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CD reviews






Early keyboard music

[I] "KeyNotes - Early European Keyboard Music"
Corina Marti, clavecytheriuma, clavisymbalumb, organettoc, organd
rec: May 13 - 14, 2019, Altenbruch (D), St. Nicolaid; August 2 - 3, 2019, Möhlin (CH), St. Leodegarabc
Ramée - RAM 1916 (© 2021) (65'54")
Liner-notes: E/D/F
Cover, track-list & booklet
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[in order of appearance] anon: Descendit de celisc; Danse realc; Dominod; Philippe DE VITRY (1291-1361): Tribum quem non abhoruitd; TASSIN (13th C): Chose Tassinc; anon: Kyrie Cunctipotens genitor Deusb; Ave maris stellad; Kyrie Ang[e]licumd; Redeuntes in mid; Mit ganczem Willen wünsch ich dird; Humble Pitiéa; Praeambulum super d a f et gd; [Piece without title]a; Henricus HESSMAN DE ARGENTORATO (fl late 14th/early 15th C): Stella piab; Pierre DES MOLINS (fl mid-14th C): Molendinum de Parisb; anon: Benedicamus Dominod; Amend; JACOPO DA BOLOGNA (fl 1340?-1386): Io me son uno che per la frascheb; GIOVANNI DA FIRENZE (fl 1340-1360): Deh come dolcemente m’abbracciavaa; Francesco LANDINI (c1325-1397): Se la vista soavec; GIOVANNI DA FIRENZE: Per larghi prati e per gran boschi foltid; anon: Cantano gl'angiolieti Sanctusa; Benedicamus: Sane per omniac; Benedicamusd

[II] "Aquila altera"
Federica Bianchi, clavisymbaluma, harpsichordb
rec: Jan 16 - 18, 2021, Prato (IT), Cappella Chiesa di San Domenico
Passacaille - PAS 1111 (© 2021) (40'00")
Liner-notes: E/D/F/IT
Cover, track-list & booklet
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anon: Ave maris stellaa; Andrea ANTICO (c1480-after 1538): Animoso mio desire (Tromboncino)b; Le non vuol esser più mia (Tromboncino)b; Occhi miei lassi (Tromboncino); Per dolor mi bagno el viso (Tromboncino)b; Girolamo CAVAZZONI (c1525-after 1577): Inno Ave maris stellab; Andrea GABRIELI (1552/53-1585): Anchor che col partire (Rore)b; JACOPO DA BOLOGNA (fl 1340?-1386): Aquila alteraa; Non na el so amantea; O ciecho mondoa; Francesco LAMBARDI (c1587-1642): Toccatab; Francesco LANDINI (c1325-1397): Che pena è questaa; Ercole PASQUINI (1550/60-1608/19): Anchor che col partire (Rore)b; Paolo QUAGLIATI (c1555-1628): Toccata dell'ottavo tonob; Antonio VALENTE (1520-1580): Chi la dirra disminuita (Willaert)b

Sources: [1] Andrea Antico, Frottole intabulate da sonare organi, 1517; [2] Girolamo Cavazzoni, Intavolatura cioe recercari, canzoni, himni, magnificati ... libro primo, 1543

Keyboard instruments have played a major role in music since early times, and continue to do so until the present day. But the kind of keyboards that were played, and their repertoire have changed. The two discs to be reviewed here bring us back to a time when instruments were played which have become obsolete in later time - with the exception of the organ - and with repertoire that was not originally intended for performance on keyboard instruments, or even on any instrument.

Whereas nowadays composers write music for a specific instrument, that was very different in the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Only dances were written for instruments, without specification of which should be used. However, the largest part of the repertoire of players was vocal music, which they either played unchanged or with embellishments and diminutions. Such adaptations or arrangements - whatever you want to call them - were mostly improvised. It is thanks to several manuscripts that we know what kind of music was played, and how. This allows for a modern performance of such music, bringing to life a common practice from a time about which we know not that much.

The lack of knowledge concerns also which keyboard instruments were played. Only the organ is known as a common instrument, which played a major role in the liturgy, but was also used in secular surroundings. This explains why the organ was not only used for the performance of sacred music, but also of secular pieces. An important source of such music, the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, bears witness to that. The name refers to the organ, and the fact that the music is notated in what is known as the German organ tablature, proves that it was intended for performance at the organ. That does not exclude performances on other instruments, such as plucked or strung instruments.

And that brings us to two instruments used in these two recordings: the clavecytherium and the clavisymbalum (different spellings are used). The former instrument's existence is known from a late 15th-century source, and from that time some instruments have been preserved. In New Grove we find this description: "An upright harpsichord with a vertical soundboard. The main advantages of such an instrument are that it takes up less floor space than a normal harpsichord and the sound is projected more directly at the player. Since the jacks must move horizontally rather than vertically, it requires a complex action often involving the use of springs rather than gravity to return the jacks to their position of rest. As a result clavicytheria usually have a fairly heavy touch and unresponsive action." Corina Marti plays a copy of an anonymous instrument from the late 15th century.

Both she and Federica Bianchi also play a clavisymbalum, which is described by Henri Arnaut de Zwolle in a treatise on musical instruments. No specimen of such an instrument has been preserved, and this means that reconstructions have to be made, based on iconographical sources, such as the drawings of Arnaut de Zwolle. The playing of the clavisymbalum is a relatively new development; one of its pioneers is Guillermo Pérez, who explores the repertoire with his ensemble Tasto Solo.

