Our courses, our teachers
2025: Verses, Capricci, Choral Settings
L’Aquila (IT), 25 – 27 July 2025
Smarano (Predaia-IT), 28 July-5 August 2025
The three-year program of the 2025-2027 Academy focuses on the close correlation between the correct interpretation of the ancient repertoire and the knowledge of the sources, the reading and understanding of the original texts (manuscripts or printed) with the information they convey (and which are often lost in modern editions) and the role played by musical instruments, not only in the interpretative moment but also in the compositional/creative moment of the music itself. The executive process draws greater solidity from the analysis of the creative one: understanding how a score was created (and therefore how music was taught/learned) helps to master the “tricks of the trade”, or the ways to deliver a piece of music to the listener in a convincing way.
The program is based on the three cornerstones of Smarano Academy:
1 Partimento / Improvisation: learning the patterns of the Music and the Style of an Epoque. From Partimenti to Scores, from Scores to Partimenti.
2 Music Books as “Artefacts”: Reading, Understanding, Performing
3 Embodyment: the relationship among Instruments, Performers, Repertoire, and Improvisation.
2025 focuses on some musical collections in which counterpoint and “affects” are significantly combined: Frescobaldi’s Capricci and Fiori Musicali, Scheidt’s Tabulatura Nova, and Bach’s Orgelbüchlein. Other contemporary collections are added to them.
A visit to the historic organs of L’Aquila will help place the music, particularly that of Frescobaldi, in a sound context similar to the original.
Improvisation – William Porter
Basso continuo and Partimento – Salvatore Carchiolo:
Banchieri, Organo suonarino 1605; Pachelbel, Tablature of Weimar, 1706.
Clavichord and Fortepiano – Ulrika Davidsson and Joel Speerstra:
Scheidt: from Tabulatura Nova, 1624: II Fantasia super Io son ferito lasso SSWV 103; VI Passamezo SSWV 107, X Cantio belgica: Ach du feiner Reuter SSWV 108, 12 canons SSWV 115-126; Bach: BWV 802-805 from Clavier Übung.
Organ music by Samuel Scheidt and Johann Sebastian Bach: music, sources and performance – Hans Davidsson and William Porter:
Scheidt: from Tabulatura Nova, 1624, Vol I: Fantasia super Io son ferito lasso, Wir glauben all and Warum betrübst du dich (chorale cycles); Vol II, Echo, Toccata super in te Domine, Ach du feiner Reuter, Magnificat 8. Toni; Bach: Orgelbuchlein, Passacaglia BWV 582, Alla Breve BWV 589, Pastorella BWV 590.
Contemporary organ music for historical organs – Bernard Foccroulle
Capriccio sopra re-fa-mi-sol (Bernard Foccroulle, Ed. Lemoine); Cantio imitation Tremula Organi (Franz Danksagmüller); Any piece proposed by a student.
Italian Organ – William Porter and Hans Davidsson:
Frescobaldi, Capricci 1624 and Fiori Musicali 1635.
Harpsichord – Enrico Baiano:
Capriccios around Frescobaldi; G. de Macque: Capriccietto – Capriccio sopra re fa mi sol; G. Frescobaldi, Capricci 1624; J. J. Froberger, Capricci FbWV 501-506; G. Strozzi, Capricci 1°, 2° e 3°; T. Merula, Capriccio Cromatico; G. Salvatore, Canzona Francese Quarta sopra la Bergamasca.
Lectures:
Armando Carideo: The Organ in L’Aquila and South Italy.
Alessandro Albenga: Giovanni Salvatore.