Baroque Northwest

Yes! The Concert is still on!

2012-01-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

The weather may have looked grim a day or two ago, but it is now mutating into plain old rain. We've been out on the streets in Seattle today and they are clear, full of cars, and we expect good, rainy weather for tomorrow night. No more ice, snow, or slippery streets.

Hope to see you all there.

7:30 PM

Trinity Parish Church, in the Sanctuary.

Pre-concert event at 7:00.

Journey to the Center of the Baroque

2012-01-19T00:08:00.000-08:00

21 January 2012

Before 1800 or so, popular music and art music were not as separated as they are now. In the days before classical and folk music parted ways, classical composers stole from folk musicians, who in turn swiped classical licks (such as triplets, descending scale passages, anticipatory notes, and chordal figurations). Dance music and art music were equally important, and each informed the other. Poland, Austria, Holland, and even France have historically been areas of cultural
pluralism, places where royal patronage invited artistic influences from all over Europe. There are not many examples of music from 17th-century Poland, owing to its tumultuous history. We are fortunate to share the music of two early Polish composers. All of the composers on the program were fluent in music played in courts all over Europe, but were able to incorporate specific regional musical motifs.

Adam Jarzębski (ca. 1590-1649) was a Polish composer and violinist who figures prominently in Polish music history. He is known to us primarily by the manuscript Canzoni e concerti (1627). He served as a violinist in the chapel of the Elector of Brandenburg in Berlin (1612-19). He spent a year studying in Italy, and later brought Italianate trio-sonata textures to Warsaw, where he served in the Royal Chapel for thirty years. He transcribed works of Palestrina, Lassus, Claudio Merulo and Giovanni Gabrielli, adding new compositional elements such as dance rhythms and lavish ornamentation. In Warsaw he held a post at the court (1616-17), tutored senators’ children, and advised on building the royal palace at Ujazdów. The trio Diligam te Domine (I will love thee, O Lord), appears to be loosely based on the chant by the same name. The chant melody may be found in at least eight different sources beginning in the mid-11th century. It seems the chant melody received the same treatment of elaboration from Jarzębski as his transcriptions of the composers named above.

Mikołaj Zieleński was a Polish composer, organist and kapelmeister to the primate Baranowski, Archbishop of Gniezno. Zieleński's only known surviving works are two 1611 liturgical cycles of polychoral works, the Offertoria/Communes totius anni. This collection of vocal music contains, amazingly, three instrumental fantasias. The few pieces in which he uses a pre-existent melody are based on the melodies of Polish songs. Zieleński's music is the first known Polish music set in the style of the Baroque.

The Codex Caioni is considered the most valuable of the few 17th century manuscripts from Transylvania, of and it perfectly illustrates the cultural companionship of folk and western art music. Compiled 1634-1671, and named after Joannes Caioni, (1629/1630-1687), the codex is a compendium of every kind of music heard in 17th century Transylvania: folk tunes, Romani dances, sacred pieces, court dances, ballets, and compositions by well known composers such as Heinrich Schütz, and Andreas Hammerschmidt. The Codex was safeguarded in a monastery for three centuries, and then disappeared during WWII. In 1985 it was discovered in a monastery wall. The numbers in [brackets] in the program indicate the page of the Codex on which the particular pieces are found.

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer was one of the most famous violinists in Europe, and played in the orchestra of the Habsburg court. He also played cornet and advised Leopold I on his own compositions. In 1679 Leopold appointed him Kapellmeister, but he died the following year of the plague in Prague, where the court had fled from the great epidemic in Vienna. His compositions include secular dramatic works, chamber music, and ballet suites for allegorical pageants. The first to adapt the tunes of the Viennese street musicians and Tyrolean peasants to the more sophisticated instrumental styles of the court, he is often regarded as the true father of the
Viennese waltz. He made important contributions to the development of the German sonata and suite.

Johannes Schenck was a Dutch composer and viol player of German descent. Through his wealthy patrons in Amsterdam he was able to publish first class editions of his music. His publications helped establish him as one of the more significant Dutch composers of the second half of the 17th century. The music for viola da gamba constitutes a significant contribution to the repertoire for the instrument. It reflects important stylistic changes taking place in northern Europe at the time. His music for viol culminated in Le nymphe di Rheno and L'echo du Danube.

