Giovanni Gabrieli is among the earliest of that select group of composers whose genius was fully manifested both in vocal and instrumental music, and his ensemble canzonas and sonatas have long been recognized as being of outstanding artistic and historical significance. The sixteen such pieces printed by the Venetian publisher Gardano, along with forty- five vocal works (many of which also require instrumental participation), as Gabrieli’s great collection of 1. Yellowbrick Publications, play scripts, children's KS2 play scripts, school play scripts, school play ideas, Peter Pan script schools, Cinderella script, Aladdin. Sacrae Symphoniae—are unsurpassed, in scale, expressive range and sheer idiomatic flair, in the entire sixteenth- century instrumental repertoire; indeed, in the musically revolutionary early years of the seventeenth century they would be surpassed only by Gabrieli himself in the even more spectacular works that would be published posthumously as his Canzoni e Sonate of 1. The 1. 59. 7 Sacrae Symphoniae is a monumental, retrospective collection reflecting the earlier part of Gabrieli’s work as one of the organists of St Mark’s, Venice, the post that he held from 1. Gabrieli’s years at the great Byzantine basilica coincided with the most brilliant period of its instrumental ensemble—already established for a century or more around the Doge’s personal group of wind players, or piffari—which had become a permanent ensemble in 1. The St Mark’s ensemble of the late- sixteenth century was fundamentally a wind group in which cornetts and sackbuts (trombones) were pre- eminent; one or more violins or violas were occasionally added as a contrasting colour. It employed some of Italy’s outstanding virtuosi, including its capo de’ concerti Girolamo Dalla Casa and the renowned cornettist Giovanni Bassano, both of whom published treatises on the art of diminution (the adding of ornaments to the individual lines of vocal polyphony) during the 1. Such players achieved a peak of brilliance and subtlety in this improvisatory skill, which in turn was reflected in Gabrieli’s compositions. The instruments were not heard only in consort with voices—which they might double, or accompany on independent lines—for there was also scope in the liturgy for purely instrumental pieces, predominantly in the form of canzonas that would be substituted for portions of the Mass, such as the Epistle, Post Communion or Deo Gratias. The text for these might be spoken by a priest while the music was playing.)It may seem curious that, as instrumental music intended mainly for the Church, the canzon per sonar—literally, a ‘song for playing’—had its origins in a form of vocal music based on amorous, if not downright bawdy, texts—the rich repertoire of Franco- Flemish chansons of the High Renaissance.
Yet certain typical musical features of the chanson made it an ideal basis for instrumental performance: its clear- cut melodic shapes, often based on stereotyped patterns of repeated notes; its easily understood and memorable harmony; and its logical form which, unlike most sacred polyphony, often included repeated sections that give a sense of musical architecture independent of the poetic text. In due course instrumentalists adopted and adapted many of these works, often adding ornamentation to make the music more idiomatic. Such pieces gave rise to others based more freely on a particular chanson, or else composed from scratch in the chanson style, and these found their way into the liturgy either as solo organ music or, where the resources were available, as music for a group of instrumentalists. As the canzona developed it adopted features from other types of vocal polyphony, most notably the practice of cori spezzati, or ‘split choirs’, whereby the parts were grouped in two or more choirs of voices or instruments. Gabrieli was not the first to introduce the cori spezzati style to the canzona, but he quickly surpassed his contemporaries in both the complexity and the unpredictable imaginative variety of his polychoral writing. All but two of the 1. Gabrieli’s art. The two sonatas in Sacrae Symphoniae seem to be the first pieces ever to be so titled. Musically, no hard- and- fast distinction between canzona and sonata can be made, but liturgically the sonata may have been associated with the heart of the Mass, the Elevation of the Host; the organist Banchieri, for example, recommended that una suonata grave be played at this point. Gabrieli’s two 1. Sonata pian’ e forte, are sober and dignified, being written in a rich, low register alla quarta bassa, without the dance- like triple- time sections so typical of the canzona, and full of rich harmonies that anticipate the durezze e ligature (‘dissonances and suspensions’, symbolizing the sufferings of Christ) with which Italian organists of the next generation would fill their Elevation toccatas. The wonder of Gabrieli’s instrumental music is his use of a rather limited range of musical clichés to create works of endlessly refreshing variety and imagination. Nearly all his canzonas start with repeated notes in a dactylic rhythm (long–short–short), yet these launch melodies—whether announced in transparent fugal imitation, or harmonized in block chords—that have individual beauty, and are often as catchy as folk songs. Unlike the organ ricercar, which was usually devoted to a thorough exploration of a single theme, the canzona was full of variety, often resembling the contemporary madrigal in which each line of poetry would give birth to a fresh musical idea. Gabrieli explores all sorts of ways to make his textless pieces hang together convincingly. Several bring back the opening theme, whether as an immediate repeat, a rondo- like ritornello, or a ‘recapitulation’ towards the end. Elsewhere an internal section, often a tripla (section in triple time), may recur as a refrain, like the ‘Alleluia’ in a festal motet. Other canzonas contain no literal repetition, though their various themes are often subtly related. It is a relatively straightforward matter to analyse these architectural patterns, to trace the proportions of Gabrieli’s masterly musical draughtsmanship. What is harder to pin down is his sure feeling for instrumental sound, for texture, and for the effective placing and spacing of simple chords—in one, perhaps anachronistic word, his ‘orchestration’. Underlying all is his unmistakable, remarkably modern harmony. While Gabrieli’s melodic style is still coloured by the old ecclesiastical modes (or ‘tones’), and his counterpoint has the strength of a master trained in the best traditions of the Renaissance, it is arguably his lucid, resonant use of simple chords that contributes most to his music’s directness and fervour. Telecharger Jeux Pc Gratuit Complet Francais 2013 . Numbering of the Canzonas and Sonatas.The 1. 59. 7 publication of Sacrae Symphoniae orders the individual works according to the size of the ensemble, from eight parts up to fifteen.The ‘C’ numbers printed in this booklet refer to the thematic catalogue (1.Gabrieli’s works by Richard Charteris.For the present recording we have followed the ascending order of the modes, though for variety the six canzonas in the 1.No 1. 0 Canzon duodecimi toni a 1. C. 1. 79. A compact, lively work in the festive 1. Sonata pian’ e forte—to contrast a high with a low instrumental choir. Much of the music for each choir, too, is contrasted, as at the opening where figural writing in close imitation for the cornetts is answered by sonorous block harmony for the sackbut choir. But there is much agreement between the choirs too, as ideas are thrown wittily back and forth. The harmony is consistently bright, based almost entirely on major chords, and Gabrieli’s feeling for contrasts of key seems remarkably modern; the ‘white- note’ harmony of the mode is punctuated by four cadences in the ‘dominant’, G major, and a delightful sprinkling of more distant major chords: B flat, D, A and E major.(2): No 1 Canzon primi toni a 8 C. The first of five canzonas for two equal four- part choirs in Sacrae Symphoniae, relatively traditional pieces clearly reflecting the symmetrical formal patterns of the old chanson. The Canzon primi toni a 8 (here transposed down a fourth) is dance- like, its pavan- like rhythms and regular sequences appropriate to the ‘worthy and pleasing harmony’ (Diruta), ‘halfway between sad and cheerful’ (Zarlino) of the 1st mode, giving way twice to a tripla in sedate galliard style.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |