Ahead of the second concert in their 2025 series, Baroque Spirit, Salut! Baroque Director Sally Melhuish speaks with State of the Art Media.
Manan Luthra: This is the second concert in Salut! Baroque’s season and focuses on the spirit of the 17th and 18th centuries. How would you describe this spirit?
Sally Melhuish: One of the most important concepts of Baroque music is the Doctrine of Affections. Composers explored various compositional devices to communicate specific emotions. The choice of key signature was particularly important as Baroque composers sought to represent various affects in order to stimulate the listener’s emotional responses. While baroque music has a lot of formal structure, it also allows for more free interpretation through ornamentation and improvisation. Music was no longer just heard, it was experienced.
Manan: What role did Baroque music play in the 17th and 18th centuries, socially, politically or otherwise?
Sally: Composers during the 17th century relied on the patronage of aristocratic courts and churches for their employment, and composing music was an act of devotion. Certain edicts had to be conformed to, none more so than the Court of Louis XIV. During his 72-year reign, Louis consolidated the country’s political and artistic life. Every aspect of his opulent palace Versailles, from its architecture and gardens to its music was designed to emphasise his absolute power. He even dictated to the church how it would align itself to his ideologies. Strict social and political etiquettes and behaviours were enforced through music, dance and opera. As a result, the wealth of music we know from this period was mostly composed by those who conformed. It is sad to think about the incredible talent we will never know from composers who were not in favour, particularly the women who were silenced by the patriarchy. In contrast, 18th century music shifted to less formal settings, including people’s houses and even coffee houses!
Manan: The concert draws on Ottoman, Romani and Celtic influences. How have you incorporated these into the concert?
Sally: Audiences usually expect composers such as Bach and Telemann to represent “traditional” baroque music. In this concert, we also look further afield to include music by more diverse composers such as Dimitrie Cantemir, a Moldavian who was educated in Istanbul, and an Irish Celtic harpist, Turlough O’Carolan. Traditional composers were also fascinated by different cultures, for example, Georg Philipp Telemann boasted that he could compose in the “Italian, French, English, Scottish and Polish styles” and wrote movements that he understood to be in a Turkish idiom (in this concert, Mezzetin en Turc from Ouverture-Suite in B-flat major TWV 55:B8).
Manan: Which pieces have been selected and why?
Sally: The repertoire for Baroque Spirit reflects the variety and diversity in styles across regions and time periods, highlighting composers’ thirst and curiosity in exploring new styles. Apart from one piece, the music on this program was composed within a 150-year period but is all remarkably different in character. This multicultural mix contrasts the familiarity of a Bach Chorale Prelude with Scottish, English and Irish folk melodies, Moldavian dances written in a Turkish idiom, and Spanish guitar music that hints at West-African influences. Linking the past with the present, the concert begins with the Allegretto from Palladio (1995) written by Sir Karl Jenkins in the year Salut! Baroque began! I love exploring the common ground between all these different styles and presenting them in a way that both informs and entertains.
Program:
Karl Jenkins – Allegretto from Palladio (1995)
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach – Ouverture-Suite No.6 in G minor (1693)
Santiago de Murcia – Folias Gallegas
Jean-Philippe Rameau – Ouverture from Opera Zoroastre (1749)
Niel Gow – Lament (1805)
Turlough O’Carolan – James Betagh, Jig to James Betagh
John Playford – Wallom Green from The English Dancing master (1651)
Georg Philipp Telemann – Ouverture-Suite in B-flat major TWV 55:B8
Dmitrie Cantemir – Moldavian Dances (1700?)
Robert Orme – Sonata in F major from 8 Sonates à trois Parties (1700)
Anonymous – Hungaricus 58 (1730)
Santiago de Murcia – Cumbées
José Pla – Sonata in D minor
Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale Prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639 (c1708)
Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043 (1731) (arr. Teddy Bor)
Manan: Who are the performers?
Sally:
Sally Melhuish, Recorder
Alana Blackburn, Recorder
John Ma, Baroque Violin
Julia Russoniello, Baroque Violin
Brad Tham, Baroque Viola
Tim Blomfield, Bass Violin/ Violoncello Piccolo
Julia Magri, Baroque Double Bass
George Wills, Baroque Guitar
Jack Peggie, Percussion
Monika Kornel, Harpsichord
Manan: The description for the concert states that composers of the time ‘sought innovative approaches to embellish their work for a newly popularised music market’. What sort of approaches did they take, and what impact have these approaches had on classical music?
Sally: As interest in music grew away from the church and into popular culture, there was a demand for new styles and fascination with exotic cultures. Composers such as Jean-Philippe Rameau capitalised on this in his Opéra-ballet Les Indes Galantes, where he included songs by African slaves, a Turkish dance, an air for the Incas of Peru and a dance inspired by a delegation of Native Americans chiefs who were visiting Louis XV in 1725. For this concert, we will perform the Ouverture from his Opera Zoroastre, which draws on Persian religion, rather than Greek and Roman mythology that had previously inspired many opera composers. Composers also became canny publishers, with works often appearing by subscription across several editions of publications. Telemann was at the forefront of printing technology and was a brilliant promoter and distributor of his own music. He marketed his publications through advertisements and printed catalogues, leading to music being more readily available for amateur musicians. Telemann had an uncanny sense of popular musical trends, which contributed to his celebrity status as the most famous composer in Germany in his day. The impact on classical music was significant as “old masters” made way for the equivalent of “pop stars”, introducing rich cross-cultural styles and distinctive instrumentation.
Manan: What makes Baroque music special to you?
Sally: I love the emotional depth of Baroque music and the dynamic environment in which music mirrored the political and social upheavals of the time. Composers pushed the boundaries and experimented with new forms of composition and instrumental techniques, giving each instrument distinctive characteristics. Ornaments developed from simple improvised embellishments to displays of wild abandon by the performers – until composers took back creative control and insisted that compositions were played as written. So much of what evolved during the period informed Western art music as we know it today.
Manan: What do you hope audiences take from Baroque Spirit?
Sally: Throughout Salut! Baroque’s 30 years of thematic concert programming, our audiences have enjoyed learning more about the remarkable Baroque period and being introduced to composers they have never heard of. And there may well be a few new names in this concert too! It will also be interesting to compare the music of four contemporaries who were probably unknown to each other: Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), Dmitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767). They were all working in their own spheres and creating amazing but completely different and distinctive music, reflecting the innovative spirit of the period. We hope audiences take away a sense of that dynamism and enthusiasm for experimentation and discovery.
Salut! Baroque’s Baroque Spirit plays at the Wesley Church in Canberra on 11 April and Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music on 13 April. Tickets are available here.
