References

^[*]Yves Ruggeri (yrug@orange.fr) is an independent scholar with a longstanding interest in Johann Jacob Froberger. He published “Froberger à Montbéliard” in J.J. Froberger musicien européen (Klincksieck, 1998) and contributed to “La musique baroque et les arts au XVIIIe siècle,” an exhibition organized by the city of Montbéliard in 1991. His edition of Froberger’s motets for L’Oiseau-Lyre (1990) was the first publication of the composer’s vocal works. He was given private access to the Montbéliard Manuscript as well as permission to publish the “Memento Mori Sibylla” in JSCM.

[1] The handwriting was authenticated by Peter Wollny. For a facsimile of the auction catalog, including an inventory of pieces in the manuscript, see Simon Maguire, “Johann Jacob Froberger: A Hitherto Unrecorded Autograph Manuscript,” Journal of Seventeenth Century Music 13, no. 1 (2007), https://sscm-jscm.org/v13/no1/maguire.html. For a detailed description of the manuscript, see Bob van Asperen, “A New Froberger Manuscript,” Journal of Seventeenth Century Music 13, no. 1 (2007), https://sscm-jscm.org/v13/no1/vanasperen.html.

[2] The Montbéliard Manuscript has previously been referred to as the “London” or “Sotheby’s” Manuscript. Three earlier autograph manuscripts of Froberger’s are known to survive: “Libro Secondo di Toccate, Fantasie, Canzone, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue et Altre Partite” (1649), A-Wn Mus. Hs. 18706; “Libro Quarto di Toccate, Ricercari, Capricci, Allemande, Gigue, Courante, Sarabande” (1656), A-Wn Mus. Hs. 18707; “Libro di Capricci e Ricercati” (1658?), A-Wn Mus. Hs. 16560.

[3] “Johann-Jacob Froberger 1616–2016: nouvelles perspectives,” Fondation Royaumont, Asnières-sur-Oise, France, September 30 – October 2, 2016.

[4] Its full title: “Meditation, laquelle se joüe lentement avec discretion. faict à Madrid sur la Mort future de Son Altesse Serenis^me Madame Sibӱlle, Duchesse de Wirtemberg, Princesse de Montbeliard.” It is annotated at the end “NB Memento Mori Sibylla?” This piece is assigned the number FbWV 658 in the catalog of the composer’s works:  Johann Jacob Froberger, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, ed. Siegbert Rampe, vol. 7 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2015). A facsimile of the title and first two systems of music as they appear in the Montbéliard Manuscript may be seen in Maguire, “Johann Jacob Froberger: A Hitherto Unrecorded Autograph Manuscript,” 10.

[5] For details see Yves Ruggeri, “Froberger à Montbéliard,” in J.J. Froberger musicien européen: colloque organisé par la ville et l’Ecole Nationale de Musique de Montbéliard, 2–4 novembre 1990 (Paris: Klincksieck, 1998), 24.

[6] For more details on the history of the castle and Héricourt, as well as the terms of Sibylla’s dowry, see Pierre-Frédéric Beurlin, “Recherches historiques sur l’ancienne seigneurie d’Héricourt” (1881), Bibliothèque de Montbéliard, MS 215. A transcription is available at http://www.shaarl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Beurlin_Seigneurie_d_Hericourt.pdf; on the dowry see especially 121–22.

[7] Letter of dedication in Charles Duvernoy, Méditations et Prières (Montbéliard : n. pub., 1669), quoted in Yves Ruggeri, “Froberger à Montbéliard,” 26, and in A. Chenot, “Charles Duvernoy: pasteur à Héricourt et à Montbéliard 1608–1676: sa vie, ses écrits (suite et fin),” Bulletin historique et littéraire (Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français) 41, no. 8 (1892): 433–44: “Si vous voyiez son train, … vous verriez dans son cabinet un nombre de livres rares qui avec l’industrieuse composition de divers airs de musique instrumentale font la plupart de ses honnêtes entretiens: vous verriez une sœur qui aime Dieu et qui vous aime et qui par sa prudente conduite fait honneur à la maison de laquelle elle est sortie.”

