Tarquinio Merula
Encyclopedia
Tarquinio Merula was an Italian
composer, organist
, and violin
ist of the early Baroque
era. Although mainly active in Cremona
, stylistically he was a member of the Venetian school. He was one of the most progressive Italian composers of the early 17th century, especially in applying newly developed techniques to sacred music.
. He probably received early musical training in Cremona
, where he was first employed as an organist
. In 1616 he took a position as organist at S Maria Incoronata in Lodi, where he remained until 1621, at which time he went to Warsaw
, Poland
to work as an organist at the court of Sigismund III Vasa
.
In 1626 he returned to Cremona, and in 1627 became maestro di cappella at the cathedral there, but he only remained for four years, moving to Bergamo
to accept a similar position in 1631. Alessandro Grandi
, his predecessor, had died in the terrible plague of 1630 (which affected many cities in northern Italy, including Venice
), and he faced the formidable task of rebuilding the musical institution there after many of its members had died.
Unfortunately Merula got into trouble with some of his students, and was charged with indecency; he chose to return to Cremona, where he remained until 1635. During this period in his life he seems to have had numerous troubles with his employers, possibly of his own making; after fighting with the administrators at Cremona over a variety of issues, he returned to Bergamo, serving this time at a different church, but was disallowed from using any musicians from his former place of employment. In 1646 he went back to Cremona for the final time, serving as maestro di cappella at the Laudi della Madonna until his death in 1665.
, the aria
, the sonata
s da chiesa
and da camera
, variations on a ground bass, and the sinfonia
.
In sacred music Merula followed the lead of Monteverdi
, and often used the techniques of the elder composer; however he also did some new things, such as writing motet
s for solo voice accompanied by strings. His publications of 1639, 1640, and 1652 include mass
es which are written using ostinato
basses, including the Ruggiero and the Romanesca. Some of his music is reminiscent of the concertato
style of Giovanni Gabrieli
, and a modern sense of tonality
prevails throughout.
Merula's secular music includes solo madrigal
s with instrumental accompaniment, sometimes using the Monteverdian stile concitato
tremolo
effect, and in formal design prefiguring the later Baroque cantata with its division into aria and recitative. He wrote one opera
, La finta savia, produced in 1643, and based on a libretto
by Giulio Strozzi. Among his instrumental music are numerous ensemble canzona
s, whose sectional structure looks ahead to the sonata da chiesa, and his writing for strings—especially the violin—is exceptionally idiomatic, also looking ahead to the highly developed writing of the late Baroque.
He also wrote canzonetta
s, dialogues, keyboard toccata
s and capriccio
s, a Sonata cromatica, and numerous other pieces which display an interest in just about every contemporary musical trend in north Italy.
A complete edition of his works was published in 1974 in Brooklyn, New York (T. Merula: Opere complete, ed. A. Sutkowski).
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
composer, organist
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist of the early Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
era. Although mainly active in Cremona
Cremona
Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...
, stylistically he was a member of the Venetian school. He was one of the most progressive Italian composers of the early 17th century, especially in applying newly developed techniques to sacred music.
Life
He was born in BussetoBusseto
Busseto is a comune in the province of Parma, in Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy. It was the capital of Stato Pallavicino. Opera composer Giuseppe Verdi was born in the nearby village of Le Roncole and he moved there in 1824...
. He probably received early musical training in Cremona
Cremona
Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...
, where he was first employed as an organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
. In 1616 he took a position as organist at S Maria Incoronata in Lodi, where he remained until 1621, at which time he went to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
to work as an organist at the court of Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599...
.
In 1626 he returned to Cremona, and in 1627 became maestro di cappella at the cathedral there, but he only remained for four years, moving to Bergamo
Bergamo
Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
to accept a similar position in 1631. Alessandro Grandi
Alessandro Grandi
Alessandro Grandi was a northern Italian composer of the early Baroque era, writing in the new concertato style...
, his predecessor, had died in the terrible plague of 1630 (which affected many cities in northern Italy, including Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
), and he faced the formidable task of rebuilding the musical institution there after many of its members had died.
Unfortunately Merula got into trouble with some of his students, and was charged with indecency; he chose to return to Cremona, where he remained until 1635. During this period in his life he seems to have had numerous troubles with his employers, possibly of his own making; after fighting with the administrators at Cremona over a variety of issues, he returned to Bergamo, serving this time at a different church, but was disallowed from using any musicians from his former place of employment. In 1646 he went back to Cremona for the final time, serving as maestro di cappella at the Laudi della Madonna until his death in 1665.
