The organ was allowed to be played in the so-called
alternatim technique, i.e., in alternation with Gregorian chant, but not to be sounded simultaneously with singing.
Los generos mas utilizados por los polifonistas inmersos en el espiritu de la Contrarreforma fueron los ciclos de himnos, misas y las antifonas marianas, interpretados generalmente con la tradicional formula
alternatim. Tienen como principal protagonista a Juan Navarro ya que su produccion tuvo una amplia difusion gracias a las ediciones romanas de 1584 (esta a cargo de su sobrino Fernando Navarro Salazar) y al libro Psalmi, Hymni ac Magnificat totius anni de 1590, editado con la ayuda de su amigo personal, el soriano Francisco Soto de Langa (75).
The
alternatim performance of liturgical items at First Vespers, Matins, Lauds, Terce, the Mass, and Second Vespers, and maybe also Compline required on a principal feast day the performance of some one hundred separate organ versets.
Perigonium; infundibuliforme, fere cilindricum, extus puniceum, intus lutescens ore amplificato, limbo sex-dentato, dentibus tribus
alternatim minoribus, paulullum introflexis, omnibus obtusis brevissimis.
"Petrarca, i Padri e soprattutto la Bibbia."
Alternatim. Milano: Adelphi, 1996.
g., Tibi, Christe, splendor patris, / Vita, virtus cordium, / In conspectu tot sanctorum / Votis voce psallimus; /
Alternatim concinendo / Pangimus preconia.
(13.) Many Magnificat settings are
alternatim, providing polyphony for alternate verses (odd or even), and alternating with chant.
In addition to scoring the nine pieces, Sierra has added the
alternatim plainsong from Escorial sources, presenting it either in facsimile (in the case of the two Passions) or in transcription.
23 Given that the tenor, part of which also forms the tenor of 'Nove cantum melodie', is as yet unidentified, an
alternatim option involving chant is not really feasible here.
From the accounts of the feasts, we imagine bombastic occasions of baroque music: from eighteenth-century manuscripts by Mei one can argue an example of ritual and liturgical practice; from other items of the eighteenth century the practice of
alternatim was alive.