[8] The duke of Luxembourg entered Montbéliard on November 8, 1676, on the pretense of accompanying Duke Georg II after an interview. Unable to defend the city, the latter left Montbéliard on November 9 to take refuge in Basel, leaving Montbéliard to the French armies. The occupation lasted until February 2, 1698.

[9]  “Journal historique et autographe du Prince Georges II …,” F-B MS Duvernoy 68, fol. 198r: “Le 20 [septembre 1664], Mr Froberger a eu audience.” Cited (with facsimile) in Jean-Marc Debard, “Le grand musicien et compositeur baroque Johann Jacob Froberger à Héricourt (1664–1667),” Société d’Emulation de Montbéliard: Bulletin et Mémoires 86, no. 113 (1991): 348–49. The entire journal (fols. 185–220) has since been digitized: https://memoirevive.besancon.fr/ark:/48565/xks85p1wlrb6, images 359–429.

[10] Jean-Nicolas Binninger, Observationum et curationum medicinalium: Centuriæ quinque (Montbéliard: Hypp, 1673), Centuria quarta, Observatio 39, pp. 415–16: “Mane diei 6 Maii 1667, in Hericuriana Arce, ubi apud Sereniss. D. D. Sibyllam, Ducĕ Wirtemb. & Tecc. &c. P. M. &c. Viduam, Dominam meam Clementiss. degebat, quae post mortem observari vellet, … Sepulturae locum in Templo Banvillier, inter Belfortum & Hericuriam sito electum, prope Altare, quo crucifixi imago oculos conjiciere videbatur, nominat.” (On the morning of May 6, 1667, at the Castle of Héricourt, where lived Her Highness Sibylla, widow of the Duke of Württemberg & Teck, Princess of Montbéliard and my Most Merciful Lady, [Froberger said with great humility] what should happen after his death … He said that he wished to be buried in the church of Banvillier [Bavilliers], between Belfort and Héricourt, near the altar where an image of crucified Christ seems to turn his gaze.) Froberger had converted to Catholicism on a trip to Italy as a young man.

[11] “Journal,” fol. 211r; Debard, “Le grand musicien,” 350–51: “Le 10 [mai 1667] … Froberger a esté enterré par l’ordre de la Princesse d’Héricourt [marginal note:] La Princesse d’Héricourt a esté à Montbéliard le 15 may. [Elle] regrette fort la mort subite de Froberger musicien qu’elle a faict enterrer avec solemnité.”

[12] Autograph letter dated June 25, 1667, from Sibylla of Württemberg, Héricourt, to Constantin Huygens, The Hague; NL-Lu Cod. Bibl. Publ. Lat 885: “Allein verbleibe ich leider, Gott erbarm’s nur eine geringe hinderlassene Scholarin meines lieben, ehrlichen, getrewen und fleissigen Lehrmeisters, seligen Herren Joh. Jacob Froberger, Keyserlichen Mayestäts Kamer Organist, welcher heut 7 Wochen Abents nach 5 Uhr under werendem seinem Vesper Gebet von dem lieben Gott mit einem starcken Schlagflus angegriffen worden, nuhr noch etlich Mal starck Athem geholt und hernach ohne Bewegung einiges Glids so sanft … Hat mich noch den Tag vor seim Endt ein Goldstuck bebracht, welches er verpitschirt, und drauf geschriben, das man es nach seim Todt dem Pherher lifern solle, wo er ihm ein Grab erwehlet, und mich gebetten soches ja fleisig zu iberlifern, und ihne zu Bavilliers in die Kirch begraben lassen …” (Unfortunately I remain alone, God have mercy, a modest pupil left behind by my dear, honorable, faithful, and diligent teacher, the late Mr Joh[ann] Jacob Froberger, Imperial Chamber Organist, who died seven weeks ago today at five o’clock during his vespers prayers, struck by our dear God with a strong stroke, after which he only breathed forcefully a few times and died thereafter quietly … The day before his death, he had brought me a golden coin, for which it was recorded and written that after his death we should give it to the minister of the church he had chosen for a grave, and he asked me to do it diligently and bury him in the church of Bavilliers …) The correspondence of Sibylla and Froberger with Huygens is published in W. J. A. Jonckbloet and J. P. N. Land, Correspondance et œuvre musicales de Constantin Huygens (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1882), cc–cciv and 44–46; and (in original languages and English translation) in Rudolf Rasch, “Johann Jakob Froberger and the Netherlands,” appendix: “The Huygens-Froberger-Sibylla Correspondence,” in The Harpsichord and its Repertoire: Proceedings of the International Harpsichord Symposium Utrecht 1990, ed. Pieter Dirksen (Utrecht: STIMU Foundation for Historical Performance Practice, 1992), 233–45.

