ALC 0074 Keyboard Music from Codex Vienna, Minorite Convent, 714

Label: Aulicus Classics

Category: Music with Original Instruments

Composers: Girolamo Frescobaldi, De Lassus, Luca Marenzio, Valentini, Sweelinck, Gabrieli

Artists: Mario Aschauer

Mario Aschauer: harpsichord and organ

Format: 1 CD

Cat. number: ALC 0074

Release: June 2022

Among the treasures of the music archives the friars of the Vienna Minorite Order have been able to shield against the perils of over four centuries is a manuscript codex, now catalogued under call number XIV.714, that with its over 500 pieces makes for one of the largest collections of early 17th-century keyboard music. While we know next to nothing about its provenance, Codex 714 is the venue of a unique encounter between a fascinating variety of composers, genres, and styles around 1600.

On the one hand we find original compositions in the typical genres of the time copied from some of the latest publications such as Girolamo Frescobaldi’s Fantasie. A similar case could be assumed for Claudio Merulo’s Toccata primi toni, but a closer look reveals that it is not the well-known version from the 1598 first book of Toccate. Rather, Codex 714 seems to be a rare example for a manuscript dissemination of Merulo’s work similar to the Toccata quinti toni by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, for which the codex constitute one of only two surviving sources. We can assume that the two variations on a tune known as “Die flüchtige Nymphe” made it into Codex 714 through similar avenues deriving from the circle around Sweelinck and Samuel Scheidt.

Preview Tracks

1. Giovanni Valentini_Conzon à 6

2. Philippe de Monte / Anonymus_Ahi chi mi romp’ il sonno à 5

3. Liberale Zanchi_Conzon

4. Girolamo Frescobaldi_Fantasia ottava sopra tre soggetti

5. Luca Marenzio / Anonymus_Liquide perle amor

6. Claudio Merulo_Toccata primi tonI

7. Giovanni Gabrieli / Anonymus_Conzon à 6

8. Anonymus_[sine titulo]

9. Alessandro Striggio / Anonymus_Nasce la pena mia

10. Anonymus_Conzon

11. Orlande de Lassus / Paul Siefert_Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore à 5

12. Giovanni Valentini Conzon à 6

13. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck_Toccata quinti toni

14. Anonymus_Ballet

15. Hans Leo Haßler / Anonymus and Mario Aschauer_Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet