Johann Friedrich Fasch
Sonata for 2 Oboes, Bassoon and Continuo, FWV N:G1
Year: 1730-45
Sonata in G Minor for Two Oboes, Bassoon and Basso Continuo: III. Largo | Burkhard Glaetzner · Ingo Goritzki · Thomas Reinhardt
Introduction:
In his 18 Trio Sonatas, Fasch composes in a tight style, rich in counterpoint, possessing a pleasant melodic gift and uses wind instruments with great skill, notably the oboe, the bassoon, the horn, and the baroque chalumeau, but his writing is not very modulating and quite predictable, at least for the informed listener. The trio sonata (sonata a tre) in F major cataloged FWV N:F5 dating from the 1730s, as well as the other sonata in C major for bassoon and continuo, are two very interesting works among others. The three movements of the trio sonata in F ingeniously use the two-part canon technique between flute and bassoon. The bass bow is not left out, in addition to providing the foundations of harmony, it inserts itself into the musical discourse through additional counterpoints and imitations.
Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758)
Johann Friedrich Fasch is a German composer, violinist and organist born on April 15, 1688 in Buttelstedt, near Weimar. At the age of twelve, he was accepted as a chorister in the Weissenfels court orchestra. In 1701, he entered the Saint Thomas School in Leipzig, as a student of Johann Kuhnau. Here, according to his own notes, he learned to play the harpsichord without any instruction, because he could not afford to pay for music lessons, and to compose according to the models of Telemann, of whom he then learned almost everything from these beautiful works. In 1708, the « autodidact » Fasch nevertheless founded a Collegium musicum in Leipzig. He left this city in 1711. Study trips followed, taking him from Zeitz to Gera, passing by Eisenach, Kassel and Frankfurt to Darmstadt where Fasch began to study composition with Johann Christoph Graupner and Gottfried Grünewald. Then came positions as a violinist in Bayreuth, from 1714 to 1719 as chamber clerk in Gera and in 1721 as court composer to Count Wenzel von Morzin in Lukavec, Bohemia. Johann Friedrich Fasch composed in almost all the musical genres popular at his time. He is a composer respected by all, including Johann Sebastian Bach, who copied several of his overtures. His instrumental pieces reveal an extraordinary mastery of counterpoint, always anchored in the Baroque tradition, they are however transitional works which without renouncing polyphonic writing, prefigure the musical style of the motifs of the Rococo period. Fasch’s work makes a transition between baroque and classical styles. As if to provide the traditional formal world with new content in new forms, the motifs of the old style are transformed into thematically articulated melodic sections, which anticipate the setting to music of the strings of the classical orchestra. This is evident in his chamber music, whose transparency and avoidance of continuously chained filler parts pave the way for the string quartet. Ahead of the taste of his time, Fasch uses canonical rigor while allowing the ornamentation of the melodic idea to take its course; he thus became one of the decisive pioneers of new music. His production includes no less than 12 cycles of cantatas, 16 masses, 7 psalms and a Magnificat, 96 overtures, 4 operas unfortunately lost, 19 symphonies for strings and basso continuo, 18 trio sonatas, then some 22 concertos and finally some chamber music in mixed combinations. In 1722, Fasch accepted the position of Kapellmeister (Capellmeister) in Zerbst, where he remained until the end of his days.
Lucien
Burkhard Glaetzner
Oboist and Professor renowned
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Glaetzner