Review

Giovanni Gabrieli
Canzon per Sonar Noni Toni à 8 from Sacrae Symphoniae Ch.173: for 8-part Brass Ensemble

Arranged by Damiano Drei

Brass Ensemble: Brass Choir:4 B-flat trumpets (sub 2 F horns), F Horn (sub trombone), 2 trombones (sub 1 F horn, tuba or bass trombone

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2021
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts.

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 6+ brass (choir)

The instrumental works of Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli occupy an important place in the repertoire for brass players. While not the earliest pieces for brass, the first to use polychoral techniques, the first to use specified dynamics, or even the first by a composer whose last name was Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli’s pieces nevertheless have stood the test of time. In his 1597 published collection entitled Sacrae Symphony are more than a dozen instrumental pieces with specified instrumentations, a somewhat unusual practice for the time. Canzon per Sonar Noni Toni à 8 follows Gabrieli’s simple naming convention, with its name telling us it is an instrumental Canzon, “per sonar” - for sounding on an instrument, based on a particular scale or melodic fragment, “noni toni” - ninth tones, for eight instruments. Please note there is also a similarly named piece based on the same melodic source material, but for twelve instruments, Canzon per Sonar Noni Toni à 12, in the same collection. Italian trombonist, Damiano Drei, has taken Gabrieli’s eight-part work and set it for modern instruments, preserving the original key.

Canzon per Sonar Noni Toni à 8 is one of Gabrieli’s numerous polychoral pieces meant to be performed in the cori spezzati, i.e. divided or split choirs style that makes use of spatial effects like echo and stereo alternation. In Drei’s version, Choir A is scored for two trumpets in B-flat, F horn, and trombone; Choir B is scored for two B-flat trumpets, trombone and tuba/bass trombone. Drei provides substitute parts for the inner two voices of each choir, allowing horn to be substituted for the trumpet 2 part in either choir or the higher trombone part of choir B; trombone may be substituted for the horn part in Choir A.

Being a faithful transcription of Gabrieli’s original work, the performers will find the typical sections of imitative entrances in the voices interspersed with alternations by choir. As with most of the music of this era, the parts are not terribly technically challenging, though the highest trumpet parts and the trombone part in Choir B do spend time above the staff.

All the individual parts are laid out just as musicians prefer. They are nicely spaced on the page, easy to read, and contain small amounts of cues at helpful junctures. The score generally follows suit, though there are a few times the Cherry Classics footer on each page runs into dynamics in the lowest part or the asterisk notation about substitute parts. All in all, though, this is a well thought out addition to the repertoire that gives quality treatment to an important historical work.