CYPESS - Frescobaldi's Toccate e Partite As A Pedagogical Text

Frescobaldi's Toccate e partite... libro primo (1615–1616) as a pedagogical text.
Artisanship, imagination, and the process of learning

Author(s): Rebecca Cypess
Source: Recercare , 2015, Vol. 27, No. 1/2 (2015), pp. 103-138
Published by: Fondazione Italiana per la Musica Antica (FIMA)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26381196
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Rebecca Cypess
Frescobaldi's Toccate epartite ... libroprimo (1615-1616)

as a pedagogical text.
The early seventeenth century saw the rise of a large and innovative
repertoire of music for instruments. Although composers of the period
had some precedents in adopting an idiomatic approach to instrumental
composition — for example, in the viola bastarda literature — the 1610s and
'20s saw, for the first time, the emergence of genres and styles that took an
idiomatic approach to a wide array of instruments. At the keyboard, one of
the pioneering composers in this respect was Girolamo Frescobaldi, whose
Toccate e partite ... libro primo was groundbreaking in its approach to the
new style and the new instrumental idiom.
As a revolutionary publication, the Toccate e partite had a heavy burden
to bear. How could the composer record his toccata style, which was meant
to capture an improvisatory sound, on paper? How could ne instill tne
idiomatic technique necessary for the execution of such works within t
fingers of the players? How could he, together with other composers of t
early Seicento, legitimize the composition of fully notated variation set
when variation techniques had previously been unnotated?
These questions are compounded by consideration of the curious ear
publication history of the Toccate e partite. With a dedication signed
1614, the volume saw two engravings in quick succession: first in 1615, an
then again, in a revised version, in 1616. The text of Frescobaldi's dedicat
to Don Ferdinando Gonzaga, who had initiated Frescobaldi's abor
employment in Mantua and who had agreed to underwrite the cost of t
I wish to thank Arnaldo Morelli and the anonymous reviewers for Recercare, whose comme
helped me to improve this essay in preparation for publication. I am grateful, too, for the construc
discussion following my presentation of a version of this paper at Bar Ilan University in January, 201
Recercare xxvii/1-2 2015

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io4 Rebecca Cypess
publication, remai
édition. The music
minor changes. Th
in altering the 161
the heavily revised
the variations on
undertaken this se
in such quick succ
' I hue for tlioro le n a rlaor nnciuor miocti Ane TTATATOìror Krr nel/itirr
them we may come to new insights about Frescobaldi

aesthetic effects of the revisions, and indeed the rôle an
volume as a whole. I argue that new light may be shed u
project through considération of this volume as a pedago
stile moderno. Building on the model of overtly pedagog
as Girolamo Diruta's II Transilvano, Frescobaldi's toccat
présent elaborations of standard chord progressions, p
versions of such elaborations as a script for other player
master the rhetorical, expressive style of figuration cha
early Seicento. Such mastery requires not only an intellec
of this musical vocabulary, but also virtuosity at the k
through repeated practice of the bodily movements of t
instrument.2 In their médiation between the musical im
1. The first printing is Girolamo frescobaldi, Toccate e partite d'in

nuovamente da lui date in luce, & con ogni diligenza corrette, libro primo
1615; it bears a dedication date of December 1614 and a title page marked 161
sartori, Bibliografia della musica strumentale italiana stampata in Italia
Olschki, 1952, is item 1615a. The second printing is frescobaldi, Toccate
di cimablo, nuovamente da lui date in luce e con ogni diligenza corrette, lib
Borboni, 1616; this édition is no. i6i5-i6i6b in sartori, Bibliografia; the dedica
date, and although the title page bears the date 1615, the bottoni of the page wit
name of the printer with the later date of 1616, "Christophorus Blancus sculp
the volume must have been issued in that year. Subséquent versions appear
i6i6f), 1628 (Sartori 1628k), and 1637 (Sartori 1637!). This last has been issu
(Florence, spes, 1980). On the publication history see Etienne darbellay, "Libe
cantabili' chez Girolamo Frescobaldi", Revue de musicologie, LX1/2,1975, pp
Le toccate e i capricci di Girolamo Frescobaldi. Genesi delle edizioni e appar
Zerboni, 1988 (supplément to vols. 4, 5, and 8 of Opere complete di Girolamo
pertaining to the préparation and publication of the first édition are in A
documenti frescobaldiani. I contratti per l'edizione del primo libro di T
xvii/2, 1988, pp. 255-265. On Frescobaldi's aborted move to Mantua, se
alla Mantovana'. Frescobaldi and the recruitment of musicians for Mantua
studies, ed. Alexander Silbiger, Durham, nc, Duke University Press, 1987, pp
2. The importance of physical aspects of performance in the early seventeen
with respect to singing — have been explored at length in the past. Importan

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Artisanship, imagination, and the process of learning 105
physical motions of the player's body, the toccatas in t

the rising importance of artisanal knowledge alongside t
the early seventeenth Century.
The variation sets speak to another kind of learning,
early seventeenth Century. In these works — and in variat
which proliferated widely in notation for the first time d
composers provided models for the engagement and re
single idea, a single musical "object" — from multiple persp
that th prp mi er Vit Kp m 1 ìltinlp nf cmnrnarhinrr a cinrrlp nVpnnmpnnn
whether in nature or in art, was a key concept for philosophers,

and amateur academicians of the early seventeenth Century. The
that Frescobaldi made to his Romanesca variations between the first and
second printings of this volume provide a focal point for considération of
such malleability of perspective, in the composer's affective and physical
responses to a standard harmonie formula. In particular, the changes that
he introduced to both the character of individuai variations and the overall
structure of the Romanesca set point to an increasing concern with the
application of the toccata style within the context of musical variations; the
revised Romanesca variations incorporate aspects of the toccata style that
had only been implied in the original set. The aesthetic underpinnings of
the musical genre of the variation set overlap in suggestive ways with other
sensory and intellectual processes: procédures of variation were central
to both the acquisition and the sharing of knowledge. In its cultivation of
the performer's artisanal skill and creative musical imagination, and in its
enaetment of the nrocess of learnine within the variation sets. Fresrnhalrli's
Toccate e partite served as a pedagogical tool — the volume was itself an

instrument for the learning of the stile moderno.
The idea of the Toccate e partite as a pedagogical text that develops
personal musical imagination resonates with the culture of "instrumentality
that, as I have shown elsewhere, emerged in early seventeenth-century Italy.3
Theorists of earlier periods had generally seen instruments as tools for the
are collected in julianne baird, "The bel canto singing style", in A performer's guide to seventeenth
century music, ed. Stewart Carter, revised and expanded by Jeffery Kite-Powell, Bloomington
Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2012, pp. 31-43. See also rebecca cypess, '"Esprimere
voce humana'. Connections between vocal and instrumentai music by Italian composers of the early
seventeenth Century", Journal of musicology, xxvii/ 2, 2010, pp. 181-223:195-97.
3. See rebecca cypess, Curious and modem inventions. Instrumental music as discovery in
Galileo's Italy, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2016; jean-françois gauvin, "Instruments
knowledge", in The Oxford handbook of philosophy in early modem Europe, ed. Desmond M. Clarke
and Catherine Wilson, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 315-337:331-33; and Antoni malet

