Scheidler: the LAST lutenist? Rondo from Sonata in D played by Phantasia on violin & mandora (lute)
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#rondo #violin #lute #phantasia #mandora #classicalmusic
Rondo from Sonata in D by Christian Gottlieb Scheidler (1747 - 1829) played by Phantasia: Emma-Marie Kabonova (classical violin) and Chris Hirst (mandora). Scheidler occupies an interesting position in the long history of the lute. He is sometimes described as the last lutenist, but was he?
Not much information survives about Scheidler's life. He was born in Aken in central Germany in 1747, so younger than Haydn and 9 years older than Mozart. It seems that he was known as a cellist, lutenist and composer from 1768, and worked in various courts. From 1778 to 1812 he was employed as a court lutenist and cellist at the court of the Elector of Mainz, but fled to Frankfurt am Main at the beginning of 1794 during the siege of Mainz by French troops, where he mainly taught private guitar lessons. From 1808 to 1814 he was employed by the Frankfurt Theaterkapelle, after which he returned to Mainz, where he died in 1829.
Scheidler's only surviving work for the 13-course lute is a set of variations on a theme from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, dating from around 1788. This is also the last surviving solo piece for this instrument. This piece presents performance practice questions as the main theme (the "Champagne Aria") must be played fairly slowly in order to play the variations at the same tempo, and much slower than it is heard in the opera today. Was the aria intended to be slower? Or were the variations played at a different tempo to the theme, which goes against usual practice? Or was it just a free interpretation? Although only this piece survives, there must have been many more lute compositions by Scheidler, as he was employed for many years as a chamber musician so would have had to play when commanded, and there are written accounts of him playing the lute later on in his life. There is also a painting of Scheidler playing a 13-course swan neck lute, by his age this must have been well into the 19th century. With demand for and interest in the lute very much in decline by this point, Scheidler also began to play and teach the newly fashionable guitar and also composed some solos and duets with violin. It is telling that he chose to be painted playing a lute rather than guitar, and in the descriptions of solo performances he gave, Scheidler played the lute or mandora as well as guitar. Perhaps he was most fond of the lute, and played and wrote for the guitar as there was little demand for lute music or teaching by that point.
So was Scheidler actually the last lutenist? Probably the last professional player of note of the 13-course 'old' lute, yes. But certainly not the last lutenist. As the 13-course lute with it's 24 strings and complex technique fell out of favour, a new simpler type of lute took it's place and was particularly popular with amateurs - the mandora. Originally with double strings and often only 6 courses, the later early 19th century form of the mandora had single strings, in the Viennese tuning as it the instrument played in this video, it had 8 singles strings tuned in E. See this video for more details and to hear the last surviving solo piece which specifies mandora: • The LAST EVER piece of...
The mandora was played up to the 1830s at least, so as the Sonata in D that this Rondo comes from dates from around 1814 (and the model used here is based on descriptions c.1812) it fits very nicely in this repertoire. Scheidler is also recorded as having played and taught the mandora as well as the 13-course lute. The first publication of this 3 movement Sonata seems to require a 5 string guitar, but I have adapted the bassline to make use of the mandora's extra bass range, particularly the low D string which is very useful in this piece. The Rondo is the final movement, and has a very catchy theme interspersed with typical classical period writing. Both parts are very much equal and have plenty of interplay. I like to think that Scheidler would have given a little smile to hear his piece played on a lute, as he was clearly very fond of it!
Recorded at St. Helen's Church on the Isle of Wight, which was built in 1719 so just the right era! See the other Phantasia video of Scottish baroque music (violin & theorbo) here:
• Scottish baroque music...
If you enjoyed this video, please help us to produce more by subscribing to the channel, where you will find plenty more lute related content and other folk styles such as Portuguese and Neapolitan traditional music. Emma-Marie Kabanova's KZread channel is here, where you can find lots of great violin videos: / @emmamariekabanova
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Many thanks to Alexander Kabanov for filming this video: / askabanov
Пікірлер: 29
Beautiful! Did you also record the other movements? I would love to hear them!
@Quatrapuntal
10 ай бұрын
Not yet but we are going to, this is the most catchy though! I just had a look at your channel, very interesting you play really well! I heard of the zither as a folk instrument but didn't know too much about it. I was trying to understand how the open strings are played - are they chromatic bass strings? I am very keen on playing lesser known music so it's nice to come across new things.
The editing is superb!
@Quatrapuntal
3 ай бұрын
Thanks, do you do video editing? I generally try and time shot changes to the music which I think makes it more coherent, and speed of changes also to the tempo of the music, so faster in this as the music is fast. Compare to this one that was filmed at the same time, as the music is slower it suited slower changes and more fades etc. kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZZ56sLGNibSwXZs.html
Thank you very much for that fun. It invits for dancing.
