LUC LOUBRY-BASSOON, RACHEL TALITMAN-HARP: Stephen Paxton

Luc Loubry-Bassoon, Rachel Talitman-Harp

Stephen Paxton

© 2008 Public Domain (634479783647)

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Six sonatas for bassoon and harp by the British Baroque composer, Stephen Paxton; graceful melodic entertainment

notes

Stephen Paxton was born in London in 1735 and died there in 1787. His brother William (1737-1781) was a cellist and it seems probable that Stephen, too, played the cello. The two brothers were active in London musical circles - amongst Henry R.Bishop (1786-1855), John Travers (c1703-1758), John Danby (c1757-1798), Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786), John Stafford Smith (1750-1836), Samuel Webbe I (1740- 1816) and John Wainwright (1723-1768)- and were well known as composers of glees (songs in 3 voices) and catches (canons), for which they both won prizes. Stephen was an important composer of cello solos and lessons, in a fluent and graceful melodic style; he wrote Latin Church music.
It is typical of 18th century terminology to use the term ‘solo’ and ‘sonata’ interchangeably.
The bassoon is an instrument whose tonal character and overall capabilities have always depended more on the design of its tube and finger-holes than on its key-system. Examples during the latter half of the 18th century show an interesting trend in tonal development which can be assigned with some certainty to acoustic rather than to mechanical cause, and is clearly related to its changing function in contemporary instrumentation.
At the beginning of the period 1750-1800 the bassoon was primarily an instrument of the general bass in the baroque ensemble, blending its tone with a diversity of other instruments. Around 1800, it was being required to stand alone and apart from other bass instruments as part of a much enlarged wind choir, who’s growing freedom and independence of utterance was based on a closer understanding of the technical character of each instrument and of the ways in which the different species could be combined.
There are many examples across England of how the harp was used in domestic entertainment of the wealthy in the late 18th and 19th centuries, perhaps the most obvious ones being the instrument's appearances in novels such as those by Jane Austin, Thackeray, George Elliot and Thomas Hardy
During the eighteenth-century, the only possible way of making a professional career as a harpist was to find oneself a wealthy patron,

In 1710 the harpist William Powel died. He was the harpist who, fourteen years before, had given the first performance of Handel’s Concerto, and who, at the time of his death was harpist to Frederick, Prince of Wales.
Bewigged and powdered,the harpist John Parry was a Master of the High Baroque. Born in about 1710, and almost certainly on the Cefn Amwlch estate at Bryn Cynan on the Lleyn Peninsula, he was blind from birth. Thus John Parry spent a great deal of time in London and mixed in the cultural and artistic circles of his day. His first publication was his ‘Antient Welsh Airs by the Bards of Wales’ (1742), and such was the pride of his patron Sir Watkin Williams Wynn in the preeminence of his harpist that he subscribed to no fewer than ten copies of the book.
There are many examples across England of how the harp was used in domestic entertainment of the wealthy in the late 18th and 19th centuries, perhaps the most obvious ones being the instrument's appearances in novels such as those by Jane Austin, Thackeray, George Elliot and Thomas Hardy
During the eighteenth-century, the only possible way of making a professional career as a harpist was to find oneself a wealthy patron,

In 1710 the harpist William Powel died. He was the harpist who, fourteen years before, had given the first performance of Handel’s Concerto, and who, at the time of his death was harpist to Frederick, Prince of Wales.
Bewigged and powdered,the harpist John Parry was a Master of the High Baroque. Born in about 1710, and almost certainly on the Cefn Amwlch estate at Bryn Cynan on the Lleyn Peninsula, he was blind from birth. Thus John Parry spent a great deal of time in London and mixed in the cultural and artistic circles of his day. His first publication was his ‘Antient Welsh Airs by the Bards of Wales’ (1742), and such was the pride of his patron Sir Watkin Williams Wynn in the preeminence of his harpist that he subscribed to no fewer than ten copies of the book.

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