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A historical performance of Frescobaldi’s Fiori Musicali
by Abraham Ross, Class of 2016
Faculty advisor – James David Christie, PhD
Holy Cross Summer Research Program in the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Abstract
Methods
Fiori Musicali of Italian baroque composer Girolamo Frescoabldi
represents one of the most important and exquisite works of its time.
Today, the means for performing such music as it might have been in 17th
century Italy is neither well known nor practiced. This project sought to
discern the methods for preparing this music in a historically accurate
fashion for a final performance of Messa della Madonna in its originally
intended liturgical context.
Research began with ten days of study in Italy under Francesco Cera,
renowned organist and expert in the repertoire. I gathered information
from lessons and practice on period instruments in the Rome and Latium
regions, visits to churches where Frescobaldi taught and played, and
archival work in the Biblioteca Catanese. Study continued in the U.S. with
examination of manuscripts and treatises and visits to historical model
instruments.
Much of the researched centered on discerning how to organize the
movements within a mass in today’s post-Vatican II church. I conducted a
search for the Gregorian chants of the mass that Frescobaldi would have
known in his time. With regard to the organ versets, it becomes clear that
many of these pieces would be played on a 16-foot registration or
all’ottava alta (the higher octave of the instrument), producing ample
contrast between the different pieces.
Research began with ten days of study in Rieti and Rome, IT. I visited
organs in Rome that Frescobaldi would have frequented and played often.
I practiced daily on the historic organ (above) and at Auditorium Varrone
in Rieti. Built in the early 18th century by Catarinozzi, this organ is a fine
example of Roman organ building during the Baroque period.
I visited three churches in Rome with organs built during Frescobaldi’s
time: Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Barbara dei Librai, and Chiesa
Nuova. Instruments such as this seventeenth-century organ by an
anonymous builder (at S. Barbara) embody the Italian style – simple
registrations on pure principals with direct, clean suspended action.
Arnold, Denis, et al. The New Apel, Willi. The History of Keyboard Music to
1700. Tr., rev. Hans Tischler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1972.
Grove Italian Baroque Masters. New York: Norton, 1980. 83-125.
Cera, Francesco. “Roman Organs and Frescobaldi’s Organ Music.” The British
Institute of Organ Studies Journal 28 (1976): 148-164.
Frescobaldi, Girolamo. Fiori Musicali. 1st ed. Venice: Alessandro Vincenti,
1635.
Graduale de tempore iuxta ritum sacrosanctæ romanæ ecclesiæ (1614). Ed.
Giacomo Baroffio, Manlio Sodi, and Giulio Cattin. Vatican City: Libreria
Editrice Vaticana, 2001.
Hammond, Frederick. Girolamo Frescobaldi: A Guide to Reserach. New York:
Garland Publishing Inc. 1988.
Leonardo, Giovanni di. I Fedri: Una dinastia per la musica. Giulianova:
Associazione Culturale «G. Braga» onlus, 2010. 33-53.
Performance Practice: Music after 1600. Ed. Howard Brown and Stanley
Sadie. New York: Norton, 1989.
Objectives
• Prepare a historically accurate performance of Messa della Madonna
Acknowledgements
• Discern Frescobaldi’s inspirations and motives in writing Fiori Musicali
• Accurate interpretation of the Ricercar con obligo di cantare senza
toccarla
Organo all’ottava bassa – Fillipo Testa, 1680
Literature Cited
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) was born in Ferrera, Italy and later
served as an organist, composer, and director of music in the north of Italy
and Rome. Appointed organist at the Basilica di San Pietro at the Vatican in
1608, Frescobaldi is lauded as the most important Italian organist and
composer for the instrument. One of his most significant works, Fiori
Musicali, comprises a set of three masses with toccatas, canzonas,
capriccios, and ricercars to be played at specific points throughout the
liturgy, as well as Kyrie versets to be sung in alternatim with a schola
gregoriana. Messa della Madonna, the third and final mass, features a
variety of improvisational, free toccatas and exquisite, structured four-part
writing that resembles that of late-renaissance motets. Fiori Musicali
quickly attained prominence among the repertoire of the period and
became an example for composers such as Purcell and Bach.
• Assemble a schola gregoiana to sing the chants for the mass which
Frescobaldi would have known
This research provided me with several means for preparing a historically
informed performance of Messa della Madonna. Registrations were
designed to emulate those of an Italian baroque instrument, using
principals 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, flutes at the octave, and mutations thereof. Many
pieces were played all’ottava alta – an octave higher on a 16-foot
registration – these pieces sound at regular pitch while the higher
mutations generate a more brilliant, rich sound. This is a technique Roman
baroque organbuilders used extensively, creating manuals that could be
played both all’ottava alta or bassa (see below) Chants were sung,
unaccompanied, by a schola gregoriana of eight male voices, with chants
taken directly from the 1614 edition of the Graduale de tempore.
Organo all’ottava alta – Catarinozzi, 1736
Background
• Prepare registrations which resemble those on Roman organs of
Frescobaldi’s time
Findings
The flute stops and often pedal 16’ featured wooden pipes, while the
principal stops of the ripieno were constructed of metal, mainly tin in
composition (images from Auditorium Varrone, Rieti).
I discerned the available editions of Fiori Musicali at the Biblioteca
Catanese in Rome. I discovered that chants for the Mass of the Madonna
are best taken from a 1614 edition of the Roman Graduale, which
Frescobaldi would have known and used.
Francesco Cera, Honorary Inspector of early organs for the Rome and
Lazio regions
Fondazione Varrone, Rieti, IT
Biblioteca Catanatese, Rome
Alan Karass and other members of the Fenwick Music Library staff