Girolamo Frescobaldi

Italian composer

• Born: September 1, 1583
• Birthplace: Ferrara, Papal States (now in Italy)
• Died: March 1, 1643
• Place of death: Rome, Papal States (now in Italy)

Frescobaldi was one of the most innovative and imaginative keyboard composers of the early Baroque period and a brilliant organ improviser. He is credited with having created an instrumental style that was the equivalent of the emotionally charged seconda pratica promoted by Claudio Monteverdi in his vocal madrigals.

Early Life

Information about Girolamo Frescobaldi (jee-RAW-lah-moh fray-skoh-BAHL-dee), especially his early years, is scarce, but his training and musical activities as a composer and performer can be learned from two major sources: the dedications the composer wrote for the numerous volumes of works published in his lifetime, which frequently included autobiographical references; and a collection of manuscripts, once in the possession of the Chigi family (major art patrons), appearing to be in his own hand. The manuscripts, which were uncovered in the 1990’s, include small-scale pieces and exercises composed by Frescobaldi and his contemporaries, and they probably were used in conjunction with his teaching of counterpoint, composition, and improvisation at the Cappella Giulia in Rome in the early decades of the seventeenth century.

Like Mozart before him, Frescobaldi was a child prodigy, equally gifted as a singer and a keyboard player. Much of his musical education, especially the portion having to do with achieving incredible dexterity in organ playing, was accomplished under the direct guidance of his father. Frescobaldi, though, considered that his mentor was the organist Luzzasco Luzzaschi, one of the best musicians at the ducal court of Ferrara. By the time he was fourteen years old, the young Girolamo was already succeeding the organist Ercole Pasquini at the Ferrarese Accademia (Ferrara Academy).

Before leaving the city in 1607, Frescobaldi was immersed in the rich cultural life of the Ferrarese court—something that served to both improve his playing and to forge personal relationships that were very useful in the furthering of his musical career. His patrons from Ferrara included Guido Bentivoglio (1579-1644) and Enzo Bentivoglio (1575-1639), the sons of singer Isabella Bendidio (1546-after 1610), who were intensely involved with music themselves; Enzo went on to become an important impresario of the seventeenth century. Furthermore, it was Guido Bentivoglio whom Frescobaldi followed to Rome, then to Brussels, in 1607.

Life’s Work

Frescobaldi distinguished himself as a composer of instrumental works, but his vocal and vocal-instrumental output are significant as well. His first published volume was a collection of nineteen five-part madrigals, Il primo libro de’ madrigali (1608; English translation of text, 1983), composed during the period he was in the service of Guido Bentivoglio. From 1608 to 1615, while living in Rome, Frescobaldi was appointed organist at the Cappella Giulia at Saint Peter’s Cathedral. In addition to his duties as an organist, he gave private keyboard lessons to members of the Roman aristocracy and higher clergy, was frequently called upon to perform in religious musical events, and, between 1608 and 1609, was hired to teach the singers associated with the household of his former patron Enzo Bentivoglio, now living in Rome.

A true perfectionist, Frescobaldi was constantly engaged in revising his works, thus many of his collections of instrumental music were published twice or even three times under his supervision. His style can generally be divided into three categories: The works written in the so-called stile antico are infused with the restraint and gravity found in the “old,” or “antiquated” style" of Renaissance vocal music. Il primo libro delle fantasie (1608; English summary of preface, 1995), contemporary with the book of madrigals, contains twelve four-part instrumental pieces representative of this style. Yet even in these early works, Frescobaldi’s unique approach began to shine through: As a novelty, he introduced several themes at the beginning of each piece, and then proceeded to develop them in a series of successive sections of increasing complexity.

In 1614 and 1615, Frescobaldi, perhaps unhappy with the terms of his employment with Enzo Bentivoglio, began a series of negotiations for a position with the ducal court of Mantua. The toccatas in Toccate e partite d’intavolatura di cimbalo (toccatas and partitas, or suites, for harpsichord; English summary of preface, 1977) were published during these negotiations, and the composer believed that dedicating this volume to Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga would be a wise move on his part.

With the toccatas Frescobaldi set the foundations of a keyboard style that was radically different from that of his contemporaries. These pieces represent a distinct second stylistic category, known in modern scholarship as the instrumental “equivalent of the seconda pratica” (the second practice, or style, a concept introduced by Claudio Monteverdi in his madrigals). The seconda pratica focuses on dramatically expressing the whole gamut of human emotions. Like their vocal counterpart found in the madrigals of Monteverdi, Carlo Gesualdo, and Luca Marenzio, Frescobaldi’s toccatas are full of musical color derived from abrupt changes in harmony, rhythm, and meter, with many passages looking like improvisations frozen on page. In reality, both the larger contrapuntal frame and the details of each piece were lucidly and thoroughly planned.

Frescobaldi fashioned several revised editions of the Toccate e partite, one of which, published 1615-1616, included a number of stylized correntes —settings of popular dance tunes that were at the height of fashion throughout the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. This was the inauguration of a different stylistic direction. The dance-tune settings in his interpretation—the so-called popular style—were unlike those of his predecessors or even contemporaries: Frescobaldi’s were elaborate, elegant, refined, and rather aristocratic.

The fantasias had set a precedent in terms of Frescobaldi’s preference for a specific formal design, and after his return to Rome, where he remained until 1628, he reprised this design in composing the capriccios in Il primo libro di capricci , first published early in the 1620’s (English preface, 1984. Still in Rome, and still playing on more than one occasion for a variety of churches, Frescobaldi continued to compose and began preparation for Il secondo libro di toccate, canzone, versi d’hinni, Magnificat, gagliarde, correnti et altre, partite d’intavolatura di cembalo et organo (1627; English preface, 1979), dedicated to Bishop Luigi Gallo. As the title implies, this publication included a generous mix of both harpsichord and organ pieces, both secular and sacred, and covered a rather large variety of genres and forms. Of these, the partite include sets on the chaconne and passacaglia, and modern scholarship has credited Frescobaldi with bringing these two forms together.

In November of 1628, Frescobaldi was appointed organist at the court of Ferdinand II de’ Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, to whom he dedicated his next published volume, Il primo libro delle canzoni, accomodate per sonare con ogni sorte de stromenti (the first book of canzonas adapted to be played on any type of instruments). The years 1629-1630 marked two important events in his career. First, he was appointed organist for the Baptistery in Florence, and second, he published two books of Arie musicali per cantarsi —a collection of vocal arias for several parts, with theorbo and harpsichord accompaniment (Two Sacred Songs for Voice and Piano , 1961). It was during his Florentine period that Frescobaldi began collaborating with Marco da Gagliano (1582-1642), a well-known early opera composer. Together they wrote the music for two major events: the celebration of the canonization, in 1629, of Andrea Corsini (1302-1373) and the consecration of the cathedral at Colle di Val d’Elsa.

Frescobaldi spent the last decade of his life (1634-1643) in Rome, under the protection and patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. He retook his post as an organist at the Cappella Giulia, played the harpsichord at the Oratorio del Crocifisso, and continued composing and publishing. The volume of Fiori musicali di diverse compositioni: Toccate, kyrie, canzoni, capricci e recercari (English preface and notes, 1997), a collection dedicated to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, was followed, in 1637, by several additions to the earlier published Toccatas.

He died on March 1, 1643, and was buried in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome.

Significance

Frescobaldi was a player of genius, as recognized by many of his contemporaries who spoke highly of his brilliant, astounding improvisations on the keyboard. Many of his numerous compositions were at the forefront of a new style of writing for the keyboard, a style that he pioneered and championed. His style was an expressive, dramatic, impassioned, and emotionally involved instrumental response to the novelties introduced by his contemporaries in the vocal music of the period.

Bibliography

Annibaldi, Claudio, and Laura Callegari Hill. “Musical Autographs of Frescobaldi and His Entourage in Roman Sources.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 43, no. 3 (1990): 393-425. An important large-scale study of some of the Chigi manuscripts and other manuscripts uncovered in Rome, including autograph works by Frescobaldi.

Arnold, Denis, et al., eds. The New Grove Italian Baroque Masters: Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Cavalli, Corelli, A. Scarlatti, Vivaldi, D. Scarlatti. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984. A revised version of biographical studies first published in the 1980 edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Includes facsimile reproductions, portraits, lists of works, and bibliography.

Hammond, Frederick. Girolamo Frescobaldi. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983. A detailed biographical study and in-depth analysis of Frescobaldi’s contribution to the development of Italian organ music.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Girolamo Frescobaldi: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland, 1988. An authoritative reference source for the life and works of Frescobaldi, especially notable for its inclusion of a large discography.

Schulenberg, D. “Some Problems of Text, Attribution, and Performance in Early Italian Baroque Keyboard Music.” Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 4 (1998). Available at http://www.sscm.harvard.edu/jscm/v4no1.html. Accessed September, 2004. Examines the problems of attribution in the assumed works of Frescobaldi and other composers of the period.

Silbiger, A. “From Madrigal to Toccata: Frescobaldi and the Seconda Prattica.” In Critica Musica: Essays in Honor of Paul Brainard, edited by J. Knowles. Amsterdam, 1996. Explores a range of work by Frescobaldi.