Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger

Alfonso Ferrabosco, called the Younger (* around 1575 in Greenwich ; buried March 11, 1628 ibid) was an English composer and viol player of Italian descent. He was the illegitimate son of the composer Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder .

Life

Ferrabosco lived on the threshold of the Renaissance - to baroque music . His mother may have been Susanna Symons, who later became his father's wife. Until his death in 1592 he remained under the tutelage of Gomer van Awsterwyke, a member of the court of Queen Elisabeth I. Although his father asked to bring his son to Italy, where he lived with his wife, the Queen insisted that he should stay in England. Here he began his career as court musician and private music educator for Prince Henry .

Ben Jonson's poem in Ferrabosco's Book of Ayres

Ferrabosco worked on some works with Ben Jonson , such as The Masque of Blackness (1605) and other mask games , for which he composed the incidental music. His music was published by John Browne in 1609. The published works include settings of poems by John Donnes and Thomas Campion , lute and viol music. Ferrabosco often wrote his works in the then emerging Baroque style; although he had never been to Italy, he knew the contemporary Italian style well.

Ferrabosco owed its reputation largely to his skills as a gambist, and even more to his compositions for the viol consort . They have a very individual personal style with many diminutions and virtuoso passages. In addition, he wrote many in-nomine scorings that can serve as a model for this musical genre. Along with John Cooper, Ferrabosco was one of the first to notate viol music in tablature . He wrote a volume of lessons , i. H. Exercises for the viola da gamba.

Web links

Works by and about Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger in the catalog of the German National Library
Sheet music and audio files by Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger in the International Music Score Library Project

personal data
SURNAME	Ferrabosco, Alfonso the Younger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Alfonso Ferrabosco II
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian composer
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1575
PLACE OF BIRTH	Greenwich
DATE OF DEATH	buried March 11, 1628
Place of death	Greenwich