American Brass Quintet released an album of renaissance music in 1960.
There is an interview with Raymond Mase in the Aspen Times where he says “brass music had its golden age during the Renaissance era, which roughly spanned the 14th to 16th centuries.Brass music fell away, however, when composers began to focus more on strings and piano for their chamber-music endeavors during what is commonly thought of as the golden age of classical music”
Although most music from the Renaissance Era is not specific about the instruments to be used and rather to be played on what is available, it got me thinking that rather than performing the same Gabrieli pieces that everyone knows why not arrange and use other works and other composers from the same era when looking to program Renaissance music.
Check out my post about Claudio Merulo for example of other works.
During my recording presentation in class I had added a canzon by Merulo and I wasn’t familiar with this composer. Turns out Merulo was a composer and organist during the same time that Gabrielli was alive and writing music.
Merulo was a member of what we today call the Venetian School using antiphonal and multiple small groups to play with or against each other.
Merulo wrote 2 books of madgrigals in 5 voices, one book in 4 voices, and a book in 3 voices. Although it is hard to find arrangements for brass it would be very easy to make your own based of the scores available.
I was unable to find any other brass ensembles performing Merulo’s works, but I did find this beautiful recording of solo Cornetto performing a canzona
My favorite recording on the playlist is the Berlin Classics of Matthias Höfs and ensemble performing Samuel Scheidt. This recording is only a couple months old now. I first heard it on when Matthias shared it on his Facebook. It is phenomenal playing and example of matching.
This arrangement I have is for brass trio; trumpet, horn, and trombone, but I do not have a score so I decided to look for a score thinking that it should be public domain and easily found. I was very wrong!
In my search for this score I could only find this arrangement done by Chicago Trombone Consort
I knew that Stravinsky's Pulcinella used many themes from Pergolesi so I thought I would listen to it to try to find this theme. Luckily, I heard it only 5:30 into the almost 40:00 recording at the Scherzino.
After painstaking researching for many moons (couple hours) I found that
"Stravinsky's ballet is a parody based on 21 pieces transmitted under Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's name and taken from various contexts. 4 are from Pergolesi's Frate 'nnamorato, 3 from Flamino, one from the cantata luce deli occhi mine, and one from the violoncello Sonata. The rest of the pieces have been incorrectly attributed to Pergolesi; one is a modern forgery." (1)
As it turns out this piece has not only a different composer, but also goes by a different name; Trio Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Major by Domenico Gallo. Here is a recording with the original instrumentation; 2 violin and basso continuo with harpsichord accompagnamento.
The score I found that resembles the last recording has a pick up to beat 3, whereas the parts that I have have a pickup to beat 1. This would change significantly the emphases placed on phrase and how it is performed.
Although I solved one mystery, many more have come up, such as; what Stravinsky quote is a forgery? Why are the brass arrangements titled Sonata No. 4? Where is the original score that Stravinsky claimed to write all over the top of? Why are not all 12 Sonatas on IMSLP? Why do the scores have different placement of the downbeat?
