Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Music in 17th century Vienna, part 6; 200th post

"Margarita" is from Schmelzer's Balletti francesi, written in 1669 for a production of Cesti's opera Nettuno e Flora festeggianti. The numbers are Allemanda, Aria, Courente, Margarita, Sarabanda, Retirada.

I admit that I placed this piece here to allow a small joke on the occasion of the 200th post to this blog. But, surprise, "Margarita" does not refer to the cocktail—it is Margaret, far better known as the Spanish Infanta painted multiple times by Velasquez than as the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.

This is a bright and stately march that was most likely meant for the ingress of the Empress on stage (family members frequently participated in ballets and other staged events in the court). It is especially interesting for the sharp timbral distinction in tonal space between the trumpets and the first violin and for the three-part Ursatz design that results (note especially the ending).

This, incidentally, is the last in the 17th-century Vienna series.