Murschhauser: Prototypon Longo-Breve Organicum

The German baroque composer Franz Xaver Anton Murschhauser (1663– 1738), was Kapellmeister at the Frauenkirche (today the cathedral) in Munich and was a student of Johann Caspar Kerll. He wrote several collections of organ music, among which his most important „Prototypon Longo-Breve Organicum“, written between 1703 and 1707. This two-part collection contains eight cycles of Intonations, Toccatas, Preludes, Canzoni and Finales in the eight most commonly used church modes. There are a total of 46 (mostly short) pieces that represent a very interesting and impressive document of southern German organ practice – roughly comparable to Johann Caspar Kerll's Modulatio Organica – the structure of which is still very useful for organists today. Compared to his earlier organ works the Prototypon features more extended and freely concertante pieces, and the technique here has also become more complex in the use of often daring contrapuntal stylistic devices. The intonations are composed of playing figures, broken chords or passages over an organ point, deliberately kept free of any imitative interplay. • Played on the historic 1662 Freundt/Richter Organ of the Stiftskirche Baumgartenberg, the specifications of which are included in the booklet. • Silva Manfrè studied organ and organ composition at the Conservatory of Music in Verona (Italy), at the University of Music and Performing Arts of Vienna (Austria) and Musicology at the Universities of Pavia and Vienna. Among her main interests are lesser known or rarely performed compositions of the Renaissance and the Baroque. Her previous recording of organ works by Ottavio Bariolla (96376) was enthusiastically received.

• Murschhauser: Prototypon longo-breve organicum