July 8, 2015

  • The Renaissance Keyboard

     The Renaissance Keyboard

    Fabio Antonio Falcone, organ, harpsichord, and polygonal virginal
    Briliiant Classics 95007
    Total Time:  76:17
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Prior to the Baroque period, most keyboard music tended to be arrangements, or transcriptions, of vocal works.  Often these may have some improvisational counterparts, but otherwise were really just adaptations of other music.  Not so here in this new release featuring keyboardist Fabio Antonio Falcone.  The Renaissance Keyboard is an opportunity to hear the complete set of works from two of the oldest extant printed collections of keyboard music.

    The first of these is the Frottole Intabulate da Sonare Organi.  Printed using the handcraft technique of carved woodblocks, this 1517 work was the beginning of a 15-year papal grant for its composer, Andrea Antico (ca.1480-after 1539), to have exclusive keyboard tablature printing rights.  The collection here features some 26 frottolas for solo keyboard, the first of its kind.  These four-voice polyphonic works were more common in vocal, or lute, settings.  The pieces here are specifically designated for a keyboard and have poetic connections.  The cover of the CD features that used for the first edition of this music.  Brief melodic bridges sometimes occur in these works and we can also hear a use of tremolo and tremoletti, a new technique that became more common about a century later.

    The disc opens with a collection of eight pieces by Marco Antonio Cavazzoni (ca. 1485-1569).  The Recerchari Motetti Canzoni were printed in 1523.  Two ricercares are followed by an instrumental motet.  There are also four canzons transcribed from vocal pieces that have not survived (or been discovered as of today).  The ricercari are important as they are the first printed examples of instrumental pieces being completely autonomous from a vocal work.  The pieces are somewhat interesting little works tending to feature modal harmonies with some imitation between outer voices, and a growing complexity for inner voices that might also include a variety of embellishments.  The length of the pieces also is intriguing with the improvisational quality managing to carry through as well.  The disc concludes with a final recercada that was discovered in keyboard manuscripts at astell’Arquato.

    The hardest thing to overcome in a recording of this kind is balancing out the different volumes of quite different instruments and that has been accomplished superbly.  The organ used here is a 17th-Century instrument set in the choir loft of the Church of San Giuseppe, Montevecchio di Pergola.  This is a small 45-key manual and 9 pedals, with 21 pipes.  The sound is captured well in this recording and Falcone’s interpretations are equally fine.  The Antico works are performed on instruments built by Robert Livi on original instrument designs by Alessandro Trasuntino (for the Italian harpsichord, 1531) and Domenico da Pesaro (for the virginal, ca. 1550).  It is fascinating to hear these two instruments as the musical selections shift between the two.  It makes this an equally interesting release of further historical value to hear these instruments being used for this music.  For those seeking to learn a bit more about the development of the keyboard, these pieces, though somewhat slight, are good to have on disc.  The Antico works in particular allow for a sort of interesting transition from lute to keyboard.