[11] We will not enumerate here all of Frescobaldi's works; we must be content to mention or analyze only those which from the point of view of our present study are most significant.
[12] The following is the complete title: Fiori musicali di diverse compositione, Toccate, Kyrie, Canzoni, Cappricci, e Ricercare in partitura a 4 utili per sonatori. Autore Girolamo Frescobaldi, organista di San Pietro di Roma. Opera duodecima. Con Privilegio. In Venetia. Apresso Alessandro Vicenti, 1635. The volume bears the arms of Cardinal Ant. Barberino, to whom the work is inscribed (the dedication is dated August 20, 1635). The music is written in score, on four staves, each part with its proper clef; the rests are carefully written out.
[13] This precious copy, of 104 pages (like the original), is dated 1714, and preserved in the library of the Kgl. Institut für Kirchenmusik, at Berlin.
[14] With Frescobaldi we find no final cadence other than a perfect major; at his time the idea of a major or minor tonality was still to be conceived, and even for a long time after this distinction was finally made the custom prevailed of ending a piece written in a minor key by a major chord. Thus, in a collection of 371 chorales by J.S. Bach, of which 113 are in the minor mode, 108 of the latter end with a major chord.
[15] Il secondo libro di Toccate, Canzoni, Versi d'hinni, Magnificat, Gagliarde, Correnti e altre Partite d'Intavolatura di cembalo e organo di Girolamo Frescobaldi. Con Privilegio. In Roma, con licenza de' Superiori. 1627. Da Nicolo Borbone.
[16] Ricercata, of which the fifth part must be sung, without being played.
[17] The circle, possessing neither beginning nor end, conveys the impression of the infinite, of perfection. This perfection is attributed to the number three; according to Franco of Cologne, the chief number, because of the Trinity, "vera et summa perfectio." (Musica et cantus mensurabilis, Chap. IV.)
[18] Il primo libro di capricci, canzoni francese e ricercari fatti sopra diversi soggetti et arie in partitura. Di Girolamo Frescobaldi, organista in San Pietro di Roma. Novamente ristampati. Con privilegio. In Venezia, appresso Alessandro Vicenti, 1642. An earlier edition dates from 1626, and is only the collection in a single volume of the works published in 1615 and 1624.
[19] The following is a facsimile of this tablature, taken from the beginning of the sixth Toccata in the second book (pp. 16-20), per l'organo sopra i pedali e senza:
