Giuseppe Allevi

Giuseppe Allevi also "Piacenza" (* 1603 or 1604 in Piacenza or Cremona , † July 18, 1670 in Piacenza) was an Italian composer and conductor of the Baroque .

Live and act

Allevi's date of death is often incorrectly given as 1668, and his place of birth is also not clearly documented. His musical career connects him almost exclusively with Piacenza. Allevi is mentioned for the first time at Carnival 1644 as the composer of the meanwhile lost music for the ballet Le ninfe del Po , which he set to music based on a libretto by the Genoese Bernardo Morando (1589–1656). The performance took place in a public square in the city that was converted into a theater on the arrival of the Duke of Modena. The forewords to his publications mention him in the period from 1652 to 1668 as maestro di cappella of the Cathedral of Piacenza. A large part of the music in the archive of the Cathedral of Piacenza from this period bear Allevis names. The contemporary music biographer Giuseppe Bresciani (1599–1670) described him as a skilful counterpointist . His motets , held in the concertato style, are technically well written and sometimes show a lively dialogue in the passages for the obligatory instruments.

Works (selection)

• Compositioni sacre , two- to four-part with organ (Venice, 1654)
• Libro secondo delle Compositioni sacr e, two- to four-part, it contains a four-part funeral mass ( Messa de morti da capella, a 4 ) and a four-part sequence et offertorio with organ accompaniment (Venice, 1662)
• Terzo libro delle compositioni sacre , two- to four-part with the trio sonatas La Tortona , La Morella and La Tonola as well as the Letanie della Beatissima Vergine , for four voices and bc (Bologna, 1668)
• Magnificat , and 8-part psalm settings with organ accompaniment
• Le ninfe del Po , equestrian ballet, (performed at Cittadella in Piacenza) (music lost)

source

• New Grove 1st Edition