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Early Organ Composer Anniveraries in 2018

January 30, 2018
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John Collins has been playing and researching early keyboard music for over 35 years, with special research interests in the English, Italian, and Iberian repertoires. He has contributed many reviews and articles on repertoire and performance practice, including translations and commentaries on treatises in German, Spanish, and Portuguese, to European and American journals, including The Diapason. After serving as organist at St. George’s Church, Worthing, UK, for 33 years, in June 2017 he began service for Christ Church, Worthing.

In 2018 there are several composers whose anniversaries can be commemorated, albeit some of the precise birth and death dates are not known for certain. Several names below need no introduction, but there are also quite a few lesser-known names listed here whose compositions are well worth exploring. No claim is made for completeness, and there is no guarantee that every edition is readily available and in print­—there may well also be editions by other publishers.    

An increasing number of pieces, ranging from complete, original publications or manuscripts (which present the usual problems of multiple clefs as well as original printer’s errors) to modern versions of complete or individual works, are to be found on various free download sites, most noticeably IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library (http://imslp.org); however, the accuracy of some modern typesetting is highly questionable, and all should be treated with caution before use.

 

Jacob Arcadelt (ca. 1505–1568) was a Franco-Flemish composer who wrote both sacred and secular vocal music. He is perhaps best known for his motet setting of Ave, Maria. His principal legacy is his collection of madrigals. Three intabulations for keyboard, perhaps made by Claudio Veggio, have survived in the manuscripts at Castell’ Arquato, tentatively dated as mid-sixteenth century (although possibly earlier), and have been edited by H. Colin Slim in Keyboard Music at Castell’ Arquato (American Institute of Musicology, CEKM 37-3). In addition to an organ Mass, this volume contains some excellent ricercars and other intabulations.

 

Caspar Hässler (1562–1618) was the elder brother of Hans Leo Hassler and worked in Nuremberg. Only one piece by him has survived, a Fantasia a 4 in C in three repeated sections. Originally edited by Ernst von Werra in 1903, it is included as no. 14 in German Organ and Keyboard Music of the 17th Century II, edited by Siegbert Rampe (Bärenreiter BA8427). The two volumes in this series contain much little known music and are well worth investigating. 

 

Adriano Banchieri (1568–1634) was an Italian theorist and composer from Bologna. He composed much vocal music, but his main achievements were in the field of providing instructions and pieces for organ. The theoretical treatise Conclusioni del suono dell’organo published in 1609 is available in facsimile from Arnaldo Forni. His most useful work for today’s player, L’Organo suarino, which gives vast amounts of useful information as well as short pieces suited to the non-professional player, has gone through several editions. The first, in 1605 (op. 13), contained 19 pieces (13 Sonatas, four Capricci, and two Ripieni); the second  edition of 1611, op. 25, contained a further 18 pieces of various genres. The third  edition (of 1622 and 1638) contained a further five new pieces including four Sonatas and a Gloria, resulting in 42 pieces in total in the three editions. A facsimile with introduction by Giulio Cattin has been published by Frits Knuf, Amsterdam. The 1605 edition has been edited by Edoardo Bellotti for Il Levante Libreria (TA31). Thirty-nine  pieces have been edited by Raimund Schächer (Cornetto Verlag, CP128). A volume of Canzone alla Francese Libro Segundo of 1596 contained 14 pieces, of which the 11 in four parts have been intabulated for keyboard by Alessandro Bares (Musedita, BA 1 20). The Moderna Harmonia, op. 26, contained 15 Canzonas in 2 parts, 2 Fantasias in 4 parts, and a Magnificat in concerto à 4 voci, of which the Canzonas and Fantasias have been edited in open score by Alessandro Bares (Musedita, BA 1 OR). Banchieri also contributed two Ricercars to the second part of Diruta’s 1609 Il Transilvano; they are included in the modern edition of the pieces from the two parts, edited by Tamás Zászkaliczky  (Editio Musica Z8608, Budapest). One further Ricercar Tertii Tono is in manuscript from 1581, Munich, and has been edited by Clare Rayner as no. 69 in München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek  Ms. Mus 1581 for American Institute of Musicology, Corpus of Early Keyboard Music, volume 40, part III. This piece was printed originally as “Fantasia Decima Nona” in Fantasie ovvero canzone alla francese per suonare all’organo et altri stromenti musicali, a Quattro voci, in 1603, which collection was edited by André Vierendeels for Schott’s Söhne, Mainz (ANT12). Twenty-two pieces have been edited by Enrico Capaccioli in 22 Composizioni per organo (Edizioni Carrara, EC3187).

