FROBERGER, JOHANN JACOB  

The German composer, keyboard player, and organist Johann Jacob Froberger was considered the leading keyboard composer of his time in Germany. He was the son of a musician, the later Stuttgart Kapellmeister, and eventually studied in Rome with Frescobaldi. He was in court employment in Vienna and Brussels, and won success as a performer in France and in England. From 1653 to 1658 he was court organist in Vienna, and spent his last years at the French estate of Princess Sibylla of Wrttemberg-Montbliard.

Keyboard Music

Frobergers surviving compositions are, with two exceptions, for keyboard, in the current Italian and French forms of the time, suites with dance movements, toccatas, canzonas and ricercari, absorbed into a German tradition that had considerable formative influence, particularly in the later years of the 17th century.