[13] See n. 10 above.

[14] “… ich eben auch ein Leibhaberin der edlen Music …” Sibylla’s letter to Huygens dated June 25, 1667.

[15] See n. 12 above.

[16] Autograph letter dated August 29, 1667, from Constanijn Huygens, The Hague, to Sibylla of Württemberg, Héricourt; NL-DHk Hs. KA XLIX 3, pp. 43–44: “C’est moy-mesme qui ay besoin là-dessus du secours de Vostre Altesse, qui au moins est demeurée héritière, à peu près universelle, de toute la maistrise du défunct, comme souvent il m’a déclaré que qui n’auroit veu Vostre Altesse jouer ses pièces, n’auroit sceu discerner si c’estoit elle ou luy-mesme qui les touchoit. Ce seroit la chose du monde que je désirerois le plus d’entendre; mais à mon grand régret, c’est celle du monde où je voye le moins d’apparence.” (It is I who need the help of Your Highness, who, whatever else, is the virtually universal heiress of all the mastery of the deceased, because he often declared to me that one who could not see Your Highness playing his pieces could not tell whether it was she or he himself who was playing them. In all the world, that would be the thing that I would like most to hear, but to my great regret, it is the least likely to happen.)

[17] The decorative frame of the engraving contains two texts. At the bottom: “Psalm CXI. v.10.11. Die Forcht des Herrn ist der Weisheit Anfang. Das ist eine feine Klugheit wer darnach tut des Lob bleibet ewiglich.” (Psalm 111:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who follow it have good insight. His praise endures forever.) At the top: “Die mit Zimbeln Singen Bitten offt vor Gottes Trohn getretten Die wolt Gott vor noth eretten.” (Those who sing and pray with cymbals often come before God’s Throne. God wants to save them from need.)  Zimbel should probably be interpreted here as Cymbalum, Klavizimbel, or Cembalum,  i.e., harpsichord.

[18] Autograph letter dated October 23, 1667, from Sibylla of Württemberg, Héricourt, to Constantin Huygens, The Hague; NL-Lu Cod. Bibl. Publ. Lat 885: “Von desselben Schreiben, welches mir sehr angenem, habe ich vernomen, wie hoch er mit mir beklaget den Verlust meines lieben und aller ehrenwertesten Lehrmeisters seligen Todt, welchen ich noch däglich hertzlich betraure, wan ich bedencke was Kunst und Geschicklichkeit mit ihme abgestorben …” (From your letter I have gathered how highly you deplore with me the loss of my dear and most worthy honorable master and teacher, whom I still mourn daily with all my heart, when I consider what art and what great skills have died with him …)

[19] See n. 4 above.

[20] This has been suggested by David Schulenberg in “Recent Editions and Recordings of Froberger and Other Seventeenth-Century Composers,” Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 13, no. 1 (2007), par. 3.5, http://www.sscm-jscm.org/v13/no1/schulenberg.html.

[21] I am grateful to Laurent Guillo who kindly gave me all the information related to bindings and gold stamps in this chapter. See also the physical description of the manuscript in Sotheby’s auction catalog, in Maguire, “Johann Jacob Froberger: A Hitherto Unrecorded Autograph Manuscript,” 3 and 9.

