"An undertaking like this has been made possible thanks to the inexhaustible energy of its instigators, the harmonious collaboration of the organists, the availability of the organ builders, the competence of the sound technicians and the interests of the persons responsible for the churches.
"As far as the music is concerned, it was above all a matter of taking a census of the most outstanding historical instruments still in use. This task was especially entrusted to José Luis González Uriol, from Zaragoza. As much as possible we have tried to represent every part of Spain, although the most interesting organs are evidently not distributed in a regular manner throughout the country. Next we had the pleasant task of choosing the performers, who were charged with getting the most out of the instruments. It was logical to turn to three of the Spanish organists who have contributed most to the realization of the instrument's artistic heritage: Montserrat Torrent, José Luis González Uriol and Josep Mas i Bonet.
"As one of the objectives of the 'Fifth Centenary' is precisely to tighten the cultural ties between Spain and America, we felt it was desirable to associate two or three organists from across the Atlantic with the project. Two young performers make the art of organ playing shine in the countries of Latin America: Elisa Freixo from Brazil and Cristina García Benegas from Uruguay. And in North America we selected Kimberly Marshall, a specialist in Gothic and Renaissance organ. In Europe, among the organists who have contributed to make the Spanish organ known and appreciated, the names Francis Chapelet and Guy Bovet stand out. Finally, bearing in my the relation between Spain and Flanders during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, it seemed appropriate to us to include a Belgian organist, Bernard Foccroule, in this project.
"The selection has also been conditioned by the respective personalities of the ten performers, each of which had to be ascribed one or two instruments and a coherent part of the repertory. This proved to be the main difficulty of this programme. Ideally, we would entrust the recording of Cabezón's works, to a specialist of Cabezón playing Cabezón's organ, with the registers of the period, and the repeat the same operation in the ten discs. But history does not allow itself to be recreated so easily. Often the instruments which had been played by the great organists had disappeared, and those remaining were preserved because of their location in a small village, and had often suffered modifications. Thus is was practically impossible to interpret a composer's work in conditions of absolute historical fidelity... but does it matter?
"For these reasons we had to opt for a more subtle solution to the complex equation 'instruments-repertory-performers', and a certain flexibility has undoubtedly enabled us to present a more vivid panorama of this rich heritage. It must be said, however, that the spirit and oclour of the historical Spanish organ in its entirety has been preserved, and that the recent restorations are evidence of a respect which unfortunately has not always been demonstrated in other European countries. Each of the ten discs in the collection has been dedicated to a different composer (Cabezón, Correa de Arauxo, Cabanilles), to a regional school, or even to the splendour of an instrument particularly rich in possibilities.
"Because of its participation in the highest life of the spirit and its deep roots in daily life, is not the organ the privileged witness of the culture of an entire people? We hope that this recording may contribute to making known and loved this irreplaceable expression of the Spanish soul.
"This compact disc is dedicated to two great figures of the school of Zaragoza: Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia (1561-1627) and Pablo Bruna (1611-1679). It starts with the patronage of Antonio de Cabezón, the spiritual father of Spanish organ music, and it ends with a 'Batalha' by a Portuguese composer, Pedro de Araujo (?-1684), who in his way prolonged a tradition which lasted for more than a century.
"Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia, organist of Huesca cathedral from 1585, then organist of the Seo of Zaragoza from 1603, was a contemporary of Correa de Arauxo, of the English Virginal players, and of the Dutchman J.P. Sweelinck. This was an era of remarkable development in the writing of works for keyboard instruments; an intermediate period between the first transcriptions of vocal music, glossed to a greater or lesser extent, and the establishment of a more instrumental style. Aguilera had a strong personality, and his work possesses a surprising mixture of vitality and mystic depth.
"In the same region, fifty years later, Pablo Bruna, called 'the blind man of Daroca' carried this evolution further in work in a more popular vein, and of a more direct charm.
"It seemed logical to us to have Pablo Bruna's works played on a later organ in the town where he was the organist of the 'Iglesia Colegiata'. The organ in the church of Santo Domingo does in fact possess all the colours his music calls for. For Aguilera de Heredia's works, the polyphonic organ of Sádaba with its transparent luminous sound was chosen.
"Here is a brief commentary on each of the works in this programme:
"1. Cabezón, 'Diferencias sobre el canto del Caballero': Five couplet present the song twice to the soprano, then to the tenor, the alto and the bass successively. Cabezón's modal harmony and delicate counterpoint express all the nostalgia of this popular melody. The song relates the sad end of the 'Caballero', the flower of Olmedo, assassinated at night by some bandits.
"2. Cabezón, 'Gallarda Milanesa': Galliard in two parts followed by an ornamental variation. The score evokes the ambivalence between the organ, the harp and the lute, instruments which Cabezón played when he was a court musician. There is a suppleness in the ornamentation which perhaps even surpasses the relative rigidity of the pipe instrument.
"3. Pablo Bruna, 'Tiento de mano derecha y en medio a dos tiples': A particularity of the Spanish organ is its 'jeux coupés' between the C and the C# in the middle of the keyboard. This brilliant invention makes it possible to colour the top part of the bass in different ways which allows the flowering of 'Tientos de medio registro', characteristic of the Spanish tradition, and of which it seems that Francisco Peraza was the inventor. It is this register (often made with the muffled 'Corneta') which allows these impressive ornamental solos, abundant among the Iberian composers, to be played on an organ with a single keyboard, like the two instruments in this recording. Bruna's solo is unusual because it begins with a solo voice, and then goes on to two solo voices from the middle of the piece.
"4. Pablo Bruna, 'Tiento sobre la letanía de la Virgen': This is another work which allowed exploits on the register of an organ with a single keyboard, but with cut registers. It is an impressive ensemble of variations on a hymn to the Virgin. The final progression, in which the composer allows himself to be carried away by a kind of mystical delirium, evokes other famous litanies, like those Jehan Alain.
"Being blind, Bruna was probably not able to control the writing of his compositions, and this work has come to us in quite a confusing version, especially for the one who wants to follow the successive regular harmonies of the main theme. There are obvious errors, and, in the manner of Guy Bovet, who has very kindly given them his attention, I took the libert of reordering certain passages.
"5. Pablo Bruna, 'Tiento de falsas': The 'Tiento de falsas' (that is: of discords), equivalent to the Italian Toccata of the 'durezze' is also a typical genre of Spanish literature. It is the ideal occasion to listen to a solo of 'Flautado'. Its discords being enhanced by the mesotonic temperament of the instrument. It will be heard as a painful meditation, like the distortions found in El Greco's paintings.
"6. Pablo Bruna, 'Tiento de medio registro de bajo': Here, it is the bass register of the keyboard which is entrusted with the solo. In this case, owing to the lack of a trumpet of eight feet, I have used a 'Bajoncillo' of four feet, and eight feet in depth. The register is quite free, foreshadowing certain characteristics of the eighteenth century French composers, enhancing the clairon solos with the bourdon stops of 16'.
"7. Pablo Bruna, 'Gaytilla con dos tiples': In this piece, which is like a popular dance, it is a duo of the 'Clarín' that holds the melody. Like in many Spanish pieces, the rhythm is particularly lively, readily combining the groups of quavers in 3+3+2, or in other arrangements which are doubtlessly evidence of flamenco influence.
"8. Aguilera de Heredia, 'Ensalada': The first work of Aguilera de Heredia is a surprising 'pot-pourri', a real Russian salad, where the most varied ideas are side by side, and where the most unexpected rhythms clash. This is one of the aspects of the personality of this composer, in other respects capable of the most demanding concentration in his more liturgical works. When necessary, I have opted for the course of assimilating the secondary voices (written in regular time-values, doubtless for convenience) to an irregular rhythm (3+3+2) or the main melodic elements, which seems to me the only natural way of playing such a bouncy piece. Perhaps it would have been better to have an instrument with two keyboard, but the surprising resources of the single keyboard allow a variety of colours which are very convincing.
"9. Aguilera de Heredia, 'Salve de primer tono': A new, more serious and more interior tone stamps the works that follow, which may or may not have been inspired by plainsong. Now it is the decorative counterpoint that takes the lead. And it does so in a serious style that does not entirely abandon the rhythmical surprises, but integrates them in a more measured way.
"10. Aguilera de Heredia, 'Segunda obra de primer tono': One feels that in this work there is relation with the fantasias by English and Dutch composers. The breathing of the work is organised on the almost continuous presence of a very simple melodic theme, around which we find the adornments of a marvellously expressive counterpoint. Here, as in Bruna's works, the rhythmic cadence goes from binary to ternary at two third of the composition.
"11. Lionel Rogg, 'Improvisation': Since Aguilera de Heredia unfortunately did not write any solo for soprano, I have chosen to sound the 'Corneta' in a 'Tiento de mano derecha' on the song of Kyrie, a Gregorian theme whose contours could have inspired someone like Correa de Arauxo. After an improvisation at the beginning, the work has been somewhat polished in order not to make a blot on it in the middle of its illustrious neighbours.
"12. Aguilera de Heredia, 'Tiento grande de quarto tono': The 'Tiento' by Aguilera is the wisest one, and the most developed. Its theme proposes a diminished fourth with a very impressive effect on the unequal temperament. Here also we can hear the passage of a binary cadence to a ternary, and a spectacular peroration.
"13. Aguilera de Heredia, 'Discurso sobre Los Saeculorum': In this last piece, Aguilar mingles several Gregorian themes which are combined in a counterpoint of a sustained vocal character, which reminds us of certain motets of the school of Josquin des Prés.
"14. Pedro de Araujo, 'Batalha': The first compact disc of the collection, made by Kimberly Marshall, contains the work by Clément Jannequin which doubtlessly inspired the genre of 'batailles' for organ. In the version of Pedro de Arauja's, a Portuguese musician, one will again find the beginning of 'la Guerre' (sic), and later on, certain anecdotal elements. The question is to tell a story, and of course to allow all the sound resources of the instrument, including the Trompetería, to be heard." (Lionel Rogg, tr. Angela Buxton. From the liner notes.)
Performer: Lionel Rogg
1. Antonio de Cabezón - Diferencias Sobre El Canto Llano Del Caballero
2. Antonio de Cabezón - Diferencias Sobre La Gallarda Milanesa
3. Pablo Bruna - Tiento De Primer Tono De Mano Derecha Y En Medio A Dos Tiples
4. Pablo Bruna - Tiento De Segundo Tono Sobre La Letanía De La Virgen
5. Pablo Bruna - Tiento De Falsas De Segundo Tono
6. Pablo Bruna - Tiento De Medio Registro De Bajo
7. Pablo Bruna - Gaytilla De Sexto Tono Con Dos Triples
8. Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia - Obra De Octavo Tono Alto: Ensalada
9. Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia - Salve De Primer Tono (Por Delasolre)
10. Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia - Segunda Obra De Primer Tono
11. Lionel Rogg - Tiento De Mano Derecha Sobre El Canto Llano Del Kyrie (Improvisation)
12. Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia - Tiento Grande De Cuarto Tono
13. Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia - Discurso Sobre Los Saeculorum
14. Pedro de Araujo - Batalha De 6. Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment