Drop 4 of 4
Greetings from New Bag End!
We’re getting closer to the official launch of Cetra records, which will feature the release of the re-mastered version of Pasqualino de Marzi’s Six Sonatas for the Cetra or Kitara plus a premiere recording of Francesco Geminiani’s The Art of Playing the Guitar or Cittra, with continuo realization by Canadian composer Richard Gibson. Watch the website and social media for updates, and please tell your friends!
You may have heard of the fictional Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz thanks to the popular Netflix series Bridgerton or the eponymous spinoff about the young Charlotte. The Sonata for the Guitar with an Accompaniment for a Violin (c.1770) was very likely written for the historical Queen Charlotte by Johann Christian Bach, who was Johann Sebastian's eleventh child. Johann Christian went to England in 1762 and shortly thereafter became music master to Queen Charlotte and the royal household. They may in fact have already met at court in Strelitz. Although there is no dedication, it is quite possible that Bach's sonata was composed for the Queen and her husband, George III, who played the violin.
In the late summer of 1997, when I was continuing my research into the cetra in the British Library Music Room, dearly missed librarian Bob Parker, who had been helping me with my research over the years, introduced me to a seemingly nearly blind academic who was sitting across from me at our table. It was Ernest Warburton, the general editor of The Collected Works of Johann Christian Bach. When Bob told him what I was doing, Ernest told me that JCB could not possibly have written the Sonata for Guitar & Violin, and that it was more likely the work of “some hack like George Rush.” I endeavored to explain why I thought it was the work of JCB, and why it was such an interesting piece, including the possible connection to George and Charlotte. A week later, when I was back in Roma, I received a letter from Ernest with a copy of the piece, which, until then, I had only heard on the recording by James Tyler. He told me that my remarks about the quality of the little sonata had encouraged him “to re-think the status of its attribution.”
I first recorded this piece in 2007 for my album La Cetra Galante, playing both parts on cetras, one in the violin octave. For this new recording, I’ve dropped the violin part an octave and play it on my Gibson of Dublin copy. I had played it like this before, when I was studying with Andrea Damiani, who would play the violin part on the baroque guitar or archlute - whichever was handy. The cittern part is played on my Modern English Guittar, designed and built by Diogo Valente of Avanca - one of my favorite builders. I think this arrangement provides a fresh look at the interplay between the instruments and shows the brilliance of JCB’s writing.
I hope you enjoy it!
The songs from our previous drops are no longer available for free download, but you can now enjoy them all in one place by purchasing the album or streaming them on your favorite audio platforms!