Early Organ Music

Foreword to number 69 of the music yearbook "Anuario Musical (Revista de Musicología del CSIC), this time dedicated monographically to the figure of the composer and organist of Philip II of Spain, Antonio de Cabezón. Prólogo al número 69 de "Anuario Musical (Revista de Musicología del CSIC)", en esta ocasión dedicado monográficamente a la figura del compositor y organista de Felipe II, Antonio de Cabezón.

The art of playing keyboard instruments in the early fifteenth century and the medieval mnemonics:
Keyboard playing is a musical discipline in which the ‘suspension’ between oral and written traditions seems to be  particularly strongly felt. I place the early fifteenth-century  ars organica in the context of memory-based culture and present the consequences of such a perspective for the study and perception of the surviving  musical  repertoire. My  basic source  material consists of two anonymous organ treatises, Octo principalia de arte organisandi and Opusculum de arte organica, found in manuscript m.ciii, which is now held in the library of the metropolitan chapter in prague.in the first part of my article, I analyse the structure of the prague organ treatises in the context of the mediaeval ars memoriae. I point out such mnemonic techniques as numerical orders, information marked in the text with the word nota (lat. for ‘note’ or ‘remember’), and persuasive devices.The second part is devoted to issues directly concerning keyboard practice. I first discuss the basic melodic-rhythmic models (tactus) with reference to the preserved musical repertoire (the Faenza codex and  such incomplete sources as the  Prague organ fragments). Analysis carried out by numerous authors shows a similarity between the tactus figures in the treatises and those found in the surviving organ tablatures. I subsequently relate the structure of the treatise Opusculum de arte organica to Jeff pressing’s  theory of improvisation and compare two compositions (Kyrie Magne Deus from the Prague organ fragments, cz-pnm 1d a 3/52, recto, and Kyrie Cunctipotens genitor Deus from the Faenza codex, i-Fz mS 117, fol. 79r–79v) from the perspective of shaping the musical process through improvisation. On the basis of this comparison, I stress the importance of the ‘internalisation’ of the key melodic patterns, necessary for improvisation, thereby drawing attention to the physiological aspect of playing the instrument, reflected in the word tactus (lat. for ‘touch’, ‘the sense of touch’). The article ends with remarks concerning  the art of memory and the related problem of a medieval  composer’s individuality.
(Translated by Tomasz Zymer)

La produzione per tastiera di Bertoldo conosce postuma la via delle stampe. Nel 1591 l’editore veneziano Giacomo Vincenti pubblica dapprima un volume contenente quattro canzoni “alla francese”, poi nello stesso anno una seconda raccolta che comprende due toccate, tre ricercari e una canzone “alla francese”, opera dell’organista del Duomo di Padova. Queste dieci composizioni rappresentano la produzione per tastiera di Bertoldo oggi conservata, di cui le stampe di Vincenti costituiscono la principale fonte.

Reviews:
- The Organ 94 (May/July 2015), p. 52–53 (John Collins).
- The Diapason 106/9 (September 2015), p. 17–18 (John Collins).

This work studies a a set of violin chamber pieces coppied in an organ manuscript form the late 17th century conserved nowadays in the Catalonia National Library. Among the almost 500 organ compositions, mostly by Joan cabanilles, there is a set of seven instrumental works for two and three voices associated with the Roman composer Francesco Foggia (1604-1688).

See:

Nuove prospettive sul contesto editoriale delle Canzoni d'intavolatura d'organo – Libro primo (1592) di Claudio Merulo. – In: Recercare 20 (2008), pp. 117-141

Claudio Merulo : Canzoni d'intavolatura d'organo a quattro voci, fatte alla francese (Venezia 1592). Bologna: Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2009