Andrea Gabrieli

Andrea Gabrieli (1532/1533[1] – August 30, 1585) was an Italian[1] composer and organist of the late Renaissance. The uncle of the
somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned member of the Venetian School of composers,
and was extremely influential in spreading the V
enetian style in Italy as well as inGermany.

Contents
Life
Works
Media
References
Editions
Notes
External links

Life
Details on Gabrieli's early life are sketchy. He was probably a native of Venice, most likely the parish of S. Geremia. He may have
been a pupil of Adrian Willaert at St. Mark's in Venice at an early age. There is some evidence that he may have spent some time in
Verona in the early 1550s, due to a connection with Vincenzo Ruffo, who worked there as maestro di cappella – Ruffo published one
of Gabrieli's madrigals in 1554, and Gabrieli also wrote some music for a Veronese academy. Gabrieli is known to have been organist
in Cannaregio between 1555 and 1557, at which time he competed unsuccessfully for the post of ganist
or at St. Mark's.[1]

In 1562 he went to Germany, where he visited Frankfurt am Main and Munich; while there he met and became friends with Orlande
de Lassus, one of the most wide-ranging composers of the entire Renaissance, who wrote secular songs in French, Italian, and
German, as well as abundant Latin sacred music. This musical relationship proved immensely fruitful for both composers: while
Lassus certainly learned from the Venetian, Gabrieli took back to Venice numerous ideas he learned while visiting Lassus in Bavaria,
and within a short time was composing in most of the current idioms, including one which Lassus entirely avoided: purely
instrumental music.[2]

In 1566 Gabrieli was chosen for the post of organist at St. Mark's, one of the most prestigious musical posts in northern Italy; he
retained this position for the rest of his life. Around this time he acquired, and maintained, a reputation as one of the finest current
composers. Working in the unique acoustical space of St. Mark's, he was able to develop his unique, grand ceremonial style, which
was enormously influential in the development of the polychoral style and the concertato idiom, which partially defined the
beginning of the Baroque era in music.[3]

His duties at St. Mark's clearly included composition, for he wrote a great deal of music for ceremonial affairs, some of considerable
historical interest. He provided the music for the festivities accompanying the celebration of the victory over the Turks in the Battle
of Lepanto (1571); he also composed music for the visit of several princes fromJapan (1585).

Late in his career he also became famous as a teacher. Prominent among his students were his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli; the music
theorist Lodovico Zacconi; Hans Leo Hassler, who carried the concertato style to Germany; and many others.

The date and circumstances of his death were not known until the 1980s, when the register containing his death date was found.
Dated August 30, 1585, it includes the notation that he was "about 52 years old"; his approximate birth date has been inferred from
this.[1] His position at St. Mark's was not filled until the end of 1586, and a large amount of his music was published posthumously in
1587.

Works
Gabrieli was a prolific and versatile composer, and wrote a large amount of music, including sacred and secular vocal music, music
for mixed groups of voices and instruments, and purely instrumental music, much of it for the huge, resonant space of St. Mark's. His
works include over a hundredmotets and madrigals, as well as a smaller number of instrumental works.

His early style is indebted toCipriano de Rore, and his madrigals are representative of mid-century trends. Even in his earliest music,
however, he had a liking for homophonic textures at climaxes, foreshadowing the grand style of his later years. After his meeting
with Lassus in 1562, his style changed considerably, and the Netherlander became the strongest influence on him.

Once Gabrieli was working at St. Mark's, he began to turn away from theFranco-Flemish contrapuntal style which had dominated the
music of the 16th century, instead exploiting the sonorous grandeur of mixed instrumental and vocal groups playing antiphonally in
the great basilica. His music of this time uses repetition of phrases with different combinations of voices at different pitch levels;
although instrumentation is not specifically indicated, it can be inferred; he carefully contrasts texture and sonority to shape sections
of music in a way which was unique, and which defined theVenetian style for the next generation.

Not everything Gabrieli wrote was for St. Mark's, though. He provided the music for one of the earliest revivals of an ancient Greek
drama in Italian translation:Oedipus tyrannus, by Sophocles, for which he wrote the music for the choruses, setting separate lines for
different groupings of voices.It was produced at Vicenza in 1585.

