Francisco Corrêa de Araujo (or Arauxo, or Acebedo)
(1584–1654) was a Spanish organist, composer, and
theorist of the late Renaissance. He was born in
Seville. Like most Spanish organists from this era,
details of his life are clouded by obscurity. For some
time even the years of his birth and death were
disputed. His musical background is unclear; he claimed
to have learned theory by studying the works of
Francisco de Peraza and Diego del Castillo. In 1599 he
received an organ appointment in ...(+)
Francisco Corrêa de Araujo (or Arauxo, or Acebedo)
(1584–1654) was a Spanish organist, composer, and
theorist of the late Renaissance. He was born in
Seville. Like most Spanish organists from this era,
details of his life are clouded by obscurity. For some
time even the years of his birth and death were
disputed. His musical background is unclear; he claimed
to have learned theory by studying the works of
Francisco de Peraza and Diego del Castillo. In 1599 he
received an organ appointment in Seville, but became
embroiled in a lawsuit with rival Juan Picafort, which
delayed confirmation of this appointment for six years.
In 1608, he was ordained as a priest. He maintained the
post at Seville until 1636. Several times he applied
unsuccessfully for other positions, and once again in
1630, he became embroiled in lawsuits which culminated
in a brief period of imprisonment. In 1636, he left
Seville and took up a post at Jaén Cathedral. In 1640,
he was appointed as a prebendary at Segovia Cathedral,
and remained there for the last fourteen years of his
life. He died at Segovia in abject poverty.
Correa's writings make reference to two other
publications (a Libro de versos and a book on music
theory), that were not published yet by that time;
however, all his surviving works are contained in a
single publication entitled Libro de tientos y
discursos de música practica, y theorica de organo
intitulado Facultad organica, published in 1626. This
publication serves not only as a book of compositions,
but as a treatise on music theory and performance
practice, and it is one of the most important works of
its kind to emerge from Spain in the 17th century.
Correa's compositions take advantage of all the devices
available to Spanish organists of the time, most
notably the medio registro, or divided keyboard, an
innovation unique to the Iberian peninsula which
appeared towards the end of the 16th century, while his
theoretical writings give great insight into his ideas
of harmony and counterpoint.
The Libro de tientos contains 69 works, of which 62 are
tientos (that is, fantasias), ordered by increasing
levels of difficulty - an indication that the purpose
behind this work was at least partly pedagogical. By
way of contrast with the works of his Portuguese
contemporary, Coelho, Correa's works are considerably
shorter and show a stronger tendency towards
monothematicism. He employs virtuosic figurations (the
so-called glosa) in his works to a much greater extent,
often at the expense of contrapuntal development; after
the initial exposition, restatements of the theme are
rare, and thematic development and use of contrapuntal
devices such as inversion or augmentation are almost
non-existent. Correa's harmonic language, while not
devoid of tonally suggestive progressions, is quite
distinctly modal and represents a continuation of the
idiom established by Cabezón and Aguilera de
Heredia.
The music of Correa is not devoid of innovation. Correa
makes use of many devices unique to Spanish organ music
of this period: unusual sonorities such as the
augmented triad, unusual rhythmic groupings, and a
notable dissonance which he vigorously defends,
referred to as punto intenso contra remisso: the
simultaneous sounding of a note and its chromatic
alteration (e.g., C and C#). The theoretical aspect of
this work also discusses ornamentation, notes inegales,
registration, and use of the different modes and key
signatures.
Correa's organ music was inspired by the unique tonal
qualities of Spanish organs, unequal temperament, and
such devices as the divided keyboard. Modern-day
recording technology, coupled with an increased
interest in studying ancient organs and building newer
instruments to replicate them, has made these works
more readily accessible to both performer and listener.
A complete edition of Correa's works has been compiled
by Macario Santiago Kastner and released by Masters
Music Publications.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Correa_de_Arau
xo).
Although originally written for Keyboard (2 Manuals), I
created this Interpretation of the Tiento de medio
registro de tiple (7° tono) from Tientos from Libre de
Tientos y Discursos de Música Practica, y Theorica de
Organo intitulado Facultad Orgánica (1626) for Pipe
Organ (2 Manuals w/Pedals).
