Chaconne in g minor (from the Duo in g minor SW 14-6) by Sylvius Leopold Weiss Chamber Music - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1552534

Sylvius (or Silvius) Leopold Weiss (1687-1750) was an almost contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, being born two years after the birth of the master and dying in the same year. Unlike the great composer, however, Weiss wrote almost exclusively for the lute, while Bach only used the lute in rare occasions.

The lute had a long history and was, in its last incarnation before becoming obsolete, an extremely complex instrument, with as many as fourteen courses (double strings), some of which could only be played open. Most of the literature for the lute was written in entablature.

Weiss left us over one hundred sonate (in reality suites of dances) of incomparable richness and beauty, works which either lay for many years neglected or were revived in guitar transcriptions that did no justice to the majesty of the original versions. There is a "lute" suite in the style of Weiss (so called because the composer knew that for his mystification to be accepted he needed to attribute it to a lesser-known composer than Bach) by the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, who wrote it especially for the guitarist Andrés Segovia. Only now, with the rise of great lutenists, such as Robert Barto and Hopkinson Smith, are we rediscovering the genius of these magnificent works, works that can compare positively with those of the Great Bach himself, and neither would Bach be offended by such a comparison.

In matter of fact, Bach and Weiss were acquainted and the former arranged the latter's lute sonata in A (SC 47) for the violin and harpsichord (BWV 1025). t is important to note that Bach never wrote for the lute: his "lute" music consisting of pieces written for the lute-harpsichord, a keyboard instrument that imitated the sound of the lute so closely that even Weiss himself was fooled when they both met! These "lute" pieces can only be played on the lute if they are transcribed.

Weiss' catalogue does list, however, some lute concerti, some concerti (in reality sonate) for the flute and lute and some duos for an unspecified melody instrument and the lute. These have partially come down to us, notably, in the London manuscript, in the form of lute entablature where the upper parts are missing.

The present Chaconne comes from the London Manuscript. It is the last of six movements of the duo in g minor SW 14 and alternates solo passages for the lute with passages where the lute plays the accompaniment to a missing melody. Several reconstructions have been attempted, some simple, in which a melody instrument (the violin, for example) plays the solo passages, to more complex ones, where a new part (for the flute, for example) has been composed based on the lute part.

Being no scholar, I would not even attempt to define mine as a reconstruction. First of all, I transcribed the work for the violin and the harpsichord. I did not compose a part for the violin, but simply superimposed the existing part of melodic interest on to the lute accompaniment (in effect, repeating each variation but inverting the roles: violin solo with lute accompaniment, then lute solo with violin accompaniment.) This worked quite well and I only needed to make minor adjustments to either part and hardly had to do any recomposing.

All slurs, expression marks, ornaments, tempi and metronome indications are mine.