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• Falconiero, Andrea: 2 Capricci (1650)

Falconiero, Andrea: 2 Capricci (1650)

for 2 high instruments and continuo.

Andrea Falconiero was born in Naples in 1585 and died there in 1656, though in between he worked in several northern Italian centres, including Parma, Mantua, Florence and Genoa. On the performing side he seems to have been primarily a player of plucked instruments. His first surviving publication was a book of villanelle that appeared in 1616. Falconiero published his Il Primo Libro di canzone, sinfonie, fantasie, Capricci, Brandi, Correnti, Gagliarde Alemane, Volte per Violini, e Violone, overo altro Stromento à uno, due, e tré con il Basso Continuo in Naples (where he was maestro della real cappella) in 1650. Linguistically and musically Falconiero´s collection is a mixture of Spanish and Italian elements, as indeed one would expect from anything produced in Naples at this time; there is, for instance, a set of Folias. Stylistically it is also very varied; there are long pieces called fantasias of a kind that had disappeared from Italian instrumental music of this time, which by 1650 tended to consist mostly of variation pieces or sonatas with contrasting sections. Falconiero´s music is also not especially violinistic for its time; we do not generally find the wide-ranging passages across the strings that turn up in the music of Uccellini, Cazzati, and other mid-century composers. So these pieces work very well on cornetts, recorders or other instruments. The original note values have been retained in this edition. The continuo realisation has been kept very simple; it can be played on a keyboard instrument, or a fretted instrument such as lute or chitarrone.