Snep, Johan (1656 – 1719): Ten Sonatas for Viola da gamba and Bc. Vol. I, eba2136

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10 Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Basso Continuo Vol. I Sonatas 1-5UT

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Johan (Jan, Jean) Snep was baptised in Utrecht on the 17th April 1659, in 1684 he was registered in the collegium musicum in Arnheim and from 1685 he studied philosophy at the university of Leiden. In 1693 he became organist at the St. Lieven - Monsterkerk Zieriksee where he opened a coffee house in 1695. He died there in 1719.

Johann Gottfried Walther wrote in his Musicalisches Lexicon oder Musicalische Bibliothek (Leipzig 1732): “Snep, (Jean), an organist of Zirkzee, the main town of the island of Schouwen in the province of Seeland an der Schelde, had set nederduytse Liederen met een en tuve stemmen en B.C. ingleichen Sonates, Allemandes Courantes, Sarabandes, Gigues, Gavottes, &c. á une Basse de Viole, & une Basse Continue and had them engraved by Estienne Roger, Amsterdam.

In fact only two collections by him have come down to us. Opus 1 is the present collection of sonatas of 1700 and opus 2 is the Nederduytsche Liederen met Een en Twee Stemmen en Basso Continuo printed by Estienne Roger (Amsterdam 1710).

The preface to the collection of sonatas is a panegyric to the gambist and composer Johann Schenck. Snep praises the enchanting stroke (Betooverenden Strecken) with which the great Schenk caressed his viola da gamba. It had a few years previously sounded raptly in his ears as he listened in (in de Aandagtige Ooren Geklonken) It had encouraged him to take the soul-calming instrument (Zielroerend jnstrument) – when played by such masterly fingers – in his hands.

The basis for this edition is the print in the library of Durham cathedral which consists of two part-books. The ten sonatas are of markedly differning structure. The number of movements varies between two to six, and the order of movements in only four cases corresponds almost to the usual order of the classical Suite (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue). The first movement, like a kind of Prelude, is in most cases divided into several sections with different Tempo indications. Noteworthy are the “modern” dance movements such as Variations on a subject, Da Capella, Marche and Baletto.

The sonatas are of medium difficulty, the Gamba part leaving us to surmise that the composer was an accomplished gamba player, it can be considered as fully coherent and in most places idiomatically written for the instrument, it also “lies well under the hand”.

On the contrary to this the bassline – if one did not know the solo part - gives the impression that Snep was an incompetent layman. In many places it is completely incomprehensible and riddled with obvious mistakes. The figuring describes frequently the position of the upper voice but results in no sense in the passage. Either Snep was not in the position of being able to look through the harmonic structures or the bass was added by another hand.

In order to make a performance of the beautiful upper voice possible the bass has been drastically amended in many places. So as not to give the impression of “a re-composition” we have abstained from amending passages which may admit improvement (but are nonetheless tolerable). I thank Jörg Jacobi for his sympathetic “improvements”. The original bass lines and figuring are given in small print.

 

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