The Last Lute Player

Daniel Murphy – lute

Bernhard Joachim Hagen – Sonata a Liuto Solo in F minor
Silvius Leopold Weiss – Tombeau Sur la mort de M. Comte de Logy
Bernhard Joachim Hagen – Sonata a Liuto solo in C minor
Silvius Leopold Weiss – Partita No.96 in G Major
Karl Ignas Augustin Kohaut – Sonata a Liuto Solo in D major

Performed on a 13-course swan neck baroque lute, this program focuses on the last epoch of the lutes life. Bernard Joachim Hagen is widely considered the last professional lute composer before the instrument died out. He had a unique compositional style heavily influenced by the beginning of the Sturm und Drang period. His scores are very precisely written, regularly instructing the performer to play something with unconventional fingerings to achieve his desired effect. Accompanying these two Hagen sonatas is some more conventional Sylvius Leopold Weiss showing the style of lute music that was more expected at the time. His sonata in G major comes from the Moscow Manuscript that is estimated to have been created 10 years after Weiss’ death showing that his music was still very much in vogue. Karl Ignas Augustin Kohaut, while not as important a figure as Hagen, shares many of his characteristics. Similarly this sonata is strangely written for the instrument, regularly asking the performer to play high up on the lower strings creating a dark mellow sound.