Frescobaldi, Girolamo
Frescobaldi, Girolamo
Frescobaldi, Girolamo, great Italian organist and composer; b. Ferrara (baptized), Sept. 9, 1583; d. Rome, March 1, 1643. He studied with Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara; by the age of 14, he was organist at the Accademia della Morte there. In 1604 he was elected to membership in the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In early 1607 he became organist of S. Maria in Trastevere; then, in June 1607, traveled to Brussels in the retinue of the Papal Nuncio. He publ. his first work, a collection of 5-part madrigals, in Antwerp in 1608, printed by Phalese. Returning to Rome in the same year, he was appointed organist at St. Peter’s on July 21 and assumed his duties on Oct. 31. He retained this all-important post until his death, with the exception of the years 1628 to 1634, when he was court organist in Florence. A significant indication of Frescobaldi’s importance among musicians of his time was that Froberger, who was court organist in Vienna, came to Rome especially to study with him (1637–41). Fresco baldi’s place in music history is very great; particularly as a keyboard composer, he exercised a decisive influence on the style of the early Baroque; he enl. the expressive resources of keyboard music so as to include daring chromatic progressions and acrid passing dissonances, “durezze” (literally, “harshnesses”); in Frescobaldi’s terminology “toccata di durezza” signified a work using dissonances; he used similar procedures in organ variations on chorale themes, “fiori musicali” (“musical flowers”). His ingenious employment of variations greatly influenced the entire development of Baroque music. O. Mischiati and L. Tagliavini ed. Frescobaldi’s complete works (Milan, 1974 et seq.)
Works
INSTRUMENTAL 3 canzonas a 4, 5, and 8 (1608); II primo libro delle [12] fantasie a 4 (Milan, 1608); (12) Toccate e [3] partite d’intavolatura di cembalo…libro primo (Rome, 1615; 2nd ed., rev. and aug., 1616; 3rd ed., c. 1617–26; 4th ed., 1628, as II primo libro d’intavolatura di toccate di cimbalo); (10) Ricercari, et [5] canzoni franzese fatte sopra diverse oblighi in partitura…libro primo (Rome, 1615); // primo libro di [12] capricci fatti sopra diversi soggetti et arie in partitura (Rome, 1624); // secondo libro di [11] toccate, [6] canzone, [4] versi d’hinni, [3] Magnificat, [5] gagliarde,[6] correnti et altre [4] partite d’intavolatura di cimbalo et organo (Rome, 1627); // primo libro delle [35] canzoni a 1 to 4, basso continuo, accomodate per sonare con ogni sorte de stromenti (Rome, 1628); In partitura, il primo libro delle [38] canzoni a 1 to 4, basso continuo per sonare con ogni sorte di stromenti, con 2 toccate in fine (Rome, 1628); (40) Canzoni da sonare, a 1 to 4, basso continuo,…libro primo (Venice, 1635); Fiori musicali, di diverse compositioni, toccate, kyrie, canzoni, capricci, e ricercari, in partitura a 4 (Venice, 1635); (12) Toccate d’intavolatura di cimbalo et organo, partite di diverse arie, e correnti, balletti, ciaconne, passacagli…libro primo (Rome, 1637); (11) Canzoni allafrancese in partitura…libro quarto a 4 (Venice, 1645). VOCAL : S a c r e d : Liber secundus diversarum modulationum for 1 to Voices (Rome, 1627); Missa sopra Varia della monica for 8 Voices and Basso Continuo (n.d.); Missa sopra I’aria di Fiorenza for 8 Voices and Basso Continuo (n.d.). S e c u lar: II primo libro de’ [19] madrigali for 5 Voices (Antwerp, 1608); Primo libro d’arie musicali per cantarsi for 1 to 3 Voices, Theorbo, and Harpsichord (Florence, 1630); Secondo libro d’arie musicale per cantarsi for 1 to 3 Voices, Theorbo, and Harpsichord (Florence, 1630).
Bibliography
N. Bennati, ed., Ferrara a G. F. (Ferrara, 1908); L. Ronga, G. F. (Turin, 1930); F. Morel, G. F., organista di S. Pietro di Roma (Winterthur, 1945); A. Machabey, G. F.: La Vie, I’oeuvre (Paris, 1952); F. Hammond, G. F. (Cambridge, Mass., 1983); C. Gallico, G. F.; L’affetto, I’ordito, le meta morfosi (Florence, 1986); A. Silbiger, ed., F. Studies (Durham, N.C., 1987); F. Hammond, G. F.: A Guide to Research (N.Y., 1988); H. Klein, Die Toccaten G. F.s (Mainz, 1989).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire