THE EARLY BAROQUE ORGAN IN NAPLES - GREGORIO STROZZI - Fred G. Pisecki, organ music

Organ music by Gregorio Strozzi (c.1615- c.1692) CONTENTS: 1) Balletto secondo 00:21 2) Toccata quarta per l'Elevazione 01:49 3) Euphonia - Aria con Partite 08:43 Recorded with the sampleset of the Antegnati organ in St. Carlo, Brescia, Italia performed by Fred G. Pisecki. TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 15:32 --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- As early as the 16th century, Naples was an important musical center in Italy, second only to Venice and Rome. Renowned composers such as Giovanni Maria Trabaci (c.1575-1647), organist of the Spanish viceroy’s chapel, lent the port city international significance. The Flemish composer Giovanni de Macque (c.1548-1614) served as Kapellmeister of the Royal Chapel in Naples. Trabaci succeeded de Macque in the office of Kapellmeister. The viceroy’s second organist was Ascanio Mayone (ca. 1565-1627). In addition to the superbly staffed royal chapel, the “brotherhoods” shaped the city’s musical life, foremost among them the Oratorio dei Filippini at Via Duomo 142, where Trabaci also served as organist at times. Also important for early keyboard music in Italy is Antonio Valente (c.1520-1600), the blind organist of the church of San Angelo a Nido (also known as Nilo). Valente’s “Intavolatura de cimbalo: Recercate, fantasie et canzoni francese des minuite: con alcuni tenori balli et varie sorte de contraponti, Libro primo (1575-1576)” is among the earliest printed books of the Neapolitan school of Italian keyboard musicians. When considering the musical scene in Naples around 1600, we must not overlook the academies. One of these musical academies was founded by the Prince of Venosa, Fabrizio II Gesualdo (d.1591), the father of the famous composer Don Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), who was notorious for his controversies. Thanks to the concentration of highly regarded musicians and composers in Naples, the academies, music education institutions, and the convergence of Italian, Spanish, and Flemish music, the city was fertile ground for an intensive exchange of ideas and sophisticated discussions about the nature and rules of the music practiced at the time. --------------------------------------------------- Gregorio Strozzi, born around 1615 in San Severino Lucano (Province of Potenza, Italy), studied under Giovanni Maria Sabino (1588-1649) in Naples (Campania, Italy) and subsequently served there as second organist at the Church of SS. Annunziata as his teacher’s successor as early as 1634. He entered the clergy and was appointed chaplain in Amalfi (Province of Salerno, Italy) in 1645. A contract from 1646 indicates that he also gave private music lessons. In 1655, Gregorio earned a doctorate in canon and civil law from the University of Naples and assumed the title of abbot. He presumably died in 1692 or 1693. Until the very end, he held the benefice at the Abbey of San Matteo in Albanella (Province of Salerno, Campania, Italy), which was then transferred to Don Francesco Antonio de Mendia in 1696 “due to the death of Abbot Strozzi.” Strozzi’s best-known collection of sheet music is titled Capricci da sonare cembali, et organi (Op. 4, Naples, 1687). It is a comprehensive collection containing 29 pieces for harpsichord or organ. It includes keyboard works in nearly all the genres common at the time: ricercares, toccatas, works with contrapuntal elements, variations, and madrigals arranged for keyboard instruments. Although these works are quite demanding, they also include some of the last pieces published in open score. In his compositions, Strozzi undoubtedly turned his creative gaze toward the past, yet his new interpretations of ancient forms and the “manners” of his predecessors are imbued with a fresh sense of tension. His music expresses all the restlessness of a man who, while remaining connected to the musical world in which he was shaped, nevertheless sought to surpass his masters and push the language of his own tradition to its furthest limits. Three organ works from this fascinating collection are featured here.