Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Friderici [Friederici; Fridrichs].

German family of clavichord, piano, organ and harpsichord makers. Christian Ernst Friderici (b Meerane, 7 March 1709; d Gera, 4 May 1780) learned organ building from his father, Johannes Friderici (1653–1731), and later worked as a journeyman for T.H.G. Trost in Altenburg and probably also for Gottfried Silbermann in Freiberg. He set up his ‘Orgel- und Clavierbauanstalt’ (organ and keyboard instrument workshop) in Gera in 1737. In 1745 he invented a Pyramidenflügel (pyramid piano), one of the earliest types of upright piano, whose bass strings rise obliquely to the right so that the ‘peak’ of the case appears in the middle. Several examples survive, one of which may have been owned by Goethe. Other inventions include an early square piano (1758), a lute-harpsichord, a Clavecinbebung (a harpsichord with a vibrato mechanism; 1761) which (according to Gerber) Friderici described in his Avertissement von einer Invention, eine Bebung auf dem Clavecin anzubringen (1770), and a ‘Neue Erfindung einer Maschine beim Claviere, dass es klinge wie ein monochordischer Dreiklang’ (built in Gera, 1781). It is not known how the latter two inventions worked, although presumably both were mechanical attachments of some kind. Agricola (see Adlung) commented on his ‘most finely wrought invention, usually combined with the most successful execution’.

Christian Ernst’s clavichords were much admired. C.P.E. Bach, who at his death owned two, preferred them to the instruments of Fritz and Hass, commending (in a letter to Forkel, 10 November 1773) their good construction and their lack of octave strings in the bass. Mozart also owned Friderici instruments, for he wrote (9 October 1777) that his guest should not speak of his ‘instruments from Gera’ to the maker J.A. Stein, ‘for he is jealous of Friderici’.

Christian Ernst’s organs were not always so successful. His organ in the church of St Jakobi in Chemnitz (1762–5) was at the centre of a legal dispute that lasted several years, and he was dismissed from his post as court organ builder in Altenburg in 1767. Nonetheless, the few organs of his that survive display good craftsmanship and the influence of both Trost and Silbermann. Most of his organs were small, and the influence of the galant style is apparent in his specifications, for instance in such stops as Flaute douce, Flaute d’amour, Flaute travers and Viola di gamba. His ‘Le Don’ (birdsong) stop on the organ in Meerane (1751–3) attracted a great deal of attention. Extant organs are at Niederschindmaas, near Glauchau (1734); Stanau, near Gera (originally in Ottendorf; 1746–7); Grossdeuben, near Leipzig (originally in Cröbern, Leipzig; 1754–5); Langenberg, near Gera (case only; 1755); and Gräfenwarth, near Gera (1771; designed 1741–3).

His brother, Christian Gottfried Friderici (b Meerane, 20 March 1714; d Gera, 6 March 1777) collaborated with him, having moved to Gera in 1744. The organ in Weissig, near Gera (originally in the Schlosskapelle, Lichtenstein; 1740), is by Christian Gottfried. Christian Gottlob Friderici (b Gera, 23 Aug 1750; d Gera, 21 Jan 1805), Christian Gottfried’s son, continued to build pianos, clavichords and organs: his clavichords, of which two survive, were said to have been equal in quality to those of his uncle.

The eldest of Christian Gottlob’s seven children was Christian Ernst Wilhelm Friderici (b nr Liebschwitz, Gera, 19 April 1782; d Gera, 3 Feb 1872), who, after periods in Dresden and Berlin, took over his father’s business in 1803. He concentrated on making pianos, but occasionally sold clavichords. It is reported that he made more than 1000 instruments. He was succeeded by Ernst Ludwig Friderici (b Gera, 27 Jan 1806; d Gera, 7 May 1883), presumably his son, and the last of the dynasty.

