GIROLAMO

See also:

• GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI (1583-1644)

FRESCOBALDI (1583-1644)  , Italian musical composer, was born in 1583 at Ferrara . Little is known of his life except that he studied music under Alessandro Milleville, and owed his first reputation to his beautiful voice . He was organist at St Peter's in Rome from x6o8 to 1628 . According to Baini no less than 30,000 people flocked to St Peter's on his first appearance there . On the 20th of November 1628 he went to live in Florence, becoming organist to the duke . From December 1633 to March 1643 he was again organist at St Peter's . But in the last year of his life he was organist in the parish church of San Lorenzo in Monte . He died on the 2nd of March 1644, being buried at Rome in the Church of the Twelve Apostles . Frescobaldi also excelled as a teacher, Frohberger being the most distinguished of his pupils . Frescobaldi's compositions show the consummate art of the early Italian school, and his works for the organ more especially are full of the finest devices of fugal treatment . He also wrote numerous vocal compositions, such as canzone, motets, hymns, &c., a collection of madrigals for five voices (Antwerp, 16o8) being among the earliest of his published works .