Baryton

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Not to be confused with Baritone (disambiguation).

Baryton

Classification
Bowed string instrument
Related instruments
Viol

A copy of Prince Esterhazy's baryton, on display at his palace in Eisenstadt.

The baryton is a bowed string instrument in the viol family, in regular use in Europe up until the end of the 18th century. It most likely fell out of favor due to its immense difficulty to play. Its size is comparable to that of a violoncello; it has seven or sometimes six bowed strings of gut, plus from nine to twenty-four sympathetic wire strings (most often twelve). The gut strings are bowed while the wire strings are plucked by the thumb of the performer in order to create a contrasting tonal quality. It is rarely played today.

1 The Haydn baryton trios
2 Performance on the baryton in modern times
3 Notes
4 References
5 External links

[edit] The Haydn baryton trios

Of the repertoire for this instrument, the best known works are the 175 compositions written by Joseph Haydn for his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, who enjoyed playing this instrument. Of these, 126 are trios for viola, cello and baryton. They were written in the earlier part of Haydn's career, from 1766 to 1775.^[1]

Of the trios, John Hsu writes, "Throughout the trios, there is a feeling of intimacy. This is the most private of chamber music, written especially in response to the wishes and needs of one person. We can easily imagine the satisfaction and inspiration which Prince Esterházy experienced while playing these trios." Hsu conjectures that when the Prince played baryton trios, the viola part was taken by Haydn, and the cello part by whoever was the cellist in the Prince's orchestra at the time.

The instrument that the Prince used had seven bowed strings, tuned like a bass viola da gamba (to which the sound of the bowed baryton strings is quite comparable); i.e. AA, D, G, c, e, a d'. This consists of a sequence of rising fourths, except for the third between c and e. The ten plucked strings were tuned in a D-major scale, plus the A a fourth below and the E a major second above.

John Hsu estimates that the Prince was probably not a virtuoso on his instrument, judging from the difficulty of Haydn's writing. The composer used only the top five of the seven bowed strings, and seldom required the player to pluck and bow simultaneously. The keys chosen are also the simplest to play in: mostly D major and the neighboring keys of G major and A major.

Of the trios, critic Lucy Robinson has written "Despite the limitations of the combination, Haydn's genius is evident in the kaleidoscopic range of melodic and textural ideas and the witty interplay between instruments."

[edit] Performance on the baryton in modern times

The baryton was "completely neglected" (Hsu) in the nineteenth century, but in the twentieth, with the rise of the authentic performance movement in classical music, new barytons were built and played, and at least a fraction of the repertoire can now be heard in recordings. Among the modern active baryton players are Jeremy Brooker, Kazimierz Gruszczyński, José Manuel Hernández, John Hsu, and Roland Hutchinson. In 2009 a complete recording of Haydn's works for baryton will be available. The Esterhazy Ensemble (Michael Brüssing, baryton) records the pieces in Esterhazy castle, Eisenstadt. In addition, the Swiss composer Klaus Huber has written an important solo part for the instrument in his work ...à l'âme de marcher sur ses pieds de soie... (2004)

[edit] Notes

^ Hsu, cited below

[edit] References

Much of the information above is taken by program notes written by barytonist (and Cornell University professor) John Hsu for his performance of trios #97, 111 87, and 101 with violist David Miller and cellist Fortunato Arico on ASV (GAU 104, 1986).
Lucy Robinson's evaluation appeared in The Musical Times (1981), p. 540. (available on JSTOR)