For details of surviving string keyboard instruments by the Fridericis see Boalch and Clinkscale.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BoalchM

ClinkscaleMP

GerberL

J. Adlung: Musica mechanica organoedi, ed. J.L. Albrecht (Berlin, 1768/R); ed. C. Mahrenholz (Kassel, 1931)

E. Fischer: ‘Der Prozess um die Friederici’sche St. Jacobi-Orgel in Chemnitz und ein Gutachten von J.D. Silbermann’, ZI, xxiv (1903–4), 1025–7

E. Flade: ‘Friderici’, Lexikon der Orgelbauer des deutschen Kulturkreises (MS, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, 1960)

F. Friedrich: ‘Die Orgel- und Instrumentenbauer Friderici’, Ars Organi, xliii (1995), 96–107

F. Friedrich: Orgelbau in Thüringen: Bibliographie (Kleinblittersdorf, 1994)

HANS KLOTZ/FELIX FRIEDRICH

Friderici, Daniel

(b Klein Eichstedt, nr Querfurt, 1584; d Rostock, 23 Sept 1638). German composer, writer on music and music editor. He left home as a boy to earn his living as a Kurrende singer and later as a member of a chorus symphoniacus. After a short stay at Querfurt, he went to Eisleben, where he met the local Rektor with whom he moved to Gerbstedt in 1598. According to Rhane, he received composition lessons there from Valentin Hausmann, who, being thoroughly aquainted with Italian secular music and poetry, probably introduced Friderici to the Italian madrigal style. Friderici stayed in Gerbstedt for four years and then went, via Salzwedel and Burg, to Magdeburg, where he encountered his second principal teacher, the Kantor Friedrich Weissensee. As the latter was one of the most important German exponents of the Venetian polychoral style, Friderici acquired a knowledge not only of the current Dutch and German motet repertory but also of the latest developments towards a new international style.

After finishing his studies, Friderici wandered across Hesse and Westphalia; Rhane reported that he also saw the Netherlands. He stayed in Osnabrück for some time, working as an assistant teacher at the Gymnasium, and in 1612 he entered the University of Rostock. His first published work, Sertum musicale primum, appeared early in 1614. In the meantime, he must have made his name known to Count Anton Günther of Oldenburg, who summoned Friderici to his residence in summer 1614 and installed him as Kantor and choirmaster. The Rostock authorities tried to persuade him to return, but the count would not release him until 1618. At Ascensiontide that year he became Kantor at the Marienkirche, Rostock's principal church, and for the following two decades he was to dominate the city's musical life.

The first important event for which he had to organize the music was the 200th anniversary of the founding of the university in 1619. Three days later he received his master's degree in theology. He applied for a vacant living at Rostock and delivered a trial sermon in 1623, but was not chosen. The town council, however, offered him the post of deputy Rektor of the school. Friderici refused the offer and remained a Kantor for the rest of his life. This was in no way a less profitable post; the authorities appreciated his work, increased his salary and appointed him Kapellmeister of all the Rostock churches. In 1632 he was invited to become Kantor and musical director of the Gymnasium at Reval (now Tallinn), but he chose to remain at Rostock. Six years later he died of the plague.

Although he was mainly occupied with church music, Friderici's output as a composer comprises approximately equal numbers of sacred and secular works. From a song in his Amuletum musicum (1627), listing the names of 42 composers, we know that he was familiar with the sacred works of Josquin and Clemens non Papa, though for him, as for most of his colleagues, Lassus took pride of place. Modern Italian composers like Caccini and Monteverdi, as well as Schein and Schütz, are, however, not listed, which points to Friderici's own retrospective style. His works for the church are mostly based on texts from the Psalms and the prophets, which he usually wrote himself, preferring the AABB form usually reserved for secular songs. The only exceptions are his double-choir setting of Psalm cxxi (1622) and the seven motets of the Selige Grab- und Himmels Leiter (1628). In 1625 Friderici published a new edition of Piae Cantiones (first published in 1582) by the Finlander Theodoricus Petri. This collection, originally compiled to revive Latin school song in Sweden, was used all over the Baltic region.

Friderici seems to have taken greater pleasure in the writing of music for entertainment purposes. He repeatedly emphasized in the prefaces or on the title-pages that he considered his songs as remedies to cure young hearts from melancholy and to renew cheerfulness; they must have been in great demand during this time of the Thirty Years War. The songs, resembling those by Hassler, are usually homophonic; however, Friderici also knew English secular music, especially by Thomas Morley, whose three-part Canzonets (1593) he edited (and possibly also translated) in 1624. His fondness for social gatherings and merry-making must have been well known, for in the preface to Hilarodicon (1632), a collection of drinking-songs, he had to defend himself against being called a drunkard. In his last collection, Amores musicales (1633), the settings (including a continuo part) are more elaborate; they include solo passages, flourishes and changes of metre.

As a teacher and theorist, Friderici took a progressive path. His German treatise Musica figuralis (1618) contradicted the older Burmeister's philosophical doctrine in many ways: Friderici was more concerned with the practical aspects of music, which he discussed in vivid language, and his treatment of the modes discloses a feeling for tonality. The work is a good source for German performing practice of the period. Opposed to the 16th-century rule of beating the tactus like a clock, he advised singers to vary the beat according to the words of the text. The treatise, from which an extract was published separately in 1632, enjoyed great success, with eight editions, and it was still highly esteemed in the German-speaking countries at the beginning of the 18th century.

WORKS

Edition: D. Friderici: Ausgewählte Kirchengesänge, ed. E. Schenk and W. Voll, EDM, 2nd ser., Mecklenburg und Pommern, ii (1942) [S]

printed works published in Rostock unless otherwise stated

sacred vocal

Sertum musicale primum, oder Erstes musicalisches Kräntzlein … das ist, Erster Theil neuer lieblicher Concerten, 3vv (1614); 2 in S

Sertum musicale alterum, oder Anderes musicalisches Kräntzlein … das ist Ander Theil neuer lieblicher Concerten, 4vv (Rostock and Greifswald, 1619); 2 in S

Psalmus regii prophetae Davidis, centesimus vigesimus primus, 8vv (2 choirs) (1622)

Bicinia sacra, sive Disticha super evangelia dominicalia et praecipuorum festonim, 2vv (1623); 2 in S

Viridarium musicum sacrum, sive Cantiones sacrae, 4, 5vv (1625); 4 in S

Selige Grab- und Himmels Leiter von sieben Spalten, das ist Sieben ausserlesene schöne Sprüchlein heiliger göttlicher Schrifft, 5vv (1628)

Deliciae juveniles, das ist Geistliche anmutige Liedlein vor junge studirende Jugendt … der erste Theil, 4vv (1630); 3 in S

Deliciarum juvenalium, ander Theil, 4vv (1630); 1 in S

Canon, 2vv, D-Bsb mus.ant.theor.G167; ed. in Handbuch der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenmusik, ii/1 (Göttingen, 1935)

2 Ger. choral works, Bsb mus.40110, anon., attrib. Friderici by Voll

secular vocal

Servia musicalis prima, oder Erstes musicalisches Sträusslein … das ist, Erster Theil neuer Liedlein, nach Art welscher Villanellen gesetzet, 3, 4vv (1614, lost; 2/1617); 2 ed. in Hausmusik, xiv–xvi (Wolfenbüttel, 1926); 1 ed. W. Vetter, Das frühdeutsche Lied, ii (Münster, 1928); 1 ed. in Chorbuch, vi (Wolfenbüttel and Berlin, 1930)

Servia musicalis altera, oder Anderes musicalisches Sträusslein … das ist Anderer Theil neuer Liedlein, nach Art welscher Villanellen gesetzet, 4, 5vv (Rostock and Lübeck, 1617); 2 ed. in Hausmusik, xiv–xvi (Wolfenbüttel, 1926)

Epithalamium in honorem nuptialem Conradi Brantt (Eja veni Dorothea), 5vv (1620), lost, listed in MGG1 (M. Ruhnke)

Epithalamium in honorem nuptialem Matth. Roseleri (Quam pulchra es), 6vv (1621), lost, listed in MGG1 (M. Ruhnke)

