On Frescobaldi's Chromaticism and Its Background

Author(s): Roland Jackson

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Apr., 1971), pp. 255-269
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 ON FRESCOBALDI'S CHROMATICISM
AND ITS BACKGROUND
By ROLAND JACKSON

UGUST AMBROS was among the first to draw attention to Fres-

A cobaldi's unusual chromaticism, remarking that "he occasionally
burned his fingers, but often succeeded in creating the most powerful of
effects." ' Here one observes already that blend of fascination and puzzle-
ment that has typified descriptions ever since. Frescobaldi's technique has
been characterized as "bold," "sensitive," or "revolutionary," but little
attempt has been made to analyze it or to relate it to earlier or con-
temporary practice. An attitude underlies many of the writings that it
might better be looked upon as an expression of personal fantasy than
as an outgrowth of what earlier composers had done. Andre Pirro, for
instance, wrote concerning Frescobaldi's chromatic compositions: "How
is one to recognize in these vague experiments, which so captivate us, the
outcome of the problem so neatly posed by Vicentino? Frescobaldi prefers
the dream to calculation and the strong sensation to the ingenious solu-
tion. He turns his back on savants to embrace practitioners endowed with
good sense." 2
Certainly a wide gulf separates Frescobaldi's sensitively colored chro-
matic lines from the rather stiff models set forth in Vicentino's treatise.
Yet there may have been more calculation in Frescobaldi's art than Pirro
suspected, and more connection with earlier composers. As Paul Henry
Lang has observed, "Frescobaldi's style absorbed the revolutionary chro-
maticism of the early baroque and he used this modern idiom with more
boldness than perhaps anyone else." 3 But what was the nature of early
Baroque chromaticism? And what did Frescobaldi "absorb" from it?
These questions will form the basis of the present essay.
1 Geschichte der Musik, IV
(Leipzig, 1881), 441.
2 Les Clavecinistes
(Paris, 1925), p. 48.
3 Music in Western Civilization (New York, 1941), p. 363.

255

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256 The Musical Quarterly

I
To begin, we might inquire which composers were the most influen-
tial on Frescobaldi. Music historians have suggested, from among the
madrigalists, Vicentino, Luzzaschi, Marenzio, and Gesualdo and, from
among keyboard musicians, Macque, Mayone, Ercole Pasquini, and Tra-
baci. Willi Apel in an early study on the Neapolitan keyboard school '
built up a case for Mayone and Trabaci, in whose toccatas "the har-
monies step beyond the small center of balance and safety, begin to waver
and to move suddenly in distant and surprising directions. A glance at
any one of Frescobaldi's Toccatas is sufficient to show the close relation-
ship between them and those of the Neapolitan composers." 5 Van den
Borren, on the other hand, declared that "the first rank among predeces-
sors of Frescobaldi clearly belongs to Macque, judging by the publication
of volume IV of the [Belgian] Monumenta." 6
In regard to chromaticism, however, Trabaci seems to have made the
strongest impression on Frescobaldi. Ex. 1 can serve as a starting point.
Here are presented three excerpts by Macque, Trabaci, and Frescobaldi
that have a remarkably similar quality. In each a mood was cultivated
directly antithetical to that of most keyboard music written in the pre-
ceding generation (ca. 1560-1590). In place of decisiveness and assur-
ance we encounter a deliberate vagueness and ambiguity: the harmonies
are indefinite and suggestive, the chromatic lines sinuous and marked by
unexpected turns, and the sudden and unpredictable chromatic lowering
of certain tones contributes to an indecisive wavering in the melodic lines.
In Macque's Capriccio,7 measure 5, the note E is pointedly lowered
to E-flat (then B to B-flat, and F-sharp to F), a procedure that seems
the more surprising because of its being combined with a conventional
trill (on the third quarter) which implies a cadence to F (on the third
half). The subsequent avoidance of the resolution, the resulting feeling of
tonal aimlessness, the harmonic succession from a major to a minor triad
on the same tonal degree are aspects of Macque's chromaticism that
boldly intimated a new direction to be taken by his immediate followers.
Chief among these followers, of course, was the Neapolitan court
organist and choirmaster Trabaci, whose two published keyboard vol-
4,"Neapolitan Links between Cabezon and Frescobaldi," The Musical Quarterly,
XXIV (1938), 419.
6 Ibid., p. 436.
6 Charles van den
Borren, Geschiedenis van de Muziek in de Nederlanden (Am-
sterdam, 1949), p. 406.
7 Monumenta Musicae Belgicae, IV, ed. Joseph Watelet (1938), 33.

