(It. : ‘to search out’).

Term originally used for a lute or keyboard piece of preludial character, later for an imitative piece similar in scope to the fantasia or the fugue. The title (the French equivalent is recherché;) implies a piece of a complex or esoteric nature.

The term first occurs in Spinacino's Intabulatura de lauto, libro primo (1507), for pieces designed to try out the tuning of an instrument. The style was transferred to the keyboard in M. A. Cavazzoni's Recerchari, motetti, canzoni (1523). Examples of the non-imitative ricercare for solo viol are found in the works of Ganassi and Ortiz, where the term bears a didactic connotation.

The origin of the imitative ricercare is uncertain. The ensemble ricercares in Musica nova (1540) are in an imitative motet style. But the type may have arisen not from vocal music but from the occasional use of imitation in preludial ricercares such as Cavazzoni's. The early imitative organ ricercare is represented by four examples in G. Cavazzoni's Intavolatura cioe recercari canzoni himni magnificati (1543). Many early collections, including Willaert's, have title-pages indicating their suitability for voice, organ or other instruments. The monothematic ricercare (akin to the early Fantasia) appears first in 1547 and was developed by A. Gabrieli, whose organ ricercares use contrapuntal devices that foreshadow the fugue. The highpoint was reached in the work of Frescobaldi, whose later examples (in Fiori musical), 1635) were among those designed to replace the liturgical offertory.

In Austria and Germany Frescobaldi's severe manner was continued in the ricercares of Froberger. Other German composers include Krieger and Pachelbel, but the form underwent no rejuvenation until Bach, who revived the term for two fugal pieces in the Musical Offering. Modern composers who have used the term have mostly implied by it a severe fugue with archaic mannerisms.