Epithalamium in honorem nuptialem Reinh. Detleves (Pulchrae sunt genae tuae), 5vv (1621), lost, listed in MGG1 (M. Ruhnke)

Neues gantz lustiges und kurtzweiliges Quodlibet, 5vv, neben einem anmütigem musicalischen Dialogo, 5, 6vv (1622, 2/1635 as Neue Avisen, oder Lustiges und gantz kurtzweiliges musicalisches Quodlibet von allerhand lustigen Relationen und Zeitungen)

Amores musicales, oder Neue gantz lustige, und anmütig weltliche Liedlein … der erste Theil, 3, 4vv (1624)

Honores musicales, oder Neue gantz lustige fröliche und anmütige Ehren-Liedlein, 4–6vv (1624)

Amuletum musicum contra melancholiam, oder Schönes wolriechendes Biesem-Knöpfflein wieder schwermütige Cornelianische Gedancken … das ist, Lustige, fröliche und anmütige weltliche Lieder, 5vv (1627)

Hilarodicon, das ist Gantz artige und sehr lustige neue Vinetten, oder Wein Liederlein, 5vv (1632); 1 ed. in Moser, ii

Amores musicales, oder Neue gantz lustige und anmutige amorosische Liedlein, 5, 6vv, bc (1633)

Music in Tobias, das ist: Eine fröliche, lustige und sehr anmutige Newe Comoedia (school play), Rostock, 1637, lost, listed in MGG1 (M. Ruhnke)

editions

T. Morley: Canzonets, or Little Short Songs, 3vv (1624) [Ger. edn with Ger. texts], incl. 4 melodies probably by Friderici; 2 ed. in Chorbuch, vi (Wolfenbüttel and Berlin, 1930)

T. Petri: Piae Cantiones (Rostock, 1625)

theoretical

Musica figuralis, oder Newe Unterweisung der Singe Kunst (1618, 4/1649); ed. E. Langelütje, Die Musica figuralis des Daniel Friderici (Berlin, 1901); 5 canons from 4th edn ed. F. Jöde, Der Kanon, i (Wolfenbüttel, 1948); extract repr. as Kurtzer Extract der nothwendigsten Regeln (Leipzig, 1632)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H. Rhane: Ad exequias M. Danieli Friderici (Rostock, 1638); partial repr. in E. Praetorius: ‘Mitteilungen aus norddeutschen Archiven’, SIMG, vii (1905–6), 204–43

W. Vetter: Das frühdeutsche Lied (Münster, 1928), i, 128ff

A. Allerup: Die ‘Musica practica’ des Johann Andreas Herbst (Kassel, 1931)

H.J. Moser: Corydon, das ist: Geschichte des mehrstimmigen Generalbassliedes und des Quodlibets im deutschen Barock (Brunswick, 1933, 2/1960)

W. Voll: Daniel Friderici: Sein Leben und seine geistlichen Werke (Kassel and Hanover, 1936)

H. Osthoff: Review of EDM, 2nd ser., Mecklenburg und Pommern, ii (1942), Mf, i (1948), 201–3

M. Ruhnke: Joachim Burmeister (Kassel, 1955)

R. Caspari: Liedtradition im Stilwandel um 1600 (Munich, 1971)

J. Lester: ‘Major-minor concepts and modal theory in Germany 1592–1680’, JAMS, xxx (1977), 208–53

F. Bohlin: ‘Die Sammlung “Piae Cantiones” und Norddeutschland’, Weltliches und geistliches Lied des Barock: Studien zur Liedkultur in Deutschland und Skandinavien, ed. D. Lohmeier (Amsterdam, 1979), 109–20

G. Karstädt: Die Musiksammlung der Stadtbibliothek Lübeck (Lübeck, 1979)

H.J. Daebeler: ‘Zur Entwicklung des Rostocker Musiklebens im 17. und frühen 18. Jahrhundert’, Zur norddeutschen Musikkultur in der Zeit des Absolutismus und der Frühaufklärung (Rostock, 1986), 18–27

MARTIN RUHNKE/DOROTHEA SCHRÖDER