Papers by Adriano Giardina
Il saggiatore musicale: Rivista semestrale di musicologia, 2018
The Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (ca. 1548–1611) spent the first part of his career in... more The Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (ca. 1548–1611) spent the first part of his career in Rome. There is much debate in the musicological literature about the stylistic relationship between his composition and that of his older contemporary Palestrina, especially after Victoria's first printed work, a book of 32 motets published in Venice in 1572. There is no doubt about this influence, but it can be more precisely defined by comparing Victoria's first motets and those of Orlando di Lasso, a musician who, like Palestrina, reshaped the compositional resources of the motet genre in the period 1560–70. In this perspective, the three books of motets by the Franco-Flemish composer published in Venice in 1566 are all the more interesting because they are listed in Roman inventories. If the link to Palestrina can be identified mainly in the interweaving of the parts, more direct links of homage/imitation aside, the connection with Lasso is found on the level of musical discourse. In his motets proper Victoria, like Lasso, juxtaposes imitative and homophonic writing, with the latter predominating. The two composers set their texts in parts in a linear fashion, in other words without repetitions; both of them accelerate the harmonic rhythm in certain places and use concatenations for descending fifths. Lasso and Victoria draw on a particular type of cadence similar to the one which Orazio Tigrini described in 1588 as completely consonant, and in their harmonic writing they usually use coniunctae to make major thirds of those which should a priori be minor. The linear progression of the text, the acceleration of the harmonic rhythm, and the fully-consonant cadence seem to be borrowed from madrigal style. Furthermore, the exordium of Victoria's six-voice motet Congratulamini mihi is modelled on the exordium of Lasso's motet with the same incipit. Unlike Lasso though, Victoria does not deviate from his characteristic clarity.
Estudios. Tomás Luis de Victoria. Studies, 2013, ISBN 978-84-89457-49-2, págs. 115-126, 2013
Contrary to what Felipe Pedrell indicates, the second Ave maris stella in his Victoria’s collecte... more Contrary to what Felipe Pedrell indicates, the second Ave maris stella in his Victoria’s collected works (vol. V, 1908, pp. 100-3, n° 33) doesn’t appear in the collection published in 1600 in Madrid by the composer, nor in any other of the musician’s books. In the 1600 edition, Victoria reissues the two first verses (plainchant followed by polyphony) of the Ave maris stella published in 1576 and then again in 1581. The earliest source of the problematic Ave maris stella is Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband, dating from the third quarter oft he seventeenth century. This source is a manuscrit that runs as an appendix to the 1581 edition of Victoria’s hymns. No attributions are given in the manuscript. The first attributions of the piece to Victoria arise in the nineteenth century, in manuscripts copied by Johann Michael Hauber, Johann Caspar Aiblinger, August Baumgartner and Carl Proske, and preserved in Munich and Regensburg. Proske pubished the piece in his Musica divina in 1859 (Annus primus, vol. III, pp. 419-24). The most probable hypothesis ist that Pedrell had knowledge of the second Ave maris stella, under the spanish composer’s name, via Proske’s Musica divina. In all likelihood the piece is not by Victoria, not least because the composer has never written odd polyphonic verses of hymns. In his Studies in the Music of Tomás Luis de Victoria (2001), Eugene Casjen Cramer relies on the supposed authenticity of the work to ascribe the others pieces of Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband to the composer. These attributions should therefore be refuted.
L'organisation du premier livre de motets de Tomás Luis de Victoria, publié à Venise en 1572 ... more L'organisation du premier livre de motets de Tomás Luis de Victoria, publié à Venise en 1572 chez les Fils d'Antonio Gardano (RISM V 1421), repose sur une stratification d'éléments divers mais complémentaires. Les pièces sont organisées en quatre groupes : quatorze à 4 voix, neuf à 5 voix, neuf à 6 voix et une à 8 voix. Elles forment des paires modales. Les derniers motets des groupes reposent sur des écritures individualisées (ad aequales, canon à l'unisson, Tenormotette, motet à double choeur). De plus, un jeu avec le nombre de parties, une et deux essentiellement, intervient entre les groupes et à l'intérieur. Les textes émanent de plusieurs rites (avilais, prétridentin et tridentin) et sources. Lorsque c'est nécessaire, le compositeur les remanie pour qu'ils s'adaptent à l'organisation du recueil. Au bout du compte, le livre veut être un objet ayant un certain poids et qui dit quelque chose de plus qu'une simple addition de pièces. C'est précisément ce dont a besoin le jeune compositeur pour prendre une place sur le marché du motet avec ce qui constitue son premier « opus ». Dans la dédicace qu'il signe lui-même, Victoria inscrit son édition dans la mouvance de la musica reservata puisqu'il la destine d'abord aux connaisseurs. Or, c'est précisément cette organisation complexe qui permet au musicien d'inscrire son recueil dans une lignée de publications savantes, initiées semble-t-il par le livre de motets à 5 voix d'Adrian Willaert, qui date de 1539
Mes remerciements s'adressent en premier lieu à mon directeur de thèse, le professeur Etienne Dar... more Mes remerciements s'adressent en premier lieu à mon directeur de thèse, le professeur Etienne Darbellay, qui a suivi et encadré avec disponibilité, attention et confiance les étapes successives de ce travail. J'ai également pu bénéficier des conseils des professeurs Brenno Boccadoro (Université de Genève) et Georges Starobinski (Université de Lausanne). Je suis reconnaissant à ce dernier d'avoir constamment soutenu mes efforts et relu de larges extraits de mon texte. Je remercie Valéry Berlincourt pour avoir traduit le latin difficile de la préface de Victoria. L'aide de quelques personnes m'a par ailleurs été très profitable sur des points précis : Pascal
Studia Musicologica, 2017
The gramophone recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in G major, K. 453, featuring Ernst von Dohná... more The gramophone recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in G major, K. 453, featuring Ernst von Dohnányi as soloist and conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, made in 1928 for the Columbia Company, is important in many respects. The Hungarian pianist and composer made little more than a handful of gramophone recordings until the late 1940s. This performance is also the first audio recording ever to be published that contained a Mozart piano concerto (some piano rolls with concertos or extracts did exist beforehand). From the beginning of his career, Dohnányi had been one of the keenest promoters of the Austrian composer’s piano pieces. In the Columbia recording, the performing style of Dohnányi and his orchestra is characteristic of its time, notably because it chooses to use a flexible tempo. In addition, the soloist makes use of rubato and chord dislocation. Nonetheless, the performers are also playing in an intimate conversational tone and they emphasize Mozart’s structura...
Revista de Musicología, 2012
Contrairement à l'opinion formulée dans la littérature, les motets de Victoria sont majoritai... more Contrairement à l'opinion formulée dans la littérature, les motets de Victoria sont majoritairement homophoniques. Cette prééminence se manifeste notamment dans le premier livre de motets du compositeur (Venise, 1572), qui comporte plus de la moitié des pièces qu'il a laissées dans le genre. Dans cette publication, 58% de l'ensemble des sections qui composent les motets sont homophoniques. En outre, plus le nombre de voix des pièces est élevé (5, 6 et 8 voix, par opposition aux motets à 4 voix), plus l'homophonie est utilisée. Cependant, les débuts des motets sont majoritairement imitatifs. Deux types de sections homophoniques jouent un rôle de poids. Le premier fait intervenir des sous-sections basées sur le même sujet dans une combinatoire répétition/variation. Dans les motets à 6, une opposition de registre aigu/grave renforce le procédé. Le second type voit se succéder des sous-sections nouvelles qui reposent sur des unités textuelles non répétées. Les sections homophoniques déploient une grande variété d'écriture, qui va de l'extrême « simplicité » à une complexité marquée. L'immédiate succession de sections bien différenciées constitue un marqueur formel fort. L'écriture, quel que soit le degré de complexité, repose régulièrement sur des modèles de progression intervallique. Si l'homophonie est prépondérante, son utilisation conjointe avec l'imitation reste primordiale dans la conception du motet qu'a le compositeur. Ces deux facteurs participent de la « modernité » des pièces. Ils répondent aux préoccupations humanistes des érudits de la musique, à qui le recueil est destiné et appartiennent de ce fait à la musica reservata