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 On Frescobaldi'sChromaticismand Its Background 257

Ex. la Macque: Capriccio sopra refa mi sol

m.4

Ex. lb Trabaci: Consonanze Stravaganti (Book of 1603)

m.3

m. r T 1
,1 ,

Ex. Ic Frescobaldi: Toccata Quarta (Book of 1627)

umes of 1603 and 1615 formed the indispensible link between Macque
and Frescobaldi. In the example cited here (Ex. lb), which is taken
from Trabaci's Consonanze Stravaganti of 1603,8 one observes a strong
tie to Macque in the half step lowering of the leading tone on C-sharp.
At the same time Trabaci points to Frescobaldi by placing the chromatic
change within a more solidly defined tonal context. The slow succession
of chords (V markedly underscoring the tonality of D major,
-I4-V-v), to C-natural in measure 5 to stand out the more
causes the abrupt change
forcefully.
Frescobaldi's opening (Ex. 1c) seems to some extent indebted to
Macque's Capriccio, particularly in its use of a stereotyped trill on the
leading tone C-sharp, the resolution of which is unexpectedly negated by
a chromatic lowering. In most other respects, however, it seems to have
drawn its substance from Trabaci. Notice especially the descending line
E-D-Cj-C, with the brief suspension on D; the background of complex
chords: four-note combinations, inversions, sustained dissonances (far
8 Luigi Torchi, L'Arte Musicale in Italia, III, 372. For a transcription of all of
Trabaci's keyboard music see Roland Jackson, "The Keyboard Music of Giovanni
Maria Trabaci" (University Microfilms, Ann Arbor: 1965, no. 64-13, 023), Vol. II.
9 Girolamo Frescobaldi, Orgel- und Klavierwerke, IV, ed. Pierre Pidoux (Kassel,
1948), 16.

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258 The Musical Quarterly

more advanced than Macque's purely triadic basis); the almost identical
succession of the harmony (D: V6-I-v) ; and the well-established tonality,
which makes the chromatic alteration more prominent than Macque's.
These elements he seems to have gained through direct contact with the
keyboard music of Trabaci.
How and to what extent the style of Frescobaldi felt the impact of
the late Italian madrigal deserve a more detailed treatment than can be
accorded it here. I should like merely to single out one rather peculiar
chromatic pattern that appears at least as far back as Marenzio's book of
1587 and that Frescobaldi later enlisted as the basis of certain tonally
restless passages in his toccatas. This was a distortion of the normal syn-
cope cadence (7-1 - 711), ubiquitous in late-sixteenth-century music. In
Marenzio's Se la mia vita 1o this cadence (Ex. 2a) is implied by the 7-1
(G-sharp to A) in the upper line coupled with a quarta consonans on
beat tw-o and suspension on beat three, but is then suddenly thwarted by
the falling back of the melody to G (perhaps as a play on the word
"pauroso"). The pattern appears also in certain experimental keyboard
pieces from around the turn of the century (e. g., in a Durezze e Ligature
by Macque 1' and one by Ercole Pasquini.12 Frescobaldi's later use of it in
the opening of his Toccata Chromaticha per l'Elevatione 13is more exten-
sive than in these earlier examples in that there the pattern is stated three
times in immediate succession, each time with the implication of a differ-
ent tonality (D, G, and C). The strange chromatic waverings, C$-D-C,
F$-G-F, B-C-B-Bb, and the tonal ambiguity attending them probably
seemed to Frescobaldi an appropriate means for suggesting through music
the mystery of the Elevation. The source of Frescobaldi's idea in this
instance seems to have been the opening of Trabaci's Durezze et Ligature
of 1603,"4 where one encounters the identical threefold succession (for
comparison Frescobaldi's excerpt, Ex. 2b, has been transposed a fourth
higher). Trabaci's piece (Ex. 2c), among the most audacious experi-
ments of early Baroque music, caused Pirro to exclaim that "they had a
weakness for strange music in Naples at that time." s The strangeness of
the chromaticism is much enhanced by the augmented triad placed at the
10 Cited in Alfred Einstein, The Italian Madrigal (Princeton, N. J., 1949), p.
665.
11Watelet,
op cit., p. 38 (mm. 1, 2).
12Ercole Pasquini's collected
keyboard works: W. Richard Shindle, ed., Corpus of
Early Keyboard Music, XII (Dallas: American Institute of Musicology, 1966), 14.
'3sFrescobaldi, op cit., V, 18.
14 Torchi,
op. cit., p. 370.
'5 Pirro, op. cit., p. 45.

