Ecole classique
Paolo Crivellaro's book lays the foundation for a stylistically adequate examination of the French organ school from the beginning of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century.
Back in 2015, Paolo Crivellaro, Professor of Organ at the Berlin University of the Arts, published his book The North German Organ School (Carus), which offers a comprehensive collection of annotated sources on the performance practice and instrumentation of this organ landscape. Now a comparable work is being published, focusing on the French Ecole classique.
After an initial overview of the repertoire, the sources and the liturgical context of the music from the beginning of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century, the specific instrument is described in detail before the characteristic mélanges of the French school are discussed on the basis of registration notes and illustrated with numerous quotations and musical examples. Chapters on the difficult question of inégalité, tempo, ornamentation and fingering supplement the wealth of information with those aspects of historically informed performance practice that are central to this extremely "codified" music, which requires a great deal of background knowledge. Crivellaro succeeds in shedding light on these topics in a clear presentation using annotated sources available in the original wording and in German translation, and briefly summarizes the current state of research; the extensive bibliography provides information and references for in-depth reading. Short portraits of the 25 most important composers (from Eustache du Caurroy to Claude-Bénigne Balbastre) and their works round off the book.
Since Crivellaro largely refrains from "evaluating" the sources or giving specific interpretative advice on individual works, his handbook does not exempt the reader from familiarizing himself with the music on the instrument, trying things out and literally "feeling his way" towards this tonal language, but it lays an excellent foundation for a stylistically adequate approach to this repertoire, which will certainly set standards and be of great benefit to non-French-speaking readers in particular - the book is also available in an English and an Italian translation.
Paolo Crivellaro: Organ & Interpretation - the French Ecole classique, 358 p., € 45.95, Blockwerk Editiones, 2021, ISBN 978-3-9821872-0-4
