In the 16th and 17th centuries, Venice was a cross-roads between east and west,
and the the prime port for European trade with Islam. This contact with the east
can be seen in all aspects of life at that time, and we sense it strongly today
in the architecture and music that survive from that time particularly in Venice,
but also in other parts of Italy.
In 'Spirit of the Moorish Muse' we hear sounds of the early baroque music 'spoken' with
strong eastern accents. The great cathederal of San Marco in Venice looks strikingly
Islamic - and the music has a similar tendency from this incredibly culturally rich
period at the dawn of the baroque.
Alessandro Piccinini
b Bologna, 1566; d c1638b ?Venice, fl.1639 |
Alessandro Piccinini was an Italian lutenist, composer and writer on
music. His father, his brothers and his son were all lutenists too.
Alessandro was particularly inventive - he claimed to have invented the
archlute. |
Chiaccona |
5 |
Diego Ortiz
b Toledo, c1510; d Naples, c1570 |
A very influential Spanish composer who spent a lot of time
in Naples, at a time when it was under Spanish rule. These pieces
come from his most famous publication in which he has composed
his own wonderfully ornamented versions of popular songs
of the period. |
Recercada Segunda sopra 'Il Passemezzo'
Recercada Quinta sopra 'La Spagna'
Recercada Settima sopra 'La Romanesca'
viola da gamba, theorbo |
5 |
Andrea Falconieri
b Naples, 1585; d Naples, 1656
|
Andrea Falconieri was born in Spanish-ruled Naples.
He was a renowned lutenist, guitarist and composer and
his passion was Spanish music. |
La Suoave Melodia |
3 |
Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde
b Cuenca, c1595; fl 1613-38 |
Bartomolmé was born and educated in Spain. By 1613 he was
teaching at the Madrid house of the Augustinian order, but was already
making a name for himself as a virtuoso bassoonist. |
Divisions on 'Vestiva i colli' |
3 |
Henry Butler
b Sussex; d 1652 |
Henry Butler was an English composer and viola da gamba player who served
in the chapel of Philip IV of Spain as musico violon from 1623. He must have
been quite a virtuoso, for it was noted of him in 1529 that Butler was:
'a man very fantasticall, but one who hath his pension truely payd him for
his fingers sake'. |
Sonata in G major |
12 |
Girolamo Frescobaldi
b. Ferrara 1583, d. Rome 1643
|
He was one of the greatest keyboard composers of the first half of the
17th century, and was a child prodigy both as singer and instrumentalist.
Fescobaldi liked the Spanish 'twang' of the Neapolitan composers and used
their funky rhythmic ideas in his music. |
Suite for solo violin |
3.30 |
Biagio Marini
b Brescia, 5 Feb 1594; d Venice, 1663
|
Marini was an Italian composer and instrumentalist from Brescia -
the birthplace of the violin. In 1615, he was appointed violinist at the
famous San Marco cathederal in Venice under Claudio Monterverdi who had
just composed the first opera in history (1600). |
Romanesca |
5 |
Dario Castello
Early 17th century, Venice
|
By 1621 he was also musician at San Marco, Venice though his speciality
was wind instruments, especially bassoon. He published several collections of
his music which became very popular during the 17th century. |
Sonata Prima |
5 |
Thomas Baltzar
1630 Lubeck, 1663 London |
German Violinist trained in the Italian manner and employed
as a highly paid chamber musician by Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome
before Settling in England in 1655. Here he astounded the English by his
virtuosity both on the violin and with the beer mug. |
John come kiss |
4 |
