Rondo in D minor Wq 61/4 (H290)

Arrangement for wind quintet (2004)

(Flute in G, English horn, clarinet in A, horn and bassoon)

Duration : approx. 4'30. Éditions François Dhalmann (obligatory mention on the program)

And why C.Ph.E. BACH ? (1714 - 1788)

Because at the beginning of the 21st century we need a remedy for " politically correct ", for stupidity, for piss-cold that would like to make us live a devoid life fantasy, poetry, sensitivity, imagination, freedom...

That this 2nd son of Jean-Sébastien (the most famous and in my opinion the most gifted of the four who have become musicians), whose godfather is the brilliant inventor of the classical style Georg Philipp Telemann, is the founder of what is called the Empfindsamkeit - significantly influencing Haydn and Mozart - this deserves to be reconsidered today the true scope of his musical style and his work.

When this official harpsichordist of Frederick II at the court of Potsdam could "  shamelessly follow his muse and in no way worry about the practical difficulties of performing " , he then wrote an absolutely new and original style of keyboard writing, music “ lively, spiritual,  with bold ideas, great diversity and originality in forms and modulations » according to his most benevolent contemporaries. Others will only see “ capricious manner, unexpected cuts, whimsical modulations and often very naive style mixed with an affectation of deep science ” and also castigate “_cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_his eccentric taste, his quirkiness, his cult of difficulty, his singular writing and his refusal to bend to fashion”.

Indeed this composer - " monstrueux et lacking in competence" according to the terms of the malevolent ears of the time - is based on his writing a voluntary distance vis-à-vis live the dogma of unity on the level of affect. This dogma imposed for each piece and movement of a work, the same state of mind. Starting from his improvisations on the clavichord, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach advocated a style of writing that makes each turn appear as the fruit of a sudden inspiration, rather than as the consequence of a predetermined state of mind. A shape is then "  neither good nor bad and the value of a coin is only worth for itself ".

« The musician cannot touch the heart of others if he has not been touched himself ; a different feeling at each measure ” stated this composer.

This style “ sensible ” expresses deeply felt affective states. The music is always violent, virtuoso, often incoherent, always surprising. The unexpected takes precedence over the integrity of the whole : abrupt changes in nuances, tones, rhythms become the rule. The middles are very often irregular, the form, a mixture of sonata form elements and fragments of free fantasy, is an arrangement of a multitude of contrasting motifs, none developed, some not repeated. Silence becomes an integral part of the composition, thus contributing to a music of great finesse and emotional subtlety endowed with a strong expression, underlined by terms of expression added to the indications of tempo.

The Rondos and sonatas for keyboard (hear the clavichord here)

The Rondo was for this composer the popular form par excellence (very fashionable entertainment) but also the field of experimentation in the field of variation. He wrote them for the " amateurs ", these great music lovers who appreciated these pieces without excessive difficulty, but who did not lack content.

By arranging for wind quintet one of his Rondos whose tempo is Allegro di molto - that is to say with lively joy (as opposed to moderate and passionate) - I wanted to pay tribute to a composer whose style of writing is close to mine : form like a collage, mixing disparate elements (motifs/figures), made of fragments and traces of other music ( or other musical forms).

I like to read in it an indirect source of my own musical style, made of folds and re-links, spirals, contrasts, secret correspondences...

The joy that emanates from this way of doing was a way of opposing, on the one hand, the style of his own father Jean-Sébastien - who said in return that his son's music was Prussian blue, a color that passes with time…- as well as the polite amenity of the gallant style perfected at the time by the youngest of the family, Jean-Chrétien Bach.

Clearly, C.Ph.E. Bach is current !

Bernard of Vienna

August 2004

Musicological sources

CPE Bach: autobiography

Ulrike Brenning

Clive Bennett