Organ Music on the Instruments to which it was conceived

This project explores the performance of organ music on the instruments to which it was originally conceived. It focuses on the relationship between J. S. Bach and the Silbermann organs of Freiberg, Germany, and between Marcos Portugal and the six Cerveira/Fontanes organs of Mafra Basilica.

The students’ practical experience was complemented by a series of lectures by specialists in areas directly or indirectly related to this issue: André Ferreira, António Esteireiro, Jean Ferrard, João Vaz, Marco Brescia and Rui Vieira Nery. The trip to Freiberg in November 2024 included lectures by Albrecht Koch and Clemens Lucke.

The historically informed interpretation movement has given great importance to contact with historical instruments (originals or copies) – in parallel with analysing original sources and studying historical techniques – as one of the means for the performer to get closer to the composer’s intentions (Harnoncourt 1982, Donnington 1982). In the case of the organ, given the diversity of morphologies that instruments have presented over time (and according to where they were built), the expression ‘historical organ’ designates a multitude of instruments adapted to an equal diversity of types of music. The importance of the organ as an instrument that reflects a particular time or place – and is therefore different from all the others – has only begun to be explored in recent decades (Peeters 1999, Snyder 2002). The performance on a modern instrument of a piece conceived for an ancient instrument is common practice on many instruments, although concrete reflection on this performative praxis is not so frequent (Henriques, 2021).