Frottole

The frottole , or frottola in Italian (of medieval Latin “frocta”, cluster of various elements), is a flourishing poético-musical form in Italy at the beginning of the Renaissance. It was the prevalent style of the popular songs Italian during all the 15th century and at the beginning of the 16th century. It was the most important style before the appearance of the Madrigal. The greatest number of frottoles were made up between 1470 and 1530.

Frottole is a generic term and many alternatives can be distinguished, which is inevitable for a musical style which was in vogue during nearly one century. In a general way, a frottole is a composition for three or four votes (and more still at the end of the period) of which the voice the acutest door the melody; voices sometimes being able to be accompanied by a Consort by instruments. The Poème follows in general the diagram of rhymes ABBA and a Strophe of the type CDCDDA or CDCDDEEA , although many alternatives could exist. The poetic forms go down from the form Ballata of the 14th century, whereas the musical forms present a simplification compared to those of the end of 14th.

At the musical level, the frottole avoids the complexity of the Contrepoint by preferring the simplicity of the homophonic music to him, with clear and repetitive rates/rhythms and a linear melody. The style is thus very déclamatif and one can suppose that frottoles were used in comedies and tragedies even if they were not made up specifically to this end.

This musical form was an important precursor of the madrigal but also of later forms of the baroque like the Monodie.

The most famous type-setters of frottoles were Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara, even if certain profane works of Josquin of the Meadows (like Scaramella or El Grillo ) are stylistiquement frottoles, although by not having the name.

Type-setters

The principal type-setters all of frottoles are Italian:
  • Bartolomeo Tromboncino
  • Marchetto Cara
  • Filippo de Lurano
  • Michele Pesenti
  • Michele Vicentino
  • Giovanni Brocco
  • Antonio Caprioli
  • Francesco of Anna
  • Lodovico Fogliano
  • Giacomo Fogliano
  • Erasmus Lapicida

Except for Tromboncino and Cara, one knows very few things on these type-setters if it is not their name which reached us thanks to the Venetian editor Ottaviano Petrucci.

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