Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica di Vicenza “Arrigo Pedrollo”

Abstract: Louis Marchand’s fiery temperament is well documented. It led to a series of encounters with his peers that included shirking a competition with J S Bach, being sued for domestic violence, sacked for impertinence and an attempt to embroil the priest-organist of Saint-Barthélemy in a sex scandal. - Yet, despite a turbulent personal life, he was held in such high esteem that the public would follow him from place to place to listen to him play. He published little: a single book of organ pieces (1701 (supposedly lost)), a posthumous collection of organ pieces (1742) and two harpsichord suites (1699 and 1702). In addition are two volumes of organ pieces housed in the municipal library of Versailles. These amount to a considerable amount of music which editor Jon Baxendale has now established are autograph workbook copies and sketches. - The new edition is the only available publication of any of Marchand’s music, and it is the first to have drawn all the known sources of his keyboard works together into a single volume. This includes previously unpublished pieces that were attributed to the composer. The preface, which examines Marchand’s life, re-assesses the unpublished sources and the posthumous edition and contains detailed notes on performance style, ornamentation, fingering and registration that uses contemporary French sources as reference material. The book includes the chant for the alternatim setting of the Te Deum, making it viable for liturgical performance. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: Louis-Nicolas Clérambault is known primarily for his vocal compositions and, that he was a master in such genres becomes apparent for those performing either his harpsichord or organ pieces. In comparison with his other publications, Clérambault’s keyboard music is somewhat meagre but demonstrates a vocal composer’s infinite attention to detail and a rhetorical plan that that sets him apart from other composers of the Grand siècle. - Containing the suites for harpsichord and organ, this new edition in Lyrebird’s critically acclaimed early keyboard music series includes copious notes on the genesis of the music, its performance (including information on fingering, rhetoric, stylistic playing and registration) as well as appropriate plainsong settings for the Magnificat and Benedictus, which allows for the organ suites’ performance within liturgical settings. - Jon Baxendale adopted a new editorial technique for the unmeasured preludes by reproducing them as ‘pseudo-facsimiles’, with notes and lines reproduced with spatial accuracy. The book also contains revisions of these preludes and includes several pieces attributed to the composer. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: Louis-Claude Daquin’s remarkable keyboard style was the wonder of Paris, if not beyond, with accounts of his improvisation filling popular press articles and the pages of books. He published only two books in a life that spanned nearly eighty years, a collection of harpsichord suites (1735) and the twelve noëls contained in this volume. - In the first edition for nearly 70 years, Daquin’s music has been given a much-needed reworking in this Lyrebird publication. In the preface, editor Jon Baxendale examines the achievements of Daquin, discusses the music, its role, registration and performance. While keeping to Lyrebird’s pioneering practices of retaining as many visual aspects of the original imprint as possible, this new publication has been organised to facilitate page turns without interrupting the flow of a performance. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: A new edition of Pierre Du Mage’s only publication, Premier livre d’orgue contenant une suite du premier ton. Published in 1708, Du Mage’s short suite of organ pieces proves him to be one of the most erudite of Grand siècle composers. The preface examines the music and aspects of performance style such as ornamentation, registration and notes inégales. Two versions of the music are provided. The first employs modern conventions, while the second retains all aspects of the original imprint (including clefs) to allow for a deeper connexion with the music and its composer. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: Gaspard Le Roux was a musician working in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Paris. Little is known of his life, other than a few brief mentions in the cheque books of public notaries. His birth date is unknown, and while the belief that he died in 1707 is widely accepted, new research by editor Jon Baxendale has established this to be incorrect. - The Pieces de clavessin contains seven suites that are demonstrative, providing examples of both Italian and French styles of writing. They are among the most charming of the Grand siècle and deserve a place alongside the works of François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau. - They are also unusual. Trying to maximise the appeal of his publication, Le Roux included the earliest printed duo for two harpsichords and provided