# Giovanni Gabrieli (1557 - 1612)



## Taggart

Gabrielli is on the cusp between the older Renaissance styles and the Baroque. The change in his music after the publication of Monteverdi's _Quinto libro di madrigali_ shows a move towards the Baroque.

Little is known of his early life. He probably studied initially with his uncle, the composer Andrea Gabrieli, who was employed at St Mark's Basilica. Giovanni also went to Munich to study with the renowned Orlando de Lassus at the court of Duke Albert V; most likely he stayed there until about 1579.

By 1584, he was organist at St Mark's Basilica. In 1586, following his uncle's death, he took the post of principal composer as well. Gabrieli's career rose further when he took the additional post of organist at the _Scuola Grande di San Rocco_, another post he retained for his entire life.

Like composers before and after him, he would use the unusual layout of St Mark's Basilica, with its two choir lofts facing each other, to create striking spatial effects. Adrian Willaert is said to have developed the Venetian polychoral style from the earlier practice of antiphonal psalm singing and the antiphonal singing of plain chant. The acoustics were and are such in the church that instruments, correctly positioned, could be heard with perfect clarity at distant points. Thus instrumentation which looks strange on paper, for instance a single string player set against a large group of brass instruments, can be made to sound, in San Marco, in perfect balance. To get the best out of the acoustics, Gabrielli became one of the first composers to specify precise dynamics for his pieces.

Many of Gabrieli's motets and other religious choral works are written for two or four choirs, divided into a dozen or more separate parts. Gabrieli also became one of the first composers to write choral works including parts for instrumental ensembles; the motet _In ecclesiis_, as an example, calls for two choirs, soloists, organ, brass, and strings.






Gabrieli composed many purely instrumental works in forms such as the canzoni and ricercari, which had become increasingly popular in the sixteenth century. Several of these were published with some of his choral music in the collection Sacrae symphoniae (1597). This publication was very popular all over Europe and attracted for Gabrieli a number of prominent pupils, the best known of which were Heinrich Schütz and Michael Praetorius. These helped to spread his techniques to Germany.

More of Gabrieli's instrumental pieces were published posthumously in _Canzoni e sonate_ (1615). Some of these works were particularly innovative: the Sonata pian e forte was one of the first documented compositions to employ dynamic markings, and the Sonata per tre violini was one of the first to use a basso continuo, anticipating the later trio sonata. His instrumental works are now seen as the culmination of the development of instrumental music in the sixteenth century.

Gabrielli died in Venice in 1612 as a result of complications from a kidney stone.

Information from Wiki, All Music and other sources.


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## Ingélou

I am indebted to _*Dorsetmike*_ :tiphat: for this YouTube video of Gabrieli's Canzonas and Sonatas -






and also for this short video 'The Making of Gabrieli' posted by The San Francisco Conservatory of Music -






I'd also like to thank @*classical yorkist* :tiphat: for recommending Gabrieli to me in the first place.

What a heavenly composer! :angel:


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## Manxfeeder

Gabrieli is God's gift to brass players. And he's the big reason I would like to see Venice, just to see Saint Mark's.


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## classical yorkist

Manxfeeder said:


> Gabrieli is God's gift to brass players. And he's the big reason I would like to see Venice, just to see Saint Mark's.


Oh, I'm totally with you on the see Venice idea. In fact it's number one of my wife and I's holiday destinations. Hopefully, with a bit of scrimping and saving we'll get there.


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## Manxfeeder

classical yorkist said:


> Oh, I'm totally with you on the see Venice idea. In fact it's number one of my wife and I's holiday destinations. Hopefully, with a bit of scrimping and saving we'll get there.


I don't know if you have access to the Netflix show Someone Feed Fred, a very entertaining show about a foodie who travels the world, but its first episode is in Venice. He unashamedly gushes over the place. It makes me want to hop on the next plane.


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## Josquin13

Manxfeeder--The Netflix show is actually called, "Somebody feed Phil". The foodie, Phil Rosenthal, was the creator of the American TV comedy show, "Everybody loves Raymond." Good call.

I agree, Venice is one of the most fascinating, colorful, & light filled cities on earth, and that the music of Giovanni Gabrieli is heaven for cornet & sackbut players. I'm astonished by the Gabrielis compositions for double and triple choirs. What a wonderful combination of sounds. Venice was also once the home of Claudio Monteverdi and has been acknowledged as the city where opera (for the public) began. Antonio Vivaldi lived and taught there too. Music was everywhere. Even hospitals and orphanages were turned into music conservatories. What an enlightened place.

In addition, the city & Veneto region are home to some of the most incredibly beautiful architecture on earth. I love its Gothic styled buildings. Andrea Palladio is one of my favorite architects too (if I had unlimited funds and could hire any architect in history to design a house for me, I'd pick Palladio... although it would be a small house, with beautiful gardens.)






I've long had an oversized poster of a detail from Canaletto's painting of "La Piazza San Marco" on my living room wall, which I look at often with pleasure: 



. But most of all, I love the paintings of Giorgione, Tiziano or Titian (his early to middle periods), and Giovanni Bellini, as well as Lorenzo Lotto, Paolo Veronese, Sebastiano del Piombo, Andrea Mantagna, Paris Bordone, and the other Bellinis, Jacopo & Gentile--who all had connections to Venice.






