diumenge, 28 de juliol del 2019

400 anys després, celebrem i commemorem els desconeguts

Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) - The allegory of childhoodObra de Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), pintor francès.


Giulio Cesare Arresti (1619-1701) - Sonata XVI
Rogier Michael (c.1554-1619) - Te Deum laudamus
Giulio Cesare Arresti (1619-1701) - Sonata XVII
Francisco Soto de Langa (1534-1619) - Signor, ti benedico
Giulio Cesare Arresti (1619-1701) - Sonata XVIII
Nicolaus Zangius (1570-1619) - Congratulamini nunc omnes
Ottavio Bariolla (1573-1619) - Canzon Vigesima et ultima
Juan Garcia de Zéspedes (1619-1678) - Guaracha, Convivando está la noche

- 400è aniversari de compositors a qui difícilment escoltarem -



Parlem de Pintura...

Charles Le Brun (Paris, 24 de febrer de 1619 - Paris, 22 de febrer de 1690) va ser un pintor francès que amb els seus dissenys barrocs va dominar l'art realitzat a França durant dues generacions. Va néixer a París, en el si d'una família d'artistes, i va rebre la seva formació artística a la seva ciutat natal i a Roma, on va treballar amb el pintor Nicolas Poussin. El 1646 va tornar a París, ciutat on va desenvolupar, gradualment, un estil clàssic basat en el gust barroc pel drama, el naturalisme i la decoració. El 1648, amb el ministre de finances francès Jean-Baptiste Colbert, i altres, va promoure la fundació de la Reial Acadèmia de Pintura i Escultura. També en aquell temps va pintar els frescs de castells com Vaux-le-Vicomte, considerats com la seva obra mestra, Sceaux i la Galeria d'Apolo, al Louvre. Va obtenir el favor del rei Lluís XIV gràcies a una sèrie de cinc llenços que documentaven les gestes d'Alexandre el Gran (1661-1673), va ser nomenat pintor del rei i va aconseguir la noblesa el 1662. Un any més tard es va convertir en el director de la Reial Fàbrica dels Gobelins de tapissos i mobles, per a la qual va pintar diferents obres. Entre els anys 1679 i 1684 va dirigir la decoració del Palau de Versalles, incloent l'Escala d'Ambaixadors i el Saló dels Miralls i a més a més va dissenyar alguns dels seus jardins. Charles Le Brun va morir a París el febrer de 1690.



Parlem de Música...

Giulio Cesare Arresti (1619-1701) va ser un organista i compositor italià.

He spent his entire life in Bologna. He was a pupil of Ottavio Vernizzi whom he succeeded as second organist at S Petronio in 1649, being promoted to first organist ten years later. In December 1661 he was summarily dismissed following a vitriolic attack on the maestro di cappella Maurizio Cazzati, circulated anonymously as the Dialogo fatto tra un maestro ed un discepolo desideroso d'approfittare nel contrappunto. While Gaspari attributed this work to Arresti, it is now considered unlikely that it is by him. Matters came to a head when Arresti published his Messa e Vespro dell Beata Virgine (1663), including the Kyrie of Cazzati's Messe e salmi a 5 voci (1655) liberally marked with alleged errors. Cazzati was forced to reply in the lengthy Risposta alle opposizoni fatte dal Signor Giulio Cesare Arresti nella Lettera al Lettore posta nell'opera sua musicale (1663). After Cazzati's own dismissal in 1671, Arresti was reinstated as first organist, being pensioned in 1696. He also served at S Salvatore in 1668 and 1680 and at the Cappella del Rosario, S Domenico. He played a major part in the foundation (1666) of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, which apparently originated in some highly successful concerts of his given at the home of its founder Count Vincenzo Carrati. Arresti became president of the academy in 1671. He had previously been a member of the Accademia dei Filomusi, with the name ‘Il Sollevato’. The pedantic dispute over the proprieties of the a cappella style have coloured later perceptions of Arresti's music. His Sonate (1665), however, are novel in their inclusion of arie obviously indebted to contemporary secular vocal music, and his Sonate da organo di varii autori (?1697), containing three of his own compositions, is an important anthology of late 17th-century Italian organ music. His contribution to the oratorio appears to have been significant but cannot be assessed in the absence of surviving scores.

---

Ottavio Bariolla (1573-1619) va ser un organista i compositor italià.

---

Tobias Clausnitzer (1619-1684) va ser un compositor alemany.



Clausnitzer wurde als Sohn eines Kärrners und Landfuhrmanns in Thum geboren. Er studierte ab 1642 Evangelische Theologie an der Universität Leipzig. Im Jahr 1644 wurde er Feldprediger in einem schwedischen Regiment. Nachdem er 1649 in Weiden auf Befehl des schwedischen Generals Wrangel die Feldpredigt zur Feier des Westfälischen Friedens hielt, wurde er dort Pfarrer und später auch kurpfälzischer Kirchenrat und Inspektor des gemeinschaftlichen Amtes Parkstein und Weiden. Er starb 1684 als Superintendent in Weiden. Neben zahlreichen Erbauungsschriften, Passions- und Festpredigten verfasste er ebenfalls einige Kirchenlieder.

---

Bernardo Corsi (c.1570-1619) va ser un compositor italià.

In 1598 he was organist of the collegiate church of S Agata, Cremona. The dedications of three of his publications between 1607 and 1618 were written from Cremona, and he probably spent all his life there. A remark in the dedication of his op.5 indicates that he was either a priest or, more probably, a monk. In the same dedication he mentioned that for many years he had been in the service of Count Pietro Maria Rossi and that both he and his patron preferred sacred music. His output to some extent reflects the changes that were taking place in sacred music in the early 17th century. His 1613 book is in the tradition established by Viadana’s Cento concerti ecclesiastici, but even in his later books his style remained conservative: for example, the five-part psalm Laudate Dominum (1617) is a prima pratica work with a basso seguente rather than a fully independent continuo line.

---

Mathias de Sayve (c.1550-1619) va ser un cantant i compositor flamenc.

Singer and composer, elder son of Raskin de Seave. He was appointed second succentor at the collegiate church of St Martin-en-Mont, Liège, on 9 July 1571, and held the post at least until 1588. By 1 January 1590 he was an alto in the chapel of Emperor Rudolf II in Vienna, and in 1593 he was Monte’s deputy as choirmaster. According to Vannes he was choirmaster in Salzburg from 1606 to 1608, after which he rejoined the imperial chapel until 30 September 1617. It seems likely he died in Bohemia late in 1619. He published his five-voice Liber primus motectorum in Prague in 1595, and one motet and two odes by him appeared in collections.

---

Euricius Dedekind (1554-1619) va ser un compositor alemany.

His first name has sometimes been incorrectly cited as Heinrich. He was the son of the pastor and poet Friedrich Dedekind, who worked at Neustadt from 1551 to 1576, when he moved to Lüneburg, and thus he must have grown up at Neustadt and may also have moved to Lüneburg in 1576. In 1578 he matriculated at the University of Wittenberg. On 26 April 1581 he was engaged to assist Christoph Praetorius, Kantor of the Johannisschule, Lüneburg, and at the beginning of 1582, when Praetorius had been pensioned off, he was appointed his successor. On 18 December 1594 he was appointed third pastor at St Lamberti, Lüneburg, and from 1617 until his death he was principal pastor. At St Lamberti he continued the tradition whereby the Lüneburg Kantors wrote polyphonic Christmas songs (‘cantilenae scholasticae’) every year to words supplied by the headmasters of the local schools. It is impossible to assess his achievement as a composer since of his three known published collections one is lost and the other two survive in incomplete form.

---

Thomas Fritschius (1563-1619) va ser un compositor alemany.

He may have attended the Gymnasium in Görlitz although there is no evidence that he received his musical training from Kantor Winkler. He was a member of the order of Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Stern at Breslau. In 1608 he became prior at the monastery and in 1609, following the death of Johann Henceius, he was elected master. However, the monastery failed to notify the master-general of their decision, and he nullified the election. After a new vote, Elias Bachstein was appointed master and Fritsch was despatched to a monastery in Bohemia for three years. He may have returned to Breslau in autumn 1612. Fritsch was evidently on good terms with Georg Rudolph, Duke of Liegnitz, to whom his motet collections were dedicated. The title ‘Magister’ in the tenor volume of his Novum et insigne opus musicum (1620) was probably a posthumous tribute to a highly-esteemed musician and composer. The main source of his music, all of it sacred, is Novum et insigne opus musicum, which contains 119 works for four to ten voices for the church year. It was complemented by several other works surviving only in manuscript, but most of these disappeared at the end of World War II. Fritsch adhered on the whole to the conventions of late Renaissance polyphonic music and was clearly influenced by Lassus, Handl and Hassler. He also cultivated polychoral techniques, even when writing for only six voices (as in Gabriel angelus apparuit, in PL-PE). His music is clearly transitional in character and typical of a period when the declining Renaissance was slowly giving way to early Baroque practice. There is often a close correlation between words and music both in works to Latin texts – the vast majority – and in the four pieces to German texts in the 1620 volume.

---

Juan Garcia de Zéspedes (1619-1678) va ser un cantant i compositor mexicà.

He was appointed as a soprano at Puebla Cathedral on 16 August 1630, with an initial stipend of 50 pesos to cover the cost of choir robes; in January the following year the cathedral chapter offered him the annual salary of 80 pesos, and in 1632 it was almost doubled to 150 pesos. In the ensuing decades the chapter experienced economic problems, and García's salary began to diminish in 1651, although his prestige within the cathedral hierarchy was ascending. The Capitular Acts of 19 June 1654 assigned him the tasks ‘of teaching plainchant, polyphony, and viols to the young choirboys that are sopranos and to the other cantors who are worthy of instruction, and that he give lessons every day at the Church’. Robert Stevenson has pointed out that this job description is slightly unorthodox, for under normal circumstances the maestro de capilla (in this case Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla) would have assumed these tasks; however, in 1658 and 1660 Padilla was formally urged to respect his teaching obligations, but to no avail, so the work fell to the younger García. In the August following Padilla's death (April 1664) García was appointed interim maestro de capilla with a pay increase of 150 pesos on top of his salary as a singer; the post became permanent in 1670. In July 1672 the chapter expressed displeasure that he was neglecting the teaching of plainchant and polyphony to two choirboys, and in the same year he was instructed to bring back ‘the viols, music paper, and books that belong to this Church’ that he had been borrowing. He was chastised again in 1676 for sloughing off and not recruiting with the vigour that the chapter expected, and he was also found to be emphasizing instrumentalists at the expense of singers. Late in life his health declined and he became paralysed. His surviving compositions reveal him as a composer adept at several styles. He was capable of handling rigorous counterpoint, as is amply demonstrated by his seven-voice Salve regina. He captured the spirit of the Mexican villancicos in his vivacious Convidando está la noche, which opens with an introductory juguete (vocal prelude) in majestic, four-voice homophonic chords, and proceeds with a guaracha for two voices, opening with ‘Ay que me abrazo ¡ay!’. The piece is driven forward by a hypnotic rhythmic hemiola coupled with inexorable loops of I–IV–V harmonies. It exhibits the defining characteristics of the guajira that was later to become popular in Cuba.

---

George Loosemore (1619-1682) va ser un organista i compositor anglès.

English organist and composer, brother of Henry Loosemore and John Loosemore. He was organist of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1635, and of Trinity College from 1660 until his death. He took the Cambridge MusD degree in 1665. He may have been the ‘Mr Loosemore’ who played the organ and taught the choristers at St John’s College, Cambridge, at various times during the 1660s. The majority of his works survive in one or other of two autograph manuscripts. The first, GB-Lbl Add.34203, is a book of organ accompaniments; it includes six of his own works and a further two by Henry Loosemore. The second, GB-Ctc R.2.58, is a medius partbook from a set of grace books copied by George Loosemore in 1664 and intended for use on feast days in the hall of Trinity College. It contains 11 full anthems by Loosemore, most of which are settings of Prayer Book collects for the major church festivals. A twelfth anthem, to the text of the Advent antiphon ‘O sapientia’, was apparently copied into the manuscript, although it is now missing. Loosemore’s instrumental fancies, most of which also are now lost, were admired by Dudley, 3rd Lord North, at whose home at Kirtling they are known to have been played.

---

Conrad Matthaei (1619-1667) va ser un teòric i compositor alemany.

