Giovanni Legrenzi

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Anonymous 18th century portrait of Giovanni Legrenzi, Civico museo bibliografico musicale, Bologna

Giovanni Legrenzi (baptized August 12, 1626 – May 27, 1690) was an Italian composer of opera, vocal and instrumental music, and organist, of the Baroque era. He was one of the most prominent composers in Venice in the late 17th century, and extremely influential on the development of late Baroque idioms across northern Italy.

Contents

[edit] Life

He was born in Clusone, near Bergamo, and probably received his early training in Clusone. He served as organist to Santa Maria Maggiore there from 1645 to 1656. In 1656 he took a position at Ferrara as the maestro di cappella at the Accademia dello Spirito Santo, where he remained until 1665. Between 1665 and 1681 his activities are poorly documented, but he may have taught at the Venetian Ospedale dei Mendicanti sometime during these years. He was rejected for positions in many cities, including Vienna, Milan, Parma, Bologna, and Venice; and he declined positions in Modena and Bergamo.

In 1681 he was hired at St. Mark's in Venice as assistant maestro di cappella, and became full maestro di cappella in 1685. Among his students there were Francesco Gasparini, Antonio Lotti and Giovanni Varischino.

[edit] Music

Legrenzi was active in most of the genres current in northern Italy in the late 17th century, including sacred vocal music, opera, oratorio, and varieties of instrumental music. Though best known as a composer of instrumental sonatas, he was predominantly a composer of liturgical music with a distinctly dramatic character. The bulk of his instrumental music may also be included in this category, since it would have been used primarily as a substitute for liturgical items at Mass or Vespers. His operas were immensely popular (and extravagantly presented) in their day, though like his oratorios, few have survived. His later dance music was certainly connected with the operatic repertoire, though the function of an early collection (Op. 4, which is musicologically famous for its inclusion of six pieces designated sonate da camera) is less clear.

[edit] Published works

  • Concerti Musicali per uso di Chiesa. Op. 1 (Venice, Alessandro Vincenti, 1654)
  • Sonata a due, e tre. Op. 2 (Venice, Francesco Magni, 1655)
  • Harmonia d'affetti Devoti a due, tre, e quatro, voci. Op. 3 (Venice, Alessandro Vincenti, 1655)
  • Sonate dà Chiesa, e dà Camera, Correnti, Balletti, Alemane, Sarabande a tre, doi violini, e violone. Libro Secondo. Op. 4 (Venice, Francesco Magni, 1656)
  • Salmi a cinque, tre voci, e due violini. Op. 5 (Venice, Francesco Magni, 1657)
  • Sentimenti Devoti Espressi con le musica di due, e tre voci. Libro Secondo. Op. 6 (Venice, Francesco Magni detto Gardano, 1660). A second edition was published in Antwerp in 1665.
  • Compiete con le Lettanie & Antifone Della B.V. a 5. voci. Op. 7 (Venice, Francesco Magni detto Gardano, 1662)
  • Sonate a due, tre, cinque, a sei stromenti. Libro 3. Op. 8 (Venice, Francesco Magni, 1663)
  • Sacri e Festivi Concerti. Messa e Salmi a due chori con stromenti a beneplacito. Op. 9 (Venice, Francesco Magni Gardano, 1667)
  • Acclamationi Divote a voce sola. Libro Primo. Op. 10 (Bologna, Giacomo Monti, 1670)
  • La Cetra. Libro Quarto di Sonate a due tre e quattro stromenti. Op. 10 (Venice, Francesco Magni Gardano, 1673, reprinted 1682)
  • Cantate, e Canzonette a voce sola. Op. 12 (Bologna, Giacomo Monti, 1676)
  • Idee Armoniche Estese per due e tre voci. Op. 13 (Venice, Francesco Magni detto Gardano, 1678)
  • Echi di Riverenza di Cantate, e Canzoni. Libro Secondo. Op. 14 (Bologna, Giacomo Monti, 1678)
  • Sacri Musicali Concerti a due, e tre voci. Libro Terzo. Op. 15 (Venice, Gioseppe Salla, 1689)
  • Balletti e Correnti a cinque stromenti, con il basso continuo per il cembalo. Libro Quinto Postumo. Op. 16 (Venice, Giuseppe Sala, 1691)
  • Motetti Sacri a voce sola con tre strumenti. Op. 17 (Venice, Gioseppe Sala, 1692)

Note: Two collections were published as opus 10, Acclamationi Divote (1670) and La Cetra (1673). In the copy of Acclamationi Divote at the Civico museo bibliografico musicale in Bologna, the numeral ‘i’ has been added to the opus number in red ink, indicating an awareness that there are two books published as opus 10.

[edit] Unpublished works

A number of works survive in manuscript copies only. Most can be ascribed confidently to Legrenzi, though there are a few of less certain attribution. Among the most important of these works are:

  • The Messa a cinque voci con stromenti, found at Oxford.
  • The unaccompanied Missa quinque vocibus found at Loreto. This is the only unpublished work that can be dated with any accuracy, and is dated 1689 on the copy.
  • The Messa a 16 for four choirs and organ continuo held in the Vatican Library.
  • The Prosa pro mortuis, a complete setting for double choir and instruments of the sequence "Dies irae" from the Requiem Mass.
  • A unique setting for double choir and instruments of Matins for Christmas Day, including the Invitatory, Psalms and Te Deum; and concluding with the Introit for the First Mass of Christmas.
  • Intret in conspectu, a motet for 6 voices, known from a single source copied out by Handel, who drew on Legrenzi’s motet in the chorus 'To thy dark servant' in the oratorio Samson.
  • Credidi propter quod locutus sum, a psalm setting for solo alto, strings and continuo, which appears likely to be a rare example of Legrenzi's own hand, as there is evidence that it is an autograph.
  • Laudate pueri, a psalm setting for five voices, strings and continuo and, unusually, a trumpet.
  • Spirate aure serenae, a motet for solo soprano, strings and continuo which provides for a theorboe to double or replace the violone.

There are in addition a few more liturgical pieces, a number of cantatas and the unusual 'serenata' Notte, madri d’horrori.

[edit] Operas

  • Nino, il giusto (1662)
  • L'achille in Sciro (1663)
  • Zenobia e Radamisto † (1665)
  • Tiridate (1668)
  • Eteocle e Polinice † (1674)
  • La divisione del mondo † (1675)
  • Adone in Cipro ‡ (1675)
  • Germanico sul Reno † (1676)
  • Totila † (1677)
  • Il Creso ‡ (1681)
  • Pausania (1681)
  • Antioco il grande ‡ (1682)
  • Lisimaco riamato da Alexandro ‡ (1682)
  • Ottaviano Cesare Agusto (1682)
  • I due Cesari ‡ (1682)
  • Giustino † (1683)
  • L'anarchia dell'imperio ‡ (1683)
  • Publio Elio Pertinance ‡ (1684)
  • Ifianassa e Melampo (1685)

† Surviving scores.
‡ Arias from these operas survive in one or more sources.

[edit] Oratorios

  • Oratorio del giuditio (1665)
  • Oratorio della passione (1671)
  • Sedecia † (1671)
  • Il creation del mondo (1672)
  • Sisara (1672)
  • Moisè (1672)
  • La vendita del cuor humano † (or Il prezzo del cuor humano) ‡ (1673)
  • La morte del cor penitente † (1673)
  • San Giovanni Battista (1673)
  • Adamo et Eva (1674)
  • Gli sponsali d’Ester (1675)
  • Decollatione di S. Giovanni (1678)
  • Erodiade (lib. Neri) (1687)
  • Erodiade (lib. Piccioli) (1687)

† Surviving scores.
‡ Whether or not La vendita del cuor humano is in fact a Legrenzi work or P.A. Ziani's Il cuore humano all'incanto remains to be demonstrated.

