Dale Carr | Capriccio sopra La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Ut, {Girolamo Frescobaldi}, played by Dale Carr in 1991 @dalecarr6361 | Uploaded June 2023 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Capriccio sopra La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Ut, by Girolamo Frescobaldi
Performed by Dale Carr on the Schnitger organ in the Der Aa-Kerk, Groningen, on 20 September, 1991
Italian organs at the time of Frescobaldi were significantly different from those in northern Europe. An organ with three manuals and an independent pedal division, such as the instrument in the Der Aa-Kerk, would in Italy have been considered musically extravagant : most organs there had only one manual, and if they had pedals at all, these did not usually have their own pipes. Nor were reeds and mixtures a normal phenomenon.
Italian music benefitted from the greatest possible clarity of sound ; this clarity was combined with great intensity and power, and with the capability of sounding at once relaxed-vocal and sharply articulated. These qualities are substantially present in the old pipes of the Der Aa-Kerk organ, and although the sound has no Italian character, it does have lots of character, and that is more important.
Capriccio is not much more in principle than a “fleeting thought”. In Italian music the name usually refers to a work composed in a polyphonic style, on a particular subject (= soggetto). The subject is treated in sections with contrasting tempi and/or time-signatures. The transitions are sometimes in a non-polyphonic, toccata-like style.
The character of an individual section may be fairly simple to describe, as in the opening section, which is a straightforward polyphonic exposition of the subject, but with a surprising c# as the last tone. A later section uses the original form of the subject together with a chromatic version of the subject and an additional countersubject. The last section but one uses the subject, inverted and in long notes, plus a chromatic version of the subject, plus a syncopated version of the subject, plus counter-motives in dotted rhythm and running 16th-notes. The calm concluding section adds to various forms of the subject a twisting chromatic counter-subject.
The performance used only the rugpositief of the organ, which offers more than enough variety of tone-colors for the work. The registrations are pasted onto the score that accompanies the performance.
Capriccio sopra La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Ut, by Girolamo Frescobaldi
Performed by Dale Carr on the Schnitger organ in the Der Aa-Kerk, Groningen, on 20 September, 1991
Italian organs at the time of Frescobaldi were significantly different from those in northern Europe. An organ with three manuals and an independent pedal division, such as the instrument in the Der Aa-Kerk, would in Italy have been considered musically extravagant : most organs there had only one manual, and if they had pedals at all, these did not usually have their own pipes. Nor were reeds and mixtures a normal phenomenon.
Italian music benefitted from the greatest possible clarity of sound ; this clarity was combined with great intensity and power, and with the capability of sounding at once relaxed-vocal and sharply articulated. These qualities are substantially present in the old pipes of the Der Aa-Kerk organ, and although the sound has no Italian character, it does have lots of character, and that is more important.
Capriccio is not much more in principle than a “fleeting thought”. In Italian music the name usually refers to a work composed in a polyphonic style, on a particular subject (= soggetto). The subject is treated in sections with contrasting tempi and/or time-signatures. The transitions are sometimes in a non-polyphonic, toccata-like style.
The character of an individual section may be fairly simple to describe, as in the opening section, which is a straightforward polyphonic exposition of the subject, but with a surprising c# as the last tone. A later section uses the original form of the subject together with a chromatic version of the subject and an additional countersubject. The last section but one uses the subject, inverted and in long notes, plus a chromatic version of the subject, plus a syncopated version of the subject, plus counter-motives in dotted rhythm and running 16th-notes. The calm concluding section adds to various forms of the subject a twisting chromatic counter-subject.
The performance used only the rugpositief of the organ, which offers more than enough variety of tone-colors for the work. The registrations are pasted onto the score that accompanies the performance.
