Froberger 1649: Suites, Fantasia and a Lament

Featuring

Colin Tilney
Johann Jakob Froberger

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Composer Biography

Froberger studied in Rome with Girolamo Frescobaldi, a great organist of St Peter's, and possibly took composition lessons from Giacomo Carissimi.

Performer Biography

Colin Tilney, the performer, is an internationally known harpsichordist, clavichordist, and fortepianist with many solo recordings, who moved to Canada in 1979.

Instruments

The harpsichord used for this recording is a 1976 instrument after the Ruckers school, made by Hubert Bédard and David Ley in Maintenon, France.

Composer Biography

Johann Jacob Froberger, the composer, became one of four organists for the Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna at age 21, after being educated at the Duke of Württemberg's court.

Composition History

The present recording explores music from Froberger's Libro Secondo of 1649, one of three surviving autograph volumes housed in the Austrian National Library.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Froberger was reluctant to publish his music, fearing it would be badly played, and preferred to guide performers through personal instruction.

Compositional Technique

Froberger used different notations in his manuscripts: Italian thirteen-line tablature for toccatas, score for four-voice polyphony (fantasie and canzone), and modern two-stave notation for suites.