Rob MacKillop: James Oswald Twelve Divertimenti for the Guittar (1759)
James Oswald was born into a poor but musical family in Crail — a crannied fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland — in 1710, and, despite having Jacobite sympathies, rose to become Chamber Composer to King George III. The lad’s talent as a musician (fiddle and cello) led him to engagement as a Dancing Master in Dunfermline by 1734. Then followed six years in Edinburgh, a period which introduced him to the world of publishing, followed by, in 1741, a move to London, where he deepened his absorption of Italian music. Oswald’s gift for lyricism marked all his compositions, whether in the traditional music vein as exemplified in the monumental 12 volumes of the Caledonian Pocket Companion, or when indulging in the new classical style, such as Colin’s Kisses (the earliest song cycle?), Airs for the Seasons (96 beautiful horticultural evocations!), and the Twelve Divertimentis for the Guittar.
Oswald’s contribution to the guittar repertoire is at once both unique and profound. While not demanding such virtuosity as a Rudolph Straube or a J. C. Bach, his Twelve Divertimentis reveal a master guittarist who accepted and worked within the limitations of the instrument. Oswald clearly allows his music to grow out of the guittar rather than descend from some great height on to it. The many themes and melodic ideas that surface throughout the Twelve Divertimentis have their roots in the tuning and technique of the instrument, exploiting the strong resonance of the open strings, rather than working against them. In a word, Oswald’s guittar music is organic. Consequently, what on the page often looks naive and of superficial galant affectation, can in performance be deeply moving and very exciting guittar music.
However, Oswald was not born to the guittar. His deep understanding of it was the result of intense experiment over a period of a few years, and can be traced in four other publications 18 Divertimentos for two Guit[t]ars or two Mandelins, The Pocket Companion for the Guittar, A Compleat Tutor for the Guittar with two scales shewing the Method of Playing in the keys of C and G, and a few examples in the Musical Magazine. These publications reveal that Oswald’s interest in the guittar was more than a passing fad. Quite the reverse, in fact: he clearly worked hard at understanding the subtleties of the instrument, and, judging by the demands made for some of the faster movements, must have reached a high level of technical accomplishment on it. Oswald has to be regarded as one of the leading pre-Classical guitar composers.
The Twelve Divertimentis are a landmark publication in the history of guitar music. They are outstanding, not only for the world of 18th-century wire-strung guittar, for their remarkable and sustained high quality (certainly compared to much of the dross published for the instrument at the time), but also because they bridge the gap between the repertoire of the great player-composers of the 5-course baroque guitar, such as Gaspar Sanz (1649-1710), and of the Spanish guitar, such as Fernando Sor (1778-1839). Like Sanz, Oswald (who was born in the year that Sanz died) felt little compulsion to write full-blown development sections, (although micro-symphonic gestures abound), favouring instead the fairly constant introduction of new themes — a talent for which Oswald had few equals. He was, in short, a miniaturist. Oswald’s apparently slight divertimenti are perfectly formed little worlds of enchantment, which neither care for nor require further expansion. He treats the instrument with the utmost seriousness, and one is reminded of Berlioz’s reference to the guitar being a miniature orchestra. In fact, a small number of his themes are self-borrowings from his music for chamber ensemble: the Pastorali of Divertimento V, for instance, can be found in The Golden Rod, whilst the Pastorali of Divertimento VI is the first movement of the Night Shade, both from Airs for the Seasons. Other borrowings include Lady MacBeth’s Dream from the Caledonian Pocket Companion, which appears as the opening movement of Divertimento VII, and the occasional plundering of themes from his 18 Divertimentos for two Guit[t]ars or two Mandelins, here developed beyond single notes into a full guittar part.
Structurally, most of the Divertimentis have a fairly similar outline: an introductory Amoroso, followed by two or three sprightlier movements; yet there is much variety along the way with such dances as gavottes, minuets, arias, pastorals, musettes and jigs. As was common with the somewhat earlier baroque guitar music, second inversions and parallel fifths abound. Such breaking of the rules makes for guitar music suis generis, and should not trouble us, especially as the subtle, sympathetic tonic drone of the wire-strumg guittar often supplies the necessary grounding. Oswald seamlessly draws together classical and traditional aesthetics, creating music which is at once both very European and very Scottish; and it is the guittar (whose descendent, the folk cittern, is very much part of the modern traditional music sound in both Scotland and Ireland), more than any other instrument Oswald wrote for, which underpins the more Apollonian elements of Oswald’s writing with a native earthiness.
