organ tablature

(1) The various notational systems which were used for the writing down of early organ music (prior to 1600). They are usually distinguished as Italian, Spanish, etc., organ tablature. However, in Italy, as well as in France and England, organ music was notated in virtually the same way as it is today, except for minor details, such as variations in the number of the staff lines. Only in Germany and in Spain was organ music (more generally, keyboard music) written in systems which deserve the name tablature. See *Tablatures. (2) The manuscripts and printed books of early organ music. As under (1), the name should properly be restricted to the German and the Spanish sources. Practically complete lists of organ tablatures (French, Italian, English, German, and Spanish) are given in WoHN ii, 32ff, 27off, 278. Cf. also the article “Orgeltabulaturbuch” in RiML, where the name is restricted to the sources written in German tablature.

academy

A scholarly or artistic society. The term first referred to a grove in Athens sacred to the mythological hero Academus, where Plato established a school as early as 385 B.C.E. It gained new currency with the revival of Platonic and Neoplatonic thought in the Renaissance. Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), the central figure in this revival, created around 1470 a loosely structured “Platonic Academy” in Florence, whose members included the most illustrious poets and men of letters of that city. Many of these men were also accomplished musicians, including Ficino himself, Lorenzo de’ Medici (“The Magnificent”), and Baccio Ugolini; and music, whose moral and curative effects played a large part in Ficino’s thought, figured importantly in the meetings of the Academy.

By the mid-16th century more than 200 academies had sprung up in Italian towns in imitation of Ficino’s group, most of them now formally organized with written statutes and statements of their scholarly goals. In literary and philosophical academies such as the Accademia fiorentina and Accademia della crusca of Florence (established, respectively, in 1540 and 1582), music was a frequent topic of discussion and source of entertainment. And alongside these groups there arose academies in which musical composition and performance were the primary or even sole aims, such as the Accademia filarmonica of Verona (established 1543) and the Accademia deli elevate of Florence (established 1607). Finally, numerous informal groups of learned aristocrats gathered at private palaces in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of these camerate or ridotti, such as those meeting in late 16th-century Florence at the palaces of Giovanni de’ Bardi and Jacopo Corsi, featured musical discussion and experimentation.

concertato [It., concerted]

Of or pertaining to works of the early 17th century that combine and contrast vocal and instrumental forces, especially through the introduction of the *thoroughbass. The modern use of the term in this way was promoted by Manfred Bukofzer (Music in the Baroque Era, New York: Norton, 1947). The numerous sacred works of the period in this style were usually titled concerto.

fugato [It.]

A fuguelike (and thus contrapuntal and imitative) passage occurring in a larger work or movement that is not itself a fugue, e.g., in the development section of a movement in sonata form; also a fugue-like piece that in one way or another does not incorporate the usual features of a *fugue.

manual

A keyboard (other than the pedalboard) of an organ or harpsichord.

ledger line

A short line parallel to and above or below the staff, representing a continuation of the staff and used to indicate pitches above or below the staff itself [see Notation]. The use of ledger lines can be avoided by the appropriate choice of *clef, as is most often done in music through the 16th century. An early example of their extensive use, however, is Marco Antonio Cavazzoni’s Recerchari motetti canzoni for organ of 1523.

guida [It.]

(1) *Direct. (2) The subject of a fugue. (3) An abbreviated orchestral score.

arpeggiate, arpeggiation

To sound the pitches of a chord successively, as in an *arpeggio, rather than simultaneously; the sounding of a chord in this way.

Abwechseln [Ger.]

To alternate, as when a single player alternates in playing two instruments.

lyric

Melodious.