[22] A-Wn Mus. Hs. 16883: “Stärcke der Lieb/ Bey dem h. Grab in Ihrer Mayestätt Frauen Frauen Maria Antonia königlichen Gesponβ in Hispanien Ertz Hertzogin zu Osterreich Hoff-Capellen Teutsch gesungener Vorgestelt mit der Music vom Johann Heinrich Schmelzer der Römischen kayserlichen Mayestätt angesetzten Capellmaister. In Jahr 1677.” This manuscript contains works in memory of Maria-Anna of Spain (1606–1646), Infanta of Spain and mother of Leopold I.

[23] A-Wn Mus. Hs. 2451: “Distinta specificatione. Dell’Archivio Musicale per il Servizio della Cappella, e Camera Cesarea Prima Delle compositioni per Chiesa e Camera Della Sacra Ces:^a Real Maestà di Leopoldo Aug:^mo Imperat:^re.”  This manuscript contains musical works from the courts of Ferdinand III and Leopold I.

[24] A-Wn Mus. Hs. 18710: “Di Sua Maesta Cesarea Leopoldo Primo Arie.”

[25] See Van Asperen, “A New Froberger Manuscript,” par. 3.1, 3.3, 3.4.

[26] Froberger’s letter to Huygens of September 1 is lost, but we have the response—a letter (scribal copy with autograph postscript) dated October 8, 1666, from Constanijn Huygens, The Hague, to Johann Jacob Froberger, Héricourt; NL-DHk Hs. KA XLVIII, fol. 68r–v: “Adesso che per l’ultima sua, scritta in Héricourt il primo di Settembre, vedo che Vostra Signoria sta per tornarsi in breve alla Corte Cesarea, non ho più voluto differire di renderle quelle gratie che confesso d’avergli per la communicatione di tante eccelentissime produttioni.” (Since I learned from your letter dated September 1 in Héricourt, that you will soon return to the imperial court, I did not want to wait any longer to tell you how much I thank you for sending me those wonderful compositions.)

[27] This Afligée is certainly a reference to Sibylla’s loss of her husband.

[28] Letter of October 23, 1667, from Sibylla of Württemberg to Constantijn Huygens: “… und mir seiter schon so viel Sachen under Gesicht und Handen komen, das ich seines herlichen sinreichen Geistes und getrewer Lernung wol von Nöten hete, und weitern Berichts bederfte, und gegen ihme nuhr wie ein unmündiges Künd oder Conterfait gegen dem lebendigen Original zu rechnen.” (… and since then, so many pieces have come to my sight and hands for which I truly needed his fanciful spirit and faithful teaching, and I wanted from him further guidance; compared to him, I am only a helpless child, a pale copy of the living original.)

[29] As Bob van Asperen writes (“A New Froberger Manuscript,” par. 6.2), “The Méditation for Sibylla … and the Tombeau for Leopold Friedrich … show a surprising departure from Froberger’s known compositions in these genres. The composer seems suddenly to indulge in a lavish and meditative jeu coulé, abandoning his earlier rhetorical style.”

[30] Letter of October 23, 1667, from Sibylla of Württemberg to Constantijn Huygens: “Seine edle Compositiones habe ich so lieb und wehrt, das ich sie so lang ich lebe nit kan oder begehre aus Handen zu lassen. Dan ich’s ihme auch so oft und viel auf seinen Begeren versprochen niemanden nichts zu geben, oder wan ich ja jemanden was geben wolte, mechte ich von den 2 ersten Operibus was zukomen lassen.” (His noble compositions I love and treasure so much, that as long as I live, I cannot and do not want to let them out of my hands. Furthermore, at his request, I have always promised not to give them to anybody, or if I would ever do so, it should be from the first two books.)

[31] It is perhaps worth mentioning here that that Sibylla was great-grandaunt of Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg, to whom C.P.E. Bach dedicated his “Württemberg” Sonatas, Wq 49, published in 1744. Might C.P.E. and Carl Eugen have had access to Sibylla’s collection of music by Froberger?