The technique of playing the guittar is well documented in Robert Bremner’s Instructions, which Oswald would most certainly have studied, and which has informed my own technique. It is this gem of a book which seemingly gave Oswald the confidence to write more freely for the instrument, employing chords, ornaments and a fingerstyle technique, as opposed to his 18 Divertimentos which is made solely of single notes, and implies a plectrum technique. Bremner mentions three types of shake, one of which is, in modern parlance, the cross-string trill, here discussed for the first time:
The last is that used by the Harper, namely, by the Thumb and Fore-finger on two different Strings. As, for Instance, Suppose a Shake is wanted on D, on the fourth line; then it is performed by the Thumb and the Fore-finger of the Right-hand, sounding that Note alternatively with the open String above. If this Method is once acquired, it must be equal to a Shake on any other instrument.
Bremner also advocated changing the tone for certain passages:
The true Fort of this instrument is best produced by touching the Strings between the Sound-hole and the Bridge, tho it will occasion a pleasing Variety to play some Times near the Bridge, and afterwards as far up as the Little-finger will allow the others to reach; the Tone of the one representing the Lute, and the other the Pipe or Organ. But this is only to be attempted when the Learner is well advanced, and can with Judgement apply it so as to expect a good Effect from it.
Elsewhere, in Bremner’s Twelve Scots Songs, is mentioned the raking of the index-finger from treble to bass on chords, as a variation from the usual method of playing chords from bass to treble with the thumb. Examples of all these techniques can be heard in the present performance.
James Oswald was born into a poor but musical family in Crail — a crannied fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland — in 1710, and, despite having Jacobite sympathies, rose to become Chamber Composer to King George III. The lad’s talent as a musician (fiddle and cello) led him to engagement as a Dancing Master in Dunfermline by 1734. Then followed six years in Edinburgh, a period which introduced him to the world of publishing, followed by, in 1741, a move to London, where he deepened his absorption of Italian music. Oswald’s gift for lyricism marked all his compositions, whether in the traditional music vein as exemplified in the monumental 12 volumes of the Caledonian Pocket Companion, or when indulging in the new classical style, such as Colin’s Kisses (the earliest song cycle?), Airs for the Seasons (96 beautiful horticultural evocations!), and the Twelve Divertimentis for the Guittar.
Oswald’s contribution to the guittar repertoire is at once both unique and profound. While not demanding such virtuosity as a Rudolph Straube or a J. C. Bach, his Twelve Divertimentis reveal a master guittarist who accepted and worked within the limitations of the instrument. Oswald clearly allows his music to grow out of the guittar rather than descend from some great height on to it. The many themes and melodic ideas that surface throughout the Twelve Divertimentis have their roots in the tuning and technique of the instrument, exploiting the strong resonance of the open strings, rather than working against them. In a word, Oswald’s guittar music is organic. Consequently, what on the page often looks naive and of superficial galant affectation, can in performance be deeply moving and very exciting guittar music.
However, Oswald was not born to the guittar. His deep understanding of it was the result of intense experiment over a period of a few years, and can be traced in four other publications 18 Divertimentos for two Guit[t]ars or two Mandelins, The Pocket Companion for the Guittar, A Compleat Tutor for the Guittar with two scales shewing the Method of Playing in the keys of C and G, and a few examples in the Musical Magazine. These publications reveal that Oswald’s interest in the guittar was more than a passing fad. Quite the reverse, in fact: he clearly worked hard at understanding the subtleties of the instrument, and, judging by the demands made for some of the faster movements, must have reached a high level of technical accomplishment on it. Oswald has to be regarded as one of the leading pre-Classical guitar composers.
The Twelve Divertimentis are a landmark publication in the history of guitar music. They are outstanding, not only for the world of 18th-century wire-strung guittar, for their remarkable and sustained high quality (certainly compared to much of the dross published for the instrument at the time), but also because they bridge the gap between the repertoire of the great player-composers of the 5-course baroque guitar, such as Gaspar Sanz (1649-1710), and of the Spanish guitar, such as Fernando Sor (1778-1839). Like Sanz, Oswald (who was born in the year that Sanz died) felt little compulsion to write full-blown development sections, (although micro-symphonic gestures abound), favouring instead the fairly constant introduction of new themes — a talent for which Oswald had few equals. He was, in short, a miniaturist. Oswald’s apparently slight divertimenti are perfectly formed little worlds of enchantment, which neither care for nor require further expansion. He treats the instrument with the utmost seriousness, and one is reminded of Berlioz’s reference to the guitar being a miniature orchestra. In fact, a small number of his themes are self-borrowings from his music for chamber ensemble: the Pastorali of Divertimento V, for instance, can be found in The Golden Rod, whilst the Pastorali of Divertimento VI is the first movement of the Night Shade, both from Airs for the Seasons. Other borrowings include Lady MacBeth’s Dream from the Caledonian Pocket Companion, which appears as the opening movement of Divertimento VII, and the occasional plundering of themes from his 18 Divertimentos for two Guit[t]ars or two Mandelins, here developed beyond single notes into a full guittar part.
