Friday 7 September 2018
Tune of the Day: Le Retour de Mars
from “Amusement palatin”
Today we propose the opening movement of Amusement palatin, a suite for solo instrument (“musette, vielle, flute and oboe” according to the original edition) and continuo by the French Baroque composer Nicolas Chédeville. The French title translates as “The Return of Mars”.
The piece is quite ornamented and features complex rhythms. In the last two measures the melody splits into two voices, so ideally the piece should be performed by two flutes, playing in unison until the finale. If that is not an option, one could simply play the upper voice, maybe inserting the two runs of 32ths from the lower voice.