[32] We know from the manuscript D-Bsa SA 4450 that the “Memento Mori Froberger” was written in Paris in May 1660. There it is entitled “Meditation, faicte sur ma Mort future, la quelle se joüe lentement avec discretion à Paris le 1 may anno 1660.” Johann Jacob Froberger, Toccaten, Suiten, Lamenti: Die Handschrift SA 4450 der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, facsimile and transcription, ed. Peter Wollny and the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2004). 63.

[33] In the score found in the Appendix, my editorial measure numbers mark the progression of semibreves (whole notes). There are generally two semibreves within each notated bar. Apart from the transposition of the upper staff to treble clef, the notation in the transcription (especially the handling of accidentals) follows seventeenth-century practice. On the “scripsi” sign (+s+) after the title and at the end of the score, see Van Asperen, “A New Froberger Manuscript,” chap. 7.

[34] Dictionnaire historique-portatif des ordres religieux et militaires … (Amsterdam: M.-M. Rey, 1769), 265.

[35] Rebecca Cypess, in “Memento Mori Froberger? Locating the Self in the Passage of Time,” Early Music 40, no. 1 (2012): 45–54, places Froberger’s Méditation on his own future death within the culture of meditative prayer in France, seeing it as a vehicle for suspending time in order to contemplate death.

[36] Jan de Saint-Samson, Meditations pour les retraittes ou exercises de dix jours (Rennes: la veuve Yvon, 1655), https://www.google.com/books/edition/M%C3%A9ditations_pour_les_retraites_ou_exerc/2_p2stcfumcC?hl,  excerpts from Méditation 13: “De la Mort,” 133 and 136.

[37] Jean-Nicolas Binninger, Observationum: “Temperamenti eucrati, Horas (ut vocant) suas mane & vespere diligentissimè recitare obambulando solitus, interturbari se à nemine patiebatur. Promptum & consuetum effatum erat: Vigilitate & orate, nam nescitis horam, (ut ego vel centies ex ejus ore prolatum audivi).” (Even-tempered, he used to recite his Hours (as the prayers are called) diligently every morning and afternoon while walking about; he suffered no one to disturb him. He regularly repeated this exhortation: watch and pray, for you do not know when your time will come—as I have heard uttered from his mouth a hundred times.)

[38] “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour”(Matthew 25:13); “Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come” (Mark 13:33).

[39] Rebecca Cypess gives a somewhat different interpretation of the question mark, suggesting it asked “whether a suspension of time could, like a predictable ticking clock, serve as a sufficient reminder of death.” Cypess, “Memento Mori Froberger?,” 51.

[40] For detailed studies of Froberger’s use of this term, see Howard Schott, “Parameters of Interpretation in the Music of Froberger,” in J.J. Froberger musicien européen: colloque organisé par la ville et l’Ecole Nationale de Musique de Montbéliard, 2–4 novembre 1990 (Paris: Klincksieck, 1998), 99–120; Markus Grassl, “Froberger der Diskrete,” in “Avec discrétion”: Rethinking Froberger, ed. Markus Grassl and Andreas Vejvar (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2018), 11–51; and David Schulenberg, “Expression and Discrétion: Froberger, Bach and Performance,” annotated version of “Keynote Lecture Recital” given at Hong Kong Baptist University on November 2, 2016, https://faculty.wpenginepowered.com/david-schulenberg/files/2021/02/froberger_discretion_r2.pdf, in a folder of files dated February 2021. See also Akira Ishii’s article in this issue, par. 7.1.

[41] Sébastien de Brossard, Dictionnaire de musique (Paris: C. Ballard, 1703), https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8623304q, s.v. “Discreto”: “discretement, avec modération & sagesse, sans aller trop vite, ny trop lentement, sans pousser trop, ny trop peu la Voix” (discreetly, with moderation and wisdom, going neither too fast nor too slow, without pushing the voice too much or too little).

[42] Johann Mattheson, Der Vollkommene Capellmeister (Hamburg: C. Herold, 1739), https://imslp.org/wiki/Der_vollkommene_Capellmeister_(Mattheson,_Johann), p. 89: “Man pfeget sonst bey dergleichen [Toccate & Fantaisie] Sachen wol die Worte zu schreiben: ceci se joue à discretion, oder im Italienischen: con discrezione, um zu bemercken, daß man sich an den Tact gar nicht binden dürfte; sondern nach Belieben bald langsam bald geschwinde spielen möge. Ausser Froberger, der zu seinen Zeiten sehr berühmt gewesen und absonderlich in dieser Schreib-Art viel gethan hat, finden sich noch ein Paar fleißige Fantasten …” (In the case of things of this sort [toccatas and fantasies], one probably writes these words, “ceci se joue à discretion,” or in Italian, “con discrezione,” to point out that one does not keep strictly to the tempo but rather may play now slowly, now quickly, as the spirit moves him. Besides Froberger, who in his time was very famous and did much specifically in this style of writing, there were a few other active fantasists …)

[43] “Tombeau fait à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancheroche, lequel se joüe fort lentement à la discretion sans observer aucune mesure” (FbWV 632), A-Wm Ms. XIV 743; facsimile of title and incipit in Schulenberg, “Expression and Discrétion,” ex. 15. The piece also appears in D-Bsa SA 4450; no autograph survives. François Couperin later clarified the definitition of “mesure”: “Je trouve que nous confondons la mesure avec ce qu’on nomme cadence, ou mouvement. Mesure dèfinit la quantité, et l’ègalité des tems: et Cadence, est proprement L’esprit, et L’ame qu’il faut y joindre.” (I find that we confuse Mesure, with what is called Cadence, or Mouvement. Mesure defines the number and equality of beats: Cadence is literally the spirit and the soul which must be added to it.) François Couperin, L’art de toucher le Clavecin (Paris: author, 1716; 2nd ed., 1717), 40.

[44] Schulenberg, “Expression and Discrétion,” [15]–[16].

[45] Letter of October 23, 1667, from Sibylla of Württemberg to Constantijn Huygens: “Wolte gern das ‘Memento mori Froberger’ bey ihme schlagen, so guet mir müglich were. Der Organist zu Cöllen, Caspar Grieffgens, schlagt selbiges Stück auch, und hat es von seiner Handt gelernt, Grif vor Grif. Ist schwer aus den Notten zu finden. Habe es mit sonderlichem Fleis darum betracht, wiewol es deutlich geschriben. Und bleibe auch des Hern Grieffgens seiner Meinung, das wer die Sachen nit von ihme Hern Froberger seliger gelernet, unmüglich mit rechter Discretion zuschlagen, wie er sie geschlagen hat.” (I would like to play for you the “Memento Mori Froberger” as well as I can. Caspar Grieffgens, the organist of Cologne, also plays this piece, and learned it note by note from [Froberger’s] hand. It is difficult to figure out from the notation. I have studied it with exceptional diligence, although it has been notated clearly, and I agree with Mr Grieffgens’s opinion that whoever has not learned the pieces from the late Froberger himself could not possibly play them with the right discrétion, as he himself played them.)

[46] In terminology borrowed from lutenists, the port de voix approached from above was called a roulade simple, while the one approached from below was called a chute simple (a reference to the falling motion of the lutenist’s finger). See Anne Chapelin-Dubar, Les préludes non mesurés de Louis Couperin, vols. 1–2 (Charnay-lès-Mâcon: Editions Robert Martin, 2013), 83.

[47] At the endings of the “Lamento sopra la dolorosa perdita della Real Maèsta di Ferdinando IV Rè de Romani” from Suite XII (FbWV 612) and the “Allemande faite sur le Subjet d’un Chemin Montaigneux” from Suite XVI (FbWV 616), Froberger uses slurs to indicate a shift between the left and right hands.

[48] Schott, “Parameters of interpretation,” 110.

[49] Glen Wilson, “The Other M^r Couperin,” Early Keyboard Journal 30 (2013): 6–25.

[50] In Exx. 7, 8, 9, and 10, the excerpts from Couperin’s preludes are taken from Louis Couperin, Pièces de clavecin, ed. Paul Brunold, rev. Davitt Moroney (Monaco: L’Oiseau-Lyre, 1985).

[51] The most explicit example is of course the “Prélude de Mr Couperin à l’imitation de Mr Froberger,” Parville Manuscript, US-BEm MS 778, pp. 79–89.

[52] Van Asperen, “A New Froberger Manuscript,” par. 6.5.

[53] See Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis sive ars magna consoni et dissoni (Rome: Corbelletti, 1650; reprint, Hildesheim: Olms, 1970), https://archive.org/embed/athanasiikircherkirc. Kircher published Froberger’s “Phantasia Supra Vt, re, mi, fa, sol, la, Clavicymbalis accomodata” (FbWV 201) in Misurgia Universalis, book 6, 466–75.

[54] For a detailed study of rhetorical figures in German music theory, see Dietrich Bartel, Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997).

[55] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 5, 366: “Quemadmodum enim Rhetor artificioso troporum contextu Auditorem movet nunc ad risum modo ad planctum, subinde ad misericordiam, nonnunquam ad indignationem & iracundiam, interdum ad amorem, pietatem & iustitiam, aliquando ad contrarios hisce affectus, ita & Musica artificioso clausularum sive periodorum harmonicarum contextu.”

[56] René Descartes, Traité de la mécanique (Paris: Charles Angot, 1668), 96, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57508t: “Et cette sorte de figure dans la Musique a du rapport à celles de Rethorique, dont on use dans le discours.… Mais pour ce qui regarde ces contre-points, ou autres Figures, dans lesquelles on observe un semblable artifice, … ils n’appartiennent pas autrement à la Musique, que les acrostiches ou vers retrogrades, & autres semblables jeux de l’esprit sont à la poësie; qui, comme nôtre Musique, a esté inventée pour nous recréer l’esprit, & exciter en l’ame diverses passions.” (And this sort of figure in music is related to those of rhetoric that we use in speech.… But as for counterpoints and other figures in which we see similar artifice, … they are to music what acrostics or verses in retrograde and other similar mind games are to poetry, which, like our music, was invented to entertain our minds and arouse various passions in our souls.)

[57] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 8, 142: “Ita & Musica pro vario periodorum contextu tonorumque diversa dispositione, varie animum agitat. Mouet autem animam nostram per tres potissimos affectus, … Secundus remissionis affectus generalis cum tardo motu gaudeat, generat affectus pietatis, amoris in Deum, item constantiae, modestiae, severitatis, castiraris, religione, contemptus rerum humanarum, adamorem denique caelestiu movet.” (Thus music, according to the context of different periods and various arrangements of tones, moves the mind in different ways. It moves our soul through three main emotions … The second one enjoys a general feeling of serenity with slow tempo; it generates feelings of piety, love for God, constancy, modesty, seriousness, chastity, religion, contempt for worldly affairs, and finally it moves us to love heavenly things.)

[58] This is of course not the ornament that theorists called anticipatio; see Bartel, Musica Poetica, 192–95.

[59] According to the harmonics of a resonant string, D’Alembert establishes that D (fifth) and B (major third) are the most consonant note for G, followed by C and E‑flat because G represents their fifth and major third respectively. Jean le Rond D’Alembert, Elémens de musique théorique et pratique, suivant les principes de M. Rameau, éclaircis, développés et simplifiés, nouvelle éd. (Lyon: Bruyset, 1779), 22–23, https://books.google.com/books?id=dOfyPpqZ2DEC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&hl=en.

[60] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 8, 145: “Anabasis, sive Ascensio est periodus harmonica, quam exaltationem, ascensionem vel res altas & eminentes exprimimus, ut illud Moralis (Ascendens Chriftus in altum &c.).” (The anabasis or ascensio is a musical passage by which we express exalted, rising, or elevated ideas, as in Morales’s Christ ascended into heaven etc.)

[61] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 8, 145: “Catabasis sive descensus periodus harmonica est, qua oppositos priori affectus pronunciamus servitutis, humilitatis, depressionis affectibus, atque, infinis rebus exprimendis, ut illud Massaini. Ego autem humiliatus sum nimis, & illud Massentii, descenderunt in infernum viventes.” (The catabasis or descensus is a musical passage by which we express opposite feelings to the former [i.e., anabasis], [such as] subjugation, humility, dispiritedness, and lowly and base affections, as in Massainus’s I am very humbled and Massentius’s They descended into hell.)

[62] It might be pointed out that the “Memento Mori Froberger” has a tormented beginning as well.

[63] Van Asperen, “A New Froberger Manuscript,” par. 6.6.

[64] This figure recalls the descending and ascending lines in sixteenth notes that begin the second part of the Tombeau for Blancrocher.

[65] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 8, 145: “Antitheton, sive Contrapositum, est periodus harmonica, quam oppositos affectus exprimimus; sicut; illud Jacobi Carrissimi, quem Heracliti risum & Democriti planctum intitulat, & illud Leonis Leonii. Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat.” (The Antitheton or Contrapositum is a musical passage in which we express opposing affections, as in Giacomo Carrissimi’s Heraclitus’s laugh against Democritus’s lamentation, or Leo Leonin’s I sleep, but my heart watches.)

[66] Froberger placed the Tombeau for Emperor Ferdinand III immediately after the Méditation for Sibylla in the Montbéliard Manuscript; see Maguire, “Johann Jacob Froberger: A Hitherto Unrecorded Autograph Manuscript,” 12. Ferdinand had died in 1657.

[67] In the Tombeau for Blancrocher, Froberger repeats mm. 15–17 a fifth higher in mm. 18–20.

[68] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 8, 144: “Dicitur Anaphora sive repetitio, cum ad energiam exprimendam una periodus saepius exprimitur, ad hibetur que saepe in passionibus vehementioribus animi, ferociae, contemptus, uti videre est in illa cantilena nota: Ad Arma, Ad Arma; &c.” (We speak of anaphora or repetitio when a period is reproduced several times to express emphasis. This is often used in violent passions of the mind, rage, or contempt, as in the famous song: To Arms, To arms; etc.)

[69] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 8, 145: “Vocatur Climax sive gradatio, esque periodus harmonica gradatim ascendens adhiberique solet, in affectibus amoris divini & desideriis patriae coelestis, ut illud Orlandi: Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarium.” (The climax or gradatio is a musical passage ascending by step, and is usually employed in affections of divine love and desire for the heavenly kingdom, as in Orlando’s As the deer longs for the springs of water.)

[70] Not mentioned by Kircher but rather by Christoph Bernhard. See Bartel, Musica Poetica, 357–58.

[71] See Bartel, Musica Poetica, 265–69.

[72] Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, book 8, 145: “Repentina abruptio est periodus harmonica, qua rem cito peractam exprimimus, & ut plurimum locum habet in fine, ut illud (Desiderium peccatorum peribit).”  (Abruptio is an unexpected rupture in a musical passage, in which we express a rapidly completed thought. It occurs most frequently at the end of a composition, as in The desires of sinners shall perish.)

[73] Brossard, Dictionnaire de musique, s.v. “Settima”: “La 3. manière est particuliere à la 7. majeure. On pourroit la nommer par Tenüe. C’est lorsque, la Basse tenant ferme un même Son pendant deux ou plusieurs mesures, on fait aprés une bonne Consonance une 7. majeure qui dure quelques fois deux, trois & plus de mesures, ensuite de quoy on monte à l’Octave : & pour lors elle doit être accompagnée de la 4.; de la 2., & de la 6. … Mais à dire le vray ce sont là des coups de Maître qu’on doit plûtôt admirer, qu’imiter.” (The third way is specific to the major seventh. We could call it tenüe. It is when, the bass holding the same sound firmly for two or several bars, a major seventh is made after a good consonance lasting sometimes two, three, or more bars, and it then goes up to the octave: and for this it is accompanied by the 4th, the 2nd, and the 6th.… But in truth, these are master strokes that one should admire rather than imitate.)

[74] Note that Couperin also used of the major seventh on a Tenüe in Prelude 5, system 8, as shown in Ex. 9b.