Famous works for organ and Spanish Christmas music

Spanish organ music, which dates back no less than six centuries, is primordial and stands apart from other organ music in Europe with its musical genres, the timbre and register details of the instruments and the various technical elements. The most vivid feature of the Spanish organ lies in the effective and shrilly-sounding language registers (the so-called “Spanish trombones”), that come out from the instrument horizontally. Moreover, the Spanish organ is always richly decorated with carving, sculpture and painting. This unique sense of theatricality can also be seen in organ music, rich in contrasts and “special effects”: the “distancing” and “coming closer” of the sound imitating birdsong or drumbeats.
The start of the dawn of Spanish organ music is linked with Antonio de Cabezón (1510–1566) – the Court organist of King Philip II of Spain; the name of Juan Bautista José Cabanilles (1644–1712) could be added to maestri of the later period.
Following the general collapse of national Spanish culture in the 19^th century, staring in the early 20^th century certain national features were reborn. In recent years many Spanish composers have turned to traditional genres of Batalha, tiento and vocals, for example villancico – songs of rural birth and with varied themes and a well-developed musical and poetic structure.
Konstantin Greshnevikov