Chaconne In G Minor
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The Chaconne in G minor is a
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
composition for
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
and continuo, traditionally attributed to the Italian composer
Tomaso Antonio Vitali Tomaso Antonio Vitali (7 March 1663 – 9 May 1745) was an Italian composer and violinist of the mid to late Baroque music, Baroque era. The eldest son of Giovanni Battista Vitali, he is chiefly known for a Chaconne in G minor for violin and Fig ...
. A
Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
manuscript that may have been transcribed in the early 18th century is the earliest known version of the
chaconne A chaconne ( , ; ; ; earlier English: chacony) is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for Variation (music), variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass ...
, but it was not published until 1867 when
Ferdinand David Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...
arranged it for violin and piano. The origin of its composition has been debated, with some musicologists hypothesizing that the work is a
musical hoax A musical hoax (also musical forgery and musical mystification) is a piece of music composed by an individual who intentionally misattributes it to someone else. Ascribed to historical figures * Henri Casadesus ** Viola Concerto in B minor by " ...
composed by David rather than Vitali.
Léopold Charlier Léopold Charlier (November 8, 1867 – July 23, 1936) was a Belgian violinist and music teacher. Biography Léopold Charlier graduated from the Liège Conservatory (1888) in the class of Rodolphe Massart, nephew of the well-known Belgian vio ...
made significant alterations to the chaconne in the early 20th century, transforming it into a virtuosic, Romantic-style showpiece. It has been arranged by numerous other composers, including
Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...
, who used it as the basis for his work ''Il Vitalino raddoppiato'' (1977). Differing somewhat from the major archetypes of ground bass variations, the chaconne features a descending
tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...
in the continuo part, the lowest voice (this bass-line pattern is traditionally associated with lament and figured, at a time, more prominently in the
passacaglia The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is typically based on a bass- ostinato and written in triple metre. Origin Th ...
), above which the violin part presents increasingly complex variations on the original theme. There are several abrupt changes in the key between variations, atypical of other chaconnes from the Baroque era. Some suggest that this characteristic, along with the observation that the chaconne is dissimilar to Vitali's other surviving compositions, is indicative of a different composer.
Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...
began his American debut recital at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
in 1917 with the chaconne and regularly performed it as part of his concert repertoire for the next four decades.


Background

The earliest known version of the chaconne is a manuscript that may have been transcribed in the early 18th century. Various sources have identified the manuscript's
copyist A copyist is a person who makes duplications of the same thing. The modern use of the term is mainly confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript. However, the ...
as Johann Jacob Lindner or Johann Gottfried Grundig, both of whom worked at the Dresden court. The manuscript is located at the
Saxon State and University Library Dresden The Saxon State and University Library Dresden (full name in ), abbreviated SLUB Dresden, is located in Dresden, Germany. It is both the regional library () for the Federal Republic of Germany, German State of Saxony as well as the academic libr ...
.


