Renaissance Music
1590-1600
1590 Henry IV enters Paris, wars on Spain (1595), marries Marie de Medici (1600), assassinated (1610).
The Faerie Queene - an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser.
El Greco's St. Jerome.
Galileo's experiments with falling objects.
1598 Boris Godunov becomes Russian czar. Tycho Brahe describes his astronomical experiments.
1590
Emilio de' Cavalieri:"Il Satiro", Pastoral fable.
1590
Alessandro Grandi, Italian composer, born.
1591
Vincenzo Galilei, Italian lutanist and composer, dies.
1591
Lodovico Zacconi: "Prattica di musica" original addition.
c 1591
Robert Dowland, English lutenist and composer, born.
1592
Monteverdi publishes third book of madrigals.
1592
Domenico Mazzocchi, Italian composer, born.
1592
John Jenkins, English composer, born.
1593
Paolo Agostini, Italian composer, born.
1594
Elizabeth I sends a Thomas Dallam organ to the sultan of Turkey.
Thomas Dallam (1575; after 1620) was an English organ-builder. Dallam served an apprenticeship and became a member of London's Blacksmiths' Company. He travelled frequently to build organs on site, going as far as Turkey.
1594
Orlando di Lasso, Flemish composer, dies.
1594
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer, dies.
1594
"Dafne" by Jacopo Peri, first opera.
1594
Biagio Marini, Italian virtuoso violinist and composer, born.
c 1594
Francesco Manelli, Italian composer, born.
1595
Henry Lawes, English composer, born.
1595
John Wilson, English singer and composer, born.
1595
Tarquinio Merula, Italian composer, organist, and violinist, born.
c 1595
Francesco Turini, Italian composer and organist, born.
c 1595
Giovanni Battista Buonamente, Italian composer and violinist, born.
1595
Antonio Abbatini, Italian composer, born.
c 1595
Heinrich Scheidemann, German organist and composer, born.
1596
Giaches de Wert, Dutch composer, dies.
1596
Nicola Amati, the eminant of all the Amati family is born.
1596
Giovanni Rovetta, Italian composer, born.
1596
Constantijn Huygens, Dutch poet and composer, born.
1597
Elias Nikolaus Ammerbach, German composer and organist dies.
1597
John Dowland: "First Book of Songes".
1597
Thomas Morley: "A Plaine and Easie Introduction fo Practicall Musick".
1597
Orazio Vecchi "L'Amfiparnasso," Modena.
1597
Virgilio Mazzocchi, Italian baroque composer, born.
1597
Charles Racquet, French organist and composer, born.
c 1597
Luigi Rossi, Italian Baroque composer, born.
1598
Johann Cruger, German composer, born.
1598
Giovanni Antonio Bertoli, Italian composer and bassoonist, born.
1599
Luca Marencio, Italian composer, dies.
c 1599
John Hilton, English composer, born.
1599
Thomas Selle, German composer, born.
c 1600
Carlo Farina, Italian composer, conductor and violinist, born.
1600
Simon Ives, English composer and organist, born.
St. Jerome As Cardinal. El Greco. c.1595
Paolo Agostino
Paolo Agostino (or Agostini; Augustinus in Latin; c. 1583 – 1629) was an Italian composer and organist of the early Baroque era.
He was born perhaps at Vallerano, near Viterbo. He studied under Giovanni Bernardino Nanino, according to the dedication in the third and fourth books of his masses. Subsequently, he married Nanino's daughter.
He held a series of positions as organist and maestro di cappella (choirmaster) between 1607 and 1626, when he succeeded Vincenzo Ugolini as maestro of the Cappella Giulia's choir in St. Peter's Basilica.