Georg Muffat considered himself a German, although he was born in France and his ancestors were Scottish. A prominent composer of instrumental music, his importance in music history is because of the large part he played in introducing the French and Italian styles into Germany. He studied with Jean-Baptiste Lully in Paris, worked in Strasbourg, Vienna, Prague, Salzburg, and finally Passau. While in Salzburg in the 1680s he took a leave of absence to go to Rome to study with Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710). The Sonata in D is not only Muffat's only known autograph score but also his only known composition before his visit to Italy. It is sectional
in form, virtuosic in style, highly chromatic and harmonically daring.

The Program

Adam Jarzębski (c.1590-c.1648)

Concerto Terza, from Canzoni e concerti (1627)

Mikołaj Zieleński (birth and death dates unknown)

Fantasia II, from Offertoria/Communes totius anni (1611)

Adam Jarzębski

Diligam te Domine, from Canzoni e concerti (1627)

Dances from the Codex Caioni (17th century)

Anonymous Chanson:

“Bon iour de almor” [236-238]

Regional Dances:

Mikes Kelemen. Tancz [261]
Mas Tancz Apor Istvan [262]
Apor Lazar Tancza [266]
Tancz [267]
Tancz: Az en agyam czak [253]
Nyiri Tancz [257]
Tikha vgordonaczka/Hammerschmidt ritornello [144]

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c. 1620-1680)

Sonata Quarta, from Sonatae unarum fidium (1664)

Intermission

Johannes Schenk (1660–1712)

Sonata VI, Op. 9, from L'Echo du Danube (1706)

Improvisations and Variations on the Bergamasca

Georg Muffat (1653-1704)

Sonata in D, 1677

Feast of Hamburgers: Music from Eighteenth-Century Hamburg

2011-08-21T17:08:00.001-07:00

Our 2011-12 Season begins on September 17, 2011.

German Baroque is more than J S Bach in Leipzig, the formidable Hofkapelle in Dresden, or the musical establishments of Frederick the Great in Berlin and Potsdam. Since the seventeenth century the city of Hamburg has held an important place in music and international trade, and in the eighteenth century it became a major music center. This was no doubt the result of composers such as Telemann, Mattheson, and later CPE Bach living there. Even George Frideric Handel worked in Hamburg early in his career, where he gained valuable experience that he would later use as an opera composer. Kim Pineda, August Denhard, Max Fuller, and Bernard Gordillo explore the repast of chamber music by these Hamburger composers. And we are happy to again have the music of Tim Risher on our program. His composition "River" was written for Kim Pineda and was premiered in August 2011 at the National Flute Association's Annual Convention in Charlotte, NC.

Our Program

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Trio Sonata in b, TWV 42:h4
From Essercizii Musici overo Dodeci Soli e Dodeci Trii a diversi stromenti (c. 1730s)
Largo
Vivace
Dolce
Vivace

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Aria [and improvisation], BWV 988

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Basso Continuo in g, HWV 364b
Andante Larghetto
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro

Johann Adolf Scheibe (1708-1776)
Sonata I in D for flute and obliggato harpsichord
Adagio
Allegro
Andante
Poco Presto

INTERMISSION

Tim Risher (b. 1957)
River (2009)
Flute and Harpsichord

Johann Mattheson (1681-1764)
Sonata III in A, from Brauchbare Virtuoso, 1720
Adagio
Allegro
Grave
Giga

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Sonata in G, H. 554
Adagio
Allegro
Vivace

Program Notes--

The city of Hamburg is not the only unifying element of our program. All of the eighteenth-century composers on our program knew each other personally or by reputation. Telemann was friends with JS Bach and stood as godfather to CPE Bach, Scheibe admired Bach’s work and met him when he auditioned for a job as an organist, and Scheibe was also friends with Mattheson. All musicians working in Hamburg knew Telemann, and anyone who wandered into Hamburg for the opera knew Mattheson. Handel became friends with Mattheson while he worked as a violin player in the Hamburg opera house, and Handel, a close friend of Telemann, subscribed to some of Telemann’s publications, while Telemann performed Handel’s operas as well as his own. Telemann’s poetry is found in two of Mattheson’s publications, and both Mattheson and Scheibe, in the roles as music critics, wrote favorably about Telemann’s music, referring to his works as compositional models for future composers. And, finally, CPE Bach’s reputation preceded him when moved from Berlin to Hamburg.

