Agostino Agazzari (2 December 1578 – 10 April 1640) was an Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

music theorist Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

Life

Agazzari was born in

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

to an aristocratic family. After working in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, as a teacher at the

Roman College The Roman College ( la, Collegium Romanum, it, Collegio Romano) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school t ...

, he returned to Siena in 1607, becoming first

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

and later choirmaster of the cathedral there. He was a close friend of

Lodovico Grossi da Viadana Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (usually Lodovico Viadana, though his family name was Grossi; c. 1560 – 2 May 1627) was an Italian composer, teacher, and Franciscan friar of the Order of Friars Minor Observants. He was the first significant figur ...

, the early innovator of the

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

. Agazzari wrote several books of

sacred music Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

s and the pastoral drama ''Eumelio'' (1606). Stylistically, ''Eumelio'' is similar to the famous composition by Cavalieri, '' Rappresentatione di Anima, e di Corpo'' of 1600, a work of singular significance in the development of the

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

. In the preface to the drama he mentions that he was asked to set the text to music only one month before the performance; he composed the music in two weeks, and copied the parts and rehearsed it in the remaining two weeks, a feat which would be impressive even in the modern age. Agazzari is best known, however, for ''Del sonare sopra il basso'' (1607), one of the earliest and most important works on basso continuo. This treatise was immensely important in the diffusion of the technique throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

: for example,

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms ba ...

used large portions of it in his ''

Syntagma musicum ''Syntagma Musicum (1614-1620)'' is a musical treatise in three volumes by the German composer, organist, and music theorist Michael Praetorius. It was published in Wittenberg and Wolfenbüttel. It is one of the most commonly used research sources ...

'' in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1618-1619. As was true with many late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and early

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

theoretical treatises, it described a practice which was already occurring. In large part it was based on a study of his friend

Viadana Viadana may refer to: Surname * Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (c. 1560 – 1627), Italian composer, teacher, and Franciscan friar * Gilberto Viadana (born 1973), Italian figure skater Other * Viadana, Lombardy, a town in the province of Mantua, Lom ...

's ''Cento concerti ecclesiastici'' (published in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

in 1602), the first collection of sacred music to use the basso continuo. Most of his compositions are sacred music, of which motets of the early

variety (for two or three voices with instruments) predominate. All of the motets are accompanied by basso continuo, with organ providing the sustaining line. His madrigals, on the other hand, are ''

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

'', in the late

style, so Agazzari simultaneously showed extreme progressive tendencies as well as some more conservative ones: unusually, his

progressive music Progressive music is music that attempts to expand existing stylistic boundaries associated with specific genres of music. The word comes from the basic concept of "progress", which refers to advancements through accumulation, and is often dep ...

was sacred, and his conservative was secular, a situation almost unique among composers of the early Baroque. He died in Siena.

Theoretical works

*'. Siena: Domenico Falcini, 1607. *'. Siena: Bonetti, 1638.

References

*Colleen Reardon, ''Agostino Agazzari and Music at Siena Cathedral, 1597-1641'' (OUP, 1993) *

Manfred Bukofzer Manfred Fritz Bukofzer (27 March 1910 – 7 December 1955) was a German-born American musicologist. Life and career He studied at Heidelberg University and the Stern conservatory in Berlin, but left Germany in 1933 for Switzerland, where he obt ...

, ''Music in the Baroque Era''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. () *Gloria Rose, "Agostino Agazzari. In ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. () *Agostino Agazzari, ''Del sonare sopra il basso'', tr. Oliver Strunk, in Source Readings in Music History. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1950. *Agostino Agazzari, ''Del sonare sopra 'l Basso con tutti li stromenti...'', edit. by

Graziella Concas Graziella Concas (born 7 January 1970) is an Italian pianist and composer. Biography and career She started studying piano at the age of five. Later she studied piano under Franca Zinghinì-Spinnicchia at the Catania Musical Institute ‘V ...

, Palermo, NEN, 2003, IT\ICCU\LO1\0834426. *Liam P. Naden, ''Liber Quartus (1607): A Critical Edition with Commentary'', University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1988

External links

Draft PDF version of ''Del Sonare Sopra'l Basso Con Tutti Li Stromenti''
-> * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Agazzari, Agostino Renaissance composers Italian male classical composers Italian Baroque composers Italian music theorists People from Siena 1578 births 1640 deaths 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century male musicians