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

Frischmuth, Marcus Hilarius.

See Fuhrmann, Martin Heinrich.

Frisius, Johannes [Fries, Hans]

(b Greifensee, canton of Zürich, 1505; d Zürich, 28 Jan 1565). Swiss schoolteacher, theologian, philologist, humanist and music theorist. Between 1527 and 1531 he attended the cathedral school in Zürich on a scholarship provided by the Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingli. In the company of his friend the polyhistor Conrad Gesner he went to Paris in 1533 and for two years studied music and philology at the university. After spending a year teaching in the Lateinschule at Basle he returned to Zürich in 1537 as a teacher of Latin, Greek and music in the cathedral school, a position he held until his death. In order to complete his education he went to Italy in 1545. Although he visited many Italian cities, Venice was of particular importance, for there he studied Hebrew and numerous Latin and Greek manuscripts. After returning to Zürich in 1547 he reorganized musical instruction in its schools. He was interested in both sacred and secular music, and studied the lute in 1532 with Johann Widenhuber of St Gallen.

In addition to publishing theological and philological works, Frisius was known as a music theorist. His Brevis musicae isagoge (Zürich, 1554) is his most important contribution to music. (Its first edition, Synopsis isagoges musicae, 1552, lacked music examples.) The 1554 edition discussed both plainsong and mensural music, and contained 24 four-voice settings of Horatian odes. According to the book’s preface, the tenor part of some compositions was composed by Frisius and the other three voices by the Zürich Cathedral organist and singer, Heinrich Textor. All pieces are in strictly chordal style and adhere faithfully to the poetic metres of Horace. Such pieces were used by humanistic schoolteachers to combine musical practice with a study of classical metrical schemes. Frisius also edited a collection of evangelical songs and psalms in about 1540, which was published by a relative, Augustin Friess. It contained Frisius’s own poem, Der hat ein Schatz gefunden (based on Proverbs xxxi.10) and employed the melody Entlaubet ist der Walde. The popularity of this setting may be seen in its frequent reprints in other Swiss songbooks up to the end of the century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MGG1 (H. Hüschen)

E. Bernoulli: ‘Der Zürcher Humanist Hans Fries als Förderer des Schulgesangs’, Schweizerisches Jb für Musikwissenschaft, ii (1927), 43

M. Jenny: Geschichte des deutschschweizerischen evangelischen Gesangbuches im 16. Jahrhundert (Basle, 1962)

CLEMENT A. MILLER

Friskin, James

(b Glasgow, 3 March 1886; d New York, 16 March 1967). Scottish pianist and composer. At the age of 14 he won a scholarship to the RCM, London, studying the piano with Dannreuther and Hartvigson, and in 1905 a composition scholarship with Stanford. His compositions, notably the Piano Quintet (1907), received early recognition. He taught at the Royal Normal College for the Blind (1909–14) and in 1914 went to the USA to teach the piano at the DKG Institute of Musical Art and later at the Juilliard School. A noted Bach interpreter, he gave the first American performance of the Goldberg Variations (1925). His compositions include piano, choral and chamber works, but his development as a composer was curtailed by teaching responsibilities. In 1944 he married the English composer and viola player Rebecca Clarke.

WRITINGS

The Principles of Pianoforte Practice (New York, 1921/R)

with I. Freundlich: Music for the Piano: a Handbook of Concert and Teaching Material from 1580 to 1952 (New York, 1954/R)

JOHN G. DOYLE/R

Friss [friska]

(Hung.).

A quick section of Verbunkos or Csárdás dance music.

Fritsch, Balthasar

(b Leipzig, 1570–80; d ?Leipzig, in or after 1608). German composer and violinist. He may have been one of the Leipzig Stadtpfeifer, a privileged body to whom violinists were added about 1600. Certainly he moved in their circle and enjoyed the patronage of the von Walwitz family. The 12 pavans and 21 galliards that make up his surviving 1606 volume are light and spirited, and are part of the vogue for ensemble dance music precipitated by the influx of English comedians and viol players to Germany. The pavans are characterized by birdcalls, echoes and extensive motivic unification. The galliards, though less contrapuntal, also contain motivic play. His 12 madrigals (1608) are more serious pieces full of contrapuntal skill and the latest Italian dialogue technique; he used the same style of writing in his German songs. His music formed part of a tradition in Leipzig from which emerged collections such as Schein’s Venus Kräntzlein (1609) and Banchetto musicale (1617).

WORKS

Primitiae musicales, [12] paduanas et [21] galiardas, 4 insts (Frankfurt, 1606), ed. H. Mönkemeyer, Zeitschrift für Spielmusik, no.285 (1963), 1–10

Neue kunstreiche und lustige Pavanen und Gaillarden, 4 insts (Frankfurt, 1606), lost

[12] Newe deutsche Gesänge, nach Art der welschen Madrigalien, 5vv (Leipzig, 1608)

Lute transcr., 1600^6

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WaltherML

R. Eitner: ‘Deutsche Meister’, MMg, xx (1888), 127–8

R. Wustmann: Musikgeschichte Leipzigs, i: Bis zur Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1909), 256–7

L. Moe: Dance Music in Printed Italian Lute Tablature from 1507 to 1611 (diss., Harvard U., 1956)

E. FRED FLINDELL