Giovanni Tommaso Benedictis da Pascarola, also Giovanni Benedetti da Pascarola (ca. 1550-1560 – before 1601) was an Italian composer of the

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 ...

. Little is known of Giovanni's life. He was presumably born in

Pascarola Caivano ( nap, Caivàn') is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 14 km northeast of Naples. The municipality contains the ''frazioni'' Casolla Valenzano and Pasc ...

, a village just north of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. In 1589, he published a set of

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 entitled ''Primo libro de madrigali'' for five voices, dedicated to Giovan Thomaso Saracino (who is otherwise unknown). He was considered as a replacement for

Giovanni Domenico da Nola Giovanni Domenico da Nola (also Nolla) (c. 1510–1520May 1592) was an Italian composer and poet of the Renaissance. He was born in the town of Nola, Italy. He was a founding member of the ''Accademia dei Sereni'' in 1546–1547, where he knew Lu ...

as ''

maestro di cappella (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

'' at SS Annunziata in Naples, but Nola was able to retain his position. In 1601, Scipione Cerreto, in his ''Della prattica musica'', notes that Giovanni was an excellent composer but was no longer alive; no other evidence exists to suggest a date of death. Califano included a madrigal of Pascarola's in his 1584 book of madrigals. Pascarola's works are distinguished by their use of

imitation Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. I ...

fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...

-like ways. He set twenty poems by

Sannazaro Jacopo Sannazaro (; 28 July 1458 – 6 August 1530) was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples. He wrote easily in Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan, but is best remembered for his humanist classic ''Arcadia'', a masterwork tha ...

, four of

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

, and one of

Tansillo Luigi Tansillo (1510–1568) was an Italian poet of the Petrarchian school. Born in Venosa, he entered the service of Pedro Álvarez de Toledo in 1536 and in 1540 entered the Accademia degli Umidi, soon renamed Accademia Fiorentina. He was asso ...

References

*Keith A. Larson. "Giovanni Tommaso Benedictis da Pascarola". ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'' online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pascarola, Giovanni 16th-century births 16th-century deaths People from the Province of Naples Renaissance composers Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers