Bernardo Storace
Encyclopedia
Bernardo Storace was an Italian
composer
. Almost nothing is known about his life; his only surviving collection of music contains numerous variation
sets and represents a transitory stage between the time of Girolamo Frescobaldi
and that of Bernardo Pasquini
.
to the senate of Messina. This fact is mentioned on the title page of Selva di varie compositioni d'intavolatura per cimbalo ed organo, the single surviving collection of Storace's music, which is also the only source of information on the composer. Messina was twice devastated by earthquake
s, in 1783
and in 1908
, so archival research is impossible. Given that Selva di varie compositioni was published in Venice
and the music is stylistically somewhat more related to that of northern Italian composers, it is possible that Storace was originally from the north of Italy.
. Paricularly notable are the four passacaglia
s, which contain, in total, 320 representations of the descending tetrachord
. Two of these works are split into several sections connected by modulatory
passages: Passagagli sopra D sol re per # contains four sections (D major, A major, E major, and B minor; a total of 91 variations) and Passagagli sopra Fe fa ut per b three (F minor, B-flat minor and E-flat major; a total of 72 variations). The single chaconne included in the collection also comprises variations on a four-bar pattern.
The rest of the variation sets tend to feature longer patterns, up to 24 bars in Aria sopra la Spagnoletta. The theme of the latter piece is, curiously, not related to Frescobaldi
's Spagnoletta; it is only found in a 16th century Florentine
manuscript. Storace uses a transposed version of it and produces 6 variations with very brief connecting passages between them. A similar situation is observed in Partita sopra il Cinque passi: there are fifteen variations on a six-bar theme, connected by brief transitions, and the theme is again not related to the more well-known Cinquepassi of The Mulliner Book
, or to cinquepassi as explained by Michael Praetorius
in his writings. Storace's Follia uses the same theme as Frescobaldi's Follia, but neither is related to the famous La Folía
. Finally, Storace's variations on the Passo e mezzo include one on the moderno variant of the theme and two on the antico; all three sets are examples of mixed variations, for they include sections marked "gagliarda
" or "corrente
", i.e. dances.
Storace's two toccata
s are rather brief pieces, less complex harmonically than their Italian predecessors. The two ricercar
s, on the other hand, are masterful works–the first (titled simply Ricercar) is in fact a triple fugue
, the first theme of which is Frescobaldi's, from the famous Ricercare con l'obbligo di cantare la quinta parte senza tocarla from Fiori musicali
. The last piece of Selva di varie compositioni is also its most intriguing: Storace's Pastorale is a very long work consisting of numerous repeated figures, variations, etc., all over an incessant pedal
note. There are five sections arranged symmetrically: prima parte and seconde parte are followed by an aria, which is followed by terza parte and quarta parte.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. Almost nothing is known about his life; his only surviving collection of music contains numerous variation
Variation (music)
In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...
sets and represents a transitory stage between the time of Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Frescobaldi was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio...
and that of Bernardo Pasquini
Bernardo Pasquini
right|thumb|Bernardo PasquiniBernardo Pasquini was an Italian composer of opera and church music.He was born at Massa in Val di Nievole . He was a pupil of Antonio Cesti and Loreto Vittori...
.
Life
Very little is known about his life, except that in 1664 he served as Vice-Maestro di cappellaKapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
to the senate of Messina. This fact is mentioned on the title page of Selva di varie compositioni d'intavolatura per cimbalo ed organo, the single surviving collection of Storace's music, which is also the only source of information on the composer. Messina was twice devastated by earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s, in 1783
1783 Calabrian earthquakes
The 1783 Calabrian earthquakes were a sequence of five strong earthquakes that hit the region of Calabria in southern Italy , the first two of which produced significant tsunamis. The epicenters form a clear alignment extending nearly 100 km from the Straits of Messina to about 18 km SSW...
and in 1908
1908 Messina earthquake
The 1908 Messina earthquake and tsunami took some 100,000–200,000 lives on December 28, 1908 in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy.-Quake:On December 28, 1908 from about 05:20 to 05:21 an earthquake of 7.2 on the moment magnitude scale occurred centered on the of city Messina, in Sicily. Reggio...
, so archival research is impossible. Given that Selva di varie compositioni was published in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and the music is stylistically somewhat more related to that of northern Italian composers, it is possible that Storace was originally from the north of Italy.
Works
Storace's main interest in Selva di varie compositioni is the variation formVariation (music)
In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...