[edit] References

  • Stephen Bonta: The Church Sonatas of Giovanni Legrenzi. Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1964.
  • Stephen Bonta: "Giovanni Legrenzi", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed June 27, 2005), (subscription access)
  • Stephen Bonta: Studies in Italian Sacred and Instrumental Music in the 17th Century. Burlington, Ashgate Publishing Co, 2003. ISBN 0860788784
  • Rudolf Bossard: Giovanni Legrenzi -- Il Giustino: Eine Monograph; Studie. Ph.D. Dissertation, Basel, 1987. Published as Il Giustino; eine mongraphische Studie. Baden-Baden, Koerner, 1988. Collection d'études musicologiques ; 79. ISBN 3873205793
  • Tiziana Brugnoni: Giovanni Legrenzi, Germanico sul Reno: Studio introduttivo ed edizione critica. M.A. Dissertation, Università di Pavia, 1991.
  • L. Glenn Cockerham: The chamber sonatas and dances of Giovanni Legrenzi. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kansas, 1988.
  • Julia Davids: Music for Vespers of the B.V.M. by Giovanni Legrenzi: A modern performing edition. D.Mus. Dissertation, Northwestern University, 2006.
  • Reinmar Emans: Die einstimmigen Kantaten, Canzonetten und Serenaden Giovanni Legrenzis. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Bonn, 1984
  • Piero Fogaccia: Giovanni Legrenzi. Bergamo, Edizioni Orobiche, 1954.
  • John Alexander MacDonald: The sacred vocal music of Giovanni Legrenzi. 2 vols. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1964.
  • Paola Palermo and Giulia Pecis Cavagna: La cappella musicale di Santa Maria Maggiore a Bergamo dal 1637 al 1810. (Studi Sulla Storia Della Musica in Lombardia, v). Turnhout, Brepols, 2007. ISBN 2503510337.
  • Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi: La sottigliezza dell’intendimento. Catalogo tematico di Giovanni Legrenzi. Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 2002. ISBN 8875520283
  • Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi (eds.): Giovanni Legrenzi e la Cappella ducale di San Marco : atti dei convegni internazionali di studi, Venezia, 24-26 maggio 1990, Clusone, 14-16 settembre 1990. Florence : Olschki, 1994. ISBN 8822241649
  • Gale Richard Price: "II sedecia" A seventeenth-century oratorio by Giovanni Legrenzi. D.M.A. Dissertation, University of Kentucky, 1981
  • John H. Roberts (ed.): La lotta d’Hercole con Acheloo / Agostino Steffani. Miscellaneous manuscript sources. Handel sources: materials for the study of Handel's borrowing ; 9. New York: Garland, 1986. ISBN 0824064836 ISBN 978-0824064839 (motet Intret in conspectu)
  • Eleanor Selfridge-Field: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660–1760. Palo Alto, Stanford University Press, 2007. ISBN 9780804744379
  • Eleanor Selfridge-Field: Pallade veneta : writings on music in Venetian society, 1650-1750. Venezia : Fondazione Levi, 1985. ISBN 8875520062
  • Eleanor Selfridge-Field: Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi. New York, Dover Publications, Third Rev. Ed. 1994. ISBN 0486281515 (See also Venetian instrumental ensemble music in the seventeenth century. D.Phil. Dissertation, University of Oxford, 1969.)
  • Umberto Scarpetta: Ritratto di un musicista barocco: Giovanni Legrenzi. Ph.D. Dissertation, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 1976.
  • Hendrik Schulze: Die Figur des Odysseus in der venezianischen Oper des 17. Jahrhunderts. Ph.D. Dissertation, Heidelberg, 2002. Published as Odysseus in Venedig: Sujetwahl und Rollenkonzeption in der venezianischen Oper des 17. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt: peter Lang, 2004. ISBN 3631504950.
  • J. David Swale: A thematic catalogue of the music of Giovanni Legrenzi (with an introduction and commentaries). 3 vols. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Adelaide, 1984.
  • Karin Anna Swanson: The secular vocal chamber music of Giovanni Legrenzi: M.Mus. Dissertation, University of Illinois, 1964.

[edit] Facsimiles

  • Acclamationi divote a voce sola. Bibliotheca musica Bononiensis. Sezione IV 207 : Bologna, Forni 1980.
  • Cantatas by Antonio Cesti and Giovanni Legrenzi ; selected and introduced by David Burrows and Stephen Bonta. The Italian cantata in the seventeenth century ; vol.6. New York : Garland, 1986. ISBN 0824088808. (Nos.1 - 12 from Opus 14, and three manuscript works.)
  • Echi di riverenza : di cantate e canzoni. Archivum musicum. Cantata barocca ; 7. Firenze : Studio per edizioni scelte, 1980.
  • Il Giustino : melodramma in tre atti. Collezione settecentesca Bettarini ; no. 12. Milano : Casa editrice Nazionalmusic, c. 1980.
  • La Cetra. Monumenta Lombarda, Libri Antiqui Fototypice Expressi, 2. Bologna, 1970.

