![Ruggiero Giovannelli by James Caldwall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Ruggiero_Giovannelli_by_James_Caldwall.jpg)
Ruggiero Giovannelli (c. 1560 – 7 January 1625) was an Italian composer of the 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 ...
eras. He was a member of the
Roman School
In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers of predominantly church music, in Rome, during the 16th and 17th centuries, therefore spanning the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The term also refers to the music they produ ...
, and succeeded
Palestrina
Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pren ...
at
St. Peter's.
Life
He was born in
Velletri
Velletri (; la, Velitrae; xvo, Velester) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring com ...
, near
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 ...
. It has been claimed that he was a student of Palestrina, but there is no documentary evidence of this; stylistic similarities between their music, and an obvious close career association, make it a reasonable assumption. Not much is known about Giovannelli's life until 1583 when he became ''maestro di cappella'' at S Luigi dei Francesi, a post which he held until 1591, at which time he went to the
Collegio Germanico. In addition to these posts he was ''maestro di cappella'' for Duke Giovanni Angelo of
Altaemps, at his private chapel, probably concurrently with his other jobs. He also sang, and served in various administrative posts.
Giovannelli's most important appointment was as the replacement for Palestrina as the ''maestro di cappella'' at the
Julian Chapel at St. Peter's, on 12 March 1594, a position which he held until 1599, when he became a singer at the
Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...
. In 1614 he became ''maestro di cappella'' at the Sistine Chapel, and he retired in 1624. He is buried in the church of Santa Marta.
Music and influence
Giovanelli composed and published a large number of secular pieces. He is noted for his church music, most of which also survives in manuscript. As could be expected for a composer of the Roman School, his sacred music was conservative, and mostly in the Palestrina style for the first part of his career; however, after 1600 he experimented with some of the stylistic innovations which defined the beginning of the Baroque era, such as the ''
concertato
Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a ''genre'' or a ''style'' of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo. The term derives from It ...
'' principle and 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 ...
.'' His output of sacred music fell off dramatically late in his life, and at least one scholar has suggested that this was because he was uncomfortable with the new style. In 1615 he created a new edition of the ''Graduale'' known as the ''Medicean'', published by the Medici press. (''The Encyclopedia Americana'' may contradict this, writing that a ''Editio Medicæa of the Graduale'' of 1614 was created by
Felice Anerio
Felice Anerio (26 or 27 September 1614) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, and a member of the Roman School of composers. He was the older brother of another important, and somewhat more progressive composer ...
.)
He wrote
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
es and
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s, some of which are for as many as 12 voices, and which often use
polychoral
An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...
techniques.
For a Roman School composer and a priest he wrote a surprising amount of secular music, mostly
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
canzonetta
In music, a canzonetta (; pl. canzonette, canzonetti or canzonettas) is a popular Italian secular vocal composition that originated around 1560. Earlier versions were somewhat like a madrigal but lighter in style—but by the 18th century, especial ...
s, some of which are in a light-hearted style influenced by northern Italian models, or by
Luca Marenzio
Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance.
He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the fo ...
, who had spent time in Rome. He wrote three books of madrigals for five voices and two books for four voices, as well as a large quantity of other secular songs which were not collected in publications; most have been dated to the 1580s and 1590s.
Giovannelli's music was reprinted widely, in Italy and elsewhere, indicating his broad popularity.
Works
Sources are incomplete, and may differ about his published works. There appear to have been at least three volumes of five books, five- and eight-part motets and three part canzonets (or canzonettes, instrumentals performed as entrances or introductions) (1592); ''Villanelle a 3 voci'' (1593); ''Misse'' (1593); ''Motetti'' (1594); ''Madrigale'' (1586); ''Book Three for Five Voices'' (1599); ''Vilanelle a 5 voci'' (1608). There are masses, motets, and psalms in manuscript at the
Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
, among them a ''Miserere'' for four and eight voices and a mass for eight, on Palestrina's madrigal ''Vestiva i colli''. Other madrigals are in the collections of
Girolamo Scotto
Girolamo Scotto (Hieronymus Scotus; also Gerolamo) (c.1505 – 3 September 1572) was an Italian printer, composer, businessman and bookseller of the Renaissance, active mainly in Venice. He was the most influential member of the firm of Venetian ...
and
Phalesisu; and motets and psalms in those of and
Karl Proske
Karl Proske (11 February 1794, Gröbnig (Upper Silesia) – 20 December 1861), was a German Catholic cleric, also known as Carolus Proske and Carl Proske. In his youth, Proske was a medical doctor, and worked for the Prussian military during the 1 ...
.
Publications
* ''Gli sdruccioli … Il primo libro de madrigali a 4'' (Rome, 1585)
* ''Il primo libro de madrigali a 5'' (1586)
* ''Il primo libro delle villanelle et arie alla napolitana a 3'' (Rome, 1588)
* ''Gli sdruccioli … libro secondo a 4, con una caccia in ultimo'', 4–8vv (Venice, 1589)
* ''Il secondo libro de madrigali a 5'' (1593)
* ''Sacrarum modulationum … liber primus, 5, 8vv'' (Rome, 1593)
* ''Terzo libro de madrigali a 5 voci'' (1599)
* ''Motecta … liber secundus, 5vv'' (Venice, 1604)
* ''3 motets for equal voices''
* ''Carmina Sacra; 17 motets for 3 equal voices''
* ''La Terra, che dal fondo''
* ''O Fortunata Rosa''
* ''Tu nascesti''
* ''Musica tolta da i madrigali di Claudio Monteverde, e d'altri autori'' (Milan 1607) contains sacred
contrafacta
In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...
by
Aquilino Coppini
Aquilino Coppini (died 1629) was an Italian musician and lyricist. While in the service of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, he specialized in creating sacred ''contrafacta'' of secular madrigals. His ''contrafacta'' are of interest for their concentrat ...
on madrigals by Giovannelli; among them are:
** ''Deus noster fidelis''
** ''O quam inanes''
** ''Sanctissima Maria''
** ''Moritur in ligno''
** ''Suauissime Iesu''
** ''Dulce est & iucundum''
** ''L'Amorosa Ero''
Midi
* Midi performance of ''Sancti-Maria''
[http://www.ni.bekkoame.ne.jp/je1emu/midiSeika/Sancti-Maria.mid ]
Notes
References and further reading
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giovannelli, Ruggiero
1560s births
1625 deaths
People from Velletri
Italian male classical composers
Renaissance composers
Italian Baroque composers
Roman school composers
17th-century Italian composers
17th-century male musicians