. Paricularly notable are the four passacaglia
Passacaglia
The passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre....
s, which contain, in total, 320 representations of the descending tetrachord
Descending tetrachord
In music theory, the descending tetrachord is a series of four notes from a scale, or tetrachord, arranged in order from highest to lowest, or descending order. For example --- , as created by the Andalusian cadence. The descending tetrachord may fill a perfect fourth or a chromatic...
. Two of these works are split into several sections connected by modulatory
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
passages: Passagagli sopra D sol re per # contains four sections (D major, A major, E major, and B minor; a total of 91 variations) and Passagagli sopra Fe fa ut per b three (F minor, B-flat minor and E-flat major; a total of 72 variations). The single chaconne included in the collection also comprises variations on a four-bar pattern.
The rest of the variation sets tend to feature longer patterns, up to 24 bars in Aria sopra la Spagnoletta. The theme of the latter piece is, curiously, not related to Frescobaldi
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Frescobaldi was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio...
's Spagnoletta; it is only found in a 16th century Florentine
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
manuscript. Storace uses a transposed version of it and produces 6 variations with very brief connecting passages between them. A similar situation is observed in Partita sopra il Cinque passi: there are fifteen variations on a six-bar theme, connected by brief transitions, and the theme is again not related to the more well-known Cinquepassi of The Mulliner Book
The Mulliner Book
The Mulliner Book is a historically important musical commonplace book compiled, probably between about 1545 and 1570, by Thomas Mulliner, about whom practically nothing is known, except that he figures in 1563 as modulator organorum of Corpus Christi College, Oxford...
, or to cinquepassi as explained by Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to make better the relationship between...
in his writings. Storace's Follia uses the same theme as Frescobaldi's Follia, but neither is related to the famous La Folía
Folia
La Folia is one of the oldest remembered European musical themes, or primary material, generally melodic, of a composition, on record. The theme exists in two versions, referred to as early and late folias, the earlier being faster.-History:The epithet 'Folia' has several meanings in music...
. Finally, Storace's variations on the Passo e mezzo include one on the moderno variant of the theme and two on the antico; all three sets are examples of mixed variations, for they include sections marked "gagliarda
Galliard
The galliard was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, among others....
" or "corrente
Courante
The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era....
", i.e. dances.
Storace's two toccata
Toccata
Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...
s are rather brief pieces, less complex harmonically than their Italian predecessors. The two ricercar
Ricercar
A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
s, on the other hand, are masterful works–the first (titled simply Ricercar) is in fact a triple fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
, the first theme of which is Frescobaldi's, from the famous Ricercare con l'obbligo di cantare la quinta parte senza tocarla from Fiori musicali
Fiori musicali
Fiori musicali is a collection of liturgical organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, first published in 1635. It contains three organ masses and two secular capriccios. Generally acknowledged as one of Frescobaldi's best works, Fiori musicali influenced composers during at least two centuries...
. The last piece of Selva di varie compositioni is also its most intriguing: Storace's Pastorale is a very long work consisting of numerous repeated figures, variations, etc., all over an incessant pedal
Pedalboard
A pedalboard is a keyboard played with the feet that is usually used to produce the low-pitched bass line of a piece of music...
note. There are five sections arranged symmetrically: prima parte and seconde parte are followed by an aria, which is followed by terza parte and quarta parte.
List of works
Selva di varie compositioni contains the following works (listed here in the original order):- Three sets of variations on the Passo e mezzo:
- Capriccio sopra il Passo e Mezzo
- Passo e Mezzo
- Altro Passo e Mezzo
- Variations on the RomanescaRomanescaRomanesca was a song form popular in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was most popular with Italian composers of the early Baroque period...
- Variations on the Spagnoletta (Aria sopra la Spagnoletta)
- Variations on the Monica
- Variations on the Ruggiero (Capriccio sopra Ruggiero)
- Variations on the Cinque passi (Partita sopra il Cinque passi)
- Variations on the FoliaFoliaLa Folia is one of the oldest remembered European musical themes, or primary material, generally melodic, of a composition, on record. The theme exists in two versions, referred to as early and late folias, the earlier being faster.-History:The epithet 'Folia' has several meanings in music...
(Follia) - Four passacagliaPassacagliaThe passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre....
s:- Passagagli sopra A la mi re
- Passagagli sopra C sol fa ut
- Passagagli sopra D sol re per #
- Passagagli sopra Fe fa ut per b
- ChaconneChaconneA chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
(Ciaccona) - Variations on the Balletto
- Ballo della Battaglia
- Two correntes
- Two ToccataToccataToccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...
e canzon pairs - Two ricercarRicercarA ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
s:- Ricercar
- Ricercar di legature
- Pastorale