Marco da Gagliano (1 May 1582 – 25 February 1643) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era. He was important in the early history of

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

and the development of the solo and concerted

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 ...

Life

He was born in

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 ...

and lived most of his life there. After study with a religious confraternity and Luca Bati, he was employed for six years from 1602 by the church of San Lorenzo as a singing instructor. In 1607, he went to

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...

, where he wrote music for the Gonzaga family, including his impressive operatic setting of ''

La Dafne ''La Dafne'' (''Daphne'') is an early Italian opera, written in 1608 by the Italian composer Marco da Gagliano from a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. It is described as a ''favola in musica'' (fable set to music) composed in one act and a prologu ...

''. In 1609, he returned to Florence to become ''maestro di cappella'' at the Compagnia dell'Arcangelo Raffaello, the organisation from which he had received his boyhood musical training. Later that same year, 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 ...

made him ''maestro di cappella'' of their court, a position he held for 35 years.

Music and influence

Gagliano wrote an enormous quantity of music, both sacred and secular, for the Medici; in addition, he was a singer and instrumentalist who entertained them privately. His works include fourteen published operas, of which two survive, ''

La Flora ''La Flora, o vero Il natal de' fiori'' (Flora, or The Birth of Flowers) is an opera in a prologue and five acts composed by Marco da Gagliano and Jacopo Peri to a libretto by Andrea Salvadori. It was first performed on 14 October 1628 at the Teatr ...

'' (1628) set to a libretto by Andrea Salvadori and ''

'' (1608). ''La Dafne'' was praised as the best setting of the libretto by

Rinuccini Rinuccini is a surname, and may refer to: *Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592–1653), an Italian archbishop. *Ottavio Rinuccini Ottavio Rinuccini (20 January 1562 – 28 March 1621) was an Italian poet, courtier, and opera librettist at the end of ...

—even by

Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633), known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. He wrote th ...

, the first to write an opera on the text. Meanwhile, Gagliano or somebody else revised Rinuccini's poetry for the libretto so extensively that in some places it is impossible to find traces of the original. Peri indicated that Gagliano's way of setting text to music came closer to actual speech than any other, therefore accomplishing the aim of the

Florentine Camerata The Florentine Camerata, also known as the Camerata de' Bardi, were a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence who gathered under the patronage of Count Giovanni de' Bardi to discuss and guide trends in t ...

of decades before, who sought to recapture that (supposed) aspect of

ancient Greek music Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greek ...

. Other music by Gagliano includes secular

monodies In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian song of ...

and numerous

madrigals 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 ...

. While the monody was a Baroque stylistic innovation, most of the madrigals are '' a cappella'', and written in a style reminiscent of the late Renaissance (in the first decades of the 17th century, the continuo madrigal was becoming predominant; for example, in the works of

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is consider ...

). This mix of progressive and conservative trends can be seen throughout his music: some of his sacred music is ''a cappella'', again in the '' prima prattica'' style of the previous century, while other pieces show influence of the Venetian School. Gagliano was extremely influential in his time, as could be expected of the Medicis' head of all musical activities at their court; however, his popularity waned after his death, and his music has since been overshadowed by contemporaries such as Monteverdi.

References

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gagliano, Marco da Italian Baroque composers Renaissance composers 1582 births 1643 deaths Italian Renaissance people Musicians from Florence Italian male classical composers 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century male musicians