| Contents |
Part one. Frescobaldi's life. Ferrara -- Rome and Flanders, 1607-1608 -- Rome, 1608-1614 -- Mantua, 1614-1615 -- Rome, 1615-1628 -- Florence, 1628-1634 -- Rome, 1634-1643 -- Frescobaldi's instruments -- Part two. The music. The art of counterpoint: the Fantasie of 1608 and the Recercari et Canzoni of 1615 -- Songlike Affetti and diversity of Passi: the Toccate e Partite Libro Primo of 1614-1616 -- Various subjects and airs: the Capricci of 1624 -- A new manner: the Second Libro di Toccate of 1627 -- A variety of inventions: the Canzoni of 1628 and 1634 -- Last works: the Fiori Musicali of 1635 and Aggiunta to Toccate I of 1637 -- The performance Frescobaldi's keyboard music -- Appendix I. Other keyboard works attributed to Frescobaldi -- Appendix II. Vocal works. |
| Abstract |
He was a prodigious virtuoso - it is said that his first organ recital at St. Peter's in Rome attracted an audience of 30,000 - and he was unquestionably the most important Italian composer of keyboard music before Bach. Baroque in every sense of the word - flamboyant, elaborate, richly ornamented, sometimes bizarre - his music was tremendously influential on composers of his own day and on musicians of future generations. The author's vivid description of Girolamo Frescobaldi's career adds up to a picture of musical life in seventeenth-century Italy: the prevalence of wealthy patrons; the kinds of church music required for services in this period; the private musical entertainments common in palaces and villas; the instruments available to Frescobaldi in the churches and residences where he played and supervised performances. Hammond discusses antecedents and sources of Frescobaldi's style, the forms he used, his thematic devices and harmonic and contrapuntal techniques. A final chapter tackles performance questions. Here is the first full-length book on Girolamo Frescobaldi in English, and the most complete in any language. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-399), catalogue of works (pages 274-325), and index. |
| LCCN | 82011938 |
| ISBN | 0674354389 |