 

Abraham van den Kerckhoven (ca. 1618–1702) served organist of St. Catherine’s Church, Brussels, from ca. 1632, and also chamber and court organist to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. His surviving keyboard pieces are contained in a large manuscript now at the Bibliothèque Royale Albert I in Brussels; this manuscript is dated 1741 and was signed by Jacobus Cocquiel. It contains some 364 pieces, comprising a large number of versets on the eight tones, settings of Salve Regina and an organ Mass along with Fantasias and separate Fugas. Many pieces were left unascribed, and a few were ascribed to other composers, some from the same circle or later. A partial edition with selected items was edited by Jos Watelet as Monumenta musicae Belgicae II which has been reprinted and published by B-Note Musikverlag (BM14876). A facsimile edition of the complete manuscript has been produced by Godelieve Spiessens. A selection of 5 Fantasias, Versus 1 Toni, and 2 Fugas has been edited by Ewald Kooiman for Harmonia in the series Incognita Organo, no. 32 (HU3699). The complete contents of the manuscript have been made available on IMSLP with tables of analysis and an introduction. 

 

Albertus Bryne (ca. 1621–1668) was organist of both St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, London. Some 30 keyboard pieces attributed to Bryne, all but one Voluntary being dance movements, have survived in ten manuscripts. The modern edition edited by Terence Charlston for Norsk Musikforlag contains invaluable information about performance practice of the period including fingering, ornamentation, rhythm, tempo, and ties which can be applied to Bryne’s successors Blow and Purcell, as well as the anonymous pieces by the post-Restoration composers. The edition includes an audio CD with exemplary recordings of the pieces by Terence Charlston and an interactive CD-ROM containing the full edited text, transcripts, and images of all ten  manuscripts and printed sources.

 

François Couperin “Le Grand” (1668–1733) is best known for his four books of harpsichord works published between 1713 and 1730 and his treatise,  L’Art de toucher le clavecin. He  also published two organ Masses in 1690, Pièces d’orgue consistantes en deux messes, l’une à l’usage des Paroisses pour les Festes Solennelles, L’autre propres pour les Couvents des Religieux et Religieuses. They contain verses for the Kyrie, Gloria, Offertoire, Sanctus, Benedicus, Agnus Dei, and Deo Gracias. The volume has been edited by Paul Brunold, Kenneth Gilbert, and Davitt Moroney for Oiseau Lyre as Oeuvres complètes III. There are other editions edited by Norbert Dufourques for Schola Cantorum (two volumes). A facsimile has been published by Anne Fuzeau. 

 

José de Nebra (1702–1768) was born in Calatayud and worked in Madrid. He left operas, zarzuelas, and dramas as well as Masses and vocal music. Like many of the Spanish composers of the eighteenth century, a complete edition of his keyboard music is much needed. Modern editions include the following three volumes in the series Tecla Aragonesa published by the Institución Fernando el Católico Zaragoza. Volume I (Joseph Nebra Tocatas y Sonata para órgano ó clave) edited by Roman Escalas includes three Tocatas, a Sonata, and a Grave; volume III (Joseph Nebra Obras inéditas para tecla) edited by María-Salud Álvarez includes three Sonatas, three Tocatas, and an Obra para órgano. In Volume VII (Músicos Aragoneses en Valencia en el siglo XVIII) edited by Vicente Ros, there is a Pange Lingua setting. 

 

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718–1795) was a German composer, theorist, and critic. He published several important treatises including Abhandlung von der Fuge, and Die Kunst das Klavier zu spielen. His numerous compositions for keyboard include Sei Sonate per Cembalo, 1755, edited by Raimund Schächer for Carus Verlag (CV18.002/00) and by Laura Cerutti for Armelin, Padua (AMM10). Being very similar to C. P. E. Bach’s organ sonatas, they would also sound well on the organ. The Fughe e Capricci, 1777, which contains a prelude, 2 Capricci, and 7 Fughe, has been edited by Martin Weyer (Forberg, F25048) and is available as a facsimile from Anne Fuzeau and from Broude Brothers, New York (PF 142). The Versuch in figurirten Choräle sowohl für die Orgel als für das Clavichord I, which contains 21 pieces, and the Zweiter Versuch in Figurirte Choräle . . . , Part II, ca. 1792, which contains a further 15 pieces, are available as facsimiles from  Broude Brothers, New York (PF136 and 137). Other works best suited to stringed keyboard instruments appeared in prints and anthologies, several of which are also available in modern editions.

