Girolamo Parabosco (c. 1524 – April 21, 1557) was an Italian

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, composer,

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational h ...

, and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

of the Renaissance. He was born in

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

, the son of a famous organist, Vincenzo Parabosco. Little is known of his childhood, but he went to Venice early for his musical education and is mentioned as a student of

Adrian Willaert Adrian Willaert ( – 7 December 1562) was a Flemish composer of High Renaissance music. Mainly active in Italy, he was the founder of the Venetian School. He was one of the most representative members of the generation of northern composers ...

, the founder of the Venetian School, near the end of 1541.H. Colin Slim, Grove onlineEinstein, p. 324 In 1546 he visited

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

as a guest of

Francesco Corteccia Francesco Corteccia, ''Hinnarium'', Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Francesco Corteccia (July 27, 1502 – June 7, 1571) was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the Renaissance. Not only was he one of the best known of the early compo ...

, musician to the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...

and the leading musician of that city. After a period of travels, during which he visited other cities in northern Italy, he returned to Venice and became first organist at St. Mark's, which was at that time becoming one of the most distinguished musical institutions in Italy. He remained employed by St. Mark's for the rest of his life, and died in Venice in 1557. He wrote ''Rime'' and prose comedies, but he is best known by '' I Diporti'', a collection of stories after the model of

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...

's ''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...

'' supposed to be told by a fowling-party weatherbound on an island in the Venetian lagoons. Of his compositions, a book of

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

s for five voices, published in Venice in 1546, remains, as well as four other madrigals published in 1541 and 1544, and some instrumental music. The style of the madrigals is similar to that of Willaert, but even more densely polyphonic than that of his teacher; they are more akin to motets than to most of the madrigals being written in Italy in the early 1540s. One of his instrumental works is a

ricercar A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb which means 'to search out; to seek'; many ricercars serve a preludial funct ...

based on "Da Pacem", the antiphon for peace; it may have been written for the end of the war in 1540 between Venice and the Ottoman Turks.

References

*''The Humour of Italy'', A. Werner * H. Colin Slim: "Girolamo Parabosco", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 3, 2008)
(subscription access)
* Alfred Einstein, ''The Italian Madrigal.'' Three volumes. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1949.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parabosco 1500s births 1557 deaths Renaissance composers Venetian School (music) composers Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers