Canzon Septimi Toni a 8 No. 1

Giovanni Gabrieli composed his Canzon septimi toni for the majestic St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice where he was organist and principal composer from 1585 until his death. It comes from a collection of music for brass that Gabrieli composed for church use and published in 1597 under the title Sacrae symphoniae. The pieces in the Sacrae symphoniae collection are for groups of various combinations of instruments which would have been placed antiphonally inside St. Mark's to take advantage of the church's acoustics and to clarify the dialogic musical structure of works such as the Canzon. The spatial arrangement of the groups of instruments highlights this antiphony, with the music enveloping the listeners in a late 16th-century version of surround sound. The same effect can be created with this arrangement by having the two groups of four trumpets play from different places within the performance arena. Editing of this publication has included careful articulations and beaming of notes in such a way as to facilitate the understanding of phrase. - James Olcott, editor, inside front cover.