Monatliche Clavier Früchte: Martius, GWV 111: II. Allemande

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) worked primarily at the court in Darmstadt. Though unknown today, but becoming more familiar due to the revived interest in old music, he was very popular in his day. I chanced upon some harpsichord music by him when I was doing my research into Kuhnau from my latest uploads. Kuhnau had several students; Graupner was his favorite. And when I did an ISMLP dive into their music, Graupner was the only one who had solo keyboard items to download. He was incredibly prolific, writing over 2000 compositions, with at least 57 suites (or partitas) being for the harpsichord.

He was so well regarded back then that when Kuhnau was no longer Kapellmeister in Leipzig, Graupner was offered the job after Telemann turned it down to stay in Hamburg. However, the Darmstadt court refused to let Graupner out of his contract (and offered him more money and security), so he had to decline. This led to Bach being offered the job in Leipzig. What I found very interesting is that Graupner wrote a recommendation letter for Bach for that job to put the church’s mind at ease.

After playing Kuhnau, and now Graupner, it is clear that the Leipzig church had a particular style in mind that they wanted from the hired musician. I would say all of these composers’ pieces are far more digestible and easy-going, listening-wise--galant, as it were. Though it would be heresy to say their works were the “pop music” of the day, they certainly weren’t as heavy, thick, contrapuntal, and strict or old-fashioned as Bach's style.

Graupner was a terrific harpsichordist, and here I’d like to present one of his collections–a partita (though he didn’t name it that) from his Monatliche Clavier Früchte of 1722. I chose to learn, perform, and record the month of March simply because that’s what month it is now. Graupner learned from his teacher, Kuhnau, to form “programs” with his works, and that is what this collection is: a suite for each month of the year.