Gabrielli: One Intonation, Two Soundworlds

Historical Listening Laboratory

Giovanni Gabrieli: One Intonation — Two Sound Worlds

What does an instrument invite the performer to do?

For this experiment, the specimen is deliberately small: Giovanni Gabrieli’s "Intonatio Secundi Toni," from the Liber Fratrum. This small piece poses a big question.

Gabrieli (c. 1554–1612) was a fascinating composer who lived across the transition from the Renaissance into the early Baroque. Here, the same intonation is placed into two Italian sound worlds on either side of that transition.

The registration remains essentially constant: a principal chorus through the 22nd. The performer remains the same. The piece remains the same.

But the instruments do not.

Renaissance — Valvasone (1532–1533)

Its principal sound is warm, full, and gently blooming. Particularly in the lower register, the pipes reward enough time for the tone itself to develop. Additional diminution was possible, but Gabrieli’s written eighth-note passages consistently sounded more satisfying with restraint.

Early Baroque — Farkasrét Venetian Replica

Here the principal chorus speaks with greater immediacy and definition. Suddenly there seemed to be room for greater activity. The instrument did not merely tolerate additional ornamentation: it invited it.

The score had not changed. My musical imagination had. Perhaps the historical question is therefore not only: How did musicians ornament this music? But also: What were they hearing that made them want to ornament it?

One little inquiry. One little specimen. One changed condition. One BIG effect.

Historical Listening Laboratory
One Inquiry. Many Listenings.