CONSONANZE STRAVAGANTI

Sixteenth-century Naples developed a musical culture of its own. This was partly thanks to its Spanish connexion. But as far as its keyboard music is concerned, the two most important influences came from the North. The first of these was the Flemish composer Jean de Macque, or as he styled himself, Giovanni de Macque. After some years as a boy singer at the Viennese court under the direction of Philippe de Monte, de Macque began his career in Rome before moving on to Naples where he was to stay for the rest of his life. His first appointment there (from 1585) was to the Prince of Venosa's academy (the Prince, Fabrizio Gesualdo, was the composer's father). From 1590 he was assistant organist to Scipione Stella at the church of the Annunziata. Four years later he became organist to the Vice-regal court; in 1599 he was promoted to maestro di cappella, a post he held until his death in 1614. He published a large amount of sacred and secular vocal music. His instrumental music, which has survived only in manuscripts and is mainly for keyboard, ranges from the most conservative form of strict counterpoint (the Ricercar) to the ‘Stravaganze’ – a type of Toccata that explores strange harmonic modulations within the bounds of the ordinary keyboard tuned to mean-tone temperament. His inventive use of the keyboard in other ways can be heard in the fanfares of the Toccata a modo di Trombette as well as his use of flamboyant passage-work within the context of a fairly rigid contrapuntal structure (the Capriccio sopra re fa mí sol. De Macque can be regarded as the father of the Neapolitan school of keyboard music. His influence, most obvious in the works of his pupils Mayone and Trabaci, may clearly be heard in the later music of Salvatore and Strozzi.

The second important influence came from Northern Italy. In 1594 Don Carlo Gesualdo, accompanied by Scipione Stella, visited the Ferrarese court. Here they heard Luzzasco Luzzaschi perform on the archicembalo, an instrument with 31 keys to the octave that had been developed by Nicola Vicentino in Venice some 40 years previously. This, together with its rather simpler relative, the cimbalo cromatico or chromatic harpsichord, was designed to make it possible to accompany singers and other instruments in any key at any pitch desired without compromising the perfect major thirds of mean-tone tuning. Given the existence of such instruments, it was possible for composers to make use of the extra semitones. Unfortunately, none of Luzzaschi's music for archicembalo has survived. In Naples, however, the 19-note harpsichord was sufficiently popular to be referred to by Trabaci as the cimbalo cromatico comune (or the common chromatic harpsichord), and both Mayone and Trabaci published Toccatas for the instrument. The presence of additional semitones (each black key is divided to give both a flat and a sharp between the white keys) including e# and b# meant that the modulatory writing introduced by Macque in his Stravaganze could be taken even further. The most extreme example included on this recording is Trabaci's Toccata e Ricercare which, when transposed down a tone, modulates from G to c# and back again. Other works requiring only two extra keys per octave are Trabaci's Consonanze Stravaganti, his Gagliarda Cromatica, Gesualdo’s Gagliarda and Mayone’s Toccata IV (Salvatore’s Canzona Seconda requires both d# and a# but these notes can be retuned to suit on a normal harpsichord since no flats are needed.)

Christopher Stembridge, 1997

THE INSTRUMENTS

ORGAN: Dionigi Romani, 1581, Church of San Niccolò Oltrarno, Florence.

C-d³ (originally F-c³, extended late 18th century)

Principal 8’ (2 ranks in treble)

Octave 4’ (2 ranks in treble)

Fifteenth 2’

Nineteenth 1’

Twenty-Second 1’

Twenty-Sixth

Twenty-Ninth

Octave flute 4’

(The Trumpet used in no. l is a late 18th-century addition. There is documentary evidence of reed stops in 16th-century Italian organs, though none has survived)

Temperament: Mean-tone.

CHROMATIC HARPSICHORD: Denzil Wraight, 1987.

C-d³, 79 notes (19 in each octave: C, C#, D^b, D, D#, E^b, E, E#, F, F#, G^b, G, G#, A^b, A, A#, B^b, B, B#)

l x 8’

Reconstruction based on documentary evidence (cf. Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum II, 1618) built in Italian style of the period

HARPSICHORD with extra chromatic keys: Denzil Wraight, 1980.

c/E-f³, 57 notes (14 in central octaves with split keys for d#/e^b and g#/a^b. Bass short octave with split keys D/F# and E/G#).

2 x 8’

Based on Italian harpsichord c.1620 by unknown maker probably of Venetian origin, preserved in Russell Collection, University of Edinburgh