Girolamo Frescobaldi

Girolamo Frescobaldi, chalk drawing by Claude Mellan, 1619 or between 1624–1637.

Girolamo Frescobaldi (September 13, 1583 – March 1, 1643) was an Italian musician, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio Mayone, Giovanni Maria Trabaci, and Claudio Merulo. He served as organist of one of Rome's most important churches, St. Peter's Basilica, since late 1608, and, intermittently, until his death.

Frescobaldi's printed collections contain some of the most influential music of the 17th century. His work influenced Johann Jakob Froberger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, and countless other major composers. Pieces from his celebrated collection of liturgical organ music, Fiori musicali (1635), were used as models of strict counterpoint as late as the 19th century.

Life

Ferrara, Frescobaldi's birthplace, in 1600

The composer was born in Ferrara. His father Filippo was a man of property, possibly an organist, since both Girolamo and his half-brother Cesare became organists. (There is no evidence that the Frescobaldi of Ferrara were related to the homonymous Florentine noble house.) At the time, Ferrara enjoyed a rich musical life due to the efforts of Duke Alfonso II d'Este, a well-known patron of the arts. Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi, a madrigalist and organist in the Duke's employ. Although Luzzaschi's keyboard music is relatively unknown today, he was apparently a gifted composer and performer, one of the few who could perform and compose for Nicola Vicentino's arcicembalo. Contemporary accounts describe Frescobaldi as a child prodigy who was "brought through various principal cities of Italy"; he quickly gained prominence as a performer and patronage of important noblemen. Composers who visited Ferrara during the period included numerous important masters such as Claudio Monteverdi, John Dowland, Orlande de Lassus, Claudio Merulo, and, most importantly, Carlo Gesualdo.

By May 1607 Frescobaldi left Ferrara and was working at Basilica Santa Maria in Trastevere (a rione of Rome). He was also employed by Guido Bentivoglio, Archbishop of Rhodes, and accompanied him on a trip to Flanders (Bentivoglio was made nuncio to the court). It was Frescobaldi's only trip outside Italy; although the court at Brussels was musically among the most important in Europe at the time, there is no evidence of Peeter Cornet's or Peter Philips' influence on Frescobaldi. As follows from Frescobaldi's preface to his first publication, the 1608 volume of madrigals, on that trip the composer visited Antwerp, where local musicians were very impressed with his music and persuaded him to publish at least some of it. On 21 July 1608 Frescobaldi was elected to succeed Ercole Pasquini as organist of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The composer was still in Flanders, however, and did not return until 29 October (delaying his return by staying in Milan to publish another collection of music, the keyboard fantasie). He took up his duties on 31 October and held the position, albeit intermittently, until his death. He also joined Enzo Bentivoglio's musical establishment after the latter settled in Rome in 1608, but, after a scandal involving competition between Bentivoglio and the Medici family, left that position.

An 18th century painting of the interior of St. Peter's Basilica, where Frescobaldi worked until his death

In 1610–11 Frescobaldi entered the service of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini. In February 1613 he married Orsola Travaglini. The couple had five children: Francesco (an illegitimate child born June 1612), Maddalena (July 1613), Domenico (1614, poet and art collector), Stefano (1616/7), and Caterina (1619). For a brief time in 1615 the composer worked at the Mantua court, in the employ of Ferdinando I Gonzaga, but then returned to Rome again. He continued publishing his music: two editions of the first book of toccatas and a book of ricercars and canzonas appeared in 1615. In addition to his duties at the Basilica and the Aldobrandini establishment, Frescobaldi took pupils and occasionally worked at other churches. The 1620s saw publication of further collections of music, of which the most important was the second book of toccatas (1627).

Frescobaldi moved to Florence in late 1628 and became organist at the court of the Medicis, and in 1630 he also accepted the position of organist at the Florence baptistery. He stayed in the city until 1634; the period resulted in, among other things, the publication of two books of arias (1630). The composer returned to Rome in April 1634, gaining patronage of the powerful Barberini family, i.e. Pope Urban VIII Barberini. He continued working at St. Peter's, and was also employed by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who also employed the famous lutenist Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger. Frescobaldi published one of his most influential collections, Fiori musicali, in 1635, and also produced reprints of older collections in 1637. No other prints followed (although a collection of previously unpublished works appeared in 1645, and in 1664 Domenico Frescobaldi still possessed pieces by his father that were never published. Frescobaldi died on 1 March 1643 after an illness that lasted for 10 days. He was buried in Santi Apostoli, but the tomb disappeared during a rebuilding of the church in late 18th century. A grave bearing his name and honoring him as one of the fathers of Italian music exists in the church today.

