Toccata, fuga e tarantella (2018)

This prolific composer (see here: https://carlottaferrari.altervista.org/) bases this piece on two scales, d and a Neapolitan minors.

I found this piece by listening to Carson Cooman's recordings of Ferrari's organ works; I explore dynamics, temperaments, and color changes much more here. I'm performing this as a culminating piece at the end of a toccatas-only recital and using this piece as an exhibition of all the techniques from other composers; it lends itself exceptionally well to the demonstration.

The opening theme, a descending Neapolitan d minor built on the fourth, begins on French foundation stops. For the interlude of Renaissance perfect fifths, I change the temperament to mean-tone quarter comma. At the return of the opening descending scalar theme, now on d itself, I increased the registration. This entire section combines elements from historical composers and eras such as South German organ pedal points and French perpetual motion figurations. There is also tension building up from the pedal C#. It serves both as a tritone counterpoint to the G (the fourth) and a neighbor tone to the D (the tonic). This will come back again!

Part two is a loosely arranged four-voice fugal section. Here, Ferrari combines both the D and A scales in canon. The development section features a glorious pedal solo, and for the coda, I reduce the registration gradually down to almost nothing, just 16 and 8 foot flutes in the pedals. She transitions us over to the final dance section with that low pedal C#.

I use the same sound throughout the tarantella, but I terraced the dynamic levels from swell, to choir, to great. Each keyboard gets to feature a verse of the dance in this way. Between each stanza are rhythmically punctuating tonal clusters. After the third iteration of the tarantella, the piece builds with a stringendo and ever bigger registrations to the end. Throughout, low C# fights against D in a dynamic push and pull of tension and release.