Paolo Agostini - Adoramus Te
All of his surviving works are sacred music, and most are written in the prima pratica, the conservative polyphonic style of the late 16th century, although some of his motets use some of the new concertato style. He was a highly sophisticated contrapuntist, often using strict canonic techniques; in addition, he used colorful sonorities, changes of meter between sections, and colorful chromaticism, showing an acquaintanceship with contemporary secular practice as well as the work of the Venetian School. An Agnus Dei for eight voices is especially admired and was used as an example in Padre Martini's Saggio di Contrappunto.
Johann Crüger
Johann Crüger (9 April 1598 – 23 February 1662) was a German composer of well-known hymns. He was also the editor of the most widely used Lutheran hymnal of the 17th century, Praxis pietatis melica.
Early life and education
Crüger was born in Groß Breesen (now part of Guben) as the son of an innkeeper, Georg Crüger. He studied at the nearby Lateinschule (then located in Guben) until 1613, and that school's teaching program included music and singing.
He then traveled to Sorau and Breslau for further education, and finally to Regensburg, where he received musical training from Paulus Homberger. In 1615 he traveled to Berlin, where he studied theology at the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. In 1616 he was engaged as a house tutor to the von Blumenthal family; his pupils included Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal. From 1620 he studied theology at the University of Wittenberg and trained himself further in music through private study.
Cantate domino de Johann Crüger
Career
From 1622 to his death, a period of 40 years, he was simultaneously a teacher at the gymnasium Zum Grauen Kloster and cantor of the Nikolaikirche in Berlin.
Crüger composed numerous concert works and wrote extensively on music education. In 1643 he became acquainted with the famous hymn writer Paul Gerhardt, for whom he wrote the music for various hymns. In 1647 he edited the most important German Lutheran hymnal of the 17th century, Praxis pietatis melica.
Praxis pietatis melica, title page of 39th edition, 1721, Cruger at left
Personal life
In 1628, he married the widow of a city councilman. During the Thirty Years' War, Crüger and his family endured many hardships including hunger. He fell ill with plague, and almost died of that disease, losing five children and his wife in 1636. In 1637, having recovered from the disease, he got married a second time, to the 17-year-old daughter of an innkeeper, with whom he had fourteen children, most of whom died at a young age. One of his daughters married the court painter Michael Conrad Hirt, who made a portrait of Crüger in 1663. Crüger died in Berlin.
John Wilson
John Wilson (5 April 1595 – 22 February 1674), was an English composer, lutenist and teacher. Born in Faversham, Kent, he moved to London by 1614, where he succeeded Robert Johnson as principal composer for the King's Men, and entered the King's Musick in 1635 as a lutenist.
He received the degree of D.Mus from Oxford in 1644, and he was Heather Professor of Music there from 1656 to 1661. Following the Restoration, he joined the Chapel Royal in 1662. He died at Westminster.
Wilson was part of a coterie of artists and musicians surrounding the court of Charles I that included the likes of Ben Jonson, Inigo Jones, Anthony van Dyck, Henry Lawes and John Coprario.
Following the execution of the King in 1649 he showed his clearly Royalist sympathies in his Psalterium Carolinum, a versification of the Eikon Basilike by Thomas Stanley, with a dedicatory poem by Henry Lawes, published in 1657.
Henry Lawes
Henry Lawes (5 December 1595 – 21 October 1662) was an English musician and composer.
Life
He was born at Dinton, Wiltshire, and received his musical education from John Cooper, alias Giovanni Coperario. In 1626, Lawes was received as one of the Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, and held the position until the Commonwealth put a stop to church music. On the Restoration in 1660, Lawes returned to the royal chapel, and composed an anthem for the coronation of King Charles II. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. He was the brother of William Lawes, also a composer.
Works
Lawes published a collection of his vocal pieces, Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two and Three Voyces, in 1653. He followed it with two other books under the same title, in 1655 and 1658 .
Lawes's name has become known beyond musical circles because of his friendship with John Milton, for whose masque, Comus, he supplied the incidental music for the first performance in 1634. The poet wrote sonnet in which Milton describes the great merit of Lawes.