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io6 Rebecca Cypess
répétition of a pr
known. By contr
seventeenth Cent
and barometers t
of discovery and
I argue that this
in the musical i
instruments. Th
stile moderno wa
in notation with
time. The unusua
the Romanesca v
the interplay am
between compose
process of learnin
Artisanal knowl
Diruta's II Transilvano
When Frescobaldi addressed the dedication of his Toccate e partite ... libro
primo to Ferdinando Gonzaga, he stressed the essential link between the
contents of the volume and his intimate knowledge of his instrument
"Having composed my first book of musical compositions upon the key
[sopra i tasti], I dedicate it devotedly to you, who in Rome deigned with
fréquent commands to excite me to the practice of these works, and to
show that this style of mine was not unacceptable".4 Sopra i tasti: the phrase
connotes invention, improvisation, and composition at the instrument
bringing to mind not only the intellectual ingenuity of the player, but also
the physicality of performance. Through this phrase, Frescobaldi seems to
signal — to boast, perhaps — that this is not music suitableper ogni sorte di
stromenti. Its exécution dépends upon the geography and topography of the
keyboard, upon the player's muscle memory and physical virtuosity — or,
to borrow Vincenzo Galilei's term, his disposinone di mano, his disposition
"Early conceptualizations of the telescope as an optical instrument", Early science and medicine, x/2,
2005, PP- 237-262.
4. "Onde havend'io composto il mio primo libro di fatiche musicali sopra i tasti, devotamente lo
dedico all'A.V. che in Roma si degnò con freque[n]ti comandi eccitarmi alla prattica di quest'opere,
et mostrar che le fusse non poco accetto questo mio stile", frescobaldi, Toccate e partite, 1615 and
1616. Emphasis added.

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or habitus — at the instrument.5 In codifying Fr

disposinone and presenting it as a model for émulati
a function similar to a treatise that teaches the art o
purpose is not only artistic, but also pedagogical. Fro
could extrapolate broader implications for the stile m
Frescobaldi's Toccate e partite ... libro primo was not
virtuosity on display before a patron of high standi
highlighting the rôle of artisanal practice in the pur
However, volumes that undertook such purpo
generation generally projected an overtly pedagog
include instrumentai tutors by Silvestro Ganassi,
Rognoni, and Girolamo dalla Casa, whose treatises on
a wide range of ornamentai patterns for practice an
performance. Within the Italian keyboard tradition,
tutors and pedagogical volumes was quite short, with
Diruta and Adriano Banchieri forming the most signi
to the publication of Frescobaldi's Toccate e partite.
pedagogical nature of Frescobaldi's compositions into
Diruta's dialogic treatise II Transilvano, which appeare
and 1609, respectively, serves as an instructive mode
preface does not map precisely onto the lengthy v
dialogue, but it is precisely this contrast that helps t
artisanal knowledge as a valid mode of learning in Fre
the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries sa
artisanal skill and practical experience as a legitimate
In casting his work as a dialogue, Diruta was elevatin
manuals of such contemporaries as Dalla Casa, Rogno
sixteenth Century.7 The dialogue, indeed, was associat
5. Vincenzo Galilei, Dialogo della musica antica, e della moderna, Fl

1581, p. 139.
6. Studies of artisanship in the pursuit of knowledge in the early
h. Smith, The body of the artisan. Art and experience in the Scientific R
of Chicago Press, 2004; ead., "Art, science, and visual culture in early m
2006, pp. 83-100; hörst Bredekamp, Galilei der Künstler. Der Mond.
Akademie Verlag, 2007; id., "Gazing hands and blind spots. Galileo
context, ed. Jürgen Renn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 200
7. On these division manuals and the ornamentation practices that th
Howard mayer Brown, Embellishing sixteenth-century music, Londo
1976; imogene horsley, "The sixteenth-century variation and ba
disciplina, xiv, i960, pp. 159-165; and john bass, "Rhetoric and musica
in sixteenth-century improvisation", Ph.D. diss., Memphis State Univer

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io8 Rebecca Cypess
its revival of the

encompass mund
often engaged w
between ancient
Vincenzo Galilei k
musica antica, e
Il Fronimo. This
Galilei's dedicatio
humanistic proj
represented a "
"practically orien
those of Bassano
the dialogue, the
to join him at hi
[sensibilmente] ali
In some respects
covering such
addressing thes
example of his t
in the humanisti
Transilvano diver
in the first portio
technique at the
instrument throu
the relationship betw

'"La sventurata musica
e Seicento", Recercare,
8. CRiSTLE Collins JU
about music in the Re
2008, pp. 41-74: 44 and
Stefano lorenzetti, M
immaginario, Florence,
9. Edward John SOEH
and transcription of II
1975, voi. 1, p. 7.
10. "Potrò sensibilm
Dialogo sopra il vero mo
ffcas. with an introduc
SOEHNLEIN, "Diruta on

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practice. Indeed, he demonstrated the need for the c

habitus by retelling his own history:11
Through personal experience I can give you the most accurate

bad training which, through long usage, became so habituai th
audience was quite often compelled to laugh rather than enjoy
But having realized my error, I resolved to do something abou
In search of différent towns, I finally came to this most illu
In the very famous temple of St. Mark, I heard a duel between
answering each other with such invention and gracefulness th
away. Desirous of meeting these two great champions, I halt
I saw Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli appear, both organ
devoted myself to them and emulated them, especially Signo
knowledge and my studious efforts, I abandoned my bad hab
ones. The principal motive that induced me to undertake thi
desirous of such accomplishment from running the risk of er
many others fell.
It is significant that the examples that Diruta p

