Passacaglia

Georg Muffat (1 June 1653 – 23 February 1704) was a Baroque composer and organist. He is best known for his collections of string pieces "Florilegium Primum" and "Florilegium Secundum" (First and Second Bouquets) in 1695 and 1698.

He was born in Megève, Duchy of Savoy (now in France), of André Muffat (of Scottish descent) and Marguerite Orsyand. He studied in Paris between 1663 and 1669, where his teacher is often assumed to have been Jean Baptiste Lully. It is ambiguous that Muffat studied under Lully, but in any case, the style which the young Muffat learned was unequivocally Lullian and it remains likely, though uncertain, that he had at least some contact with the man himself.

After leaving Paris, he became an organist in Molsheim and Sélestat. Later, he studied law in Ingolstadt, afterwards settling in Vienna. He could not get an official appointment, so he travelled to Prague in 1677, then to Salzburg, where he worked for the archbishop for some ten years. In about 1680, he traveled to Italy, there studying the organ with Bernardo Pasquini, a follower of the tradition of Girolamo Frescobaldi; he also met Arcangelo Corelli, whose works he admired very much. From 1690 to his death, he was Kapellmeister to the bishop of Passau.

"Passacaglia" is found in "Apparatus Musico-Organisticus," published in Salzburg in 1690. It is a set of 24 continuous variations, quite technical, and absolutely laden with trills, double trills, and all sorts of things like that.

Initially, I had intended some sort of elaborate registrational scheme, but quickly gave this up as it would have been impossible to do, and I think it would have worked against the will of the music.

Instead, I chose a simple "echo approach" to the repeats in the variations, with only a few addition and subtraction of stops.

I didn't spend too much time in preparing it, and when was lucky to make it through without too many slips. :-)

The score is attached below, as well as two likenesses of Muffat.