DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN (October 19, 2020)
One of the most enjoyable paradoxes in all art and science is the following:
a. All discoveries and creations are made by sovereign individual minds, not committees. The Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, for example, was composed by Beethoven, and no-one else.
b. All knowledge is social: never generated in a vacuum. The great musicians and poets, for example, learned from one another, and carried each other's work forward, for the benefit of society. It is also inconceivable that Beethoven could have composed the Ninth Symphony without the poetry of Friedrich Schiller.
One institution that created positive social change through music, was the salon of Fernando Medici in the late 1600's, in Florence, Italy. It was the musical equivalent of the “Apollo Project”—a crash program to bring in new technologies that could move the world forward, rapidly. The Medici family had long been associated with patronage of great art in the area, including that of Leonardo da Vinci. They had been involved in the creation of opera, which was founded to revive the tradition of Greek drama, as a counterpole to the lightweight entertainment of the time.
Fernando II, and his son Cosimo IV's salon was the last of the great Medici efforts. Fernando's intent was a crash program to create both new instruments, and new music. Here are the many ways in which the effort bore fruit:
A. It is Fernando who employed Bartolomeo Cristofori to create a new instrument, the piano-forte, to replace the harpsichord. Cristofori succeeded. The action of the Pianoforte Is a revolutionary improvement over the harpsichord.
B. Fernando also employed the composer Ludovico Giustini to compose for the new instrument. Although it may sound a bit like a harpsichord, notice the difference in volume levels:
https://youtu.be/S1qDC1cjm4E?list=RD2gyT_30tAJE
C. They employed Nicolo Stradivari to make improvements in string instruments. In 1689, the Medicis also brought the great scientist and philosopher, Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1717) to Florence, to instruct them on his latest work in dynamics. The next year, Stradivari changed the way he constructed violins, and built his "long Strads", the ones most valued today. Might he have been influenced by Leibniz?
D. They employed the composer Archangelo Corelli to put these Strads through their paces. Corelli did exactly that in his famous "La Folia." It is a 'Theme and Variations" that tests out the capabilities of the new instrument.
E. They studied " The Music of the Spheres", including Kepler.
F. G.F. Handel remained a life-long friend of Fernando de Medici. This Sarabande from Keyboard Suite HWV 437, is also a Theme and Variations. The theme is almost identical to Corelli's. Although it is written for keyboard, its nature submits well to orchestration, as heard here.
Progress between the instruments and compositions is reciprocal. A great breakthrough came with J.S. Bach. He was keen for Italian developments, and wrote a fugue for organ which he entitled: "Fugue, based on a Theme of Corelli."
Bach was also involved in instrument design, and composed his solo works for violin and cello, when Stradivari was at the height of his career. Bach’s well-known “Chaconne”, is also a set of variations of a type, and although it didn’t quote Corelli directly, as did Handel, it invokes his "La Folia." Bach would seem to be taking advantage of the instrument's new capabilities.
So, there we have a chain of compositions (all in D minor, by the way), of an increasing power, directly linked to progress in instruments.
In the 20th century, Sergei Rachaninoff composed his “Variations on a Theme by Corelli”, also in D minor. We will let you decide
how this fits in our noble chain.