Music

Facsimile of Aria detta la Frescobalda (1627), the earliest known set of variations on an original theme

See also: List of compositions by Girolamo Frescobaldi

Keyboard music occupies the most important position in Frescobaldi's extant oeuvre. He published six collections of it during his lifetime, several were reprinted under his supervision, and more pieces were either published posthumously or transmitted in manuscripts. Although Frescobaldi was influenced by numerous earlier composers such as the Neapolitans Ascanio Mayone and Giovanni Maria Trabaci and the Venetian Claudio Merulo, his music represents much more than a summary of its influences. Aside from his masterful treatment of traditional forms, Frescobaldi is important for his numerous innovations, particularly in the field of tempo: unlike his predecessors, he would include in his pieces sections in contrasting tempi, and some of his publications include a lengthy preface detailing tempo-related aspects of performance. In effect, he made a compromise between the ancient white mensural notation with a rigid tactus and the modern notion of tempo. Although this idea was not new (it was used by, for example, Giulio Caccini), Frescobaldi was among the first to popularize it in keyboard music. Frescobaldi also made substantial contributions to the art of variation, composing the earliest known keyboard chaconne and passacaglia, as well as the first set of variations on an original theme (all earlier examples are variations on folk or popular melodies). Works from the 1634 collection Fiori musicali were still used as models of strict counterpoint in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Aside from Fiori musicali, Frescobaldi's two books of toccatas and partitas (1615 and 1627) are his most important collections. Both books open with a set of twelve toccatas written in a flamboyant improvisatory style and alternating fast-note runs or passaggi with more intimate and meditative parts, called affetti, plus short bursts of contrapuntal imitation. Virtuosic techniques permeate the music and make some of the pieces challenging even for modern performers—Toccata IX from Secondo libro bears an inscription by the composer: "Non senza fatiga si giunge al fine", "Not without toil will you get to the end." Such short remarks appear also in works from Fiori musicali; one of these refers to a fifth voice that is to be sung by the performer at key moments during a ricercar, and the key moments are left to the performer to find. Frescobaldi's famous note for this piece is ""Intendami chi puo che m'intend' io"—"Understand me, [who can,] as long as I can understand myself". The concept is yet another illustration of Frescobaldi's innovative, bold approach to composition.

The composer's other works include collections of canzonas, fantasias, capriccios, and other keyboard genres, as well as four prints of vocal music (motets and arias; one book of motets is lost) and one of ensemble canzonas.

Frescobaldi's pupils included numerous Italian composers, but the most important was a German, Johann Jakob Froberger, who studied with him in 1637–41. Froberger's works were influenced not only by Frescobaldi but also by Michelangelo Rossi; he became one of the most influential composers of the 17th century, and, similarly to Frescobaldi, his works were still studied in the 18th century. Frescobaldi's work was known to, and influenced numerous major composers outside Italy, including Henry Purcell, Johann Pachelbel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Finally, Frescobaldi's toccatas and canzonas, with their sudden changes and contrasting sections, may have inspired the celebrated stylus fantasticus of the North German organ school.

Trivia

• A piece attributed to Frescobaldi, a Toccata for cello and keyboard, was actually written by Gaspar Cassadó.

Media

	Fiori Musicali: Toccata avanti la Messa della Domenica Performed on the Taylor and Boody organ at Marquand Chapel, Yale University Fiori Musicali: Kyrie della Domenica Performed on the Taylor and Boody organ at Marquand Chapel, Yale University Toccata 3 Performed by Sylvia Kind on a harpsichord of the type used by Wanda Landowska
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

References

• Domenico Morgante, Girolamo Frescobaldi, in "Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti" (DEUMM), Le Biografie, vol. III, Torino, UTET, 1986.
• Frederick Hammond: Girolamo Frescobaldi. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-674-35438-9
• FREDERICK HAMMOND (1–7, bibliography), ALEXANDERSILBIGER (8–15, work-list): 'Frescobaldi, Girolamo Alessandro, §1: Ferrara, Rome and Flanders, 1583–1608', Grove Music Online (Accessed December 4, 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.10219.1>

External links

• Free scores by Girolamo Frescobaldi in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Girolamo Frescobaldi in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Kunst der Fuge: Girolamo Frescobaldi - MIDI files
• Toccata (Full Orchestra) arr. by James Higgins
• Toccata (String Orchestra) arr. by James Higgins
• Free scores by Girolamo Frescobaldi in the International Music Score Library Project
• An aria of Frescobaldi sung by male soprano Radu Marian