The boundaries of meantone tuning

2023-05-21

Two of the Netherlands’ most talented young musicians, organist Laurens de Man and violinist Ruña ’t Hart, set out to explore the boundaries of meantone tuning. In this unequal tuning, which was common during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, music sounds more colourful and purer than we may ever have heard before. Unfortunately, meantone tuning also has its limits. That is the price paid for the perfectly pure thirds it contains. The purity of the fifths is slightly sacrificed in favour of the thirds. As a result, it is not possible to modulate freely from one key to another without unpleasant dissonances arising. In keys with more than three sharps or two flats, one encounters the wolf fifth and wolf thirds, which are so out of tune that they ‘howl like a wolf’.
The musicians explore various solutions that have been devised over the years to tame the ‘organ wolf’. One of these is the 31-tone system, first conceived in 1555 by the Italian music theorist and composer Nicola Vicentino. Another solution consisted of compositions in which more than twelve tones could be heard, such as the violin sonata by Georg Muffat, which employs a total of seventeen tones, and the Composizione di tre Generi by the Italian musicologist Giovanni Battista Doni. The musicologist Martin Kirnbauer refers to this as ‘Vieltönige Musik’ (multi-tone music). It was originally performed on a keyboard with extra keys in order to avoid the wolf fifth at certain points and to allow for somewhat wider modulation. In this way, the boundaries could be stretched a little further.
The Fokker organ is the ultimate solution to overcoming the limitations of meantone tuning. The tuning of this instrument is based on meantone tuning, but it contains additional tones, making it possible to modulate to all keys. Thus, there are no longer any boundaries. The 31-tone organ is therefore an ideal vehicle for exploring the marvellous world of meantone tuning—and especially its limits. Laurens de Man will provide commentary on the music, guiding the listener along the way. He will not only be heard on the Fokker organ but will also perform on his own meantone clavichord. This is one of Europe’s oldest stringed keyboard instruments and played an important role in chamber music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its sound is relatively soft and somewhat reminiscent of a lute.

Tickets

Programme

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) – Uit: Fiori musicali (1635); Messa degli Apostoli
– Toccata avanti il Recercar
– Recercar cromaticho post il Credo
– Canzon dopo l’epistola
– Recercar con obligo di cantare la quinta parte senza toccarla *

Nicola Vicentino (1511-1576) – Madonna, il poco dolce
Uit: L’antica musica ridotta alla prattica moderna (Rome, 1555)

Giovanni Battista Doni (1595-1647) – Composizione di te Generi *
Uit: Lyra Barberina Amphichordos (Florence, 1763)

Anoniem (Italië, ca. 1560) – Zonder titel
Uit: Coimbra Ms. Mus. 48, fol. 85v–86r

Michelangelo Rossi (1602-1656) – Toccata settima
Uit: Toccate e corenti d’intavolatura d’organo e cimbalo (Rome, 1657)

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) – Meditation sur ma mort future
– Toccata XX
– Capriccio XVI

Charles van Hemelrijck (1981) – Lamentations

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Kleines harmonisches Labyrinth, BWV 591

Georg Muffat (1653-1704) – Sonata a Violino solo in D (Praag, 1677)

Violinist Ruña ’t Hart (Amsterdam, 1992) performs as a soloist and passionate advocate of chamber music, with a wide-ranging repertoire spanning from the Baroque to contemporary music. In December 2016 she received the prestigious violin scholarship from the Kersjes Fund, an important award presented annually to a young violin talent in the Netherlands.
Ruña began playing the violin at the age of two. From the age of ten she studied with the renowned violin teacher Coosje Wijzenbeek, and a year later she was admitted to the School for Young Talent at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In 2011 Ruña began her studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Vera Beths, completing her master’s degree with distinction (cum laude) in September 2018. As Ruña is also interested in historical performance practice, she took lessons during her studies with Shunske Sato on both modern and Baroque violin. She is a member of the Vespucci Quartet, which released a CD in 2019. Ruña plays a violin made by the eighteenth-century Italian maker Landolfi.

Laurens de Man (’s-Hertogenbosch, 1993) is a versatile musician. He studied piano, organ and secondary subject harpsichord with Jacques van Oortmerssen, David Kuyken and Johan Hofmann respectively at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He continued his organ studies with Leo van Doeselaar at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, completing them in 2019 with the highest distinction. Laurens has won numerous prizes as both pianist and organist, including at competitions in The Hague (Prinses Christina Concours, 1st prize), Würzburg (Klavierwettbewerb J.S. Bach), Groningen (Martini Organ Competition, 1st prize) and Freiberg (Silbermann Wettbewerb, 1st prize), where he was named “ECHO Young Organist of the Year 2020”. In 2018 he received the Sweelinck-Muller Prize. As pianist of the Chimaera Trio, among other activities, he performs and arranges chamber music spanning four centuries of music history. Since 2012 Laurens has been principal organist of the Janskerk in Utrecht; during the 2022–2023 season he was “Organist in Residence” of the Contius organ in Leuven. At the Conservatorium van Amsterdam he teaches classical piano as a secondary subject for jazz pianists.

Support

This programme was made possible with the support of: Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Gemeente Amsterdam (stadsdeel Oost).

Also the SNS REAAL Fonds – renamed Fonds 21 (renovation Fokker organ), Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (renovation Fokker organ), Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ and Huygens-Fokker Foundation.

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