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

2. Rome, 1608–15.

At Frescobaldi's arrival the Cappella Giulia consisted of four each of basses, tenors and altos, and six boy sopranos, directed by Francesco Soriano (maestro from 1603 to 1620). Unlike the Cappella Pontificia, the pope's private choir, which usually performed a cappella, the Cappella Giulia employed instruments such as violin, cornett, violone, trombone, organ and lute. Their performances usually took place in smaller venues such as the chapels of the basilica and were by no means always marked by the massive polychoral forces now considered typical of the Roman Baroque. Polychoral music, employing additional singers (often from the more aristocratic Cappella Pontificia), instruments, and a small organ and a continuo player for each chorus, was performed by the Cappella Giulia especially on two occasions, the Feast of St Peter and St Paul (29 September) and the commemoration of the dedication of S Pietro (18 November). The musical repertory of both the Cappella Giulia and the Cappella Pontificia was essentially conservative in character, built on the works of Palestrina.

In addition to the portable continuo organ (others were rented for polychoral performances), Frescobaldi had two larger stationary instruments at his disposal in S Pietro. The older organ, commissioned by Alexander VI Borgia in 1496, was moved to the Cappella Clementina in 1609 and restored. This had a limited pedal-board and one keyboard with a divided Principal, a pieno of nine ranks, two registers of flutes and one of trombones. The second organ was built in 1580 and its façade is now in the Chapel of the Sacrament. In 1751 it had three Principals, possibly at 16' pitch, nine registers for the pieno, 16' and flute stops. Both organs were placed on a screen between two adjoining chapels and sounded into them rather than into the body of the basilica.

The Cappella Giulia paid Frescobaldi 72 scudi a year, and in order to survive he established a pattern that would persist throughout his career, earning supplementary income by service in a noble household, keyboard teaching and coaching, and casual employment in the active musical life of ecclesiastical Rome, first at S Giacomo (1614). At one point his annual income was estimated as 72 scudi from the Cappella, 100–150 from a patron and 300 from teaching and other sources – more than 500 scudi at a time when a good harpsichord could be purchased for 25.

On Enzo Bentivoglio's arrival in Rome in 1608, Frescobaldi joined his musical establishment. Modelled on Alfonso d'Este's concerto delle dame, it included two female singers and a Neapolitan harpist, and possibly the lutenist Alessandro Piccinini, who at least composed music for the ‘Napoletana’. Like their Ferrarese counterparts, Enzo's singers were also expected to perform on instruments; they were instructed in counterpoint and performance by Frescobaldi and a certain ‘Orazietto’. In 1609 Frescobaldi defended himself hotly against accusations that he had seduced and promised to marry Angiola Zanibelli, a singer in Enzo's service in Ferrara who may have performed the title role in Marco da Gagliano's La Dafne. When Enzo's project of marrying Frescobaldi off to Giulio Caccini's daughter Settimia was foiled by the Medici, he increased pressure on Girolamo and his father for a marriage with Angiola. Their intransigence may have resulted in a break between Frescobaldi and Enzo.

In June 1612 an illegitimate child, Francesco, was registered as the son of Frescobaldi and the Milanese Orsola Travaglini (also called Dal Pino). The two were married privately in February 1613, and in July the bride gave birth to a daughter, Maddalena. Their first ‘official’ child, the poet, cleric and art collector Domenico, was born in 1614. Two other children, Stefano and Caterina, followed in 1616–17 and 1619. Frescobaldi and his wife owned (but did not inhabit) a small house on the edge of Piazza Colonna, probably part of her dowry.

In 1613 Frescobaldi returned briefly to instructing members of the Bentivoglio household, in company with other Roman musicians, but his performance was unsatisfactory: ‘S.r Girolimo came here but now he does not come here at all … the poor man is half crazy as it seems to me’. Frescobaldi's last known work with the Bentivoglio was the instruction of a boy singer in 1615, although in 1627 he petitioned Enzo for a role in the 1628 Parma wedding.

Frescobaldi, Girolamo Alessandro

3. Mantua and Rome, 1615–28.

The entry of Frescobaldi into the service of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini has been dated between mid-1610 and the end of 1611, coinciding with the departure of Filippo Piccinini from the cardinal's service and the expiry of Enzo Bentivoglio's appointment as Ferrarese ambassador. Frescobaldi's negotiations with the Mantuan court of Cardinal-Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga, melomane and composer, reflected the changing political fortunes of his Roman patron after the death of Clement VIII. Their opening late in 1614 coincided with a crisis in the Aldobrandini family (the incrimination of two of the cardinal's nephews), and Frescobaldi's journey to Mantua took place while the cardinal visited the Spanish viceroy in Naples. Frescobaldi's return to Rome and to Cardinal Pietro's service was followed by a papal pardon for the nephews. Some time in 1615 Frescobaldi dedicated his Recercari, et canzoni franzese (A.4) to Cardinal Aldobrandini as ‘this first, & tiny child of my weak talent’.