Evidently Andrea Gabrieli was reluctant to publish much of his own music, and his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli published much of it
after his uncle's death.

Media
Ricercar del Sesto Tuono
References
0:00
David Bryant: "Andrea Gabrieli", Grove Music Online, ed. L.
Macy (Accessed July 15, 2007),(subscription access) Performed by Ulrich Metzner
Denis Arnold, "Andrea Gabrieli," inThe New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 Problems playing this file? See media help.
vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.ISBN 1-
56159-174-2
Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
Denis Arnold, Giovanni Gabrieli and the Music of the Venetian High Renaissance. London, Oxford University Press,
1979. ISBN 0-19-315232-0
Giuseppe Clericetti, "Le composizioni per strumenti a tastiera di Andrea Gabrieli. Catalogo, bibliografia, varianti" in
"L'Organo" XXV-XXVI (1987-1988), 9-62.
Giuseppe Clericetti, "Martin menoit son pourceau au marché: due intavolature di Andrea Gabrieli" in "Musicus
Perfectus. Studi in onore di Luigi Ferdinando a Tgliavini nella ricorrenza del LXV. compleanno", Bologna 1995,
Pàtron, 147-183.
Giuseppe Clericetti, "Una terra di nessuno: le tre Messe per organo di Andrea Gabrieli" in "Fiori Musicologici. Studi in
onore di Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini nella ricorrenza del suo LXX. compleanno", Bologna 2001, Pàtron, 139-170.

Editions
Sacrae Cantiones, Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1565, modern edition Verlag C. Hofius, Ammerbuch (Germany) 2013,
ISMN 979-0-50248-001-1
Il Primo Libro di Madrigali a cinque voci, Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1566, modern edition Ricordi, Milano 2008
Il Secondo Libro di Madrigali a cinque voci, Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1570, modern edition Ricordi, Milano 1996
Primus Liber Missarum, Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1572, modern edition Verlag C. Hofius, Ammerbuch 2014, ISMN
979-0-50248-000-4.
Libro Primo de Madrigali a tre voci, modern edition Ricordi, Milano 1999
 Ecclesiasticum Cantionum quatuor vocum omnibus sanctorum solemnitatibus deservientium. Liber primus , Venezia,
Angelo Gardano 1576, modern edition Ricordi, Milano 2001
Opere edite in vita: Psalmi Davidici, qui poenitentiales nuncupantur , tum omnis generis instrumentorum, Venezia,
Angelo Gardano 1583, modern edition Ricordi, Milano 1988
Opera postume. Concerti di Andrea et di Gio. Gabrieli , Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1587, modern edition Ricordi,
Milano 1989
Chori in musica composti sopra li chori della tragedia di Edippo iranno:
T recitati in Vicenza l'anno MDLXXXV,
Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1588, modern edition Ricordi, Milano 1995
Il terzo Libro de Madrigali a cinque voci, con alcuni di Giovanni Gabrieli
, Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1589, modern
edition Ricordi, Milano 2012
Madrigali et ricecari a quattro voci, Venezia, Angelo Gardano 1589/90, modernedition Ricordi, Milano 2012
Le composizioni vocali di Andrea Gabrieli in intavolature per tastiera e liuto
, modern edition Ricordi, Milano
1993/1999
Complete Keyboard Works(edited by Giuseppe Clericetti), 6 Vol. + Critical Report, Wien 1997-99, Doblinger (Diletto
Musicale 1141-46, 09671).

Notes
1. Bryant, Grove online
2. Arnold, Giovanni Gabrieli and the Music of the Venetian High Renaissance, p. 4. Note: while this book is mainly on
Giovanni, Andrea's nephew, the initial chapter discusses in detail several of the other V
enetian School composers,
including Andrea.
3. Arnold, Grove online

External links
Andrea Gabrieli at Encyclopædia Britannica
Free scores by Andrea Gabrieliat the International Music Score Library Project(IMSLP)
Free scores by Andrea Gabrieliin the Choral Public Domain Library(ChoralWiki)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andrea_Gabrieli&oldid=805615193

"

This page was last edited on 16 October 2017, at 15:01(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.