“Settimo: rubare”. Nuovi aspetti agogici nelle toccate di Frescobaldi

Frescobaldi’s toccatas have been studied and interpreted by generations of musicologists and musicians worldwide, due to their composer’s great popularity and the extensive circulation they have enjoyed from the very beginning. However, their correct performance is still a matter of vivid debate, confirmed by the great variability of extant discography and the ever-growing number of international conferences focussing on certain aspects. The notation used by Frescobaldi is one of the elements that are still a source of discussion due to its originality and, at the same time, the mystery that characterizes it. Agogics, or tempo management, plays a basic role in the instrumental rendering of the ideas of a musician like Frescobaldi, who — at that time — did not have the graphic means to explain them. To sum up, with the support of the sources and the ars retorica so widely used in the baroque era, this article intends to propose an additional key to penetrate Frescobaldi’s very personal world and extract its truest essence. A series of exemplifications in modern notation, next to the original, will try to assist the performer decodify a graphic system that, even today, might create some misunderstandings.

Keywords: Frescobaldi, Toccatas, Rhetoric, Agogics, Performing