Acta Musicologica, 2014
The entire output of Victoria’s motets consists of about sixty pieces, all sacred. Such a small o... more The entire output of Victoria’s motets consists of about sixty pieces, all sacred. Such a small output for such a major composer and the absence of any secular works has led scholars to deal with the body of work as one whole. Two groupings of the motets, intended as such by the composer, display quite different musical writing. A typological and quantitative analytical approach, applicable to other works, sheds light on the specificities of these musical writings. The first set comprises the first publication of the musician, a book of thirty-three motets, for 4, 5, 6 and 8 voices, published in Venice in 1572, mainly intended for the Proper of Time and the Proper of Saints. About ten texts set to music are variously modified. In regard of the music itself Victoria shows preference for homophony and more or less resorts to varied alternating vocal combinations depending on the number of voices of the pieces. He employs different durational scales and does not hesitate, for example to write sections in breves or in minims. Finally he frequently omits repetition of the textual units. The second group comprises the seven new motets for the Common of Saints published in Rome in 1585. Their texts are not revised. The pieces are short and for 4 voices. They are more imitative, only using medium durational scales and repeating their textual units on a broader level, finally incorporating more systematic plainchant. These motets reflect a modest artistic ambition and complement the 1592 short masses of the Spanish composer. If the 1572 and 1585 books do not share the same formats – upright quarto partbooks and folio choirbook respectively – both collections are however luxurious editions and intended for the best European chapels. More specifically, Victoria attempts to satisfy their various but complementary requirements.
A Fresco. Mélanges offerts au professeur Etienne Darbellay, 2013
Mensuration and proportion signs found in the eleven editions of Victoria’s music which were comp... more Mensuration and proportion signs found in the eleven editions of Victoria’s music which were completed thanks to his initiative don’t form a coherent and transparent system. We see a gradual shift from majority of [x] in the first publications with a majority of [x] or a balance between the two signs in the following ones. This mutation does not correlate one-to-one with a change of musical writing, although such a change towards a faster prosody and the use a shorter rhythmic may be observed in some works. Rather, it reflects the general development of notation. Similarly, signs of proportions, [x] , [x] , and [x], appear to be interchangeable and henceforth have the sole function to introduce the « ternary » parts of pieces.
However, musical writing of parts in proportion is differentiated. A typology distinguishes those that can be treated as tripla and those whose performance must be slower because of their denser melodic and rhythmic activity. The tempo of the latter can vary between the « real » sesquialtera or an intermediary between the two proportions.
In the appendix, a complete table lists mensuration and proportion signs found in the composer’s printed work.
Eine Geographie der Triosonate. Beiträge zur Gattungsgeschichte im europäischen Raum, 2018
The violonist and composer Gaspard Fritz (1716-1783), a pupil of Giovanni Battista Somis in Turin... more The violonist and composer Gaspard Fritz (1716-1783), a pupil of Giovanni Battista Somis in Turin, is an interesting musician in terms of cultural geography and historiography. Literature devoted to him, which remains sparse, relates the scarcity of information we have on him to the poverty of the musical life in Geneva during the 18th century. However, recent work in history and art history suggest that, despite the moral rigor associated with Calvinism, cultural life in general was just as developed in the lakeside city as in other similar cities. Current state of research nevertheless shows that Fritz had relations with a group of young English aristocrats established for a time in Geneva and meeting in a circle called The Common room of Geneva. Members of this group largely contributed to the circulation of Fritz’s music in their native country. It is currently impossible to known if the trio sonatas by Fritz, published in Paris in 1756 and in London in 1765, can be linked to a specific context in Geneva, whether in terms of compositional impulse or performance, or if they are to be understood as an attempt to lift out that context, which despite everything remains "provincial", or if there is a combination of both.