He was a pupil of Heinrich Grimm at Brunswick. He apparently spent the major part of his life at Königsberg. He studied law and philosophy at its university about 1650 and seems to have continued his association with that institution on receiving the degree of doctor of law; he acknowledged the support of its faculty in the preface to his treatise Kurtzer, doch ausführlicher Bericht von den Modis Musicis, which was published in Königsberg in 1652 (reprinted 1658). In 1654 he became Kantor of the Old Town church. It is generally believed that he remained in that appointment until his death, though according to Walther he returned to Brunswick and practised law. No evidence supports this statement, and the fact that all his known compositions were published at Königsberg seems to contradict it. All Matthaei’s compositions are occasional sacred pieces. They display features similar to those found in the music of Johannes Eccard and his pupil Johann Stobaeus, particularly those in cantional style. This led Winterfeld to suggest that he studied with Stobaeus; he also believed that he may have been influenced by the Arien for several voices of Heinrich Albert. Matthaei’s mentors as a theorist are more easily determined. In addition to the treatises of his teacher Grimm it is apparent that he relied on those of Seth Calvisius and Johannes Lippius.

---

Rogier Michael (c.1554-1619) va ser un cantant i compositor holandès.

His father was a tenor in the Vienna Hofkapelle, where Rogier became a choirboy. In 1564 he was transferred to the Graz Hofkapelle of Archduke Karl II, where the Kapellmeister was first Johannes de Cleve and then Annibale Padovano and where the boys were taught from 1567 by Jacob de Brouck. In 1569 he was given a three-year scholarship and may have studied in Italy. He was a tenor in the Hofkapelle of Margrave Georg Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach at Ansbach from 1572 to 1574, when he went to the Dresden Hofkapelle as singer and musician. He remained there until his death, serving four electors during this 45-year period. From 12 December 1587 he was Hofkapellmeister, but because of increasing infirmity he was assisted from 1613 by Michael Praetorius and later by Schütz, who was appointed his successor in 1619.

---

Valentin Neander II (c.1575-1619) va ser un compositor alemany.

German composer, son of Valentin Neander. He matriculated at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder in 1597 and was a pupil of Bartholomäus Gesius in that town. He published Newe christliche Kirchen Gesänge, die man Introitus, Prosas, Responsoria und Hymnos nennet … auff die Melodeyen des Lobwassers Psalmen … gerichtet (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1619; ?lost), which consists of 89 four-part pieces. It provides interesting evidence of the penetration of the Huguenot manner of psalm setting into Lutheran north Germany, a development that may have been encouraged by the decision of the Elector Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg in 1613 to adopt Calvinism as his faith (see Bohn). According to Grimm, Neander had earlier published Neue geistliche Lieder for four to eight voices (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1601), and he also seems to have written Cantio nuptialis sumpta ex psalmo CXII for eight voices (Wittenberg, 1607), for the wedding of the Duke of Saxony; both are lost.

---

Santi Orlandi (c.1575-1619) va ser un compositor italià.

He was employed in at least May and September 1596 at S Maria Novella, Florence. His next known appointment was as maestro di cappella in the household of Prince Ferdinando Gonzaga at Florence. In 1608, when Ferdinando was created a cardinal by Pope Paul V, he followed him to Rome. On the death of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga I in February 1612, Ferdinando’s brother Francesco succeeded to the duchy of Mantua, and he appointed Orlandi temporarily to the post of maestro della musica from which he had dismissed Monteverdi. Orlandi was recalled to Rome by Cardinal Ferdinando in October 1612, but on 22 December Duke Francesco II died, and the cardinal became duke. Orlandi seems to have spent the rest of his life in his service at Mantua. He may have been employed as a singer at S Pietro there; a list of singers in a partbook (in I-Mc) refers to a tenor by the name of Orlandi from S Pietro. He published five volumes of five-part madrigals. The first, third and fifth, none of which survives complete, appeared in Venice in 1602, 1605 and 1609 respectively. The other two books are effectively lost. The fourth may have been published in Venice in 1607; the only surviving (bass) partbook is fragmentary. One six-part madrigal by him survives (in RISM 161310). He also composed an opera, Gli amori di Aci e Galatea, which was performed at Mantua in March 1617 as part of the festivities celebrating Duke Ferdinando’s marriage to Caterina de’ Medici; this is also the first opera known to have been performed in Poland (in 1628). The libretto was by Chiabrera; the music is lost. Bonini surveyed the history of composition between the time of Willaert and about 1645, and divided composers into three ‘orders’: Orlandi he placed in the third, together with Monteverdi, Filippo Vitali and others, and recommended his works as models.