Lawes composed music (melody and unfigured bass) to Edmund Waller's poem "Go Lovely Rose". These are the song and the "Lawes" mentioned in the following line of Ezra Pound's poem "Envoi" which ends the first part of Pound's Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: Go, dumb-born book, tell her that sang me once that song of Lawes: Hadst thou but song as thou hast subjects known, then were there cause in thee that should condone even my faults that heavy upon me lie, and build her glories their longevity.
Henry Lawes - A Dialogue on a Kiss
John Hilton
John Hilton (ca. 1599 – 1657) was an English early Baroque composer. He is best known for his books Ayres or Fa-Las for Three Voices and Catch That Catch Can.
Life
Hilton was born about 1599 in Cambridge. His father was probably the church musician and composer John Hilton the elder, who died in Cambridge in 1609. Hilton junior became organist at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster in 1628, having published his music book Ayres or Fa-Las for Three Voices in 1627. In 1635, Hilton was lutenist to Charles I. Some time in the 1630s, he composed The Judgement of Solomon, The Judgement of Paris, and The Temptation of Job. These are all similar to small-scale oratorios and operas. His collection of glees and catches, Catch That Catch Can, was published in 1652. He died in 1657 and was buried on 21 March 1657 at Westminster.
Works
Catch That Catch Can
Catch That Catch Can was published by John Playford in 1652 and featured experiments in the catch musical form. It was reprinted in 1658 "with large additions." It was again republished in 1667 with the sub-title "The Musical Companion"; and also in 1672–1673. The diarist Samuel Pepys owned a copy of the 1667 edition and enjoyed it, writing on April 15, 1667, "Playford’s new Catch-book ... hath a great many new fooleries in it." A few days later, he wrote, " tried two or three grace parts in Playford’s new book, my wife pleasing me in singing her part of the things she knew, which is a comfort to my very heart."
Ayres or Fa-Las for Three Voices
This book of music is largely overlooked by scholars. Many think the pieces are of low quality, while others are surprised that they do not get more attention. It is not known who composed the texts to the Ayres or Fa-Las. Most of the songs are about love. Published in 1627, it represented one of the last publications of English song until John Playford's Musical Banquet of 1651 (the one exception being Walter Porter's Madrigales and Ayres of 1632).
Heinrich Scheidemann
Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595 – 1663) was a German organist and composer. He was the best-known composer for the organ in north Germany in the early to mid-17th century, and was an important forerunner of Dieterich Buxtehude and J.S. Bach.
Life
He was born in Wöhrden in Holstein. His father was an organist in both Wöhrden and Hamburg, and probably Scheidemann received some early instruction from him. Scheidemann studied with Sweelinck in Amsterdam from 1611 to 1614, and evidently was one of his favorite pupils, since Sweelinck dedicated a canon to him, prior to Scheidemann's return to Germany. By 1629, and possibly earlier, Scheidemann was in Hamburg as organist at the Catharinenkirche, a position which he held for more than thirty years, until his death in Hamburg in early 1663 during an outbreak of the plague.
Maria de Medici’s marriage by proxy with Henry IV of France
Tarquinio Merula
Tarquinio Merula (24 November 1595 – 10 December 1665) was an Italian composer, organist, and violinist of the early Baroque era. Although mainly active in Cremona, stylistically he was a member of the Venetian school. He was one of the most progressive Italian composers of the early 17th century, especially in applying newly developed techniques to sacred music.
Life
He was born in Busseto. He probably received early musical training in Cremona, where he was first employed as an organist. In 1616 he took a position as organist at the church of S Maria Incoronata in Lodi, where he remained until 1621, at which time he went to Warsaw, Poland to work as an organist at the court of Sigismund III Vasa.
In 1626 he returned to Cremona, and in 1627 became maestro di cappella at the cathedral there, but he only remained for four years, moving to Bergamo to accept a similar position in 1631. Alessandro Grandi, his predecessor, had died in the Italian plague of 1629–31 (which affected many cities in northern Italy, including Venice), and he faced the formidable task of rebuilding the musical institution there after many of its members had died.
