Chaconne in G Minor (arr. Respighi) - by Tomaso Antonio Vitali

Описание: Chaconne in G Minor (arr. Respighi) by Tomaso Antonio Vitali

Performed Sunday, September 15th, 2024 | First United Methodist Church

Organ: Eric Wicks
Violin: Elisa Wicks
Conductor: Thomas Wilson
Audio/Video: Michael Lascuola
Program Notes: Mark Arnest

Tomaso Antonio Vitali was the son of Giovanni Battista Vitali, the most illustrious composer in Bologna. The younger Vitali followed in his father’s footsteps; he was also successful as a teacher. The younger Vitali would be all but forgotten today, however, were it not for this remarkable Chaconne, which was not published until 1867, over a century after his death. That version, arranged by violinist Ferdinand David, contained modulations that were so unusual for music of the early 1700s – from G minor to B-flat minor and E-flat minor – that many musicians questioned its authenticity.

We now know that the Chaconne is truly an 18th Century piece, based on the manuscript’s age and its handwriting. In addition, we know that Vitali’s father composed chaconnes containing changes of key, though not as daring as his son’s. There remains some question, however, of whether Tomaso Vitali was actually the composer, because the manuscript ascribes the violin part to “Tomaso Vitalino” – who we assume is Vitali, partly because no other composer’s name comes closer, and because the manuscript dates from a time when the spelling of names was quite fluid.

A chaconne is a piece based on a short, repeating bass line that typically descends. The most famous are Bach’s stupendous Chaconne from the D-minor Violin Partita, and Pachelbel’s ubiquitous Canon, which despite its name is both a canon and a chaconne. The chaconne’s repetitious quality means that the composer is increasingly challenged as the piece gets longer: it’s not difficult to compose six variations on a bass line, but creating sixty independent variations – as is the case here – is another matter entirely!

Vitali’s Chaconne simultaneously looks backward and forward. On one hand, the form itself had its heyday in the 17th Century, when Vitali’s father was composing reams of them; in the days before composers developed techniques to organize large stretches of time through changes of key, the chaconne’s repetition was a simple solution to the challenge of composing large yet musically coherent pieces. On the other hand, the boldness of Vitali’s modulations looks forward to the most audacious passages in Mozart and Beethoven. It’s not surprising that these modulations caused the piece to be viewed with suspicion, but it’s also not surprising that a composer conceived the idea of a modulating chaconne, as it’s an effective antidote to the form’s inherently static quality. The modulations provide a welcome sense of departure and return.

The question of authenticity has led violinists and orchestrators to treat the piece very freely. The manuscript consists only of a violin part, a bass line, and figures – numerals that would have told an 18th Century keyboard player how to harmonize the piece. David’s original publication took many liberties with the manuscript, and subsequent arrangers have tended to add to, rather than subtract from these alterations; unlike many Baroque pieces, there has been no strong movement to strip away these glosses and return to the “true” Vitali Chaconne. This freedom has helped keep the piece a vital and living part of the repertoire. The arrangement being performed in this concert, by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, is one of the most glorious.