[Theme music begins]
Welcome to Harmonia … I’m Angela Mariani. This hour, we’ll continue to explore the art of intabulation. Intabulation was the process of creating instrumental music from existing pieces, such as adapting a vocal motet for the organ or arranging chamber music for a solo keyboard player. Generations of musicians from the Middle Ages to the classical period made music for their instruments this way, embellishing the source material to create something completely new.
Later in the hour, our featured recording is by the ensemble Music Ficta, with music from the early Reformation period in Denmark.
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MUSIC TRACK
Frescobaldi: Keyboard Music from Manuscript Sources
Martha Folts
Naxos | 8.570717 (2008)
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Tr. 13 Partite sopra un aria Romana detta la Manista (Berlin Staatbibliotek manuscript) (4:45)
Martha Folts played “Partite sopra un aria Romana detta la Manista,” by Girolamo Frescobaldi, which he based on a theme from an aria. This is one of many examples of a keyboard composer using vocal music as the source to create a new piece. / This partita was found in a manuscript at the Berlin State Library / and has recently been attributed to Frescobaldi.
The music of Renaissance composer Orlando Lassus served as inspiration for many seventeenth-century organists to intabulate their own arrangements of his works. One such work, is Lassus’ motet “Surrexit pastor bonus” which was published in a collection of sacred music for five voices in 1562. We’ll hear this motet alongside its offspring – an intabulation for organ by Heinrich Scheidmann, one of the most prolific organists of his generation. [He studied with Jan Sweelinck in Amsterdam before finding a church position in Hamburg, Germany / where he stayed from 1629 to 1663.] [Scheidemann’s most significant contributions were his organ works based on Lutheran chorale tunes. / These range from simple improvisations to elaborate fantasias that pushed the organ to its limits in the early Baroque period.]
First, we will hear Orlando Lassus’ “Surrexit pastor bonus,” followed by Heinrich Scheidemann’s organ intabulation of the motet. “Surrexit pastor bonus” means “the good shepherd has arisen” and the text comes from the book of John. This motet would have been sung during Eastertide, if not on Easter Sunday specifically.
MUSIC TRACK
Haec Dies: Music for Easter
Clare College Choir
Harmonia Mundi | HMU907655DI (2016)
Orlando Lassus
Tr. 13 Surrexit pastor bonis (2:23)
MUSIC TRACK
Scheidemann Works for Organ, Vol. 1
Pieter van Dijk
Naxos | 8.554202 (1998)
Heinrich Scheidemann
Tr. 8 Surrexit pastor bonis (5:29)
We heard the Clare College Choir sing the motet “Surrexit pastor bonus” by Orlando Lassus. Then, Pieter van Dijk played an organ fantasia by Heinrich Scheidemann based on Lassus’s motet.
We turn now to an Italian composer one generation after Orlando Lassus. Giovanni Bassano was a Venetian composer working at the end of the sixteenth century and was a pivotal figure in the development of instrumental music at St. Marks in Venice. He wrote motets and sacred concertos in what is known today as the Venetian polychoral style, meaning that many of his vocal works were written for multiple choirs to sing at the same time, alternating from one group of singers to the other. His motet “Dic Nobis Maria” features alternation between small groups of singers. A motet for Easter, the text tells the story of Mary encountering the empty tomb and the risen Christ on the morning of the resurrection.
MUSIC TRACK
Sacred Treasures of Venice
London Oratory School Schola
Hyperion | 00028948750221 (2024)
Giovanni Bassano
Tr. 5 Dic Nobis Maria (3:54)
The motet “Dic Nobis Maria,” by Giovanni Bassano, sung by the London Oratory School Schola.
Heinrich Scheidemann intabulated “Dic Nobis Maria” for the organ at some point during his tenure in Hamburg. As we listen to Scheidemann’s organ arrangement of “Dic Nobis Maria,” we’ll hear the organist switch between a louder manual and softer manual to mimic the two groups of singers. Scheidemann expanded* Bassano’s motet, adding a new, improvisatory voice on top of the original.
MUSIC TRACK
Scheidemann Works for Organ, Vol. 1
Pieter van Dijk
Naxos | 8.554202 (1998)
Heinrich Scheidemann
Tr. 2 Dic Nobis Maria (7:09)
Pieter van Dijk played an intabulated version of “Dic Nobis Maria” for the organ. This piece is Heinrich Scheidemann’s arrangement of the motet of the same name Giovanni Bassano.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
MUSIC TRACK
Keyboard Sonatas, BWV 963 – 968
Ramin Bahrami
Decca | 00028947633570 (2009)
Tr. 19 Sarabande (1:12)
Welcome back. This hour, we’re exploring how musicians created solo pieces for their instruments through the art of intabulation. So far, we’ve heard two Easter motets become grand pieces for the organ. Next, we’ll explore how Johann Sebastian Bach reworked one of his teacher’s large chamber sonatas for multiple string instruments into a solo keyboard suite.
