(Ji-ro’-la’mo Fres-ko-bal’-de) 1583–1643 Italian composer Frescobaldi was appointed organist at St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, in 1608, and he remained in the post for the rest of his life. The composer did take occasional leaves of absence, however. The longest of these was taken between 1628 and 1634, during which time Frescobaldi travelled to Florence, where he ...
(Yo’-han Kas’-pâr Far’-de-nant Fish’-er) 1656–1746 German composer Fischer, who was Hofkapellmeister at the court of Baden, contributed to the dissemination of Lully’s French orchestral style with his eight suites published as Le journal du printemps (‘Spring Diary’, 1685). These follow the seventeenth-century French practice of five-part string writing, with the addition of two trumpets. Fischer was an imaginative keyboard composer ...
Spanning nearly the entire seventeenth century, the Early Baroque era was a time of great change in music. In the Italian cities that led musical taste at the end of the Renaissance, a flowering of new genres of vocal music accompanied by instruments supplanted the unaccompanied Mass and motet. Among these, the opera and oratorio still exist in ...
Novelty, exuberance and contrast were among the many disparate features of Baroque art that helped to enrich its expressive content. The oft-declared aim of the Baroque composer to stir the emotions was entrusted to the performer, whose affective vocabulary was increasingly enlarged by developments taking place in singing techniques, with their emphasis on challenging ornaments and dazzling passagework ...
The Italian city of Cremona has been celebrated since the sixteenth century for the manufacture of stringed instruments. The first famous family of makers there was the Amati. Andrea Amati (c. 1505–80) founded a dynasty that included his sons Antonio (c. 1538–95) and Girolamo (1561–1630). But it is the latter’s son Nicolo (1596–1684) who is usually regarded as the most outstanding ...
At the start of the Romantic era, French and Italian opera were fighting it out for possession of the opera stage in Paris. However, in attempting to turn back the tide of Italian taste and vocal technique, which had ‘invaded’ the opera in France, the French were at a severe disadvantage. As one contemporary English guidebook to ...
The spinet is known by many names and has several definitions. Perhaps the most misleading is the American usage of the term to denote a small upright piano. The most confusing is the use of the word to describe a square piano, and a more ancient confusion arises from its use as a synonym for the virginals or, indeed ...
Premiered: 1707, Venice Libretto by Girolamo Frigimelica Roberti Act I King Farnace and Stratonica, Mitridate’s mother, have usurped the Pontus throne by killing Mitridate’s father. Mitridate, the true heir, has sought refuge in Egypt; his sister, Laodice, awaits his return and dreams of avenging her father’s death. Egypt and Pontus are set to form ...
The six intermedi composed to celebrate the marriage of Ferdinando de’ Medici of Florence and Christine of Lorraine in 1589 were the most spectacular and expensive ever seen. So lavish was the presentation that it completely dominated the play it accompanied – La pellegrina (‘The Pilgrim’) by Girolamo Bargagli. All the texts and music survive, together with the designs for ...
(Yo’-han Ya’-kop Fro’-bâr-ger) 1616–67 German composer Johann Jacob Froberger was the most important German harpsichord composer of the first half of the seventeenth century. In about 1637, he was appointed as imperial court organist at Vienna, and there he benefited from a sympathetic patron in Emperor Ferdinand III, who was himself a gifted musician. Soon after his appointment, Froberger ...
(Vin-chant’-zo Ga-le-la’-e) c. 1520–91 Italian theorist and musician The father of Galileo Galilei, Vincenzo, also had a scientific mind. His experience as a lutenist and composer formed the practical basis for a significant body of music theory. His later works, especially, are heavily influenced by contemporary humanist enquiry into the nature of ancient music and, in particular ...
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