Vox Humana Craftsmanship: Origins, Intersections and Influence on Lithuanian Pipe Organ Building

ISBN-13: 9783031102899 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022 / 236 str.

Rima Povilioniene

Spis treści

Part 1: Establishment of the Vox Humana stop in pipe organ building. Some historical observations.- Chapter 1. In search of an appropriate name: Consolidation of the Vox Humana designation.- Chapter 2. From the Fiffaro to the Voce Umana: Beating stops in the Italian and Sicilian organ building tradition.- Chapter 3. The Vox Humana in Lithuanian baroque pipe organs.- Part 2: From Italy to Lithuania: The Casparini Dynasty and consolidation of Lithuanian baroque organ building.- Chapter 4. Over two centenaries of Caspari(ni) activity: From North to South.- Chapter 5. Following the activity of Lithuanian late-Baroque organ builders.- Part 3: Creating the Vox Humana’s variety of sounds.- Chapter 6. Characteristics of the Vox Humana’s resonator Construction.- Chapter 7. Observations on metal alloy and types of tongue and shallot in Lithuanian baroque pipe organs.- General conclusions: The discoveries continue.

O autorze

Girėnas Povilionis (b. 1976) completed Ph.D. in humanities (2006). He is an associate professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT); a senior specialist at the Lithuanian Centre for Culture Heritage; an organ historian, researcher and restorer; and gives lectures at the LAMT. Currently Girėnas is restoring some famous Baroque organs in Lithuania: Adam Gottlob Casparini’s 1775–76 organ at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, a 25-stop romantic organ by Juozapas Radavičius at Žemaičių Kalvarija, Pivašiūnai. Among his restored projects: the organs at Telšiai Cathedral, Žemalė, Kartena, Kaunas Cathedral, and others.

Diego Cannizzaro (b. 1968) graduated in piano (1992) and organ (1995) and completed Ph.D. in musicology (2004). He is a professor of organ and early keyboard at the Conservatory of Music ISSM Vincenzo Bellini in Caltanissetta, Italy. He is an organist at the Cathedral of Cefalù, the inspector for the historical organs of Sicily and a researcher at the E-Campus University – CUN, Cefalù. He holds a position of a President of Centro Studi Auditorium Pacis in Castelbuono, Palermo, and an artistic director of In Tempore Organi and Unda Maris festivals. He performed at the significant internationals festivals of organs in Europe and the USA. He published over 40 articles, monographic texts and essays about south Italian history of organ building. Diego was a guest lecturer at the Rimskij-Korsakov Conservatory in St Petersburg, Enghien and Ath Academies in Belgium, the National University of California, Real Consevatorio Superior de Madrid and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Rima Povilionienė (b. 1975) completed Ph.D. in humanities (2007). She is a full-time professor at the Department of Musicology of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT), the assistant editor-in-chief of the scientific yearly Lithuanian Musicology and an editor at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic. She held a researcher position at the International Semiotics Institute (ISI) at Kaunas University of Technology. Rima was on internships at the Institute of Musicology at Leipzig University (2004) and IRCAM (2012 and 2019). She was a guest lecturer at the Leipzig University, Tbilisi Conservatoire, Belgrade University of Arts, Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Vilnius University, Kaunas University of Technology, etc. Rima has edited over 15 collections and published over 30 academic texts and nearly 200 critic reviews. Her monograph Musica Mathematica (in Lithuanian, 2013) was awarded the Vytautas Landsbergis Prize for the best musicological work of the year. The English edition of the monograph was published by Peter Lang in 2016. She is an editor of two collections for Springer (2017 and 2019).

Blurb

This book provides a thorough analysis focused on the sound expression produced by human-crafted musical instrument – a pipe organ, in which various components blend into a complex whole to produce a wide range of timbres. The sound produced by wooden and metal pipes of a variety of sizes is an integral part of the instrument’s unique character, while the organ stop is like its signature, from which one can judge about the size and style of the instrument, an organ building school or even an organ master, to which it is attributable. Precise identification of the name of the stop in accordance to both the pipework itself and the authentic inscriptions on the pipes is instrumental in investigating the geographic origins and authorship of an organ.

The monograph focuses on the craftsmanship of complex and historically influential organ stop Vox humana. Its research and definition provides specific information distinguishing particular features in the variety of organ building traditions and discussing the differences in organ sound perception and production. The volume is aimed at art and music historians, as well as musicologists and scholars researching restoration techniques.

The book contains supplemental material with video and audio material as well as photo-documentation of authentic Vox humana examples. The material is placed in the online catalog, which may be accessed by scanning the QR code in the appendix of the book.