Tiento y Discurso de medio registro de dos baxónes de octavo tono (No. 57 from "Facultad Organica")

The “Libro de tientos y discursos de musica practica, y theoretica de organo, intitulado Facultad Organica” (published 1626 in Alcalá de Henares) is the only surviving work by Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1584–1654) and is considered the most important collection of Iberian organ music from the first half of the 17th century.

Its composer seems to have been a self-confident, even combative person who was repeatedly involved in legal disputes: Even when he was appointed organist of the collegiate church of San Salvador in his native Seville at the age of 15, this immediately led to a legal dispute with his defeated competitor, which was not decided in Correas favour until five years later. When the composer was ordained a priest in 1608, another conflict arose because the cathedral chapter refused to reissue a lost document certifying his position as organist, which was necessary for his ordination – a dispute that was only resolved when the archbishop, called upon by Correa for help, threatened to excommunicate the entire cathedral chapter. Due to further harassment and quarrels, which even led to his brief imprisonment, the composer spent a long time unsuccessfully looking for other positions until he was appointed organist at the cathedral in Jaén in 1636. However, the poor condition of the instrument there and the disruption to church music caused by constant building work prompted him to move to the Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción y de San Frutos in Segovia just four years later, where he remained until his death.

The extensive preface by the Facultad Organica also reveals Correa de Arauxo to be a self-confident man, who criticises the imperfection of many contemporary organists, who only strive for external dexterity without penetrating the music spiritually. At the same time, he points out – quite rightly, in my opinion – the intellectuality and originality of his own compositional work, as can also be seen in the Tiento presented here.