Eberlin: Nine Toccatas / David Titterington
Eberlin was a German composer, born in 1702, who was organist to the archbishop of Salzburg. Leopold Mozart bought him highly and recommended his works to his own son, but Mozart himself was not too keen on them. His work “Nine Toccatas” is indeed a curious piece. Each piece is written in the form of a so-called “Toccata and Fugue” with a fugue after each piece. In other words, it is a collection of 18 movements in total. However, when you listen to this CD for the first time, you should feel something strange. Then, you may try to check the score. That’s right. What is strange about this collection is that all 18 pieces are written in 4/4 time. In other words, there is not a single movement here in three time signatures. This is almost unbelievable. Because in European classical music, approximately 60% is in 3 time. No, some composers (e.g.Couperin and Chopin) have 80% of their music in 3 time. Did Eberlein’s collection come about by mere chance? I was curious and checked his other works (choral pieces), but it seems that the percentage of 4 beats prevails. #baroque #eberlin #片山俊幸
