Anonymous Composer (c.1770): Voluntary in A Minor for Organ

Описание: Organ of Velesovo Priory Church 1. Largo spiritoso 2. Fugue
-- The work recorded here is the final item of ten in a volume entitled "A Collection of Voluntaries for Organ or Harpsicord, composed by Dr. Green, Mr. Travers and Several other eminent Masters. Book I", published by the London firm of Longman, Lukey & Co. Printed organ music in 18th-c. England was inevitably billed as being for harpsichord also -- more potential customers owned a harpsichord than had easy access to an organ, and since English organ music of the period was for manuals only a harpsichord could indeed be used instead, even though in most cases it would have been a poor substitute. Another regular feature of this kind of publication in 18th-c. England is that it fails to indicate the year of publication, on the title page or anywhere else. For this volume, the presumed date of publication is variously given as 1765 (Pierre Gouin in his edition on IMSLP), 1770 (C.H. Trevor in his anthology of "Old English Organ Music for Manuals"), or 1771 (Gwilym Beechey, see below). The date 1765, which also appears in other literature, cannot be right since it was only in 1769 that Charles Lukey joined the firm of James Longman (they were actually instrument makers with a music publishing business on the side). In 1773 Francis Broderip also became a partner. Lukey having died in 1776, from then on the firm published music under the imprint of Longman & Broderip, until they went bankrupt in the mid-1790s. The Longman & Broderip output includes further, similar collections of voluntaries numbered Book II, III and IV. Like Book I they mention well-known composers -- Greene and Handel -- in the title but with rare exceptions do not indicate the composers of the individual voluntaries themselves. In "Book I" none of the voluntaries is attributed -- but unlike what seems to be the case in the other volumes some of them actually are by the composers mentioned in the title. Comparison with 18th-c. manuscript sources allows at least two of the voluntaries in Book I to be identified as being by John Travers (late organist of the Chapel Royal), and one as being by Maurice Greene (late organist of St Paul's Cathedral and of the Chapel Royal). Two further voluntaries in the book, including this one, are thought to be possibly by Greene by Gwilym Beechey (see the preface of his 1975 edition of keyboard music by Greene) -- but regarding the piece heard here I must say I find that rather doubtful. The fugue that constitutes the main movement, with its striking, chromatically descending subject, is an ambitious piece, evidently by a composer of some merit. Yet it seems to me to be more in the style of English organists of the generation AFTER Greene, such as William Goodwin or William Selby. Specifically this regards the liberal use of blocked chords, the use of long-note suspensions in a manner that to me seems characteristic of the 1760s and 70s, and the presence of interludes using Alberti basses (sometimes in fact assigned to the right hand, as in this piece) -- Alberti basses are actually already found in at least one fugal movement by John Blow, who died in 1708; but they became somewhat fashionable in organ fugues around 1770. The general cast of the fugal writing also to me seems to point to that period -- competent but wearing its counterpoint lightly, striving for decorative (rather than learned) musical effect. Finally, the slow movement, effective but somewhat formulaic, also seems unlike Greene: his are usually more sophisticated. (Compare this video on my channel of a voluntary by Greene likewise consisting of a fugue, with rather more thorough counterpoint, preceded by a somewhat less elementary slow movement:    • Maurice Greene (1696-1755): Voluntary in B...   . For the use of Alberti basses in a fugue see voluntaries 9 and 10 by William Goodwin, in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... , or these voluntaries by Selby:    • William Selby (1738-98): Psalm 23 / Fugue ...   and    • William Selby (1738-98): Voluntary in A Ma...   . The Blow fugue is here:    • John Blow (1649-1708): Organ Voluntary in ...   )

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