---

Giovanni Piccioni (c.1548-1619) va ser un organista i compositor italià.

He was organist at the cathedral of Rimini from 1569 probably until shortly before 15 November 1577 when, according to the dedication of his first book of five-voice madrigals, he moved from Rimini to Conegliano, Veneto, where he became maestro di musica to the ‘Magnifici Signori Desiosi’, who formed an academy there. His books of canzoni of 1580 and 1582 bear dedications testifying to connections in the Romagna, and he may once again have been active there during these years. In the years 1583–6 he may have been in Dalmatia with Marc’Antonio Venier, as he later claimed (in his seventh book of madrigals). From August 1586 until 31 December 1591 he was organist at the cathedral of Gubbio. He held the same post at Orvieto Cathedral from 8 January 1592 until 1617; in 1615 he became maestro di cappella there as well. In 1616 he held the additional posts of organist and maestro di cappella at nearby Monte Fiascone. He was recalled to Orvieto as organist in 1619, and the last notice of his activity there is found in the dedication of his Concertus ecclesiastici on 17 June 1619.

---

Melchior Schramm (1553-1619) va ser un organista i compositor alemany.

He is first heard of in 1565 as a chorister in the Hofkapelle of Archduke Ferdinand of the Tyrol. He left in 1569 with a three-year scholarship and became a student of the Innsbruck court organist, Servatius Rorif. In 1571 and 1572 he was organist of a convent at Halle. In 1574 he became Kapellmeister and organist of the court at Sigmaringen; from 1594 he was organist only. From 1605 until his death he was civic organist of Offenburg, at the Heilig Kreuz Kirche. Inventories of the period show that his works were widely known, and the appearance of individual pieces in anthologies is a measure of their popularity. As a composer of German madrigals he ranks with Jacob Meiland as one of the most important forerunners of Hans Leo Hassler.

---

Francisco Soto de Langa (1534-1619) va ser un compositor espanyol.

Probablemente fue cantor en la Catedral de Burgo de Osma, diócesis de su ciudad de origen. Está considerado el primero, o uno de los primeros, castrato empleados en la Capilla Sixtina, donde permaneció del 8 de junio de 1562 hasta su jubilación en el 1611, sirviendo también como maestro durante cinco años. En 1566 trabajó para el Oratorio de S. Felipe Neri, uniéndose formalmente en 1571 a la congregación por éste fundada. A Francisco Soto y Felipe Neri les unió una profunda amistad, componiendo numerosos laudes, género que fue particularmente cultivado en los oratorios de S. Felipe. Estuvo relacionado con la fundación de la "Compagnia dei musicisti di Roma", a la cual otros cantores papales no querían pertenecer. En 1575 fue ordenado sacerdote. Durante dos años estuvo al servicio de la iglesia S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli y desde 1582 hasta su muerte fue miembro de la Confraternita della Resurrezione, con sede justo al lado de S. Giacomo donde fue encargado de organizar las músicas para la celebración del nacimiento de una hija de Felipe III. Soto fue muy famoso como cantor, y sus actuaciones atrajeron grandes multitudes. Fue elogiado como tal por Pietro della Valle en su Discorso. El recuerdo de Soto en el Oratorio de S. Felipe, donde ejecutaba los laudes espirituales escritos especialmente para su voz por Giovanni Animuccia, permaneció durante mucho tiempo en la memoria de sus contemporáneos. Sus obras fueron editadas en gran parte por él mismo y se conocen varias antologías suyas, pero es difícil saber con certeza el número de obras que compuso realmente y cuales son verdaderamente suyas. Murió en Roma el 25 de septiembre de 1619.

---

Gregor Stemmelius (?-1619) va ser un compositor alemany.

