ARE | o ERC C KERecercare x 1998 In memoria di Nino PirrottaRecercare rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musiea antica journal forthe study and practice of early music organo della / journal of the Fondazione Italiana per la Musica Antica della Societa Italiana del Flauto Dolce autorizzazione del Tribunale di Roma 1, 14247 con decreto del 13121971 comitato scientifico / advisory board Patrizio Barbieri, Ivano Cavallini, Marco Di Pasquale, Norbert Dubowy, Renato Meucci, Arnaldo Morelli, John Nadas, Noel O'Regan, Franco Piperno, Giancarlo Rostirolla, Luca Zoppelli direttore | editor Marco Di Pasquale direwtore responsabile / legal responsibility Giancarlo Rostirolla direzione e redazione | editorial office 31036 Istrana TV, via Pasubio 7 tel + Fax (0422) 730901 e-mail: recercar@tin.it consulente per la lingua inglese / English language consultant Hugh Ward-Perkins esempi musicali / rausical examples Giovanni Doro srafica / graphics Marco Riccucci stampa / printed by Litotipografia Cursi, Pisa LIM Editrice T-ss100 Lucca, via di At P.O. Box 198 tel (0583) 394464 fax (0583) 394469 hep://wwwaim.ic e-mail: lim@lim.ic 2096 F abbonamenti e arretrati / subscriptions and back issues (pet anno, spedizione inclusa per year, postage included) Talia! Zealy Lit. 45000 estero / abroad Lit. 55000 pagamenti a! payments to LIM Editrice (cle postale / post office account n° 117485553 carta di credito / credit card CartaSi, Visa) ISSN 1120-5741 ISBN 88-7096-272-5Arnaldo Morelli “Cantare sull’organo”: an unrecognised practice “Cantare sulPorgano” (“nell'organo”, “in organo” or even, to use a typically ‘Tuscan phrase, “in sull’organo’), literally translated as “singing on the organ’, is an expression that recurs not infrequently in Italian documents from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth century. It crops up in payment records, chronicles and diaries; in ceremonials and sets of rules for the cappelle; in almost all the major centres of northern and central Italy such as Milan, Bergamo, Venice, Padua, Treviso, Bologna, Florence, Siena and Rome. But despite such frequent references the practice has received little scholarly attention. Some references have been made to it by Yvonne Rokseth, and mote recently Frank A. D’Accone has connected the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Florentine evidence (by far the most copious) to the specific practice of “cantare le laudi in su Porgano”.' Finally, Christopher A. Reynolds, examining some of the evidence relating to the Vatican basilica seems to hesitate between the “mono- phonic or soloistic (?) nature” of the practice and arrives at che conclusion that “Sin organo’ at St. Peter’s [in Rome] and ‘in su Porgano’ in Florence also seem to indicate something of the physical arrangement of the performance, that boys sang with the organist in the loft above the altar”.” But apart from being scantly investigated, the practice has also been often misunderstood or confused with others. While expressions such as “choro et organis cantantibus” can be accepted as references to alternatim practice between T would like co express my warmest thanks to Kathryn Bosi, Fiorella Gioffiedi Superbi and Valerio acini (Villa I Tatti, Florence), Antonio Addamiano (Library of the Pontifico Istituro di Musica Sacra, Rome), Francesco Luisi and Redolfo Baroacini for theis help in the preparation of this aiticle. Tau alo grateful to Nicolaas Wanders and Hugh Ward-Perkins for the eanslation, " Sce vONNE ROKSETH: La musique dorgue at XV sitcle et au début du XVF, Droz, Patis 1930, p. 166; RANK . D’acCONE: “The musical chapel of the Florentine cathedral and baptistry during the first half ofthe sixteenth century", journal ofthe American Musicological Society, xxav 1971, pp. 1-50: 12, and oat: “Repertory and performance practice in Santa Maria Novella at the turn of the seventeenth cen- tury”, A Festschrift for Albert Seay, ed. Michael D. Grace, Colorado College, Colorado Springs 1982, pp. TEA36: 74-9. ? cuirisroruen a. REYNOLDS: Papal patronage and the music of St Peter's 1380-1513, University of Cal- fornia Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles 1995, p. 133. RECERCARE x 1998184, ARNALDO MORELLI choir and organ, the same cannot be said for “cantare [or decantare] in organis”, even if some scholars have thought fit to interpret it as —- always and invariably — “playing on the organ” the verset which alternated with that of the choir.’ While in the majority of cases this reading could certainly be correct, we cannot exclude the hypothesis that in a few cases the phrase might refer to the practice of “cantare sull’organo”. Two such instances can be inferred from the Halle ceremonial of 1532, which is less ambiguous than others on this matter. For the solemn office of Sunday Vespers it prescribes: “Senior [cantor] dextri chori inci- piet antiphonam Alleluja quar chorus totam complebit. Cantor incipit psal- mum Laudate dominum omnes gentes. Chorus Laudate eum omnes populi. Repe- tent antiphonam. Sequitur Quoniam confirmata est super nos midericordia ejus: et veritas domini manent in eternum. Tunc cantabit ille in organo antiphonam Alleluja” {In a second case, for the solemn intonation of the Gloria for the third Mass of Christmas it prescribes that “Gloria in excelsis quinquies cantabicur. Pri- mo prepositus solus cantabit illud pressa voce. Secundo omnes ministri altaris levata voce et solemniter illud cantabitur. Tertio cantor et rectores. Quarto ille in organis. Quinto totus chorus cantabit illud vertendo se ad altare”.’ Accord- ing to Otto Gombosi, who interprets “ille in organis” as referring to the organ- ist, this practice demonstrates that “the widely used vocalized repetition of each verset may also have been done by singers and repeated by the organ” ‘ A closet translation of the Latin text suggests that the fourth repetition was sung by “him ac the organ” (“ille in organis’), in other words the singer positioned by the organ. Apart from anything else, if the subject were the organist himself I can see no reason why the writer should resort to such a circumlocution. From the documentary evidence (both archival and literary, and in one case iconographic) relating to Renaissance Italy there would seem to be general agree- ment that “cantare sull’organo” (or “nell’organo”) means ‘singing with organ accompaniment” ot “to the sound of the organ’ in situations where the singer is not necessarily the same person as the organist’ “Cantare sull organo” was a solo musical practice distinct from other practices such as plainsong and polyphony. Tn none of the documented cases is more than one singer involved at any one time. Nor do the singers engaging in this practice have anything to do with the 5 To my knowledge the only exception is Reinhard Strohm, who examines a document from Bruges of 1425 prescribing that the Kyrie and prosa “decantabitur in organis”, tentatively translating it as “sung in discant with organ”, without examining the problem further; see REINHARD stRowM: Music in late ‘Medieval Bruges, Clarendon, Oxford 1990 P53 orto GoMsost: “About organ playing in the divine service circa 1500", Essay in honor of A. T: Da- vison, Hacvard University, Cambridge (Mass.) 1957, pp. 51~68: 59. > costmost: “About organ playing”, p. 61. © Gomost: “About oxgan playing”, p. 61 ” On the problem of terminology, sce the illuminating essay by #130 DURANTE: and ANNA MARTEL- zor: “Il lessico musicale del tardo rinascimento e del barocco: alcune puntualizzazioni”, Nuova rivista musicale italiana, xx1x 1996, pp. 7-29: 7-13 27-8“CANTARE SULL/ORGANO” 185 singers of polyphony (if indeed there were any). Examples are a certain “Jannot- to che canta nello organo”, recorded at the Roman church of San Lorenzo in Damaso in 1524 (though not among the members of the basilica cappella), and “ms. Marcantonio Martarello” and “ms. Zanantonio ditto Muraretto”, paid “per cantare in organo” at the cathedral of Padua in 1543 and 154s respectively." ‘A document of 1576 that gives a detailed description of the role played by the musicians during a ceremony in the church of San Paolo at Treviso indi- cates very distinctly that a single singer, who was not part of the polyphonic group, sang “in organo”: El Zappasorgo sonava el cornetto et li tromboni sonavano messer pré Pasquale evil fratel de messer Vincenzo Massarotto che ha nome Lodovico; cantarono pre Latin, pré Dona, pré Mio, el Ferrandin et basso un fra’ de S, Margherita et aver per un pezzo canta messer Camillo Becignol, erano li putti et organista del domo, in organo cantava un che non si distinse, ma dalla voce el m’ha parso el fiol de messer Francesco scorzer, che era frate a S. Nicola.’ In 1583, at Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, in a petition to the “ma- gnifico consiglio” of the Misericordia Maggiore, the organist Giovan Battista Morsolino drew attention to the fact that one of his sons had served the church “pet Fispatio d'un anno [...] cantando il soprano su Porgano et solo et nei concerti”.” Again, in my opinion, this document is an eloquent testimony to two distinct practices. Occasionally we find a member of a choir engaged, and paid extra, to “cantare in organo”; this is attested at St Mark’s in Venice in the years 1537 and 1544." In Rome, chapter xv of the Ordini of the Cap- pella Giulia (printed in 1600) is entirely devoted to “cantare su Porgano”; it expressly prescribes thac “occorrendo che alcun cantore sia chiamato dall’or- ganista a cantar su organo, mentre nostro signore descende in San Pietro 0 per qualsivoglia occasione, debbano subito obedire”." * Luca DELLA LipeRa: “L’attivith musicale nella basilica di S, Lorenzo in Damaso nel Cinquecento”, Rivisa italiana di musicologia, xxx 1997, pp. 25-39: 33-4, and RAFFAELE CasinatRi: “Musica ¢ musicisti nella cattedrale di Padova nei sec. xIV, XV, XVE contributo per una storia”, Note dlarehivio per la storia smasicale Xvi 194%, P. 200. * qiovanst paLesst: La cappella musicale del domo di Treviv (1300-1633), Tipografia Ars et Religio, Vedelago 1954, p. 126 RODOLFO BARONCINE: “‘In choro et in organo’: pratiche strumentali in alcune cappelle dellarea pacana nel xvr secolo”, Sti musical, 0c 3998, pp. 19st: 36-7. In 1547, at Sant Alessando Maggiore in Bergamo, the singer Luzio di Terzo was paid “per haver cantato nel organo” on Se Alexander's Day (ibiders, p. 43, document30). "" GiuL10 M. ONGARO: “The chapel of St Mark's at the time of Adrian Willaert (1527-1562): a docu- mentary study”, PAD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986, pp. 314-5, 327. The “te- notista" Pietro Gaetano employed to “cantare in organo” was in