Is this for real? The funniest baroque music I've ever heard:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albrechtsberger-Concertos-Jews-Harp-Mandora/dp/B
05975/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8
It's for real. In 2006 I had the pleasure of playing one of
Albrechtsberger's concerto's for Jew's harp and Mandora. this is what I
wrote for our news letter:
TOINK!
In many concerts I play, my lute is the focal point of attraction. There are
many people who have never seen the instrument before and they are curious
for its construction, sound and history. Not so last month when I played in
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger’s concert for two violins, Jew’s harp, mandora
and bass. A Jew’s harp for me was an instrument of folk music, of the flower
power movement of the 1960’s and a cheap and simple children’s toy, but not
an instrument for classical music. I was wrong. Albrechtsberger (1736 -
1809) went to school with Joseph Haydn’s brother Michael, was a friend of
Mozart and a teacher of Beethoven. He worked as organist in various churches
and abbeys before he was appointed at the imperial court in Vienna. In 1791
he succeeded Mozart as assistant Kapellmeister in St Stephen’s Cathedral in
Vienna, and eventually became Kapellmeister in 1793.
In 1750 Johann Heinrich Hörmann wrote a Partita in C for Jew’s harp, two
recorders, four violins and continuo. It was the first work featuring the
instrument, which until then had been regarded as just another folk
instrument. Soon after that the Jew’s harp gained popularity in the salons
of Europe and it had a few virtuoso players. One of these was the
Benedictine monk Bruno Glatzl, who lived in the abbey where Albrechtsberger
was working at that time. Another monk there played the mandora, so that is
why Albrechtsberger wrote his concerto for Jew’s harp and mandora.
A mandora, also known as calchedon or colachon, is an 18th century German
lute with 6 to 8 courses (of sometimes single strings) and 10 frets on the
neck. The tuning of the first 6 courses is usually d’-a-f-c-G-D, but
Albrechtsberger’s music requires a mandora tuned a tone higher to e’-b-g-d-A-E
(just like a guitar), with courses 7 and 8 tuned to D and C. Although they
look alike at first glance, the construction was different from that of a
baroque lute, allowing higher tension strings for greater volume, because a
mandora was specifically designed for continuo playing. The surviving solo
music is much simpler than that for baroque lute.
Anyone who has ever heard, or even played, a Jew’s harp will know it’s a
drone instrument. The player holds the instrument against his teeth and
plucks a small metal spring that will resonate at one tone. By breathing in
or out and by changing the cavity of his mouth he can play the harmonics on
this tone. For even a slightly complicated melody he needs more than one Jew’s
harp, tuned on another note than the first one. Albrechtsberger’s concerto
requires four harps. The player holds these in his two hands and has to
switch between them quite rapidly. Once you are used to the very low volume
of the instrument, much softer than a lute, you will be able to hear
distinctions in dynamics and tone colour that make it a surprisingly
sensitive instrument, able of conveying delicate feelings in music. For me
it was quite a surprise, so at the market, the concert was part of a
three-day international Jew’s harp festival with many concerts, lectures and
a market, I bought a harp myself. Here I also found an Ainu mukkuri, the Jew’s
harp of the indigenous people of Japan’s northern island Hokkaido. It was
sold by a group of Japanese who had come all the way to Holland just for
this festival! So, apart from practicing my Jew’s harp, I am now also
playing the mukkuri.
David van Ooijen
David van Ooijen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.davidvanooijen.nl
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