Unfortunately Merula got into trouble with some of his students, and was charged with indecency; he chose to return to Cremona, where he remained until 1635. During this period in his life he seems to have had numerous troubles with his employers, possibly of his own making; after fighting with the administrators at Cremona over a variety of issues, he returned to Bergamo, serving this time at a different church, but was disallowed from using any musicians from his former place of employment. In 1646 he went back to Cremona for the final time, serving as maestro di cappella at the Laudi della Madonna until his death in 1665.
Music and influence
Merula was a key figure in the early development of several forms which were to mature later in the Baroque era, such as the cantata, the aria, the sonatas da chiesa and da camera, variations on a ground bass, and the sinfonia.
In sacred music Merula followed the lead of Monteverdi, and often used the techniques of the elder composer; however he also did some new things, such as writing motets for solo voice accompanied by strings. His publications of 1639, 1640, and 1652 include masses which are written using ostinato basses, including the Ruggiero and the Romanesca. Some of his music is reminiscent of the concertato style of Giovanni Gabrieli, and a modern sense of tonality prevails throughout.
Merula's secular music includes solo madrigals with instrumental accompaniment, sometimes using the Monteverdian stile concitato tremolo effect, and in formal design prefiguring the later Baroque cantata with its division into aria and recitative. He wrote one opera, La finta savia, produced in 1643, and based on a libretto by Giulio Strozzi. Among his instrumental music are numerous ensemble canzonas, whose sectional structure looks ahead to the sonata da chiesa, and his writing for strings—especially the violin—is exceptionally idiomatic, also looking ahead to the highly developed writing of the late Baroque.
He also wrote canzonettas, dialogues, keyboard toccatas and capriccios, a Sonata cromatica, and numerous other pieces which display an interest in just about every contemporary musical trend in north Italy.
Tarquinio Merula: Hor ch'è tempo di dormire
Biagio Marini
Biagio Marini (5 February 1594 – 20 March 1663) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer in the first half of the seventeenth century.
Marini was born in Brescia. He may have studied with his uncle Giacinto Bondioli. His works were printed and influential throughout the European musical world. He traveled throughout his life, and occupied posts in Brussels, over thirty years in Neuburg an der Donau and Düsseldorf, and Venice in 1615, joining Monteverdi's group at St. Mark's Cathedral, Padua, Parma, Ferrara, Milan, Bergamo, and Brescia in Italy. There is evidence that he married three times and fathered five children. He died in Venice.
Although he wrote both instrumental and vocal music, he is better known for his innovative instrumental compositions. He contributed to the early development of the string idiom by expanding the performance range of the solo and accompanied violin and incorporating slur, double and even triple stopping, and the first explicitly notated tremolo effects into his music. He was also among the first composers, after Marco Uccellini, to call for scordatura tunings. He made contributions to most of the contemporary genres and investigated unusual compositional procedures, like constructing an entire sonata without a cadence (as in his Sonata senza cadenza). At least some, and perhaps a great deal, of his output is lost, but that which survives exhibits his inventiveness, lyrical skill, harmonic boldness, and growing tendency toward common practice tonality. In addition to his violin works, he wrote music for the cornett, dulcian, and sackbut.
One latter-day champion of Marini's music is the British violinist Andrew Manze, who has released a disc on the Harmonia Mundi label entitled Curiose e moderne inventioni devoted to Marini's music for strings.
Biagio Marini "Sonata La Monica Op 8"
Charles Racquet
Charles Racquet (1597–1664) was a French organist and composer, best known for his monumental organ Fantaisie.
He came from a large family of Parisian organists and himself was appointed organist of Notre Dame de Paris at an early age, in 1618. He held the post until shortly before his death and was succeeded by another member of the Racquet family. He also served as musician to Marie de' Medici (a post that his father Balthazar occupied earlier) and to Anne d'Autriche, the Queen Mother. Racquet was very highly regarded by his contemporaries: his pupils included the famous lutenist Denis Gaultier (who wrote a tombeau on his teacher's death), Jesuit scholar Marin Mersenne was a close friend of his. In the 18th century writer Jean-Benjamin La Borde named Racquet "the best organist of his time."
