Background
Girolamo Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, Italy in Semtember 1583. He was the son of Filippo, who was a man of property, possibly an organist.
Girolamo Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, Italy in Semtember 1583. He was the son of Filippo, who was a man of property, possibly an organist.
Girolamo Frescobaldi studied with the court organist Luzzasco Luzzaschi, who introduced him to a number of illustrious native and foreign musicians and to many species of music. In 1604 he was organist and singer with the Congregation and Academy of S. Cecilia in Rome; in January and February 1607 he was organist of S. Maria in Trastevere.
Guido Bentivoglio went to Brussels as nunzio and Frescobaldi accompanied him.
This gave him an opportunity to become acquainted with many important musicians of the Low Countries, including some of the English exiles resident there. The year 1608 may be taken as the end of Frescobaldi's formative period; his first work, containing five-part madrigals, was published in Antwerp (such a work often signified the end of an informal apprenticeship).
His music also made its first appearance in an anthology, one that included works by such renowned masters as Luzzaschi, Claudio Merulo, and Giovanni Gabrieli.
Growth of His Reputation
Frescobaldi's reputation grew rapidly; his stipend, however, was small.
He frequently received permission to be absent from his post.
Undoubtedly he spent several periods in Venice, since many of his works were publishedthere.
Frescobaldi gained great fame as a composer, performer, and teacher. Much of his music was published more than once during his lifetime. J. S. Bach, one hundred years later, made a copy of his Fiori musicali, a rare tribute indeed, as music of such "ancient" vintage was seldom accorded any attention in Bach's time.
Frescobaldi's vocal music has, since his own time, been overshadowed by his keyboard works, which combine extraordinary compositional skill with imagination, mastery of form with originality. A new, daring treatment of dissonance strikes us as it did his first listeners. Marking his work, too, is his typical use of counterpoint, variation, and improvisation. An intricate counterpoint rules the fugal works called ricercar, canzona, and cappriccio; the variation principle is often applied to these forms as well, but it rules the dance and song-variation sets, which are less contrapuntal; in the works headed toccata improvisation reigns.
Like J. S. Bach at the end of the Baroque era, Frescobaldi did not create new forms; rather, he took many of those employed up to his time and transformed them in his new, highly chromatic style.
Girolamo Frescobaldi was married to Orsola Travaglini. The couple had five children.
