Christopher Simpson, a Pioneer of the Subject of the Seasons in Instrumental Music
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Abstract
The article illustrates the life and artistic path of English composer Christopher Simpson (1602/1606–1669), who wrote the “The Seasons” (1659), the first a such instrumental cycle devoted to this topic in the history of European music. Simpson was born into a family of Catholics during the time when Catholicism was officially prohibited in England; many elements of his biography remain a mystery. Simpson was a universal musician: a brilliant virtuoso performer on the viola da gamba, a composer, a music theorist and a teacher. Not having the possibility to lead an open life, he published his own compositions as examples to his theoretical treatises. For musicians mastering the viola da gamba his work “The Division-Viol, or the Art of Playing ex Tempore upon a Ground” (1667) has not lost its relevance up to the present day.
Only several compositions by Simpson were published separately: the cycle of 12 fantasies “The Months” and the cycle “The Seasons” for two viola da gambas and basso continuo. The second of them presets a super-cycle of four programmatic fantasy-suites (“Spring,” “Summer,” “Autumn” and “Winter”). Simpson became a pioneer of the subject of the seasons in the instrumental music of the Baroque period. His cycle fits into the traditions of English ensemble music. In comparison with the works by composers of other national schools, the interpretation of genres within each fantasy-suite remains very individual. This relates to the structure of the fantasy, in the compositional structure of which the composer stemmed from his own performance practice. Simpson’s attempt to create a large-scale composition on the subject of the seasons was later continued in numerous compositions in the 17th century and in the subsequent centuries.
Keywords: the seasons in music, Christopher Simpson, fantasy-suite, English fantasy for ensembles, viola da gamba.
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