The German Baroque Solo Organ Sonata in the Work of Theophilus Andreas Volсkmar

Abstract

The article draws a new, and not well-known figure, into the sphere of scientific interest for the Russian-speaking and European researcher and organist. This figure is a German author who developed his musical talent as a composer and a performer in the multinational and culturally developed Prussian-Polish city of Gdànsk-Danzig. The German Solo organ Baroque sonata and its individual interpretation in the works of Т.А.Volckmar (1686–1768) becomes the center of scientific “attraction”. The article is not about the clavier, but rather about proper organ sonata, which is reflected in the title of the compositions.‘Six Sonatas for the Organ’ by T.A.Volckmar, edited by K.Beckmann and published by SCHOTT company in 2009, provides a vivid and complete picture of the specifics of this genre, which is considered from the standpoint of the special conditions of musical, including organ culture, in the free Hanseatic Gdansk. There, the rooted organ traditions go back to the Dutchman J. Sweelinck and are interpreted in the works of brilliant masters, who were in the history of musical art traditionally united in the North German baroque organ school — D.Buxtehude, V.Lübeck, N.Bruhns and other authors representing this era and region.The many-sided cultural life of Gdànsk, which integrated a variety of musical, and not only organ, sources was reflected in the organ sonatas of T.A.Volckmar. Italian concerto grosso, North German toccata, and fantasy “in an echo manner” is a talented synthesis, multiplied by expression, improvisational freedom of stylus phantasticus, and the composing excitement of T.A.Volckmar. This allows the works of the Danzig master to be defined as original, artistically bright, and concert-virtuoso samples of the German Solo Organ Sonata of the Baroque era.