This edition presents two collections of versetti for the organ: the “Intavolatura d’Organo Facilissima, Accommodata in versetti sopra gli Otto Tuoni Ecclesiastici”, printed in Venice in 1598, and the 11 versetti found in the late 16th century manuscript MS DD 53 from the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna.
Two series of versetti in the various modes (separated by a century: end of the 16th Century and end of the 17th Century) and a series of theoretical and practical instructions regarding the practice of improvisation according to the historical evolution from modality to tonality.
This edition presents two collections of versetti for the organ: the “Intavolatura d’Organo Facilissima, Accommodata in versetti sopra gli Otto Tuoni Ecclesiastici”, printed in Venice in 1598, and the 11 versetti found in the late 16th century manuscript MS DD 53 from the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna.
We point out here the progressive stylistic changes throughout the 17th Century: whereas the Intavolatura Facilissima presents a type of versetti which is still exquisitely polyphonic with explicit references to melodic fragments of Gregorian chant, the versetti from the Bolognese manuscript, drafted by an anonymous copier towards the end of the 17th Century display a concerted keyboard writing laden with those rhythmic and melodic elements which are typical of the “seconda prattica” in an instrumental sense and are by this stage completely void of references to Gregorian themes.
Edited by Eduardo Bellotti.