This is the first of the six canzonas in Froberger's Libro secondo of 1649. These six canzonas are the only canzonas by Froberger extant today. Froberger's canzonas resemble his fantasias in that they are imitative contrapuntal works focused around a single theme which may appear in a wide variety of rhythmic permutations; however, the themes of the canzonas are much more rhythmically active. Often at the end of a section the imitative counterpoint spontaneously erupts into free rhapsodic passage work much like that in his toccatas. This canzona is the longest of the six: it is only in three sections; however, each section is fairly long and substantial. Each successive section of this canzona displays more rhythmic activity than the section it follows. The first section moves mostly in eighth notes. The rhythm of the theme remains the same in the first two sections; however, the second section introduces a counter-subject consisting entirely of sixteenth notes. In the third section Froberger alters the subject to include spunky dotted eighth and sixteenth-note rhythms instead of quarter-note and eighth-note rhythms.

© Andrus Madsen, Rovi