Schmidt - Overture Suites

I’d missed the release earlier this year of music by Johann Christoph Schmidt—a composer born into a musical family based in Dresden. For this recording, the period ensemble L’arpa festante is led by baroque violinist Anton Steck, although he does not perform in this recording of suites.

Readers will already be familiar with the so-called overture-suite, comparing perhaps to Schmidt in this case the many examples left by Telemann, but also those by Bach. Schmidt’s activity was contemporaneous with Telemann and Bach, having been born in 1664. The liner notes from this CPO recording are chock-full of historical details, as I am sure Schmidt isn’t a name that you’re well-familiar with. Like Handel, he had the opportunity to travel to Italy to learn and soak-up musical culture. As the notes detail, he was brought up within a Protestant church musical culture, at a time when Prince Elector Friederich August I was converting to Catholicism. Much of his church music was lost in a fire.

These overture-suites would have been used for festive occasions. Many call for oboes in addition to the strings. Two call for horns, including the G-minor suite “for two choirs” of instruments. The instrumental forces used for this production include thirteen string players, in addition to lute, double harpsichords, bassoon, in addition to the aforementioned oboes and horns. The acoustic sound of the recording is a bit live, having been recorded in a church. Some listeners may, like me, prefer a bit more transparent sound, feeling as if we’re closer to the musicians. That said, I could well imagine hearing this music performed in a large space suitable for accommodating a festive occasion.

Overture-Suite in G minor

The longest and largest piece on the recording is this suite, tracks 6-14. Several “Airs” are included, along with both an “Intrade” and an overture. The work ends with a chaconne, completely rife with French flavor. The “two choirs” are split between the winds and strings. Also called for is a tenor oboe, or taille, an instrument made popular by Lully. Each of the movements are relatively short.

The piece oddly opens in a major key with the binary movement marked “Intrade.” It would make me think this introductory movement likely served to bridge a previous piece into this suite, centered in G minor. The overture, proper, feels luxurious in its presentation, with the inclusion of two harpsichords.

By the time we get to the first “Air,” it’s obvious that Schmidt has fully embraced a French aesthetic through his writing, choosing good thematic material. With the strong musical culture in Dresden, it shouldn’t be surprising that to make it as a composer it would require some good compositional chops.

It’s in the Menuet that we get a good taste of a change in sound when the small double reed band takes focus, which gives us a break from the continuous sound of winds and strings playing in tandem. The ensemble’s wind players are strong, playing well together.

Perhaps the “odd” movement, the fifth, is marked “Sinfonie.” It’s little more than a dramatic pause, a slow, then fast movement, introducing some chromatic harmonic action to bring on that drama. It makes me wonder if this music wasn’t composed for the inclusion of dancers? I can nearly picture Lully keeping time in the “Grand Air” with his conducting stick.

After a second “Air,” the “Grand Air” comes back for a repeat. It makes me wonder, how would musicians of the time differentiated themselves in this kind of orchestral setting, either through this repeated piece, or in the movements with repeats? Steck and his musicians don’t try much in this area, which I wonder if it wasn’t a missed opportunity? Say, use of flutes instead of oboes, or playing 1 per part, with some improvisatory insertions?

The Chaconne returns us to the major mode. I was personally disappointed Schmidt didn’t give us more music for this; under Steck, the whole Chaconne doesn’t go to three minutes. One of Schmidt’s strengths, I think in this piece, is his back-and-forth between the strings and winds for a healthy dose of variety.

Overture-Suite in F

This piece is short, or otherwise incomplete. It’s three movements, all told lasting just ten minutes. The two oboes take a strong role in the overture, first movement. In the fast section, the strings play second fiddle with the winds capturing our ears with melodic material. The “Air Grave” starts strong with angular writing, taking a more Italian flavor, I think, reminding me a bit of Handel’s writing. The short departure into the minor mode, led by the oboes, is a delicious moment.

The dotted rhythms that extend the Air point back to French style.

It’s only in the “Menuetto,” and yes, I think the spelling is of special import, do the horns make their appearance. The episodic construction give another “second choir” treatment to the oboes and basso continuo.

I couldn’t help but think that doubling or tripling the oboes, and adding timpani, would have made this suite suitable for outdoor performance. If this short, three-movement work isn’t missing material, it may have otherwise served as introductory music. It’s too bad there’s not more!

Overture-Suite in A minor

This piece’s construction, movement wise, looks more typical: Overture, Air, Sarabande, Forlane, Loure, and Passepieds, all the types of dances we saw Bach use.

The overture, again, has a strong French flavor. L’Arpa play together well, feeling to me as if their phrasing with oboes and strings playing in tandem is tight, same for the bass forces. Among all the movements, I really liked the opening Overture.

The flavor conveyed in the Air Grave is again French. But it’s clear that Schmidt has his own voice, which speaks to the tragedy of having lost so much of his sacred music. I may have well expected this piece to be by Rameau.

There’s something about the Sarabande that again reminds me of Handel—perhaps something from his water music?

The short Forlane has a good toe-tapping aspect to it, something a faster tempo and dotted rhythm seem well-equipped to do. This reminded me of some of the Hamburg overtures that had been recorded by Akamus some years ago on Harmonia Mundi. In that recording, percussion was included which gave the music an overtly festive component.

Again in the final movement, we start out in a major mode. It only takes two minutes to run through two passepieds, before repeating the first. The writing is quirky enough to remind me of Zelenka, especially so with the color of oboes.

Final Thoughts

You’ll notice I couldn’t help but try and figure Schmidt out, in terms of his stylistic origins. Despite his music reminding me of other composers’ music, across these pieces he has a fairly consistent musical voice. The length of the pieces perhaps hold him back in my ultimate opinion of his compositional prowess, but I’m willing to believe his music was well-received. While Dresden was a cosmopolitan musical center that seemed open to Italian style, these pieces play homage to France. As the liner notes profess, Schmidt is in command of a mixture of musical styles that dominated the German music scene, as we know is well documented many times through the music of other composers, some already named and well-familiar.

I found this recording refreshing fodder. The music, admittedly, is not profound upon its own, but it is a fresh voice among the rotation of what by now for you (and for me) are some well-worn discs of similar music by better-known composers. For this reason, you may well wish to indulge in these pieces, perhaps written for the occasion of wedding celebrations.

For those of you who enjoy exploring new music from the past, you’ll find that Schmidt’s musical voice is strong, that he was no slouch in terms of pushing onto listeners some of his own unique musical ideas into the stylistic dress that no doubt resonated with audiences at the time, pulling inspiration from multiple models.