Of Racquet's music only a single organ fantaisie and 12 duos on psalm verses survive, in Mersenne's Traité de l'harmonie universelle (1636). The fantasia, written upon Mersenne's request to "show what could be done at the organ", is one of the most famous pieces of the French organ school. It is inspired by Dutch music, particularly that of Sweelinck: a single theme is developed through several sections, most of them imitative.
Charles Raquet: Fantaisie
Alessandro Grandi
Alessandro Grandi (1590 – after June 1630, but in that year) was a northern Italian composer of the early Baroque era, writing in the new concertato style. He was one of the most inventive, influential and popular composers of the time, probably second only to Monteverdi in northern Italy.
Life
He was born in Venice and spent the first part of his life there, likely studying with Giovanni Gabrieli. He held several posts in Ferrara as maestro di cappella at different cathedrals and academies. In 1617 he won a post at St. Mark's in Venice, during the time Monteverdi was choirmaster there. Eventually he became Monteverdi's assistant, and during this time seems to have chosen to write works in some of the smaller forms which Monteverdi was neglecting. In 1627 he went to Bergamo, probably because he had an opportunity to be maestro di cappella at a place where he could build up the music program from scratch. Most likely he met Heinrich Schütz on that composer's second visit to Italy. Unfortunately, after only three years at Bergamo, Grandi died in 1630 during an outbreak of the plague.
Works
Most of his music is vocal with instrumental accompaniment. Stylistically, his early music is similar to that of Giovanni Gabrieli, with alternating short passages of greatly contrasting rhythms and texture; however he usually wrote for smaller forces. Most of his early compositions are motets in the concertato style: some are duets and trios, an innovation in motet writing, which usually involved larger groups. Grandi was one of the few composers who continued to write involved vocal polyphony over the basso continuo right after its introduction—most composers using the continuo in the first decades of the 17th century wrote monodies, or preferred more homophonic textures.
Grandi experimented with extreme emotionalism in some of his music, with chromaticism, ornament and affectation; while harmonically he was not as adventurous as Gesualdo, he was connected to the larger tradition, and thus his works were almost as influential as Monteverdi's. He ceaselessly innovated, writing monodies with instruments such as violins, and in a sectional form with repeating parts for instruments only—an idea which would develop into the ritornello. The music of Grandi shows a link between the concertato style which began the Baroque era, and the form of the cantata which culminated in the work of J.S. Bach.
Grandi was one of the most popular composers of his day; his works were published throughout Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries, and continued to be reprinted long after his death. He wrote motets, psalm settings, madrigals, as well as some of the earliest compositions to be called "cantata."
Alessandro Grandi - Jesu mi dulcissime
Francesco Turini
Francesco Turini (c. 1595 – 1656) was an Italian composer and organist in the early Baroque era.
Turini was born around 1595 in Prague, and was a pupil of his father Georgio Turini, a singer and cornetist at the court of Emperor Rudolf II. Francesco became court organist at the age of 12, and wrote madrigals, motets, masses, and trio sonatas for two violins and basso continuo. He died in Brescia, Italy.
Francesco Turini Sonata a 2 Violini
Giovanni Battista Buonamente
Giovanni Battista Buonamente (ca. 1595 – 1642) was an Italian composer and violinist in the early Baroque era. He served the Gonzagas in Mantua until about 1622, and from about 1626 to 1630 served the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna. Notably, in 1627 he played for the coronation festivities in Prague of Ferdinand III, son of the emperor. He then served as the violinist of Madonna della Steccata church in Parma. After a short service there, he arrived at his final position in 1633 of maestro di cappella at Assisi.