There were other composers of significance in Hamburg, to be sure, but our crew here may certainly be seen as the upper crust. Few composers were as highly regarded in their own lifetime as Telemann, Mozart referred to CPE Bach as “the father of music,” Handel was also well-known and highly regarded in his lifetime, as was Mattheson, and JS Bach was famous as a keyboard virtuoso. Of the group, Scheibe was the only one not well-known as a composer or performer, even though he wrote large quantities of music to go along with his many theoretical writings. If you were looking for a place that had a good music scene, Hamburg would have been on your short list.

The Trio Sonata in b, TWV 42:h4 is one of twelve trio sonatas found in Telemann’s seminal publication Essercizii Musici. The collection contains twenty-four total pieces; the other 12 sonatas are for various solo instruments with continuo. The collection is representative of the German sonata in the 1730s. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries words such as Essercizii or Übung were usually associated with collections of pieces that were for didactic purposes. Telemann leaves us in the dark by not providing the usual dedication or preface that similar collections have. These front pages typically explain what is to be learned or gleaned from the music. Based on a comparison of other didactic works by Telemann, we can put the pieces found in the Essercizii Musici in that same category. Telemann considered his trios to be his finest works, which makes calling this, his last publication, instructional pieces, more enigmatic.

Handel’s Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Basso Continuo in g, HWV 364b, is really a violin sonata (HWV 364a), with just a brief indication at the bottom of the first page of Handel’s autograph that it may also be played on the viola da gamba. This is a special piece because Handel wrote only four pieces for viola da gamba solo. Two of them are in operas (La Resurrezione, HWV 47, Giulio Cesare, HWV 17) and the other one is in a cantata (Tra le fiamme, HWV 170).

Scheibe’s Sonata I in D for flute and obliggato harpsichord gives an interesting perspective on Scheibe. Modern scholars have essentially ignored both his compositions and theoretical writings because of some published remarks he made about Johann Sebastian Bach (without actually referring to him by name). Yes, Bach was one of the examiners for an organist job that Scheibe did not get, and yes, he did say that Bach’s style was “confused” and that he cluttered up the beauty of his music with “excess art,” and that by writing out his ornamentation Bach took away a significant part of the performance process, but he said these things, 1737, at a time when there was a significant shift in musical tastes and compositional style, one which was, in theory, supposed to be based on an imitation of nature and persuasive melody, rather than a dense contrapuntal style. Scheibe’s writings are full of admiration of Bach, and he stated that Telemann, Hasse, and Graun were writing the best music of the day. The thematic material in the first and third movements of our sonata here are remarkably similar to the thematic material found in the first movement of J S Bach’s Sonata in b-minor, BWV 1030, for obbligato harpsichord and transverse flute. How could using Bach as a model for your own compositions be anything but flattery? Just because you do not like fugues because they have gone out of style is no reason to have your entire life’s work shunned by modern scholars.

Speaking of admiring Johann Sebastian Bach, the Aria and improvisation from BWV 988, just a small part from a larger work commonly known as the “Goldberg Variations.” Johann Gottleib Goldberg (1727-1756) is widely believed to have been a pupil of Bach’s, and Godlberg himself claimed that he was also a student of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784). Both of these claims are subject to speculation. Also of significant doubt is the anecdote that the Aria and 30 Variations, BWV 988 was written for Goldberg to play for his patron, Herman Karl von Keyserlingk, Russian ambassador to the court of Saxony. The length of the piece was supposed to have comforted Keyserlingk as he suffered from insomnia. What is true, based on contemporary accounts, is that Bach had exceptional skill as an improviser. Since the late fifteenth century the concept of improvisation is connected to creating music that lies outside of the expected or written composition. Professional musicians in Bach’s time were trained in many aspects of music other than proficiency on an instrument, and being able to improvise in an organized manner or on a theme or harmonic pattern was just another part of their work. Bernard and Gus will be taking the aria and then improvising on the bass line; this bass line and chord progression is on which the entire written composition by Bach is based.

