Capriccio chromatico con ligature al contrario by Frescobaldi performed by Dale Carr on 21 June 1989 @dalecarr6361

Dale Carr | Capriccio chromatico con ligature al contrario by Frescobaldi performed by Dale Carr on 21 June 1989 @dalecarr6361 | Uploaded June 2021 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Capriccio chromatico con ligature al contrario by Girolamo Frescobaldi
{1583-1643} from his Primo Libro di Capricci Canzon francese e Recercari {...} 1642 ; performed by Dale Carr on the organ {1581} of San Niccolò Oltrarno in Firenze on 21 June, 1989

Fresobaldi seems to have prided himself on his successes with musical challenges that he set himself, among them:
- a composition in which one voice holds a single tone throughout;
- a composition in which stepwise movement of any voice is prohibited;
- a composition in which one voice is to be sung, not played, by the performer;
- a composition in which all dissonances are resolved by moving the dissonant tone upward, rather than downward as had been normal practice for centuries before his time.

The Capriccio chromatico con ligature al contrario shows how Frescobaldi worked out the last of the above challenges as a piece of music, not simply as a trick or an intellectual exercise. It is composed in 4 sections.

The 1st uses a variant of a fairly common chromatic soggetto consisting of an initial 3rd {either up or down} followed by a chromatic line in the same or in the opposite direction. Despite its diverse shapes & sizes, the subject is easily recognizable, even when the initial interval is a 2nd, or is omitted. Later on a 2nd motive is added with some consistency.

The 2nd section {2'10"} has 2 main subjects, the 1st of which is a zig-zag motive with the exact intervals subject to the demands of the context. The 2nd motive is another 'public domain' soggetto beginning with a rest and continuing with a tone repeated in dotted rhythm.

The 3rd section {3'23"} uses the 'fairly common chromatic soggetto' of the opening section, with a counter-subject. The final section {4'14"} is based mainly on ascending scales, often chromatic, except for the final gesture in the top voice, in descending motion, which can be heard as a manifestation of the 'al contrario' of the title.

Registrations:
The 2nd section {2'10"} uses the 8' Principale, which is one of the finest I know {opgelet JC!}. Not only is it a beautiful stop in its own right, but it serves as a wonderful basis for registrations using higher pitches as well.
The 1st & 3rd sections are registered with 8', 4', & 2' principals; the 4th section with a plenum.

Another recording on this organ can be heard at youtube.com/watch?v=FxSZRo4pBeI

Two pieces by Girolamo Frescobaldi from Fiori musicali 1635 performed by Dale Carr on 4 July, 1989

Prélude non mesuré in d minor, by Louis Couperin {~1626 - 1661}, performed by Dale Carr

$Magnificat Secundi Toni by Girolamo Frescobaldi recorded by Dale Carr in Firenze in 1989 Magnificat Secundi Toni by Girolamo Frescobaldi {1583-1643}, from his Secondo Libro di Toccate · Canzone · Versi dHinni · Magnificat {...} 1637 Recorded by Dale Carr on the organ {1581} of San Niccolò Oltrarno in Firenze, also known as Chiesa di S.Niccolò SoprArno, on 21 June, 1989 Frescobaldis verses for the 2nd tone Magnificat make good use of the fact that the 2nd line of the cantus firmus is close to being the inversion of the 1st line. Practically every note of every verse can be derived from the c.f. The organ is simply a jewel. It has but one manual with principal registers on one windchest {ripieno} & subsidiary registers including the standard 4 flute on a second chest {concerto}. More info on the organ can be found here: https://it.wikibooks.org/wiki/Disposizioni_foniche_di_organi_a_canne/Italia/Toscana/Citt%C3%A0_metropolitana_di_Firenze/Firenze/Firenze Chiesa_di_San_Niccol%C3%B2_Oltrarno Registrations: Verse 1: Principale Verse 2: Flauto ottava Verse 3: Principale Verse 4: Ottava Verse 5: 8, 4, 2 Verse 6: Plenum More organ works of Frescobaldi: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hgHeRtupWA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IxQb3lKLUs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhqj9yA2DU$

Het Juweel van Doctor Bull, performed by Dale Carr on the organ in Zeerijp

Prelude and Almand in D by Henry Purcell, played by Dale Carr

O lux on the faburden by John Redford {*~1500 - †1547}

Contrapunctus 4 from Die Kunst der Fuge by Bach Performed by Dale Carr in Leens on 19 May, 1990

$A Fancy in Gamut flatt by Orlando Gibbons {1583-1625} A Fancy in Gamut flatt by Orlando Gibbons {1583-1625}, oerformed by Dale Carr on the Schnitger organ {1688} in the Ludgerikirche in Norden {Ostfriesland} on October 10, 1998 I could write pages about this wonderful piece, but Ill restrain myself and hope that listeners will be able to share my enthusiasm for it through this performance. The work is preserved in a single manuscript which is in the hand of Benjamin Cosyn, a pupil of Gibbonss. I suspect that Cosyn wrote it out after hearing Gibbons improvise the piece. It appears in any case to be an uncorrected MS, since it contains parallel 5ths and other likely mistakes that would certainly have been corrected if Gibbons had written the piece down himself and given it to Cosyn to copy, rather than inventing it on the spot at the keyboard. The fact that the piece contains many artful contrapuntal devices, including even invertible counterpoint using 3 subjects, is no argument against the works having been improvised: choristers were taught to improvise counterpoint from an early age. But there are other reasons for thinking that the piece is an improvisation. One is the unlikely similarity between the 1st subject & the countersubject; another is the 16th-note flourish leading to this countersubject at the 1st entry, which flourish is omitted thereafter in the score because, I assume, it would have led to unacceptable parallel intervals. Composing or revising on paper would have offered the opportunity to avoid/correct these miscalculations, if thats what they are. The careful listener will hear several motives that occur almost throughout the work in various forms, for example the semi-tone motive g-g-f#-g and its inversion d-d-eb-d, and the motive d-f-e-d and its retrograde inversion f-e-d-f. Both of these are related to the subject presented at the outset. The sublime coda of the piece finally presents straightforwardly in its last measures what I conclude is the subject of the whole piece: g-bb-a-g-f#-g. From this subject almost all of the various motives used in the work can be derived. In closing I refer the reader to a pronouncement worth pondering: Like Beethoven in his last quartets, or Webern at almost any time, Gibbons is an artist of such intractable commitment that, in the keyboard field, at least, his works work better in ones memory, or on paper, than they ever can through the intercession of a sounding-board. Glenn Gould, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Gibbons$

Toccata VI da sonarsi alla Levatione by Johann Jakob Froberger, performed by Dale Carr

Fantasia nona sopra trè soggetti, by Frescobaldi, performed by Dale Carr on 22 May, 1993

The Wanderer, by Joseph Haydn, performed by James Fankhauser, tenor, and Barbara Shearer, piano