Bohemia

DIETRICH BECKER (1623-1679) 

1. Paduana à 5 from Musicalische Frühlings-Früchte 

ANON (ATTRIBUTED TO H.I.F. VON BIBER OR J.H. SCHMELZER) 

2. Sonata Jucunda 

JOHANN PACHELBEL (1653-1706) 

Canon and Gigue in D Major for Three Violins and Basso Continuo

3. Canon 

4. Gigue 

JOHANN KASPAR KERLL (1627-1693)

5. Toccata VIII 

GEORG MUFFAT (1653-1704) 

6. Sonata violino solo  

JOHANN CHRISTOPH PEZEL (1639-1694) 

7. Sonata in D 

JOHANN JAKOB FROBERGER (1616-1667)

8. Plainte faite à Londres pour passer la Melancholie from Partita in A minor FbWV630/1 

HEINRICH IGNAZ FRANZ VON BIBER (1644-1704) 

9. Ciacona from Mensa Sonora Pars III

VAN DIEMEN'S BAND

JULIA FREDERSDORFF ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & VIOLIN 

ELIZABETH WELSH VIOLIN

JENNIFER OWEN VIOLIN, VIOLA

KATIE YAP VIOLA

LAURA VAUGHAN, BRETT RUTHERFORD VIOLA DA GAMBA

KIRSTY MCCAHON VIOLONE  

DONALD NICOLSON HARPSICHORD 

HANNAH LANE BAROQUE TRIPLE HARP

CHAD KELLY CHAMBER ORGAN 

It might come as a surprise to learn that the kingdom of Bohemia, which was ruled by the Habsburgs from the early sixteenth century, existed as a formally recognised realm until as recently as 1918. With Czech-speaking Europe as its domain and Prague as its capital, the kingdom won and lost territories over the course of many centuries, exerting its influence, at various times, over neighbouring regions such as Moravia, Silesia, Saxony, Brandenburg and Bavaria. Almost all of the music featured on this disc has a Bohemian connection of some kind, whether it was the composers’ birthplace, a composer’s career stop or the resting place of manuscripts and printed music (the Kromeriz Music Archive, one of the most important collections in the Czech Republic, is the source of much of the music heard here).

The nine works on this disc date from the second half of the seventeenth century; in other words, the period immediately following the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Bohemia was the epicentre of the war in its early stages, before hostilities shifted to much of present-day Germany (or, at least, its central and northern parts). The third quarter of the seventeenth century was a time of reconstruction. The map of Europe had been redrawn and the modern concept of state sovereignty had arisen. Music, of course, crosses borders, and influences flow in many directions. Added to that, styles and idioms can be transformed as they make their way from one country or region to another. In this, Bohemia offered fertile and welcoming ground.

We begin not in Bohemia but in Hamburg, with the Paduana à 5 from the felicitously named Musikalische Frühlings-Früchte (Musical Fruits of Spring) by Dietrich Becker (1623-1679). A paduana is another name for a pavane, a slow and dignified dance that was popular in the Renaissance. In three sections, each of which is repeated, Becker’s unhurried and solemn Paduana circles around the home key of G minor, favouring minor over major sonorities. It was published in 1668, by which time the heyday of the pavane was long since over. We might think of Becker’s offering as a lovely late flowering of a now rare species.

The Sonata Jucunda, which means ‘joking’ or ‘jesting’ sonata, presents an altogether different world. Here we find abrupt changes of mood, tempo, rhythm and style. Folk and Ottoman idioms are also thrown into the mix, providing a sharp contrast with more sedate, carefully controlled standard-practice counterpoint. This is a piece of music which exemplifies what has been termed the ‘stylus phantasticus’ (fantastic style). Although music in this style is fully notated, it can give the appearance of unfolding via a kind of free association, no sooner settling in one groove before jumping without warning into an entirely different one. What’s more, some of those grooves appear downright bizarre. The Sonata Jucunda is from the Kromeriz collection, where it appears without attribution. It may have been composed by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) or perhaps by his teacher, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c.1623-1680).

Although Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) is best known today for a single work – the Canon and Gigue in D major – he was a prolific composer of sacred music and has long enjoyed prestige among church musicians. Born in Nuremberg, Pachelbel travelled widely in German-speaking lands – he held positions in Vienna, Eisenach, Erfurt, Stuttgart and Gotha – before returning to Nuremberg for the last two decades of his life. The popularity of the Canon and Gigue in modern times can be traced to a 1968 recording by the Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra. Curiously, this was around the time that the Minimalist movement got off the ground, with composers such as La Monte Young, Steve Reich and Terry Riley championing clarity, tonal simplicity and, above all, repetition, in their music. Perhaps the repetitiveness of the Pachelbel Canon – twenty-eight statements of the same bass pattern above which three violins play in strict canonic imitation – spoke to the same 1960s concerns (Pachelbel’s Canon could, theoretically, exist in a continuous loop). In any case, Pachelbel’s work has become a wedding favourite, a staple of busking groups and the go-to Baroque piece for movie soundtracks. As with many Baroque couplings, a slow to moderate movement, the Canon, is succeeded by a lively follow-up, the Gigue.

How many times have you been in an Italian museum and noticed the sign ‘non toccare’ on a rare or delicate item? The word ‘toccare’ means ‘to touch’. A toccata is a piece of music that is improvisational in style – the player ‘touching’ the keyboard as he or she moves rapidly from one gesture to the next, embellishing this and embellishing that, passing through a variety of keys and generally keeping the listener guessing as to what is going to happen next (see ‘stylus phantasticus’, above). The Toccata VIII by Johann Kaspar Kerll (1627-1693) is a typical example of the genre. Kerll, who was born in the small German town of Adorf, not far from the present-day Czech Republic, studied with organist and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi in Rome. It was Frescobaldi, above all, who championed the toccata, raising its profile and making it a vital keyboard genre of the Baroque.

