Installation of the Italian Baroque Organ at Memorial Art Gallery, June 2005
The Eastman School of Music installed a historic full-size Italian Baroque organ in the University of Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery (http://mag.rochester.edu/visit/organ....). The magnificent instrument, with its 600 pipes and lavishly carved, painted, and gilded 22-foot case, was originally built around 1770 in central Italy and represents the genesis of Baroque organ music played and taught worldwide. With its pipes crafted to render vocal and instrumental sonorities of its time, the organ is a "living recording" of sounds made hundreds of years ago.
After being fully restored in Germany, it was installed in the Gallery's Fountain Court in the fall of 2005, making Rochester the only place in North America to hear authentic performances of 18th-century organ music written for a large Italian instrument. In addition to enhancing organ study at the Eastman School, the organ benefits the singers and instrumentalists who perform with the instrument, visiting scholars, practitioners of organ restoration, and visitors to the Memorial Art Gallery.
Music: 'Al post communio' (from 'Sonate d'Intavolatura', published in Rome in 1716), by Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726). Performed by David Higgs, Professor of Organ and Chair, Department of Organ, Sacred Music, and Historical Keyboards, Eastman School of Music.
The Italian Baroque Organ at the Memorial Art Gallery
William Porter, Professor of Organ at the Eastman School of Music performs an excerpt from "Pavane Prymera", a 16th century composition whose author is unknown. The piece is performed on an 18th century Italian baroque organ at the Memorial Art Gallery, installed in the Fountain Court in 2005.