Saturday, 29 October, 9.30, p.m.,
Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Conceição (Machico)
Music in the Spanish Monasteries of the Baroque
Jesús Gonzálo López, organ
Music in the Spanish Monasteries of the Baroque
This programme covers a century of Spanish organ music, from the beginning of the 17th century to the beginning of the 18th, the mature baroque period. The collection of Fray Antonio Martín i Coll, compiled between 1706 and 1709, and the death of Juan Bautista Cabanilles in 1712 marked the end of an epoch and of a repertoire, coinciding in Spain with the change of dynasty (1700-1713). The work of composers such as Joseph Elias (d. 1749), together with that of other organists from here and there, was extinguished by the imperious rise of the harpsichord up to the middle of the century (Albero, Scarlatti, Seixas, Soler, etc.), serving as a bridge between the baroque and the reception of classicism that occurred in the Iberian Peninsula. The tiento is the essential and main form of Iberian baroque organ music, but in the last decades of the 17th century the tiento “form” (as Santiago Kastner used to say) began to evolve hugely as soon as the influence of music from beyond the Pyrenees began to be felt. The term “obra” arose as a new “form” in which the new and more modern forms of organ music fitted better – as well as including the traditional tiento and its variants. But, during the course of this century of Spanish organ music presented today, there is a formal vestige that defies convention, and this is what I shall concentrate upon, which bears a distinctly monastic character. The tonada belongs to the 18th century, to the corralas and the theatre with musical participation, becoming the tono humano or divino according to its place and text. After the renaissance and mannerist examples, the song came to have a double character in the Spanish baroque, so that it may be understood as a musical form with a certain Italo-French influence (those by Torrellas and Torrijo), influenced by renaissance models but using a baroque language, or with its own melody, concrete and characteristic of a certain popular taste (those by Martín i Coll) which share the themes of the old tonadillas from which they sprang. Tonadas and songs, sprinkled with dances, are the ingredients from which this monastic musical soup was made, creating a repertoire of high quality for the monasteries of the Spanish baroque, so removed from the more common Iberian organ repertoire. Enjoy it!
Jesús Gonzálo López
Fray Christóbal de San Jerónimo (professed in 1605)
¬ Tiento de tonadas, 8o tono
Anónimo (Séc. XVII, Monastery of El Escorial)
¬ Obra sobre la tonada del desmayo
Fray Bartholomé de Olagüe (Séc. XVII)
¬ Obra de 8o tono (tonada)
¬ Xácara de 1o tono
Fray Antonio Martín i Coll (collection) (1680-1734)
¬ Folías
¬ Diferencias sobre gayta
Fray Joseph Torrellas (Séc. XVII)
¬ Canción de 1o tono
¬ Canción de 8o tono
Fray Antonio Martín i Coll (collection)
¬ Chacona
¬ Obra de 3o tono, canción
Fray Diego de Torrijos (1653-1691)
¬ Canción de 6o tono por Delasolre
Fray Antonio Martín i Coll (collection)
¬ Obra de clarín
Participants
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During the course of a career of twenty-five years, Jesús Gonzálo López has travelled through much of the world playing the organ and has published some thirty CDs and books. He began studying music with canon Bienvenido García, organist of the Cathedral of El Burgo de Osma, absorbing the ancient tradition of learning music in Spanish cathedrals. Riaño, Uriol, Jansen, Kastner, Prensa and Calahorra were fundamental artistic influences. Since finishing his training, he has sought to build his career around the musical heritage of the Iberian Peninsula, and in particular Iberian organs, dividing his life between performing on historical instruments, research into these instruments, publishing music and making its aesthetic values better known. He has been advisor on the restoration of historical organs to the regional governments of Aragon and Castile and Leon for many years. He is director of two collections at the Institución “Fernando el Católico” (Provincial Government of Zaragoza), one of recordings of historical organs and another of the musical heritage of Aragon. He teaches at the Conservatoire in Zaragoza. As an organist, whether as soloist or with other musicians, he has performed Iberian music from Uruguay to Estonia, from the Azores to Lebanon, travelling through four continents and almost the whole of Spain. He has thus, during his twenty-five year career, built on his initial idea that, though studying and promoting the heritage of early music, one may assist everyone in having a great understanding of the world, of life and of mankind. |
Notes about the organ
Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, Machico
In the historical documentation from before the 20th century there are references to two instruments: according to historical tradition, one was given to the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in 1499 by King Manuel, and another acquired in 1746. As regards the Manueline organ, we may deduce that it was placed within the archway above the choirstalls on the Gospel side of the sanctuary. In the 18th century, the state of this instrument must have left much to be desired, leading to the acquisition of the second instrument in 1746. The organ arrived in Madeira in 1752, with the Council of the Treasury initially contributing the cost of purchase and later the installation costs.
The recent restoration undertaken by Dinarte Machado was done with the principal objective of returning as far as possible it to its original constitution, in accordance with indications to be gleened from the pieces of the instrument during its dismantling. Thus, the restoration always proceeded from a philosophy of taking into account the specificities of the original pieces, from the configuration of the case and its polychrome decoration, to the way the registration, pipework, bellows-work and even its placement - in the sanctuary - were returned to how they were originally. As regards the composition of the stops, the split keyboard, with the reed stop in the right hand, which the organ indicated was an original feature, which indeed characterised the instrument. The original keyboard, which was found piled in a heap, and which it was possible to repair and reassemble retains the short octave, as was usual at this period. The new pipework was completed with great rigour in accordance with the characteristics of the few original pipes that had survived, compared with the actual indications and dimensions of the windchest, which was also studied and recorded in great detail.
There can be no doubt that this is one of the loveliest organs on the island of Madeira. It is one of the instruments that conserves some of the most typical features of Portuguese organ building in the 17th century. It should be stressed that the restoration work carried out on this instrument required study of considerable documentation, as well as comparison with other instruments of the period. Since no other instruments of this kind are to be found in Portugal, recourse was had to instruments from other countries for the necessary data.
Manual (C, D, E, F, G, A-c’’’)
Flautado de 12 palmos (8’)
Flautado de 6 palmos (4’)
Flauta doce
Dozena (2 2/3’)
Voz humana (c#’-c’’’)
Quinzena (2’)
Composta de 19ª e 22ª
Sesquialtera II (c#’-c’’’)
Clarim* (c#’-c’’’)
* horizontal reeds