Giovanni
Gabrieli
(ca 1558 - 1613)
A great composer of sacred music, Gabrieli was an organist
in the great St. Marco cathedral in Venice.
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Interior of St. Marco Cathedral
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don't know where Gabrieli was born. He was the nephew and
pupil of Andrea Gabrieli, the eminent organist and
teacher, and the composer of the first fugues of the
baroque tradition.
By 1575, Giovanni had gone
to Munich to study with Orlandus
Lassus. In the early 1580s or thereabout, Giovanni
returned to Venice. On January 1st, 1585, a competition
was held to select an organist at St. Marco, and Giovanni
won. He became the organist at St. Marco in Venice, where
he composed some very extraordinary and revolutionary
compositions.
Gabrieli was an
extraordinary composer. In his symphoniae sacrae, he
wrote for multiple choirs, which were spaced above the
congregation in the choir lofts of St. Marco. He was called the "Father of the chromatic style"
because of his bold modulations, and was one of the first,
if not the first, to employ use of the general bass
that became the underpinning of all Baroque music. He
wrote magnificently for instruments and was the first
composer to specify a violin part in a score. This alone
qualifies him as a Father of all Modern Music and to him
must be given the credit for opening the door for the new
music that came to life at the beginning of the 17th
Century.
Gabrieli is a very
important composer. His magnificent choral works, such as
Plaudite and O Magnum Mysterium belong in catagory of
great compositions for all time.
Gabrieli
MP3s
->
Plaudite
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