King’s Music produces good quality photocopies of the complete collections Sonate a due, tre, cinque, a sei stromenti (Op. 8, 1663), Idee Armoniche Estese (Op. 13, 1678) and Balletti e Correnti (Op. 16, 1691).

[edit] Editions

  • Stephen Bonta (ed.): The instrumental music of Giovanni Legrenzi : sonate a due e tre, opus 2, 1655. Harvard Publications in Music, 14. Harvard University Press, 1984. ISBN 0674456203.
  • Stephen Bonta (ed.): La Cetra : sonate a due, tre e quattro stromenti, libro quattro, opus 10, 1673. Harvard Publications in Music, 17. Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN 0674456211.
  • Howard Mayer Brown: Italian opera librettos : 1640-1770. Italian opera, 1640-1770 v. 60. New York : Garland, 1979. ISBN 0824026594.
  • Howard Mayer Brown: Totila. Italian opera, 1640-1770 v. 9. New York : Garland, 1978. ISBN 082402608X.
  • Julia de Clerck: Prosa pro mortuis (Dies irae), Musicologica neolovaniensia ; musica sacra 1. Louvain-la-Neuve : Institut supérieur d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art, 1981.
  • Stefano Faglia, Franca Saini (ed.): Eteocle e Polinice. Opera in 3 Atti. Venezia 1675. Monza, Italian Academy of Musical Research, 2003. Parma, L'oca del Cairo Edizioni Musicale, 2003.
  • Stefano Faglia, Franca Saini (ed.): Giustino. Opera in 3 atti. Venezia 1683. Monza, Italian Academy of Musical Research, 2006. Parma, L'oca del Cairo Edizioni Musicale, 2006.
  • Joyce Johnson (ed.): Giovanni Legrenzi 1629-1690 II Sedecia / Bernardo Pasquini 1637-1710 Sant'Agnese. The Italian oratorio, 1650-1800 ; 8. New York, Garland, 1986. ISBN 0824077075.
  • Jeffrey Kurtzman (ed.): Vesper and Compline Music for Three Principal Voices. Seventeenth-Century Italian Sacred Music ; 13. New York, Garland, 1998. ISBN 0815323603. (Confitebor tibi from Opus 1)
  • Jeffrey Kurtzman (ed.): Vesper and Compline Music for Four Principal Voices. Seventeenth-Century Italian Sacred Music ; 14. New York: Garland, 1998. ISBN 0815324200. (Dixit Dominus from Opus 1)
  • Jeffrey Kurtzman (ed.): Vesper and Compline Music for Five Principal Voices, Parts I-II. Seventeenth-Century Italian Sacred Music ; 15-16. New York: Garland, 1999-2000. ISBN 0815324219 (I) ISBN 0815324227 (II). (Laudate Dominum from Opus 1, in Volume II)
  • Jeffrey Kurtzman (ed.): Vesper and Compline Music for Eight Principal Voices, Part One-Two. Seventeenth-Century Italian Sacred Music ; 18-19. New York: Garland, c.2001-2002. ISBN 0815324243 (I) ISBN 0815324251 (II). (In exitu Israel from Opus 9, in Volume II)
  • Anne Schnoebelen (ed.): Masses by Maurizio Cazzati, Giovanni Antonio Grossi, Giovanni Legrenzi. Seventeenth-Century Italian Sacred Music; 7. New York : Garland, 1997. ISBN 0815324138. (Kyrie, Gloria and Credo from Opus 9)
  • Albert Seay (ed.): Cantatas and Canzonets for Solo voice, Part I: Music for alto and bass voices ; Part II: Music for soprano or tenor voice. Recent Researches in the music of the Baroque era, 14, 15 : Madison, A-R Editions, 1972. (The whole of Opus 12 is presented in these two volumes.)
  • Albert Seay (ed.): Sonate da camera : opus 4, for two violins and basso continuo, Oxford University Press, c.1979. (Nos. 7 - 30 from Opus 4) ISBN 9780193576209.
  • Albert Seay (ed.): Sonate da chiesa, opus 4 [and] opus 8 (1656-1663). Le Pupitre, collection de music ancienne publiée sous la direction de François Lesure, 4. Paris : Heugel, 1968. (Nos. 1 - 6 from Opus 4)

Prima la musica! produce Urtext performing editions of chamber and sacred music from several of Legrenzi's printed collections

King’s Music produces facsimile or Urtext performing editions of many individual works.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Legrenzi"