"Johann Jakob Froberger, Prima pratica"

1.Johann Jakob Froberger was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. He was among the most famous composers of the era and influenced practically every major composer in Europe by developing the genre of keyboard suite and contributing greatly to the exchange of musical traditions through his many travels. He is also remembered for his highly idiomatic and personal descriptive harpsichord pieces, which are among the earliest known examples of program music.

Only two of Froberger's many compositions were published during his lifetime,[1] but his music was very widely spread in manuscript copies and he was one of the very few 17th century composers who were never entirely forgotten. His works were studied in the 18th century (although perhaps not very extensively, and certainly without influence on the emerging Classical style) by Handel, Bach and, extraordinarily, even Mozart and Beethoven.
2.Prima pratica refers to early Baroque music which looks more to the style of Palestrina, or the style codified by Gioseffo Zarlino, than to more "modern" styles. It is contrasted with seconda pratica music. (Synonymous terms are stile antico and stile moderno, respectively.) The term prima pratica was first used during the conflict between Giovanni Artusi and Claudio Monteverdi about the new musical style.[1]

At first, prima pratica referred only to the style of approaching and leaving dissonances. In his Seconda parte dell'Artusi (1603), Giovanni Artusi writes about the new style of dissonances, referring specifically to the practice of not properly preparing dissonances (see Counterpoint), and rising after a flattened note or descending after a sharpened note. In another book, his L'Artusi, overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (1600) ("The Artusi, or imperfections of modern music") Artusi had also attacked Monteverdi specifically, using examples from his madrigal "Cruda Amarilli" to discredit the new style.[1]

Monteverdi responded in a preface to his fifth book of madrigals, and his brother Giulio Cesare Monteverdi responded in Scherzi Musicale (1607) to Artusi's attacks on Monteverdi's music, advancing the view that the old music subordinated text to music, whereas in the new music the text dominated the music. Old rules of counterpoint could be broken in service of the text. According to Giulio Cesare, these concepts were a hearkening back to ancient Greek musical practice.



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