Ercole Pasquini Toccate, canzoni, ricercari. ed. by Paul Kenyon

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ercole Pasquini Toccate, canzoni, ricercari. ed. by Paul Kenyon David Schulenberg Ercole Pasquini. Toccate, canzoni, ricercari. Edizione critica a cura di Paul Kenyon. (Monumenti musicali italiani, 30.) (Ercole Pasquini Opere complete, 1.) Milan: Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, 2015. [2 bound parts within slipcase: Part 1: Intavolature / Tablatures: Score, p. 1–64. Part 2: Testi e apparato / Texts and apparatus, p. i–xxx (Italian), p. xxxi–lix (English). ISMN 9790215617193. Pl. no. S. 14907 Z. €92.60.] This is the first of two publications that will comprise the collected keyboard works of Ercole Pasquini. Born in Ferrara in the mid-sixteenth century and active in Rome until at least 1608, Ercole is not to be confused with Bernardo Pasquini, who lived a century later. Although a prolific composer of keyboard and other music, Bernardo appears to have been less innovative than was Ercole in his thirty or so extant works. Ercole was one of the very first composers of keyboard music that can be described as “baroque,” and he seems to have provided models without which Frescobaldi, his successor as organist at Rome’s Cappella Giulia, might not have written what he did. Unlike Frescobaldi, whose toccatas, canzonas, and other compositions appeared in sumptuous engraved editions, Ercole published none of his keyboard music, which remains obscure even though nearly the complete corpus has already appeared in two previous editions. On the one hand, the pioneering transcription into modern notation by W. Richard Shindle no longer reflects current understanding of the sources or the repertory (Ercole Pasquini: Collected Keyboard Works, Corpus of Early Keyboard Music, 12 [Neuhausen-Stuttgart: American Institute of Musicology, 1966]), while on the other hand, a facsimile edition of the principal manuscripts by Alexander Silbiger is impractical for everyday use (Ravenna, Biblioteca comunale Classense, MS Classense 545, 17th Century Keyboard Music: Sources Central to the Keyboard Art of the Baroque, 12 [New York: Garland, 1987]; Rome, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia, MS A/400, 17th Century Keyboard Music, 13 [New York: Garland, 1987]; and Trent, Museo provinciale d’arte, Biblioteca musicale L. Feininger, n.s., 17th Century Keyboard Music, 16 [New York: Garland, 1987]). Anyone attempting to play from or study these previous editions is likely to be baffled by seemingly faulty if not incomprehensible musical texts. A reliable modern edition with up-to-date textual commentary would therefore be welcome. But although the present publication makes the music accessible to nonspecialists, it falls short of what is expected in a modern critical edition, and it does not always succeed in finding satisfactory readings for scores that the composer, or at least the copyists, often seem to have left not quite finished. Moreover, a serious production error makes it desirable that the edition be withdrawn and reprinted. Collections that seek comprehensive holdings of keyboard music will need to acquire this edition, but others may wish to wait to see whether the publisher will rectify the problem described below. Although the series title describes it as containing Ercole’s “complete works,” it is unclear whether the new edition will extend [End Page 591] beyond the keyboard music (a handful of vocal works are also known). The present volume 1 contains twenty-five short prelu-dial and contrapuntal compositions (toccatas, canzonas, and ricercars). A few brief dances and several lengthy variation sets (partite) will presumably follow in a second volume. This first volume actually comprises two separate items in distinct formats, held in a paper slipcase: a bilingual Italian-English textual apparatus in upright format, and a score volume in organ (landscape) orientation. Pages in the “apparatus” volume bear roman numeration; arabic pagination is used for the scores. I have not read Fabiana Ciampi’s Italian translation of the verbal matter word-for-word, but spot-checking revealed no inaccuracies. Editing this music is not for the faint-hearted. Titles and attributions in the sources are often absent or heavily abbreviated, the notation written hastily and inaccurately. An editor must make decisions about not only what pieces to include (and what to call them), but how to deal with wrong or missing notes, irregularly placed barlines, inconsistently beamed groups of small note values, and omitted rests, accidentals, and...