As far as the organ is concerned, not many instruments from the Middle Ages have survived, certainly not unchanged. Organs were usually adapted to the taste of the time or replaced by new instruments. Corina Marti plays an instrument which has also been modernized, but includes enough pipework from the 15th century to make it suitable for the performance of the repertoire she has selected. In addition she plays an organetto, "the name given to the little organ of treble flue pipes carried (Lat. portare) by a strap over the player’s shoulder. It was played by the right hand (fingering 2-3-2-3 is implied in many paintings), and its bellows were blown by the left hand." (New Grove)

Corina Marti entirely focuses on music from the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, roughly speaking from the 12th to the 15th century. As the track-list shows, the repertoire is sacred and secular, and of different genres. The earliest pieces bring us to the time that polyphony was still a new development. Many pieces were in only two parts, sometimes three. The organetto is used in the simplest pieces as it does not allow to perform three parts at the same time. Obviously the large organ has a wider range. Which instrument is chosen is up to the performer; others may make different choices. In this section of the programme we also find a dance, which is one of the few pieces specifically intended for instrumental performance (but not necessarily a keyboard instrument).

As I already wrote, vocal music could be performed unchanged or with embellishments and diminutions by instrumentalists. An impressive example of the latter practice is the Kyrie Cunctipotens genitor Deus from the Codex Faenza (early 15th century), played at the clavisymbalum. The right hand is very busy playing brilliant diminutions on the notated vocal part. On the other hand, when it was needed a three-part piece could be reduced to a two-part item by omitting one of the parts. It shows, once again, how much freedom players allowed themselves in the treatment of music that was not subject to copyright.

Corina Marti is a specialist in early keyboard music and the playing of this kind of keyboard instruments. That shows here, as we get performances that sound entirely idiomatic. The world of the Middle Ages may be strange to most listeners today, with her engaging style of playing Corina Marti is able to bridge the distance in time, also thanks to the instruments she is using. The result is a fascinating journey through a world of astonishing creativity and invention.

Federic Bianchi starts in the same time as Corina Marti, but her programme has a wider scope, as she moves from the Middle Ages to the early 17th century, but is also narrower in that she confines herself to two instruments: the clavisymbalum and its successor, the harpsichord. The latter comes in two different shapes: the music from the early 16th century she plays on the copy of a 16th-century Neapolitan instrument with gut strings, whereas the pieces from the late 16th and early 17th centuries are performed on the copy of a harpsichord by Giusti (1681).

The fifteen pieces in the programme are divided into groups of three: the first is played on the clavisymbalum, the second and third on the two harpsichords in succession. The medieval pieces are all secular and taken from the Codex Faenza, which we already encountered on Corina Marti's disc. Three are from the pen of Jacopo da Bologna, one of the main composers of the Trecento, of whom 34 pieces have been preserved, most of them madrigals, as those included here. Aquila altera is for three voices, the other two are in two parts. The greatest composer of the Trecento was Francesco Landini; Che pena è questa is a ballata.

Whereas these pieces are intabulations of vocal items which are intended for instrumental performance, but not specifically for keyboard, Andrea Antico published a book with intabulations which were meant to be performed on the harpsichord. Although the title Frottole intabulate da sonare organi suggests the organ, this has to be interpreted as keyboard in general. Moreover, the title-page shows a player at a harpsichord. This collection of 1517 may well be the very first printed edition of keyboard music in Europe. The pieces included in it are frottole, most of them by the two main composers of such pieces: Marchetto Cara and Bartolomeo Tromboncino.The frottola was one of the most popular forms of secular vocal music in the Italian renaissance. New Grove defines it as "[a] secular song of the Italian Renaissance embracing a variety of poetic forms. It flourished at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th and was the most important stylistic development leading to the madrigal."

Marc Vanscheeuwijck concludes his liner-notes to this disc by saying that "in this recording Federica Bianchi explores with three early types of harpsichords the development of keyboard music from the earliest Italian intabulations of secular songs in the Codex Faenza all the way through the latest representatives of that tradition in southern Italy, which eventually culminated in the virtuoso toccata at the dawn of the Baroque era." The latter stage is represented by Franceso Lambardi, Antonio Valente, Paolo Quagliati, Andrea Gabrieli and Ercole Pasquini. Two of the pieces are toccatas, as mentioned by Vanscheeuwijck, but that traditions die hard is shown by the vocal pieces in the instrumental versions of Valente, Gabrieli and Pasquini. The difference with the intabulations of the earlier stages in the programme is that here we have sets of diminutions, in which composers use a vocal work to create a genuin instrumental piece. These works reflect the virtuosity that was a feature of much music written around 1600 and in the first half of the 17th century.

This disc is a nice and useful companion to Corina Marti's disc. Federica Biancha's performances are excellent and take the vocal origin of the pieces into account. She also does full justyice to the virtuosity of the latest items. The use of three different instruments, and the chronological structure of the programme make this recording all the more interesting.

Lovers of the historical keyboard should add both these productions to their collection.

On a technical note: it is regrettable that the booklet to the Ramée disc offers no information about the instruments, except the organ. It is also not indicated which instrument is used in each item. I have added this in the header. The booklet to the Passacaille disc lists which instrument is used in which piece, but the lists of tracks for the two harpsichords have been swapped.

Johan van Veen (© 2025)

Relevant links:

Federica Bianchi
Corina Marti


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