Description
Andreas Parcham, Sonata (Caprice) in G major for Alto Recorder (or Violin) and Basso Continuo. Double-Part Version. Edited by David Lasocki. Published by Instant Harmony, 2023.
This edition has been prepared to accompany the Instant Harmony Essay Andreas Parcham and his Recorder Sonata(s) by Thiemo Wind (published in 2023). Thiemo demonstrates with copious new archival evidence that Parcham (1643–1712) was not the Englishman we have taken him for, but a German from the Hanseatic city of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) who spent his working life in Amsterdam. Thiemo also shows that the existing editions by Thurston Dart and Hugo Ruf distorted the structure of the work.
Moreover, although these editions called the work a “Solo” or “Sonata,” perhaps it was intended to be a Caprice; it certainly has a capricious form. That Parcham wrote caprices is demonstrated by the title of his Opus 1 collection, now lost (XII. Suonate à Fluto ò Violino Solo, col basso Continuo; è due Caprici à Due Flauti ò Violini col basso). The term “Solo” that appears above the work in its source, 40 Airs anglois (1701), was just to alert the reader that the previous duet format had now changed to recorder and basso continuo. And the second of the three “Sonates” announced on the title page was actually a Chaconne by Gottfried Finger, so the term was being used loosely.
I hope that Thiemo’s research and this new edition can bring new friends to—and remind old friends of—one of my favorite works in the Baroque recorder repertoire: a work of, yes, caprice and surprise; skillful interplay of recorder and bass; and delightful working out of the thematic material.