player synthesize and assimilate his technical method
were toccatas. By Diruta's lifetime, the genre of the
associated with the art of diminution. Murray C. Br
that the Venetian keyboard toccata of the sixteenth
the practice of falsobordone, in which singers — and
imitators — would improvise diminutions for one vo
homophonic, recitational texture.12 Diruta's method,
development of technical skill as a means to achieve th
of the diminutions found in such works. His discussion of diminution
11. "Io per esperienza ne rendo fidelissima testimonianza, poiché essendomi stati dati cattivi
principi), & in quelli per lungo uso fattovi l'habito, in guisa sì che, mentre sonavo, chi mi vedeva &
udiva, invece di diletto, che prender ne dovevano, erano forzati ben spesso a ridere; ma che, avedutomi
dell'errore nel quale mi giacevo, mi risolvei d'uscirne, & cercando diversi paesi, finalmente venni in
questa illustrissima città di Venetia, & sentendo nel famosissimo tempio di San Marco un duello di
due organi rispondersi con tanto artifitio e leggiadria, che quasi uscij fuor di me stesso, & bramoso
di conoscere quei due gran campioni, mi fermai alla porta, dove viddi comparir Claudio Merulo &
Andrea Gabrielli, ambedua organisti di San Marco, a' quali, dedicato me stesso, mi diedi a seguitarli;
& in particolare il signor Claudio, là dove egli con il sapere, & io con lo studio, lasciai l'uso cattivo,
apprendendo il buono; & questa è stata la principal cagione, che m'ha indotto a far questa fattica,
acciò non incorrano li desiderosi di tal virtù negli errori, in cui io con molti altri cadei". diruta, Il
Transigano, I, f. 3ór; trans, in soehnlein, "Diruta on the art of keyboard playing", vol. i, pp. 208-209.
12. Murray c. bradshaw, "The influence of vocal music on the Venetian toccata", Musica
disciplina, xlii, 1988, pp. 157-98. Margaret Murata has proposed that this influence from falsobordone
persisted in the Frescobaldi's toccatas; see Christine jeanneret - Margaret murata, "A display
of genius", in Girolamo Frescobaldi: toccatas & partitas, Asnières-sur-Oise, Fondation Royaumont,
2012, pp. 35-48: 45, limited-édition book with two cds, Fabio Bonizzoni, harpsichord and organ.

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no Rebecca Cypess
occupies the cli

bears the headi
the culmination
proper techniqu
and placement
implies that wi
player will no
following sectio
n /a * -1 4" 4- /~v rrt t tt r/\ * t 4-h /-,n 4- r, 1 /v * . T« 4-T* .^^ .-Y Y T --V 4h hty • U■ .
Wl/uwi IV ^1» V ^ VU U1VJV, IWVUIUO UiVil^ »YlUi 1J1U11 j V invi O VJ J V U1 IV UO UUU1UIO
so that you can demonstrate all I have said to be true".13 Of the t

complete toccatas that he provided as examples of diminution in c
four were his own works, while the others were by the keyboardis
he most admired, including his masters Andrea Gabrieli and C
Merulo. These composers used the art of diminution as distilled in
verbal descriptions as a means of elaborating upon the standard ha
foundations of the toccatas.
Although Diruta placed primary emphasis on experience, pract
the development of technical skill at the instrument, this emph
not entirely matched by his approach to repertoire. As he explaine
keyboardist should apply the technique explained in II Transilv
only to music designed for the keyboard, but also to compositions f
instruments:14
My method would never justify the business of rule-giving if it did not enable one
to play whatever work one desired. In fact, 1*11 teli you something else. Works written
for other instruments, for example, those composed by Girolamo da Udine (Director
of Music for the Very Illustrious Signory of Venice) and by Giovanni Bassano (a
most noble virtuoso), would never sound well at the organ if one did not observe my
method. In those works, intended for cornetts and violins, you'll hear every variety
of diminution, and in those with vocal passage work, the most difficult diminutions
of ali.
13- "Che son per darvi con molte altre toccate di diversi, a ciò fate prova di tutto quelche ho
detto esser vero", diruta, Il Transilvano, i, f. 8r; trans, in soehnlein, "Diruta on the art ofkeyboard
playing", vol. i, p. 149.
14. "Questa mia regola sortirebbe nome di regola generale, se con essa non si potesse sonare
l'opere di qual si voglia, anzi vi dirò di più, che anco quelle, che son fatte per altri istrumenti; come
l'opere, & regole composte da misier Girolamo da Udine, maestro di concerti della Illustrissima
Signoria di Venetia. Et anco quelle del virtuosissimo, & gentilissimo misser Giovanni Bassano, nelle
quali opere vedrete ogni sorte di diminutioni, & per cornetti, & per violini, & anco passaggi per
cantare, le quali diminutioni sono difficilissime, nè verrebbeno mai ben fatte nel organo, se non si
osservasse questa regola", diruta, Il Transilvano, 1, f. 5r; trans, in soehnlein, "Diruta on the art of
keyboard playing", voi. 1, p. 126.

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In suggesting, in this passage, that music with diminutions originally

written for other instruments or voices may be performed as well by a
keyboardist with the proper technique, Diruta claimed for his instrumen
the capacity to imitate and project the spirit of these other instruments
Conversely, his statement prompts considération of the extent to which th
toccatas included in his volume are indeed idiomatic to the keyboard. The
thirteen toccatas that he provided as models of keyboard diminution may
with the exception of only a few passages, be transcribed with little difficulty
for a consort of melodie instruments. As in the falsobordone tradition, onl
one of the four or five voices in the texture of the keyboard toccatas perform
diminutions at any given moment, while the other voices hold long note
that provide harmonie support and melodie continuity (Ex. 1). The affectiv
power of the toccatas in II Transilvano lies in the overwhelming sound of th
diminutions as tney are passeû trom one voice to anotner witmn tne muiti
voice texture — but not necessarily in its approach to the instrument.
The flexibility of instrumentation in Diruta's method figures, too, in his
discussion of keyboard intabulation, which appears in the second part of
the treatise. By learning the art of intabulation, Diruta explained, the player
could adapt an ensemble canzona or other work in open score, creating
diminutions for the keyboard on one voice at a time. Indeed, Diruta
provided multiple possibilities of diminutions for each of his examples of
intabulation — Figure 1 shows possible methods of diminution for a single
open-score chord progression, the first two for the soprano line and the
next for the bass line — highlighting the relationship between intabulation
and improvisation. The resulting texture is essentially the same as that of
the keyboard toccatas. Through this process of élaboration, any open-score
repertoire could become suitable for performance at the keyboard; ensemble
rc\n7T»nc\c rmilrl hp tronelcitprl intr* tVip 1 anrrnarrp thp VpvrKrvorA tnrrotci
Even discussions of more theoretical topics in Diruta's treatise are justifie

through practical necessity. The author set up his discussion of counterpoin
at the end his treatment of intabulation: having first demonstrated the
process of intabulation through practical examples, Diruta's interlocut
suspends the conversation by noting that, "Figured intabulation certainl
seems impossible without the knowledge and practice of counterpoin
All those who maintain otherwise are making a very great mistake ... I'll
bid you good evening because the hour is late. When you care to begin th

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Rebecca Cypess
ié"
i" "» =
= -0—
-e— —e—
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Ex. î. Andrea Gabrieli, Toccata included in Girolamo Diruta's II Transilvano, mm. 8-13
method of counterpoint, I shall come to see you'V5 Thus in Diruta's method,

practical musical results serve as the impetus for the acquisition of theoretical
knowledge.
15. "Cerio che mi par cosa impossibile l'intavolar diminuito senza la cognitione, & pratica
del contrapunto, & si ritrovano in grandissimo errore tutti quelli, che tengono il contrario [...] &
perché l'hora è tarda, la lasciarò con la buona sera. E quando li piacerà di dar principio alla regola
del contrapunto, verrò a trovarla", diruta, Seconda parte del Transilvano, Venice, Vincenti, 1612,
1, f. 2ov; trans, in soehnlein, "Diruta on the art of keyboard playing", voi. 1, pp. 268-69. On the
application of Diruta's technical approach to the création of counterpoint, see Massimiliano guido,
"Counterpoint in the fingers. A practical approach to Girolamo Diruta's Breve e facile regola di
contrappunto", Philomusica on-line, xi/2, 2012, http://riviste.paviauniversitypress.it/index.php/phi/
article/view/1452 (accessed 30 January 2016).