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 On Frescobaldi's Chromaticism and Its Background 259

beginning of measures 3 and 4. It is this sonority especially that makes

appropriate the word durezze ("harsh dissonances") 6 in the title.

Ex. 2a Marenzio: Se la mia vita (Book of 1587)

- ro - - - so e len(to)
pau

Ex. 2b Frescobaldi: Toccata Cromaticba (Fiori Musicali) transposed up a fourth

E
%
------------
2c T

Ex. 2c Trabaci: Durezze et Ligature (Book of 1603)

K I
I

, Iw
F- ' F

Frescobaldi in this example adopts Trabaci's lines but not his colors,
preferring a softer palette of sonorous seventh chords. Perhaps he felt that
Trabaci's harmony, especially the augmented triad, was too momentarily
startling and detracted from an impression of detachment or of endless
motion. At the same time the change reflects a general tendency.
Whereas early in the century new devices and techniques were more
eagerly seized upon and ostentatiously presented, by the 1630s they had
come to be used more unobtrusively as part of a larger musical con-
tinuity.
II

During the latter part of the sixteenth century a distinctive new key-
board genre made its appearance, the composition based entirely on a

1s Robert Haas defines durezze, as they appear in Trabaci's book of 1603, as

suspension dissonances (Vorhaltsdissonanzen) ; Die Musik des Barocks (Potsdam,
1928), p. 93. It seems more likely that Trabaci associated the term in this instance
with, the augmented triad, thereby distinguishing it from ligature (suspensions).

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260 The Musical Quarterly

chromatic subject. Such pieces were often entitled as such, e. g., ricercare
cromatica, fantasia cromatica, verso cromatico, and almost invariably
relied upon a chromatic subject bounded by the interval of a perfect
fourth." The vogue for such themes probably owed its origins to Vicen-
tino, who in his famous treatise had described the chromatic genus of the
Greek as consisting of two continuous semitones plus the melodic leap of
a minor third.' In numerous late-sixteenth-century pieces, however, the
entire fourth came to be filled in with half steps. This latter procedure
received theoretical justification by Scipione Cerreto, who even went so
far as to proclaim its superiority: "The chromatic genus may be em-
ployed in a different way, that is by proceeding consecutively through five
semitones that together form a tetrachord. This is the true manner of
proceeding in the chromatic genus." 19
Themes of both types (which will here be distinguished as the Greek
tetrachord and the chromatic fourth) are encountered frequently in the
keyboard works of Frescobaldi. Occasionally, however, one discovers a
chromatic theme that is curiously divergent from the regular patterns
prescribed by the theorists - such a theme as that of the Ricercare dopo
il Credo, the Capriccio Cromatico, or the Recercar Chromatico. These
have been cited numerous times as evidences of the more bizarre or
capricious side of early Baroque music. Pirro, for example, says of the
Fiori Musicali that "in the chromatic pieces the desire to surprise is at
times a bit too apparent." 20
But is there not perhaps a more precise manner of accounting for
such themes? Do they not in fact spring from experiments of a similar
nature found in earlier composers? Let us consider the theme (Ex. 3b)
of the Ricercare dopo il Credo,2"which is, of course, actually not difficult
to relate to Cerreto, since in it an underlying motif of an ascending chro-
matic fourth is immediately discernible. Here Frescobaldi could in fact
quite consciously have been influenced by such a madrigal as Quivi
sospiri (Ex. 3a) by his own teacher Luzzaschi, in which at "al cominciar
ne lagrimai" ' an ascending fourth on the same tonal degrees, D-G, as
17 Alan Curtis has compiled a list of such pieces, Sweelinck's Keyboard Music
(London and Leiden, 1969), p. 135. He remarks (p. 136): "it always seems to con-
sist of a chromatic fourth ... .its intervallic boundary seems to remain intact even
when adopted for chaconnes, passacaglias, and operatic laments."
18Nicola Vicentino, L'Antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (1555), p. 14.
19
Scipione Cerreto,Della Prattica Musica vocale e strumentale (1601), p. 173.
20 "L'Art des organistes," Encyclopedie de la musique et dictionnaire du Con-
servatoire, Partie II, p. 1263.
21 Frescobaldi, op.
cit., V, 54.
22 Cited in The
History of Music in Sound, IV (New York, 1954), 15.

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 On Frescobaldi's Chromaticism and Its Background 261

well as the accompanying harmony of successive "dominant" chords (V

of F, V of G) seems clearly to anticipate the thematic material of the
ricercare. A relationship such as this could have prompted Hans Redlich
to remark that "Luzzaschi in Ferrara, who remained in close contact with
progressive artists like Gesualdo and Vicentino [is, with Trabaci] among
the chief spiritual ancestors of Frescobaldi's art." 2"
A bold digression from Luzzaschi, however, may be seen in the in-
sertion of the note B-flat near the beginning of Frescobaldi's theme - an
insertion it might be added that singlehandedly raises Frescobaldi's mel-
ody out of the commonplace or stereotyped. Can any explanation be
offered for this unusual alteration of the conventional chromatic pattern?
Perhaps a clue is to be found in a similar passage (Ex. 3c) from Tra-
baci's Canzona Cromatica of 1603, in which the initial note G represents
a departure from the regular chromatic fourth."5 This initial note was
probably looked upon by Trabaci as a variant since elsewhere in the
canzona he employs the usual succession D-G. The variant was of a type
Trabaci frequently introduced into his melodic lines and that he himself
Ex. 3a Luzzaschi: Quivi Sospiri (Book II a5, 1576)

m. 18 al...

al co - min -ciar ne la - gri - ma i

Ex. 3b Frescobaldi: Ricercare dopo il Credo (Fiori Musicali)

m. 24

Ex. 3c Trabaci: Canzona Franzese Settima Cromatica (Book of 1603)

m. 55

2s Probably for reasons of tuning Frescobaldi was unable to duplicate Luzzaschi's

inflection of A-flat on his keyboard.
24 "Girolamo Frescobaldi," The Music Review, XIV (1953), 269.
25 Fabrizio Fillimarino, a Neapolitan contemporary with or shortly prior to Tra-
baci, composed a Canzon cromatico using also this version of the theme: G-Eb-E-F-
F4-G. For a transcription see Neapolitan Keyboard Composers (Corpus of Early Key-
board Music, Vol. XXIV), ed. Roland Jackson, p. 23.

