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Essay A. Marcello Oboe Concerto in D Minor

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Charles Pridgen
CONS-422a
From the journal of Antonio Vivaldi
December 12, 1717
As noted in a previous journal entry, I had made a trip to Cöthen where the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, is under the service of Prince Leopold. There I heard a recent keyboard transcription of Bach’s. The transcription was of a piece called Concerto in D minor for Oboe, Strings and Basso Continuo. Bach listed the composer as the well-known Venetian composer Benedetto Marcello. As I listened to the piece, I was captured by the simple yet eloquent melodies that were presented but I also was curious as I had not known of Benedetto to write for oboe. I also know that Marcello stated, “Oboes, flutes, trumpets, bassoons, etc., will always be out of …show more content…

There are three Marcello brothers, Alessandro, Benedetto and Girolamo, who were born of nobility here in Venice. Benedetto is well-known for his music. Alessandro composes also but his interests actually lie more with philosophy, mathematics, history, chemistry, painting and poetry. Alessandro has a small body of work in music. This is probably due to him being much more of a figure head in the Venetian government since his father passed away in 1707. Benedetto has a much larger body of work composing of many instrumental and sacred vocal pieces. I recalled that considering the academic pursuits of the Marcellos, that it was possible that they were members of the Arcadian colony. The Arcadians were a new movement of intellectuals that emphasized the respect of artistic achievement and a return to the Greek ideals that music and poetry worked together. They also wished to avoid lavish displays and encouraged simplicity. The Arcadians would also use pseudonyms and I discovered that the pseudonym of “Eterio Stinfalico” belonged to Alessandro Marcello.
Now that I learned who the true author was, I went to seek out Alessandro. It is typical of nobles such as the Marcello to conduct concerts in their home. I went to the Palazzo Marcello and discovered a concert was being performed that had the concerto on its program. The oboist was unknown to me. The audience contained mostly nobles and government

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