Tylman Susato – La Mourisque | 16th century organ

Tielman (Tylman) Susato was an esteemed composer of the Renaissance. In 1543, he founded the first music publishing house with movable type in the Low Countries, in Antwerp – his work allowed music to be printed outside the publishing centres of Italy, France and Germany. He was one of the first, for instance, to publish the music of Orlando de Lassus.

Susaso wrote a generous amount of church vocal music, stylistically typical of the time. More unusually for the sixteenth century, he also composed a prolific number of instrumental works, such as dance music. This work, “La Mourisque”, is one such example, and comes from his 1551 book “Danserye”.

Susato's instrumental works were written out on 4 staves, but did not specify the specific instruments. In his time, it may have been performed by a brass ensemble with percussion, or a consort of viols, or perhaps a large Renaissance ‘band’! Anyhow, I have tried to capture the vibrant spirit of the piece with this organ performance. It has been transcribed for organ by Maurizio Machella.

The sheet music can be found here:
https://www.free-scores.com/sheetmusi...

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