Biography
Melchior Franck produced more than six hundred musical works across forty separate collections that embraced sacred vocal pieces, motets, madrigals, and instrumental dances. Although his style remained restrained, it embodied the essential traits of the early Baroque period. He broadened the application of melismatic writing to heighten the meaning of specific words and phrases in the text, among them “fountain” and “south wind blowing.” Diversity of form was matched only by the distinct expressive traits he assigned to each type. Dance movements typically followed a homophonic design built on repeated sections labeled AABBCC. Secular songs favored homorhythmic textures, mainly syllabic text setting, and chord progressions anchored by firm key relationships such as major to dominant to major. In sacred compositions the number of voice parts ranged from one to twelve, yet four to eight voices remained the norm; these works were frequently antiphonal, sometimes scored for two separate choirs, and featured carefully elaborated counterpoint. Among his notable compositions are the pastoral play “Von der Zerstorung Jerusalems,” the collection “Musicalischer Bergkreyen,” and “Melodiae sacrae,” a volume of motets. Franck indicated that most of his vocal music could be realized either by voices or by instruments.