La Frescobalda by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1644) By Valérie Duchâteau – www.valerieduchateau.com Straddling the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque, Girolamo Frescobaldi remains one of the great composers of his time. The proposed piece, La Frescobalda (1627), also known as Aria detta la Frescobalda, is in the form of theme and variations, a genre and a stylistic exercise that was very fashionable at the time. If the customs of the time wanted composers to base themselves on known tunes, Frescobaldi imagined this series of four variations from an unpublished theme.