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ii4 Rebecca Cypess
Sopra i tasti: arti
Diruta advocated
of keyboard pedag
of counterpoint "
arguingthat the k
Through these St
theoretical learnin
built upon this r
components of in
the early Seicento
catalyst for inven
his toccatas sopra i
Frescobaldi disting
primarily throug
other theoretical
the act of playing
— and we may ass
and his masters17
have started from
In what ways did
toccata style? Som
in formulaic orna
almost obsessively
a whole. One such
collection: a simpl
that generally app
given sonority —
by two thirty-seco
again, repeatedly,
One has the sense
so offen, that the
takes over, becom
composition. This
16. diruta, Seconda par

17. On the persistence
instruments", in A perf

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a composer, but as a player, and it is transferred through repeated

the player who is reading and practicing from Frescobaldi's tex
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Ex. 2 Frescobaldi, Toc at set ima from Toc ate parti e. libroprimo, m . 29-31
It was perhaps this ap roach to rnamental figuration — if not he style

of the Ornaments — that Lod vico Zac oni had in mind when he wrote,18
The art of the gorgia does not so much consi t in variation or in the diversity of
the pas ag i as it does in a just and measured quanti y of igures, the great spe d of
which does not permit one to perceive whether that which one hears has already
be n said and is being rep ated. On the contra y, a smal number of igures can be
reused many times in the man er of a circle or a crown, because the listen r hears
with great delight he swe t and rapid movement of the voice and oes not perceive
the multiple rép ti ons through the very swe tnes and rapidty of the movements.
It is ncompar bly bet er to do ne thing often and wel (especialy in doing flowery
Ornaments and pas ag i) than, doing many things, to do them po rly in many ways.
i8. "La gorgia no tanto consi te nela variatione o nela diversità de pas ag i, quanto che in
una giusta, & terminate quanti à di figure; per ispet o che la gran velocità che s a ricerca, no lascia
discerner se ciò che ina zi è sta o det o, se si rep lica, o si ritorna dire. Anzi che una poca quanti à
di figure si può per mod di crculo di cor na più volte ridre, & rep licare: perché chi scolta &
ode, per udire & scoltare sente tanto gran dilet o di quel soave, t veloce mot dela voce; che per la
dolcez a, & velocità sua, di quel poc senza es er inter ot o più volte rep licato no se n'ac orge: &
poi è meglio senza par gone che uno fac ia una cosa spes o & ben (mas imamente nel at ioni de'
fioret i & pas ag i) che facendone diverse, farle diversamente male". Lod vico zac oni, Prat ica di
musica, Venice, Girolamo Pol , 1592,1 prima parte, h. 6 . Translation ad pted from bruce dickey,
"Ornamenta ion in early sev nte nth-century Itali n music", in A performer's guide to sev nte nth
century music, p. 30 .

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
ii6 Rebecca Cypess
If the notes and

and perfected th
degree of accur
artisanal approa
through the mus
now well known
so fundamental
préfacés failed t
toccatas; precise
Instead, the préf
to experiment th
of the composer
Descriptions of
appear in the fir
he done adagio,
to pause on the
or a step, even if
cadences should
to be executed, h
each note shoul
for Frescobaldi t
words. However,
player the means
was admittedly c
preface that pra
parli nf thp rnmnncitinnc in tV»p vninmp — wmilH rpntipr Viie wnrVc "pcieipr
than they appear".21

Yet this assurance, as is now well known, was insufficient, for in the
preface Frescobaldi attempted to clarify further the style of performan
could only be sketched in words and implied through notation. Fo
among the points that he clarified was the relaxation of the tactu
music: "First, that this manner of playing must not remain subjec
beat, as we see practiced in modem madrigals, in which any nu
19- "I principi) delle toccate sian fatti adagio, et s'arpeggino le botte ferme", fr
preface to Toccate (1615).
20. "Conviene fermarsi sempre nell'ultima nota di trillo, et d'altri effetti, come di s
di grado, benché sia semicroma o biscroma; et communemente si sostengano assai l
frescobaldi, preface to Toccate (1615).
21. "Più facili, che in apparenza non sono", frescobaldi, preface to Toccate (1615).

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
difficulties are made easier by taking the beat now sl

even suspending it in the air, according to their affe
words".22 While this analogy to vocal music offered an i
the performance practices required for Frescobaldi's t
stili required the subjective interprétation of the play
Frescobaldi's toccatas required the subjectivity of the p
interprétation of the meter and tempo, but for other as
as well. The revised preface said more about the arpeg
openings, but it did little to teach the player exactly
were to be realized: "The beginnings of the toccatas
and arpeggiated; and in the ties or dissonances — als
work — they should be struck together, in order not
empty; which striking should be repeated at the discr
Precisely what constituted not leaving the instrumen
to interprétation. Noting that the necessity of restrik
the quick decay of sound on the harpsichord, Luigi F
has observed that "what was originally dictated by
transformed by the artist into an element of taste an
with fullness of sound is evident not only in Fres
instructions for the toccatas, but in the general thi
of his compositional texture. Rather than limiting h
within a single voice accompanied by a simple chord
others. Frescobaldi cultivated a thirk internlav of ornamentai fipuration
and passagework within all the voices, thus separating his toccatas f
the toccata and intabulation traditions codified in Diruta's treatise (E
Yet in their realization, the fullness of the sound of the instrument
subjective parameter that would, by necessity, vary from player to p
This cultivation of individuai artistry was a necessity of the style.
22. "Primieramente, che non dee questo modo di sonare stare soggetto a battuta
veggiamo usarsi nei madrigali moderni, i quali quantunque] difficili si agevolano per mez
battuta portandola hor languida, hor veloce, e sostenendola etiandio in aria, secondo i loro aff
senso delle parole", frescobaldi, preface to Toccate (1616). Further on the subject of the t
Frescobaldi's music, see Margaret murata, "Pier Francesco Valentini on tactus and proport
Frescobaldi studies, pp. 327-350; cypess, Curious and modem inventions, ch. 5.
23. "Li cominciamenti delle toccate sieno fatte adagio, et arpeggiando; e così nelle ligature,
durezze, come, anche nel mezzo del opera si batteranno insieme, per non lasciar voto l'istr
il quale battimento ripiglierassi a beneplacito di chi suona", frescobaldi, preface to Toccate
24. luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, "The art of 'not leaving the instrument empty'. Com
on early Italian harpsichord playing", Early music, xi/3,1983, pp. 299-308: 300.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
ii8 Rebecca Cypess
Neither the no
préfacés suffice
It seems that t
to capture the s
sound in the ha
between the com
Frescobaldi at th
to the composer
learn through t
their taste as ar
their approach to
develop differe
would be both n
1% /-» /-v«-* n rt /4t Trt m
U VV11 Uli UU » UlllUtLV VII llllvj llivvtv VI VVllliy Vvll VI VII) A
Here, then, are two respects in which F

libro primo functioned as a pedagogica
sharing Frescobaldi's experience as an art
wished to gain access to it, and it simult
develop their own skills and taste. That F
the toccata to offer this glimpse of his te
not be surprising, given the precedent se
the toccata occupied an important place w
in contrast to Diruta, for whom the tocc
discussion of techniaue and ornamentai practice, Frescobaldi provided onlv
limited verbal explanation for his toccatas. The humanistic dialogue was
replaced by the musical text as a tool for artisanal learning.
The continuing importance of Frescobaldi's Toccate for artisanal
pedagogy at the keyboard was confirmed by the German Carmélite monk
Johann Nenning (1615-1685), known as Spiridion, whose treatise, the
Nova instruction pro pulsandis organis spinettis manuchordiis &c., records
the manner of improvisation that the author learned during his sojourn
in Rome at mid-century.25 Spiridion's work consists overwhelmingly of
25- Modem éditions of Spiridion's Nova instructio have been edited by Edoardo Bellotti as
SPiRiDiON a monte Carmelo, Nova instructio: pro pulsandis organis, spinettis, manuchordiis, etc.
pars prima (Bamberg 1670); pars secunda (Bamberg 1671), ed. Edoardo Bellotti, Colledara, Andromeda,
2003; and id., Nova instructio pro pulsandis organis spinettis manuchordiis &c. pars tertia & quarta,
ed. Edoardo Bellotti, Latina, Il Levante, 2008. See also bruce alan lamott, "Keyboard improvisation
according to 'Nova instructio pro pulsandis organis' (1670 ca.-i675) by Spiridion a Monte Carmelo",
Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1980.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
^'-,jr.
krrr J- ->j .
-r rJ-r rr*r^
r f >i
hi M
-j j—jì-nn
J*N^= -itrcW
V V b Sé * H 7?r
[f< b££T
^tu
26
33 .J J j ^
Tb r csracfJ *r r -;g£r
A*
xp d B
r—ir
r=r =*=m fr
t>
&a_J—sss
i
& -L^r
J JJJ
7
*):, ^ r J—
'^r =^= — 1 .r r f.
c rr rr rrJ—
J JH'
Ex. 3. Frescobaldi, Toccata settima from Toccate e partite...libro primo, mm. 20-27

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
120 Rebecca Cypess
ornamental form
minimal textual
physical practice
theoretical under
experiential lear
that Spiridion q
borrowed materi
the Toccate e par
format of their
the musical-peda
Frescobaldi's Rom
instruments
It would be wrong to suggest that Frescobaldi's toccatas were simply writte

out improvisations. As Anthony Newcomb has shown, aspects of the toccat
suggest a high degree of compositional planning. As représentatives of an
improvisatory style, composed toccatas must be taken as ideal models of th
genre. As Newcomb has written, "The adjective 'improvisatory', rather than
being an opposite pole to 'composed' or 'continuously logicai and worke
out,' might better be seen as identifying an aesthetic model in which the
impression of spontaneity, of unreflective artistic utterance, is prominent".26
Thus the composed toccatas stand as models not only of the improvisator
style, but also as models of composition.
If this is true of the toccatas, it is even more so, I argue, of the variation
in this volume. While Diruta and the authors ot division tutors ot the
previous generation had provided their readers with numerous

possibilities for the élaboration of a skeletal harmonie o
progression, Frescobaldi's variation sets serve to crystalize these
into whole works.27 Although it is doubtless true, as Frescobaldi
toccatas, that sections of the variations could be performed wit
the impression of completeness, considération of his compositio
26. anthony NEWCOMB, "Frescobaldi's toccatas and their stylistic ancestry",

the Royal Musical Association, cxi, 1984-1985, pp. 28-44: 29-30, and id., "Guardare
toccate", in Girolamo Frescobaldi nel IV centenario della nascita: atti del convegno i
studi, ed. Sergio Durante and Dinko Fabris, Florence, Olschki, 1986, pp. 281-300.
27. A connection between the diminution manuals of the sixteenth Century and
instrumentai variations of the early seventeenth is suggested in a dissertation in prog
Bowring, Rutgers University. I am grateful to her for sharing her work with me prior

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
Artisanship, imagination, and the process of LEARNING 121
for the variation sets indicates that he intended them fir

complete works, to be experienced from beginning to end
In approaching the élaboration of a musical formula
required long-range planning and worked-out compos
joined numerous other composers of the early Seicent
similar projects. Whereas, in previous générations, var
such as the Romanesca were generally improvised,28 c
seventeenth-century Italy increasingly wrote down their
finished pièces. Theorists of the âge did not provide a clea
this change in the approach to the standard harmonic-m
Giovanni Battista Doni praised the "great musical variety
musicale) shown by composers who "proceed from one ot
witb fhp camp nrin rnntinnina parh timp whilp varvina thp hacs- anrl
sometimes doing the opposite, by varying the aria of the sin

changing the bass".29 However, Doni's aesthetic assessment of
inherent in such compositions is frustratingly brief and vagu
his contemporaries appear to have had even less to say about
composed for instruments. The relative inattention of early
century theorists to composed instrumental variation se
attributable to the nature of the musical formulas on which the sets were
based, many of which derived from apparently low-class musical traditions.
This was especially true in the case of instrumental compositions, some of
28. On improvised musical-poetic recitation during the period see ivano cavallini, "Sugli
improvvisatori del Cinque-Seicento. Persistenze, nuovi repertori e qualche riconoscimento",
Recercare, i, 1989, pp. 23-40, as well as james haar, Essays on Italian poetry and music in the
Renaissance, 1350-1600, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1986, ch. 4, "Improvvisatori and their
relationship to sixteenth-century music"; id., "Arie per cantar stanze ariostesche", in L'Ariosto: la
musica, i musicisti, ed. Maria Antonella Balsano, Florence, Olschki, 1981, pp. 31-46; nino pirrotta.
"New glimpses of an unwritten tradition", in Music and culture in Italyfrom the middle ages to the
baroque, Cambridge, ma, Harvard University Press, 1984, pp. 51-71 and id., "The orai and written
traditions of music", ibid., pp. 73-79; Margaret murata, "Cantar ottave, cantar storie", in Word,
image, and song, voi. 1: essays on early modem Italy, ed. Rebecca Cypess, Beth L. Glixon, and Nathan
Link, Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2013, pp. 287-317; luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini,
"Metrica e ritmica nei 'modi di cantare ottave'", in Forme e vicende per Giovanni Pozzi, ed. Ottavio
Besomi, Giulia Gianella, Alessandro Martini, and Guido Pedrojetta, Padova, Antenore, 1988, pp.
239-267; and Alfred Einstein, "Die Aria di Ruggiero", Sammelbände der Internationalen Musik
Gesellschaft, xiii, 1911-1912, pp. 444-454.
29. "Seguitare d'ottava in ottava con la medesima aria, continuando tal volta, o anco variando
il basso; & tal'ora facendo l'opposito, con variare l'aria del canto, senza mutare il basso". Giovanni
battista doni, Compendio del trattato de'generi e de' modi della musica [...] con un discorso sopra
la perfettione de' concenti, Rome, Andrea Fei, 1635, p. 120. On the etymology and implications of the
term aria, see Claude v. palisca, "Vincenzo Galilei and some links between 'pseudo-monody and
monody", in Studies in the history of Italian music and music theory, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994,
pp. 346-363.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
122 Rebecca Cypess
which took folk

