ABSTRACT
Frescobaldi supervised the publication of his keyboard works according to a master plan in which, to quote Alexander Silbiger, “each publication complemented the preceding ones in creating a comprehensive survey, or collection of models, of styles and genres.” The aim of this master plan was clearly a didactic one, and history was to prove Frescobaldi successful. Not only were his works to constitute, famously, an important influence on J. S. Bach, but, as Friedrich Riedel has stated, “Frescobaldi was the most important teacher of the German keyboard masters in the baroque era.” Except in the case of Froberger, the only German we know to have actually studied in Rome with Frescobaldi, this teaching was enacted through the medium of these publications. Providing an edition that would further Frescobaldi’s didactic purpose in a way that might suit and also challenge today’s musician involved introducing new features that are explained in detail in this study.