 

Joseph Aloys Schmittbaur (1718–1809), born in Bamberg, Germany, worked in Rastatt and Karlsruhe. He composed operas, symphonies, concertos, vocal music, and some 50 pieces for keyboard. His Vierundzwanzig Vor- und Nachspiele—Für Orgel have been edited by Rudolph Walter (Carus Verlag, CV91.088/00).

 

Fedele Fenaroli (1730–1818), a pupil of Francesco Durante, became Maestro di Cappella of the Santa Maria in Loreto conservatory in Naples in 1762. He wrote mainly sacred vocal music, but a few organ pieces have survived and have been edited in four volumes by Maurizio Machella, published by Armelin, Padua (AMM 2, 3, 56, and 60). Volume I contains six short one-movement sonatas, a two-movement sonata, and a one-movement sonata which may be connected to the following Fuga, which has been completed by the editor. Volume II contains 14 Versetti in various unconnected keys. Volume III contains an Apertura per Organo and six three-movement sonatas, of which the central movement is in the tonic minor. The fourth volume is unnumbered and contains a Trattenimento and a Pastorale. 

 

Carlos Baguer (1768–1808) was organist of the cathedral of Barcelona, Spain, and composed symphonies, concerti, flue duets, and much religious vocal music. Although he left many keyboard works in manuscripts, very few are available in modern editions. Those available are Siete Sonatas edited by Maria Ester Sala (Union Musical Española, 22055) and Tres Sinfonías para Tecla, possibly arrangements for keyboard of symphonies composed by Baguer himself rather than Haydn to whom they are attributed in the manuscript (edited by Maria Ester Sala for Instituto Español de Musicología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas). 

 

Benjamin Carr (1768–1831) was born in London and studied organ with Samuel Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold. In 1793 he moved to the United States, working in Philadelphia as a singer, teacher, organist, and composer. He published pieces for piano, songs and works for the stage, but only one voluntary has been listed. It has been edited by J. Bunker Clark in Anthology of Early American Keyboard Music 1787–1830, Part 1 for AR Editions (A001), which volume contains a further three pieces by Carr and 14 more pieces by nine other composers.

 

Francisco Cabo (1768–1832) was born in Naquera (province of Valencia, Spain) and worked in the cathedrals of Orihuela and Valencia from 1796 onward, succeeding Rafael Anglés in 1816. He composed vocal music and left 19 organ works in manuscripts comprising Versos, Pasos, and sonatas for specific feasts in the liturgical year, the majority of which are annotated with the year of composition. These pieces, which demonstrate a pronounced Romantic approach, have been edited by José Climent for the Sociedad Española de Musicología, Madrid.

 

Bartolomeo Franzosini (1768–1853) was an architect and composer in northern Italy. He left a Pastorale in A, which has been edited by Maurizio Machella for Armelin (AMM75) and is also included in Itinerari Italiani volume X, L’Organi in Piemonte tra ‘700 e ’800, edited by M. Rossi and G. Vessia for Edizioni Carrara (EC4583) and in Organum Italicum Volume III edited by A. Macinanti and F. Tasini for Edizioni Carrara (EC4654). His Nove Danze per Organo have been edited by Riccardo Zoja for Armelin (AMM278).

 

Publishers’ websites:

A-R Editions: www.areditions.com

American Institute of Musicology­—CEKM series: www.corpusmusicae.com/cekm.htm

Anne Fuzeau facsimiles: www.editions-classique.com

Armelin (and Zanibon):

www.armelin.it

B-Note Musikverlag: www.bnote.de

Bärenreiter: www.baerenreiter.com

Breitkopf & Hartel: www.breitkopf.com

Broude Bros: www.broude.us

Butz Verlag: www.butz-verlag.de

Carus Verlag: www.carus-verlag.com

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Barcelona: www.csic.es

Cornetto Verlag: www.cornetto-music.de

Doblinger:

www.doblinger-musikverlag.at

Edition Walhall: www.edition-walhall.de

Edizione Carrara:

www.edizionicarrara.it

Forni Editore: www.fornieditore.com

Il Levante Libreria:

www.illevante-libreria.it

Musedita: www.musedita.it

Norsk Musikforlag:

https://musikkforlagene.no/

Oiseau Lyre: http://vca-mcm.unimelb.edu.au/about/publications/lyrebird-press-austral…

Schott Music: www.schott-music.com

Scola Cantorum:

www.schola-editions.com

Sociedad Española de Musicología: www.sedem.es 

Stainer & Bell: www.stainer.co.uk

Union Musical Española: www.musicsalesclassical.com/companies/unionmusicalediciones

Ut Orpheus: www.utorpheus.com

 

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