Composition and publication

The words "Parte del Tomaso Vitalino" are written on the first page of the Dresden manuscript. There is no known musician named Tomaso Vitalino; instead, the name is thought to refer to
Tomaso Antonio Vitali Tomaso Antonio Vitali (7 March 1663 – 9 May 1745) was an Italian composer and violinist of the mid to late Baroque music, Baroque era. The eldest son of Giovanni Battista Vitali, he is chiefly known for a Chaconne in G minor for violin and Fig ...
(1663–1745), a Baroque composer and violinist from Modena, Italy. He was the son of the composer
Giovanni Battista Vitali Giovanni Battista Vitali (18 February 1632 – 12 October 1692) was an Italian composer and violone player. Life and career Vitali was born in Bologna and spent all of his life in the Emilian region, moving to Modena in 1674. His teacher in his ...
and is otherwise known for writing
trio sonata The trio sonata is a genre, typically consisting of several movements, with two melody instruments and basso continuo. It originated in the early 17th century and was a favorite chamber ensemble combination in the Baroque era. Basic structure T ...
s and other chamber music. "Vitalino", containing the
diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
suffix "-ino", may have been an additional reference to the younger Vitali instead of his father. Print editions of the chaconne have designated Vitali as the composer, and it is best known of the works attributed to him. The chaconne was first published in 1867 by the German musician
Ferdinand David Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...
in the second volume of his ''Die hohe Schule des Violinspiels'', a collection of 18th-century compositions for violin. David gave the composition its "Chaconne" title and substituted the continuo accompaniment with a piano part. He also embellished the violin part with advanced techniques, adding
octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...
s,
double stop In music, a double stop is the technique of playing two notes simultaneously on a stringed instrument such as a violin, a viola, a cello, or a double bass. On instruments such as the Hardanger fiddle it is common and often employed. In performin ...
s, and more dramatic changes in dynamics. Other edited versions of the Dresden manuscript were published by
Bärenreiter Bärenreiter (Bärenreiter-Verlag) is a German classical music publishing house based in Kassel. The firm was founded by Karl Vötterle (1903–1975) in Augsburg in 1923, and moved to Kassel in 1927, where it still has its headquarters; it ...
in 1966 and
Casa Ricordi Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily European classical music, classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian com ...
in 1978. Music scholars have debated the origins of the chaconne's composition. In 1964, the German musicologist
Hermann Keller Hermann Keller (20 November 1885 – 17 August 1967) was a German Protestant church musician and musicologist. Life Born in Stuttgart the son of an architect, he followed his father's profession by also studying architecture in Stuttgart and Mun ...
published an analysis in ''
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik The New Journal of Music (, and abbreviated to NZM) is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, Julius Knorr and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appe ...
'' casting doubt on the idea that Vitali was the composer. He wrote that he had consulted with John G. Suess, who authored Vitali's entry in ''
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (''MGG''; "Music in the Past and Present") is a German music encyclopedia. It is among the world's most comprehensive encyclopedias of music history and musicology, on account of its scope, content, wealth ...
''; they hypothesized that the chaconne was a
musical hoax A musical hoax (also musical forgery and musical mystification) is a piece of music composed by an individual who intentionally misattributes it to someone else. Ascribed to historical figures * Henri Casadesus ** Viola Concerto in B minor by " ...
composed by David, comparing it to similar hoaxes by
Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing, with marked por ...
. Keller suggested that David modeled the composition after the chaconne in
Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...
's famous Partita in D minor for violin. Others have questioned its composition due to its numerous
modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...
s, uncharacteristic of other Baroque pieces, as well as the dissimilarity between the chaconne and other works known to have been composed by Vitali. Wolfgang Reich, writing for ''
Die Musikforschung ''Die Musikforschung'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of musicology which since 1948 is published on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung by Bärenreiter. The editors-in-chief are Fabian Kolb ( Frankfurt University of Musi ...
'', proposed changing the piece's nickname from the "Vitali Chaconne" to the "Dresden Chaconne". However, Marc Pincherle argued that the Dresden manuscript was convincing evidence that the chaconne was composed in the mid-18th century and not by David.


Other arrangements

The Belgian violinist and music teacher
Léopold Charlier Léopold Charlier (November 8, 1867 – July 23, 1936) was a Belgian violinist and music teacher. Biography Léopold Charlier graduated from the Liège Conservatory (1888) in the class of Rodolphe Massart, nephew of the well-known Belgian vio ...
wrote an arrangement of the chaconne for violin and piano that was published by
Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel () is a German Music publisher, music publishing house. Founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, it is the world's oldest music publisher. Overview The catalogue contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works ...
in 1911. He made significant edits to the piece, including rearranging the variations, removing some of them, and adding even more embellishments to the violin part. Charlier's arrangement has been characterised as a Romantic version of the chaconne, with Robert Maxham of ''
Fanfare A fanfare (or fanfarade or flourish) is a short musical flourish which is typically played by trumpets (including fanfare trumpets), French horns or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion. It is a "brief improvised introdu ...
'' describing it as "a highly personal Romantic arrangement" and Paul Hume calling it "one of music's famous cases of lily-gilding". It is the version most commonly performed in concert and most editions of the chaconne that have been published since, including ones by
Leopold Auer Leopold von Auer (; June 7, 1845July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers. Early life and career Auer was born in ...
,
Zino Francescatti René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti (9 August 1902 – 17 September 1991) was a French virtuoso violinist, renowned for his lyrical playing style. Career René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti was born in Marseille, to a musical family. Both parents wer ...
and
Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions ra ...
, are based on Charlier's arrangement. ''Il Vitalino raddoppiato'' is a work for violin and
chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...
, written by the German composer
Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...
and published in 1977. It is an expansion on the chaconne, presented as a
theme and variations In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these. Variation is often contrasted with mu ...
, and has been characterised as a "chaconne on a chaconne". While ''Il Vitalino raddoppiato'' begins in a similar style to the original chaconne, it incorporates more modern and experimental sounds in the last third of the piece, including deconstructed harmonies and a "hallucinatory
cadenza In music, a cadenza, (from , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist(s), usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display ...
". It received praise from music critics for its style and interpretation of the chaconne; Samuel Lipman presented it as a "serious and even profound" example of the deconstruction of a classical composition, and Andrew Clements of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' described it as " metimes acerbic, sometimes achingly beautiful". However, John von Rhein, in a review for the ''
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'', wrote that the composition's half-hour duration "seemed excessive". In 1899, Breitkopf & Härtel published a version of David's edition for viola and piano, arranged by . The Italian-American cellist later arranged the chaconne for cello and piano. His performance of the arrangement at a 1959 recital was praised by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' as having "added dignity to the old showpiece".


