FROBERGER, Johann Jacob
b Stuttgart, 18 May 1616
d Héricourt, Haute-Saone, 7 May 1667, aged fifty

He was appointed court organist at Vienna in 1637, then spent four years in Italy studying with Frescobaldi, under whose influence he was converted to Catholicism. He left the service of the Austrian emperor in

1657 and in 1662 went to London where, becoming destitute, he earned money as an organblower at Westminster Abbey. A former pupil presented him to King Charles II, and as a result he became court organist.

Froberger composed: thirty harpsichord suites; a great number of works for keyboard; two works for voices.