'Memento mori Froberger?' Locating the self in the passage of time

Abstract

Connections between Johann Jacob Froberger's harpsichord laments and other genres of keyboard and lute music (the unmeasured prelude, the tombeau and some allemandes) are by now well known. However, the 'Méditation faite sur ma mort future' (Meditation made on my future death), stands out for its connection-overlooked until now-with the French literary méditation, a popular devotional genre that enabled the reader to contemplate death and reform his behaviour through increased awareness of the march of time. Froberger's 'Méditation' is a musical cognate for that literary genre; through this autobiographical work, Froberger seems to have sought a meditative experience similar to one that might have been enabled by the reading of literary meditations. Indeed, it was through this work that Froberger's student and patroness, the Princess Sibylla of Württemberg, sought comfort upon the death of her teacher. © 2012 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.