Giovanni Luca Conforti
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Giovanni Luca Conforti (1560 – May 11, 1608) was an Italian composer and prominent falsetto singerNutter, David. "Conforti, Giovanni Luca." ''Grove Music Online''. ed. L. Macy. (accessed 24 November 2008)

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who wrote an exercise book about Baroque embellishments, ''Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi ad ogni scolaro'' or ''Brief and easy manner of exercising for every student'',Conforto, Giovanni Luca. ''Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi ad ogni scolaro''. NY: Broude Bros., 1978 still in use today.


Biography

Conforti, also spelled Conforto, was born in
Mileto Mileto ( Calabrian: ; grc, Μίλητος, translit=Míletos) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vibo Valentia in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about south of Vibo Valentia. Mileto is the ...
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, around 1560. He sang in the Papal chapel from 1580 to October 31, 1585. He and several of his colleagues were expelled for joining the Congregazione dei Musici di Roma, membership of which was forbidden to papal singers, though he was later allowed to rejoin. In 1586, he was reportedly serving the Duke of Sessa when Cardinal
Scipione Gonzaga Scipione Gonzaga (1542 – 1593) was an Italian cardinal, chiefly remembered for his friendship and patronage of the troubled poet Torquato Tasso and his support, against other family members, for his cousin Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. Life Born o ...
and protonotary Camillo Capilupi recommended him for service at the court of
Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...
, and in the letters they provide descriptions of Conforti's voice and style. When Capilupi heard him sing Lenten music at Santa Trinità, he proclaimed him the best falsettist in Rome, praising Conforti's resonance, improvization, and ornamentation. Cardinal Gonzaga's letters say Conforti sang both contralto and soprano skillfully, the first with a full voice, and the latter with a sweet tone. His skill came to impress many, and he was considered a prominent virtuoso soloist.Jackson, Roland. "Marenzio, Poland and the Late Polychoral Sacred Style." ''Early Music.'' 27, No. 4 (Nov. 1999): 622-631. That same year, Conforti is known to have sung at the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, a place all well-known musicians of the time performed. In 1595, he performed in a Lenten ceremony at the Arciconfraternita del Santissima Crocefisso under the direction of
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 ...
, a prominent Roman composer.O'Regan, Noel. "Marenzio's Sacred Music." ''Early Music.'' 27, No. 4 (Nov. 1999): 609-620. Conforti ended up not going to Mantua due to bureaucratic lagtime, but went to serve at S Luigi dei Francesi under Ruggiero Giovanelli in Tivoli. He was there from June 1, 1587 to April 30, 1588. In 1591, he again served the Papal chapel, serving there, in Rome, until his death in 1608.


Works


''Brief and Easy Manner of Exercising for Every Student''

Conforti's ''Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi ad ogni scolaro'' is one of only a few books on vocal embellishment written at the end of the sixteenth century.Neumann, Frederick. ''Ornamentation In Baroque and Post-Baroque Music''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978 It is also specifically addressed to instrumentalists (""), and thus forms part of the substantial 16th-century Italian literature of diminution and ornamentation which begins with the ''Fontegara'' of
Silvestro Ganassi Silvestro di Ganassi dal Fontego, also given as Sylvestro di Ganassi dal Fontego, Silvestro Ganasi dal Fontego, and Silvestro dal Fontego (1 January 1492 – 1565) was a Venetian musician and author of two important treatises on instrumental te ...
in 1535 and includes the treatises of
Diego Ortiz Diego Ortiz (c. 1510 – c. 1576) was a Spanish composer and music theorist in service to the viceroy of Naples ruled by the Spanish monarchs Charles V and Philip II. Ortiz published the first manual on ornamentation for bowed string inst ...
, Giovanni Maffei,
Girolamo Dalla Casa __NOTOC__ Girolamo Dalla Casa (also known as Hieronymo de Udene, died 1601) was an Italian composer, instrumentalist, and writer of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Venetian School, and was perhaps more famous and influential as a p ...
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Giovanni Bassano Giovanni Bassano (c. 1561 – 3 September 1617) was an Italian composer associated with the Venetian School of composers and a cornettist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a key figure in the development of the instrumental en ...
,
Riccardo Rogniono Riccardo Rognoni or Richardo Rogniono (ca. 1550 – before 20 April 1620) is the earliest known member of the Rognoni family which started one of the earliest of all violin schools, based in Milan. His treatise ''Passaggi per potersi esercita ...
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Giovanni Battista Bovicelli Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...
and
Aurelio Virgiliano Aurelio may refer to: People Politicians * Aurelio D. Gonzales Jr. (born 1964), congressman in the Philippines *Aurélio de Lira Tavares (1905–1998), President of Brazil *Aurelio Martínez, Honduran politician *Aurelio Mosquera (1883–1939), Pr ...
. There are three original copies known to exist, two in the British Library and one in the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna. All have the same nearly unreadable publication date, usually read as 1593, though there is no external evidence to support this or any other date. The book was written for students to quickly and easily learn the art of ornamentation. According to Conforti, this goal could be achieved in a few months by following his method. The treatise is user-friendly in its layout. Each section deals with an ascending or descending interval, showing passages in various rhythmic patterns that get progressively more difficult. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, octave and unison are addressed. Also included are more elaborate passages, a table of conventional ornaments, and examples of embellished cadences. A conclusion is included, which explains the examples. In his conclusion, "Declaration about the passages to the readers," Conforti states that his method is meant to help to embellish the singing of those who do not come by it naturally. He recommends learning and memorizing each section in nine days, learning all the exercises in less than two months. Upon completing the exercises, singers are meant to be able to add his embellishments into their sung lines, as well as improvise their own embellishments. Conforti also confides that his exercises are not exhaustive, and he only included those he judged to be the most appealing, leaving out others in order to create less confusion on the page. He emphasizes the importance of following one's ear when embellishing and understanding which notes will create a consonance. The manual was written for the benefit of singers, but Conforti also encourages its use by instrumentalists as finger exercises, suggested ornaments, and a method for learning to improvise ornaments on one's own.


Other works

In addition to the ''Breve e facile maniera'', he also wrote three-volumes of settings of the Vesper psalm and ''Magnificat'' for three voices and basso continuo. He applies his own system of embellishment, as laid out in the ''Breve e facile maniera'', in his three volumes of ''Salmi passaggiati''. In addition to his own works, Conforti collected and compiled others. He collected
Paolo Quagliati Paolo Quagliati (c. 1555 – 16 November 1628) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era and a member of the Roman School of composers. He was a transitional figure between the late Renaissance style and the earliest Baroque and was o ...
's two volumes of three-voice Canzonette (Rome, 1588) for publication and wrote the dedications. The second of these contains Conforti's own ''Amara vita è quella de gl'amanti''. He compiled the ''Psalmi, motecta, Magnificat, et antiphona Salve Regina diversorum auctorum'', published in 1592.


References and further reading


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conforti, Giovanni Luca 1560s births 1608 deaths People from the Province of Vibo Valentia Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian male singers Renaissance composers