the service of St Mark's from 1535 to 1575 (ibidem, p. 505). © GiaNCARLO RosriRoLLA: “La Cappella Giulia in San Pietro negli anni del magistero di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina”, Arti del convego di studi paletriniani, ed. Francesco Luisi, Fondazione Giovanni186 ARNALDO MORELLI In the convents of Bologna, the practice of “cantare sull’organo” was tol- erated as an alternative to polyphony (which was generally frowned upon and repressed by the ecclesiastical hierarchy). In fact, the Bpiscopale bononiensis, promulgated in 1580 by Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, the bishop of the city, in the chapter relating to the “ordini da servarsi dalle suore nel loro cantare ¢ musica’, permits “che ne Porgano possa cantare una voce sola nelli tempi con- cessi, che non canti cose volgare ma latine ecclesiastiche et di religione”, and adds that “alla Pasqua di resurretione non si debba cantare in canto figurato salmi, né a vespro né a compieta, ma un canto fermo et sia lecito sonare fra derti salmi con una voce sola, che canta in detto organo senz’altro concerto”.” In the majority of the known cases, “cantare sull’organo” was a practice per- formed by boys or youths. At the curn of the century at St Peter's in Rome, a “Vincentio adolescenti” (1497-8) and a “Minico puero” (1502-3) were paid to “cantare in organo”." Again in Rome, at San Giovanni in Laterano we find sev- eral payments in the years 1528-30 and 15423 to a “puero qui cecinic in orga nis’, to a boy “qui cantavit in choro and cum organis in missa et vesperis”, and toa “cantori suprano qui est solitus canere ad organum” on the occasion of the major feasts; even at Sant’Agostino, for the patron's feast in 1538 and 1544, payment was made to a “pucto che cant in su Porgano”.” In the Florentine churches there are numerous records of adolescents singing “in sull organo’ for example, at Santissima Annunziata between 1488 and 1592, and at Santa Maria Novella between 1580 and 1593."° In 1536, at Siena cathedral “un fanciullo Picrluigi da Palestrina, Palestrina 1977, pp. 99283: 137, and spat: “Gli ‘Ordini’ della cappella musicale di S. Pietro in Vaticano (Cappella Giulia)”, Note darchivio per la storia musicale, n.s., ©” 1986, pp. 227-54: 228-9 (with a facsimile reproduction of the Ordini da axervai dai cantori et cappellani dela cappella Giulia, Stampatori Camerali, Roma 1600). In this case the wording of the Ordini is somewhat ambi- _guous, since it docs not clarify whether the obligation concerned just one singer (“alcun cantore sia chia mato”) or several at a time (“[i cantori] debbano subito obedire”). However, it would seem to regard the performance ofa piece different from the traditional motet (prescribed by chapter xix ofthe same Ordini) which the singers of the Cappella Giulia had to perform every time the pope arrived in St Peter's © cRaig MONSON: “La pratica della musica nei monasteri femminili bolognesi", La cappella musicale nellTtalia della controriforma: atti del convegno internazionale di studi (Cento, 13-15 ottobre 1989), eds. Oscar Mischiati and Paolo Russo, Olschki, Firenze 1993, pp. 1437160: 145~6. Again in Bologna, the ideas expressed by Palcotti were repeated by the nuns’ confessor, Don Ercole Tinell, in a letter of 1593 to Car- dinal Alessandro de’ Medici concerning the nuns: “basta che sonano li loro organi con una sola voce a lau de di Dio” (ibidem, pp. 150-2). pean XAVIER HABER: “Die rémische ‘schola cantorum’ und die piipsdichen Kapellsinger bis =m Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts”, in ies: Bausteine fir Musikgeschichie, vol. ut, Breitkopf und Hartel, Leipzig 1888, p. 1; RevNoLDs: Papal patronage and the music ofS: Peters, p. 133. Vincenzo’s successor in the years 1499-1501 was Gabriele de Gabriclis, who sang “cum organis” (REvNowps: Papal patronage and the music of St Peter's p.133). © See respectively nartaece castnan: Macsri, cantor, organist della cappella laseranense negli arti capitolari (cee. xv-Xvu), ed. Lauta Callegati, amis, Bologna 1984, pp. 180743 ARNALDO MORELLE “Musica ¢ musicisti in S. Agostino a Roma dal Quattrocento al Settecento”, Musica e musicisti nel Lazio, eds. Re- ato Lefevre and Arnaldo Morelli, Palombi, Roma 1985, pp. 325748: 329. °© ERANK A. D’ACCONE: “The Florentine fra Mauros: a dynasty of musical friars”, Musica dseiplina axl 1979, pp. 78-1372 101, 122-0: amongst these young singers we also find musicians later ro become. ’ee “CANTARE SULL’ORGANO” 187 cantd molto soavemente in sull’ergano” for the visit of the Emperor Charles v.’ In Bergamo, in 1583, it was the son of the organist Morsolino." The English Jesuit Gregory Martin describes how he heard “with the organs a childes voice shriller and louder than instrument tuneable with every pipe” at a service in some Roman church.” In fact it would seem that such pares were generally high-pitched (‘shriller and louder,” as Martin put it); and where a boy was not employed, we find payments for a voice of “falsetto nell’organo” (or “per Forgano”), as at Bergamo cathedral in the years 1585-6." More difficult is the question of establishing the type of music employed in these practices. As mentioned above, reference is frequently made in the documents from the two Florentine churches of Santissima Annunziata and Santa Maria Novella to “cantare le laudi in sulorgano”. The practice is also described in a famous literary work of the early sixteenth century, Pietro Are- tino’s Ragionamenti, published in 1534, which tells of “un chierico che cantd in sugli organi una laldetta” during a nun’ veil-taking ceremony." The use of boys in the singing of audi can probably be connected with the devotional practices of the various Florentine compagnie, which can be traced back to the fifteenth century.” At Siena cathedral in 1536, while the Emperor Charles v, on an official visit to the city, knelt before the main altar, “havendo per piccol spatio di tempo adorato con la testa china e ignuda, un fanciullo cant molto soavemente in sull’organo un leggiadro mottetto”.” We deduce therefore that such “laudi” and the “leggiadro mottetto” (perhaps a laude with Latin text), which were genres of simple polyphony, constituted a distinct 1 pertory for “cantare sull organo”, From the point of view of performance pra tice they do not present, all things considered, particularly original features. Indeed, in points of style and practice, they remind us of the frottole designed to be sung and played on the luce. Nor was it rare in the Renaissance period for one voice only of a polyphonic work to be sung while the rest were played famous, such as Bartolomeo (or Baccio) degli Organi (1488), Francesco Laiolle (1500-6) and Jacopo Peri (573~6); see p’accone: “Repertory and performance practice in Santa Maria Novella”, pp. 7479, 19, 125-50. "” eRANK a. D’ACCONE: The civic muse: music and musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1997, p. 669. °* paRoncint: “In choro et in organo”, pp. 36-7. Geecony Martin: Roma sancta (581), ed. George Bruner Parks, Edizioni di Storia e Leteratura, Roma 1969, p. 96. ® aRONeINE: “In choro et in organo”, pp. 46-7. ® piprRo arEtino: Ragioncmento delle Nanna e della Antonia, in Folengo, Aretino, Doni, vol. tt ed. Carlo Cordié, Ricciardi, Milano-Napoli 1976 (La letteratura italiana: storia e testi, 26/1), p55 ® RANK A. D‘ACCONE: “Alcune nore sulle compagnie fiorentine dei Laudesi durante il Quattrocento”, Rivisa italiana di musicologia, x 1975, pp. 86-114: 10-1. However, the practice of using child singers for Jaudi does not seem to be exclusive to Florence. In Venice in 1483, among the “chantadori de laude” of the Scuola grancle di San Matco we find “tre altri garzoni”: srancesco wuist: Laudario giustinianeo[...J, Fone dazione Levi, Venezia 1983, vol. 1, p. 470, document 11, ® p’accone: The civic muse, p. 669.188 ARNALDO MORELLT Figure x. Lustreware plate of the school of Diruta (ca. 1520). London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. 2483-1910 (Victoria and Albert Museum Picture Library). on instruments. Indeed, the possibility of playing on the organ all the parts of a polyphonic work except the one to be sung, is described in the mid-sixteenth century by Juan Bermudo in his Declaracion de instrumentos musicales.“ % poxser: Li musique donque, p.166. JUAN ERMCUDO: Declanacion de instrumentos musicales, Juan de Leon, Osutia 1555 (facsimile Birenreiter, Kassel 1957) libro ry, cap. xi, fol. posxnv: “Si el caiedor ‘quisire puntar una boz sobre ls cifras, servira para que fesse tafiendo todas las quatro bozes delas dichas fins y cantando la una. De esto se puede aprovechar quando fuere a cinco 0 seys bozes, lo que tafier que- reys. Es un motete a cinco queteys lo tafier por curiosidad o por otra causa a quatro y cantar la una, cifrays las quatro que aveys da tier y dexais la orra puntada para cantar”.“CANTARE SULL/ORGANO” 189 Figure 2. BARTOLOMEO TROMBONCINO: Audi o cielo il mio lamento, incipit of the cantus part, from Canzoni, sonetti, strambotti et frottoli, libro secondo, 1. Mazochio eI. Giunta, Roma 1518. The archival evidence is confirmed by a rare piece of iconographic material from the early sixteenth century which, though already published and recently even featured in a musicological journal, has not hitherto been considered for the light it can throw on performance practice, let alone been connected with “cantare sullorgano”.” The object in question is a lustreware plate of the school of Diruta (or Gubbio, according to others) which may be dated around 1520; it is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.” The scene re- presented, clearly one of daily life in a monastery, shows an organ-gallery with a friar playing the organ, a young friar singing and an organ-blower in action (figure 1). Each of the ewo performers has a sheet of written music; on that of the organist the text is visible: the words are “Adi celo el mio lamemto”, and they correspond to the textual incipit of Bartolomeo Tromboncino’s four-voice frottola Audi o cielo il mio lamenco from the Secondo bro di frottole of Andrea Antico (ca. 1513) and republished by the same printer in the Frottole intabulate da sonare organi, libro primo (4517). The musical incipit corresponds with the version of the Secondo libro (figure 2), for in the Frottole intabulate it appears in ® u. COLIN stint: “Music in majolica", Harly musi, xu 1984, pp. 93, 371-3. % Inv, no. 2183910, h. 55 mm, © 270 mm: BERNARD RACKHAM: Catalogue of Italian maiolica, London 1940, vol. 1 p. 151 (no. 448). Untedy unacceptable and verging on the ridiculous, at least from the music-historical point of view, are the notes on the plate