five examples of how the other pieces in the book might be similarly arranged. Additionally, Le Roux transcribed the pièces for unspecified trio instruments with basso continuo. - Volume 1 contains the harpsichord pieces and the duo. Its substantial preface discusses the current state of research on this most enigmatic of composers and goes in search of the real Gaspard Le Roux. A bibliographical section discusses not only the 1705 Paris imprint but also a bootleg copy made by Estienne Roger and a manuscript copied by J G Walther. David Ledbetter has provided a detailed section on performance practice. - In Volume 2, Baxendale picks up where Le Roux left off. Starting with his five examples, the remaining 42 pieces have been arranged for duo performance. - Volume 3 contains the trios with photocopiable parts for ensemble musicians. - This Lyrebird publication is the only available edition of his music. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: Until this edition, Le Manuscrit Caumont Orgue (1707) has been entirely unknown to organists and students of French Classical organ literature. Its pages contain some music we can identify and whose composers are familiar to us, though the wealth of its contents lies in over 80 pieces that are unique to this one volume. Although no composer is identified, Caumont Orgue’s editor, Jon Baxendale, has searched for a possible candidate and has discovered them to be by the Rouanaisse organist and composer Jacques Boyvin. - This Lyrebird Music edition is the first time these works have seen the light of day for over three centuries. A substantial preface examines both the manuscript and its music and discusses such performance issues as registration, fingering, notes inégales and ornamentation using sources contemporary to the manuscript itself. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: In the first of a series of editions featuring Bach family members, Heinrich Bach’s Fünf Choralbearbeitungen are collated from a variety of sources including two by a distant cousin of J. S. Bach, J. G. Walther. Heinrich Bach held the position of court and town musician at Arnstadt from 1641, where his duties included playing the organ at the Liebfrauenkirche and Barfüßerkirche. Bach lived and worked in Arnstadt for 50 years until his death on 10 July 1692, after which he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Christoph Herthum. Bach’s funeral sermon, which was delivered at his grave by Johann Gottfried Olearius, described him as an organist who ‘touched the heart’ and a ‘musicus practicus famous for his art’. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: François Couperin’s only volume of organ music, Pièces d’ orgue, was not printed but published instead in manuscript format when the composer was just 21 years old. Nevertheless, the music marks one of the highpoints of French Classical organ literature. First published by Cantando Musikkforlag in 2018, this is the only commercially available critical edition. Editor Jon Baxendale revisits the five known sources to discover which is most accurate and provides detailed notes on the instruments of the day, ornamentation, notes inégales and registration. - For those wishing to perform Couperin’s music within a liturgical context, this handsome volume contains settings of Missa Cunctipotens genitor Deus for Messe des paroisses, along with propers for feast days with instructions on the order of service by Guillaume Gabriel Nivers. For Messe pour les convents, an appropriate plainsong setting by Paul D’Amance has been chosen. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: Gaspard Corrette published Messe du 8e Ton at the beginning of 1703. It is the last of the great French organ masses, a tradition that began in the 1660s and which has an impeccable pedigree that includes the composers Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, Nicolas Lebègue and François Couperin. - Corrette’s music is both erudite and colourful and is here published in a modern edition for the first time in over a century. Editor Jon Baxendale has carefully reproduced as many visual aspects of the original edition as possible. However, the masses have been provided twice, using modern conventions for the first and the original clefs for the second, thereby allowing performers a closer connexion with the music. - A detailed preface looks at Corrette’s compositions and assesses the information the composer provided on registration, the character of the music and ornamentation. Further notes discuss notes inégales, fingering and liturgical contexts. (Fonte editoriale)

Abstract: Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerti Grossi achieved unparalleled popularity throughout Europe in the decades following their publication in 1714. Seventy years later, Thomas Billington began publishing keyboard arrangements of the works, which were repeatedly printed by a number of publishing houses over the next half-century. These superb transcriptions of this beautiful music make excellent recital items, but organists will also find liturgical uses for many individual movements. (Fonte editoriale)