Giovanni Bassano
Giovanni Bassano (* 1551 or 1552 ; † August 17, 1617 in Venice ) was an Italian musician and composer of the Venetian School on the border between the Renaissance and Baroque music . His work plays a key role in the development of instrumental music at St. Mark's Basilica . He left a handwriting Ricercate, passagi et cadentie , with detailed information on the ornamentation technique of the time , which became an extensive source for later historical performance practice . It is not known whether he was related to the Bassano family of musicians .
Life
No sources exist about Bassano's early years. He first appeared in 1576 as an instrumental musician at San Marco in Venice. There he quickly gained a reputation as one of the best instrumentalists in Venice. Around 1585 he published his first work Ricercate, passagi et cadentie with a detailed and precise description of how to decorate the instrumental parts when transcribing vocal music. In the same year he became a music teacher at the seminar attached to St. Mark's Basilica. In 1601 he succeeded the late Girolamo Dalla Casa as head of the training center. He held this position until death. The exact time of his death is not known, but can be dated to the summer of 1617, since both offices were then filled at the same time.
plant
Bassano exerted a decisive influence on the music of the Gabrieli both as an instrumental musician and as musical director. Probably the artistic zinc parts by Giovanni Gabrieli were intended for him as a soloist. In addition to the cathedral music, Bassano led several ensembles of the Venetian pifferari , the bands made of bagpipes , flutes , shawms , flageolets , dulcians and other wind instruments that played in other churches in Venice and on festive occasions.
He also worked as a composer, although his compositional work took a back seat due to his fame as an instrumentalist and theoretician of performance practice. He composed motets and concerti ecclesiastici in the style of the Venetian polychoir , as well as madrigals , secular canzonets and instrumental works. The canzonets also became famous outside of Italy. Thomas Morley met them and published them in English translation in London in 1597 .
Some of Bassano's instrumental works are of a high level of contrapuntal artistry that is not evident in the more ceremonial, homophonic compositions. The voice guidance of his fantasies and ricercare is closely imitated and shows complex motivic work. The stylistic similarity of his motets with the early work of Heinrich Schütz , who had also been a student of Gabrieli, suggests the possibility that both knew each other.
Web links
- Sheet music and audio files by Giovanni Bassano in the International Music Score Library Project
- Fabio Fano: Entry Bassano, Giovanni in Dizionario degli Italiani Vol. 7 (1970)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 2, Sp. 451–453, Bärenreiter and Metzler, Kassel and Basel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1112-8
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bassano, Giovanni |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian composer and instrumentalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1551 or 1552 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th August 1617 |
| Place of death | Venice |