Tim Risher writes about his piece, River: “I have composed many works for early instruments, which includes the Baroque Northwest and the Palladian Ensemble. The timbres created by these instruments brings up a whole new set of challenges which are quite different from modern timbres; I don't simply write a composition and assign it to whatever instrument is handy! "River", for baroque flute and harpsichord, was composed in 2009. The harpsichord sets up a pulsating figuration, with the flute flowing around the figures, starting at the low range of the instrument, slowly working its way up to the top and ending with the original line. It was written for Kim Pineda.”

The Sonata III in A, from Brauchbare Virtuoso (literally, “useful virtuoso”), was written by someone who was regarded as enormously talented in his own life. A child prodigy, performing as an organist and singer at age nine throughout Hamburg, trained in several instruments, and . . . sent to study law by his family (Handel and Telemann were also sentenced to law school in their youth, and you see what happened to them). Because of his singing prowess he spent fifteen years working in the Hamburg opera. As a singer he became acquainted with Handel, and later became friends, singing in Handel’s opera productions, even after an unpleasant encounter in which Handel’s life was spared from Mattheson’s sword by a large coat button. Until recently Mattheson’s place in the history of music has been largely based on his detailed critical and theoretical writings. These are important because we now have an incredible description of eighteenth-century musical culture at a time when it was making the shift from what we call Baroque to Classical. During this time tastes and styles changed significantly and we are now able to see this thanks to Mattheson’s (and others) writings. Much of his music was thought destroyed in World War II but it was merely hiding safely in Armenia. In the last 25 years we have been able to examine more of Mattheson’s music and see a larger picture of his contribution to opera, oratorio, and chamber music.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Sonata in G, H. 554, was actually written in Berlin, before he moved to Hamburg. We can speculate that if his Berlin employer, Frederick the Great, had allowed him to leave when he first asked, many more of Bach’s chamber music would have been written in Hamburg. Often overshadowed by his keyboard and orchestral music, CPE Bach’s chamber music is by no means inferior to the other, more well-known genres. The solo sonatas in particular demonstrate the transformation of late-eighteenth-century music from the Baroque polarity between melody instrument and continuo to the early classical/gallant style. Terms such as “empfindsamer stil” and “sturm und drang” are often used to describe the music of CPE Bach. The former term is characterized by the need for the music to produce a wide variety of emotions available. The latter term has been conscripted by musicians from eighteenth-century German literature and essentially refers to a passion and energy, or an energy and rebellion in the music. “Storm and stress” are only a small part of the musical meaning. The sonata is written in the typical layout of the mid-century: a slow movement followed by two faster movements of contrasting character.

From Prussia with Love II Program

2011-01-07T11:59:00.000-08:00

Frederick the Great (1712-1786)
Sonata in A

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Sonata in C, H. 558

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Concerto in D major, BWV 972
(arr. of Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in D major, RV 230), II. Larghetto

Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728-1788)
Sonata in D

Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750)
Chaconne in A minor

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)
Sonata in D, Op. 1, No. 4

J S Bach
Sonata in G, BWV 1039/1027

2010-11 Season

2011-01-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

All concerts on Saturday night at 7:30 PM

Concert I, September 25, 2010

The French Concoction: Parisian music with Italian Flavor

Kim Pineda, Bernard Gordillo, and August Denhard present a musical feast of music from 17th- and 18th-century France.

Concert II, February 19, 2011

From Prussia with Love II: Music from the courts of Berlin and Dresden

The Treaty of Dresden ended the war between Prussia, Saxony, and Austria. Kim Pineda, Bernard Gordillo, August Denhard, and Max Fuller share the benefits of this treaty with music from the two greatest musical establishments in 18th-century Germany.

