Claudio Saracini (1 July 1586 – 20 September 1630) was an Italian composer, lutenist, and singer of the early Baroque era. He was one of the most famous and distinguished composers of monody.

Life

Saracini was born to a noble family, probably 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 centur ...

. Little is known for certain about his education, but it is presumed that he traveled widely while he was young, for not only did he establish numerous foreign connections—as evidenced by his dedications of music to foreign aristocrats—but he absorbed some of the musical styles of the lands he visited. He seems never to have held a professional musical position of which record has survived; indeed he seems to have been an extraordinarily talented amateur, one who was admired even by Claudio Monteverdi. The references to Saracini as "Il Palusi" seem to indicate that he was a member of an academy, although further details are lacking. All of his music was published in

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

between 1614 and 1624.

Music and influence

Of his music, 133 songs have survived, and all are monodies—secular compositions for solo voice, generally sung in a highly ornamented style, with instrumental accompaniment. All but one are in Italian, and encompass a wide range of texts, including serious, humorous, and erotic. His style varies from diatonic to chromatic, and is comparable to that of contemporary monodist

Sigismondo d'India Sigismondo d'India (c. 1582 – before 19 April 1629) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the most accomplished contemporaries of Monteverdi, and wrote music in many of the same forms as the more ...

in its experimental qualities. A unique feature of Saracini's compositions is the occasional influence of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, including that of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

, an extreme rarity in early Italian Baroque music. Presumably he heard folk music in those regions when he traveled there during his youth. This influence is most evident in his strophic songs, one of which is in 5/4 (although actually notated in duple meter); asymmetrical meters are a normal feature of Balkan folk music but are absent in Italian. Saracini's works have had a resurgence of interest in the 20th century, after a long period of neglect. His experimental idiom first attracted the attention of musicologists, and later, performers; his compositions are now recorded relatively frequently, often on collections containing works of other composers of the same era, such as Monteverdi or

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, proba ...

References

Nigel Fortune Nigel Cameron Fortune (5 December 1924 – 10 April 2009) was an English musicologist and political activist. Along with Thurston Dart, Oliver Neighbour and Stanley Sadie he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II g ...

, "Claudio Saracini," ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. *Nigel Fortune, Peter Laki: "Claudio Saracini", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed June 2, 2005)
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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saracini, Claudio Italian male classical composers Italian Baroque composers 1586 births 1630 deaths 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century male musicians