1995 Concert of the Baroque Avant-garde Program Notes
Music by Kirnberger, De Fesch, Triemer, Tartini, & Bach.
The composers's music may be considered avant-garde for a variety of reasons. In the case of composers Johann Philipp Kirnberger, a student of J. S. Bach, and Giuseppe Tartini, a student of Vivaldi, each wrote in a "new" pre-classical style. The music may seem pretty tame compared to what we in the 20th century think of as avant-garde, but to the people of the mid-eighteenth century, this new galant style was quite different from the previous generation of composers. The Kirnberger and Tartini sonatas employ the new form of slow, fast, fast, for the movements; the first slow movement is followed by two fast movements of radically different character. Another element that characterizes these sonatas as progressive is their lack of typical Baroque dissonance (tension and conflict) and resolustion; instead, they offer quick changes in mood through subtle modulations, with just a hint of bizzare chromaticism.

The sonatas byWillem De Fesch and Jean Zewalt Triemer are forward-looking and unusual by virtue of the fact that they were written for violoncello as the solo instrument. The solo body of repertoire for the violoncello was, until the 18th century, small and generally shared among bass instruments.

The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue by J.S. Bach, while a member of the standard keyboard repertoire, may be considered a far-reaching composition with its many changes of key and character -- as implied by its title. It is surprising to note that Bach was considered conservative by many of his contemporaries, yet he wrote a piece such as this, exploring the outer limits of harmony in a way that few of his colleagues had yet dared to venture.

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