The negotiations with Mantua, conducted by Paolo Faccone, a pensioned bass singer in the papal chapel, began in November 1614, when Faccone wrote to Ferdinando Gonzaga to say that Frescobaldi could be induced to leave Rome for a substantial offer. Frescobaldi expressed his willingness to take part in the re-establishment of musical life at the court of Mantua by proposing to dedicate his first volume of Toccate, already in preparation, to the duke. Their agreement included a salary of 600 scudi, a loan of 300 scudi for the publication of the Toccate, real estate, and a house and provisions for two years. Faccone remained sceptical, reminding the duke of events in 1612 when his brother had succeeded to 800,000 ducats of debt and had resolved to dismiss Claudio and Giulio Cesare Monteverdi ‘when they least expect it’ (‘licenza alla mantovana’). The court sent Frescobaldi 143½ scudi for the Toccate and no travel money, but in mid-February 1615 he was on his way, arriving at the end of the month. Although his playing pleased the duke, Frescobaldi was ignored by the court. He was back in Rome by May and in September refused another offer, finally receiving compensation of 300 scudi; the project was ended by Faccone's death in the same month.

The most tangible result of the Mantuan venture was the first book of Toccate (1614–15, A.2). Unlike Frescobaldi's previous works, printed inexpensively from movable type, this was a presentation volume engraved on copper by the musician and instrument builder Nicolò Borbone (see Morelli, 1988). Frescobaldi and Borbone had already been working together from December 1613. Their contract of January 1614 describes the publication as ‘a work of toccate di cimbalo of 60 or 80 pezzi [single plates]’. The contract stipulated that if Frescobaldi wished to employ Borbone for a performance or for other services the latter was required to go; if he sent Borbone harpsichord or organ pupils, Borbone was to give him half the fee. Frescobaldi was obliged to give Borbone room, food, drink and lessons in harpsichord playing and counterpoint for two years beginning in December 1613. He was to repay Borbone for the engraving with 200 copies of the book, which Frescobaldi could not sell in Rome until Borbone's stock was exhausted. The composer was to keep the plates and could print as many copies as he wished, and on the basis of this Borbone received a loan of 50 scudi. A new contract drawn up the following June reflected the negotiations with the Gonzaga. The volume was now described as ‘25 or 30 pezzi’, and Borbone was to cut the plates in October for 100 scudi. He was paid 50 scudi for work up to that time (34 pezzi; this disproves the hypothesis that Borbone took years to engrave the volume). Frescobaldi's revisions show that he was concerned about aesthetics as well as music. The work was reissued in an enlarged version in 1615–16 (A.3).

In his dedication Frescobaldi described the volume as ‘my first book of musical efforts on the keys’ and stated that Ferdinando Gonzaga ‘in Rome deigned with frequent requests to stimulate me to the practice of these works’. The two versions of the address ‘To the Reader’, the instrumental equivalent of Caccini's preface to Le nuove musiche, provide an extended discourse on the performance of the toccatas.

On his return to Rome and to the service of Cardinal Aldobrandini, Frescobaldi augmented his salary at S Pietro by teaching and by service on special occasions in the churches of Santo Spirito in Sassia (1620–21, 1626, 1628), S Lucia del Gonfalone (1623), S Luigi dei Francesi (1624–7, 1634–6, 1638) and doubtless elsewhere. In December 1617 Cardinal Aldobrandini forced the dispossession of the Frescobaldi house to build a palace. Frescobaldi and his wife contested the valuation and in 1618 were awarded 689 scudi 27 baiocchi, paid in bond-shares (which tied up their capital and implied that they owned no other property). Despite this, Frescobaldi republished the Recercari with their dedication to the cardinal unaltered in 1618 (A.4a) and continued to serve the family after the cardinal's death in 1621.

In 1624, perhaps in search of another full-time patron (he seems to have had no relationship with the Ludovisi or the Barberini, the family of the newly elected Urban VIII), Frescobaldi dedicated his Capricci (A.5) to Alfonso d'Este, Prince of Modena. He recalled his Ferrarese training with Luzzaschi and the fostering of the arts by the Estensi, and references to Ferrara have been traced in nine of the capriccios. The address ‘To the Students of the Work’ contains important information on their performance, especially on metrical notation. Here and elsewhere Frescobaldi's compositional process continued during and even after the printing of his works (Darbellay, 1986, pp.361–74, see Fabris and Durante; Darbellay, 1988).

In 1626 Frescobaldi combined the Recercari and the Capricci (minus their dedications and the variation-capriccio ‘Or che noi rimena’) into a single volume, the first of his Venetian publications (A.5a). In 1627 (the dedication is dated 15 January) he published a second volume of Toccate (A.6), also engraved by Borbone, dedicated to Monsignor Luigi Gallo, Bishop of Ancona and nuncio of Savoy. The nephew of an important cardinal, Gallo was a failure as a diplomat but was an exceptional keyboard player and may have been a pupil of Frescobaldi, who praised his ‘great grace, ease, variety of measure and elegance, conditions necessary to this new manner’. The first of Frescobaldi's two volumes of small motets is lost. The second, Liber secundus diversarum modulationum (D.5), lacking the second canto book, was dedicated on 1 June 1627 to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, archpriest of S Pietro and nephew of the dedicatee of the Fantasie. Frescobaldi continued to serve at the basilica, playing organ continuo in a notable vesper service for 12 choirs at the feast of St Peter and St Paul in 1628.

Frescobaldi, Girolamo Alessandro