Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] Fabbri, Anna Maria

3. Mantua and Rome, 1615–28.

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