#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalBubble Week 1

This month's Classics a Day theme follows a trend. In May 2020 we were sheltering in place. The theme was #ClassicalDistancing -- music for unusual solo instruments best played at home. In June, social bubbles were allowed, and so the theme #ClassicalBubble called for duos. Again, for unusual instruments best played at home.

This month we ease the restrictions even further with a theme of trios. Trios for unusual instruments etc., etc. Here are my selections for the first week of the expanded #ClassicalBubble.

09/01/20 Franz Joseph Haydn - Baryton Trio No. 81

The baryton was kind of a bass viol with gut strings in the front, and wire strings in the back. Because his employer played this obscure instrument, Haydn wrote 123 trios for it.

09/02/20 Franz Joseph Haydn- - Concerto no. 5 in F for 2 lire organizzate

The "organ lyre" was a kind of a hurdy-gurdy, Haydn wrote 15 pieces for it on commission from the King Ferdinand IV of Naples, who played it.

09/03/20 Philippe Dugué - Trio Sonata in C for Musett, Hurdy-gurdy, and continuo

Dugué was a hurdy-gurdy player living in Paris. His few surviving compositions are all for his instrument.

09/04/20 Nicolas Chédeville - Sonata No. 6 for Musette and basso continuo in G minor

The musette de cour was a small bagpipe with bellows. It was very popular in the French court during the late 1600s-early 1700s.