An introduction to Close Encounters: Re-Tuned by program curator and violinist, Geneviève Gilardeau
Meeting on the lea rig
“lea rig (Scottish): a grassy ridge or piece of land: a ridge left unplowed in a cultivated field” (Merriam-Webster)
When I started looking for music for this program, I let myself be led by the scordatura (different way of tuning the violin) which was required to play the Erlebach Trio Sonata in A Major, a piece that I had been dreaming of programming for several years. Ploughing through libraries and music collections, I realized that this ‘’open tuning’’ or ‘’vielle tuning‘’ (tuning up the two lower strings of the usual GDAE tuning to arrive at AEAE) was one of the many meeting ridges between composed and traditional music. Fiddlers use this tuning to be heard over a merry crowd of dancers, and in both composed and traditional pieces, this tuning gives an expansive nature to the music.
The “Lea Rig” Sonata, found in the 1794 Collection of Scotch, Galwegian, and Border Tunes by Robert Riddle, uses a traditional Scottish tune and passes it through baroque andantes, gavottes, and allemandes. Later, Robert Burns set words to this tune: “I‘ll meet thee on the lea rig.” Erlebach, Biber, Veracini, and Tartini meet up around the “Lea Rig” Sonata in this program, joined by a few fiddlers.
Close Encounters: Re-Tuned
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Program
H.I.F. von Biber
1644–1704
Partia III for 2 violins & continuo
Praeludium – Allemande – Amener – Balletto – Gigue – Ciacona
Traditional
Lea-Rig
Robert Ridell, ed.
The Lea-Rig Sonata, from Collection of Scotch, Galwegian, and Border Tunes, 1794
Andante – Largo – Vivace – Tempo di Gavotta – Giga – Presto
Giuseppe Tartini
1692–1770
Grave, from Sonata in A Major, op. 1, no. 13
Michel Corrette
1707–1795
Rondeau – Adagio – Presto, from L’École d’Orphée, op. 18
Pierre Ballard, ed.
FromTablature de luth de differens autheurs, sur les accords nouveaux (Paris, 1631)
Prélude (by P. Ballard) – Courante (by Chevalier)
Anonymous
From Margaret Board lute book (c.1635)
Half hannikan – Hemp and flax or tedro – Have at thei coate old woman – Saterday night –Canares
Simon Riopel
Valse des poêles
Francesco Maria Veracini
1690–1768
Scozzesse, from Sonata in A Major, op. 2, no. 9 (based on Scots tune “Tweedside”)
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach
1657–1714
Sonata terza for violin, viola da gamba & continuo
Adagio/Allegro/Lento – Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Ciaconne – Finale: Adagio
Geneviève Gilardeau & Cristina Zacharias violins
Felix Deak viola da gamba & violoncello
Lucas Harris theorbo & lute