be that theorist
of such question
The Romanesca
since, as Georg
traditions: the m
folk-instrumen
characteristic
guitar.31 The ba
rreaota posits mar ir was luuüo vaccini was nrst comnined tnese two
elements in his vocal settings, but it seems equally likely that they had b
combined in unnotated performance before the publication of Caccin
first book of Nuove musiche. In any case, some version of the Romanes
formula had been elevated from its folk origins during the sixteenth Century
to a place of honor within Italian académies and courtly life, as one of t
most common vehicles for the recitation of epic poetry, along with
Ruggiero and other arie da cantar ottave. Such performances were offen
accompanied by the lira da braccio, an instrument associated with g
and kings;32 musical-poetic performance of this sort was seen as essentia
the character-building and éducation of Renaissance letterati.33, Moreov
most musical-poetic recitations of the Romanesca were, in académies as
other contexts, rendered all'improvviso; although we have a sense of ho
they worked from contemporaneous accounts of académie and court
gatherings, precious few musical settings survive.34
30. See, for example, john wendland, '"Madre non mi far monaca'. The biography of
Renaissance folksong", Acta musicologica, xl/2, 1976, pp. 185-204.
31. Georg a. predota, "Towards a reconsideration of the 'Romanesca'. Francesca Caccini'
Primo libro delle musiche and contemporary monodie settings in the first quarter of the seventee
Century", Recercare, V, 1993, pp. 87-113; also palisca, "Vincenzo Galilei and some links betwe
'pseudo-monody' and monody".
32. See Laurence c. Witten il, "Apollo, Orpheus, and David: a study of the cruciai Centu
in the development of bowed strings in north Italy 1480-1580 as seen in graphie evidence
some surviving instruments", Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, 1,1975, pp. 5
Emanuel Winternitz, Musical instruments and their symbolism in western art, New Häven,
University Press, 1979, p. 95; and sterling scott jones, The lira da braccio, Bloomington, Ind
University Press, pp. 16-28.
33. LORENZETTi, Musica e identità nobiliare, pp. 83-90.
34. Robert Nosow, "The debate on song in the Accademia Fiorentina", Early music history,
2002, pp. 179-183. The Tratado de glosas of Diego Ortiz included two recercare on chord progressi
nearly identical to the Romanesca; see diego ortiz, Tratado de glosas sobre clausulasy otros gen
de puntos en la musica de violones, Rome, Valerio and Luigi Dorico, 1553; modem édition ed.
Annette Otterstedt, Kassel, Bärenreiter, 2003. Romanesche appear as Recercada sesta and Recer
settima on ff. 5óv-59r of the first édition, and on pp. 113-115 in Otterstedt's édition.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
w nat mignt account tortnis newtenaency towara composition orvanation

sets in the early Seicento, in contrast to the largely improvised practices
of previous générations? An answer lies, I argue, in the new processes of
learning that came to be valued by theorists and patrons of the age. At their
heart, musical variation sets take a single idea and employ it as a font of
invention and creativity. Conceived in this way, such musical works may
be seen as related to other early modem stratégies of learning that involved
the répétition, revisiting, and variation of a single idea. As innovation in
natural philosophy encouraged scholars and patrons to question received
lAllUWlCUgC, UIC piUCCÒS U1 UllilJVlllg dllU I C~ Ulllllvlll^ d MllglC pilCUUlllCllUlI
was increasingly accepted as necessary, and even admirable — a mark

érudition. This strategy of répétition in learning resonated with the principle
of rhetoric, study, and polite behavior within an académie context. Membe
of the republic of letters were required to présent their ideas in novel way
through application of both learned rhetorical techniques and new method
of observation. As Mario Biagioli has shown, the rôle of patrons was not
to determine the validity of these divergent claims, but rather to provid
space for their enaetment; their concern was with the "good sportsmanshi
on display in scientific disputes rather than on the specific content of su
arguments.35 Biagioli cites Federico Cesi, the leader of Galileo's Accadem
dei Lincei, who insisted that this academy should not be seen as monolith
in its scientific output: "Ali that we are committed to as a group," C
wrote, "is freedom in natural philosophy".36 Scientific inquiry of the so
unuci unteli uy oaincu ciiiu me l,iricci was uepciiucin un 111511 uiiienis — tuuis
for observation and esperienza, a term that incorporated both "exper

and "experiment".37 The skilled use of instruments offered practition
patrons the means to perceive the world in new ways; Galileo's observ
through his high-powered telescope represent only the most f
example of this change in perspective, which, as Biagioli has shown, r
in changes in Galileo's status and career trajectory.38
35- See mario biagioli, Galileo, courtier. The practice of science in the culture of abso
Chicago - London, University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 74-80, and id., "Etiquette, interdep
and sociability in seventeenth-century science", Criticai inquiry, xxii/2,1996, pp. 193-238.
36. biagioli, Galileo, courtier, pp. 79-80.
37. On the term esperienza in these two senses, see Claude v. palisca, "Was Galileo's f
expérimental scientist?" in Number to sound. The musical way to the Scientific Revolution,
Gozza, Dordrecht, Kluwer, 2000, pp. 191-199.
38. See mario biagioli, Galileo's instruments of credit. Telescopes, images, secrecy, Ch
London: University of Chicago Press, 2007, and eileen reeves, Galileo's glassworks. The telesc

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
124 Rebecca Cypess
Even as Galileo
pursuit of new
modern Italy w
designed to ent
Giovanni Battis
lenses and mirr
was first publi
and reprints th
on the science o
diversity in nat
of "catoptric" le
perspective. Suc
for ingenuity,
ingeniously, the
conceits of the
be made good by
were capable of
the minor, Cambridg

and modem invention
39. The first éditi
Orazio Salviani, 1589
science in the seven
historiography of ot
the relationship bet
of the seventeenth C
century England, New
emergence of expéri
Della Porta's relation
and the beginnings o
pp. 72-75 and passim
Galileo's telescope, se
40. Della Porta's La
De refractione optic
On aspects of his th
Al-Kindi to Kepler,
saito, "Perception an
Circumscribere, vm,
of geometrical diagr
knowledge. Words, i
Maclean, Oxford, Oxf
41. "Iam ad mathe
expérimenta, renide
ingeniosius excogita
sequerentur?" della p
Young and Samuel Sp

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
they could cause a single object to be refracted s

multiply; and they could project objects into spaces
In sum, they caused viewers to observe their environ
questioning the reality of their observations and aro
in the process.
In Della Porta's view, then, the purpose of instruments was not exclusively
the discovery of new scientific facts. As in the courtly approach to the
étiquette of science, the process of discovery was equally important, as were
the aesthetic effect of wonder produced by ingenuity and virtuosity with
instruments. In this respect, musical instruments participated equally in the
culture of instrumentality, as Della Porta's own experiments with musical
instruments attest.42 The instrumentai repertoire of the early seventeenth
Century was designed in large part to create a sense of meraviglia within the
V1CWC1, ilio Li lilllClllò ClldUlCU UIC UlòCUVCiy 1ICW öUUllUö) dliu 111 UIC piuccòò,
the excavation of the internai affetti of the player and listener. Galileo himself
described the aim of music made with instruments: "to awaken the hidden
affetti of our soul".43
Ihe perception of a given object, phenomenon, or idea from multiple
perspectives in inquiry concerning the naturai world finds a potent parallel
in the musical variation set. Although music theorists of the age were largely
silent on this topic, I propose that the same stratégies of subjective learning
lie at the heart of the variation set, and that composers and patrons would
have valued the annlication of musical instruments in the nursuit of new
modes of hearing. As the status of artisanal learning was elevated, variat

techniques with musical instruments increasingly became codified with
musical texts as expressions of variability in creative perception.
Subjectivity, indeed, lies at the heart of Frescobaldi's Romanesca variatio
and the revisions that he undertook to these variations between the first and
the second printings enhance this sense of subjectivity. In the second vers
of the Romanesca set, Frescobaldi increased the influence of the toccata st
on the variations — a style which, as discussed above, required both
technical skill of the player at the keyboard and the musical taste and ingenu
of the player: since the notation cannot convey ali the information requi
42. See also rebecca cypess, "Giovanni Battista Della Porta's experiments with music
instruments", Journal of musicological research, xxxv/3, 2016 (forthcoming).
43. "Risvegliare gli affetti occulti dell'anima nostra". Galileo Galilei to Lodovico Cigoli, dated
June 1612. Transcribed in Galileo Galilei, Le opere, ed. Antonio Favaro, 21 vols., Florence, Barb
voi. xi, 1901, pp. 340-343. See the discussion of this letter in cypess, Curious and modem inventio
ch. 1.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
126 Rebecca Cypess
for realization o
own subjective s
in arpeggiation
that he applies se
same physical ha
revised version o
between the var
affetti are found
observed in the
can be played wi
left to the good
spirit and the pe
This passage in
l Kj ein uiiuvî o laiiuiiig V7A Liiv_ x v_ v loiviio lw uiv xvi/iimuujxw vai lauuiio. uivjv
revisions, I argue, solidify the linkbetween the toccata style and

Frescobaldi's novel approach to the tactus in the toccatas em
revised version, as one of the defining features of the Roma
In his attempt to teach both physical technique and ind
imagination, Frescobaldi returned to the basic art of orname
simultaneously modeling the etiquette and Organization of
within the new Systems of learning of the early Seicento.
The 1615 Romanesca set opens with a well-defined rh
employing Lombard rhythms almost immediately, and the
regulär metrical motion — the establishment of a clear tac
The revised prima parte is more flexible in its rhythmic pr
in the second measure it already offers the performer an
rhythmic fluctuation: the syncopated figures with chroma
suggest that the performer should Unger on those notes in an a
(see Ex. 4b). The more subtle rhythmic motion in the revise
complemented by a more conjunct melodie profile: rather
right hand of the keyboard proceeds predominantly in ste
Overall, the second version of the prima parte présents
starting point for the variation-set — a point from which
than a robust or extroverted beginning as in the first versio
44- "Nelle partite quando si troveranno passaggi, et affetti sarà bene di pig
il che osservarassi anche nelle toccate. L'altre non passeggiate si potranno sona
battuta, rimettendosi al buon gusto e fino giuditio del sonatore il guidar il temp
spirito e la perfettione di questa maniera e stile di sonare", frescobaldi, prefac

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
i^k.- j r^J J 7 JTl

-! V
p ' - r JJ
i — '
i> u y [ rjjr
a J J i . J , '■ j JTpJ
Vv
gups iFfE
Jr -i i
Ex. 4a. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," first version, p
i111,'r1
r#
m
.
if I "j
■J1A-A AAA
r r 'r r l-j
Ex. 4b. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," second version, prima parte, mm. 1-3
A sense of graduai development through the first, second, and third

variations again sets the revised version apart from its predecessor. In the
revised seconda parte Frescobaldi continued the step-wise motion but with
slightly more rhythmic activity, and in the revised terza parte he introduced
divisions at twice the speed of those in the seconda parte. This sense of
graduai development stands in contrast to the first three variations of the
1615 version, which seem to be organized without such a sense of linear

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
128 Rebecca Cypess
development in m
variation to the n
The two version

reveal a good dea
the quarta parte
requiring coordi
Ex. 5a). The 1616
quintessential sti
keyboardist resp
sweeping, idiom
single measure (
a large scale duri
cali for flexibility
the same style as
attempt to infus
including their m
Other revisions t
Frescobaldi soug
variations. The fi
1616 versions, bu
takes over. In th
its intricate coun
to coordinate vo
a single, unified
triplets — the fir
by triple meter
of rhythm, the
For the 1616 version Frescobaldi revised the twelfth variation and
appended two more. The new twelfth variation represents the pinnacle of t
toccata style, with sweeping scales that cover a wide range of the instrumen
in an impressive virtuosic display. As in the toccatas, most of these idiomat
keyboard runs are supported not by intricate contrapuntai motion, but b
long notes that provide a harmonie foundation for the rhapsodizing solo
voice (see Ex. 6b).
However, this version of the twelfth variation — virtuosic as it is — do
not conclude the revised Romanesca set. Instead, Frescobaldi appende
45- See murata, "Pier Francesco Valentini", p. 333 and passim.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
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Ex. 5a. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca" first version, quarta parte

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i3o Rebecca Cypess
.F.ß
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Ex. 5b. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," second vers

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if'iwu m ff1!.
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86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
132 Rebecca Cypess
»"CT <Lu g
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Ex. 6a. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," first version, duodecima par
'"^rrrrrrri* rrrrrrrrf JTTjjBg
O-M
i J
"t
—-J.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
Ex. 6b. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," second version,
J?JiJ J J j-j.j ■
cj I , r F ' > zi
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fen
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Ex. 7. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," second version, terzadecima parte

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
134 Rebecca Cypess
nr^r" "cu'|'r
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Ex. 8. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," second

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
two new variations, in which he backed away from this

reverting to the more understated style of the first t
thirteenth variation recalls the second, with its simple,
motion in the right hand (compare Ex. 7 and Ex. 8). The
from achieving a contrapuntai climax or a highpoint of
is reserved and quiet (Ex. 9). Significantly, its syncopat
seem to enact the metrical flexibility inscribed in the w
the syncopations in the prima parte (compare Ex. 4b).
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Tj J-J J—J 1^=^
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r-i'i =Ff
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Ex. 9. Frescobaldi, "Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca," seco
parte

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
136 Rebecca Cypess
Frederick Hammond has characterized this conclusion as an "anticlimax".