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262 The Musical Quarterly

labeled in certain of his ricercari as an inganno. What exactly is meant

by an inganno? In the words of Giovanni Maria Artusi it occurs "when-
ever one theme is succeeded by another that does not use the same
melodic intervals yet retains the same names of hexachord syllables." 26
In Trabaci's canzona, for example, the note G (or re in the soft hexa-
chord) could be considered as a substitute for the normal D (re in the
natural hexachord). And in Frescobaldi's ricercare the note B-flat would
be considered as equivalent to E-flat (i. e., mi for mi, since chromatic
alterations at this time did not necessarily affect the basic hexachord
syllables)."7
Frescobaldi, then, seems to have adopted in this example a technique
of change that had previously figured prominently in the keyboard music
of Trabaci, and that offered fascinating new possibilities of freedom in
the handling of melodic themes, and in particular of the stereotyped
chromatic themes that had been inherited from late Renaissance com-
posers. As such it represents a peculiar fusion of tetrachordal and hexa-
chordal theory, of antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The application of inganni to chromatic subjects was by no means
limited, however, to the keyboard music of Trabaci and Frescobaldi. It
seems to have been characteristic also of certain madrigals by Gesualdo
and of works by other experimental composers of the the time." Gesualdo
in Moro lasso (Book VI, 1611), for example, sets the text "mi da morte"
to a twisting melodic subject, E-D-Eb-E (subsequently imitated A-G-
G?-A)."9 This subject (Ex. 4a) seems to have been intended as a trans-
formation of Vicentino's tetrachord, B-D-D$-E, whereby the initial note
E (i. e., mi) became a substitute or inganno for what would have been
the regular note B (also mi). This switch of notes much alters the char-
acter of the original pattern by bringing into it a contrary or contradic-
26 Seconda parte Dell'Artusi... (Venice, 1603), p. 45. See Roland Jackson, "The
Inganni and the Keyboard Music of Trabaci," Journal of the American Musicological
Society, XXI (1968), 204.
27According to Robert Stevenson, Juan Bermudo (The Hague, 1960), p. 45.
Bermudo warns (in 1555) that "beginners must eventually learn that even mi-fa does
not always signal a semitone." Further in Riemann Musiklexikon, III (Mainz, 1967),
23, "Nicht jede angezeigte Erh6hung oder Erniedrigung musste zwangsliiufig eine
Hexachord-Transposition veranlassen."
28Among whom may be mentioned Saracini, whose "Il Lamento della Madonna"
(Musiche, 1614-24) includes a chromatic succession from A to C-sharp, but then
shows the substitution of the note F in place of the expected D. The example is cited
in The New Oxford History of Music, IV, 542.
29Carlo Gesualdo, Madrigali Libro VI, ed., Annibale Bizzelli, Istituto Italiano
per la Storia della Musica (Rome, 1958), p. 71.

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 On Frescobaldi's Chromaticism and Its Background 263

tory melodic movement. That such a change was meant by Gesualdo to

call forth something strange or highly irregular to the mind of the
listener of the time seems to be implied here by its textual association. In a
recent study devoted to the chromaticism of Gesualdo Carl Dahlhaus sug-
gests that the more radical features of this composer's style should be
thought of as linearly, rather than chordally, conceived as has been
customary.30 If, as the present example suggests, Gesualdo frequently
made use of inganni, this would tend also to support such a linear inter-
pretation.
Several scholars have sensed a musical connection between Gesualdo
and Frescobaldi. Redlich, for instance, feels that the Toccaia di durezze
e ligature is "reminiscent of Gesualdo's madrigals," 3~ and Bukofzer that
"the iridescent harmonic language of Frescobaldi can be compared with
that of Gesualdo." 32 A passage by Frescobaldi such as the one cited in
Ex. 4b,33 that makes use of the same kind of inganno as does Gesualdo's,
offers tangible support for such a relationship. On the other hand, Fres-
cobaldi's theme seems even more intimately bound, in both its pitch and
durations, to one (Ex. 4c) found in Trabaci's book of 1615 (here pre-
sumably the priority belongs to Frescobaldi). The connotation the motive
Ex. 4a Gesualdo: Moro lasso (Book VI, 1611)
(ahi) mi da mor - te ahi mi da

ahi mi da mor - te

Ex. 4b Frescobaldi: Fantasia Ottava (Book of 1608)

Ex. 4c Trabaci: Verso undecimo primo tono (Book of 1615)

30 "Zur chromatischen Technik Carlo Gesualdos," Analecta musicologica, IV

(1967), 77.
31Redlich, op. cit., p. 268.
32 Bukofzer, op. cit., p. 48.
33 Frescobaldi, op. cit., I, 31.

