Luogo e data di registrazione		Doopsgezinde Gemeente Kerk, Haarlem (Olanda) - 4-6 ottobre 1982
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Gerd Berg / Hartwig Paulsen
	Prima Edizione LP		EMI Electrola "Reflexe" - 1C 069-1466951 - (1 lp) - durata 50' 35" - (p) 1983 - DMM (Digitale)
	Prima Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - CDM 7 63140 2 - (1 cd) - durata 50' 35" - (c) 1989 - DDD
	Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - 8 26533 2 - (1 cd) - durata 50' 33" - (c) 2000 - DDD
	Note		-

GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI The instrumental canzonas of Girolamo Frescobaldi (Il primo libro delle canzoni ad una, due, tre e quattro voci, accomodate per sonare con ogni sorte de stromenti) occupy a rather peculiar place, both in his own œuvre and in the history of instrumental music. At first glance they seem to be of comparatively conventional character, as indeed they are in the opinion of most scholars, but there are also signs of a new approach, a revolutionizing (to put it strongly) of the aged canzona form. Whichever of these two concepts be the right one, there is no doubt that Frescobaldi`s canzonas hardly had a decisive influence on the subsequent development of instrumental composition, most probably because of their lack of overt (and novel) virtuosity, and the preponderance of contrapuntal and structural preoccupations. To assess accurately the position of Frescobaldi’s opus in the canzona tradition and in relation to other contemporary instrumental forms, it is necessary to provide a short chronology of the developments during the century preceding its first publication in 1623 (a date to which we shall return later). The types of composition we should consider in 1523 in Italy were the ricercare (usually for four viols and polyphonic) and the “madrigale diminuito" or ornamented madrigal (Ganassi, 1535). There subsequently emerged the fantasia (1549, M. Giuliano Tiburtino), the canzone da sonare (1572, by N. Vicentino, who called himself for the occasion “inventore delle nuove armonie"), the concerto (1587 by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli), the capriccio (1588 by G. Bassano), the sinfonia (1591, in the intermedii for the marriage of Ferdinando de’ Medici) and finally the sonata (1597, again invented by Giovanni Gabrieli). The old ricercare (for more than one instrument) was nearly always scored à 4; it disappeared around 1600. The ricercares that we still find after this musical milestone are practically all two-part didactic works (for instrumentalists and singers) rather than real musical compositions. The fantasia played a minor role in Italy (in contrast to its English counterpart) and its form was never very clearly defined. Thus we find specimens called “Fantasie ricercari”, “Fantasia capriccio”, or “Fantasia alla francese” (which is no more than a disguised canzona). The total number of publications containing fantasias amounts to only twelve between the form’s first appearance and its extinction around 1615. The prodigious canzone/a (alla francese per sonare) appears in no fewer than 55 collections between 1572 and 1628; after that there is a decline towards its final disappearance around 1650. At first, as the canzona displaced the ricercare, it was usually in four parts, but after 1600 the number of parts (besides the newly invented basso continuo) ranged from 1 to 22. From this moment on we can observe a decisive division between the ensemble canzona of Gabrieli (1597) and the more soloistic type (à 1, 2 or 3 with continuo) exemplified for the first time in G. P. Cima’s publication of 1609. It is to this latter trend that Frescobaldi’s compositions belong. The canzonas in 8, 12 and more parts are in fact no more than polychoral, “stereophonic” versions of the classical four-part model. Both concerto and sinfonia were from the first scored for 1 to 8 voices and provided with basso continuo parts, a novelty marketed for the first time (with ample publicity) by Viadana in his 100 concerti ecclesiatici. These were published in 1602, but the new technique had been developed over the preceding ten years by several composers, including Caccini. Until 1615 the concerto was always sacred and employed instruments as well as voices. It introduced new vocal dispositions - two sopranos and continuo, two altos, one tenor and continuo, etc. - and these various combinations of one, two or three solo singers and continuo had a definite influence on the smaller-scale canzona. This is reflected in the frequent inclusion at the end of concerto collections of one or two canzoni alla francese for specific solo instruments. The sinfonia remained strictly instrumental and very frequently had an introductory function (for madrigals etc.) which it was to retain far into the 17th century and which ensured its comparative brevity and superficiality. Again we see a tendency towards a more soloistic form, one developed in the case of the sinfonia by Salomone Rossi (1607). In general what has been said above about the fantasia also applies to the capriccio. The art of diminution (passegiare) persisted throughout the Renaissance and into the Baroque. In the period under consideration here 12 different tutors appeared in print (in 1535, 1553, 1584,1585,1591,1592,1593,1609, 1614,1620 and 1623), and the practice was largely responsible for the development of the virtuosity that was to become the main feature of the sonata. Launched in 1597, again by Giovanni Gabrieli, as rather massive compositions in 8-22 parts, the sonata rapidly assumed the characteristic forms that would result in its enormous popularity: the trio sonata and the solo sonata, the first specimens of which hesitatingly surface in 1610 with the help of Andrea Cima. It should be stressed, though, that in the first ten years after this publication the distinction between the sonata and the canzona is not very clear, and often completely arbitrary: the six “Canzoni per sonare” mentioned on the frontispiece of a 1613 print of works by Stefano Bernardi turn out to be sonatas in the table of contents, while in a 1621 publication of works by the same composer, where we are confronted - according to the title page - for the first time in history with “alcune Sonate a tre” for two violins or cornetti and chitarrone etc., the table of contents maintains that in reality we are dealing with canzonas! But the year 1621 fortunately also produces some examples of the sonata in the form it would eventually assume, especially the Sonate a tre of Francesco Turini and the Primo libro delle sonate concertate of Dario Castello. Here we have compositions that allow each solo instrument ample opportunity to display great virtuosity and “varii affetti”. In fact these two features now became far more important than constructional coherence. Suddenly the instrumental canzona must have seemed a rather lowly form of composition next to the exuberant sonata, and there is no reason to assume that Frescobaldi, who was renowned as a daring innovator in his keyboard music, did not realize this. Seen in this light, the publication in 1623 (not 1628, incidentally) in Rome of his Primo libro delle Canzoni might be considered a response to the sonata, in the form of an attempt to redefine the instrumental canzona. As an ardent proponent of the “stile affettuoso” (many of the prefaces to his keyboard works bear this out), he apparently preferred the combining of compositional and constructional virtuosity with affetto to a more superficial, instrumentalist’s virtuosity (which, as an eminent player himself, he probably took for granted). This would also explain why in the remaining 20 years of his life he continued to eschew the sonata: his goals as a composer (of revolutionary elan) were out of step with developments around him, rooted as he was so deeply in the tradition that stemmed in a direct line from Luzzaschi, de Rore and Willaert. Frescobaldi’s canzonas were published four times during his lifetime: - In a set of parts in Rome by Robletti in 1623, with a reprint in 1628. - In score by his pupil Bartolomeo Grassi (Rome, 1628); this is more or less identical with the Robletti prints, except for the titles given to the canzonas. - In a set of parts, substantially different from earlier versions, published in Venice in 1634 by Vincenti. One gets the feeling that the 1634 revision perhaps reflects the pressure of developments in instrumental music since 1623: in its sometimes radically simplified basso continuo lines (which create a more monodic effect, as of a soloist with basso continuo) and in its generally looser, more improvisatory structure (achieved by leaving out several passages in the 1623 edition and reordering other material). For this recording we have, obviously, preferred to follow the earlier 1623 and 1628 prints, since they reflect Frescobaldi's original intentions. Kees Boeke, 1983
EMI Electrola "Reflexe"