Special Event

February 24, 25, 26, 2011:

Henry Purcell's Indian Queen

Kim Pineda is the music director for this collaborative program with Seattle Early Dance and the Early Music Guild of Seattle.

Baroque à la mode program

2009-09-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

Concert preview in the Seattle Times.

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1685-1765)
Sonata in a, Op. 37, No. 2

Marin Marais (1656-1728)
Le Labyrinthe, Book IV, 1717

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)
Sonata in G, Op. IX, no. 7

François Couperin (1668-1733)
“Les langueurs-tendres,” and “Les baricades mistérieuses”
From 6e ordre, Bb, Second livre de pieces de clavecin (Paris, 1716–17)

Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1674-1763)
“L’autre jour ma Cloris,” from Airs et Brunettes
"Rocher, je ne veux point que", from the Ursuline MS, New Orleans, 1734

Henry Grenerin (c. 1625-c. 1700)
Chaconne, from Livre de guitarre (1680), with improvisation

Michel Blavet (1700-1768)
Sonata in D, Op. 3, No. 5

Kim Pineda, Transverse flute
Ronnee Fullerton, Viola da gamba
Elizabeth C. D. Brown, Baroque guitar
August Denhard, Theorbo
Special Guest: Bernard Gordillo, Harpsichord

Our 2009-2010 Season!

2009-09-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

Concert One, September 19, 2009

Baroque à la mode

Couperin, Leclair, Marais, and Boismortier were all successful French composers who wrote beautiful chamber music for a variety of tastes. Their works are among the most cherished by today's performers and audiences alike. Harpsichordist Bernard Gordillo returns to Seattle to join the Baroque Northwest quartet.

Concert Two, December 19, 2009

The Spice of Life: Variations on Musical Themes

Vocal and instrumental music were closely tied together in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods each genre inspiring the other. While instrumentalists were on a quest to imitate the human voice, vocalists were inspired to new heights by their brilliant instrumental colleagues. Exhausting the potential of a musical theme through variation is a crowning achievement by musicians of all periods. Join the Baroque Northwest Quartet for instru- mental variations of vocal music, dance music, and everything in between.Variety is the spice of life!

Concert Three, February 6, 2010

The Scottish Harp, with Maxine Eilander

Early harp virtuoso Maxine Eilander joins Elizabeth C.D. Brown, Gus Denhard, and Ronnee Fullerton for music of Scotland, with a nod to Wales, Ireland, and Britain. The harp passed freely between the worlds of traditional and art music during the Renaissance and Baroque as it does today, and the British Isles produced some of the world’s finest “harpers” and performance styles. Baroque Northwest puts it all together with Maxine, one of Seattle’s musical treasurers.

Concert Four, March 20, 2010

Back to Basics: Baroque Northwest does the Standards

Revisit the Baroque standards as envisioned by the creative minds and instrumental palette of the Baroque Northwest Quartet. Like a jazz combo playing the standards from the golden age of jazz, Baroque Northwest returns to its roots and pays homage to the most renowned composers of the high Baroque. Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Telemann; it’s all good!

Concert: 20 March 2009

2009-04-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

Bach to the Futue: The Baroque Avant-Garde

Exploring the world was not new to those living in the Age of Enlightenment. The world of music was no different. For baroque music, beginning with the Seconda Pratica of Claudio Monteverdi, the Camerata of Vicenzo Galilei, and the stile moderno of Giulio Caccini, musicians have always been interested in creating new things that break from the “party line” and give their music a unique character. After all of the music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Friderick Handel, and Georg Philipp Telemann, what else could the younger generation, composers such as Johann Philipp Kirnberger and CPE Bach, do but push the envelope of tradition? And after John Dowland, what else could Johannes Hieronymous Kapsberger do as a lute composer?