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264 The Musical Quarterly

had in Gesualdo's madrigal (i. e., of anguish) may shed new light on the
emotional content of purely abstract instrumental works such as those
of Trabaci and Frescobaldi.
If the speculations of Vicentino served as a fountainhead for late
Renaissance experimentation with chromaticism, he himself also pro-
vided an intriguing example in the polyphonic fragment entitled Jeru-
salem convertere (Ex. 5a). According to Edward Lowinsky, the piece is
a Lamentation that "starts with the motif of the Greek chromatic tetra-
chord: A, B-flat, B-natural, D and its inversion: G, E, E-flat, D." 4
Such a juxtaposing of different chromatic directions in close proximity
must have seemed exceptionally daring in 1555, for it strikingly forecasts
similar passages encountered in the considerably later madrigals of Luz-
zaschi or Gesualdo.
Ex. 5a Vicentino: Essempio del genere cromatico, & delle sue spetie a cinque voci

Hie - ru - sa - lem

Hie - ru - sa - lem

Hie ru - sa - lem

Hie - ru - sa lem

Ex. 5b Frescobaldi: Capriccio Cromatico (Book of 1624) transposed down a second

Ex. 5c Trabaci: Canto Fermo Quarto (Book of 1603)

m. 20

I
- r rpI.
Frescobaldi makes use of a similar series of entries (Ex. 5b) in the open-
ing of his Capriccio Cromatico,35 which (if transposed down a second)
34 Tonality and Atonality in Sixteenth-Century Music (Berkeley, Calif., 1962).
p. 41. The example by Vicentino appears on p. 42. Strictly speaking, the answer is not
an inversion but a retrograde.
35 Frescobaldi, op. cit., II, 34.

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 On Frescobaldi's Chromaticism and Its Background 265

even corresponds in part with Vicentino's voice parts - the second entry,
in fact, is identical. An important difference, however, may be seen in
Vicentino's faithful retention of the pattern of two half steps and a minor
third he described in his treatise, as opposed to Frescobaldi's expressive
departures from this pattern. These alterations of certain tones are again
explicable as chromatic inganni, as the following diagram will illustrate
(here the conventional notes are placed in parentheses above the notes
Frescobaldi substituted for them):

(G) (C)
D Bb B C G E Eb D G E E F

In his insertion of inganni Frescobaldi appears to have relied upon an

earlier and quite similar passage (Ex. 5c) found in Trabaci's Canto
Fermo Quarto of 1603. Trabaci's point of imitation (here against the
Spagna theme in breves) shows a remarkable likeness to that of Fresco-
baldi's capriccio, even in the durational values of the first measure and
a half. Trabaci, however, by relating his entries with the repeated quar-
ter-notes makes his melodic changes - in themselves more drastic than
Frescobaldi's - stand out more conspicuously. These changes involve a
reshaping of the basic tetrachords by moving the lines in continually un-
expected directions, as may be indicated by this diagram:

(G) (D) (D)

D Bb B C G E Eb C G E Eb F

Gesualdo places at the very outset of his madrigal Languisce al fin

(Book V, 1611) one of his most peculiar and oblong melodic lines (see
Ex. 6a),36 which in its prominent downward leap and ensuing half-step
descent represents an extreme departure from the accepted vocal norms
of the Renaissance. A rationale emerges, however, if the first two entries
- E-G$-G-F$ and B-D#-D-B - are considered in the ;rrht of the
inganni, for simply by reversing the initial notes of these entries (tonic
for dominant), each would be reduced to a conventional Greek tetra-
chord: B-G#-G-F#$answered by E-D#$-D-B. Gesualdo has distorted these
conventional forms in a manner not unlike the elongation of objects or
figures in the works of mannerist painters, e. g., El Greco (1548?-1625),
who is nearly contemporary with Gesualdo.
Gesualdo's curious opening may have provided the animus for Tra-
36Cited in Lowinsky, op. cit., p. 44. Bizzelli, op. cit., transcribes the opening
erroneously.

