- Stylus fantasticus
The stylus fantasticus is a style of early
baroque music .The root of this music is organ toccatas and fantasias, particularly derived from those ofClaudio Merulo (1533-1604), organist at St Mark'sbasilica inVenice . A later practitioner inRome wasGirolamo Frescobaldi and his German student Froberger took the style north with him. There was constant flow of Italian musicians north, both to Bavaria and Saxony, such asHans Leo Hassler andHeinrich Schütz and the musicians who had careers in both Austria and Italy such asSances andTurini . The author, scientist and inventor, a true baroque polymath,Athanasius Kircher describes the stylus fantasticus in his book,Musurgia Universalis ::"The fantastic style is especially suited to instruments. It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing, it is bound to nothing, neither to any words nor to a melodic subject, it was instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues".
The style is related to improvisation but is characterised by the use of short contrasting episodes and a free form, just like a classical fantasia.
In Austria the style was practised by the famous "formidable virtuoso"
Heinrich Ignaz Biber and the olderJohann Heinrich Schmelzer .In summer the Prince Bishop of
Olomouc and his court retired toKromeriz Castle, where there were lavish musical entertainments. Ballets such as "The Fencing School" and descriptive piecessuch as "Battalia" or "The Peasants go to Church". Kromeriz Castle then was newly built by the Prince Bishop, the original medieval structure having been destroyed by the Swedes towards the end of the 30 years war.Jacob Handl had worked at the old castle between 1579 and 1585. The discontinuity in musical life and musical training due to the 30 years war explains the originality and the "folkiness" of the stylus fantasticus atKromeriz . Though Bishop Karl was fanatically interested in music, and is principally known in England as a patron of Biber and Schmelzer, he was the driving force behind the restoration of the economy of Moravia after the destruction of the 30 Years War.Many facets of musical modernism were invented in the stylus fantasticus at Kromeriz, such as bitonality in "Battalia", minimalism in "The Peasants go to Church", stochasticism in
Vejvanovsky 's "Bells". What is not always mentioned is that these techniques are used to represent chaos, drunkenness, stupidity, and animal noises rather than as a principal resource.Composers employing the stylus fantasticus
*
Johann Sebastian Bach
*Antonio Bertali
*Heinrich Ignaz Biber
*Dietrich Buxtehude
*Johann Adam Reincken
*Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
*Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky Bibliography
* Kircher, Athanasius, 1602-1680. "Musurgia universalis sive ars magna consoni et dissoni in libros digesta". Romae : Ex typographia Haeredum Francisci. Corbelletti, 1650. http://www.rdg.ac.uk/library/colls/special/featureditem/kircher/index.html.
* http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/kircher.html
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