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Stylus Phantasticus

Author Sabrina

Published on: March 27, 2024

The most imaginative, rule-free and lively form of expression of its time. As a written improvisation, Concerto Copenhagen will bring the music to life as if it was composed yesterday and played for the first time today.

"A kind of speech in music" Lars Ulrik Mortensen calls stylus phantasticus and emphasizes that this music must be played "so that it can surprise or shock and take the audience on a journey," and that its performance can and must "go all the way to - and occasionally over - the edge." Tonight's program provides such sumptuous examples of the free imagination of the time that it gives the concept of "Baroque music" a whole new dimension.

The fantastical style, or in Latin "stylus phantasticus", emerged in Italy in the late 16th century, often in virtuoso solo pieces for keyboard instruments called "toccata" or "stravaganza" and culminated with the North German organ school and Dietrich Buxtehude around 1700. By its very nature, it was the most unregulated and wildly expressive form of its time - whims, inventions, whimsicalities and caprices can change erratically - as if it were a written improvisation. Theorists of the time described the style as not bound by melody, text, meter or tempo; it can jump freely from idea to idea, and it gives a brilliant composer or musician the greatest possible leeway to tickle the listener's passions!

The concept of "Stylus phantasticus" may have disappeared with the Baroque era, but the free, playful musical form did not disappear. It found new ways and expressions in composers like Mozart and Beethoven, who were both formidable improvisers, and not least in even later composers like Chopin, Liszt and Paganini. And finding the balance between spontaneous musical ideas and carefully conceived, complicated sequences and forms has been a condition and a constant source of frustration and inspiration for composers throughout the ages.

Concerto Copenhagen will bring the music of this era to life as if it was written yesterday and played for the first time today.