Musically, the question that nags at me is whether or not the Gabrieli's practice of using instruments to accompany choirs derives from their studies with Orlando di Lasso or Lassus in Munich, and if so, whether or not Lassus brought it to the court of Duke Albert V as part of a prior Franco Flemish practice that he had learned during his formative years. If a Franco Flemish connection to the Munich court could be proven, on the part of Lassus, it would alter or modify current scholarly thinking about the use of instrumental accompaniment in Franco Flemish sacred polyphony (and perhaps the Davies brothers could even return to making early music recordings...).

Here are some of my favorite & most played Giovanni Gabrieli recordings (all with original brass, which is well worth hearing!--as opposed to modern brass instruments playing Gabrieli, since this is the way that Gabrieli intended his music to sound):

1. Dutch bass singer Harry van der Kamp, leading of the Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam (which he founded), and the instrumental ensemble Oltremontano, led by Wim Becu, performing Gabrieli's Sacrae Symphoniae: this CD was a sleeper, in my opinion:

https://www.amazon.com/Gabrieli-Sac...5546&sr=1-2&keywords=accent+giovanni+gabrieli

2. Two CDs featuring the legendary cornettists Bruce Dickey & Doron Sherwin in the music of Gabrieli:

https://www.amazon.com/Gabrieli-G-C...fkmr0&keywords=james+dickey+giovanni+gabrieli
https://www.amazon.com/Giovanni-Gab..._0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1539705685&sr=1-2-fkmr0

3. The wonderful cornettist Jean Tubéry leading La Fenice & Choeur de Chambre de Namur:

https://www.amazon.com/Gabrieli-San...05&sr=1-1&keywords=giovanni+gabrieli+ricercar, or the original issue: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029Q8QXQ/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

4. Andrew Parrott leading the Taverner Choir & the London Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble:

https://www.amazon.com/Gabrieli-Can...1-2&keywords=giovanni+gabrieli+andrew+parrott
https://www.amazon.com/Gabrieli-Gio...p-0&keywords=giovanni+gabrieli+andrew+parrott

5. His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts:

https://www.amazon.com/Gabrieli-Can...&keywords=giovanni+gabrieli+symphoniae+sacrae
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0097LP1J...ba74-83d9ab362e6b&ie=UTF8&qid=1539707084&sr=3

6. Paul McCreesh and the (appropriately named) Gabrieli Consort & Players:

Music for San Rocco (in Venice):

https://www.amazon.com/Music-San-Ro...1-2&keywords=paul+mccreesh+gabrieli+san+rocco

A Venetian Coronation 1595:

https://www.amazon.com/Venetian-Cor..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=QFM3R1BQPRNPY80DST5N
The Reissue: https://www.amazon.com/Venetian-Cor..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=Z3NWKJQZFQJACFY1QCNV

My two cents.


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## Taggart

Josquin13 said:


> Musically, the question that nags at me is whether or not the Gabrieli's practice of using instruments to accompany choirs derives from their studies with Orlando di Lasso or Lassus in Munich, and if so, whether or not Lassus brought it to the court of Duke Albert V as part of a prior Franco Flemish practice that he had learned during his formative years. If a Franco Flemish connection to the Munich court could be proven, on the part of Lassus, it would alter or modify current scholarly thinking about the use of instrumental accompaniment in Franco Flemish sacred polyphony (and perhaps the Davies brothers could even return to making early music recordings...).
> 
> My two cents.


The post is worth a lot more. :tiphat:

Question is, if Lassus used instruments, why did Duke Willhelm commission the Veronese trumpeter Cesare Bendinelli to set Lassus's motet _Fi(t) Porta Christi_ for trumpet accompaniment? The whole matter is a question undoubtedly requiring (and deserving) more study.


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## Manxfeeder

Josquin13 said:


> Manxfeeder--The Netflix show is actually called, "Somebody feed Phil". The foodie, Phil Rosenthal, was the creator of the American TV comedy show, "Everybody loves Raymond." Good call.


Thanks for clarifying. At least I was close.


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## Josquin13

Taggart writes, "Question is, if Lassus used instruments, why did Duke Willhelm commission the Veronese trumpeter Cesare Bendinelli to set Lassus's motet Fi(t) Porta Christi for trumpet accompaniment? The whole matter is a question undoubtedly requiring (and deserving) more study."

That's interesting. I didn't know a contemporary trumpet & voice version existed of the motet. Thanks. Although it was common in the late Renaissance to make instrumental arrangements of motets & mass movements by major composers. Many such arrangements of Josquin's music were made for the lute, for example. So, it could be that Duke Wilhelm simply liked the sound of the trumpet, and the way Bendinelli played the instrument. Wilhelm may have also been following an example or precedent set by Lassus himself--of trying out or experimenting with different instruments for various performances.

It's an ongoing debate in my mind, one that may never get resolved. Although I do find it interesting that both the Huelgas Ensemble and Capella Ducale Venetia choose to employ instruments in Lassus' late vocal work, Lagrime di San Pietro. & the effect is quite similar to what Andrea Gabrieli does with his Psalmi Davidici, and we know that Andrea studied with Lassus for one year in Munich:










We also know that instrumentalists were employed at the Munich court, & that they were used as accompanists in the many chansons & lieder that Lassus composed (& set to multiple languages), as well: 



. Yet, surprisingly, Lassus didn't compose any purely instrumental music, out of some two thousand compositions.


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## asiago12

Venice is the city of "music".... not Vienna.
Piano-forte and violino and cello.. are typical "venetians" instruments.
During Mozart "era" in Vienna.. almost every professional musician of the imperial court was Italian..


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