Brescia, St. Carlo

Antegnati organ in St. Carlo, Brescia, Italia (XVI. - XVII. century)

"Antegnati" - the name of the proliferous family of the organbuilders in northen Italy is known to everyone who came in contact with the Italian organ music. They were active through XVth to XVIIth century. Their organs are the typus of the Italian organbuilding school.

By the end of XVIth century, the Italian organ assumed the stable form which persisted through the next two centuries. Usually, it had one manual with very primitive pull-down pedal. The basis of the organ was formed by the full "pyramid" of the principal chorus, separating each rank even in the highest registers. Therefore, there is no "mixture" stop found on traditional Italian organ. Instead, the brilliant "crown" of the organ sound is formed by individual principal ranks with the latin names designating their height (15th, 19th, 22nd, 26th, 29th...). As the Italian organbuilders did not build very small pipes, the stops usually break at the 1/8' of the pipe length, sometimes even lower, making an octave repetitions. Therefore, the plenum is dominated by the 2' and 2 2/3' sound, giving a "golden" timbre (while the German type of the organ plenum could be described as "silver").

 In addition to the full principal chorus the "Ripieno", there are concertant stops, usually represented by the Flute quint (Flauto in duodecima) = a Nazard, and a "recorder"-like voiced Flauto in ottava. The pedal is usually hardcoupled to the manual without any proprietary stops. In the case of St. Carlo, there is one pedal stop named Contrabassi (Subbas 16') which was added in the course of the history.

There are several theories about the origin of the organ in S. Carlo in Brescia. Gilles Cantagrel suggests that the organ was built by Gian Giaccomo Antegnatiat the end of 16th century. Another source attributes the instrument to Graziadio Antegnati who would build the organ "during the first years of XVIIth century". Finally, the modern label located on the organ case reads: "This instrument was built in 1636 by Antegnati organbuilding workshop in Brescia. It was restored by Armando Maccarinelli in 1958 under the technical direction of Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini and Ernesto Meli."

If further clarification are possible, I would be gratefull for letting me know.

René Saorgin describes the St. Carlo instrument as the ideal of the Antegnati's work: The timbre of its 8 feet Principale is, as the organbuilder himself required, very "cantable" and "delicate". I would describe its sound as "mild". The low pressure of the air (lower than 2 inches) does not "overdrive" the pipe so it is very naturally speaking without any shadow of force or pressure. It reminds me of the Baroque Salicional (not the modern "stringy" Salicional, though!!!) or even Gemshorn.

The referrence is made to the treatise of Costanzo Antegnati "L'Arte organica" from 1608, where the famous organbuilder gives his observations and suggestions for the organ performance. His remarks are extremely important for the authentic interpretation of early Italian music.

Also the aliquote stops of the principal chorus are gently voiced which gives a subtle and "harpsichord"-like timbre to the whole Ripieno. The aliquotes are used for coloring the Principale fundamental. When performing the music using this sample set, you should not turn the volume too much up!

The undulating "celeste" stop Fiffaro should be used - according to the Antegnati advice - only in conjunction with the Principale to produce the beating effect and it is recommended for the slow movements.

 

Further reading:

  • Oscar Mischiati (ed.), GLI ANTEGNATI: Studi e documenti su una stirpe di organari bresciani del Rinascimento. Bologna, 1995.
  • Calvert Johnson, Historical Organ Techniques and Repertoire: ITALY 1550-1650. Colfax: LWE, 2002.
  • Ferdinand Klinda, Organ v kultúre dvoch tisícročí. Bratislava: HC, 2000.
  • Barbara Owen, The registration of Baroque Organ Music. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997.
  • The French-British TV document by Gilles CantagrelUne histoire de l'Orgue. 1. part, 1990.

 

Specification and Screenshots

Features

  • Hauptwerk v.4.2 and higher supported.
  • 24bit, 48kHz samples, multi-sample technology (each tone has 3 independent samples which are chosen at random for playback each time the key is pressed - this results in greater variety of sound).
  • Virtually noiseless - no disturbing noise in the samples or in the reverb.
  • Multi-sampling (up to 5 independent attack samples per single tone for more vivid sound - each time you press the same key, a different sample can play back for a given stop)
  • Multi-release (up to 4 release samples for a single attack sample depending on how long you keep the key pressed - it effectively removes the known "staccato effect".)
  • Original (short-octave) and Extended (chromatic bass octave) versions of the sample set available.

RAM consumption

  • Hauptwerk single release, 16-bit, full reverb, compressed: 1 839 MB
  • Hauptwerk multi release, 16-bit, full reverb, compressed: 2512 MB
  • Hauptwerk, multi release, the highest quality loading (24-bit): 3.1 GB
  • MyOrgan (with memory compression): 732 MB

Compass

  • manual  - 4 and half octaves (MIDI: 36-C to 89-F). In the original version, the lowest octave is "short", meaning that it is only diatonic C-D-E-F-G-A-B-H. In the extended version, the chromatic semitones were added.
  • pedal - 20 keys (MIDI: 36-C to 55-G), 12 pipes (high octave repeats the low tones), hard coupled to manual

Temperament 

Historical tuning is lost, equal tuning is applied to the organ now. However, by using various tuning charts available in Hauptwerk 2 or 3, you can retune the instrument to the desired historical tuning.

Screenshots

console blower switch voicing MyOrgan version
Console.jpg (65906 bajtů) blower.jpg (46180 bajtů) voicing.jpg (34481 bajtů) Hauptwerk1.jpg (41516 bajtů)
By clicking on the thumbnail images, you can learn how to work with the virtual console.

Specification

Principal chorus = Ripieno  
Principale bassi 8' (bass)
Principale soprani 8' (descant)
Ottava 4'
Quinta decima 2'
Decima nona 1 1/3'
Vigesima II 1' (repetions from 67-G, 79-G)
Vigesima VI 2/3' (repetitions from 60-C, 73-C#)
Vigesima IX 1/2' (repetitions from 55-G, 67-G, 79-G)
  The three "vigesimas" together form a mixture
Flutes  
Flauto in VIII 4'
Flauto in XII 2 2/3' (Nasard)
   
Beating stop  
Fiffaro 8' (descant, beating principal stop, to be used with Principale only according to the Antegnati suggestions)
   
Pedal  
Contrabassi 16'

The ranks of traditional Italian organs break at about 1/6' or 1/8' pipe length an octave down making an octave repetitions. This produces a preponderance of 2' and 2 2/3' pitches in the upper part of the compass of the Ripieno. For further information, see the C. Jonson's or Barbara Owen's book mentioned in the history section of this web.

Installation package 370, version 1.01 patch - corrections of some misbehaving releases in Principale and Ottava. 

  1. Brescia St. Carlo Wet Sample Set

    Brescia - st. Carlo Antegnati organ model, Wet variant. Minimum Hauptwerk version: 4.2. (Also works in all higher versions.)

    €40.00

    Excl. Tax

    Detail & order