Music and influence
Merula was a key figure in the early development of several forms which were to mature later in the Baroque era, such as the cantataCantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, the aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
, the sonata
Sonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
s da chiesa
Sonata da chiesa
Sonata da chiesa is an instrumental composition dating from the Baroque period, generally consisting of four movements. More than one melody was often used, and the movements were ordered slow–fast–slow–fast with respect to tempo...
and da camera
Sonata da camera
Sonata da camera is literally translated to mean 'chamber sonata' and is used to describe a group of instrumental pieces set into three or four different movements, beginning with a prelude, or small sonata, acting as an introduction for the following movements.The term sonata da camera originated...
, variations on a ground bass, and the sinfonia
Sinfonia
Sinfonia is the Italian word for symphony. In English it most commonly refers to a 17th- or 18th-century orchestral piece used as an introduction, interlude, or postlude to an opera, oratorio, cantata, or suite...
.
In sacred music Merula followed the lead of Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
, and often used the techniques of the elder composer; however he also did some new things, such as writing motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
s for solo voice accompanied by strings. His publications of 1639, 1640, and 1652 include mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
es which are written using ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
basses, including the Ruggiero and the Romanesca. Some of his music is reminiscent of the concertato
Concertato
Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo...
style of Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice...
, and a modern sense of tonality
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
prevails throughout.
Merula's secular music includes solo madrigal
Madrigal (music)
A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....
s with instrumental accompaniment, sometimes using the Monteverdian stile concitato
Stile concitato
Stile concitato or "agitated style" is a Baroque style developed by Claudio Monteverdi with effects such as having rapid repeated notes and extended trills as symbols of bellicose agitation or anger....
tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
effect, and in formal design prefiguring the later Baroque cantata with its division into aria and recitative. He wrote one opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, La finta savia, produced in 1643, and based on a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Giulio Strozzi. Among his instrumental music are numerous ensemble canzona
Canzona
In the 16th century an instrumental chanson; later, a piece for ensemble in several sections or tempos...
s, whose sectional structure looks ahead to the sonata da chiesa, and his writing for strings—especially the violin—is exceptionally idiomatic, also looking ahead to the highly developed writing of the late Baroque.
He also wrote canzonetta
Canzonetta
In music, a canzonetta was a popular Italian secular vocal composition which originated around 1560...
s, dialogues, keyboard toccata
Toccata
Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...
s and capriccio
Capriccio (music)
A capriccio or caprice , is a piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character...
s, a Sonata cromatica, and numerous other pieces which display an interest in just about every contemporary musical trend in north Italy.
A complete edition of his works was published in 1974 in Brooklyn, New York (T. Merula: Opere complete, ed. A. Sutkowski).
Works
- Il primo libro delle canzoni a 4, 12 canzonas for 4 instruments, Opus 1 (1615)
- Il primo libro de madrigaletti, 3 voices and continuo, Op. 4 (1624)
- Il primo libro de madrigali concertati, 4 to 8 voices and continuo, Op. 5 (1624)
- Il primo libro de motetti e sonate concertati, 3 to 5 voices, Op. 6 (1624)
- Satiro e Corisca dialogo musicale, 2 voices with continuo, Op. 7 (1626)
- Libro secondo de concerti spirituali con alcune sonatee, 2 to 5 voices, Op. 8 (1628)
- Il secondo libro delle canzoni da suonare, 12 canzonas for 3 instruments (2 violins and a bass) with continuo, Op. 9 (c.1631)
- Madrigali et altre musiche concertate a 1–5, libro secondo, 1 to 5 voices, Op. 10 (1633)
- Pegaso salmi, motetti, suonate, libro terzo, 2 to 5 voices, Op. 11 (c.1637)
- Canzoni overo sonate concertate per chiesa e camera, 2 or 3 instruments, Op. 12 (1637)
- Curtio precipitato et altri capricii, libro secondo, solo voice, Op. 13 (1638)
- Canzonette a 3 et 4, not extant, Op. 14? (before 1649)
- Concerto messi, salmi concertati, 2-8 voices & instruments, Op. 15 (1639)
- Arpa Davidica salmi, et messe, 4 voices, Op. 16 (1640)
- Il quarto libro delle canzoni da suonare, 2 to 3 instruments, Op. 17 (1651)
- Il terzo libro delle salmi et messa concertati, 3 or 4 voices, Op. 18 (1652)