Marcantonio Negri (died October 1624) was an Italian composer, singer, and musical director of the early
Baroque era. He was in the musical establishment of
St. Mark's Basilica in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
at the same time as
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 ...
, and was well known as a composer at the time.
Life
He was born in
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
, but aside from this, little is known about his life prior to his appointment as assistant ''maestro di cappella'' at St. Mark's on 22 December 1612, a position in which he supported Monteverdi as primary ''maestro di cappella''. His first publication dates from 1608, in Venice, so he had some experience as a composer and singer prior to his arrival at St. Mark's; whether he acquired that experience in Verona, Venice, or elsewhere is not known. After four years at St. Mark's, he became abbot of a monastery at
Veglia (now
Krk
Krk (; it, Veglia; ruo, Krk; dlm, label= Vegliot Dalmatian, Vikla; la, Curicta; grc-gre, Κύρικον, Kyrikon) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Kot ...
,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
), on an island off the coast of
Dalmatia, a position which still required his part-time involvement at St. Mark's. He resigned from St. Mark's in 1619, and his position was taken by
Alessandro Grandi
Alessandro Grandi (1590 – after June 1630, but in that year) was a northern Italian composer of the early Baroque era, writing in the new concertato style. He was one of the most inventive, influential, and popular composers of the time, proba ...
. Negri died at Veglia.
Music and influence
His first book of ''affetti amorosi'' (1608) is in the most modern
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 ...
style, using affective chromaticism and continuo. In 1611 he published another book of ''affetti amorosi'' which includes sonatas for two
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
s and
continuo, as well as some
sinfonia
Sinfonia (; plural ''sinfonie'') is the Italian word for symphony, from the Latin ''symphonia'', in turn derived from Ancient Greek συμφωνία ''symphōnia'' (agreement or concord of sound), from the prefix σύν (together) and ϕωνή (sou ...
s. Some of these pieces contain "
battle music", with the violins imitating trumpet calls and military drums; both Monteverdi and Grandi imitated this style, and Monteverdi possibly learned it from Negri.
Negri also published sacred music, including a book of psalm settings (1613) and a book of spiritual songs (1618), both in Venice. Stylistically they conform to the typical practice of divided choirs and groups of instruments used by the other composers at St. Mark's (see
Venetian polychoral style
The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation. It represented a major stylistic shift from the prevailing polyphonic writing of 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 ...
).
References
*
Denis Arnold
Denis Midgley Arnold (Sheffield, 15 December 1926 – Budapest, 28 April 1986) was a British musicologist.
Biography
After being employed in the extramural department of Queen's University, Belfast, he became a Lecturer in Music at the Univ ...
, "Marc Antonio Negri," in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.
*Denis Arnold, ''Monteverdi.'' London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1975.
*
Eleanor Selfridge-Field
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
The name was introd ...
, ''Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi.'' New York, Dover Publications, 1994.
*Gregorio Moppi
''Marc'Antonio Negri''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' ( en, Biographical Dictionary of the Italians) is a biographical dictionary published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1925 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biograp ...
External links
Marcantonio Negri's pageon the
International Music Score Library Project
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki softwar ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negri, Marcantonio
Year of birth missing
1624 deaths
Musicians from Verona
Italian male classical composers
Italian Baroque composers
17th-century Italian composers
17th-century male musicians