Pasquini, Ercole (EN)

Pasquini Ercole, *mid-16th century Ferrara, †between 1608 and 1619 Rome, Italian composer and organist. According to A. Superbi (Apparato de gli huomini illustri della città di Ferrara, 1620) Pasquini possessed captivating technique, and before becoming Ferrara’s “first organist”, he was a pupil of Alessandro Milleville, organist at the ducal court (1560–89) and composer of mainly madrigals, both secular and sacred. He taught music in his hometown (including the future madrigal composer Vittoria Aleotti) and for a time (until 1597) was organist at the Accademia della Morte (after L. Luzzaschi). In 1593, his libretto for the favola boscareccia I fidi amanti, written for the wedding of Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa and Eleonora d’Este, was published in Verona. From 1597, he lived in Rome, serving as organist of the Cappella Giulia in St Peter’s Basilica and, in 1604, in the church of S. Spirito de Sassia. In 1608, he lost his position at the Vatican, which was taken over by G. Frescobaldi.

Pasquini’s vocal compositions are in the style typical of the late Renaissance, while his organ works represent an important stage in the process of instrumental music becoming more autonomous and are sometimes compared in this respect to the achievements of G. Frescobaldi. In his canzonas (usually in three parts, with triple metre in part 2), several of which are early examples of variation canzonas, as well as in his multi-section toccatas and ostinato variations (based on models by Romanesca and Ruggiero, among others), the composer introduced a rich repertoire of non-stereotypical figurations. Pasquini’s works, especially the innovative durezze e ligature (a type of composition also found in the works of G. de Macque, among others), whose name derives from numerous dissonances and syncopations, are characterised by sophisticated harmonies. Pasquini’s two correnti, consisting respectively of two and three sections of about a dozen beats each respectively, are among the earliest examples of this dance in Italy.

Literature: F. Waldner Zwei Inventarien aus dem XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert über hinterlassene Musikinstrumente und Musikalien am Innsbrucker Hofe, “Studien zur Musikwissenschaft” IV, 1916; A. Newcomb Frescobaldi’s Toccatas and Their Stylistic Ancestry, “Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association” CXI, 1984/85; J. Ladewig The Origins of Frescobaldi’s Variation Canzonas Reappraised and W.R. Shindle The Vocal Compositions of Ercole Pasquini, in: Frescobaldi Studies, materials from a conference devoted to G. Frascobaldi in Madison 1983, Durham (North Carolina) 1987; D. Schulenberg Some Problems of Text, Attribution, and Performance in Early Italian Baroque Keyboard Music, “Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music” IV, 1998.