Join The Baroque Northwest Trio (Kim Pineda, Ronnee Fullerton, and Gus Denhard) as we explore the outer limits of baroque music, with special guest Bernard Gordillo, harpsichord. Music by Johann Philipp Kirnberger, CPE Bach, Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Program

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)

Sonata in D, Op. 2, No. VIII

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)

Solo a Viola da Gamba e Basso, H. 557 (C major)

CPE Bach

Sonata in g, H 542.5

(Formerly attributed to JS Bach, BWV 1020)

INTERMISSION

Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger (c. 1580 – 1651)

Toccata and Gagliarda (1611)

Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721-1783)

Sonata in G, from the Giedde Collection, Copenhagen

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Trio Sonata in G, BWV 1039/1027

The players:

Kim Pineda, Transverse flute

Ronnee Fullerton, Viola da gamba

August Denhard, Theorbo and Lute

Bernard Gordillo, Harpsichord

Concert: 21 November 2008

2008-10-14T15:26:00.001-07:00

Mediterraneo II: More Music from Byzantium to Iberia
Friday, 21 November 2008, 7:30 PM. Pre-concert event at 7:00 PM.

What kind of music were you likely to hear if you lived, worked, and traveled around the complex and multicultural world of Byzantium? What instruments would you be playing and hearing as you traveled? If you were a musician, you’d have to be well versed in a variety of musical styles and be able to play more than one instrument. Add to this the undulations of the Ottoman Empire that were a political force in Italy and every Eastern European country for hundreds of years. See how these attempted conquests play out in musical terms!

Special Guests Kane Mathis and Ruthie Dornfeld join the Baroque Northwest Trio (Ronnee Fullerton, Elizabeth Brown, Gus Denhard) to play Traditional, Renaissance, and Baroque music from Turkey, Iberia, North Africa, and other countries.

Concert: 19 September 2008

2008-08-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Louis Louis: Music from the Courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV
Friday, 19 September 2008, 7:30 PM. Pre-concert event at 7:00 PM

For the 2008-2009 concert season, Baroque Northwest takes you on a tour of Europe in our new venue, Trinity Parish Church. Start in France, then to Spain and around the Mediterranean to Turkey, Germany by way of Italy, and with two stops in England. You’ll hear music by composers you’ve never experienced, and you’ll get better acquainted with some composers you’ve already met.

Louis Louis: Music from the Courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV. The artistic and cultural foundation set in place during Louis XIV’s long reign survived well into the time of Louis XV. But, ultimately, ruling the enormous empire built by XIV got the better of XV, and, by the time of Michel Blavet’s death in 1768, all things cultural had taken a turn for the worse. The composers on our program worked for one Louis or the other, or both, and the royal patronage was the gig to have in the 17th and 18th centuries. Join the Baroque Northwest Quartet (Kim Pineda, transverse flute, Ronnee Fullerton, viola da gamba, Elizabeth Brown, baroque guitar and archlute, and August Denhard, theorbo and baroque guitar) as we perform works by composers employed by the Sun King (Louis XIV) and his successor, Louis XV. Music by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Marin Marais, Michel Blavet, Anne-Danican Philidor, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, and Charles- François Gregoire de la Ferté.

In addition to the Louis connections, Philidor (brother of the first international chess master Francois-Andre Philidor), created the Parisian concert series, Le concert spirituel. It was on this series that Blavet stepped into the limelight and became recognized as one of the premier musicians of his day, and not just a flute virtuoso. Blavet made his first appearance at the concert spirituel at the age of 26. He performed his own concerto, at the time a new form of composition in France, and afterwards, because of his exciting manner of playing, the flute became more popular in France. Marais and Hotteterre, each significant in the development of their respective instruments and repertoire (viola da gamba and flute), were well established by the time of Blavet’s debut. It is likely that Blavet used an instrument made by the Hotteterre family. A childhood prodigy, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre performed for Louis XIV at the age of five and subsequently went on to establish herself as one of the few well-known woman composers of her time. We know less-than-little about François Gregoire de la Ferté, other than he was one of the first French composers to write chamber music with the title of sonata. Sonata XII is the only piece in the collection that treats the treble and bass parts as equal soloists.

Our new venue, the Parish Hall at Trinity Parish Church in downtown Seattle, is a performance space similar to a typical salon de musique in 18th-century France. Large enough to comfortably seat our audience, but intimate enough to make the listener feel as if they are enjoying the music in someone’s home.