Liber Fratrum Cruciferorum Leodiensium

Description

Contents: 54 compositions by William Brown (Wilhelmo Brouno), Christian Erbach(?), Andrea Gabrieli, Claudio Merulo, Vincenzo Pellegrini, Peter Philips, Gerardus Scroncx, Paul Siefert, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Anonymouses

Among the sources of seventeenth century keyboard music, the Book of the Crosiers of Liège occupies an exceptional position since it contains some unica of composers as important as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Peter Philips. It is also a remarkable manuscript in that this is one of the earliest appearances in organ music of accurate indications regarding registrations. Since its first edition in 1910, as the last volume of Alexandre Guilmants Archives des Maîtres de lOrgue, musicological research has established new concordances, made some new attributions and proposed a few hypotheses which must still be confirmed. The German publisher Schott brought out the complete Archives in a series, whose success, due to the choice of repertory and the quality of Guilmants work, never faltered. To the extent of the appearance of some pirate editions For some obscure reason, this last volume was never reprinted in the series, thus depriving organists and musicologists of the LFCL, and at the same time of the works of the Brussels organist Peeter Cornet. We owe the paternity of the present edition to the Organ Commission of the City of Liège, created in 1975 by the alderman Hubert Magotte. Realities of political life being what they are, it is his successor, the alderman Jean-Pierre Hupkens who at last has seen to its publication. In this way, the principal document concerning the organ in Liège and its music will again be accessible as a whole, with editorial remarks and commentaries, that seek to provide the reader with the most recent findings of musicological research as well as a rigorous and practical musical text.