BaroqueGirolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, Italy, more than four hundred years ago.
Girolamo Frescobaldi’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1583👶 Birth
Born in Ferrara in September
- 1597📚 Trainingage 14
Pupil of Luzzasco Luzzaschi, organist at the Este court
- 1600🌍 Meanwhile
Shakespeare writes Hamlet (c. 1600)
- 1607🧳 Journeyage 24
Travels to Flanders with the papal nuncio Guido Bentivoglio
- 1608🎩 Careerage 25
Organist of St Peter’s Basilica, Rome
- 1608🎼 Workage 25
Publishes his first Fantasie in Milan
- 1609🌍 Meanwhile
Galileo observes the sky with his telescope
- 1613❤️ Private lifeage 30
Marries Orsola del Pino
- 1615🎼 Workage 32
First book of Toccate e partite
- 1618🏛️ Landmarkage 35
The Thirty Years’ War begins
- 1628🎩 Careerage 45
Court organist to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence
- 1635🎼 Workage 52
Fiori musicali, organ music for the Mass
- 1637🌍 Meanwhile
The first public opera house opens in Venice
- 1643🕯️ Deathage 60
Dies in Rome on 1 March
- 1643🌍 Meanwhile
Louis XIV becomes King of France aged four
Listen to the music
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How does this music feel to you?
Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Girolamo Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, Italy, more than four hundred years ago. Even as a little boy he played the organ and harpsichord wonderfully.
At twenty-five he became organist of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the biggest church in the world. People say thousands came to hear him on his first day!
His music sounds like an improvisation: it changes mood, speeds up, slows down, surprises you. He even told musicians not to play like metronomes but to breathe like singers.
More than a hundred years later, the great Johann Sebastian Bach copied out a whole book by Frescobaldi by hand to learn from him.
Girolamo Frescobaldi’s instruments
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