Listening & Reading
Manuscript
The manuscript of the Rosary Sonatas is at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, and is available online at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) / Petrucci Music Library. Its copper engravings are worth a look, and make clear the religious meanings of each piece.
Other Passacaglias, explored:
There is no limit to the use of this simple musical form. Over the centuries it has led to the composition of some extraordinary pieces. Here are a few, in no particular order.
Solo violin with Dance:
Bach Ciaccona (performed by Johnny Gandelsman and the Limón Dance Company)
Solo keyboard, with Digital Visualization:
Bach Passacaglia and Fugue BWV 582 (performed and visualized by Stephen Malinowski)
Voices a capella, over a network:
Purcell Dido's Lament (Annie Lennox: Choral Performance with London City Voices)
A classic orchestra used to the fullest:
Brahms Symphony No. 4, mvt. 4 (Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic)
A literal walk in the street:
Boccherini Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid (passacaglia begins at 4:00 – Ilumina Festival 2016, Jennifer Stumm, Alexandra Soumm, and Tai Murray, violin; Julia Gartemann, viola; Giovanni Gnochhi and Guilherme Moraes, cello, Joseph Conyers, bass)
One central message of a passacaglia is that no real repetition is a repeat. As it moves, a kind of memory-resonance builds on itself. Each resemblance is a rhyme and a footstep. Boccherini walks the streets, literally; Bach walks in polyphony; Brahms walks in harmony and history; Dido walks in despair; and Biber, unaccompanied, walks protected.
Other Passacaglias, explored:
There is no limit to the use of this simple musical form. Over the centuries it has led to the composition of some extraordinary pieces. Here are a few, in no particular order.
Solo violin with Dance:
Bach Ciaccona (performed by Johnny Gandelsman and the Limón Dance Company)
Solo keyboard, with Digital Visualization:
Bach Passacaglia and Fugue BWV 582 (performed and visualized by Stephen Malinowski)
Voices a capella, over a network:
Purcell Dido's Lament (Annie Lennox: Choral Performance with London City Voices)
A classic orchestra used to the fullest:
Brahms Symphony No. 4, mvt. 4 (Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic)
A literal walk in the street:
Boccherini Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid (passacaglia begins at 4:00 – Ilumina Festival 2016, Jennifer Stumm, Alexandra Soumm, and Tai Murray, violin; Julia Gartemann, viola; Giovanni Gnochhi and Guilherme Moraes, cello, Joseph Conyers, bass)
One central message of a passacaglia is that no real repetition is a repeat. As it moves, a kind of memory-resonance builds on itself. Each resemblance is a rhyme and a footstep. Boccherini walks the streets, literally; Bach walks in polyphony; Brahms walks in harmony and history; Dido walks in despair; and Biber, unaccompanied, walks protected.
Photo Credit: Bildgeber/Schallgeber
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Violinist Timothy Summers has been a member of the first violin section of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra since 2009, and has performed on violin, viola, and occasionally mandolin with the orchestra at venues across the world. For twenty-one years, he has served as co-director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, which he co-founded in 2000. He is also second violinist of the Orpheus String Quartet. Summers currently teaches violin on the faculty of the Universität der Künste (UdK) Berlin, and has taught violin, orchestral playing, improvisation, and chamber music in Spain, Germany, England, Finland, and Colombia.
An avid chamber musician, Summers has performed at festivals across the United States and Europe. For several years he was a participant in the Emmanuel Music cycle of Bach Cantatas in Boston, led by the late Craig Smith and John Harbison. |
Mr. Summers has performed extensively as an improviser with electronics. Funded by a grant from the Fulbright Commission, he spent the 2005-2006 year as artist-in-residence at the Danish Institute of Electroacoustic Music in Århus. He has worked for several years on improvisation and computer programming projects with improvisation artist Steven Nachmanovitch. Recently Summers has been developing music learning tools and music reference tools for digital devices. The latest projects are a binary computational engine for musical harmony, Partito, and a metronome for harmonic progressions, HarmoGnome.
Mr. Summers holds an A.B. from Harvard University in English and American Literature and an M.M. in violin Performance from the Juilliard School. He was a student of Ronald Copes and Robert Mann at the Juilliard School, Mark Rush at the University of Virginia, James Buswell at New England Conservatory, and Robert Levin at Harvard University.