G. P. da Palestrina: Ricercar del ottavo tuono

From “Ricercari sopra li tuoni a quattro“, Karl Gustav Fellerer (ed.), B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz, 1933, available at IMSLP. Electronic realization by José Oscar Marques (12/2022). These Ricercari belong to the works attributed to Palestrina of which no original print or autograph is known. Haberl included them in the 32nd. volume of Palestrina’s works, from a copy he found among the papers left by Giuseppe Baini. They are composed in strict motet form, the themes being developed individually by sections (A, B, C ...), and they cover the eight ecclesiastical modes or “tones“: I Dorian, II Hypodorian, III Phrygian, IV Hypophrygian, V Lydian, VI Hypolydian, VII Mixolydian, VIII Hypomixolydian. This is the eighth and last Ricercar, in the Hypomixolydian mode. Tempo and dynamics choices are mine. See all my Renaissance transcriptions at: