Organ accompaniment for polyphonic works? Cristobal De Morales' 5-voice Requiem
  • hbott
    Posts: 3
    I'm sorry if this general topic has been covered and I missed it when searching.

    Our choir is performing the 5-voice Requiem by Cristobal De Morales. I've heard several recordings of the work. On one, by Musica Ficta, the organ accompanies the choir.

    Was this a practice common in Morales' time? Any and all information on the use of organ to accompany polyphony would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you.
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    For Venice there is evidence to colla parte playing of instruments, but Michael O'Connor mentioned here that elsewhere the practice is uncertain.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    The organist likely played with the choir a whole lot more than we think. However, the organ was prohibited from playing during the Requiem Mass in the 16th century. That does not mean, however, that it wasn't done.
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    Franz Xaver Haberl in the Foreword to volume 22 of his complete Palestrina edition (which is on IMSLP) says, that according to Baini in Florence a womens monastery sang double chorus masses by Palestrina and similar works with the not available voices replaced by instruments.

    EDIT: I recently read in Peter Wagner's Geschichte der Messe (History of the Mass), that there is evidence even for completely instrumental masses. Thus a performance of a mass with assisting instruments is in no way problematic. Somewhere I read once, that the first editions of Palestrinas masses with continuo were highly welcomed by the musicians of its time; they even said his art had acquired new splendour.
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