Seventeenth-century organist and composer Johann Adam Reincken was a central figure of the German Baroque period and an important influence on the young Johann Sebastian Bach. [Reincken studied with Heinrich Scheidemann in Hamburg and took over Scheidemann’s church position upon his death in 1663.]
Not much of Reincken’s music survives, but one of the collections that did is the “Hortus Musicus,” which means “Musical Garden.” The “Hortus Musicus” is a collection of six chamber suites for strings and continuo published in 1687. [Through his musical garden, Reincken explores the stylistic and harmonic capabilities of the Baroque suite.] Each suite begins with an opening sonata, followed by an Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. We’ll hear the opening sonata of the first suite in A minor from the “Hortus Musicus.”
MUSIC TRACK
Hortus Musicus
Fantasticus
Accent | ACC24217 (2010)
Johann Adam Reincken
Tr. 16 Sonata (5:23)
The first movement of Johann Reincken’s Suite no. 1 in A Minor played by Ensemble Fantasticus. The suite was published in a collection called “Hortus Musicus,” which means “musical garden.”
Johann Sebastian Bach visited Reincken in Hamburg in 1720. [Bach improvised for Reincken on the organ, and Reincken was extremely impressed by the young Bach’s musical abilities.] After their time together, Bach intabulated several works from Reincken’s “Hortus Musicus” for the keyboard, greatly expanding upon Reincken’s original version. In particular, Bach took some liberties with the fugal sections of Reincken’s chamber suites, making his arrangements even more complex than Reincken’s original. We’ll hear Bach’s keyboard arrangement of the opening sonata from Reincken’s “Hortus musicus.”
MUSIC TRACK
Keyboard Sonatas, BWV 963 – 968
Ramin Bahrami
Decca | 00028947633570 (2009)
J. S. Bach
Trs. 13-15 Keyboard Sonata in A Minor, BWV 965: Adagio, Fuga, Adagio (6:55)
Tr. 16 Keyboard Sonata in A Minor, BWV 965: Presto (:35)
Ramin Bahrami played the opening movements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Keyboard Sonata in A Minor based on Johann Reincken’s “Hortus Musicus.”
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
MUSIC TRACK
Reforming Hymns
Musica Ficta
Dacapo | 8.226142 (2023)
Anonymous
Tr. 20 “Vater under in Himmelreich” (EXCERPT)
Our featured release this hour is the album Reforming Hymns released in 2023 by DaCapo Records. It features the ensemble Musica Ficta performing music from the early Reformation period that circulated in Denmark. The album includes sixteenth-century motets, chants, and organ music from well-known composers like Orlando Lassus and lesser-known Danish composers like Mogens Pedersøn. The album traces multiple threads of Reformation music; [some of the congregational music for the early Protestant church was adapted from Gregorian chant, and some hymns were created by writing new words for secular tunes.]
The first two pieces we’ll hear come from an organ tablature publication by German composer Arnolt Schlick. The hymn “Maria zart” began as a secular song until new poetry was written for the tune. The text of the hymn extolls the virtues of Mary, the mother of Jesus. First, we’ll hear a version of the hymn by Arnolt Schlick for lute and voice. Then, we’ll hear another version by Schlick for the organ alone.
MUSIC TRACK
Reforming Hymns
Musica Ficta
Dacapo | 8.226142 (2023)
Arnolt Schlick
Tr. 10 Maria zart (2:12)
Tr. 13 Maria zart (2:36)
Two versions of the hymn “Maria zart” by Arnolt Schlick performed by the ensemble Musica Ficta. First, a hymn arrangement for lute and voice, followed by an intabulated arrangement for the organ.
We’ll end this hour with two Danish arrangements of two prominent Lutheran hymns: “Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist,” a prayer to the holy spirit, and “Vatur unser im Himmelreich,” the Lord’s prayer. The settings we’ll hear were written by Mogens Pedersøn in 1620 and were included in his collection of Lutheran melodies translated into Danish.Pedersøn traveled widely across Europe, studying with Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice, serving as a court musician in England, and finally as a director of the Danish royal chapter chapel back in his homeland.]
MUSIC TRACK
Reforming Hymns
Musica Ficta
Dacapo | 8.226142 (2023)
Mogens Pedersøn
Tr. 19 Fader vor vdi Himmerig (1:44)
Tr. 24 Nu bede vi den Heiligaand (3:45)
A setting of the Lord’s prayer in Danish, followed by a polyphonic setting of the hymn “Nu bede vi den Heiligaand,” both written by Mogens Pedersøn and sung by the ensemble Musica Ficta.
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Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia is Travis Whaley.
Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.
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IMAGE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Adam_Reincken#/media/File:%22The_Musical_Party%22_by_Johannes_Voorhout.png
By Johannes Voorhout - Alexander M. Winkler, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117591921
Alexander M. Winkler, Wikimedia, Museum for Hamburg History
"Domestic Music Scene" by Johannes Voorhout, 1674. (The man at the harpsichord is thought to be Johann Adam Reincken, on his left probably Dieterich Buxtehude playing the viola da gamba, and on his right, below the harpsichord, possibly Johann Theile.)