Thursday 20 March 2025
by Gilles Binchois, arranged for flute trio
The theme of lovers parting recurs as a trope in fifteenth-century song. Both Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois, two of the most important Franco-Flemish composers of the early Renaissance, composed popular laments that began with the tearful line “Farewell, my love”. Today we present Binchois's “Adieu m'amour et ma maîtresse”, which was originally composed for three high male voices.
Wednesday 19 March 2025
“As perfect a march as a march can be”
The National Emblem march was composed in 1902 by Edwin Eugene Bagley. It is a standard of the American march repertoire, appearing in eleven published editions.
Bagley composed the score during a 1902 train tour with his family band. He became frustrated with the ending, and tossed the composition in a trash can. Members of the band fortunately retrieved it and secretly rehearsed the score in the baggage car. Bagley was surprised when the band informed him minutes before the next concert that they would perform it. It became the most famous of all of Bagley’s marches. Despite this, the composition did not make Bagley wealthy, for he sold the copyright for $25!
Bagley incorporates into the march the first twelve notes of The Star-Spangled Banner ingeniously disguised in duple rather than triple time. The rest of the notes are all Bagley’s, including the four short repeated A-flat major chords that lead to a statement by the low brass that is now reminiscent of the National Anthem.
The best-known theme of this march is popularly sung in the US with the doggerel verse “and the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole”. In Britain, the same theme is sometimes sung with the words, “have you ever caught your bollocks in a mangle”.
The march has been featured in movies such as Protocol and Hot Shots!.
Tuesday 18 March 2025
Traditional Irish jig
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill wrote that his source, piper John Connors from Dublin, was the only one among the traditional music circle to know this jig at the time O'Neill collected it from him in Chicago.
We have no idea what story might be hidden behind this curious title, but a gudgeon is a metal pivot at the end of an axle, around which the wheel turns.
Monday 17 March 2025
from Köhler's “25 Romantic Studies”
As indicated by its title, this study should render the impression of a sweeping motion. The “poco a poco ravivando il tempo” marking at the beginning asks for a very gradually increasing tempo.
Sunday 16 March 2025
from Flute Duet No. 4 in F major
This is the second movement of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Flute Duet in F major. It is an extremely slow and meditative piece, marked “Lamentabile”, which in Italian would literally mean “mournful”. The movement is set in binary (AABB) form, and the first part starts out as a canon at the fifth; that is, when the first voice enters it repeats the melody exposed by the second voice, but a fifth higher.
Thanks to Jean-Marc for suggesting this piece!
Saturday 15 March 2025
from J.S. Bach's Sonata No. 3 for Solo Violin
The Sei Solo – a violino senza Basso accompagnato (“six violin solos without bass”), as Bach titled them, have a great historical significance, as they firmly established the technical capability of the violin as a solo instrument.
The set consists of three sonatas da chiesa, in four movements, and three partitas, in dance-form movements.
It was completed by 1720, but was only published in 1802. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Josef Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, frequently performed and recorded.
This splendid Largo in F major constitutes the third movement of Sonata No. 3 in C major.
Considered by some as the most beautiful of all solo works ever written for violin, it has always been an obvious choice for an encore at any performance.
Friday 14 March 2025
Traditional Irish jig
The earliest appearance of this jig is found in Howe’s 500 Irish Melodies Ancient and Modern, published in Boston around 1880, under the (probably corrupted) title “Stop the Razor”. It was then included, as two separate settings, in Francis O'Neill's Music or Ireland (Chicago, 1903). Our version is a concatenation of these two settings, with parts 3 to 6 (the second setting) serving as variations.
