Many Baroque composers enjoyed incorporating birdsongs into their music, such as Tarquinio Merula's 'La Gallina' which uses a traditional chicken call as a contrapuntal motif, and Gioseppe Giamberti's 'Cucù' with repetitive cuckoo calls.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The album's concept of 'civil conversation' in music is inspired by 16th-century ideas, where diversity of voices was valued, much like different pipes in an organ contributing to a single body of sound.
Recording & Production
The ensemble Seicento Stravagante aims to highlight Italy's historic organ heritage, using authentic instruments and creating video recordings of important Renaissance and Baroque organs across the country.
Compositional Technique
Seventeenth-century composers in the 'stile moderno' transformed older polyphonic genres to simulate individual voices in conversation, moving towards instrumental music that 'speaks' through instruments.
Performer Biography
David Brutti, the cornetto player, transitioned from a career as a saxophone player in contemporary and classical music to specializing in Renaissance and early Baroque music in 2012.
Instruments
The recording features an anonymous organ from the first half of the 17th century, located in the parish church 'Annunciazione Beata Vergine Maria' in Casatico di Marcaria, Mantua.
Interpretation
The original publications of these compositions were not meant as definitive scripts, allowing virtuosos to add their own rhetorical 'flowers' through ornamentation, enhancing the attractiveness of performances.
You might also enjoy...
Albinoni: Trio Sonatas, Op. 1
Telemann: Pariser Quartette 4-6
Castello: Sonate concertate in stil moderno, libro secondo
Telemann: Pariser Quartette 1-3
Vivaldi: Pastor Fido (Il), Op. 13, Nos. 1-6
La sacqueboute: Works by Castello, Ortiz, Falconieri, Morales, Schein, Scheidt, Schütz & Merula
