From Frescobaldi’s organ works we sample two genres: an imitative canzona, ancestor of the later fugues, and a pair of dances.

Canzona This piece opens with a point of imitation (see page 66) using a theme that begins with long leaps followed by running sixteenth notes:

After four entries of this theme the music comes to a cadence. Then a new theme enters at the top of the texture, this one marked by three repeated notes at its start (see the example in the margin). Frescobaldi immediately combines the second theme in counterpoint with the first, pitting the two against each other until he brings the music to a solid cadence.

Balletto and Corrente Each of these dance movements consists of two phrases, both of which are repeated: a a b b. Careful listening reveals that the two dances are related, especially by their bass lines:

While sharing a bass line, however, the dances also contrast strongly in their meters—the first duple, the second triple. Such metrical contrast from one dance to the next was a basic principle of suites from the late Renaissance on. (Compare the pavan and galliard — see page 74.)

The instrumental music of the early seventeenth century was the precursor to an explosion of new instrumental styles and genres in the late Baroque era. We go on to discuss this in Unit III, after an introductory Prelude chapter dealing with the history and culture of the time.