“New” toccatas by Giovanni Gabrieli in the Turin organ tablatures: issues of attribution Cover Image

“New” toccatas by Giovanni Gabrieli in the Turin organ tablatures: issues of attribution
“New” toccatas by Giovanni Gabrieli in the Turin organ tablatures: issues of attribution

Author(s): Candida Felici
Subject(s): Music
Published by: Musica Iagellonica Sp. z o.o.
Keywords: Giovanni Gabrieli; Turin organ tablatures; Keyboard music

Summary/Abstract: Almost all of Giovanni Gabrieli’s keyboard output has been transmitted in Germansources, the most important of which are the German organ tablatures now held at theTurin National Library (I-Tn, Fondo Foà Giordano, Giordano 1-8, Foà 1–8). The lackof concordances and the way of transmission have led some scholars to consider manyof these compositions as doubtful or even spurious works, as in the case of a group oftoccatas in Giordano 2. This article examines the characteristics of the Turin tablaturesand the way of transmission of Gabrieli’s toccatas, in order to propose a reconsiderationof their exclusion. Due to the small number of free-style works whose attributionto Gabrieli is without question, the article proposes an analysis of the toccatasthrough the comparison with the larger corpus of Gabrieli’s works, both vocal andinstrumental: indeed, some of the Turin toccatas reveal strong similarities with latecompositions by Gabrieli. Through both a philological and an analytical approach, thearticle proposes adding the Turin toccatas to the corpus of Gabrieli’s authentic works.

  • Issue Year: 8/2017
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 35-51
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: English