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266 The Musical Quarterly

baci's even more exaggeratedly disproportionate theme (Ex. 6b) in the

Verso Undecimo Sesto Tono (1615). The most immediate resemblance
would be in the initial leap downwards (here a diminished fifth!) fol-
lowed once again by descending melodic movement, a succession of notes,
moreover, whose rhythm is identical to Gesualdo's.

Ex. 6a Gesualdo: Languisce alfin (Book V, 1611)

m. I

Ex. 6b Trabaci: Verso Undecimo Sesto Tono (Book of 1615)

Ex. 6c Frescobaldi: Recercar Cromaticho (Fiori Musicali)

And yet Trabaci actually exceeds Gesualdo in audaciousness by embody-

ing within a single theme two contrarily moving chromatic inflections -
apparently an innovation on his part, although intimated, certainly, by
Vicentino's chromatic inversions in different voice parts. Can Trabaci's
peculiar theme be explained in terms of inganni? Not as readily, to be
sure, as can Gesualdo's. The last part of the theme, F-Eb-E-F, seems
comparable to Ex. 4, above, in that the initial note, F, could be consid-
ered a substitute for the normal c. The first part, however, C-F$-F-Eb
(partially overlapping the second), would require two note substitutions;
both the first and fourth notes would have to have been altered: A (or
G?) to C, and E (or D?) to Eb! Here, to be sure, if this be an applica-
tion of the technique, it has crossed over the boundary lines of recogniz-
ability."3
37 Further support for an interpretation of this sort is lent by a theme in Trabaci's
Ricercare Cromatico (1615), one actually marked "inganni" by the composer, in
which the first two notes of a descending tetrachord appear a sixth lower than nor-
mal: (D CS)
FECADG

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 On Frescobaldi's Chromaticism and Its Background 267

(A) (E)
C F$ F Eb E F
(C)
This brings us to the most apparently baffling of all Frescobaldi's
themes (Ex. 6c), that of his Recercar Cromaticho,38 which in the words
of Bukofzer "seems to defy in its bold intervallic progressions any con-
striction of a mode or key." 39 Again one notices, as in Gesualdo's theme
and in Trabaci's, the strange angularity and the downward leap (here
B-F#) followed directly by descending motion. But what connects it es-
pecially with Trabaci's is the inclusion of two contrary inflections within
the one theme, A-Bb-B and F#-F-E. Does this theme also lend itself to an
interpretation based on the Greek tetrachords? Ambros perhaps already
sensed such a relationship when he wrote that Frescobaldi here "com-
posed what must be called a harshly irregular and quite gigantic ricer-
care on the unwieldy ancient Greek tetrachord of the chromatic genus." 40
As in Trabaci's theme, two overlapping tetrachords might be implied:
A-Bb-B would require a completion by the note D, while F$-F-E would
require a preceding note A:

(D)
A Bb B F# F E D
(A)
If this interpretation is the accurate one, then Frescobaldi's theme
(and perhaps Trabaci's, too) should be experienced in a manner similar
to Gesualdo's, that is, as an elongation or exaggeration of an accepted
musical pattern. As such the theme acquires an added dimension of
expressivity wrought by the unexpected lengthenings and abrupt shifts of
direction that result from the inganni. And the answer: D-F-F?-C?-C-
B-A, would be heard differently from the subject since its alterations
(presumably C-sharp for G and F-sharp for E) stand in marked contrast
to it. Thus throughout the ricercare the theme is continually shifting in
its implied inganni as well as its tonal degrees, like a great shimmering
facade. Frescobaldi has here used chromaticism as the main basis of a
lengthy musical work. A different kind of total chromatic composition,
no less fascinating, will now be discussed as the third part of this paper.
38 Frescobaldi, op. cit., V, 34.
39 Bukofzer, op. cit., p. 49.
40 Op. cit., IV, 441.

