German baroque music is pre-eminently rhetorical: 'telling' is more important than 'singing'. Historical sources are clear on this. One aspect of this rhetorical thinking is the character that every key has: do big has for example a totally different expressive power than si small. Guido De Neve and Frank Agsteribbe have been studying the expressive effect of these key characteristics since 2010 by combining literature study and practical research during more than fifteen concerts (in Budapest, Vienna, various cities in Germany, Luxembourg and Flanders).
The focus are the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach, the best-known composer from the German late baroque. The central research question is how the character differences of these sonatas can be more clearly expressed in an integral performance. The key characteristics, as described by the composer and theoretician Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), are the key here. With this project, De Neve and Agsteribbe want to record their research in a studio recording, and distribute it through a masterclass (for Master's students of the KCA) and a lecture recital.
