Saturday, October 14, 2017

The violinophone in a Bach Brandenburg Concerto

Violí Stroh (ca. 1900), Compagnie française du gramophone. Museo de la Música de Balcelona.
In a review of a 1930 concert conducted by Villa-Lobos, Mario de Andrade mentions Villa's innovative use of a violinophone in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 1. Bach calls for a violino piccolo, which is tuned a minor third or fourth higher than a regular violin. This is hardly Historically Informed Practice by today's standards, but Andrade was impressed: "The effect was very curious, especially the timbre in the second movement, marrying admirably the timbre of the violinophone with that of certain wind instruments."

From: http://literalmeida.blogspot.ca/2008/01/msica-na-semana-de-22.html
Villa-Lobos had used the violinophone, also called a Stroh violin after its inventor, in Amazonas from 1917.


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