The organ used for this recording, located in the Basilica of Sant Jaume, Vila-real, is a precious survival from 1724, though most of its original pipework was melted down during the Spanish Civil War.
Instruments
Seventeenth-century Iberian organs, like the one Cabanilles composed for, typically featured a medio registro (half-register) construction, allowing different stops to be used in the bass and treble of a single keyboard.
Compositional Technique
Cabanilles is described as 'the most prolific composer of organ music the world has ever seen', with over two hundred tientos and other substantial pieces, plus nearly a thousand short liturgical versets, surviving in manuscripts.
Composition History
Cabanilles' music is rooted in a Renaissance tradition of counterpoint, often with a fixed number of parts, but expressively it is thoroughly Baroque, incorporating Iberian, English/Flemish, French, and Italian influences.
Performer Biography
Timothy Roberts, the performer, worked for about thirty years as a touring keyboard player, including twenty years as principal keyboard of the Gabrieli Consort and Players.
Composer Biography
Joan Cabanilles, the composer, was baptized in Algemesí, Spain, in 1644 and spent about 50 years employed as an organist at Valencia Cathedral.
Interpretation
The tuning of the organ in sixth-comma meantone makes the seven common major thirds almost pure, while other, more distant chords have a strongly 'spiced' flavor.
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