A New Keyboard Work by Giovanni Gabrieli and the Relevance of Its Compositional Technique

Abstract

There is much evidence that our picture of Giovanni Gabrieli's output is incomplete, and the frequency with which new works have emerged in recent decades suggests that there is still scope for further discoveries. This article focuses on a new keyboard ricercar by Giovanni Gabrieli preserved in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preusischer Kulturbesitz. The composition, which has previously not been mentioned in the literature, ranks among the most eloquent and impressive of Gabrieli's keyboard works. Until recently, it was located in the binding of an eighteenth-century book. The sources of the work, and its provenance, compositional technique, and relationships to contemporary keyboard pieces are discussed.