Marchetto Cara

Marchetto Cara

Marchetto Cara (c. 1470 – probably 1525) was an Italian composer, lutenist and singer of the Renaissance. He was mainly active in Mantua, was well-connected with the Gonzaga and Medici families, and along with Bartolomeo Tromboncino, was well known as a composer of frottolas.

Contents

Life

Next to nothing is known of his early life. By 1494 he was already employed by the Gonzaga court at Mantua, and he evidently stayed there, without interruption except for travel to sing in nearby cities, until his death. Among his duties were directing the singers both in the cathedral of S Pietro, and in the private estate of the Gonzaga family. As lovers and patrons of music, they employed numerous musicians, and Cara was chief among them: he wrote music for weddings, for state occasions, for intermedi, and for private entertainments, and in so doing created some of the most refined light music of the time. Along with Tromboncino, he was the most famous composer of frottole, and his compositions continued to be collected and published after his death.

Most likely he died in 1525, since his widow remarried in early 1526, and there was at the time a legal requirement for a widow to wait nine months prior to remarriage. When he died he was a wealthy man, owning two houses in the city and two large country estates: evidently the Gonzaga family paid him well.

Cara was famous not only as a composer, but as a singer and a lutenist. He sang at Mantua, for his employers, but also traveled throughout northern Italy, singing for the Medici, the Bembo family,the Bentivoglio family in Bologna, and other aristocrats in Verona, Venice, Padua, Pesaro, Cremona, as well as other cities. Baldassare Castiglione heard him sing, and wrote of him in his famous Book of the Courtier (Venice, 1528), in the same paragraph in which he praises Leonardo da Vinci:

And no lesse doeth our Marchetto Cara move in his singinge, but with a more softe harmonye, that by a delectable waye and full of mourninge swetnesse maketh tender and perceth the mind, and sweetly imprinteth in it a passion full of great delite (translated by Sir Thomas Hoby, 1561).

Works

Though predominantly a composer of frottolas, a light secular form and ancestor of the madrigal, he also wrote a few sacred pieces, including a three-voice Salve Regina (one of the Marian Antiphons) as well as seven laude spirituali. His frottolas are for the most part homophonic, with short passages of imitation only at the beginnings of phrases; they are catchy, singable, and often use dance-like rhythms. The poetry for most of his 100 frottolas is anonymous, though the authors of 16 poems have been identified. Most of the poems are in the form of the barzellette, but there are also strambotti, sonnets, capitoli and ode. Almost everything is in a verse-refrain format.

Some of his later frottolas are more serious in character, and foreshadow the development of the madrigal, which took place in the late 1520s and 1530s, right after his death.

Sources

  • Article "Marchetto Cara", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 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

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Marchetto Cara — Nacimiento 1470 Verona Fallecimiento …   Wikipedia Español

  • Marchetto — may refer to: Given name Marchetto Cara (c. 1470 – probably 1525) was an Italian composer, lutenist and singer of the Renaissance. Marchetto da Padova (Marchettus of Padua; b. 1274?; fl. 1305 – 1319) was an Italian music theorist and composer of… …   Wikipedia

  • Cara — or CARA may refer to:* Classification and Rating Administration, a division of the Motion Picture Association of America that administers the MPAA film rating system * Council for Assisting Refugee Academics, a charitable organization *… …   Wikipedia

  • Cara — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Cara est un prénom d origine germanique. Il peut désigner : l île Cara en Écosse ; Cara, un personnage du roman L Épée de vérité ; le cara …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Marco Cara — Marco Cara, auch Marchetto Cara (* um 1475 in Verona; † nach 1525 in Mantua) war ein italienischer Komponist. Von 1495 bis 1525 stand er im Dienst der Familie Gonzaga in Mantua, die zu seiner Zeit Künstler aller Richtungen förderte. Er schuf mehr …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Frottola — The frottola was the predominant type of Italian popular, secular song of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. It was the most important and widespread predecessor to the madrigal. The peak of activity in composition of frottole was… …   Wikipedia

  • Frottola — Frottole La frottole, ou frottola en italien[1] (du latin médiéval « frocta », amas d éléments divers), est une forme poético musicale florissante en Italie au début de la Renaissance[2]. C était le style prédominant des chansons… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Frottole — La frottole, ou frottola en italien[1] (du latin médiéval « frocta », amas d éléments divers), est une forme poético musicale florissante en Italie au début de la Renaissance[2]. C était le style prédominant des chansons populaires… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Frottola — La frottola fue el tipo de música popular predominante en Italia como canción secular durante el Siglo XV y principios del Siglo XVI. Fue el más importante y difundido predecesor del Madrigal. La cumbre de composición de las frottolas fue el… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Isabella d'Este — Porträt Isabellas von Tizian Isabella d’Este (* 18. Mai 1474 in Ferrara; † 13. Februar 1539 ebenda) war eine der wichtigsten Personen in der Kultur und Politik der italienischen Renaissance. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

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