Angelo Notari

Angelo Notari. According to a representation in his work Prime musiche nuove , published in 1613

Angelo Notari (* uncertain: January 14, 1566 in Padua ; † December 1663 ) was an Italian composer. He made a major contribution to the spread of early baroque music in England .

Almost nothing is known about the origin and life of notaries in Italy, and his date of birth is based on information he gave to a fortune teller . He belonged to the Accademia degli Sprovisti in Venice , which was also known by the nickname Il Negligente . In Italy he contributed a piece to the piece Amilla, libro secondo di canzonette a tre voci by Nicolo Legname, published in 1608 . Before 1612 Notari came to England, where he served as a musician in the suite of the heir to the throne Henry . In 1618 he is mentioned in the service of the new heir to the throne Karl . Notary was an avowed Catholic. Not only because of this, the government suspected him between 1621 and 1623 of being a spy in the service of the Spanish ambassador Diego Sarmiento de Acuña . At Christmas 1622 he sang during a Catholic mass in the chapel of the Spanish embassy. After Karl ascended the throne as king in 1625, he served as a singer and lute player at the royal court until at least 1639. Obviously, notaries contributed significantly to the spread of early Baroque music in England in the early 17th century. His work Prime musiche nuove , dated November 24, 1613, was published in London and dedicated it to the Earl of Somerset . It contains various pieces of music in the style of Italian baroque music of the time, including a monody , a canzonetta and a duet , but no madrigal . Through his work as a musician at court, he played a major role in making the music of Monteverdi and other contemporary Italian composers known in England. He presumably copied music manuscripts himself, but he did not identify them by name and therefore cannot be assigned to him unequivocally. Otherwise no other works by him are known.

During the English Civil War and the Commonwealth , notary public arguably left England and lived in various other European countries. After the Stuart Restoration , he returned to England as an old man and, with the help of the musician Henry Purcell the elder, took up his old position at court. He was buried on December 26, 1663 in St Martin-in-the-Fields , London, and was succeeded as court musician by Purcell.

literature

• Andrew Ashbee, David Lasocki: A biographical dictionary of English court musicians, 1485-1714 , Ashgate, Aldershot 1998, pp. 839-842
• Ian Spink: Angelo Notari and his Prime musiche nuove . In: Monthly Musical Record , 87 (1957), pp. 168-177
• PJ Willetts: Autographs of Angelo Notari . In: Music and Letters , 50 (1969), pp. 124-126

Web links

• Ian Spink: Notary, Angelo (1566–1663). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004