given in Macro Giorgio: luomo, Lartsta, Limprenditore, eds. Pietto Mattei and Tonina Cecchetti, Camera di Commercio, Perugia 1995, pp. 143-8 (ith colour reproduction on p. 98): the plac is given the extravagant title “A del canto lesson” and atei- buted to the famous Mastro Giorgio of Gubbio. I wish to thank Valerio Pacini of the Berenson Library of Villa I Tari in Florence for the information regarding this volume and for other useful information on Tralian Renaissance maiolica-ware.190 ARNALDO MORELLI an embellished form.” The scene seems realistic, with even a hint of irony: the “lament” referred to in the frottola text would appear to allude to the “lamen- table” singing of the young friar, imitated (so it would seem) by the howling dog on the organist’ left” But apart from these iconographic aspects, as evidence of “cantare sull’organo” the scene should dismiss any residual doubts about the nature of the practice: it confirms the use of a young singer perform- ing to organ accompaniment; and the music is significantly from a collection of frottole, What this suggests is that, in accordance with the standard prac- tice of contrafactum, music from frottole or other secular sources was used in conjunction with religious texts either in the vernacular or in Latin, This would incidentally explain the sense of certain injunctions in which the religious authorities prohibited the use of “impure and wanton” music “on the organ”. For example, the synod of Ravenna of 1569 decreed that “in organis autem Jascivum quid vel impurum minime canatur nec pulsando misceatur (...]. que organorum sonus et vocum in illis modulatio eiusmodi, que ad pietatem et religionem audientes excitet, non ut aures vulgi tantummodo mulceat”.” The text of the decree explicitly distinguishes between merely playing (“‘pul- sare”) the organ and singing on the organ (“canere in organis”), implying that the latter expression cannot refer to anything but the practice of “cantare sul- Yorgano”.” Strikingly similar are the words used in a decree relating to the pastoral visit of 1573 to the cathedral of Fermo; this prescribes that “in organis lascivum quid vel impurum minime canacur nec pulsando misceatut”: again, the expression should refer to “cantare sull’organo”, especially since Fermo cathedral had no cappella at the time, but only a few singers for the office chant." ® Sce sunt: “Music in majolica”, p. 373 for the identification of the text. The contents of the Secondo libro, now lost, is known through dhe reprint Canzoni, sone, stramborti et froteole, libro secondo, 1 Mazochio ¢ 1. Giunta, Roma 1518; see FRANCESCO LUISE: II secondo libro di frottole di Andrea Antico, 2 vols., Pro Musica Studium, Roma 1975~6, especially the transcription of the text, the concordances and the ctitical apparatus (vo. 1, pp. 164, 287-8), and the transcription ofthe music (vol. 1 pp. 74-6). On the dating of the firse edition of Secondo libro di frotiale, see rRANCESCO LUtst: Frottole di B. Tromboncino 1M, Cane ‘per cantar e sonar col lauto”, Torre &' Orfeo, Roma 1987, pp. 14, 17-8. 2 As to the realism of the representation observe, for example, such details as the turned-up sloeve of the friat’s tunic, the bellows and the levers for raising them, or the music part in the young friar’s hand, correctly notated in the soprano clef and not “a clumsy version of the first four notes of the bass part”, as claimed in stavt: “Music in majolica”, p. 373. » Decrena provincialis synodi Ravennatensis (Roma 1569), quoted in raoLo eanpRe: “La normativa istituzionale”, La cappella musicale nelle della coneroiforma, pp. 17-38: 2. * The twofold nature of the practice is confirmed by the second part of the decree, which dist guishes beeween che “organorum sonus” (organ music) and the “vocum in ills [Le. organis] modul: (Ginging on the organ). 3) TAURETO viRGm: “La cappella musicale della chiesa metropolitana di Fermo dalle origini al 1670", Note d'archivio per la storia musicale, vit 1930, pp. 2-86: 18-9. Ic is interesting to note that when the chap- ter of Fermo cathedral confirmed the maestro di cappella Giovanni Mozesi in 1645, it stil reested to his duty to “cantar sempre le messe canonicali nel organo et anco i vespri” (ibidem, p. 60). Be ——NC| | | | | | | | | “CANTARE SULL’ORGANO” 191 As we noted above, the rulings of the diocese of Bologna in 1580 permitted in the female convents that “ne Porgano possa cantare una voce sola nelli tem- pi concessi, che non canti cose volgare ma latine ecclesiastiche et di teligione”; and also that “alla Pasqua di resurretione non si debba cantare in canto figura- to salmi, né a vespro né a compieta, ma un canto fermo et sia lecito sonare fra detti salmi con una voce sola, che canta in detto organo senz’altro concerto.” In the latter case, the solo voice was probably used during the repetition of the antiphon after the psalm; the substitution of the antiphon repetenda with a piece for organ or instruments was in fact a widespread practice. But “cantare sull organo” was not just restricted to the performance of faudi or short motets to be included in the liturgy or in extra-liturgical ceremonies and special devo- tions.* If we consider the evidence of Santissima Annunziata in Florence more closely, the young singer's duties were not limited to “cantare le laudi” on the small organ in the chapel of the Madonna, but also consisted in singing “in canto figurato”, probably on the main organ of the church.