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Mark Hagerty

"Somehow late-Renaissance and Baroque music led to the Rococo and early classical styles. But what if the thorniness of Frescobaldi, the decadence of Forqueray, the deep sentiment of the Elizabethan virginalists, and the mighty complexity of Buxtehude - setting aside the infinitude of Bach - had continued to develop toward more harmonic and
formal freedom and increasingly complex expression?"

Award winning composer Mark Hagerty explores this expression with his debut double CD "Soliloquy". Within these recordings we find Clavier Book Nos. 1, 2, & 3, all written for harpsichord. Masterfully performed by keyboardist Tracy Richardson (www.melomanie.org/musicians), she alternates from a Northern European Double, to a French Double. Cellist Douglas McNames brings us Suite No.2, and rightfully dedicated to him.  Written just after returning from Holland, the traveler inspirations are brought home in this beautiful work.  The richness these musicians bring to Mark’s compositions is fully realized with high resolution recording techniques.  Masterfully performed, exquisitely recorded, Mark Hagerty’s "Soliloquy" will speak to you.

Disc One:
Clavier Book No. 1
• The Prelude is a take on those of Bach where rhythmic pattern is a
vehicle for harmonic expression.
• Aria was inspired by T.S. Eliot’s “O Light Invisible.”
• Capriccio is a fragmented perpetual motion theme that reassembles
itself and then repeats the process.
• Canzona is a tribute to pre-fugal Italian counterpoint.
• The Aria and Variations theme was inspired by Wallace Stevens’
“The Apostrophe to Vincentine.”
Clavier Book No. 2
• Toccata 1 contrasts extreme freedom with strict counterpoint.
• Capriccio is another perpetual motion study where the theme is
pulled apart and put back together.
• Aria features an elaborate melody, a response to certain
philosophical movements in Bach.
• Toccata 2 develops an active pattern which leads to some jagged,
Frescobaldian episodes.
• Pavan is a take on the stately Renaissance form, where each of two
or more strains is followed by a variation. This pavan has four strains.
Disc Two:
Cello Suite No. 2
• The Prelude reflects on Bach’s solo string music, where melody and
harmony can form an inseparable entity.
• Nocturne is night music, with a lullaby at its center.
• Scherzo is a virtuosic exercise in perpetual motion.
• Overture is something between a French overture and a marcia funebre.
• The Aria and Variations theme was inspired by Wallace Stevens’
towering “How to Live. What to Do.”
Clavier Book No.3
• The Prelude is influenced by the unmeasured preludes of Louis
Couperin
, where some sections leave timing and rhythm entirely to the
performer.
• Saltarello 1 is named after a hopping-jumping Renaissance dance.
Dance forms appropriated for keyboard suites tend to take on a serious
character very different from their origins, and this is such a case.
• Alla raga is inspired by the raga of Indian classical music. The left hand
supplies both the drone of the sitar and the rhythm that, in the original,
would be carried by the tablas (drums). Ornaments in the right hand
stand in for the sitar player’s characteristic tone-bending.
• Anacronismo: Arie al rondo ties anachronistic sections together with a
rondo theme derived from Steely Dan.
• Saltarello 2 is another take on the once-popular dance, this time with
even more intensity.

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