Fiori musicali

This article deals with Frescobaldi's composition collection, for further meanings see the disambiguation page .

Title page of the first edition, 1635.

Facsimile of the first piece of the Fiori musicali : Toccata avanti la Messa della Domenica (Toccata before Sunday mass) ( four-part score with soprano , alto , tenor and bass clef )

Fiori musicali ( Italian 'musical flowers' or' musical flowers'), with a more complete title: Fiori musicali di diverse compositioni, toccate, kyrie, canzoni, capricci, e recercari, in partitura ... ('musical flowers of different compositions: Toccaten , Kyrie - movements , canzones , capricci , ricercare , in score ... '), is a collection of compositions by the Italian composer Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643). The early baroque collection bears the opus number 12 and was first published in Venice in1635by Alessandro Vincenti. It isdedicated to Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1607–1671). At that time Frescobaldi was working on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome .

The collection contains forty-seven liturgical works for the organ , it includes three masses and two profane works. The works are based on the Cæremoniale episcoporum jussu Clementis VIII , the liturgical book of ceremonies of the bishops of Pope Clement VIII , which was published by the Holy See at the beginning of the 17th century .

The collection of three six-part articulated are under Organ measure - the three cycles: Sunday Mass , Apostles Mass and Marienmesse - cantus firmus -bound sets, works free style (Toccaten), strictly contrapuntal works (Ricercari and stanzas), sacred music and secular ( Dance) sets ( Bergamasca and Capriccio sopra la Girolmeta ) confronted with each other.

The pieces of the Fiori musicali are among the most demanding works by Frescobaldi. Outstanding individual pieces in the collection are, for example, in the first cycle the canzone dopo l'epistola (before the epistle), the Ricercar dopo il credo (before the Credo), the chromatic toccata during elevation ( Toccata cromatica per l'Elevatione ) and the canzone before communion ( Canzon post il Communione ).

Contents overview

respective part of the fair	Messa della Domenica (Sunday Mass) (Orbis factor)	Messa delli Apostoli (Apostles' Mass) (Cunctipotens Genitor Deus)	Messa della Madonna (Marian Mass) (Cum jubilo)
Avanti la Messa (before the fair)	Toccata	Toccata	Toccata
Kyrie , Christe	12 verses	8 verses	6 verses
dopo l'epistola ( Graduale , after the epistle )	Canzona	Canzona	Canzona
dopo il Credo (according to the Credo - Offertoire)	Ricercar	Toccata e Ricercar ( Recercar Chromaticho post il Credo ), Ricercar ( Altro recercar )	Ricercar, Toccata e Ricercar ( Recercar con obligo di cantare )
per l'Elevazione (during the elevation )	Toccata ( Toccata cromaticha per l'elevatione )	Toccata (per le levatione) , Ricercar ( Recercar con obligo del Basso come apare )	Toccata (per l'elevatione)
post il Communio (after communion )	Canzona	Canzona ( Canzon quarti toni )

Foreword by the composer

The text of the composer's foreword ( Al Lettore / To the Reader ) reads (with a free German translation):

Essendo stato semper desideroso (per quel talento che mi è da Dio conceduto) di giouare con le mie fatiche alli studiosi di detta professione, semper ho dimostrato al mondo con le mie Stampe d'intauolatura, & in partitura di ogni variety capricci e d ' inuentioni dar segno del mio dessideroso affetto, accio che ogniuno vedendo, e studiando le mie opre ne restasse contento, & approfittato. Con questo mio libro dirò solo che il mio principal fine è di giouare alli Organisti hauendo fatto tale compositione di tal stile di sonare, che potranno rispondere à messe & à Vespri, il che conoscendo esser à loro di molto profitto e Potranno anco seruirsi à suo beneplacito di detti Versi, nelle Canzoni finire nelle sue Cadenze così ne Ricercari, quando paressero troppo lunghi, stimo di molta importanza à sonatori, il praticare le partiture perché non solo stimo, à chi ha desiderio affatticarsi in tal compositione ma necessario Essendo che tal materia quasi paragone distingue e fa conoscere il vero oro delle virtuose attioni dal Ignoranti [.] altro non mi occorre solo che l'esperienza è del tutto maestra: proui, & esperimenti chi vol in questa arte auanzarsi la Verità di quanto ho detto [e] vedrà quanto esequirà di profitto. 1 Nelle Toccate quando si trouerà alcuni trilli ouero passi affettuosi sonarli adagio e nelle crome seguite nelle parti insieme fargli alquanto allegri e nelli trilli siano fatti più adagio con il lentar la batto a benché le toccate si sono ben gepo. 2 Li principi di tutte le Toccate ben che siano di crome potransi fare adagio, e poi secondo i loro passi farli allegri. 3 Nelli Kirie alcuni si potranno sonare con battuta allegra, & altri con lenta come parerà a giuditio di chi sonarà. 4 Anchora detti versi benché siano fatti per kirie potranno seruire alcuni come più piacerà per altri affetti. 5 Nelli Canti fermi benché siano legati per non impedire le mani si potranno sciorre più comodità hauendo usato tuta quella facilità che habbià saputo.

