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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