PALESTRINA'S LEGACY ON THE ORGAN REPERTOIRE

This programme is dedicated to the legacy of Palestrina. The influence of this musician, a central figure in Renaissance polyphonic music, was not limited to the ‘Roman school’ (which included Ruggero Giovanello, Girolamo Frescobaldi and Michelangelo Rossi), but influenced most composers of the late 16th and 17th centuries. His Italian contemporaries were of course greatly influenced by the master of Rome, but his influence can be felt far beyond the Alps: in Spain, the art of counterpoint was taken to new heights by Francisco Corrêa de Araujo, while in Amsterdam, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck used counterpoint as the foundation of an organ school that would bear fruit in Germany and influence composers as late as Johann Sesbastian Bach.

It may seem surprising to find a solo organ programme built around Palestrina, a composer who wrote almost exclusively for the voice and seems to have written nothing for the organ: only eight Ricercares are dedicated to the organ in the composer's catalogue, and it is possible that they were not written by himself but by a relative or pupil. However, the organ is essentially a polyphonic instrument, and its development in the late Renaissance was greatly influenced by vocal music, which organists used as a model and tried to imitate on the organ. It is therefore only natural that Palestrina had an indirect – but very strong – influence on organ music.

Some musicians of the early Baroque period, however, opposed Palestrina's style and proposed a different musical approach – a ‘seconda prattica’, as Monteverdi called it. Among them, Frescobaldi and his pupil Michelangelo Rossi incorporated Palestrina's counterpoint but developed a completely different style of music based on movement, the circulation of energy and the search for dissonance. Louis Couperin's astonishing ‘Fantaisie Duretez’ also bears witness to this Italian influence on French music. This programme therefore also presents this aspect of Palestrina's legacy, which served as a catalyst for the birth of Baroque music.