Giovanni Buonamente - Sonata à 6
Domenico Mazzocchi
Domenico Mazzocchi (1592 – 21 January 1665) was an Italian Baroque composer of only vocal music, of the generation after Claudio Monteverdi.
He was a learned Roman lawyer, studied music with Giovanni Maria Nanino ('Nanini'), also in Rome, and entered the service of cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini in 1621.
He is associated with providing music for the popes, particularly Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII, until Domenico's death in Rome on January 21, 1665.
Domenico Mazzocchi "Piangete occhi piangete"
Carlo Farina
Carlo Farina (ca. 1600 – July 1639) was an Italian composer, conductor and violinist of the Early Baroque era.
Farina was born at Mantua. He presumably received his first lessons from his father, who was sonatore di viola at the court of the Gonzaga in that city. Later he got further education probably by Salomone Rossi and Giovanni Battista Buonamente. From 1626 to 1629, he worked as concertmaster in Dresden. In Dresden he worked with Heinrich Schütz, who interested him in composing. From 1629 to 1631, he was a prominent member of the electoral court orchestra in Bonn, until he returned to Italy, where he worked in Parma and later in Lucca until 1635. In 1635 he held position at the court of Carlo I Cybo-Malaspina, Prince of Massa, and between 1636 and 1637 in Gdańsk. From 1638 he lived in Vienna, where he died of the plague probably a year later.
He is considered to be one of the earliest violin virtuosos and he made many contributions to violin technique. For example, in his work Capriccio Stravagante (1627) he used the violin to imitate animal sounds like dogs barking or cats fighting.
Carlo Farina - Complete Violin Sonatas
Virgilio Mazzocchi
Virgilio Mazzocchi (22 July 1597 bapt. – 3 October 1646) was an Italian baroque composer.
He was born in Veja, near Civita Castellana, where he was baptized, as the younger brother of the more famous composer and learned lawyer Domenico Mazzocchi.
Like his brother, who shared some features of his career, he was largely a composer of sacred vocal music. Mazzocchi is associated with providing music for the papal chapels.
He died in Civita Castellana, where he had gone with his singers to celebrate the holy patrons, after a sudden illness.
Virgilio Mazzocchi - Salve Regina
Luigi Rossi
Luigi Rossi (c. 1597 – 20 February 1653) was an Italian Baroque composer. Rossi was born in Torremaggiore, a small town near Foggia, in the ancient kingdom of Naples and at an early age he went to Naples. There he studied music with the Franco-Flemish composer Jean de Macque who was organist of the Santa Casa dell’Annunziata and maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy. Rossi later entered the service of the Caetani, dukes of Traetta.
Rossi composed just two operas: Il palazzo incantato, which was given at Rome in 1642; and Orfeo, written after he was invited by Cardinal Mazarin in 1646 to go to Paris for that purpose, and given its premiere there in 1647. Rossi returned to France in 1648 hoping to write another opera, but no production was possible because the court had sought refuge outside Paris. Rossi returned to Rome by 1650 and never attempted anything more for the stage.
A collection of cantatas published in 1646 describes him as musician to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, and Giacomo Antonio Perti in 1688 speaks of him along with Carissimi and Cesti as "the three greatest lights of our profession."
Rossi is noteworthy principally for his chamber-cantatas, which are among the finest that the 17th century produced. A large quantity are in manuscripts in the British Library and in Christ Church Library, Oxford. La Gelosia, printed by F. A. Gevaert in Les Gloires d'Italie, is an admirable specimen. He left about 300 cantatas in total.
Passacaille for harpsichord by Luigi Rossi
Simon Ives
Simon Ives (sometimes spelled Yves or Ive or Ivy) (1600 - 1662) was an English composer and organist who was active in the court of Charles I of England. He composed many pastoral dialogues, partsongs, glees, and works for organ. He also composed music for the theatre, and a considerable amount of music for solo lyra viol or that was transcribed for lyra viol.
