17th & 18th Century Organ Toccatas, Sonatas, and Canzonas

Description

The volume marked with the reference “A.7b.63 cass” is an anthological manuscript preserved in the ancient collection of the Genoa Conservatory Library. Catalogued and described by Prof. Salvatore Pintacuda during his tenure as Librarian, it was brought to attention by Maestri Flavio Dellepiane, Emilio Traverso, and Luisella Ginanni between the 1970s and 1990s during the inauguration of historical instruments, with performances of some transcribed pieces for the occasion. However, to date, the volume has neither been published nor performed in its entirety.
The manuscript is presented in Italian keyboard tablature, featuring six staves for the right hand and eight for the left, with two systems per page, in an oblong format, written on both sides (recto/verso), and compiled by multiple hands from the second half of the 17th century to the mid-18th century. It stands as one of the very few manuscript sources of organ music presumed to have been performed on Ligurian school instruments.
The many liturgical pieces (series of versets, offertories, Post communio, Per Elevazione, etc.) and the indications for pedal use suggest, albeit hypothetically, that the manuscript may have belonged to a convent, where successive friars in the role of organist copied pieces over time, explaining its heterogeneity and extensive time span.
The compositions contained within can be divided into two groups: a first group predominantly features the Roman school of the late 17th century, including an extensive piece by Tarquinio Merula already known as Sonata Cromatica, here titled Offertorio – Del Signor Mangiarotti, along with many anonymous pieces and others attributed to Candriano, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Georg Friederich Handel (listed as “Hendel”), who was in Rome from 1706 to 1710. The second group, composed of more recent pieces, marks the transition from late 17th-century styles to more instrumental ones, influenced by operatic music. This group includes works by Genoese or Ligurian composers Antonio Maria Tasso and Matteo Bisso.
It is interesting to note that seven toccatas in the first part of the volume (recto) are attributed by the copyist to Scarlatti (the first two) and Handel (the remaining, marked as 2a, 3a, 4a, 5a, and 6a). However, these are predominantly recognized as works by Alessandro Scarlatti; the 2a (in G minor) is probably not by Scarlatti and has no other known versions, while the 3a is part of a piece by Handel known as Capriccio. The 6a, for which another manuscript exists in a different source, is a sort of “pastiche,” with the first part attributable to Francesco Durante or another Neapolitan school composer, and the second part indeed attributable to Handel or an imitator.
Additionally, there are seven pastoral pieces, one of which, the Piva, features various sections marked with the names of popular dances, with many recurring themes of the “Girolmetta.” In transcribing the music into modern notation, every effort was made to remain faithful to the original text: while some pieces were precisely drafted, despite common copying errors (such as missing clefs), others were quite deficient, almost sketchy, necessitating substantial interventions for integration and correction, sometimes quite substantial (notably for two particularly problematic pieces).
For the recording, Ligurian school organs among those recently restored were chosen to showcase the music appropriately and offer a broad perspective on this important Italian organ building school.

The Ligurian Organ School
Until the second half of the 17th century, Liguria primarily saw organ builders from other regions such as Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, and France. Between 1656 and 1663, the Flemish Jesuit Willem Hermans built four instruments in Genoa: only two of his Italian instruments have survived intact, in Pistoia and Collescipoli. The relationship between Hermans and the young Tommaso I Roccatagliata is unclear, but documents suggest collaboration on projects outside the region, particularly in Palermo (1672) and Orvieto (1674). The influence of Hermans’ style on Roccatagliata’s work is evident.
The activity of Tommaso I Roccatagliata (1647–1735) marks the beginning of the “Ligurian Organ School,” a distinctive style continued by the Roccatagliata descendants, the Ciurlo family, Filippo and Felice Piccaluga, Antonio Corsi, and Giacinto Rossi. They built instruments throughout the region, reaching as far as Corsica and lower Piedmont. This school operated for about two centuries until the late 19th century, with Luigi, Giovanni, and Antonio De Ferrari active in Corsica.
Ligurian organs are categorized into three types: the positive or processional organ, the medium organ, and the large organ, which may feature two keyboards, as in the instruments by Filippo Piccaluga for the Savona Cathedral and the parish church of Albissola Marina. Typically, the keyboard has 45 keys, from C1 to C5 with a short octave, though extensions of 47 or 50 keys are rare. The pedalboard, always coupled to the keyboard, can be of the ledger type, but button pedalboards of the French or Spanish type are also found, especially in works by Giovanni Battista Ciurlo.
The windchests are “on pull,” with leather (or wooden, in Rossi’s case) sliders, and the bellows are wedge-shaped, typically two or three, operated with a system of cords and pulleys. Ligurian organs have a “median” pitch between 420 and 430 Hz, and a “mean-tone” temperament of 1/4, 1/5, or 1/6 comma, with the wolf fifth sometimes divided into two intervals.
The common tonal scheme, unchanged until the early 19th century, includes an 8′ Principal, corresponding Ripieno ranks up to the XXIX, an 8′ Flute or a 12′ Flute in older models, a three-rank Cornet, the Vox Humana, and 16′ Contrabasses (or real from F, with the first three notes cut in a broad 8′). Accessory stops like the Nightingales and Kettle Drum are also common. Larger instruments may feature a second Principal, a second Flute (in 12′), a 2′ Flageolet, a Sesquialtera (one rank in the 17th or two ranks), Trumpets (often divided into bass and treble), and a Trombone in the pedals.
While Tommaso I’s instruments have Renaissance-style façades, later models predominantly feature three-compartment façades with a cusp each, the mouth design opposite to the cusps. Piccaluga’s works often have curvilinear façades. With Marcello Ciurlo (1787–1855) and his nephews Luigi and Giovanni De Ferrari, there is a shift towards Lombard or Tuscan models, with single-compartment façades and richer “concert” registers (like the Viola bass, Octavin, Forest or Traverso Flute, English Horn, bells), keyboards extended to high F, and pedalboards to E2, influenced by the changed musical style and contact with advanced instruments like those of Serassi of Bergamo or Agati of Pistoia.
The Ligurian organ school has been the subject of recent studies: in the 1960s, initial attempts to restore some instruments began a movement that led to the philological restoration of many Roccatagliata, Ciurlo, and Piccaluga organs, allowing a broader understanding of this important organ building tradition.
Key figures in this research include Giorgio Questa, who, in the 1960s and 70s, first recognized the significance of the Ligurian school and worked to save many instruments. Also notable are the studies and publications by Dr. Giancarlo Bertagna, Prof. Maurizio Tarrini, Prof. Antonio Delfino, M° Davide Merello, and the musical contributions of organists and teachers M° Flavio Dellepiane, M° Emilio Traverso, and M° Luisella Ginanni.
Rodolfo Bellatti © 2024