He rightly notes that such reserved endings are not uncommon in music of
this period, in much of which "the point of greatest intensity is reached well
before the end, which functions not as a climax but as a confirmation or a
transition back to the original level".461 agree with this interprétation, but I
think it is a significant gesture for Frescobaldi to undertake here, especially
given that in the 1615 version of the Romanesca set he had ended with
quite a différent statement — a contrapuntai tour de force that emphasizes
the keyboardist's technical skill and ingenuity in the coordination of
counterpoint. This final statement of the revised version is a personal one —
one in which the keyboardist seems to return to the point of origin, revisiting
ideas from the past and yet, having progressed through the Romanesca in an
array of other guises, hearing them in new ways. The originai object — the
melodic-harmonic modo of the Romanesca — reappears in a form stripped of
ali virtuosity. The rhythmic displacements in the last two variations require
affected interprétation, and they also seem to cast the player as reluctant to
bring the process of discovery to a close.
Conclusion
In many ways, the pedagogical aspects of Frescobaldi's Toccate e partite ...

libro primo built upon pedagogical traditions of earlier periods. Like Diruta'
treatise, Frescobaldi highlighted the genre of the toccata as a vehicle for th
practice of ornamentation and élaboration of a simple harmonie formula.
However, whereas Diruta had provided an idiomatic approach to keyboard
technique that enabled his readers to perform any sort of open-score work,
thus offering a bridge between works for instrumental ensemble and the
keyboard toccata, Frescobaldi's toccata style was intensely and intimately
bound up with the idiom of the keyboard. To acquire the physical habitus
necessary for his toccatas, the keyboardist needed to trace the motions of
the composer sopra i tasti — upon the keys. There, even while learning
the composer's style, other performers would be able to develop their own
individuai style, for the toccatas demanded an active, moment-by-moment
interprétation of multiple parameters of the music, including tempora
flexibility, arpeggiation, and the répétition of notes. Each performance of the
46. Frederick HAMMOND, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Cambridge, ma, Harvard University Press,
1983, p. 161.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
toccatas would thus become new, personal, and bound

Through practice and performance, players would le
own musical personalities, enacting their ideas and in
imaginative interprétation.
If the toccatas cultivated the artisanal habitus and
the player, the variations display pedagogical stratégi
genre of the variation set arose at the same time as new
learning, in which patrons and thinkers valued the f
of a multiplicity of perspectives. The new status o
seventeenth Century — musical, artistic, and scientific —
ended exploration and the making of new knowledge
in the instrumental variation-set. Like Frescobaldi's t
variations are intimately connected with the medium
A perspective on the value of variation in perce
artistry is offered in a source from later in the seventee
on rhetoric by Emanuele Tesauro. In a section on t
rhetoric, Tesauro equates the human intellect with a
mirror, an instrument of optical illusion:47
The human intellect, in the manner of the purest lens, ever th

changing, expresses in itself the images of objects presented b
thoughts. Hence, just as an [internal] discourse of the mind is
contest of these interior imaginings, so too is an external di
ordering of sensible signs, according to the imaginings of the
For Tesauro, the mind's perception of ideas and im

in flux. Even the "purest lens" was capable of reflec
distorting, of transforming. Rhetoric, with its metapho
concetti, represented one tool for the inspiration of new
the title of Tesauro's volume — Il cannochiale aristote
telescope" — emphasizes the metaphor between rh
and the optical instrument. Rhetoric, like the telesc
to open the mind to new perspectives; its instrument
of language. The ideal mode of thought in the early se
47- "L'intelletto humano in guisa di purissimo specchio, sempre

esprime in se stesso le imagini degli obietti, che dinanzi a lui si present
Quinci, sì come il discorso mentale altro non è che un ordinato contest
così il discorso esteriore altro non è che un'ordine di segni sensibili,
Emanuele tesauro, Il cannocchiale artistotelico, o sia idea dell'argu
quarta impressione, Rome, Guglielmo Hallé, 1664, p. 18.

86.126.186.48 on Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:57:48 UTC
138 Rebecca Cypess
one that acknowle

rhetorical ideal of v
The composed m
likewise introduced
The Romanesca w
represented one su
rooted in the arti
it represented a c
keyboardist workin

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CYPESS - Frescobaldi's Toccate e Partite As A Pedagogical Text

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Frescobaldi's Toccate e partite... libro primo (1615–1616) as a pedagogical text.

Artisanship, imagination, and the process of learning

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26381196

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Frescobaldi's Toccate epartite ... libroprimo (1615-1616)

Recercare xxvii/1-2 2015

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them we may come to new insights about Frescobaldi

1. The first printing is Girolamo frescobaldi, Toccate e partite d'in

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physical motions of the player's body, the toccatas in t

whether in nature or in art, was a key concept for philosophers,

Toccate e partite served as a pedagogical tool — the volume was itself an

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or habitus — at the instrument.5 In codifying Fr

5. Vincenzo Galilei, Dialogo della musica antica, e della moderna, Fl

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its revival of the

the relationship betw

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practice. Indeed, he demonstrated the need for the c

Through personal experience I can give you the most accurate

It is significant that the examples that Diruta p

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occupies the cli

so that you can demonstrate all I have said to be true".13 Of the t

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In suggesting, in this passage, that music with diminutions originally

Even discussions of more theoretical topics in Diruta's treatise are justifie

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method of counterpoint, I shall come to see you'V5 Thus in Diruta's method,

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_ -■* ^ " * ;;fc

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Sopra i tasti: arti

16. diruta, Seconda par

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a composer, but as a player, and it is transferred through repeated

It was perhaps this ap roach to rnamental figuration — if not he style

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If the notes and

than they appear".21

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difficulties are made easier by taking the beat now sl

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Here, then, are two respects in which F

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It would be wrong to suggest that Frescobaldi's toccatas were simply writte

previous generation had provided their readers with numerous

26. anthony NEWCOMB, "Frescobaldi's toccatas and their stylistic ancestry",

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for the variation sets indicates that he intended them fir

sometimes doing the opposite, by varying the aria of the sin

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which took folk

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w nat mignt account tortnis newtenaency towara composition orvanation

was increasingly accepted as necessary, and even admirable — a mark

for observation and esperienza, a term that incorporated both "exper

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the minor, Cambridg