A nice short duet by Simon Ives
Robert Dowland
Robert Dowland (ca. 1591 – 1641) was an English lutenist and composer. He was the son of the lutenist and composer John Dowland.
In 1610 he published two collections of music, A Varietie of Lute Lessons and A Musical Banquet (an anthology of work by other composers including his father). In 1626 his father died and Robert succeeded him as royal lutenist.
Robert Dowland - Almande - Lute
Giovanni Rovetta
Giovanni Rovetta (1596–1668) was an Italian Baroque composer and maestro di capella of the Capella Marciana at St Mark's Basilica, Venice between Monteverdi and Cavalli.
He spent his entire career at St. Mark's. He was a chorister, instrumentalist, bass, and vice-director under Monteverdi, and finally served as Monteverdi's successor from 1664 until his death. He was also the director of the Ospedale dei Derelitti (Ospedaletto) between 1635 and 1647. His students included his nephew Giovanni Battista Volpe (known as Rovettino) and the Venetian composer Giovanni Legrenzi.
His compositions include several volumes of madrigals and a great deal of sacred music, especially masses, psalms, and motets. His style reflects Monteverdi's influence, although certain pieces show a distinct and individual talent for melody. A ceremonial mass, dating from 1639, counts among his most successful works. He also wrote collections of instrumental music (Canzoni per sonare). He composed two operas, Ercole in Lidia (1645, Teatro Novissimo, Venice) and Argiope (1649).
Giovanni Rovetta "Magnificat"
Francesco Manelli
Francesco Manelli (Mannelli) (c. 1594 – July 1667) was a Roman Baroque composer, particularly of opera; and theorbo player. He is most well known for his collaboration with fellow Roman composer Benedetto Ferrari in bringing commercial opera to Venice. The first two works, in 1637 and 1638, to be put on commercially in the Teatro San Cassiano were both by Manelli - his L'Andromeda and La Maga Fulminata.
Francesco Manelli was for many years confused with the Franciscan friar Giovanni Battista Fasolo, because of the resemblances between Manelli’s cantata Luciata, (published in Musiche varie, op. 4 Venice, 1636), and Fasolo’s dialogue Il carro di Madama Lucia (Rome, 1628), and the shared text of the first piece in both collections. In a comparison of the two cantatas Fasolo's version is "languid and melancholy", while Manelli's version is "spirited and biting".
Francesco Manelli. La Luciata a 3
Thomas Selle
Thomas Selle (23 March 1599 – 2 July 1663) was a seventeenth-century German baroque composer.
Life
Selle was born in Zörbig but received his first instruction in 1622 in Leipzig where he was a pupil of Johann Schein. It was around this time that he encountered the works of Thomaskantor Sethus Calvisius. Selle was cantor in Heide (Holstein) in 1624 and in 1625 in nearby Wesselburen. From 1634 he was cantor in Itzehoe and from 1641 Music Director at the Johanneum of the four main churches of Hamburg; from 1642 as well as minor canon at St Mary's. While in Hamburg, he premiered his Passion nach dem Evangelisten Johannes, which garnered favorable reviews. He died in Hamburg after serving 22 years in his position as music director.
Works
Thomas Selle’s contributions to the German Passion tradition include his use of intermedia, which are poly-choral motets that are interspersed within the Passion story to summarize and comment on the narrative. These were the first non-gospel texts that were included as part of the Passion tradition. Selle, himself, allowed for the removal of these intermedia to accommodate more conservative churches.
Thomas Selle - Cantata - Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit
Giovanni Antonio Bertoli
Giovanni Antonio Bertoli (b Lonato, bap. 27 Jan 1598; d ? after 1645). Italian composer and bassoonist. He served as an altar boy and chorister in the parish church of Lonato and studied alongside Antonio Bertali and Pietro Verdina for the priesthood at the acolytes' school in Verona, under Stefano Bernardi. From April 1614 to July 1615 he played the cornett at Verona Cathedral. In the dedication of his Salmi intieri (Venice, 1639)
Sonata Prima for Bassoon by Giovanni Antonio Bertoli
Constantijn Huygens
Sir Constantijn Huygens (September 4, 1596, The Hague - March 28, 1687, The Hague) was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer.
