December 21, 2015. Giovanni Gabrieli. Several times a year we celebrate composers whose birth dates (and sometimes birth years) remain unknown to us. Giovanni Gabrieli is one of them and it seems quite appropriate to celebrate him this time of the year, as we approach Christmas: Gabrieli was mostly a composer of sacred music. Giovanni was a born in Venice, sometime between 1554 and 1557. His family came from the Alpine area of Carnia, north of Venice. Giovanni was probably brought up by his uncle, Andrea Gabrieli, who was probably his first music teacher. And as his uncle did some years earlier, the young Giovanni traveled to Munich, to the court of the Duke Albert V of Bavaria, to study with the great Orlando di Lasso. He returned to Venice in 1584, and a year later became the organist at the Basilica of San Marco; for several months he shared these responsibilities with Andrea, until Andrea’s death on August 30th of that year. That same year he received another prestigious post, as organist to the Scuola Grande di S Rocco, one of the most important confraternities in Venice. Tintoretto was still working on his famous canvases, decorating the building when Gabrieli assumed his post.
Upon Andrea’s death, Giovanni edited and published a volume of his work; to this volume he also added some of his own compositions. Giovanni’s first major collection of original music, called Sacrae symphoniae, was only published in 1597. Some, if not most, of the pieces in the collection represent music composed for the Scuola. The publication was clearly very successful, as just one year later, in 1598, it was reprinted in Nuremberg. Here’s Sonata Pian'e Forte from the collection, performed by the brass section of the Bavarian State Opera, Zubin Mehta conducting. As Giovanni’s music became famous, pupils started coming from Italy and Europe, many of them sent from Germany. Among them was Heinrich Schütz, who came in 1609 and stayed till Gabrieli’s death. Through Schütz, and other Germans, we can connect Gabrieli with the German baroque tradition and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Gabrieli, like his uncle Andrea and Adrian Willaert before him, wrote much music in the Venetian “polychoral” style. This style has an unusual history: unlike practically anything else in music, its existence was a direct result of the architectural peculiarities of the main cathedral of Venice, the San Marco. San Marco’s shape differs from all other large Italian churches. Instead of having a long, wide nave, it’s built as an equal-armed cross, having the length and the width of about the same size. Additional smaller chapels in both the nave and the transept further complicate the structure. As there is not enough space for one large choir, there are two, on the opposite sides of the church. As a result, the sound echoes throughout the building with the delays forming very unusual effects. Gabrieli wrote a large number of choral and brass pieces that took advantage of these effects. Here’s a great example, Canzon à 12 in Echo. It’s performed by the brass sections of three great orchestras, the Philadelphia, the Cleveland, and the Chicago.
Giovanni Gabrieli, 2015
December 21, 2015. Giovanni Gabrieli. Several times a year we celebrate composers whose birth dates (and sometimes birth years) remain unknown to us. Giovanni Gabrieli is one of them and it seems quite appropriate to celebrate him this time of the year, as we approach Christmas: Gabrieli was mostly a composer of sacred music. Giovanni was a born in Venice, sometime between 1554 and 1557. His family came from the Alpine area of Carnia, north of Venice. Giovanni was probably brought up by his uncle, Andrea Gabrieli, who was probably his first music teacher. And as his uncle did some years earlier, the young
Giovanni traveled to Munich, to the court of the Duke Albert V of Bavaria, to study with the great Orlando di Lasso. He returned to Venice in 1584, and a year later became the organist at the Basilica of San Marco; for several months he shared these responsibilities with Andrea, until Andrea’s death on August 30th of that year. That same year he received another prestigious post, as organist to the Scuola Grande di S Rocco, one of the most important confraternities in Venice. Tintoretto was still working on his famous canvases, decorating the building when Gabrieli assumed his post.
Upon Andrea’s death, Giovanni edited and published a volume of his work; to this volume he also added some of his own compositions. Giovanni’s first major collection of original music, called Sacrae symphoniae, was only published in 1597. Some, if not most, of the pieces in the collection represent music composed for the Scuola. The publication was clearly very successful, as just one year later, in 1598, it was reprinted in Nuremberg. Here’s Sonata Pian'e Forte from the collection, performed by the brass section of the Bavarian State Opera, Zubin Mehta conducting. As Giovanni’s music became famous, pupils started coming from Italy and Europe, many of them sent from Germany. Among them was Heinrich Schütz, who came in 1609 and stayed till Gabrieli’s death. Through Schütz, and other Germans, we can connect Gabrieli with the German baroque tradition and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Gabrieli, like his uncle Andrea and Adrian Willaert before him, wrote much music in the Venetian “polychoral” style. This style has an unusual history: unlike practically anything else in music, its existence was a direct result of the architectural peculiarities of the main cathedral of Venice, the San Marco. San Marco’s shape differs from all other large Italian churches. Instead of having a long, wide nave, it’s built as an equal-armed cross, having the length and the width of about the same size. Additional smaller chapels in both the nave and the transept further complicate the structure. As there is not enough space for one large choir, there are two, on the opposite sides of the church. As a result, the sound echoes throughout the building with the delays forming very unusual effects. Gabrieli wrote a large number of choral and brass pieces that took advantage of these effects. Here’s a great example, Canzon à 12 in Echo. It’s performed by the brass sections of three great orchestras, the Philadelphia, the Cleveland, and the Chicago.