Blancrocher

Charles Fleury de Blancrocher (c.1605–1652), a celebrated French lutenist who died after falling down a staircase at a gathering in Paris. Froberger witnessed the death and composed his Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher (FbWV 632) as a memorial — the piece depicts the fall in its descending bass line.

The descending bass line that opens the Tombeau is widely understood as a musical depiction of the fatal fall. Play it with deliberate weight and inevitability — not dramatically, but with the quiet gravity of someone recounting something terrible. The subsequent expressive anguish should feel personal.