The concept of stylus phantasticus (orfantastic style ) as it was expressed in free keyboard music of the north German Baroque forms the focus of this book. Exploring both the theoretical background to the style and its application by composers and performers, Paul Collins surveys the development of Athanasius Kircher's original concept and its influence on music theorists such as Brossard, Janovka, Mattheson, and Walther. Turning specifically to fantasist composers of keyboard works, the book examines the keyboard toccatas of Merulo, Fresobaldi, Rossi and Froberger and their influence on north German organists Tunder, Weckmann, Reincken, Buxtehude, Bruhns, Lubeck, Bohm, and Leyding. The free keyboard music of this distinguished group highlights the intriguing relationship at this time between composition and performance, the concept of fantasy, and the understanding of originality and individuality in seventeenth-century culture.

Contents: Preface; Classifications of musical style during the 17th and early 18th centuries; Kircher's Musurgia universalis (1650) and the stylus phantasticus; The stylus phantasticus in 18th-century writings: Janovka, Brossard, Mattheson, Walther, and Grassineau; The origins of the stylus phantasticus and the style's relationship to rhetoric; The free keyboard works of the north German organ school and the stylus phantasticus; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.