He played some of Orlando Gibbons' works, and you could mistake them as Bach's! (At least I did).
Check it out-
Glenn Gould must know how I feel about Orlando Gibbons! <3
I have remembered the first Viol consort music that Professor Andrews gave me!
It was variations on the theme of "Go from My Window" by Orlando Gibbons.
When I was looking up recordings of "Go from My window" on Youtube, I realized that I have played the theme when I first started playing Viola Da Gamba. The melody of "Go from My Window" is very simple and short.
But Orlando Gibbons' version of "Go from My window" is rather Complex.
He wrote in polyphonic texture for ensembles like a viol consort. Also it is variations based on the theme of "Go from My Window".
The composer of the theme "Go from My Window" is the most popular composer of the early music era: Anonymous.
Orlando Gibbons revived such a simple tune by Anonymus into a delicate, virtuosic piece!
So, I've done some research on Orlando Gibbons, his music, and the time period.
1. and . "Gibbons, Orlando." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11092 (accessed September 14, 2012).
John Harper and Peter Le Huray wrote this biography entry in Grove Music Dictionary. This website is "Wikipedia" of any music subject for me. When I first had to find out about who Orlando Gibbons was, I typed his name into this website and learned the basic knowledge about him.
This entry covers little bit of everything about Orlando Gibbons-his life, works, background, and etc. Orlando Gibbons was born in 1583 and died in 1625 and he was a popular composer and keyboard player in England in 17th Century. His ensemble music, such as the variations on the theme "Go from my Window", are very popular for viol consort group, although they had not been written for viols initially.
This is another informative source that has mostly facts, not reflecting much of the author's point of view.
2., et al. "Fantasia." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/40048 (accessed September 14, 2012).
After finding out that "Go from My Window" variations that Orlando Gibbons wrote is a Fantasia, I wanted to know what exactly is Fantasia. I knew what Fantasy means, but not so much in a musical sense.
So I went to my go-to website, the Grove online. And I learned that "Fantasia" is a term referring to an instrumental composition(from Renaissance Era) whose form and invention spring 'solely from the fantasy and skill of the author who created it'.
As I was reading this entry, I remembered Professor Andrews explaining what Fantasia was. She said Fantasia doesn't have forms. Period. That was a simple explanation, but I still hadn't fully understand. Now I do; Fantasias don't have forms because they are written from composer's 'fantasy'.
I would be making a safe assumption to say that I probably will not find any forms from "Go from my window" variations that Gibbons wrote.
3. Thurston Dart, "The Printed Fantasies of Orlando Gibbons", Music & Letters , 37. 4 (Oct., 1956): 342-349. Accessed September 13, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/730438.
The Author of this source is Thurston Dart. I was drawn to this source because of the first page talking about how Gibbons' work was one of the first engraved music in English. How amazing would it be to have your piece engraved and printed for the first time?!
I haven't read the whole journal yet, but the author talks about Gibbons' life and mostly the fantasies he wrote. This article is rather informative- a lot of facts, not much of author's opinions.
This source is very helpful in understanding where, when, and how Gibbons wrote the fantasias.
4.. "Renaissance." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/23192 (accessed September 14, 2012).
Orlando Gibbons was from Renaissance era who wrote Renaissance music. I better know about "Renaissance".
Lockwood does a good job summarizing the term "Renaissance". Renaissance era is from about 1430 to 1600. Renaissance literally means "Rebirth"; Renaissance was a movement attempting to restore the philosophical and artistic values of classical antiquity. We may think Renaissance is already such an old music that "rebirth" may sound wrong. For the people from Renaissance era, however, the antiquity music was their 'old music'. It is interesting to look back in history and imagine how different people from earlier period have different views from us on the same subject.
5. . "Viola da gamba." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/29446 (accessed September 14, 2012).
Last but not least, I looked up Viola da gamba to get a clear idea of what instrument it is. I personally play viol, but I always have a hard time clearly explaining what it is.
Woodfield only needed a paragraph to explain what Viola da gamba is. Viola da gamba is a 16th century bowed string instrument.Viola da gamba literally means "leg viol", which describes the way gamba is played- in between legs.
'nuff research for now!
*Excellent* work Jinny! You have done a masterful job of finding sources, and documenting them. (Also, I love the piece you chose. I listened to it last night as I was studying, and it's methodical nature helped me greatly!)
ReplyDeleteI agree with just about all of your assessments. The one thing that I would caution you on is not to form too many hard, unchanging opinions about the music before you have a chance to actually sit down with it and study it. I'm mostly referring to your comment about form. While you're probably correct in that it may not have a distinct form, there may still be formal patterns that you'll want to talk about. Or, who knows, there may be a real sort of structure to it that is overlooked. No matter what you find, even if it's formless and conforms to everything a fantasia is supposed to be, everything is valuable and can be used in your paper!
I don't have any criticisms at this time! Keep doing great work! Thanks so much!