“ In 1488, the thirteen-year-old Bartolomeo di Michelangelo (also known as “Bartolomeo” or “Baccio degli organi”) was employed there for four years “per cantore di laude e canto figurato”;” while in 1508 the young singer Zaccaria di Antonio di Giovanni Minori was engaged to “cantare in su organo [of the church] e nella cappella della Nuntiata di canto figurato a tutte Pore deputate”.* Apart from the singing of Jaudi, there was probably also a further duty that has so far hardly been considered, if at all: that of singing, again with organ ac- companiment, the responses to either the choir’s plainsong or to the chapel’s polyphony in accordance with alternatim practice. This would almost certainly solve the problem of the omitted texts in the versets allocated to the organ.” ® MoNsoN: “La pratica della musica nei monasteri femminl bolognesi”, pp. 145-6. % The “leggiadro mortetto” sung by a child in Siena cathedral in 1536 in the presence of Charles v (see note 23) seems to confirm Cummings’s hypothesis thac in the early sixteenth century very Few motets seem to have had a liturgical function: ANTHONY M. CUMMINGS: “Towards an interpretation of the six- teenth-century motet”, Journal of the American Musicological Society, xxx1v 1981, pp. 43-59: 58. ® Tiss well o poinc out that in those years there was no cappella at the Santissima Annunziata, nor were other singers paid for polyphonic singing: p’accont: “The musical chapel of the Florentine ca- thedral”, p. 12. % PRANK D’accONE: “Alessandro Coppini, Bartolomeo degli Organi: ovo Florentine composers of the Renaissance”, Studien zur ltalienisch-Deutchen Musikgewhichte, w (= Analecta musicologica, 4), ed. Friedrich Lippmann, Kéln—Graz, Béhlau :967, pp. 38 76: 45 and 74 (document 6). In Barwlomeo's time, laud were probably sung “in su Yorgano”, as claimed by p’accone: “The musical chapel of the Florentine cathedral”, p. 12. % p’accone: “The musical chapel of the Florentine cathedral”, pp. 12, 41 (document 7). Note that the “sonatore d'organi” ser Matteo di Piero di Matteo was also employed in 1495 “per la cappella della ‘Nunziata ¢ chosi dell organo di sopra e per cutti i bisogni di sonare Vorgano di messe, vespri, lade” (ibi- dem, pp. 11, 40-1 [document 6]). On the role of the organ in alternacim with polyphony, see GoMsost: “About organ playing”, pp. 51-68, and more recently ARNALDO MOREL: “The organ’s role in the performance practices of Italian sacred polyphony in the Cinquecento”, Misica diseiplina, 1.1996, pp. 239-70. The evidence of San Paolo192 ARNALDO MORELLL ‘The issue was regulated by one of the canons of the Council of Trent in 1562, which established that the texts of the organ versets should be recited in ‘clear and audible manner.” This provision was subsequently incorporated in the dectees of numerous diocesan synods in the general chapters of various religious orders and adopted by the cathedrals and collegiate churches.” Bu the custom that established itself was that of reciting the text during the organ verset, and not before it as contemplated by the ‘Tridentine prescrip- tion, The practice is described in Gregory Martin's Roma sancta (1581), where it is clearly viewed as unusual: “and the verse which the organs doth playe, one of the quyre in the meane time with a base voice very leasurely, rather sayth then singeth which there is common, in other places I have not seene iv” Most of the post-Tridentine ceremonials draw attention to the problem of either reciting the text of the organ verset or having it sung by a solo voice with organ accompaniment. The first to do so is the Ceremoniale episcoporum (Roma 1600): ‘Advertendum erit ut quandocumque per organum figuratur aliquid cantari, seu responder alternatim versiculis hymnorum aut canticorum ab aliquo de choro in- tellipibili voce pronuntietur id quod ab organo respondendum est, Et laudabile est ut aliquis cantor coniunctim cum organo voce clara idem cantaret.” in’ Treviso (1576), mentioned above (b’aLesst: La cappella musicale del duomo di Treviso, p. 26), shows that a singer “in organo” was engaged even when singers and instruments were employed in the performance of polyphony. + fea tamen ut que organis erunt psallenda, si ex contextu divini sine offici, quod tunc peragernr, eadem antea simplici claraque voce recitentur, ne perpetua sacrorum lectio quemquam effugiat”: KAR ‘GUSTAV FELLERER: “Orgelmusik im Gortendienst um 1600”, Festschrift Othmar Wessely zum 60. Geburts- ‘ag, ed, Manfred Angerer, Schneider, 'utzing 1982, pp. 121~3t: 122. 