Ernst Gottlieb Baron (1696-1760) - Concerto per flauto a becco e liuto
Performers: Ensemble Barocco Sans Souci
Further info: Baron - The Lute At the Court of Frederick the Great
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German lutenist, composer and writer on music. Neither Baron’s life nor
his works have as yet been fully explored by scholars. His father
Michael was a maker of gold lace and expected his son to follow in his
footsteps. The younger Baron showed an inclination towards music in his
youth, however, and later made it his profession. He first studied the
lute from about 1710 with a Bohemian named Kohott (not to be confused
with the later Karl von Kahaut). In Breslau he attended the Elisabeth
Gymnasium, and from there went in 1715 to Leipzig, where he studied
philosophy and law at the university for four years. Much of the period
from 1719 to 1728 was spent in travels from one small court to another.
He first visited Halle for a short period, then in quick succession
Cöthen, Schleiz, Saalfeld and Rudolstadt. He arrived in Jena in 1720 and
remained for two years. Thereafter he travelled to Kassel, Fulda,
Würzburg, Nuremberg and Regensburg, returning in 1727 to Nuremberg where
his Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments
der Lauten, the work for which he is principally remembered, was
published the same year. In 1728 he replaced the lutenist Meusel, who
had recently died, at Gotha and held the post for four years. With the
death of the Duke of Gotha he moved on to Eisenach. In 1737, after
visits to Merseburg, Cöthen and Zerbst, Baron joined the musical
ensemble of Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia. He was immediately
granted permission to go to Dresden to purchase a theorbo, and there met
the highly esteemed lutenists S.L. Weiss and Hofer. When Frederick
became king in 1740, Baron continued to serve as theorbist in the much
expanded royal musical establishment. He remained at this post until his
death. Baron’s Untersuchung is a valuable though not always reliable
source of information about lutenists and lute playing in the late
Baroque era, when the instrument was still widely cultivated in solo and
ensemble performance in Germany. The work is divided into two main
parts. The first deals with the history of the lute, and contains
important references to contemporary players. The second is devoted to
the practice of the instrument. Baron’s other writings, as yet
incompletely studied, supplement the Untersuchung, and explore several
other subjects. The few accessible examples of Baron’s compositions
suggest that he cultivated a characteristic late Baroque idiom in his
suites, but moved in the direction of the galant style in his concertos.
The latter are in fact trio sonatas in texture, cast in the
three-movement form of the concerto.
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