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The Baroque Organ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

W. L. Sumner
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Extract

How far can the adjective baroque be applied to organs? It is worth while beginning by asking this question because it is astonishing how often the word has been abused in this connection. Most etymologists believe that the word is derived from the Spanish for ‘a twisted pearl’. Authorities are not altogether agreed concerning the aesthetic values of its applications to architecture. It has been called ‘flamboyant gothic’, ‘grotesque’, ‘laterally distorted’, ‘the logical development of the vertical renaissance’, etc., according to the taste or prejudice of the critic. It eschews the wildest imaginative flights of the rococo. It is still substantial and controlled. It is easier to apply the word to architecture and painting, though there are parallel synaesthetic characteristics in music.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 81 , 1954 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1954

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References

Principal References

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