5 For the diocesan synods, see WIL aP&t: “Probleme der Alternierung in der licurgischen Orgel- musik bis 1600”, Claudio Monteverdi e il suo tempo, ed. Raffaello Monterosso, Fondazione Monteverdi, Cremona 1968, pp. 182-4, RUDOLF rack: “Zur Stellung der Orgel in der katholischen Litargie des 16. Jahrhunderts”, Orgel und Ongespel im 16. Jabrbundert, ed, Walter Salmen, Flelbling, Innsbruck 1978, pp. 120-43: 125-6, rabbat: “La normativa istituzionale”, pp. 2074. For the chapters of religious orders, see aot FABRE: “Norme et pratique du concert des voix et des instruments dans la licargie catholique aprés Ie concile de Trente”, Le concert des voix et des instruments & la Renaisance: actes ds X10 collogue inser- ational d études humanistes (Tours, Centre d'Etudes Supérieurs de la Renaissance, sm July 1991), ed. Jean Michel Vaccaro, cxs, Paris 3995, pp. 97-103: 97-8. As regards cathedrals and collegiate churches, for cxample, in 1575 the chapter of San Lorenzo in Florence decided that “quando suona Forgano si facci leggere o rectare da un chierico quella parte che tocca allorgano” (Firenze, Archivio del Capitolo di San Lorenzo, 2525, c. 918), while in 1598 the chapcer of Perugia cathedral decreed that “il maestro del coro deb- ba dire, mentre sonera Porgano, subrnssa voce quel tanto se dirfa se non sonassc organo” (BIANCA MARIA BROMANA and GALLIANO CiLIBERTT: Musia e musics nella cattedrale di S. Lorenzo a Perugia (xiv-xv1 seolo), ‘Olschki, Firenze 1991, p. 129) “® cunusrorHeR REYNOLDS: “Rome, a city of sich contrast”, The Renaisance, ed, Jain Fenlon, Mac Millan, Basingstoke-London 1989, p. 76, and rasnat: “Notme et pratique du concert” p. 102. 4) Virtually identical words occur in the Ceremonial of the Carmeites (1616) and in Michel Bauldry’s Manuale sacrarum ceremoniartm (1637) for the use of the Agostinians; see exsart: “Norme et pratique du concert”, p, 102. | |ete te eect cee ect eee ete eee Re eee “CANTARE SU ‘ORGANO” 193 ‘Tagliavini has indicated a few groups of compositions that might exemplify this practice for the very years when the performance of the non-choral versets with solo voice and organ was institutionalised in the Ceremoniale episcopo- rwm and in the other liturgical manuals inspired by it. They include: the Falsi bordoni passaggiati nei vari toni (for solo voice and continuo) from the Cento concerti ecclesiastici (1602) by Ludovico Viadana; the Missa dominicalis (for solo voice and continuo) laid out as alternating versets in the Second Book of Viadana’s Concerti ecclesiastici (1607); and Adriano Banchieri’s Salmi da cantarsi alternativamente, Falsi bordoni “per suonare e cantare” and Mass and Vespers versets in continuo form with overlaid text, defined on the title-page of the work as “basso in canto figurato suonabile ¢ piacendo anche cantabile”.* ‘Tagliavini also believes that the flowering of such versets for solo voice and or- | gan is linked to the new forms of accompanied monody emerging at the turn of the century rather than to the Renaissance practice of “cantare sullorga- no”.” Tt is difficult, however, to imagine that an official text such as the Cere- moniale episcoporum could have championed a practice then in its very early stages, indeed before the very firs: printed examples published by Viadana and Banchieri. From what we know of such rulings on the liturgy, their intent was normally to create order and, if anything, to select from the various prac- tices already in use. Unfortunately the silence of the musical sources has denied us any explicit example of “cantare sull organo” for the entire sixteenth cen- tury, so in order to understand the ways in which the collaboration between voice and organ was actually accomplished, we can only advance conjectures on the basis of the few sccure elements at our disposal. Above all, we should note thar the worry over the “lose” organ verset texts was expressed before the post-Tridentine reforms. In 1515, for example, the general chapter of the Dominican order established that “ut quando antiphona aliqua, responsorium in missa, offertorium et postcommunio pulsarur in or- ganis, cantor alta voce et morose illud dicat in persona totius chori”." And one of the “capiculi” of 1541 that the clerks of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo | were obliged to observe prescribed that “quelli {che] sarano acoliti siano tenuti cantare et dir in parole tuti li verseti et le antifone che sono sonate dal organi- sta”.” Significantly, already by the mid sixteenth century, and thus well before © Loner rerpinanno TaGHAVINE: “Le tile et le répertoire de Ponganiste de la Renaissance en fone tion de la livurgie”, Her Gregorians, europeesexfged (proceedings of the international conference, Louvain 25-8 September 1980), no publisher, Louvain 1983, pp. 67-95: 73, 87 footnote 60. © racuavine “Le rble ec le repertoire de Forganiste”, p. 73. “Acca capitolorum generalinm ordinis predicarorum, ed. Benedikt M. Reichert, vol. 1 (501-53), Ti pografia Propaganda fide, Roma 1900, p. 136 “© Gay TOWNE: “Music and licurgy in sixteenth-century Tealy: the Bergamo organ book and its livurgical implications”, Journal of musicology, vi 1988, pp. 473-509: 493, 496. I believe that in this case the clerics should sing their verses and recite these assigned to the organ, and not sing or recite “as long as there is participation in the ceremony”, as proposed by Towne (p. 493).ARNALDO MORBLLI 194 the post“Tridentine rules, I have located an interesting testimony of “cantare sullorgano” in alternatim practice. The Bergamasque musician Cerbonio Besozzi, describing a solemn service that took place on Christmas night 1548 at Corte Vecchia in Milan, noted in his chronicies that “si canto il mattutino, il ‘Te Deum con la risposta delPorgano et una divina voce che dentro cantava, ¢ cost la mesa con solenni cerimonie alla spagnola degna di essere da un tanto principe e signori udite e vedute”.