Structurally, most of the Divertimentis have a fairly similar outline: an introductory Amoroso, followed by two or three sprightlier movements; yet there is much variety along the way with such dances as gavottes, minuets, arias, pastorals, musettes and jigs. As was common with the somewhat earlier baroque guitar music, second inversions and parallel fifths abound. Such breaking of the rules makes for guitar music suis generis, and should not trouble us, especially as the subtle, sympathetic tonic drone of the wire-strumg guittar often supplies the necessary grounding. Oswald seamlessly draws together classical and traditional aesthetics, creating music which is at once both very European and very Scottish; and it is the guittar (whose descendent, the folk cittern, is very much part of the modern traditional music sound in both Scotland and Ireland), more than any other instrument Oswald wrote for, which underpins the more Apollonian elements of Oswald’s writing with a native earthiness.
The technique of playing the guittar is well documented in Robert Bremner’s Instructions, which Oswald would most certainly have studied, and which has informed my own technique. It is this gem of a book which seemingly gave Oswald the confidence to write more freely for the instrument, employing chords, ornaments and a fingerstyle technique, as opposed to his 18 Divertimentos which is made solely of single notes, and implies a plectrum technique. Bremner mentions three types of shake, one of which is, in modern parlance, the cross-string trill, here discussed for the first time:
The last is that used by the Harper, namely, by the Thumb and Fore-finger on two different Strings. As, for Instance, Suppose a Shake is wanted on D, on the fourth line; then it is performed by the Thumb and the Fore-finger of the Right-hand, sounding that Note alternatively with the open String above. If this Method is once acquired, it must be equal to a Shake on any other instrument.
Bremner also advocated changing the tone for certain passages:
The true Fort of this instrument is best produced by touching the Strings between the Sound-hole and the Bridge, tho it will occasion a pleasing Variety to play some Times near the Bridge, and afterwards as far up as the Little-finger will allow the others to reach; the Tone of the one representing the Lute, and the other the Pipe or Organ. But this is only to be attempted when the Learner is well advanced, and can with Judgement apply it so as to expect a good Effect from it.
Elsewhere, in Bremner’s Twelve Scots Songs, is mentioned the raking of the index-finger from treble to bass on chords, as a variation from the usual method of playing chords from bass to treble with the thumb. Examples of all these techniques can be heard in the present performance.
James Oswald was born into a poor but musical family in Crail — a crannied fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland — in 1710, and, despite having Jacobite sympathies, rose to become Chamber Composer to King George III. The lad’s talent as a musician (fiddle and cello) led him to engagement as a Dancing Master in Dunfermline by 1734. Then followed six years in Edinburgh, a period which introduced him to the world of publishing, followed by, in 1741, a move to London, where he deepened his absorption of Italian music. Oswald’s gift for lyricism marked all his compositions, whether in the traditional music vein as exemplified in the monumental 12 volumes of the Caledonian Pocket Companion, or when indulging in the new classical style, such as Colin’s Kisses (the earliest song cycle?), Airs for the Seasons (96 beautiful horticultural evocations!), and the Twelve Divertimentis for the Guittar.
Oswald’s contribution to the guittar repertoire is at once both unique and profound. While not demanding such virtuosity as a Rudolph Straube or a J. C. Bach, his Twelve Divertimentis reveal a master guittarist who accepted and worked within the limitations of the instrument. Oswald clearly allows his music to grow out of the guittar rather than descend from some great height on to it. The many themes and melodic ideas that surface throughout the Twelve Divertimentis have their roots in the tuning and technique of the instrument, exploiting the strong resonance of the open strings, rather than working against them. In a word, Oswald’s guittar music is organic. Consequently, what on the page often looks naive and of superficial galant affectation, can in performance be deeply moving and very exciting guittar music.
