ASU dedicates rare Traeri organ
<p>Admirers of early music will get to hear the distinctive timbres of a rare Italian Baroque organ at a March 11 MainStage Organ concert, titled “Order versus Beauty: A Juxtaposition of German and Italian Styles.”</p><separator></separator><p>The concert will take place at the Herberger College School of Music.</p><separator></separator><p>The concert marks the official dedication of the Italian Baroque organ, built by Domenico Traeri in 1742. The organ is on indefinite loan to ASU and has had just one of its 300 pipes replaced. The concert audience will experience what it might have been like to hear organists play centuries ago.</p><separator></separator><p>“The sounds of the Traeri organ literally transport you back to the Italian Baroque,” says Kimberly Marshall, interim director of the School of Music and Goldman Professor of Organ.</p><separator></separator><p>Marshall recently was in Italy for seven months on sabbatical. The concert integrates research she's completed on Italian Baroque organ music, and also incorporates music from the grand German Fritts organ. The program includes some of the earliest keyboard music published in Italy and Germany : toccatas by the great virtuoso Frescobaldi and the “Dorian Toccata” of J.S. Bach.</p><separator></separator><p>Following the Traeri dedication concert, organ aficionados can enjoy German Baroque music during the last concert of the 2006-2007 MainStage Organ series. “A German Organ Tour” will be featured at 2:30 p.m., March 25.</p><separator></separator><p>The history of German organ music is explored with selections by Buxtehude, Bach, Mendelssohn and Merkel. The Fritts organ is ideally suited to the German Baroque repertoire, which features Bach's virtuosic “Toccata in F Major”; the later sonatas by Mendelssohn (“Sonata VI”) and Merkel demonstrate how organ compositions developed in 19th century Germany .</p><separator></separator><p>Tickets for MainStage Organ concerts range in price from $7 to $18. Concerts take place in Organ Hall in the School of Music building on the Tempe campus.</p><separator></separator><p>To buy tickets, visit the Web site (<a href="http://mainstage.asu.edu/">http://mainstage.asu.edu</a>) or call (480) 965-6447.</p>