Georg Muffat (1653-1704) was a true cosmopolitan. A German composer of French birth and Scottish ancestry on his father’s side, Muffat lived at various times in Paris, Prague, Vienna, Rome and other towns and cities besides. He likely studied with Lully in Paris and Corelli in Rome and his music displays an easy affinity with French and Italian styles. The Sonata violino solo, which, broadly speaking, is in the Italian style, was composed in Prague in 1677. It was possibly gifted to Bishop Karl II von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, as the manuscript appears in the Kromeriz archive, a collection which originated when Karl II was Prince-Bishop of Olomouc. Of particular interest are many instances in the Sonata where Muffat distinguishes between say, a C natural and a B sharp, notes which are identical on a modern keyboard. Did Muffat have access in Prague to a harpsichord of a more experimental kind, one where these two pitches (and other otherwise identical notes) were, in fact, two quite separate keys? It is slightly off-kilter instances such as these where Muffat’s Sonata, as with other works on this recording, offers us a glimpse of the fantastic. Here, the fantastic manifests itself not so much through a spirit of improvisation but via the expressive possibilities of tiny inflections of pitch.

The Sonata in D, by Johann Christoph Pezel (1639-1694), is another work from the Kromeriz archive. Pezel was born in the Silesian town of Glatz, which is in present-day Poland, and died in Bautzen, which lies in a corner of Germany not far from the Czech and Polish borders. He was a professional civic musician. That is to say, he was a composer and performer on the payroll of various towns and cities and not attached to a church or private patron. For much of his career he was based in Leipzig. It was customary in Leipzig for music to be performed twice a day from the tower of the city hall. Given the outdoor setting, the ensembles that performed ‘town music’ typically consisted of wind and brass, but strings might be included too. Indeed, Pezel’s compositions for five-part ensemble can be played by wind and brass groups or strings. It is a string ensemble that we hear in this performance.

Like Muffat, Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) was a well-travelled musician. The German-born composer, organist and harpsichordist studied with Frescobaldi in Rome and was attached to the Habsburg court in Vienna for many years. In addition to travels through Saxony, the Low Countries, Spain and France, Froberger made his way to England, as indicated in the curious title of the work on this disc, Plainte faite à Londres pour passer la Melancholie. We have to ask: why did Froberger feel melancholy in London? Evidently, he suffered the indignity of being robbed en route from France to England, crossed the Channel on a ship that was raided and arrived in London so poorly presented he wasn’t recognised, at least at first, as the star musician that he was. You might say that he had the blues. Composed around 1660, the Plainte sits within the well-established tradition of the lament. But this is a lament without words, being composed for harpsichord alone. In the key of A minor, it leans on characteristics of the allemande – a pervasive dance of the Baroque – while making room for expressive gestures pertinent to the title.

We remain in A minor for the final work, the Ciacona from Mensa Sonora Pars III by Biber, a composer mentioned earlier in relation to the Sonata Jucunda. Salzburg tends to lay claim to Biber – he lived there for most of his adult life – but Bohemia is where he was born and where he received his early education. Musically gifted from a young age, Biber entered the household of the Bishop of Olomouc (he of the Kromeriz archive) while in his early 20s. The Mensa Sonora, a group of six partitas (or suites) for ensemble, was published in 1680. The title means ‘sonorous table’ or ‘sounding table’. Dedicated to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, the Mensa Sonora would have been performed as dinner music, which seems a waste as the music is so richly rewarding. A ciacona (or chaconne) makes use of a repeated bass pattern and harmonic structure above which variations unfurl in the upper parts. Biber’s Ciacona is sombre, even sorrowful, with descending half-steps suggesting a tragic air. One wonders what the mood in the dining hall must have been. Although he lived out his days far from his birthplace, Biber still felt connected to his Bohemian homeland. He regularly sent manuscripts back to Kromeriz, where they are housed to this day.

Robert Gibson © 2025

JULIA FREDERSDORFF EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

HAIG BURNELL SOUND ENGINEER 

ELIZABETH WELSH PRODUCER

DIRK LORENZEN OPERATIONS MANAGER

RACHEL MEYERS ARTIST LIAISON

KATIE YAP EDITING ASSISTANCE

Recorded at Stanley Town Hall 20-25 January 2022

BOHEMIA was made possible with the contributions of many generous donors:

Robyn Arvier, Sally Attrill, Paul Bentley-Angell, Kim Bishop, Stephen Block, Edwina Brown, Carmen Burnet, David Davey, David Day, Nick Dinopoulos, Phillip England, Jennifer Ettershank, Marguerite Foxon, Susie Furphy, Olivia G, Liz Gillam, Anne Gilles, Danny Gillespie, Jennifer Godfrey, Felix Hayman, Don Hempton, David Hoffman, Miriam Johnson, Jennifer Kerr, Charles Kiefel, Nicky Lawrence, Margaret Lehmann, Darren Loves, Anna Maguire, Jo Matthews, Rowena McDougall, Wendy McLeod, Amy Moore, Mairi Nicolson, Ken & Liz Nielsen, Bill Oakley, Peter O'Malley, Kevin Orrman-Rossiter, Scott Parkes, Ann Penhallow, Ann Pickering, Nella Pickup, Anna Ritchie, Estelle Ross, Harley Russell, Mike Severs, Drew Thomas, Kerry Thomas, John Upcher, Laura Vaughan, Veronika Vincze, Lesley Wickham, Eric Yeo, Louise, Anonymous x 9.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and by the Tasmanian Government through Arts Tasmania.