In 1756 Fritz travelled to Paris with the purpose of publishing his violin sonatas opus 3 and the trio sonatas already mentioned. These collections are a kind of editorial pair: the virtuoso sonatas for a single melodic instrument are certainly primarily intended for professionals, whereas the simpler trios aimed at the amateur market. Fritz also appeared on three occasions at the Concert Sprirituel.
The six trio sonatas show an aesthetic orientation with the ins and outs difficult to articulate between them (or that show a welcome originality). The thirds and lasts movements, which are dance-related and "mezzo carattere" movements, are put alongside fugues in two sonatas. The formal layout of the movements, based on well segmented sections with differentiated musical writings, is rather progressive, while the harmonic rhythm is always baroque. Although simpler than in the violin sonatas, the musical writing often contains chromatic passages, a rich ornamentation and, more rarely, multiple stopping.
Estudios. Tomás Luis de Victoria. Studies, 2013
Contrary to what Felipe Pedrell indicates, the second Ave maris stella in his Victoria’s collecte... more Contrary to what Felipe Pedrell indicates, the second Ave maris stella in his Victoria’s collected works (vol. V, 1908, pp. 100-3, n° 33) doesn’t appear in the collection published in 1600 in Madrid by the composer, nor in any other of the musician’s books. In the 1600 edition, Victoria reissues the two first verses (plainchant followed by polyphony) of the Ave maris stella published in 1576 and then again in 1581.
The earliest source of the problematic Ave maris stella is Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband, dating from the third quarter oft he seventeenth century. This source is a manuscrit that runs as an appendix to the 1581 edition of Victoria’s hymns. No attributions are given in the manuscript. The first attributions of the piece to Victoria arise in the nineteenth century, in manuscripts copied by Johann Michael Hauber, Johann Caspar Aiblinger, August Baumgartner and Carl Proske, and preserved in Munich and Regensburg. Proske pubished the piece in his Musica divina in 1859 (Annus primus, vol. III, pp. 419-24). The most probable hypothesis ist that Pedrell had knowledge of the second Ave maris stella, under the spanish composer’s name, via Proske’s Musica divina.
In all likelihood the piece is not by Victoria, not least because the composer has never written odd polyphonic verses of hymns. In his Studies in the Music of Tomás Luis de Victoria (2001), Eugene Casjen Cramer relies on the supposed authenticity of the work to ascribe the others pieces of Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband to the composer. These attributions should therefore be refuted.
Revista de Musicología, 2012
Contrairement à l'opinion formulée dans la littérature, les motets de Victoria sont majoritaireme... more Contrairement à l'opinion formulée dans la littérature, les motets de Victoria sont majoritairement homophoniques. Cette prééminence se manifeste notamment dans le premier livre de motets du compositeur (Venise, 1572), qui comporte plus dela moitié des pièces qu'il a laissées dans le genre. Dans cette publication, 58% de l'ensemble des sections qui composen les motets sont homophoniques. En outre, plus le nombre de voix des pièces est élevé (5, 6 et 8 voix, par opposition aux motets à 4 voix), plus l'homophonie est utilisée. Cependant, les débuts des motets sont majoritairement imitatifs. Deux types de sections homophoniques jouent un rôle de poids. Le premier fait intervenir des sous-sections basées sur le même sujet dans un combinatole répétition/ variation. Dans les motets à 6, une opposition de registre aigu/grav renforce le procédé. Le second type voit se succéder des sous-sections nouvelles qui reposent surdes unités textuelles non répétées. Les sections homophoniques déploient une grande va riété d'écriture, qui va de l'extrême 'simplicité' à une complexité marquée. L'immédiate succession de sections bien différenciées constitue un marqueur formel fort. L'écriture, quel que soit le degré de complexité, repose régulièrement sur des modèles de progression intervallique. Si lhomophonie est prépondérante, son utilisation conjointe avec l'imitation reste primordial dans la conception du motet qu 'a le compositeur. Ces deux facteurs participent de la 'moder nité' des pièces. Us répondent aux préoccupations humanistes des érudits dela musique, à qu le recueil est destiné et appartiennent de ce fait à la musica reservata.
