Telemann : Menuets, TWV 34:1-100 - Coen

Description

"The most exhilarating aspect of this journey in a hundred steps was discovering in each minuet a unique and irreplaceable originality: a hundred miniatures forming a kaleidoscope of unparalleled richness and coherence." - Andrea Coen. Coen considers the 100 Minuets as a sequel to his previous recording, on Brilliant Classics, of Telemann's Kleine Kammermusik, a work conceived by the composer for various melodic instruments with figured bass accompaniment, or for harpsichord alone. In keeping with the performance practice of the time, Coen elaborated unwritten harmonies from the highly detailed figured bass line provided by Telemann, and he adopts the same approach for this recording of Telemann's two sets of 49 + 1 miniatures, which pick up where the Kleine Kammermusik ends—with a minuet. Telemann's 100 Minuets are finely crafted miniatures of 16 to 40 measures. The pieces in the second collection of 50 (dating from 1730) are generally shorter than those in the first (dating from 1728). In both collections, the keys are arranged in alphabetical order, so that each group of seven minuets (eight in the last) is limited to one or two tonal centers, a system Telemann may have devised to encourage beginner musicians to gradually master a small group of keys. With a few exceptions, the dances retain their two-reprise structure and four-measure phrasing. Two dances feature a da capo structure (II/38 and 48: AABA), while several others break from excessive regularity of phrasing by incorporating irregular or asymmetrical phrases (I/5, with five-measure phrases; I/10, I/44, and II/41, with six-measure phrases). Others draw heavily on the French style through the "Favier" rhythm short-long-long-short or through numerous slurred thirds, appoggiaturas, and other ornaments (I/12, I/22, I/31, II/20). At times, Telemann writes with great elegance a strict canon (II/50) or invertible counterpoint (I/5-6, 24-25, 50): the soprano and bass voices of Minuets I/5 and 24 are interchanged in I/6 and 25; the same inversion occurs between the two halves of Minuet I/50.