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268 The Musical Quarterly

III
Frescobaldi's Toccata Duodecima of Book One 4' has been a source
of unceasing bewilderment to music historians, who have generally sought
to comprehend it in terms of the usual figural toccata. Armand Macha-
bey has simply declared it "an object of astonishment," 42 while Pirro has
written that in it "the mode is obscured beginning with the second
measure, and chromatic motives hold together propitious and strange
harmonic progressions." 43Its almost complete absence of figuration and
continual chromaticism would seem to relate it, however, to earlier
experimental pieces of a similar nature, pieces sometimes called Conso-
nanze Stravaganti or Durezze e Ligature by composers such as Macque,
E. Pasquini, or Trabaci. Trabaci's pieces, rather than those of other com-
posers, probably served as the most direct model for Frescobaldi, in that
his compositional procedure, like Frescobaldi's, consisted of reiterating a
particular chromatic pattern (i. e., using the pattern "motivically") as
the basis of a brief section, thereby defining it as distinct from the next
(even though cadences rarely appear as dividing points in the form).
This principle of construction is actually not far removed from that of a
toccata; for in place of contrasting figural patterns the composer has
merely substituted chromatic patterns, such as the ascending or descend-
ing Greek tetrachords, the chromatic fourths, chromatic inganni, inter-
rupted syncope cadences, each of which is distinctive from the others.
In Trabaci's Consonanze Stravaganti, for example, the form seems to
fall into the following sections:
Measures
1-3 slowly ascendingchromaticline, G-Bb-B-C-C#,
resolvingirregularlyto
the noteA (see Ex. ib, above)
4-9 alteredsyncopecadenceswithdurezze(augmentedtriads)
10-11 contrastingdiatonicpassage
12-15 returnto the alteredsyncopecadences

Frescobaldi's toccata, although carried out on a vaster scale, actually

obeys a very similar principle of design:
Measures
1-9 altered syncope cadences and rising inflections
10-13 descending Greek tetrachord and chromatic fourth
41 Frescobaldi,op. cit., III, 43.
42 Gerolamo Frescobaldi (Paris, 1952), p. 55.
43"L'Artdes organistes,"p. 1252.

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 On Frescobaldi's Chromaticism and Its Background 269

13-17 ascendingchromaticpatternsof a minorthird

17-23 ascendingand descendingchromaticpatternssimultaneously
23-32 descendingchromaticpatterns
32-38 ascendingchromaticpatterns
38-44 slowlyascendingchromaticpatternsagainsta more rapidfigure (char-
acteristicof a normaltoccata)
44-49 descendingchromaticpatterns
49-60 ascendingand descendingchromaticpatternsin close proximityand
with overlappingentries(a kindof climax)

Thus the distance of Frescobaldi's piece from a regular toccata is not as

great as may have been supposed. Perhaps one should call this a "chro-
matic toccata."
In the present paper we have taken cognizance of a number of mu-
sical correspondences between Frescobaldi and earlier composers, par-
ticularly Trabaci. This raises some important questions concerning Fres-
cobaldi's creative process. Ijow extensively did he draw upon the music
of other composers? How may he have used borrowed materials - the
excerpt from Toccata Cromaticha, for example, suggests a process of
transforming (or even of disguising)? To what extent are the musical
correspondences we have noted here simply to be considered common
material at the time?
If, then, Frescobaldi adapted earlier materials this would accord with
the image of him as "famed all over the world for his virtuosity and rare
gift of improvisation," "4 for improvisers usually have a special facility
with the musical ideas of others. In those passages that correspond with
Trabaci's one notices, however, that the borrowings are quite brief, con-
sisting usually of little more than a melodic phrase, a few chords, etc.
These seem mostly to have served as a stimulus to his imagination. And
in this regard it may be significant that he selected those very aspects of
Trabaci's style that were most innovative at the time, such as contrary
chromatic inflections, altered syncope patterns, chromatic inganni. These
Frescobaldi transformed, of course, according to the dictates of his own
style. And comparing his version with those of the earlier composer, we
are provided with a more certain means than hitherto of gaining insight
into the style of Frescobaldi, who until now has been perhaps the most
inscrutable of all the early Baroque composers.

"Lang, op. cit., p. 363.

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