Tomas Luis de Victoria - Jesu, dulcis memoria

John Brombaugh and Associates, Opus 25 (1981), Fairchild Chapel, Oberlin Conservatory

This performance is an intabulation of the Motet which might be by Victoria. Intabulation is a practice from the Renaissance and Baroque periods in which a vocal work is performed on the keyboard, not only in an exact transcription but with embellishments added to enhance the performance and make up for the technical shortcomings of this format, such as the loss of contrasts of text. In my performance of this motet, I made use of many different embellishments, such as the opening section of the motet with added ornamentation between the different voices, the short imitative passage with the motif (e a g f#) which is a quote from the motet, and a free preludium-like section to appropriately mark the end of the motet. In addition, I played a simple intonation using the motif of the first few notes of the cantus; for this, the Gedackt 8 and Octava 2 with tremulant (which is a Schnitger-style beating tremulant) were used, which may be a registration that was employed by early French organ composers like Titelouze.

With that, I would like to wish the best of luck to the Oberlin Chorale (pictured), a choral group formed by Nathan Romero, Conductor, which will perform this motet and several other pieces on May 1 at Oberlin Conservatory.