However, Oswald was not born to the guittar. His deep understanding of it was the result of intense experiment over a period of a few years, and can be traced in four other publications 18 Divertimentos for two Guit[t]ars or two Mandelins, The Pocket Companion for the Guittar, A Compleat Tutor for the Guittar with two scales shewing the Method of Playing in the keys of C and G, and a few examples in the Musical Magazine. These publications reveal that Oswald’s interest in the guittar was more than a passing fad. Quite the reverse, in fact: he clearly worked hard at understanding the subtleties of the instrument, and, judging by the demands made for some of the faster movements, must have reached a high level of technical accomplishment on it. Oswald has to be regarded as one of the leading pre-Classical guitar composers.
The Twelve Divertimentis are a landmark publication in the history of guitar music. They are outstanding, not only for the world of 18th-century wire-strung guittar, for their remarkable and sustained high quality (certainly compared to much of the dross published for the instrument at the time), but also because they bridge the gap between the repertoire of the great player-composers of the 5-course baroque guitar, such as Gaspar Sanz (1649-1710), and of the Spanish guitar, such as Fernando Sor (1778-1839). Like Sanz, Oswald (who was born in the year that Sanz died) felt little compulsion to write full-blown development sections, (although micro-symphonic gestures abound), favouring instead the fairly constant introduction of new themes — a talent for which Oswald had few equals. He was, in short, a miniaturist. Oswald’s apparently slight divertimenti are perfectly formed little worlds of enchantment, which neither care for nor require further expansion. He treats the instrument with the utmost seriousness, and one is reminded of Berlioz’s reference to the guitar being a miniature orchestra. In fact, a small number of his themes are self-borrowings from his music for chamber ensemble: the Pastorali of Divertimento V, for instance, can be found in The Golden Rod, whilst the Pastorali of Divertimento VI is the first movement of the Night Shade, both from Airs for the Seasons. Other borrowings include Lady MacBeth’s Dream from the Caledonian Pocket Companion, which appears as the opening movement of Divertimento VII, and the occasional plundering of themes from his 18 Divertimentos for two Guit[t]ars or two Mandelins, here developed beyond single notes into a full guittar part.
Structurally, most of the Divertimentis have a fairly similar outline: an introductory Amoroso, followed by two or three sprightlier movements; yet there is much variety along the way with such dances as gavottes, minuets, arias, pastorals, musettes and jigs. As was common with the somewhat earlier baroque guitar music, second inversions and parallel fifths abound. Such breaking of the rules makes for guitar music suis generis, and should not trouble us, especially as the subtle, sympathetic tonic drone of the wire-strumg guittar often supplies the necessary grounding. Oswald seamlessly draws together classical and traditional aesthetics, creating music which is at once both very European and very Scottish; and it is the guittar (whose descendent, the folk cittern, is very much part of the modern traditional music sound in both Scotland and Ireland), more than any other instrument Oswald wrote for, which underpins the more Apollonian elements of Oswald’s writing with a native earthiness.
The technique of playing the guittar is well documented in Robert Bremner’s Instructions, which Oswald would most certainly have studied, and which has informed my own technique. It is this gem of a book which seemingly gave Oswald the confidence to write more freely for the instrument, employing chords, ornaments and a fingerstyle technique, as opposed to his 18 Divertimentos which is made solely of single notes, and implies a plectrum technique. Bremner mentions three types of shake, one of which is, in modern parlance, the cross-string trill, here discussed for the first time:
The last is that used by the Harper, namely, by the Thumb and Fore-finger on two different Strings. As, for Instance, Suppose a Shake is wanted on D, on the fourth line; then it is performed by the Thumb and the Fore-finger of the Right-hand, sounding that Note alternatively with the open String above. If this Method is once acquired, it must be equal to a Shake on any other instrument.
Bremner also advocated changing the tone for certain passages:
The true Fort of this instrument is best produced by touching the Strings between the Sound-hole and the Bridge, tho it will occasion a pleasing Variety to play some Times near the Bridge, and afterwards as far up as the Little-finger will allow the others to reach; the Tone of the one representing the Lute, and the other the Pipe or Organ. But this is only to be attempted when the Learner is well advanced, and can with Judgement apply it so as to expect a good Effect from it.
Elsewhere, in Bremner’s Twelve Scots Songs, is mentioned the raking of the index-finger from treble to bass on chords, as a variation from the usual method of playing chords from bass to treble with the thumb. Examples of all these techniques can be heard in the present performance.