Sunday 26 October, 6.00, p.m. 
Church and Convent of Santa Clara 

Joris Verdin, organ and harmonium 
Maria Ferreira, soprano 

Padovano and Willaert were colleagues at the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice. Padovano was organist and so would have worked closely with Willaert. Both men were prominent in the development of instrumental music, each in his own field. Padovano's toccatas were published in the posthumous Toccate et Ricercari d'Organo by Gardano inVenice in 1604. Willaert did not compose organ works as such, but it is obvious that his ricercares belong to the main organ repertoire of that time. The Recercar I was published in the collection Musica Nova, 1540. The Recercar X is taken from the Fantasie ricercari contrapuni a tre voci, published by Gardano in 1559 and intabulated for organ. The polyphonic structure makes those pieces vocal in style, very much like the sound of an Italian principal stop.

Abraham van de Kerckhoven was organist at the court in Brussels and from 1656 onwards the successor of Jakob Kerll. His music is both expressive and well constructed, with influences from Italy and Spain, but in a very personal interpretation. Kerckhoven is the main personality in Belgian organ music in the 17th century. No works were published during his lifetime, but his compositions survive in many manuscripts.

Codex un poco Faenza is clearly inspired by one of the most ancient sources of keyboard music. The Codex Faenzais a 14th century Italian manuscript that contains adaptations and ornamentations of both sacred and secular French and Italian vocal works of the Ars Nova. The organ used by the performers of the Codex Faenzaconsisted of the basic elements of an organ; a few registers and keys arranged according to pitch on a keyboard. Organists of the period had a simple instrument on which to play. When we hear such pieces today we are influenced by many other styles of music that prevent us from hearing this music of the past with the ears of six centuries ago. The Codex un poco Faenza is an expression of this helpless nostalgia.

Joseph Hector Fiocco, of Italian descent, was active in Brussels and promoted the modern Italian style in Belgium, besides the classical French idiom. His pieces in general have French titles, but the style is Italian, with a lively melodic inspiration and an idiomatic keyboard treatment, including broken chords and scales.

There is no single musical instrument with a history as clearly defined as that of the harmonium. Its existence is entirely linked to the musical idioms of the period 1830-1930. Towards the end of the 18th century, a new wave of developments began in the world of keyboard instruments as, throughout Europe, people sought new solutions to the increasingly problematic issue of combining sustained sounds with dynamic expression. Organ builders such as Sébastien Erard experimented with special stops, piano makers developed new forms of the pianoforte, while the harpsichord and clavichord gradually disappeared altogether. None of the instrument makers found a solution that combined practicality and compactness with an instrument able to be produced on a large scale, and was comparatively durable. Equally, the instrument makers failed to find a manner of making the organ, or pianoforte, truly ‘expressive’. Following various forms of the so-called ‘orgue expressif’, developed during the first decades of the 19th century, it was finally left to Alexandre François Debain to invent an instrument which would radically change the keyboard world. In 1842, he took out a patent on a keyboard instrument, which he called the "Harmonium". In this manner, a keyboard instrument had been created which fulfilled the key desire of the time: a sound so supple as to make all variety of musical expression possible. The harmonium came into existence to fulfil the era’s desire for an expressive keyboard instrument and not as a replacement for the organ, although this was a role into which it was often pressed. This must be considered a somewhat remarkable phenomenon: the harmonium found itself in church due to such characteristics as stable tuning, limited size, a flexible sound with which to accompany a choir and also its limited need for maintenance. This programme presents a cross-section of original harmonium repertoire for the "salon" or concert together with sacred pieces for soloist and accompaniment.

Joris Verdin

I - Organ

Annibale Padovano (c.1527-c.1575)
Toccata del ottavo tono (Toccate et Ricercari d'Organo, 1604)

Adriaan Willaert (1490-1562)
Recercar I (Musica Nova, 1540)
Recercar X

Abraham van de Kerckhoven (1627-1702)
Fantasia primi toni

Joris Verdin (1952)
Codex un poco Faenza (1987)

Joseph Hector Fiocco (1703-1741)
L'Italienne
Vivace

II - Harmonium

César Franck (1822-1890)
Andantino - Offertoire (5 Pièces pour harmonium)
Ave Maria

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Barcarolle Op. 1 nº 2
Ave Maria

Joseph Leybach (1817-1891)
Les Bateliers de Venise

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Recueillement Op. 23 nº 1

Lefébure-Wely (1817-1869)
Rhapsodie espagnole (Trois Suites pour Harmonium)
Dernière espérance (Nuits Napolitaines, Op. 183)
O salutaris

Participants

Notes about the Organ

Church and Convent of Santa Clara, Funchal

The church of Santa Clara had acquired a small positive organ with Italo-Iberian characteristics in the 18th century. With the extinction of the religious orders and the subsequent sale of the congregation’s goods, the organ was also put up for sale, being purchased by a certain Romano de Santa Clara, who kept it in a wing of the dissolved convent. In 1921 he gave it to the fraternity of Santa Clara, so that it could once more be put to service in the worship of the church. In October 1923 the task of ‘repairing’ it was put in the hands of the musicians César R. Nascimento and Guilherme H. Lino, who completed the work in November of the following year.
Unused and badly damaged for many years, this instrument of considerable historical value underwent a major restoration by Dinarte Machado on the basis of proper criteria drawn from a knowledge of the organ-building practices of the instrument’s period. This was completed in 2001. The poor state of the instrument, completely disfigured, required a rigorous, in-depth study on which to base this restoration. Thus we see how from the outset Dinarte Machado went to considerable pains in the course of this restoration.

Manual (C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb-c’’’)
Principale (c#’-c’’’)
Ottava (4’)
Quintadecima
Decimanona
Vigesimaseconda e Trigesimasesta
Flauto 8’
Flauto 4’
Cornetto (c#’-c’’’)