* So about half a century before the practice was countenanced in official church documents such as the Ceremoniale epi- scoporum (1600), Besozzi describes, in terms that leave no room for doubt, how a solo voice with organ accompaniment performed the versets that alter- natim practice generally assigned to the organ. This lends support to the hypothesis that the prescriptions of the Ceremoniale eflect an already existing practice and should be related neither to the new tendences in accompanied monody nor to the late-sixteenth-century practice of concerti even if certain aspects of these new forms may well have been incorporated in “cantare sul- organo”. For example, while Viadands Missa dominicalis ad imitatione del canto fermo for “tenore solo 0 soprano all’ottaya” might resemble the Concerti ccclesiastici stylistically, in form it unquestionably reflects the practice of “can- tare sulPorgano” in alternation with plainsong.” Establishing how the collaboration between organ and singer was realised is, as I said earlier, a problem that can only be tackled by recourse to hypo- thesis. ‘The fact that “cantare sull’organo” was frequently the task of a young, singer suggests that it required no remarkable vocal or musical skills. We can also assume that the repertoire sung “ne organo” by “una voce sola” that was permitted in the convents of Bologna in 1580, should not be confused with another practice, of a more virtuosic character, in vogue in the late sixteenth century not only in the musical chapels but also in certain convents: chat of performing diminutions on one part of a polyphonic composition.* It was likely co be something altogether simpler, given that the rules published by the % Die Chromite des Cerbonio Besozzi, 1548-1563, ed. Walther Friedensburg, Gerhold, Wien 1904 (Fontes rerum austriacanum: scriptores, 9), p. 76, partially cited in RENATO LUNELLE: “Contributi trentini alle relazioni musical fra l'Italia ¢ la Germania nel rinascimento”, Acta musicolagica, xXx1 1949, p. 64. © Viadana’s Misa dominicalis was published in the Concert ecclesastci a una, a due, a re et a quatro soci con il baso continuo per sonar nellorgano ...) raccolti da fra Danielle da Perugia minore oservante, Li- bro seconda (opera Xi, G. Vincenziy Venezia $607. The Misa dominicalisis discussed and edited by DErER waGNen: Geschichte der Mese, Breitkopf und Hirte, Leipzig 91s, vol. 1 pp. 42, 534745- 4 The well-known passage in Giovan Battista Falconieri’s travel diary of 1592 speaks of a nun in the ‘convent of San Leonardo in Genoa who “cantd sola et accompagnata, con tanta manicra, con tanta gorgt passagg’ legeiadria” at Vespers ancl Compline, and also played the violin (“dove sond una Susanna con tal Feurezza, con arcate cost dole, sonore e secondo Parte, contra batcuta d organo”): REMO GiazoTTO: La ‘musica a Genova nella vita publica e privata dal Xu al xvii secole, Tipogtabia Sigla Effe, Genova 1951, p. 178. The nun in question was Elena Ferrabosco, daughter of Anfione, member of the famous Bolognese family of musicians; see MARCO DI PASQUALE: "Aspetti della pratica strumentale nelle chiese italiane fra tardo medioevo e prima eth moderna”, Révista internazionale di musica sacra, XV 1995, Pp. 239-68: 267-il “CANTARE SULL’ORGANO” 195 bishop, Cardinal Paleotti, evidently intended to moderate elaborate musical practices and not to incite displays of virtuosity in convents. The music for the organ “con una voce” was obviously very simple: something that could fit- tingly be used alongside the plainsong.” As for polyphonic pieces such as laud! or motets, there is no lack of evidence about the possibility of the organ playing all che parts except that which was sung, as prescribed in Bermudo’s Declaracion de instrumentos musicales. The many surviving intabulations of motets and other polyphonic pieces from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries could have been used in this manner.” Te is less easy to imagine what type of canto figurato could have been em- ployed in the solo voice-plus-organ performances of the organ responses of al- tematim practice. Most likely the polyphonic compositions used were such that the entire text of the organ verse could be sung “on the organ”. A document from the Lutheran church of Graz is illuminating: in 1596 the church organ- i ist, Erasmus Widman, was accused of never having intabulated, in any tone i whatsoever, a [polyphonic] Magnificat by Lassus or other excellent composer | in such a way that its versets could be played with a singer taking one of the parts — as almost every other church did and as his predecessors had done.” Among the various possibilities, itis also likely that the singer intoned the cantus firmus that frequently lay at the foundation of many organ compositions. This does not mean, however, that the organ “accompanied” the cantus firmus, as Willi Apel believed. The Credo of the Castell’Arquato intavolatura, cited by Apel to support his hypothesis of Orgelbegleitung, is anomalous and we know of no other sixteenth- or seventeenth-century versets written in the same manner.” eis worth noting that the Bologna clocuments on two distince occasions refer to “sonare gli organi on una voce”: this would seem to emphas'se the prevalingly organistic, as opposed to vocal, nature of the ractice. —.Lrti—“‘—O™_—Ss~, «Qua- derni storiciv, «Studi musicali», «Musica disciplina» e in diversi atti di convegno e Festschriften.