22 OCT | Sunday 6.00 pm
Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição
Machico

Italian and iberian music
Francesco di Lernia, organ

The Toccata and the Canzona attributed by Salvatore Pintacuda to Alessandro Scarlatti are taken from a manuscript in the “Niccolò Paganini” Conservatoire in Genova. They are two works of high musical quality which, though considered anonymous in the new edition of the works of Alessandro Scarlatti, are fully a part of the reception history of Alessandro Scarlatti’s keyboard oeuvre.

The Pavana alla Venetiana and the Tenor di Napoli are variations on an ostinato bass with a dance-like character, used above all in the literature for harp and vihuela. The second piece bears witness to the close relationship between Naples and Spain. Ascanio Mayone was born in Naples and studied with Giovanni Domenico di Nola and with the Flemish organist Jean de Macque, who was chapel master of the Spanish Viceroy in Naples. With the death of Jean de Macque, Mayone became principal organist with Giovanni Maria Trabaci as chapel master. The Ricercar primo is taken from the Primo Libro di diversi capricci of 1603, which seems to have been the first publication of keyboard music in the new Italian style, associated particularly with the toccatas of Girolamo Frescobaldi. Bernardo Pasquini, the famous Roman organist, was considered at the time the greatest keyboard virtuoso after Frescobaldi. He composers, in addition to a number of oratorios, a great deal of music for organ and harpsichord, which has come down to us in manuscript. In the Tre Arie and the Variazioni per il Paggio Todesco the recourse to figuration typical of the music for violin of the time is evident, in a harmonic context increasingly orientated towards functional tonality.

Pablo Bruna was one of the greatest Spanish composers of keyboard music of his time. Gifted with a great musical talent, he was given, while still an adolescent, the position of organist of the Colegiada de Santa Maria in Daroca, a position made official in 1631 and which he would retain for the rest of his life. Of his output there survive thirty-two compositions – twenty tientos, including the Tiento de falsas del 2° Tono, a work full of dissonances which, for the time, would have been truly surprising. Flores de Música is the title given by the monk Antonio Martín y Coll (c. 1660-c. 1740) to a manuscript containing a miscellany of keyboard works. This collection, divided into two volumes, contains works from the baroque period from Spain, Italy and France. Martin y Coll, author of important treatises of the period, spent much of his life in the Monastery of St Francis the Great in Madrid, as first organist. In four years (between 1706 and 1709), he finished his vast anthology, which today represents an important document of the period.

Domenico Zipoli was a Italian Jesuit missionary and composer, who spent a very long period in South America. His evocative Elevazione will be played in this concert. In Italy, in the first half of the 19th century, opera was the principle source of musical entertainment. Musicians of all styles and abilities transcribed for band or piano the most popular opera arias. Organists were no exception, and they began to construct extraordinary special effects with drums and percussion. Giovanni Morandi composed more than eight hundred pieces for organ. His sacred music is almost exclusively written in an operatic style. He also published collections of sonatas, in a brilliant and lively style that recalls Mozart.

Annonym
(Ms. A.7b.63, Conservatório «Niccolò Paganini», Génova)

¬ Toccata

¬ Canzona

Joan Ambrosio Dalza (séc. XV-1508)

¬ Pavana alla venetiana

Annonym
(Ms. ADP 250/B, Arquivo Doria Panphilj)

¬ Tenor di Napoli

Ascanio Mayone (c. 1510-1627)

¬ Ricercar primo
(Primo libro dei diversi capricci, 1603)

Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710)

¬ Three arias

¬ Variazioni sopra il Paggio Todesco

Pablo Bruna (séc. XVII)

¬ Tiento de falsas de 2° tono

Annonym
(Antonio Martín y Coll, Flores de música)

¬ Chacona

¬ Toccata italiana de 1er tono

Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726)

¬ All’Elevazione

João de Sousa Carvalho (1745-1795)

¬ Allegro

Giovanni Morandi (1777-1856)

¬ Benedizione del Venerabile

Participants

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