Musical contribution - September 2017

Batalla - Anonymous This month we have an organ work whose composer is unknown to us. It probably originated from Spain. The word “Batalla” can mean two things: 

• battle

• horizontal trumpet

Initially, we assumed the latter meaning. The “trompeta de batalla” occurs frequently in Spain. Some composers also recommend this when they want to portray a battle. This also immediately incorporates the first meaning.  Other than this, I was unable to find any directions at all with regard to tempo, registration and/or delivery. With respect to tempo, be careful not to start too quickly. The first eight bars could suggest that the piece has quite a rapid tempo. First imagine the tempo of the third part (46 to the end) and take that as the starting point for the first part (bars 1 to 24 inclusive). Quarter of the first part is then the same as half of the second part, and the same again as quarter of the third part.As instrumental idiom, you can choose to play the entire work in registration. It sounds beautiful with a strong trumpet. You really don’t need to include a flue pipe. You could also choose to give the three parts their own individual tone colour. If we keep the word “battle” somewhere in mind, we immediately have an option for our delivery. It certainly does no harm to make a spirited interpretation of this piece. Kind regards from Polsbroek, André van Vliet