In about 1600, together with Johann Seytz and Carolus Andreae, he composed liturgical music for the Benedictine abbey at Irsee, of which he was a member. His surviving works show that he handled the techniques of vocal polyphony competently. His date of death is given in the manuscript D-As TS 95.

---

Giuseppe Felice Tosi (1619-1693) va ser un organista i compositor italià.

Italian composer and organist, father of Pier Francesco Tosi. The description of Il Celindo as his ‘first musical work’ must mean that he came late to composition. He was among the paid musicians (probably as a singer) in S Petronio, Bologna, from 1636 to 1641, which possibly means that he received his musical education there. He was a founder-member of the Bolognese Accademia Filarmonica in 1666 and was elected its principe in 1679. He composed a Dixit Dominus for the annual celebration of the academy in S Giovanni in Monte on 4 July 1675. From 1680 to 1683 he was maestro di cappella of the Accademia della Morte, Ferrara, and in 1682–3 of Ferrara Cathedral as well. In 1686 he served temporarily as maestro di cappella of S Giovanni in Monte, Bologna. From 7 July 1692 until early December 1693 he was second organist at S Petronio. The score of Il Celindo shows a competent hand, albeit with a trace of awkwardness in the vocal writing; like many operas of the 1670s it makes prominent use of a solo trumpet in dialogue with the voice. His sacred music is written in typical late 17th-century Bolognese style.

---

Nicolaus Zangius (1570-1619) va ser un compositor alemany.

He is first heard of in 1597, when he was Kapellmeister to Prince-Bishop Philipp Sigismund of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel at Iburg, near Osnabrück. In 1599 he went to Danzig, first as deputy to the Kapellmeister of the Marienkirche, Johannes Wanning, who was then a sick man, and shortly afterwards as his successor. In order to escape from plague-ravaged Danzig he obtained a long leave of absence in 1602, and until the end of 1605 he was an official at the imperial court in Prague. Only in 1607 did he return to Danzig, and even then only for a short time, for he was soon staying briefly at Stettin before returning to Prague, where he resumed his court duties in 1610. Finally, in 1612 he moved to Berlin as Kapellmeister to the Elector of Brandenburg, in succession to Johannes Eccard. He was joined there by several members of the Prague establishment, and during his few years in office he did much to raise musical standards. He is important as a composer for his sacred, and especially his secular, ensemble songs, which were highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Although he also on occasion cultivated the older polyphonic style, he was one of the first composers, particularly in north Germany, to adapt the Italian villanella style to German usage. His three three-part collections, the first of which was twice reprinted, are evidence of his achievements in this genre. His Gesellschaftslieder are also highly successful. A specially notable piece is the inventive five-part quodlibet Ich will zu land ausreiten from his 1597 collection, which probably served as a model for Melchior Franck’s farrago Kessel, Multer binden (in his Grillenvertreiber of 1622), the most famous example of the genre at that period.

---

Martin Zeuner (1554-1619) va ser un organista i compositor alemany.

He was appointed to the collegiate church of St Gumbertus at Ansbach on 16 June 1576 with a yearly salary of 50 florins and remained at this post until his retirement. On 20 June 1610 he was called to play the positive, regals and other instruments at the Brandenburg-Ansbach court; he was entrusted with composing the ceremonial music for the marriage of Margrave Joachim Ernst in 1612. He retired on 17 September 1616 after playing a leading role in the musical life of Ansbach for 40 years. Municipal tax records show that he was involved in several disputes concerning the payment of taxes and his various dealings in wine, and on 5 October 1615 the margrave settled in his favour a quarrel concerning singing and organ playing in which he had become involved with the Konrektor. His German songs (1617) show the influence both of prominent earlier German composers of such pieces, notably Georg Forster and Leonhard Lechner, and of such Italians as Gastoldi, Marenzio and Orazio Vecchi. They are predominantly contrapuntal, as are some of the chorale settings (1616). Other chorales, however, are chordal pieces in a more modern style with very simple harmonies; the frequent modulation and the cadential appoggiaturas anticipate Bach. Zeuner's wedding music (1612), for 12 and 24 voices, is in the polychoral Venetian tradition adopted in Germany by such composers as Hassler and Lechner, who may have influenced him.

---

2 comentaris: