FRITSCH, Balthasar (~1575 after 1608)
Fritsch, Primitiae Musicales, Paduans and Galliards for four-part consort, Frankfurt 1606
vol. 2: 20 Galliards
Fritsch was a violinist in Leipzig and probably a member of the Stadtpfeiffer (town musicians) there. Among his contemporaries were Johann Hermann Schein, Georg Engelmann, and Valerius Otto, who all also published paduans and galliards. A distinctive feature of this collection is that the dances are not thematically related and can therefore be combined as desired. Accordingly, there are twelve paduans and twenty galliards. Also unusual is that the compositions are in four-parts. Most of the other dances of this kind are in five-parts. In our edition, we use the currently common clefs, whereby the partbooks for Altus and Tenor are in octave-transposed treble clef and in alto clef, so that these little-known pieces are suitable for recorder as well as for viol consort.
Editor: Günter and Leonore von Zadow.