Trabaci: Keyboard Music, Book 1

Featuring

Sergio Vartolo
Giovanni Maria Trabaci

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Compositional Technique

Trabaci's keyboard music includes 'inganni' (deceptions), where a part enters in seeming imitation but uses different intervals while keeping the same hexachord syllables.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Trabaci's music, like Frescobaldi's, was designed to be played on any keyboard instrument, though he expressed a clear preference for the harpsichord.

Interpretation

The instruments on this recording are strictly tuned in mean-tone temperament, with black keys on the harpsichord and spinet used as sharps or flats depending on the piece's tonality.

Historical Context

Trabaci's death in 1647 occurred during revolutionary disturbances in Naples, sparked by a tax on fresh fruit and led by Masaniello.

Composer Biography

Giovanni Maria Trabaci, the composer, spent his entire life in the Kingdom of Naples, serving as organist and later maestro di cappella for the Spanish Viceroy.

Instruments

The recording uses a variety of period instruments, including a copy of a late Renaissance harpsichord, a 1702 Neapolitan chamber organ by Felice Cimino, and several historic organs in Bologna.