Francisco Valls
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[edit] The Missa Scala Aretina controversy and Francisco Valls (1672-1747)
In 1696 Francisco Valls was headhunted from the Church of Santa María del Mar, Barcelona, to the post of Maestro de capilla at Barcelona Cathedral. He wrote 10 masses, 17 psalm settings, 30 motets, several other sacred items and 141 secular compositions. Many of these are manuscripts lodged in the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona.
The Missa Scala Aretina, so called because it uses a scale based cantus firmus, (prominently audible in the Kyrie), caused a major musical controversy between 1715 and 1720. Pro and anti groups were roughly equal, the famous composer Alessandro Scarlatti had given an opinion, mildly opposed to Valls' ideas. In the Qui tollis at bar 120 (López-Calo edition) the second soprano enters on an unprepared 9th chord causing a gratuitous semitonal dissonance with a bflat, a, f, d and low g sounding simultaneously on the words miserere nobis. The unpreparedness of the entry rather than the discord is the problem. It is doubtful whether such a chord would have raised highbrows in England where the dissonant music of Henry Purcell or William Lawes had been admired at court and church. Many of Valls' other works, however, use harmony which was highly unconventional at the time. Examples are his motets, Domine vim patior, Cor mundum meum and O vos omnes. The same applies to his instrumental works. These include a composition for strings which uses what Valls calls the "enharmonic sharp", but which seems different from the general conception of that expression. Valls' enharmonic sharp raises the notes A, C, D, F and G by three quarters of a tone and the notes B and E by a quarter tone.
In retirement Valls wrote a treatise on harmonic theory, Mapa Armónico Práctico. A facsimile of the manuscript has recently been published. It contains a large number of musical examples from his works and a exposition and defence of his views. All the Latin and Greek choral music from Mapa Armónico Práctico and some of the Spanish music has been transcribed and is in the public domain. See links below.
The original singing parts of the Missa Scala Aretina are well worn and often turned, suggesting that the Missa was performed many times.
The Missa Scala Aretina is scored for 3 vocal choirs, (SAT) (soloists), (SSAT) (soloists) and the choir (SATB). Instruments are 2 oboes doubling 2 violins, 2 trumpets and violone (cello?). Choir I has harp continuo, choirs II and III separate organs, each with a doubling violone or bassoon.
The Missa Scala Aretina is a typical baroque piece, sounding reminiscent of Biber's Missa Salisburgensis but also looking back to Italian Colossal Baroque music. The Kyrie is sumptuous but diatonic with strong trumpet lines. Aching suspensions are not long in arriving however when the text requires them such as the mysterious et incarnatus. Like Biber's Mass the Creed is highly coloured, with descendit being a descending scale and coelis ascending etc.. The Crucifixus begins in D-major but sinks a tone to a C-minor Tierce de Picardie cadence. This is answered by an A-major resurrexit.
The first performance in modern times in Barcelona was given by an English choir, the London Oratory Choir at the International Music Festival as late as 1978.
There is a modern edition: Francisco Valls, Missa Scala Aretina, edited by José López-Calo, (Novello,1975). (From Ms. M. 1489, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.). The Christe Eleison from Missa Scala Aretina was also included in the Mapa Armónico Práctico in a version with only continuo accompaniment.
There is a CD by The London Oratory Choir, (CRD,3371) (1994) and another CD by Gustav Leonhardt (CD 05472 77842 2) on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.
There are many other compositions by Valls surviving in the archives of the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona and elsewhere. Most of them are unedited, but critical editions of some of the works are available from Dinsic Publicacions Musicals. Others works are available from Scalaaretina, the Choral Public Domain Library, Musica de Hispania and the Werner Icking Music Archive. (see links below).
[edit] External links
- Free scores by Francisco Valls in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Free scores by Francisco Valls in the Werner Icking Music Archive
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Commercial publishers of some of Valls' music. |
