1) Adagio: 00:00 2) Andante: 1:18 3) Affetuoso: 6:17 4) Allegro: 7:11
To be clear: the present sonata was not composed for the keyboard, but rather, for violin or oboe, and accompanying instrument. Nonetheless, the two-part texture throughout makes it easily playable (and not unattractive) on the harpsichord; and since Heinichen was an important composer, I did want to add him to my „list“. Johann David Heinichen is mostly remembered in our day for his work as a music theorist. In particular, he is credited as being one of the „inventors“ (or should I say „discoverers“?) of the „circle of fifths“. The young Heinichen received his early musical training from his father, who himself was a musician and composer: David Heinichen (1652-1719). At the age of only 13, Johann Heinrich was already performing works of his own creation in a number of towns. Also at that age, he became a student at the „Thomas School“ in Leipzig (where later Johann Sebastian Bach would teach). The cantor at that time was Johann Schelle; a few years later, Johann Kuhnau replaced him, and it was he who trained Heinichen in organ and harpsichord playing. One of his classmates was the later well-known composer Christoph Graupner. From 1702 to 1705, Heinichen studued law at the University of Leizpg, but still found time for music; he played in the „Collegium Musicum“ which had been organized by Georg Philipp Telemann. In 1711, he published a treatise on figured bass that is still studied today. Heinichen composed a number of operas; in 1710, he traveled to Italy, moving first to Venice. There, he received a commission to compose an opera, but unfortunately, he was never paid for it. Thereupon he went to Rome, where he met Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen, who was also traveling through Italy at the time. (Leopold was later to employ Johann Sebastian Bach for a while.) In 1712, Heinichen returned to Venice, and a year after that, one of his operas was performed there to great applause. While in Venice, he made the acquaintance of just about every composer of note in that famous city, no doubt including Antonio Vivaldi. No wonder, then, that when he returned to Germany in 1717, he was instrumental in making the „Italian style“ better known in that region of Europe. The present sonata serves here as an example, with its four-movement structure, typical for many Italian works of the day.
- David Bolton, “The Digital Harpsichordist”
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