He was secretary to two Princes of Orange, Frederick Henry and William II, and he was the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.
In 1647 a number of Huygens' musical creations were published in Paris. The collection "Pathodia sacra et profana" contained some compositions in Latin (on the words of psalms), in French and in Italian (amorous secular texts). The work was dedicated to Utricia Ogle, the pretty niece of an English diplomat.
Constantijn Huygens - Air de cour and two Dutch songs
John Jenkins
John Jenkins, (born 1592, Maidstone, Kent, Eng.—died Oct. 27, 1678, Kimberley, Norfolk), composer, lutenist, and string player, most eminent composer in his era of music for chamber ensembles. He was musician to Charles I and Charles II and served patrons from the nobility and gentry, notably Sir Hamon L’Estrange and Lord North, whose son refers to Jenkins in his writings. His last patron was Sir Philip Wodehouse of Kimberley.
Jenkins’s string fantasias, or fancies, for which he was renowned, reflect the stylistic change that took place in this form during his lifetime. The earlier five-part viol fantasias are largely polyphonic, showing the influence of the earlier ricercar and canzone. His later three-part fantasias for two violins and bass are multisectional, employ homophonic passages, and illustrate the influence of the trio sonata and of Italian fashions on form and figuration. His compositions also include rounds, songs, and anthems.
Pavan for 2 bass viols by John Jenkins
You Lovers That Have Loves Astray by John Hilton
Antonio Abbatini
Antonio Maria Abbatini (26 January 1595 – 15 March 1679) was an Italian composer, active mainly in Rome.
Abbatini was born in Città di Castello. He served as maestro di cappella at the Basilica of St. John Lateran from 1626 to 1628; at the cathedral in Orvieto in 1633; and at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome between 1640 and 1646, 1649 to 1657, and 1672 to 1677. He composed a good deal of church music, and published three books of Masses, four of Psalms, various 24-part Antiphons (1630, 1638, 1677), five books of Motets (1635), and a dramatic cantata, Il Pianto di Rodomonte (1633). He also worked with Athanasius Kircher on the Musurgia Universalis.
In addition, he produced three operas: Dal male il bene (Rome, 1654; in collaboration with Marco Marazzoli), which was one of the earliest comic operas, and historically important as it introduced the final ensemble; Ione (Vienna, 1666); and La comica del cielo, also called La Baltasara (Rome, 1668).
Antonio Cesti was among his pupils.
Antonio Abbatini - Missa sexdecim vocibus concinenda
Music and influence
Scheidemann was renowned as an organist and composer, as evidenced by the wide distribution of his works; more organ music by Scheidemann survives than by any other composer of the time. Unlike the other early Baroque German composers, such as Praetorius, Schütz, Scheidt, and Schein, each of whom wrote in most of the current genres and styles, Scheidemann wrote almost entirely organ music. A few songs survive, as well as some harpsichord pieces, but they are dwarfed by the dozens of organ pieces, many in multiple movements.
Scheidemann's lasting contribution to the organ literature, and to Baroque music in general, was in his Lutheran chorale settings, which were of three general types: cantus firmus chorale arrangements, which were an early type of chorale prelude; "monodic" chorale arrangements, which imitated the current style of monody—a vocal solo over basso continuo—but for solo organ; and elaborate chorale fantasias, which were a new invention, founded on the keyboard style of Sweelinck but using the full resources of the developing German Baroque organ. In addition to his chorale arrangements, he also wrote important arrangements of the Magnificat, which are not only in multiple parts but are in cyclic form towards liturgical use in alternation with the choir during the socalled Vespers, a technique in multiple-movement musical construction which was not to return with vigor until the 19th century.
Heinrich Scheidemann - Magnificat