Oates for Tanger
Mon, 10 Mar 2003
A free and manly style
VANHALL, John, in Biography, an instrumental composer of great and original genius, was born at Vienna in 1740. We know not what he had published previous to his symphonies, which were composed in 1767, and soon circulated in MS. all over Europe. The duke of Dorset, we believe, first brought them to England about the year 1771. Several excellent symhonies of the Manheim school had been previously published by Bremner, which introduced us very agreeably to the new style of German symphony with the symphonies of Haydn, the spirited, natural, and unaffected style of Vanhall excited more attention at our concerts than any foreign music which we had imported for a long time. They were admirably played at the Pantheon concerts, when led by La Motte, Giardini, and the elder Cramer. He composed too much perhaps, and for too great a variety of instruments; but his symponies, quartets and other productions for violins, certainly deserve a place among the first productions, in which unity of melody, pleasing harmony, and a free and manly style are preserved.
Charles Burney, Cyclopaedia via Johann Wanhal, Viennese Symphonist His Life and His Musical Environment by Paul Bryan.
Posted at 21:36 #
Tuning and temperaments
Pythagorean Tuning and Medieval Polyphony. Very good, long, explanation of tuning and temperaments from the early music faq.
Posted at 15:04 #
