throws
light on a side of Muffat which wasn't
widely known, but also that it corrects
our picture of music history. In his
liner notes Siegbert Rampe mentions
three aspects of Muffat's keyboard partitas
which throw new light on the development
of keyboard music around 1700.
Considering the likely
date of composition of these pieces
- before 1690 - it is Muffat, rather
than Couperin or Bach, who was the first
to include 'character pieces' in his
keyboard works, like 'burlesca' (first
Partita in F) and 'Les Pepheuses' (second
Partita in F). And Couperin's Ordres
weren't the first which went beyond
the traditional sequence of dances:
allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue.
Before him Muffat included dances like
ballet (first Partita in F) and gavotte
(Partita in C) in his Partitas. And,
finally, whereas the mixture of French
and Italian elements in the keyboard
music is usually ascribed to Couperin
and Bach, Muffat preceded them in his
keyboard works.
Siegbert Rampe has
carefully studied Muffat's own notes
in the prefaces of his publications
in regard to performing practice. These
include the use of the French 'notes
inégales' and French ornaments.
"I have attempted to bring out Muffat's
intentions by performing the repetitions
of movements as improvised doubles,
introducing both French and Italian
elements in accordance with contemporary
practice. I have also improvised the
clearly missing Prelude to the Partita
in C major".
This results in a very
interesting and often exciting recording.
I have only one reservation. In the
prefaces of some of his publications
Muffat asks the performer "to suggest
the dance measure properly, so that
everyone knows at once what kind of
piece it is and so to speak unexpectedly
feels the movement of the dance in both
mind and foot." I feel the ornamentation
and the almost improvisatory manner
of playing sometimes obscure the dance
rhythms.
Rampe uses two different
instruments, a harpsichord and a clavichord.
The harpsichord played here is a very
peculiar instrument, which has also
been used by Franz Raml in his recording
of Samuel Scheidt's Tabulatura Nova
I (also on MDG). The Bavarian National
Museum in Munich owns a harpsichord
by an unknown builder from South Germany
or Austria, dating from the first half
of the 17th century. This instrument,
the only surviving of its kind, is in
unplayable condition, but a reconstruction
was commissioned by the museum, and
made by Bernhard von Tucher. What makes
this single-manual instrument unique
is that it has no fewer than 6 registers:
Flöte, Prinzipal I, Prinzipal II,
Nasal, Zunge and Lautenzug. It is tuned
in meantone temperament and its pitch
is a=465 Hz, which was what Muffat preferred.
The last item is played
on the clavichord, which was a very
common instrument, being considerably
cheaper than the harpsichord. The pitch
of the clavichord in this recording
is a=440 Hz.
The problem with the
use of a harpsichord and a clavichord
in one recording is the difference in
volume between the two. The ear needs
time to adapt to the much softer sound
of the clavichord. Therefore, in order
to fully appreciate the performance
on the clavichord, the listener is well
advised to listen to these parts of
this disc in a separate session.
The attraction of this
disc goes far beyond its importance
in regard to music history. Muffat's
Partitas presented here for the first
time are just excellent music, well
worth listening to. And the performance
by Siegbert Rampe does them full justice.
Johan van Veen
Siegbert Rampe, harpsichord (Bernhard von
Tucher, 2002, after anonymous instrument, Bavaria/Austria,
c.1650), clavichord (*) (Jörg Gobeli, 2000,
after anonymous South-German instrument, c.1670)
