Capriccio sopra Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, by Frescobaldi, played by Dale Carr in Metz on 4 July, 1993

Описание: Capriccio sopra Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, by Girolamo Frescobaldi, performed by Dale Carr on the triforium organ in the cathedral of Metz on 4 July, 1993

Italian organs at the time of Frescobaldi were significantly different from those in northern Europe. Most Italian organs had only one manual, and if they had pedals at all, these did not usually have their own pipes. Nor were reeds and mixtures a normal phenomenon.

Italian music benefitted from the greatest possible clarity of sound ; this clarity was combined with great intensity and power, and with the capability of sounding at once relaxed-vocal and sharply articulated. These qualities are substantially present in the pipes of the triforium organ in the cathedral in Metz, and although the sound has no Italian character, it does have lots of character, and that is more important.

The word Capriccio signifies in principle a “fleeting thought”; but this is belied by the extent and complexity of Frescobaldi’s longer examples. In Italian music the name usually refers to a work composed in a polyphonic style, on a particular subject (= soggetto). The subject is treated in sections with contrasting tempi and/or time-signatures. The transitions are sometimes in a non-polyphonic, toccata-like style.

The work makes extensive use of inganni ; the word means “deception” or “misleading”. The deception lies in substituting for an expected tone of a soggetto a different tone (not just a chromatic inflection). There were 3 hexachords, the “natural” beginning on c, the “hard” beginning on g, and the “soft” beginning on f and using b-flat. This gave the composer 2 alternatives as inganni for any given tone of the soggetto. I have pointed out several inganni near the beginning of the piece in annotations to the running score; the interested listener will be able to find many more. I am convinced that these technical devices in the works of Frescobaldi serve a musical purpose.

The organ in the triforium of the cathedral in Metz, located near the south-west corner of the crossing, is a reconstruction of an instrument made in 1536 by Jehan de Trêves; the reconstruction was carried out in 1982 by Marc Garnier. Despite having but 1 manual plus a regal on a 2nd clavier, it offers more than enough variety in registers for the works of Frescobaldi.