Music

A chaconne is characterised by a set of variations on a repeated harmonic progression, typically in a
minor key In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in Western classical music, jazz music, art music, and pop music. A particular key features a '' tonic (main) note'' and it ...
and
triple metre Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 ( compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with , a ...
. Like many early Baroque chaconnes, the Chaconne in G minor features a descending
tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...
, beginning with a four-note segment of the
G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. The G natural minor scale is: Changes n ...
scale. This bass line is repeated over fifty times while the violin part goes into increasingly complicated variations on the original theme. Though the composition is in the key of G minor, the Dresden manuscript includes only one flat in the
key signature In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the cl ...
, while the E notes are manually indicated throughout, as was common in music manuscripts from the 18th century. The violin part changes keys suddenly between variations on several occasions, uncharacteristic of chaconnes from the Baroque era. The chaconne form is closely related to the
passacaglia The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is typically based on a bass- ostinato and written in triple metre. Origin Th ...
, another musical form that was commonly employed during the Baroque era. A passacaglia also consists of a set of related variations, but with the variations sharing a recurring melody in the bass line, rather than a shared harmonic series for a chaconne. While the Chaconne in G minor received its "chaconne" label from its first publication in 1867, some musicologists have suggested that it would more accurately be described as a passacaglia, due to its repeated bass line.


Notable performances

Charlier's arrangement of the chaconne was the first piece of
Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...
's 1917 American debut at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
, accompanied by Frank L. Sealey on the
organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...
. His performance was praised by music critics: Pitts Sanborn wrote that Heifetz played the chaconne "grandly, nobly", and Paul Morris of the ''
New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...
'' called it a "vital performance". Heifetz continued to perform the chaconne, along with other pieces from his debut, throughout his career. According to the musicologist Dario Sarlo, he performed the chaconne 253 times between 1917 and 1956, after which he focused more on chamber music. In 1929, he opened 12 out of 29 recitals with the chaconne. In 1950, Heifetz recorded the Charlier–Auer edition with the organist Richard Ellsasser; the recording was described in ''Fanfare'' as "transcendental virtuosity and soaring nobility of style". Other notable violinists who have recorded the chaconne are
Zino Francescatti René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti (9 August 1902 – 17 September 1991) was a French virtuoso violinist, renowned for his lyrical playing style. Career René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti was born in Marseille, to a musical family. Both parents wer ...
,
Sarah Chang Sarah Chang (; born Young Joo Chang; December 10, 1980) is a Korean American classical violinist. Recognized as a child prodigy, she first played as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1989. She enrolled ...
,
Nathan Milstein Nathan Mironovich Milstein ( – December 21, 1992) was a Russian and American virtuoso violinist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for wo ...
,
David Oistrakh David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (; – 24 October 1974) was a Soviet Russian violinist, List of violists, violist, and Conducting, conductor. He was also Professor at the Moscow Conservatory, People's Artist of the USSR (1953), and Laureate of the ...
,
Ray Chen Ray Chen (; born 6 March 1989) is a Taiwanese Australians, Taiwanese-Australian violinist. He was the winner of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists, 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the Quee ...
, and
Henryk Szeryng Henryk Bolesław Szeryng (usually pronounced ''HEN-r-ik SHEH-r-in-g'') (22 September 19183 March 1988) was a Polish- Mexican violinist. Early years He was born in Warsaw, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy Jewish family. The surname ...
.


See also

*
List of 18th-century chaconnes This is a list of 18th-century chaconnes. Included are all pieces of 18th-century music, or clearly marked off sections of pieces, labeled "chaconne" (or some variant of that word) by their composers, that have been found by contributors to this a ...


References


External links

* {{IMSLP, work=Chaconne in G minor (Vitali, Tomaso Antonio)
Chaconne in G minor
1950 recording by
Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...
(violin) and Richard Ellsasser (organ) Baroque compositions Compositions for violin Compositions in G minor Variations