Biography of the Day: Girolamo Frescobaldi

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ITALIAN COMPOSER

WRITTEN BY: 

• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

LAST UPDATED: Feb 25, 2019 See Article History

Girolamo Frescobaldi, in full Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi, (born September 1583, Ferrara, Papal States—died March 1, 1643, Rome), Italian organist and one of the first great masters of organcomposition. He strongly influenced the German Baroque school through the work of his pupil J.J. Froberger. Frescobaldi began his public career as organist at the church of Sta. Maria in Trastevere in Rome, in 1607. He travelled to the Netherlands the same year and published his first work, a book of madrigals, in Antwerp. In 1608 he became organist at St. Peter’s in Rome, and, except for the period when he was court organist at Florence (1628–34), he remained at St. Peter’s until his death.

Frescobaldi’s fame rests on his instrumental works. Among these, keyboard compositions predominate, but the canzone for unspecified instruments with basso continuo are of outstanding historical significance in the development of pieces for small instrumental ensembles. They are of a transitional type that led to the fully developed trio sonata, which was the principal chamber music medium until it was displaced by the string quartet.

In 1608 Frescobaldi published 12 fantasias in open score that are notable for their variety and for contrapuntal mastery of the highest order. The textures are idiomatic in a way rarely found in earlier examples of the form. In 1626 he published, again in open score, a collection of 10 ricercari, 5 canzoni, and 11 capriccios. The composer’s preface contains valuable information about performance: “Should the player find it tedious to play a piece right through he may choose such sections as he pleases, provided only that he ends in the main key.… The opening passages should be played slowly so that what follows may appear more animated. The player should broaden the tempo at cadences.…”

Much of Frescobaldi’s keyboard music was intended for the harpsichord, as is made clear in the title of his Toccate d’intavolature di cimbalo e organo (1637). The volume includes also partitas on various melodies and pieces on ground basses. These show Frescobaldi’s free inventiveness in genuine keyboard textures and figuration. The preface of another collection, first published in 1627, again gives information of great value to the interpretation of Baroque instrumental music: “Play the opening of a toccata slowly and arpeggiando.… If one hand has a trill, while the other plays a passage, do not play note against note, but play the trill rapidly and the other expressively.” Such directions indicate the extent to which keyboard style had moved away from its origin in transcriptions of vocal or instrumental compositions. One of Frescobaldi’s remaining publications, the Fiori musicali of 1635, consists of organ music intended for liturgical use.

Frescobaldi’s style is characterized by a dramatic inventiveness and a bold use of chromaticism, but these qualities were carefully subordinated to a logical, effective construction within the piece. He was one of the first to develop the modern principle of monothematic writing, which replaced the rapid presentation of a number of themes typical of the early ricercar and canzone.

LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:

• fugue: History of the fugue
  …musicali (1635; “Musical Flowers”) of Girolamo Frescobaldi include imitative cantus firmus pieces (i.e., based on a preexisting melody), as well as such substantial fugues as the Recercar dopo il Credo (“Ricercare After the Credo”) and Canzon post il comune (“Canzona After the Communion”).…
• toccata
  In Rome, Girolamo Frescobaldi (d. 1643) composed toccatas that consisted of highly improvisatory sections loosely strung together, marked by sudden changes in harmonies and figuration. They were intended to be played with a free tempo and could be performed in their entirety or in one or more…
• Capriccio
  Capriccio, (Italian: “caprice”) lively, loosely structured musical composition that is often humorous in character. As early as the 16th century the term was occasionally applied to canzonas, fantasias, and ricercari (often modelled on vocal imitative polyphony). Baroque composers from Girolamo…
• Ricercare
  Ricercare, (Italian: “to seek out”) musical composition for instruments in which one or more themes are developed through melodic imitation; it was prominent in the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest ricercari, which were for the lute, appeared in late 15th-century manuscripts and in a…
• Toccata
  Toccata, musical form for keyboard instruments, written in a free style that is characterized by full chords, rapid runs, high harmonies, and other virtuoso elements designed to show off the performer’s “touch.” The earliest use of the term (about 1536) was associated with solo lute music of an…

MORE ABOUT Girolamo Frescobaldi

2 REFERENCES FOUND IN BRITANNICA ARTICLES

Assorted References

• development of toccata
  • In toccata
• literature of fugue
  • In fugue: History of the fugue

 

Girolamo Frescobaldi I Fiori Musicali 1635