Ricercari D Intavolatura D Organo

Now in paperback! Cloth edition 0-8108-2964-9 originally published in 1995.

This classic work is a meticulous chronological survey of music for the keyboard from the earliest extant manuscripts of the 14th century to the end of the 17th. Apel traces the evolution of keyboard instruments, genres, national schools and styles (from Poland to Portugal), and the oeuvre of many composers. A monument of scholarship, this indispensable reference work is also remarkably user-friendly and engagingly written throughout.

Authorship is a pertinent issue for historical musicology and musicians more widely, and some controversies concerned with major figures have even reached wider consciousness. Scholars have clarified some of the issues at stake in recent decades, such as the places of borrowing and arranging in the creative process and the wider cultural significance of these practices. The discovery of new sources and methodologies has also opened up opportunities for reassessing specific authorship problems. Drawing upon this wider musicological literature as well as insights from other disciplines, such as intellectual history and book history, this book aims to build on what has already been achieved by focussing on keyboard music. The nine chapters cover case studies of authorship problems, the socioeconomic conditions of music publishing, the contributions of composers, arrangers, copyists and music publishers in creating notated keyboard compositions, the functions of attribution and ascription, and how the contexts in which notated pieces were used affected concepts of authorship at different times and places.

This volume contains a vintage article on the subject of Italian organ music, being a detailed history of its origins and development with reference to notable players and composers. “Italian Organ Music” will appeal to those with a love of this fabulous instrument, and it is not to be missed by those interested in it's colourful history and evolution in Europe. Contents include: “Landino”, “The Several Kinds of Ancient Organ”, “Organs at St. Mark's”, “Venice”, “Zuchetti”, “Organum Magnum and Organum Parvum”, “Organists and Organ Builder”, “Squarcialupo”, “Willaert”, “Buus”, “The Music at St. Mark's”, “The Earliest Printed Italian Organ Music”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on the history of the organ.

Examining the roots of the classical fugue and the early history of non-canonic fugal writing, Paul Walker's Fugue in the Sixteenth Century explores the three principal fugal genres of the period: motet, ricercar, and canonza. The volume treats each genre in turn, tracing the fugue's development throughout the century and highlighting important moments and trends along the way. Taking a two-tiered approach, Walker, on one level, examines fugue from the perspective of contemporary musicians, and on another level, takes into account fugue's later history and the elements that came to play a significant role in its formation. Walker is the first scholar to successfully tie together the various strands of the "pre-Bach fugue" thanks to the growing availability of editions of the repertories involved. He also takes account of recent work elucidating the change in compositional approach around 1500 from a basis in cantus firmus and canon to one favoring non-canonical, fugal imitation. Featuring well-chosen musical examples to illustrate the compositional developments of the sixteenth century, Fugue in the Sixteenth Century is a definitive study for both specialist musicologists and organists and harpsichordists alike.