Before there was the fugue there was the ricercar, among the earliest genres of polyphonic keyboard music not based on vocal models. The word "ricercar" originally indicated the trying-out of an instrument's strings during the tuning process. The earliest works on this collection of ricercars, by Andrea Gabrieli and the unappetizingly named Flemish-Italian composer Jacques Buus, have the quality of totally free fantasy the name suggests. As the sixteenth century went on the features of the ricercar began to approach those of the fugue, with well-defined themes and sections, and for a time (even for
Bach at times) the words were interchangeable. Perhaps the ricercar will always be of less interest to general listeners than the more easily graspable fugue; the earlier genre is a staple of graduate musicology seminars. But this fine release by Dutch organist
Liuwe Tamminga, originally released in 1997 and reissued in 2009, offers some gems anyone can enjoy. A few of the composers also wrote madrigals that would be classed as Mannerist, with extravagant text-setting devices and spectacular splashes of dissonance. Those aren't part of the organ vocabulary, but the Toccata e Ricercar in mode 4 by Luzzasco Luzzaschi (track 10) is exotic in its own way, with a sparse yet intricate second subject nicely brought out by
Tamminga's organ registration. The ricercars by Buus, preceded by their own "Intonazione," will appeal to those who like vocal music by the likes of Ockeghem, with shifting masses of sound in place of thematic manipulation.
Tamminga has specialized in playing historical organs appropriate to the music at hand, and the 1534 Bolognese church organ here is beautifully restored; you hear a little bit of the action, but it serves only to underscore the structure of the music. Recommended for any lover of early organ music.