Bernardo Storace

Bernardo Storace (fl. 1664) was an Italian composer. Almost nothing is known about his life; his only surviving collection of music contains numerous variation sets and represents a transitory stage between the time of Girolamo Frescobaldi and that of Bernardo Pasquini.

Life

Very little is known about his life, except that in 1664 he served as Vice-''Maestro di cappella'' to the senate of Messina. This fact is mentioned on the title page of ''Selva di varie compositioni d'intavolatura per cimbalo ed organo'', the single surviving collection of Storace's music, which is also the only source of information on the composer. Messina was twice devastated by earthquakes, in 1783 and in 1908, so archival research is impossible. Given that ''Selva di varie compositioni'' was published in Venice and the music is stylistically somewhat more related to that of northern Italian composers, it is possible that Storace was originally from the north of Italy.

Works

Storace's main interest in ''Selva di varie compositioni'' is the variation form. Particularly notable are the four passacaglias, which contain, in total, 320 representations of the descending tetrachord. Two of these works are split into several sections connected by modulatory passages: ''Passagagli sopra D sol re per #'' contains four sections (D major, A major, E major, and B minor; a total of 91 variations) and ''Passagagli sopra Fe fa ut per b'' three (F minor, B-flat minor and E-flat major; a total of 72 variations). The single chaconne included in the collection also comprises variations on a four-bar pattern.

The rest of the variation sets tend to feature longer patterns, up to 24 bars in ''Aria sopra la Spagnoletta''. The theme of the latter piece is, curiously, not related to Frescobaldi's ''Spagnoletta''; it is only found in a 16th-century Florentine manuscript. Storace uses a transposed version of it and produces six variations with very brief connecting passages between them. A similar situation is observed in ''Partita sopra il Cinque passi'': there are fifteen variations on a six-bar theme, connected by brief transitions, and the theme is again not related to the more well-known ''Cinquepassi'' of ''The Mulliner Book,'' or to ''cinquepassi'' as explained by Michael Praetorius in his writings. Storace's ''Follia'' uses the same theme as Frescobaldi's ''Follia'', but neither is related to the famous '' La Folía''. Finally, Storace's variations on the ''Passo e mezzo'' include one on the ''moderno'' variant of the theme and two on the '' antico''; all three sets are examples of mixed variations, for they include sections marked ''gagliarda'' or ''corrente,'' i.e., dances.

Storace's two toccatas are rather brief pieces, less complex harmonically than their Italian predecessors. The two ''ricercars,'' on the other hand, are masterful works–the first (titled simply ''Ricercar'') is in fact a triple fugue, the first theme of which is Frescobaldi's, from the famous ''Ricercare con l'obbligo di cantare la quinta parte senza tocarla'' from ''Fiori musicali''. The last piece of ''Selva di varie compositioni'' is also its most intriguing: Storace's ''Pastorale'' is a very long work consisting of numerous repeated figures, variations, etc., all over an incessant pedal note. There are five sections arranged symmetrically: ''prima parte'' and ''seconde parte'' are followed by an ''aria'', which is followed by ''terza parte'' and ''quarta parte''.

List of works

''Selva di varie compositioni'' contains the following works (listed here in the original order):
*Three sets of variations on the '' Passo e mezzo'':
**''Capriccio sopra il Passo e Mezzo''
**''Passo e Mezzo''
**''Altro Passo e Mezzo''
*Variations on the ''Romanesca''
*Variations on the '' Spagnoletta'' (''Aria sopra la Spagnoletta'')
*Variations on the ''Monica''
*Variations on the ''Ruggiero'' (''Capriccio sopra Ruggiero'')
*Variations on the ''Cinque passi'' (''Partita sopra il Cinque passi'')
*Variations on the ''Folia'' (''Follia'')
*Four passacaglias:
**''Passagagli sopra A la mi re''
**''Passagagli sopra C sol fa ut''
**''Passagagli sopra D sol re per #''
**''Passagagli sopra Fe fa ut per b''
*Chaconne (''Ciaccona'')
*Variations on the ''Balletto''
*''Ballo della Battaglia''
*Two correntes
*Two ''Toccata e canzon'' pairs
*Two ricercars:
**''Ricercar''
**''Ricercar di legature''
*''Pastorale''

References

* Apel, Willi. 1972. ''The History of Keyboard Music to 1700'', pp. 731–733. Translated by Hans Tischler. Indiana University Press. . Originally published as ''Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700'' by Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel.
*
*Hudson, Barton. “Notes on Gregorio Strozzi and His ‘Capricci.’” ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'' 20, no. 2 (1967): 209–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/830787.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Storace, Bernardo
17th-century Italian composers
18th-century keyboardists
Italian Baroque composers
Italian male classical composers
Italian harpsichordists
Italian organists
Italian male organists
Musicians from Messina
17th-century Italian male musicians