Harpsichord; Early Music

SKU: UT.HS-307

Composed by Antonio Valente. Edited by Maria Luisa Baldassari. Paperback (Soft Cover). Classical. Ut Orpheus #HS 307. Published by Ut Orpheus (UT.HS-307).

ISBN 9790215327146. 9 x 12 inches.

Antonio Valente blind, Neapolitan since a long time according to the list of Neapolitan musicians by Scipione Cerreto and organist in S. Angelo a Nilo in Naples, is known in modern times for his two volumes of keyboard music: Versi spirituali published in 1580 and, some years before, the volume here in transcription, Intavolatura de cimbalo, printed by Giuseppe Cacchio in 1576.
This volume has many original features: first keyboard tablature ever printed in Naples, itâ??s not written in musical characters but in a number-based system never met, according to the current studies, in any other print or manuscript both in and outside Italy. The dedication letter, written by Fraâ?? Alberto Mazza, praises Valente as the inventor of this writing method, so easy and effective that everybody, even uncouth youths that did not know music and keyboard, could attain the result of playing from it in two months.
The Intavolatura presents different genres of music: a fantasia, six ricercatas, a Salve Regina on a cantus firmus, four vocal chansons intabulated for keyboard with more or less diminutions,and nine dances, variations and dance/variations on long-living tenors like Romanesca or Zefiro. There are no liturgical compositions, both because unsuitable in a collection for amateurs and because Valente will publish a new book of sacred music in a few years.
The book is a sort of compendium of the keyboard genres of the period, similar to some older Spanish publications and to the later Neapolitan ones by Trabaci and Majone. Other contemporary volumes on the contrary choose to present a single type of composition: this is the case of the Versetti by Valente and the Ricercate by Rocco Rodio.

Harpsichord

SKU: FG.55011-499-9

Composed by Jyrki Linjama. Fennica Gehrman #55011-499-9. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-499-9).

ISBN 9790550114999.

Sona ta da chiesa III was commissioned by Petteri Pitko, who played the first perfor-mance in Kemionsaaren Musiikkijuhlat in the summer of 2016. The sonata has three movements, each of which has a definite liturgical character and a choral tune as a can-tus firmus. Hence the music can be performed either in a concert or as a part of liturgy.

From the composer's foreword: The first movement, Kyrie, has got an introvert mood. The choral melody is veiled, an indirect part of arpeggiated texture. The Gloria is open, even brilliant: the cantus firmus is worked out to a virtuosic, dance-like texture. The third movement closes the music by means of polyphony and bird singing. Concerning the harpsichord, for me it is essen-tial not to use equal temperament: the possibility to play with pure or almost pure in-tervals is crucial to the sound, having very high and strong overtones.

Duration c. 12'.

Chamber Music Harpsichord

SKU: PR.110418390

Composed by Eric Ewazen. Full score. 11 pages. Duration 10 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #110-41839. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.110418390).

ISBN 9781491134603. UPC: 680160685158.

Eric Ewazen’s THREE INVENTIONS were inspired by Bach’s Two-part Inventions, yet they sound thoroughly like Ewazen. Composed for harpsichord (with a piano adaptation following later), Ewazen’s inventions maintain a pure “one note per hand” texture until their final chord, with strong-but-free imitative counterpoint between the two voices. While Ewazen may be best known for his wind music, he is a pianist himself, and composers’ works for their own instrument are a direct insight into how they write for their own performances. The piano adaptation of THREE INVENTIONS is also available as a separate publication.
THREE INVENTIONS was written for my dear friend Maria Rojas, who premiered the work on a faculty recital at Juilliard. Maria is both a pianist and a harpsichordist, and I first met her when she gave a demonstration of the harpsichord for the students in my theory classes.I’ve always been captivated by Bach’s series of Two-Part and Three-Part Inventions. With the Two-Part Inventions, I’m amazed how Bach could create such wonderful intricacy and counterpoint with only two voices. I consequently modeled my inventions after the counterpoint of Bach, involving the traditional contrapuntal devices he used: imitation, development, harmonic and modal shifts, fragmentation, and sequence, essentially creating a dialog between two completely equal voices conversing with each other!Bach wrote 15 Two-Part Inventions (as well as 15 Three-Part Inventions, not to mention the 48 preludes and fugues in The Well-Tempered Clavier!), and that’s just the start of his voluminous repertoire for the keyboard! I was happy just to write three!!!Each of my inventions has a distinctive mood. The first is in a relaxed, yet cheerful C Major tonality (as a nod to Bach’s Invention No. 1 in C Major); the second is heartfelt and lyrical; and the third invention (involving a Gigue rhythm in the compound meter of 12/8) is energetic, and full of life and spontaneity. The third is primarily in a minor tonality, resulting in a feeling of drama, bringing the THREE INVENTIONS to an exciting finale.

Harpsichord

SKU: ST.Y231

Composed by Rhian Samuel. Octavo. Stainer & Bell Ltd. #Y231. Published by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (ST.Y231).

ISBN 9790220221767.

Writ ten for harpsichordist Jane Chapman, and clearly inspired by her virtuosity, Copper Ribbons is a fantasy-movement of throbbing tremolandi and scrunchy arpeggiated chords that both support and intrude upon a recitative-like 'line' of elusive, questioning melody. Exploiting the instruments rich variety of tone colours with a Debussian passion for texture and timbre, the composer here creates a miniature tone-poem, which sustains to its closing bars a sense of mystery and suggestion. The work may stand alone, or as a pair with its companion-piece Silver Threads, which should precede it.