Fantasia

A few days ago I wrote that the choral bound works in manuscript Ms Lynar B3 are of greater quality than the free works. The free work from this manuscript I publish today, is not a good example of this statement, as it is a beautiful well written work of high quality.

As with most works in this manuscript the composer's name is not given. Based on the style of the piece and given that the manuscript was written in the circle of Sweelinck's students in Germany, some think it might be a composition by Sweelinck. It survives in no other source, so there is no real evidence for this supposition.

The music of this Fantasia has to speak for itself as it can not rely on the fame of it's composer. It does so eloquently.The music consists of four seperate episodes with each it's own mood. The first episode is in a steady pace and sing like, cantabile. The second episode if full of echo like figures. The third episode treats the left hand as the solo voice and the last episode are the finishing flourishes to finish the piece.

Playing this kind of music does not come maturally to me. I spent several hours figuring out how the episodes should or could be articulated and phrased. To help with following the different episodes I change manuals with both hands or one hand the create a difference in tonal colours between the episodes. Perhaps that is not stylistically correct for music of this period, but it did help me in playing this music.

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/anonymus-johan-pieterszoon-sweelinck-fantasia