Paolo Quagliati

Paolo Quagliati

Paolo Quagliati (c. 1555 – November 16, 1628) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era and a member of the Roman School of composers. He was a transitional figure between the late Renaissance style and the earliest Baroque, and was one of the first to write solo madrigals in the conservative musical center of Rome.

Life

Quagliati was born in Chioggia to an aristocratic family. Most of his life he spent in the service of various royal and aristocratic families. In 1594 he became a Roman citizen, and between 1605 and 1608 Quagliati was employed by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. Most likely he was organist at Santa Maria Maggiore from around 1608 until his death. During that time he also served as organist for various formal occasions around the city, and eventually he became private chamberlain to Pope Gregory XV. Towards the end of his life he was much respected, if not renowned, by his fellow composers, as can be judged from dedications of collections of music to him; however some of this may have been less due to the quality of his music than to his direct papal connections and immense influence.

Works and style

Stylistically, Quagliati's music is clear, elegant, and he generally uses simple diatonic harmonies. Some of his books of madrigals are in two versions: one for singing by equal voice parts, in the old Renaissance style, and another in what he calls the "empty" style, for single voice with instrumental accompaniment. These were examples of the new Baroque style of monody, and he states as much in the preface to his 1608 publication: "I have decided to cater to both tastes." Quagliati was probably the first to publish solo madrigals in Rome, though monody in the form of solo madrigals had already existed for more than twenty years in northern Italy.

He wrote both sacred and secular vocal music, as well as some instrumental music. In his instrumental music, he makes little or no distinction between the style assigned to pieces with certain labels, such as ricercars or canzonas; this was an occasional practice at the time, and quite an annoying one to musicologists attempting to categorize music during this transitional period. Conventionally, a canzona around 1600 was a sectional instrumental piece, while a "ricercar" was a rather severe contrapuntal study, one of the ancestors of the fugue; the work of a few composers such as Quagliati make it necessary to qualify these terms as of imprecise usage.

Of his surviving larger-scale works, one of the most interesting is "La sfera armoniosa", which includes no less than 25 separate sections, including vocal solos, duets, all with an accompanying violin part. Much is written in the concertato style imported from northern Italy, though it would have seemed tame to a Venetian composer. He wrote this large work for the wedding of the nephew of the pope to Isabella Gesualdo, daughter of the famously murderous composer Carlo Gesualdo.

References and further reading

*


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Paolo Quagliati — Paolo Quagliati. Gravure d après un portrait par Ottavio Leoni (1623). Paolo Quagliati, né vers 1555 à Chioggia en Vénétie et mort le 16 novembre 1628 à Rome, est un compositeur et or …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Paolo Quagliati — (* um 1555 in Chioggia; † 16. November 1628 in Rom) war ein italienischer Komponist und Organist in Rom. Nach seiner musikalischen Ausbildung (vermutlich in Venedig), zog es ihn 1574 nach Rom, wo er als Organist in verschiedenen Kirchen wirkte.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Quagliati — Paolo Quagliati (* um 1555 in Chioggia; † 16. November 1628 in Rom) war ein italienischer Komponist und Organist in Rom. Nach seiner musikalischen Ausbildung (vermutlich in Venedig), zog es ihn 1574 nach Rom, wo er als Organist in verschiedenen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Paolo — may refer to:* A typical Italian given name, Anglicized as Paul. * The paolo was a papal silver coin, first struck during the 16th century under Pope Paul III and named after him. It circulated throughout the Papal States with a value roughly… …   Wikipedia

  • Paolo — ist ein italienischer männlicher Vorname, abgeleitet vom lateinischen Namen Paulus mit der Bedeutung „klein“.[1] Eine weitere, u.a. die deutsche Form des Namens ist Paul; zu Herkunft und Bedeutung des Namens siehe auch dort. Die weibliche Form… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Liste der Biografien/Q — Biografien: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Liste der Komponisten/Q — Komponisten klassischer Musik   A B C D E F G H I J K L …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Chronological list of Italian classical composers — The following is a chronological list of classical music composers who live(d) in, work(ed) in, or are citizens of Italy. Contents 1 Medieval 2 Renaissance 3 Baroque 4 Classical era …   Wikipedia

  • List of composers by name — This is a list of composers by name, alphabetically. For lists of music composers by other classifications, see List of composers. NOTOC A*Els Aarne (1917 1995) *Evald Aav (1900 1939) *Juhan Aavik (1884 1982) *Petrus Abaelardus (1079 1142) *Frank …   Wikipedia

  • Liste des madrigalistes — La liste des madrigalistes a pour objet de recenser les compositeurs[1] de la Renaissance et de l époque baroque, auteurs de madrigaux. La source principale est l ouvrage de Roger Tellart, Le madrigal en son jardin, complétée par les… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”