Since I have always been anxious (through the talent that God has bestowed on me) to be of use to other practitioners of the musical profession with my efforts, I always have the world with my printed tablatures and scores of all kinds of capricci and inventions my wistful inclination has shown that anyone who sees and studies my works is content with and derives benefit from them. The main purpose of the book is to help organists. I have written the various compositions in such a style that they are suitable for masses and vespers , which will be of great use to them. At your own discretion, you can also take on the verses mentioned . If you think the kanzonen or ricercari are too long, they can be ended in the (pauses or) cadences. I consider it very important that the organists can play from the score; not only for those who feel the need to struggle seriously with such compositions - but this matter necessarily serves as a clear demarcation for identifying the true virtuosos and distinguishing them from the ignorant - I don't need other things, just that the experience the The master of everything is: if you want to advance in this art, try it out and find out the truth of what I have said and you will see how much you will benefit from it. In the toccatas you play adagio where you find some trills or affettuoso passages , and in the following eighth notes they are played more or less allegro , and the trills are played more adagio , whereby the rhythm slows down at the same time; however, the toccatas must be performed to the player's liking and taste. The beginnings of all toccatas, even if they are notated in eighth notes, can be played adagio , and then allegro in the runs . In the Kyrie , some can be played in allegro and others in slow tempo, depending on the performer's taste. Even if the said versettes for the Kyrie are written, some other purposes can be used as one pleases. In the Canti fermi ( Gregorian themes ) the melodies must be played in bound form; In order not to get in the way of the hands, the ties can also be loosened for greater convenience. As for the rest, I've tried to make everything as easy as possible.

A painting of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome from 1636.

influence

The south German composer Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667) was one of Frescobaldi's students in Rome . Johann Sebastian Bach copied his Fiori musicali by hand (1714). Parts of the collection were included in the music-theoretical treatise Gradus ad parnassum (1725) by Johann Joseph Fux , which remained in use for a long time into the 19th century. The composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745) arranged parts of the Fiori musicali for orchestra .

Expenses (selection)

A better-known modern organ edition (in three systems , with registration and other musical design suggestions) is that of Joseph Bonnet (1884–1944) and Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) ( Grands maîtres anciens de l'orgue , v. 1. Edition nationale de musique classique , no.5313, Paris 1922). An edition by Fernando Germani (1906–1998) appeared in Rome in 1936 (Alberto de Santis, 1936). A modern facsimile edition was provided by Philippe Lescat (1955–2002), and an edition in modern keying (for violins, viola and cello) by Lucian Beschiu (born 1986). The Fiori musicali (1635) also appeared as Volume I of the Selected Organ Works in two volumes , ed. by Hermann Keller (Leipzig: Peters, 4514) and as volume 5 of the organ and piano works (complete edition based on the original text by Pierre Pidoux (1905–2001), Kassel-Basel 1949, Bärenreiter 2205).

Example in modern sentence in two systems

Beginning of the canzone before the epistle ( Canzona dopo l'epistola ) from the first cycle (notated on two staves in the treble and bass clef )

literature

• Viktor Lukas : Reclam's organ music guide (= RUB . 8880). 6th edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1992.
• August Gottfried Ritter : history of organ playing. First volume. Max Hesse, Leipzig 1884 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
• Willi Apel : The History of Keyboard Music to 1700. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1972, ISBN 0-253-21141-7 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

• Fiori musicali : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Last Works: The Fiori Musicali of 1635 and the Aggiunta to Toccate I of 1637
• Sound sample on YouTube

References and footnotes

1. ↑ Fiori Musicali Op. 12 in partitura a quattro - d. H. not in organ tablature , but consistently notated in four parts (and each in its own system).
2. ↑ In detail:
   Missa In Domincis infra annum (Orbis factor),
   Missa in Festis duplicibus I (Cunctipotens Genitor Deus),
   Missa in Festis B. Mariae Virginis I (Cum jubilo).
3. ↑ Chi questa Bergamasca sonarà, non pocho imparerà ("Whoever plays this Bergamasca will learn a lot") - sound sample with Simone Stella on the historical organ by Domenico di Lorenzo da Lucca (1521) in the Santissima Annunziata church in Florence .
4. ↑ Sound example with Paolo Bottini on the Nacchini organ (1750) in the Parochial Church of San Vitale in Muzzana del Turgnano (Udine).
5. ↑ On his toccatas , cf. Heribert Klein : Girolamo Frescobaldi's Toccatas. Mainz 1989.
6. ↑ imslp.nl  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Issue 1635); see. meantone.altervista.org (Editor: Jelena Radojev, rendering of the text) & imslp.nl  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Bonnet / Guilmant edition, Italian with French and English translation ) - cf. repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de (Lucian Beschiu) accessed on May 20, 2018    
7. ↑ See e.g. BS 20 and 29 of the edition by Joseph Bonnet and Alexandre Guilmant .
8. ↑ Nicholas Kenyon: The Faber Pocket Guide to Bach . London 2011, p. 112 ( limited preview in the Google book search; "which influenced Bach's own settings for the liturgy"). - On the composers "loved (en) and studied" by JS Bach, cf. Peter Williams: Frescobaldi's “Fiori musicali” and Bach . In: Recercare , Vol. 24, No. 1/2 (2012), pp. 93-105 ( JSTOR 24430182 ).
9. ↑ digitized version
10. ↑ digitized version (PDF)
11. ↑ Musikalienhandel accessed on May 20, 2018
12. ↑ For the editor Lucian Beschiu Frescobaldi is "not just an original genius, but a pioneering innovator with regard to the exploration of the manifoldness of the interval spectrum before Bach, with regard to the extreme independence of the voices in the contrapuntal network with increasing chromatic pressure [...]". ( repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de accessed on May 20, 2018)
13. ↑ Digitization  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) in two systems, without the text part