Teodoro Riccio

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Teodoro Riccio (Theodor Riccius) (* around 1540 in Brescia , † around 1603 in Ansbach ) was an Italian conductor and composer.

Live and act

After training as a church musician, Teodoro Riccius initially worked as Kapellmeister of the Santa Nazaro Church in his hometown. In the foreword of his first madrigal book from 1567, he signed as “Maestro di Capella di San Nazaro” in Brescia. This was also demonstrably his first own work, a collection of five-part madrigals. He dedicated this to the "Comiti Alfonso Capreolo". In the same year a collection of six-part madrigals from his pen followed.

When Margrave Georg Friedrich took over the supervision and later the guardianship of Duke Albrecht Friedrich, as his closest relative, he also expanded the occupation of important areas of responsibility in the Prussian lands in his own way. And so in 1575 Teodoro Riccius was called to take over the position of court conductor in Ansbach. Already in 1578 Georg Friedrich I was enfeoffed with the duchy by the Polish King Stephan Báthory , the feudal lord of Prussia at the time. That year Riccius followed his employer to Königsberg . In his position as court conductor he received support from 1581 through the assignment of the later famous musician Johannes Eccard (1553–1611) as sub- conductor . This took over the work with the boys' choir and individual administrative tasks. On July 30, 1585, the duke granted him an order for life with an annual salary of 360 guilders, free accommodation and two clothes. When Teodoro Riccius switched to the Protestant faith during this time, his employer was very favored. The main motivation for this could come from his second marriage in Königsberg.

On November 11, 1585, Teodoro Riccius married Barbara, the widow of Bartholomeus Schultz, who also lived in Königsberg. The marriage resulted in two children, the son Hieronymus Christoph Riccius (1593–1627) and a daughter Esther Riccius.

Riccius returned to Ansbach with his wife in 1586. This is where his presumably last work was created. A total of two books of sacred works have come down to us, as well as sacred chants and masses . His madrigals and motets in particular, which are now kept in the Royal State Library in Munich, among other places, are extraordinarily beautiful and convey an excellent, solemn atmosphere. Due to the skilful swelling and fading of the individual voices to one another, music experts count them as "the most beautiful" that has been achieved during this time. In his canzons and madrigals of his early career, Riccius clearly showed his origins in the Italian musical tradition.

There are several statements about the year of Teodoro Riccius's death, which assume that the year of his death was 1600 or 1603, but mostly without any specific documentation or evidence. In contrast, Ansbach can be assigned relatively clearly as the place of death.

Works

  • Madrigali - one collection of which five-part and the second six-part collection, Venice 1567
  • 2 books "Sacrae Cantiones", Nuremberg, 1576 and 1580
  • "Canzone alia Neapolitana", Nuremberg, 1577
  • Fair, Koenigsberg, 1579
  • Magnificat, Koenigsberg, 1579
  • Psalms, Venice, 1588
  • Collection of pieces of music (without further assignment of content), Ansbach, 1590

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Monthly issues for music history, issue XII, year 1869, Drägens Buchdruckerei Berlin and issue XIV, year 1870
  2. ↑ Confessions of the Lutheran Church BSLK , p. 15 and p. 763
  3. ^ Christine Böcker: Johannes Eccard: Life and Work (Berlin musicological works). Katzbichler, Munich 1980, p. 17, ISBN 3-87397-047-3 .
  4. ^ Robert Eitner, Biography of Teodoro Riccius, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Volume 28, 1889, pp. 408f. in: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd103938915.html#adbcontent
personal data
SURNAME Riccio, Teodoro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riccius, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH around 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH Brescia
DATE OF DEATH around 1600
Place of death Ansbach