Friday, March 20, 2026

Waltzes from c1800

Matthew Cooke, 12 Spanish and Portuguese Waltzes and a Hornpipe. Cooke's dates are 1761-1829; the Waltzes aren't dated but from the notation and the style of the music I think they probably come from 1790–1800, at the very latest 1810. His music was published in London; whether he worked there, I don't know. The manuscript is in the British Library.

Three of the 12 waltzes have strains with upper-register cadences. In no. 1, it's the second strain of the main or A section. The design is a very common one as ABACA; it's ubiquitous around this time (see my post about this: link). 





Ignaz Pleyel, on the other hand, was a major figure in what we still call "Classical" music. Born in Austria, he was one of the principal students of Haydn; he spent most of his life in France, where he managed to survive the dangers of the early Republic and in later years flourished in business, particularly in music publishing and piano manufacture. The edition I have is for guitar and violin, and its connection to Pleyel is tenuous at best: it was published by Johann André in 1805. Here is a detail of the title page:

I would refer the reader to Rita Benton's Thematic Catalogue for further information.

Regardless, these waltzes are characteristic of the period. Notice the ABCA design of the first one, where C is in the relative minor, as would be expected of the more common ABACA, to which this could easily be adjusted. In no. 3 is one of those exceedingly simple and direct rising lines that one very occasionally finds--and that demonstrates once again how easily such figures arise even in the simplest kinds of harmonic and voice-leading situations. Number 7 is interesting for the same reason, but also in that it shows the classic 2-voice frame where ^5 ascends to ^8 while a counter-voice moves down by step to ^1. The ascending voice is obviously the primary one.