Bernhard Joachim Hagen - Works

Works

Although Hagen was employed at the Bayreuth court as a violinist, his virtuoso lute performances and his compositions for lute were known and appreciated. He is one of the most important composers for lute in the era following Sylvius Leopold Weiss, and far more important than his teachers Falckenhagen and Durant. His style is shaped by the Empfindsamkeit and the beginning of the Sturm und Drang period. There is a clearly discernible influence of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach in Hagen's music.

Through margravine Wilhelmine's efforts, lute music flourished in the eighteenth century one last time before being rediscovered in the 20th century.

There are thirty-three known compositions by Bernhard Joachim Hagen found in the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg:

• 12 Sonatas for Lute solo
• 6 Trios for Lute, Violin and Violoncello
• 2 Lute concerti
• 1 Duo for two Lutes
• 1 Duo for Lute und Violin
• Many Lute arrangements of compositions by Geminiani, Locatelli, Arne, and others.

The facsimile editions of Hagen's solo lute sonatas (1983) and chamber works (1984) have been published by Joachim Domning for the Roman Trekel Musikverlag.

There are two excellent CD recording of Hagen's sonatas by the lutenist Robert Barto:

• Joachim Bernhard Hagen, Solo Works for Lute: Five Sonatas, Locatelli Variations (Naxos 8.554200)
• Bernhard Joachim Hagen, Sonate à Liuto solo (Symphonia Sy98164)

Some of Hagen's works listed in the 1769 Breitkopf catalog (these have no concordances in Augsburg manuscripts) are presumed missing.