In the list of celebrated organs" which appeared in the theoretical work Conclusioni nel suono dell'Organo (1609) the Bolognese musician Adriano Banchieri included the pair of in struments which at that time graced two important basilicas: the organs of utmost sweetness at St. Mark's in Venice, and the rare organs at S. Petronio in his native city Only these latter instruments have survived splendidly restored in 1982 to that original rarity referred to by Banchieri and maintaining the characteristic sonorities essential to the repertoire for which they were conceived. The affinity between these two pairs of instruments, both in terms of their sound and their analogous spatial disposition (in both cases the organs were placed in opposite galleries framed by the dividing arches between the central and side naves), extends to the musical repertoire which flourished at the two institutions. The provosts of the vestry board (Fabbriceri) of S. Petronio in 1596 commissioned the organ builder Baldassarre Ma lamini of Cento (in the province of Ferrara) to provide the basilica with a second instrument which would accompany the organ built between 1471 and 75 by Lorenzo da Prato. The two instruments show a remarkable resemblance in their sound spectrum. The contrabbasso Principal of the older organ is rich and full-bodied, with a double rank treble, and corresponds to the 16-foot Principal of the 16th-century organ, equipped with analogous doubling Similarly, the Principal of the first organ and the Ottava of the second are tripled in the treble. Finally, the usual pair of Flauti in VIII and in XII of both instruments, of extraordinary lightness and brilliance, complete the sonorous resources of the "concerto stops. A particular attribute of Lorenzo's gothic organ is the above-mentioned Contrabbasso Principal, a stop which gives to this instrument an absolutely exceptional character: it is, in fact, both the oldest 20 foot organ known to us, and the largest instrument to have independent stops. Gabrieli was quite a versatile and prolific composer, and he found himself in Venice the recipient of important musical commissions, despite his unimpressive social and economic standing as organist an occupation comparable to simple artisans. He was thus given the opportunity to try his hand at cerimonial music such as that for multiple choirs and these pieces comprise the greater part of his collection of Concerti prepared for publication in 1587 by his nephew Giovanni, and including works by both composers. To this collection belongs the double-choir motet Egredimini et videte, in which the two choirs alternate phrases of various lengths ln such a way as to blend final cadences with initial chords in a single homogeneous flow. The performance, here entrusted to the two organs, encapsulates the complex contrapuntal interweaving of the eight voices in a keyboard tablature. |