Hola amigos,
It has been quiet in this list for some weeks now, but
I am sure the enthusiasm is still out there
As to me, I have been working sporadically (when my
job and family are not in the way, grrr
) on the
Philippo Martino Trios (see below) and found out
something interesting about this music in the so
called Salzburg Lautencodex MIII-25, more precisely in
the Sonata 39 in B-major, which has no title on the
score but is described in the Index as
XXXIX Liuto Violino Basso
Authore Christ:
This sonata consists of 4 movements named
Entrée (B-major), Ballo (g-minor), Cicill. (B-major)
and Menuet (B-major)
When I first played this pieces, I immediately
recognized them to be works by Philippo Martino!
(To be fair, since this Salzburg source consists
mostly of chamber music, of which only the lute parts
have survived, [apart from some interesting music by
Weiss and Lauffensteiner that is real solo music with
some added parts] this is something only for extreme
enthusiasts ,-)
We do not know much about Martino, but at least he put
into print some very good works. Quoted from P.K.
Farstad, German Galant Lute Music in the 18th Century,
page 455:
Trio VI, published by Johann Christian Leopold in
Augsburg around 1730 1733,
for violin or flute, lute (13-course lute in French
tablature) and continuo).
III. con Liuto, Flauto traversiere et Fondamento
III. con Liuto, Violino et Fondamento
Libraries: Augsburg; Bremen; Brüssel CR; Schwerin;
Uppsala.
Following Neemann, this trios show originality, and
differ from chamber music works of other contemporary
lute composers.
(I should also note that on title page of this work
one reads componirt [sic!] von Philippo Martino,
thus claiming this to be his compositions.)
& Tim Crawford, Baroque Lute Archives 1999:
Very little is known about Philippo Martino, and it
is all in the old
article by Hans Neemann that Thomas [Schall] mentioned
('Philip Martin, ein
vergessener Lautenist', Zeitschrift fuer
Musikwissenschaft (1926), 545-565).
His book of chamber music ('Trio VI'), published at
Augsburg around 1732
contains some fine trios for violin (3) or flute (3),
lute and
basso/cello/continuo/violone/Fondamento (each piece
seems to have a different
name for this part!). There is a beautiful (proof?)
copy in the Augsburg
library and someone should do a facsimile of the
collection.
There is at least one other contemporary Philippo
Martino / Philip Martin
who published a book of cello music (this has appeared
in facsimile/modern
edition), but it seems unlikely to be the same
person.
In detail:
Trio I A-major: Poco Vivace, Siciliana,
Menuet+Trio, Allegretto
Trio II g-minor: Entreé, Ballo, Siciliana arioso,
Menuet+Trio
Trio III c-minor: Andante, Aria adagio, Menuet+Trio,
Allegro
Trio IV B-major. Capricio, Scherzo, Menuet+Trio,
Arietta
Trio V a-minor: Andante, Vivace, Menuet+Trio,
Arietta
Trio VI g-minor: Allemande, Siciliana, Menuet I,
Menuet II, Arioso
Now back to the Salzburg Sonata 39, were we find the
following pieces:
1.Entrée (B-major), is the first movement from the
MartinoTrio IV with the original Title Capricio.
2.Ballo (g-minor), is the second movement from Trio II
in g-minor.
3.Cicill. (B-major), is the second movement from Trio
I in A-major with the original title Siciliana and
transposed from A-major to B-major.
4.Menuet (B-major), is the third movement from Trio I
in A-major, transposed from A-major to B-major,
without the following Trio.
There are only small differences between the pieces
from Salzburg (for 11-course lute) and the printed
version (extensive use of courses 12 & 13), but it
strongly looks as if the Salzburg versions are
earlier. Perhaps someone will find this sufficiently
interesting to follow up.
This pieces are listed in the literature under the
authorship of Christ (Meyer III/1, Farstad, Amos).
>From Ch.N. Amos, Lute Practice and Lutenists in
Germany between 1500 and 1750, page 156: Christ,
Johann Adolf (b.1685 d. 1746 in Vienna), trombone
player and cornettist at the Hofkapelle in Vienna.
Well, as I see it, this is a curios mix-up, but
perhaps (most probably
) this pieces have evolved
through time and circulated among friends who
accommodated them to their taste, before Martino found
them ripe to be published in a definitive version.
I have made midi sequences of more than half of his
printed pieces now and it is miraculous: almost zero
errors in the Martino scores, so extreme care has been
taken in his edition.
Now (finally!) the interesting part:
This would be a -very- (*very* is patented by TC, so I
better do not use it :-) dry discussion without
actually hearing the music, so I have put the midi
files of the Martino Trios on the following page:
www.savefile.com/projects/153734
first select a file and then, on the next, page click
on (download the file now). I would recomend open them
with the free program Anvil Studio.
Hope you enjoy it (and that sometime someone gets the
kick to make a real CD of this music
)!
I use the midi files to play the lute along with the
computer and it is very satisfying for practice
purposes. The lute parts are at a medium difficulty
level. Well, so much for now.
Disclaimer: I am an amateur, not a musicologist,
living in Lima without any access whatsoever to music
libraries, etc. Should someone else have found out
this things before (I would be surprised if Neemann
had not seen this after his intensive involvement with
the Ms Salzburg and the Martino print
), published or
communicated, well, great, I really do not know!
I do this for fun; this is an amateur discussion forum
that will continue if you folks post something once in
a while too, even at the risk of getting criticized by
the real pros, as has happened to me before. Never
mind, can live with that ;-)
Parturiunt montes, nascentur ridiculus mus.
Special greetings to Peter, Markus, Mike, Thomas &
Roman!
Saludos cordiales,
Ralf Bachmann
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