| Description: | I present one of the elevation toccatas by Froberger in this upload, which follows the one on "hell und dunkel" by Sofia Gubaidulina, for your consideration.
I want to draw some parallels between Froberger's work and Gubaidulina's, because though it may not sound like it, there are similarities to highlight.
1. Both works are mystical and profound in nature. They both explore dichotomies and opposites in religious ways. For Froberger's work, this is in relation to the host and transubstantiation. For if wine and bread can become the body and blood of Christ, then anything can happen; and so Froberger's elevation toccata explores this idea with high and low, fast and slow, striking dissonance and lovely resolutions, etc. Gubaidulina is all the more direct and overt about this juxtaposition of elements against each other, even titling her piece as such.
2. Both pieces are toccata-like. While Froberger's is even labeled as a toccata, Gubaidulina employs several, similar, keyboard-idiomatic elements: runs, leaps, trills, etc. And while Gubaidulina notates the slow start to trills that then accelerate, performance practice in certain places in Froberger also dictates this idea.
3. Both pieces have an extemporaneous, improvisatory feeling.
4. Both selections are harmonically progressive. Some of the harmonies in Froberger's work are outright jarring, especially when played in a mean-tone temperament. And Gubaidulina's work is avant-garde, to say the least.
There are probably more to find if we look for and think about them. |
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