Dale Carr | Fantasia in d by Orlando Gibbons performed by Dale Carr on the organ in Loppersum @dalecarr6361 | Uploaded May 2021 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Fantasia in d for keyboard, by Orlando Gibbons {1583-1625} ; performed by Dale Carr on the organ in Loppersum {province of Groningen} on 21 February 1982
The ornately calligraphed Latin text on the impost of the case of the main organ in Loppersum is taken from Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Chapter 40, verses 20 & 21:
Vinvm et mvsica laetificant cor ; et svper vtraque dilectio sapientiae. Tibie et psalterivm svavem facivnt melodiam ; et svper vtraque lingva svavis.
{Wine and music delight the heart, but the love of wisdom is above them both. The flute and the psaltery make a sweet melody, but a sweet tongue is above them both.}
In addition to the above text, the date of the case is hidden in smaller letters left and right of the central tower: A D -- | 1562.
It is not uncommon for calligraphed texts to require more space than is available. In this instance, the last 6½ words plus the 'footnote' giving the source of the text are squeezed onto a single panel in approximately ½-sized letters, around the right corner of the case. Words are also often not complete on a single panel, e.g. 'cor et s' & 'faciv'. Nor is the spelling consistent: the -ae suffix is sometimes complete & sometimes shortened to -e. Whether this is calligrapher's license or being faithful to the version of the source that was available, I cannot say.
About the music: I think it's not very common to use as a counter-subject something that sounds like a variant of the subject, but that's what Gibbons has done here, and also in his fantasy in gamut flatt {youtube.com/watch?v=Ia6uX3Uyy2c }. It's also fairly exceptional to have the 1st 3 imitative voices all enter on the tonic. Much more usual is that the entries alternate on tonic & dominant.
But the opening subject is abandoned after the 3rd entry, and followed by a succession of numerous subjects treated equally briefly. These new subjects seem to invite themselves, emerging as it were spontaneously from the contrapuntal lines, and certainly not requiring a harmonic cadence for their admission to the work. Though the piece is quite strictly in 3 voices, it is not always a polyphonically treated subject that defines the character of a passage, but frequently a complex texture of syncopations or another feature such as rapid passages of 32nd-notes. The great number of new subjects and other elements keeps the listener alert, and perhaps the improvising composer as well.
Registration: Rugpositief 8' Roerfluit, 2' Woudfluit ; later + 3' Nasat
Another recording @ Loppersum is here: youtube.com/watch?v=YiXBymcuZTc
More of Gibbons here: youtube.com/watch?v=hAx9sOQu2tE {Norden, Schnitger}
& @ youtube.com/watch?v=Ia6uX3Uyy2c {Krewerd, 1531}
Fantasia in d for keyboard, by Orlando Gibbons {1583-1625} ; performed by Dale Carr on the organ in Loppersum {province of Groningen} on 21 February 1982
The ornately calligraphed Latin text on the impost of the case of the main organ in Loppersum is taken from Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Chapter 40, verses 20 & 21:
Vinvm et mvsica laetificant cor ; et svper vtraque dilectio sapientiae. Tibie et psalterivm svavem facivnt melodiam ; et svper vtraque lingva svavis.
{Wine and music delight the heart, but the love of wisdom is above them both. The flute and the psaltery make a sweet melody, but a sweet tongue is above them both.}
In addition to the above text, the date of the case is hidden in smaller letters left and right of the central tower: A D -- | 1562.
It is not uncommon for calligraphed texts to require more space than is available. In this instance, the last 6½ words plus the 'footnote' giving the source of the text are squeezed onto a single panel in approximately ½-sized letters, around the right corner of the case. Words are also often not complete on a single panel, e.g. 'cor et s' & 'faciv'. Nor is the spelling consistent: the -ae suffix is sometimes complete & sometimes shortened to -e. Whether this is calligrapher's license or being faithful to the version of the source that was available, I cannot say.
About the music: I think it's not very common to use as a counter-subject something that sounds like a variant of the subject, but that's what Gibbons has done here, and also in his fantasy in gamut flatt {youtube.com/watch?v=Ia6uX3Uyy2c }. It's also fairly exceptional to have the 1st 3 imitative voices all enter on the tonic. Much more usual is that the entries alternate on tonic & dominant.
But the opening subject is abandoned after the 3rd entry, and followed by a succession of numerous subjects treated equally briefly. These new subjects seem to invite themselves, emerging as it were spontaneously from the contrapuntal lines, and certainly not requiring a harmonic cadence for their admission to the work. Though the piece is quite strictly in 3 voices, it is not always a polyphonically treated subject that defines the character of a passage, but frequently a complex texture of syncopations or another feature such as rapid passages of 32nd-notes. The great number of new subjects and other elements keeps the listener alert, and perhaps the improvising composer as well.
Registration: Rugpositief 8' Roerfluit, 2' Woudfluit ; later + 3' Nasat
Another recording @ Loppersum is here: youtube.com/watch?v=YiXBymcuZTc
More of Gibbons here: youtube.com/watch?v=hAx9sOQu2tE {Norden, Schnitger}
& @ youtube.com/watch?v=Ia6uX3Uyy2c {Krewerd, 1531}