@Quatrapuntal
9 ай бұрын
Yes it is nice to play some of this later repertoire on a lute. Vienna was one of the places where the mandora/lute was played most in the 19th century. There are some paintings I wanted to look at by Amerling (e.g. in the Belvedere) but didn't have time when I was there. The Kunsthistorisches Museum was also closed when I went which I wanted to see.
Love how the lute and the violin play off each other in this piece!
@Quatrapuntal
10 ай бұрын
Yes it's nice to get the tune sometimes! Usually I am accompanying but this is very much equal, so nice for me to play something different like this.
@johnmurdoch8534
9 ай бұрын
I'm attemping to learn this piece on fiddle and notice that it appears you are playing in a lower tuning, perhaps a half step down ? @@Quatrapuntal
@Quatrapuntal
9 ай бұрын
@@johnmurdoch8534 yes it's a baroque violin with gut strings, so playing at baroque pitch which is A=415, a semitone below modern pitch. If you have the score the rest of the sonata is good as well, we play it all in concerts.
Wonderful as always
Mooi samenspel. Mandora, nooit van gehoord maar ik ben meteen fan!
@Quatrapuntal
10 ай бұрын
Lots more mandora on this channel! Try this: kzread.info/dash/bejne/eq6Z2qSMZpCvhbA.html
Another good video. Since we are in the later XVIII century, have you investigated Haydn's two trii with lute?
@Quatrapuntal
10 ай бұрын
This piece is later than that, around 1812, but the style is very much classical, Scheidler was 9 years older than Mozart but lived a long time (82, quite an achievement without modern medicine!). Yes I used to have a group years ago including violin and cello and we always played the Cassation, I think that and a quartet are the only surviving pieces. There are more mentioned in the Breitkopf catalogues from that time, which have presumably been lost. I doubt they were done by Haydn, as there are occasional 'mistakes', but still nice to be able to play things like that. Mozart also wrote a few bars at least for the lute in 1790.
@sorryusernametaken66
10 ай бұрын
In fact, there is a lute divertimento Hob IV:F2 (this type of catalogue entry usually means Hoboken is doubtful about the authenticity of a piece) and (presumably) the Cassation you mention, Hob. III:6 (which implies Hoboken believes it is authentic).
@Quatrapuntal
10 ай бұрын
I think the other piece is a quartet which I have somewhere, adapted from a Haydn string quartet as is the Cassation, but as the viola doesn't add much there it can be absorbed into the other parts. There are quite a lot of original lute trios for lute, violin & cello (later mandora, violin & cello) from the 18th century, mostly written by player composers as it's such an idiomatic instrument. This was a precursor of the piano trio, whether it had any role in inspiring that who knows, but there are quite a lot of examples.
@Quatrapuntal
10 ай бұрын
Forgot to say, the music is 100% by Haydn as there are autograph string quartets with the same material, it is the arrangements that are questionable. There were quite a few more than these 2 listed in the Breitkopf catalogues, so they were published in Haydn's time as well.
@sorryusernametaken66
10 ай бұрын
Those were the two I have on CD.
Oh this is great! How do you tune your Mandora?
@Quatrapuntal
9 ай бұрын
Thank you, they were tuned either in D or E, mine is a Viennese model so in E. There is more information about it here, which is also the last surviving piece that specifies mandora: kzread.info/dash/bejne/eq6Z2qSMZpCvhbA.html
@ianflurrance8438
9 ай бұрын
Thank you for the answer! I saw that the basses are D and C but when you say the instrument is tuned to E does that mean the other 6 strings are tuned like a guitar, or is it tuned an E chord more like a baroque lute? My apologize if I missed that information in my reading.
@Quatrapuntal
9 ай бұрын
I hesitate to say "tuned like a guitar" because that implies that the tuning came from the guitar which it certainly didn't, but yes same intervals. The first mandora (also called gallichon or variants) was tuned in D like a bass lute or viola da gamba, this tuning existed right the way though but they also started to tune a tone higher in E later on. This happens to be the same as the guitar, but arrived at a different way. The mandora had the 6th course way before the guitar, which had only 5 courses until the end of the 18th century and in some cases beyond.
@ianflurrance8438
9 ай бұрын
@@Quatrapuntal thank you very much for such a detailed response! The instrument has really captured my imagination as a classical guitarist who wants to move over to lute.
Was that a multi cam shoot or did you play it multiple times?
@Quatrapuntal
9 ай бұрын
Both, there is no way you can get that many different shots from one play through.
Note that the mandora is a single-strung lute. Most members of the lute family have double courses.
@Quatrapuntal
10 ай бұрын
This is the latest version of it from the early 19th century, earlier mandoras often had double strings although there are some single strung even from the early 18th century when it originated. There is more info about it in the description of this video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/eq6Z2qSMZpCvhbA.html
HEY MR HIRST