Early Music America Summer 2014 - (Page 30)

By Michael Tsalka UNDERESTIMATING THE KEYBOARD SONATAS OF DANIEL GOTTLOB TÜRK ARE A WINDOW INTO THE STYLES OF MOZART, HAYDN, AND BEETHOVEN T PRESENT, Daniel Gottlob Türk (1750-1813) is best known for his extensive pedagogical treatise, Klavierschule (1789), one of the main sources for performance practice from the late 18th century. By contrast, our conception of Türk as a composer is quite limited, based mostly on his 120 pedagogical Klavierstücke and, to a lesser extent, on his Thirty Pieces for FourHands. Yet these keyboard compositions, published at different points during the last century to reinforce the historical image of Türk as a pedagogue and theorist, are neither his best nor his most interesting works. Our superﬁcial knowledge of Türk's creative output, particularly his 48 keyboard sonatas (of which only four were republished in the 20th century), not only distorts our understanding of his talents as a composer but also the exact nature of his famed musical treatise. The relative ignorance of Türk in contemporary dialogue also stands in marked contrast with the popularity of these works during his lifetime and shortly thereafter. In recent years, I have edited (together with Dr. Angelica Minero Escobar) and recorded 30 of Türk's sonatas. This fascinating journey of discovery has led me to conclude that these compositions, much like the keyboard works of other little-known Classical masters such as Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739-1813) and Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (1735-1792), have been historically overshadowed by those of Mozart and Haydn. Inarguably, a prejudice persists in mainstream performance circles against the presentation of obscure repertoire. It is often presumed that if a composition A 30 Summer 2014 Early Music America construct. Working on unknown keyboard sonatas from the Classical period can serve the modern performer in deepening his or her understanding of the stylistic conventions and musical language of the era; in turn, this will assist in creating more informed and personal interpretations of the keyboard works of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Türk's extensive musical training, which he received in Dresden from Gottfried August Homilius, a former student of Johann Sebastian Bach, prepared him early on for the varied musical roles he fulﬁlled throughout his professional life. When he became a student at the University of Leipzig in the early 1770s, the keyboard virtuoso, Johann Wilhelm Hässler, introduced him to C.P.E. Bach's Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen (1753), as well as to his keyboard sonatas. Shortly afterwards, Türk, under the supervision of his mentor and friend Johann Adam Hiller, composed his ﬁrst two collections of sonatas. These 12 works were initially published by Breitkopf in Leipzig and Halle in 1776 and 1777. Because of their popularity, the two collections quickly went out of print. After Türk began a long and fruitful When compared to the grand career as director of music at the Universonatas conceived for the sity of Halle, ﬁve more volumes of his fortepiano and concert hall by sonatas, intended for students and amaBeethoven and Clementi, teurs, two labeled leichte and three Türk's affective musical gestures labeled kleine, were released by Breitkopf from 1783 to 1793. The Klaviersonaten, appear limited to modern Größtenteils für Kenner (1789), was the listeners, but within the only collection Türk speciﬁcally dedicataesthetic context of the 1770s ed to professional players. and 1780s, his musical Türk's keyboard collections grew vocabulary is both varied directly from his understanding of the contrasting, expressive potential of the and eloquent. is not performed regularly, there must be a plethora of justiﬁable reasons for its exclusion from the standard repertoire. More often than not, the work is assumed to be mediocre. While these assumptions may often be true, it is the duty of performers and scholars to systematically investigate the work before making such pronouncements. The value of a composition should be determined by its musical interest, not by its lack of inclusion within a given historical

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Early Music America Summer 2014

Editor's Note
Reader Forum
Sound Bytes
Musings: The Force of Opinion
Recording Reviews
Baroque Opera and Historical Performance: A Reconsideration
Underestimating Turk
Our Disappearing LP Legacy
Living and Breathing Early Music, the Ukrainian Way
Ars Longa and the Festival Esteban Salas
Book Reviews
Ad Index
In Conclusion: The Flauto Dolce Heralds a Welcome Entrance into Heaven

Early Music America Summer 2014