Simone Molinaro (c. 1570 – May 1636)''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart''. Personenteil, Band 12, Kassel 2004, p. 308. was a composer of the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. He was especially renowned for his

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

music.

Life and career

Molinaro was born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. He studied music with his uncle, Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena, who was

maestro di cappella ( , , ), from German (chapel) and (master), literally "master of the chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in i ...

at Genoa Cathedral. In 1593, Gostena was

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

ed, and Molinaro succeeded him in his post at the Cathedral in 1599.Cummings(n.d.) The same year he published ''Intavolatura di liuto'', containing lute works both by himself and by Gostena. In addition to his lute works, Molinaro composed a large amount of sacred choral music, most of which does not survive completely because of missing partbooks. However, some five-voice motets have been preserved in the collections of Hassler and Schadaeus. Molinaro died in May 1636 in Genoa. Molinaro also served as editor of the works of

Carlo Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (between 8 March 1566 and 30 March 1566 – 8 September 1613) was an Italian nobleman and composer. Though both the Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, he is better known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred ...

, publishing editions of that composer's madrigals in 1585 and 1613.

Assessment

In his dances for lute, according to Eitner, Molinaro "despises all counterpoint, and shows himself as a pure melodist and harmonist, but both in so simple and pretty a way, that they all have something uncommonly attractive".cited in Grove (1907) Molinaro wrote at the time when, according to Paul Henry Lang, lute music was reaching its apogee. Along with Giovanni Terzi, Molinaro's lute music introduces "a finished, graceful, and sovereign instrumental style, capable of all shades of expression and of a technique which we usually associate only with the vocal music of the period". The 1613 publication of the Gesualdo madrigals was ground-breaking because it presented Gesualdo's music in full score as opposed to partbook format. Molinaro's music was used as the basis for "Balletto detto il Conte Orlando" of the ''

Ancient Airs and Dances ''Ancient Airs and Dances'' () is a set of three orchestral suites by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, freely transcribed from original pieces for lute. In addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, Respighi was also a notable musico ...

Suite No. 1'' by

Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions ra ...

Works

Lute

* ''Intavolatura di liuto libro 1'',

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, 1599

Secular Vocal music

* ''Il 1 libro di canzonette a 3 e 4 voci'', Venice, 1595 * ''Il 1 libro de Madrigali a 5 voci'', Venice, 1599 * ''Il 2 libro delle Canzonette a 3 voci'', Venice, 1600 * '' Madrigali a 5 voci'', Loano 1615

Sacred Vocal music

* ''Motectorum quinis et Missae denis vocibus liber I'', Venice, 1597 * ''Il 2 libro de Mottetti a 8 voci'',

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, 1601 * ''Il 1 libro de mottetti a 5 voci, con la partitura per sonar l'organo'', Milan, 1604 * ''Il 1 libro de Magnificat a 4 voci, con basso continuato'', Milan, 1605 * ''Concerti ecclesiastisi a 2 e a 4 voci...con la sua part. per l'organo'', Venice, 1605 * ''Il 3 libro de Mottetti a 5 voci con il basso continuato'', Venice, 1609 * ''Fatiche spirituali...libro 1 a 6 voci'', Venice, 1610 * ''Fatiche spirituali....libro 2 a 6 voci'', Venice, 1610 * ''Concerti a 1 e 2 voci con la part. per l'organo'', Milan, 1612 * ''Passio Domini Iesu Christi secundum Matthaeum, Marcum, Lucam, et Ioannem'', Loano, 1616

References

Bibliography

* Article "Molinaro, Simone". *

External links

*
Biography
at hoasm.org
Biography
at answers.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Molinaro, Simone Italian Renaissance composers Composers for lute Year of birth uncertain Italian male classical composers 1634 deaths 1570s births 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century Italian male musicians