Acta Musicologica, 2014
The entire output of Victoria’s motets consists of about sixty pieces, all sacred. Such a small o... more The entire output of Victoria’s motets consists of about sixty pieces, all sacred. Such a small output for such a major composer and the absence of any secular works has led scholars to deal with the body of work as one whole. Two groupings of the motets, intended as such by the composer, display quite different musical writing. A typological and quantitative analytical approach, applicable to other works, sheds light on the specificities of these musical writings.
The first set comprises the first publication of the musician, a book of thirty-three motets, for 4, 5, 6 and 8 voices, published in Venice in 1572, mainly intended for the Proper of Time and the Proper of Saints. About ten texts set to music are variously modified. In regard of the music itself Victoria shows preference for homophony and more or less resorts to varied alternating vocal combinations depending on the number of voices of the pieces. He employs different durational scales and does not hesitate, for example to write sections in breves or in minims. Finally he frequently omits repetition of the textual units.
The second group comprises the seven new motets for the Common of Saints published in Rome in 1585. Their texts are not revised. The pieces are short and for 4 voices. They are more imitative, only using medium durational scales and repeating their textual units on a broader level, finally incorporating more systematic plainchant. These motets reflect a modest artistic ambition and complement the 1592 short masses of the Spanish composer.
If the 1572 and 1585 books do not share the same formats – upright quarto partbooks and folio choirbook respectively – both collections are however luxurious editions and intended for the best European chapels. More specifically, Victoria attempts to satisfy their various but complementary requirements.
Studia Musicologica, 2017
The gramophone recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto in G major, K. 453, featuring Ernst von Dohná... more The gramophone recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto in G major, K. 453, featuring Ernst von Dohnányi as soloist and conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, made in 1928 for the Columbia Company, is important in many respects. The Hungarian pianist and composer made little more than a handful of gramophone recordings until the late 1940s. This performance is also the first audio recording ever to be published that contained a Mozart piano concerto (some piano rolls with concertos or extracts did exist beforehand). From the beginning of his career, Dohnányi had been one of the keenest promoters of the Austrian composer's piano pieces. In the Co-lumbia recording, the performing style of Dohnányi and his orchestra is characteristic of its time, notably because it chooses to use a flexible tempo. In addition, the soloist makes use of rubato and chord dislocation. Nonetheless, the performers are also playing in an intimate conversational tone and they emphasize Mozart's structural clarity. The execution of themes by the pianist is both poetic and restrained. These traits will define the "mainstream" performing style of Mozart's piano concertos over most of the twentieth century. An implicit aesthetic standard comes into force in the critical reviews of the Columbia records: Mozart's piano concertos require lightness and gentleness from the soloist. The elements given prominence to the recording and in the reviews also appear in contemporary musicological literature and in texts on music. Recordings of two additional Mozart piano concertos (K. 271 and K. 503), played live by Dohnányi in the 1950s, display a broadly similar performing style. Over the ten years that followed the Columbia recording, the majority of Mozart's "great" piano concertos were published on records. This newly found popular interest is connected with a positive re-evaluation of this group of Mozart's works.
