I am very happy to tell you that links to the sheet music (parts and scores) are being added! It is almost all housed on International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), although some are to be found elsewhere. The links appear as underlined boldface.
If you do not see a link to the sheet music of a piece you are interested in, Please leave me a message and I will see if I can track it down. Don't forget, though, you can easily print the sheet music directly from the MIDI file using MuseScore. See the blog entry on 7/6/2020 for the simple steps to do it.
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Each item in the list of recent additions on the home page now has an active link that will take you to the page containing the announced work(s). Just click on the composer's name.
If all works of a specific type by a composer have been posted, I have added the annotation (complete). For example, there are twelve known Fantasias à 6 by John Jenkins, so that is marked as (complete).
If you do not see this, you will know that other works of that type exist by that composer. For example, there are six duets for two alto recorders by Georg Philipp Telemann available here, but it is not marked as (complete), as there are at least twelve other duets that I know of. I would especially value hearing from you if you know of some additional works that I am unaware of! I have included, when I can find them, links to comprehensive lists of works by a composer. I suppose they could be called Easter Eggs. The term "Easter Egg" has come to be used to mean a message, image, or feature hidden in some electronic medium.
For example, on the Giovanni Gabrieli page I have included a link to a comprehensive list of his compositions. Some of the entries contain additional information, such as this entertaining description of his Canzon No. 1 (La Spiritata): "On the highest feast days in Renaissance Venice, the Doge himself, with all the Signoria of the city, was required to participate in the Cathedral's religious ceremony. Permeable boundaries between church and state dissolved, as the ceremonial head of the Venetian government united with the people in ceremonial worship. And by the turn of the seventeenth century, the wealth of the Venetian mercantile state had become an intrinsic part of the same worship services. When Giovanni Gabrieli prepared music for the Cathedral's celebration of Christmas, for instance, he could not only muster the large instrumental and vocal forces of the Cathedral's regular musical establishment, but could also supplement them with extras; in 1603, for instance, he paid four cornettists, five trombones, one basson, two violins, and a violone player to add to the splendor of the ceremony. Yet the vibrant musical life of the Venetian state can be reflected even in his instrumental works of more modest character. A "simple" four-voiced canzona such as Gabrieli's piece known as "La spiritata" elegantly portrays the effervescent life of the Carnival city. Gabrieli's Canzon "La spiritata" was published in a 1608 anthology of Venetian music, though a keyboard version of his piece exists from as early as 1593. It achieved the epithet "the spirited," despite its unique character as the only Gabrieli canzona in this collection written in a minor key. Right from the opening measures, however, the composer tinges its minor key with positive highlights by a sprightly, more ebullient rhythm the usual canzona dactyls. Though the opening motive is subject to strict paired imitation, the counterpoint remains generally simple throughout the piece, in the spirit of the French chansons then popular in Venice. After a long yet contrapuntally straightforward exposition and a quick stretto, the first section comes to a complete cadence from which a more homophonic triple-meter passage emerges, its dance-like character also belying the minor mode. In the third and final section of the piece, Gabrieli introduces the most complex rhythms, though both harmonic and textural simplicity still reign. In fact, the two principal motor-rhythms of this final passage both derive directly from the opening rhythm, and only outline simple triadic motions and cadential gestures. The passage repeats, and a predictable but emphatic extension of the final cadence closes the work in a continued character of high spirits." Enjoy! I have broadly categorized the music here as being either Recorder music or Viola da Gamba music. My intention is to offer only music written specifically for recorder under the recorder heading. However, there are many editions of 'music for recorder' on the market that are transcriptions of viola da gamba music transposed up, usually by an octave. If you are a recorder player looking for a MIDI file to match sheet music that you have, do not neglect the music listed here as Viola da Gamba music. Since these are MIDI files, your player will most likely allow you to transpose it to fit the music you have!
If you have any questions please let me know and I will try to help! |
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Formerly a successful software engineer and then Mathematics instructor, I am now retired and keep busy as an amateur musician of early music. Archives
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