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Home > Music > Organs > Brombaugh > Dedication Recital
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Dedication Recital of Brombaugh Organ, opus 34
Duke University Chapel
October 26, 1997, 2:30 and 5:00 p.m.
Robert Parkins, University Organist
Kirsten Travers, Cantor
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643)
Toccata avanti la Messa della Madonna
Kyrie — Christe — Kyrie (5 versi)
Canzon dopo l’Epistola
Toccata per l’Elevazion
Frescobaldi, appointed organist at St. Peter’s in Rome
at the age of 24, is universally regarded as the most significant
Italian organist-composer of the 17th century. His published volume
of liturgical organ music, the Fiori musicali (1635), was held
in such high estimation that even decades later J. S. Bach acquired
a copy for his own study. The third of its three organ masses
is designated for use during “all feasts and solemnities
of the Virgin.” The selections performed here include a
prelude before the Mass, several organ versets to be played in
alternation with verses of the sung Kyrie eleison (“Lord,
Have Mercy”), a canzona to follow the reading of the Epistle,
and an “elevation toccata.” The last piece, a special
subgenre intended to create a mystical ambiance during the Elevation
of the Host, was often played with the Voce umana, a stop tuned
slightly sharp to produce an undulating effect against the Principale
8'.
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho (c. 1555–c. 1635)
Tento do quarto tom natural
The Portuguese master Manuel Rodrigues Coelho, organist to the
Lisbon court, published Flores de musica (1620), one of only two
volumes of Iberian keyboard music to appear in print during the
entire 17th century. Included are several pieces with the title
“tento,” the Portuguese equivalent of the Spanish
“tiento,” the ubiquitous Iberian keyboard genre of
the period. This Tento on the 4th tone, among Coelho’s most
engaging, is typical in its use of imitative counterpoint; in
this case, all four subjects (themes) are at least tenuously related.
Antonio de Cabezon (1510–1566)
Magnificat de 4º tono (7 versos)
Diferencias sobre la Gallarda Milanesa
Cabezon, the blind organist to the royal court of Spain, was
among the most distinguished composers of keyboard music in the
16th century. The keyboard works collected and published posthumously
by his son Hernando for the Obras de musica (1578) include several
sets of liturgical pieces, as well as secular dance variations.
The Magnificat on the 4th tone consists of seven organ versets
to be played in alternation with verses of chant for the Canticle
of the Blessed Virgin (“My soul doth magnify the Lord”),
frequently used for Vesper services. These brief versets, based
on motives from the Gregorian tune, allow the organist to exploit
a variety of registrations.
Cabezon, while a superb contrapuntist, was no less a master of
the variation form. The practice of devising keyboard variations
(diferencias) on popular tunes had already been cultivated to
a surprisingly high level in 16th-century Spain, earlier than
in other European countries. Cabezon’s Variations on the
Milanese Galliard comprise a set of three connected variations
on a popular dance of the time.
[Francisco] Peraza (1564–1598)
Medio registro alto, 1º tono
During the last third of the 16th century, a remarkable innovation
was introduced that would alter the character of the Iberian organ
forever. Builders began to split one or more stops between the
bass and treble halves (normally at c'/c#'), allowing for two
contrasting registrations on the same keyboard. Peraza’s
Medio registro alto, calling for a divided registration with the
more prominent solo in the treble and a softer sound for the accompanying
lower voices, is probably the earliest surviving tiento to specify
this technique.
Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1583/84–1654)
Tiento [34] de medio registro de baxón (1º tono)
Tiento [16] de 4º tono (“a modo de canción”)
The Libro de tientos (1626) by the Sevillian organist Correa
de Arauxo is, after Coelho’s volume, the only other extant
example of printed organ music in 17th-century Iberia. The term
“tiento” was employed broadly to describe a variety
of subgenres in early Spanish keyboard music, among them pieces
for divided register (medio registro). This Tiento de medio registro
de baxón specifies a solo in the bass (baxón) with
contrasting accompaniment in the upper voices. The most fascinating
aspect of this particular tiento is a surprising section in septuple
meter (7/8) near the end.
Correa’s Tiento on the 4th tone, subtitled “a modo
de cancion” is an unusual combination of contrasting textures,
rhythms, and meters “in the manner of a chanson.”
In the tradition of batallas, ensaladas, and other motley Spanish
keyboard pastiches, it remains unique in Correa’s œuvre.
Sebastian Aguilera de Heredia (1565–1627)
Tiento de 4º tono de falsas
Aguilera de Heredia was the seminal figure of the Aragonese school,
centered around Saragossa in Spain. The title of his second Tiento
de falsas on the 4th tone was among the first to include the term
“falsas,” dissonant suspended notes that characterize
this languid, meditative style.
Sebastian Anton Scherer (1631–1712)
Toccata prima
The Toccata prima (in Mode I) is the first of eight toccatas
published in 1664 by the south German composer Sebastian Anton
Scherer, organist at the Cathedral in Ulm. Each of these toccatas
consists of several brief but seamless sections, contrasting in
texture and meter, over long pedal points. To be sure, the influence
of masters like Frescobaldi is unmistakable in these Italianate
works. (It should be noted that this toccata, as it moves through
a number of different keys as well as several highly chromatic
passages, exploits all four enharmonic possibilities available
on the Brombaugh organ: Eb/D# and G#/Ab.)
Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707)
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
Buxtehude, organist at the Marienkirche in Lubeck, is surely
the most revered of all 17th-century north German composers. Most
of his chorale preludes, derived from the practice of improvising
introductions to the sung chorales, follow a predictable procedure:
the phrases of the embellished tune (played as a solo on a second
manual) are separated by short imitative interludes incorporating
fragments from the melody. Buxtehude’s sensitive treatment
of the advent hymn “Come Now, Savior of the Heathen”
reveals his genius for extracting musical expressiveness from
the functional and formulaic.
Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706)
Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir
Pachelbel, like Buxtehude, represents the German Protestant tradition
in 17th-century organ music, but infused with a southern flavor.
He had studied with Kerll in Vienna before assuming a number of
positions, the last and most important of which was in Nuremberg.
His short prelude on the chorale “Lord God, We Praise Thee”
(the tune known to most American listeners as “Old 100th”)
highlights the cantus firmus in the pedal.
Johann Caspar Kerll (1627–1693)
Capriccio sopra’il Cucu
Passacaglia
Kerll, eventually the imperial court organist in Vienna, had
studied in Italy before taking appointments in Brussels and Munich,
and his compositions reflect a synthesis of Italian and Germanic
styles. This light Capriccio belongs to a curious species of keyboard
music, especially popular among southern European keyboard composers,
based on the call of the cuckoo (a descending minor third).
One of the jewels of south German organ music is Kerll’s
noble Passacaglia. Consisting of continuous variations on a repeated
bass line (or harmonic progression), it builds in intensity to
the final statement. This simple but powerful ground, bolstered
by the pedal in the last variation, is a common bass line of the
period — amounting to nothing more than a descending four-note
scale.
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