“New” toccatas by Giovanni Gabrieli in the Turin organ tablatures: issues of attribution

Almost all of Giovanni Gabrieli’s keyboard output has been transmitted in German sources, the most important of which are the German organ tablatures now held at the Turin National Library (I-Tn, Fondo Foà Giordano, Giordano 1-8, Foà 1–8). The lack of concordances and the way of transmission have led some scholars to consider many of these compositions as doubtful or even spurious works, as in the case of a group of toccatas in Giordano 2. This article examines the characteristics of the Turin tablatures and the way of transmission of Gabrieli’s toccatas, in order to propose a reconsideration of their exclusion. Due to the small number of free-style works whose attribution to Gabrieli is without question, the article proposes an analysis of the toccatas through the comparison with the larger corpus of Gabrieli’s works, both vocal and instrumental: indeed, some of the Turin toccatas reveal strong similarities with late compositions by Gabrieli. Through both a philological and an analytical approach, the article proposes adding the Turin toccatas to the corpus of Gabrieli’s authentic works.