Music Monday: Partitas For Solo Violin 1696
from Suite #1
Source: IMSLP
Image Credit: Wikipedia & Wikimedia
The six partitas for solo violin by Johann Paul von Westhoff are the earliest known published music for solo violin. Although Westhoff’s compositions were rediscovered by scholars […] in the mid-19th century, this work was not found until the late 20th century.
The collection […] was discovered […] by musicologist Peter P. Várnai. He announced his discovery in a 1971 article […] published in Die Musikforschung, volume 24. The extant copy is dated 1696 (three hundred & twenty-five years, ago) but, it may be a reprint (partial or full) of a much earlier publication by Westhoff…the Erstes Dutzend Allemanden, Couranten, Sarabanden und Giguen Violino Solo sonder Passo Continuo. [That] collection was published in Dresden in 1682 and is considered lost. The first modern edition of the partitas appeared in 1974.
Nothing is known about how or when the partitas were composed. One other work for solo violin by Westhoff survives, a 1683 suite published in an issue of Dresden’s Mercure galant. [It] is entirely possible that the composer had more solo violin works. The […] surviving partitas are historically important works […] and were most probably the inspiration for Johann Sebastian Bach‘s sonatas and partitas for solo violin.
The partitas all consist of four dances, arranged in the standard late Baroque order… an Allemande, the Courante, the Sarabande and the Gigue. The music is technically demanding. [It is] fully polyphonic with frequent instances of tricky double stopping.
Johann Paul von Westhoff was a German Baroque composer and violinist. One of the most important exponents of the Dresden violin school, he was among the highest ranked violinists of his day […].
Johann Paul von Westhoff 1656-1705 (On Baroque)
List of Known Works
References
Cosmic-Observation 
January 7, 2021 at 9:55 AM
I love violins as a part of a bigger picture…but by themselves they drive me crazy…go right through me…but I respect anyone who can play one well.
When do you call it a violin and when do you call it a fiddle?
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January 7, 2021 at 10:40 AM
So, a wailing violin doesn’t do it for ya’? 😄
I would have to guess that, if you are in an orchestra, it’s a violin. If you are Charlie Daniels…or the devil, it’s a fiddle. 🤔🤨😎
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January 7, 2021 at 3:43 PM
No it does not lol…
I know…it’s the same bleeping instrument…it just depends on the music
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January 7, 2021 at 10:50 AM
Hey. Style of music is everything.
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January 7, 2021 at 10:52 AM
Yea I know…but it’s odd…if it’s bluegrass then that violin is a fiddle lol
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January 7, 2021 at 10:58 AM
This is interesting:
https://differencecamp.com/fiddle-vs-violin-differences/
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January 7, 2021 at 4:01 PM
Well that shows there is a bit of difference in setup…I didn’t know that
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January 7, 2021 at 11:24 AM
I didn’t either until I started reading.
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January 7, 2021 at 11:39 AM
They have to keep Jansen…I mean he is not bad…he is just not what he was…plus he is making big time money for this year and he is gone next year….no one would take him
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January 7, 2021 at 2:24 PM
Who is Jansen? Is he a violinist? I didn’t see that name in the article.
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January 7, 2021 at 3:37 PM
LOL…he is the reliever for the Dodgers! I was commenting back and forth to Dave at the same time…damn it…I wonder what I told him???
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January 7, 2021 at 3:52 PM
LOL! You goofy…
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January 8, 2021 at 10:52 PM
Something so soothing about violin for me.
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January 9, 2021 at 3:54 PM
I sat and listened to the music while I typed the post. I liked it.
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