Rinaldo del Mel
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Rinaldo del Mel (also René del Mel, del Melle) (probably 1554 – ) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, mainly active in Italy, and a member of the Roman School of composition. He likely studied with Palestrina, and was a skilled and prolific composer, especially of cyclic madrigals of the type popular in Rome.


Life

Mel was born in
Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...
to an aristocratic family closely connected to the Duchy of Lorraine; his father was in charge of the financial management of the Duke's estate. In 1562, at the probable age of eight, he began study at the Cathedral of St. Rombaut, with Séverin Cornet being his principal teacher. In 1572, after finishing his schooling, he was sent to Lisbon by his family, where he may have served as ''maestro di cappella'' at the court (according to
Giuseppe Baini Abbate Giuseppe Baini (21 October 1775 – 21 May 1844) was an Italian priest, music critic, conductor, and composer of church music. He was born in Rome. He was instructed in composition by his uncle, Lorenzo Baini, and afterwards by G. Jann ...
, the 19th century writer on music, who was not always a reliable source). By 1580 he was in Rome, possibly studying with Palestrina. Records indicate he was at Chieti in 1583, and in January 1584 in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
; in July of that year he accepted a position as ''maestro di cappella'' at
Rieti Rieti (; lat, Reate, Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina re ...
Cathedral, but was dismissed shortly thereafter for being too often absent from his duties. Between 1585 and 1591 Mel traveled widely, returning to Flanders, including
Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
and
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
. He served briefly as ''maestro di cappella'' for the Duke of Bavaria, then in Liège, for at least a few months beginning in July 1587. He visited Venice, Rome, Magliano Capo di Sabina, and
Aquila Aquila may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Aquila'', a series of books by S.P. Somtow * ''Aquila'', a 1997 book by Andrew Norriss * ''Aquila'' (children's magazine), a UK-based children's magazine * ''Aquila'' (journal), an or ...
during the years 1585 to 1591 as well. Between 1591 and 1597 he was music director at the cathedral and seminary in Magliano Capo di Sabina. He disappears from the record after 1597, but a book of newly composed chansons by him, published in Antwerp that year, has suggested that he may have again returned to the land of his birth.


Music

All of Rinaldo del Mel's surviving music is vocal, and it is both sacred and secular. He was a prolific composer, and wrote both
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 and madrigals, as well as some forms that blended elements of the sacred and secular, such as a collection of "spiritual canzonets". His style shows the craftsmanship of an exceptional Netherlandish musical training, as well as the influence of Palestrina, who was probably his teacher, as claimed by Baini. Mel's sacred music, as would be expected of a composer of the Roman School, is more conservative stylistically than his secular music. Since his music is yet to appear in a modern edition it has not been fully evaluated by scholars. Mel wrote several sets of cyclic madrigals, i.e. sets of madrigals which set successive stanzas of a long poem (Monteverdi's ''Sestina: Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata'' is probably the most famous example of a cyclic madrigal set). Setting cyclic madrigals was a hallmark of Roman School composers. Mel's settings show some progressive tendencies, such as an increasing melodic emphasis on the uppermost part, a feature which foreshadowed the polarization of soprano and bass parts that was a feature of the
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 ...
style several decades later. In addition, in his secular music he often employs harmonic progressions with root motions in fifths, another feature of the Baroque style to follow. Another stylistic aspect of his madrigals is the prominent use of textural contrast, with chordal, syllabic passages alternating with passages in running thirds or sixths, or brief imitative sections. Long sections of purely
contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
writing are absent from his secular music, although, as in Palestrina, smooth counterpoint is the primary textural language of his sacred music.


References and further reading

* * Gustave Reese, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954.


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mel, Rinaldo Del 1550s births 1590s deaths Belgian classical composers Belgian male classical composers 16th-century Franco-Flemish composers Musicians from Mechelen Renaissance composers Roman school composers