Annales Suisses de Musicologie, 2010
The organisation of Tomás Luis de Victoria’s first motet book, published in Venice in 1572 by the... more The organisation of Tomás Luis de Victoria’s first motet book, published in Venice in 1572 by the Sons of Antonio Gardano (RISM V 1421), is based on a stratification of various but complementary elements. The pieces are organized into four groups: fourteen four-part, nine five-part, nine six-part, and one eight-part. They form modal pairs. The last motets of these groups are based on specific music writing (ad aequales, canon in unison, cantusfirmus motet, double-choir motet). In addition, the composer plays with the number of parts, essentially one or two, which occur between the groups and in the interior of them. The texts are taken from various rites (Avilan, pre-Tridentine and post-Tridentine) and sources. When necessary, the composer manipulates them to adapt to the organization of the collection. Ultimately, the book is seen as an object having some weight and that says something more than just the sum of parts. This is precisely what the young composer needs to position himself on the motet market with what is his “opus 1”. In the preface which he signs himself, Victoria situates his edition within the movement of musica reservata since he intends it for connoisseurs. Now it is precisely this complex organisation that enables the musician to place his book in a line of scholarly publications, initiated apparently by Adrian Willaert’s motet book for five voices, which dates from 1539.
Books by Adriano Giardina
Une édition critique des sonates en trio du compositeur genevois Gaspard Fritz.
Ici uniquement l... more Une édition critique des sonates en trio du compositeur genevois Gaspard Fritz.
Ici uniquement l'introduction à l'édition.
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Papers by Adriano Giardina
However, musical writing of parts in proportion is differentiated. A typology distinguishes those that can be treated as tripla and those whose performance must be slower because of their denser melodic and rhythmic activity. The tempo of the latter can vary between the « real » sesquialtera or an intermediary between the two proportions.
In the appendix, a complete table lists mensuration and proportion signs found in the composer’s printed work.
In 1756 Fritz travelled to Paris with the purpose of publishing his violin sonatas opus 3 and the trio sonatas already mentioned. These collections are a kind of editorial pair: the virtuoso sonatas for a single melodic instrument are certainly primarily intended for professionals, whereas the simpler trios aimed at the amateur market. Fritz also appeared on three occasions at the Concert Sprirituel.
The six trio sonatas show an aesthetic orientation with the ins and outs difficult to articulate between them (or that show a welcome originality). The thirds and lasts movements, which are dance-related and "mezzo carattere" movements, are put alongside fugues in two sonatas. The formal layout of the movements, based on well segmented sections with differentiated musical writings, is rather progressive, while the harmonic rhythm is always baroque. Although simpler than in the violin sonatas, the musical writing often contains chromatic passages, a rich ornamentation and, more rarely, multiple stopping.
The earliest source of the problematic Ave maris stella is Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband, dating from the third quarter oft he seventeenth century. This source is a manuscrit that runs as an appendix to the 1581 edition of Victoria’s hymns. No attributions are given in the manuscript. The first attributions of the piece to Victoria arise in the nineteenth century, in manuscripts copied by Johann Michael Hauber, Johann Caspar Aiblinger, August Baumgartner and Carl Proske, and preserved in Munich and Regensburg. Proske pubished the piece in his Musica divina in 1859 (Annus primus, vol. III, pp. 419-24). The most probable hypothesis ist that Pedrell had knowledge of the second Ave maris stella, under the spanish composer’s name, via Proske’s Musica divina.
In all likelihood the piece is not by Victoria, not least because the composer has never written odd polyphonic verses of hymns. In his Studies in the Music of Tomás Luis de Victoria (2001), Eugene Casjen Cramer relies on the supposed authenticity of the work to ascribe the others pieces of Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband to the composer. These attributions should therefore be refuted.
The first set comprises the first publication of the musician, a book of thirty-three motets, for 4, 5, 6 and 8 voices, published in Venice in 1572, mainly intended for the Proper of Time and the Proper of Saints. About ten texts set to music are variously modified. In regard of the music itself Victoria shows preference for homophony and more or less resorts to varied alternating vocal combinations depending on the number of voices of the pieces. He employs different durational scales and does not hesitate, for example to write sections in breves or in minims. Finally he frequently omits repetition of the textual units.
The second group comprises the seven new motets for the Common of Saints published in Rome in 1585. Their texts are not revised. The pieces are short and for 4 voices. They are more imitative, only using medium durational scales and repeating their textual units on a broader level, finally incorporating more systematic plainchant. These motets reflect a modest artistic ambition and complement the 1592 short masses of the Spanish composer.
If the 1572 and 1585 books do not share the same formats – upright quarto partbooks and folio choirbook respectively – both collections are however luxurious editions and intended for the best European chapels. More specifically, Victoria attempts to satisfy their various but complementary requirements.
Books by Adriano Giardina
Ici uniquement l'introduction à l'édition.
However, musical writing of parts in proportion is differentiated. A typology distinguishes those that can be treated as tripla and those whose performance must be slower because of their denser melodic and rhythmic activity. The tempo of the latter can vary between the « real » sesquialtera or an intermediary between the two proportions.
In the appendix, a complete table lists mensuration and proportion signs found in the composer’s printed work.
In 1756 Fritz travelled to Paris with the purpose of publishing his violin sonatas opus 3 and the trio sonatas already mentioned. These collections are a kind of editorial pair: the virtuoso sonatas for a single melodic instrument are certainly primarily intended for professionals, whereas the simpler trios aimed at the amateur market. Fritz also appeared on three occasions at the Concert Sprirituel.
The six trio sonatas show an aesthetic orientation with the ins and outs difficult to articulate between them (or that show a welcome originality). The thirds and lasts movements, which are dance-related and "mezzo carattere" movements, are put alongside fugues in two sonatas. The formal layout of the movements, based on well segmented sections with differentiated musical writings, is rather progressive, while the harmonic rhythm is always baroque. Although simpler than in the violin sonatas, the musical writing often contains chromatic passages, a rich ornamentation and, more rarely, multiple stopping.
The earliest source of the problematic Ave maris stella is Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband, dating from the third quarter oft he seventeenth century. This source is a manuscrit that runs as an appendix to the 1581 edition of Victoria’s hymns. No attributions are given in the manuscript. The first attributions of the piece to Victoria arise in the nineteenth century, in manuscripts copied by Johann Michael Hauber, Johann Caspar Aiblinger, August Baumgartner and Carl Proske, and preserved in Munich and Regensburg. Proske pubished the piece in his Musica divina in 1859 (Annus primus, vol. III, pp. 419-24). The most probable hypothesis ist that Pedrell had knowledge of the second Ave maris stella, under the spanish composer’s name, via Proske’s Musica divina.
In all likelihood the piece is not by Victoria, not least because the composer has never written odd polyphonic verses of hymns. In his Studies in the Music of Tomás Luis de Victoria (2001), Eugene Casjen Cramer relies on the supposed authenticity of the work to ascribe the others pieces of Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musik-Abteilung, 2 Mus. pr. 23 handschriftlicher Beiband to the composer. These attributions should therefore be refuted.
The first set comprises the first publication of the musician, a book of thirty-three motets, for 4, 5, 6 and 8 voices, published in Venice in 1572, mainly intended for the Proper of Time and the Proper of Saints. About ten texts set to music are variously modified. In regard of the music itself Victoria shows preference for homophony and more or less resorts to varied alternating vocal combinations depending on the number of voices of the pieces. He employs different durational scales and does not hesitate, for example to write sections in breves or in minims. Finally he frequently omits repetition of the textual units.
The second group comprises the seven new motets for the Common of Saints published in Rome in 1585. Their texts are not revised. The pieces are short and for 4 voices. They are more imitative, only using medium durational scales and repeating their textual units on a broader level, finally incorporating more systematic plainchant. These motets reflect a modest artistic ambition and complement the 1592 short masses of the Spanish composer.
If the 1572 and 1585 books do not share the same formats – upright quarto partbooks and folio choirbook respectively – both collections are however luxurious editions and intended for the best European chapels. More specifically, Victoria attempts to satisfy their various but complementary requirements.
Ici uniquement l'introduction à l'édition.