The stylus fantasticus (or stylus phantasticus) is a style of early
baroque music
Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...
, especially for the instrumental music.
Description and history
The root of this music is organ
toccata
Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuo ...
s and
fantasias, particularly derived from those of
Claudio Merulo
Claudio Merulo (; 8 April 1533 – 4 May 1604) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style. He wa ...
(1533–1604), organist at
St Mark's Basilica
The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark ( it, Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica ( it, Basilica di San Marco; vec, Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Catholic Chu ...
in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
. A later practitioner in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
was
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (; also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro; September 15831 March 1643) was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of k ...
, and his German student
Froberger took the style north with him. There were constant flows of Italian musicians north to Bavaria and Saxony, of German musicians south to Italy (such as
Hans Leo Hassler
Hans Leo Hassler (in German, Hans Leo Haßler) (baptized 26 October 1564 – 8 June 1612) was a German composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, elder brother of less known composer Jakob Hassler. He was born in Nü ...
and
Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...
), and of musicians who had careers in both Austria and Italy (such as
Sances and Turini). The author, scientist and inventor, a true baroque polymath,
Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans ...
describes the stylus fantasticus in his book, ''
Musurgia Universalis
''Musurgia Universalis, sive Ars Magna Consoni et Dissoni'' ("The Universal Musical Art, of the Great Art of Consonance and Dissonance") is a 1650 work by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. It was printed in Rome by Ludovico Grignani and dedi ...
'':
:"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. It is distributed in these forms:
fantasia
Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
,
ricercar
A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb which means 'to search out; to seek'; many ricercars serve a preludial functi ...
,
toccata
Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuo ...
, and
sonata
Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...
."
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
Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
.
Johann Mattheson
Johann Mattheson (28 September 1681 – 17 April 1764) was a German composer, singer, writer, lexicographer, diplomat and music theorist.
Early life and career
The son of a prosperous tax collector, Mattheson received a broad liberal education ...
, who was a German composer and theorist in the 17th century, presented his idea about the definition that Athanasius Kircher in his book, "Das beschutzte Orchestre" (1717), cited in Paul Collin's writing:
:"Mattheson rightly affirms that Kircher's stylus phantasticus might easily be confused with the Jesuit's stylus symphoniacus. Both are instrumental styles and are found ubiquitously in the realms of church, chamber, and theatre....Mattheson believes it to be quite clear that the fantastic style is associated with a solo instrument like the harpsichord, violin, viola da gamba, or lute.”
Later in Mattheson's ''
Der vollkommene Capellmeister'' (1739), he stated that the stylus fantasticus is more of a performance style than a composition approach. He believes that playing this style should be like singing and playing at the same time, more improvised rather than just playing the notes on the score. As Frescobaldi mentioned in his book "''
Toccate e partite d’intavolatura di cimbalo''" (Toccatas and Partits Scored for Harpsichord, Book 1, 1616), players should not play strictly according to the score, but imitate the singer more. Mattheson also use stylus fantasticus to describe free sections of Dietrich Buxtehude's preludes: "Now swift, now hesitating, now in one voice, now in many voices, now for a while behind the beat, without measure of sound, but not without the intent to please, to overtake and to astonish."
In Austria, the style was practised by the famous ''formidable virtuoso''
Heinrich Ignaz Biber
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber ( bapt. 12 August 1644, Stráž pod Ralskem – 3 May 1704, Salzburg) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop Karl ...
and the older
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c. 1620–1623between 29 February and 20 March 1680) was an Austrian composer and violinist of the middle Baroque era. Almost nothing is known about his early years, but he seems to have arrived in Vienna during the 1630 ...
. In the Southern Netherlands,
Nicolaus à Kempis pioneered the style in his ''Symphoniae'' published between 1644 and 1649 in Antwerp.
[Kempis, Nicolaus, Nicolaes, a]
at MGG
Composers employing the ''stylus fantasticus''
*
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
*
Antonio Bertali
Antonio Bertali (March 1605–17 April 1669) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era.
He was born in Verona and received early music education there from Stefano Bernardi. Probably from 1624, he was employed as court music ...
*
Heinrich Ignaz Biber
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber ( bapt. 12 August 1644, Stráž pod Ralskem – 3 May 1704, Salzburg) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop Karl ...
*
Dietrich Buxtehude
Dieterich Buxtehude (; ; born Diderik Hansen Buxtehude; c. 1637 – 9 May 1707) was a Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal a ...
*
Nicolaus à Kempis
*
Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli
*
Johann Adam Reincken
Johann Adam Reincken (also ''Jan Adams, Jean Adam'', ''Reinken, Reinkinck, Reincke, Reinicke, Reinike''; Baptism, baptized 10 December 1643 – 24 November 1722) was a Dutch/German organist and composer. He was one of the most important composers ...
*
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c. 1620–1623between 29 February and 20 March 1680) was an Austrian composer and violinist of the middle Baroque era. Almost nothing is known about his early years, but he seems to have arrived in Vienna during the 1630 ...
*
Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky
*
Johann Schop
Johann Schop (ca. 1590 – 1644) was a German violinist and composer, much admired as a musician and a technician, who was a virtuoso and whose compositions for the violin set impressive technical demands for that area at that time. In 1756 ...
*
Nicolaus Bruhns
Nicolaus Bruhns (also ''Nikolaus'', ''Nicholas''; late 1665 – in Husum) was a Danish-German organist, violinist, and composer. He was one of the most prominent organists and composers of his generation.
Biography
Bruhns was born in Schwabste ...
*
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (; also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro; September 15831 March 1643) was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of k ...
Bibliography
* Kircher, Athanasius, 1602–1680. ''
Musurgia universalis sive ars magna consoni et dissoni in libros digesta''. Romae : Ex typographia Haeredum Francisci. Corbelletti, 1650.
Kircher, Athanasiusat the Galileo Project
* Collins, Paul. “The Stylus Phantasticus and Free Keyboard Music of the North German Baroque.” Google Books. Routledge, July 5, 2017. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Stylus_Phantasticus_and_Free_Keyboar.html?id=HCwxDwAAQBAJ.
* Mattheson, Johann, and Margarete Reimann. Der Vollkommene Capellmeister, 1739. Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1954.
* Terence, Charlston. “Now Swift, Now Hesitating: The Stylus Phantasticus and the Art of Fantasy.” Musica antiqua, 2012, 30–35.
* Heller, Wendy. Music in the Baroque. New York: W.W. Norton, 2014.
* Snyder, Kerala J. "Buxtehude, Dieterich." Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed 13 Sep. 2022. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000004477.
References
{{Reflist
Historical sources
''Musurgia universalis''by Athanasius Kircher; page 585 (Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte)
''Musurgia universalis''by Athanasius Kircher; page 585 (University of Strasbourg
alt''Early Chamber Music''by Ruth Halle Rowen; page 10
Baroque music