ABSTRACT
Access to concurrent lute and keyboard repertoire enables early keyboard performers to appreciate more fully the forms of expression and musical devices shared by the two types of instruments in the early baroque period. Like Frescobaldi, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger should be credited with the professionalization of the solo performer through his innovative works for chitarrone, more specifically his toccatas. The authors of this chapter discuss transformations in early Italian keyboard and lute performance, reception, and sources, with a special focus on the toccata as a vehicle of innovation and poetic expression. They were inspired by Kenneth Gilbert’s keyboard transliterations of Kapsberger’s lute and chitarrone works, his most recent editorial project. Analysis of the music and of the avvertimenti that preface collections of toccatas by Frescobaldi, Kapbsberger, and also by the lute composer Piccinini demonstrate the will of these composers to professionalize the performance of solo music through poetic techniques of seconda pratica as evinced in the toccata genre.
