Philippe Verdelot (1480 to 1485 – c. 1530 to 1532?) was a French composer of the Renaissance, who spent most of his life in Italy. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest He is commonly considered to be the father of the Italian madrigal, and certainly was one of its earliest and most prolific composers; in addition he was prominent in the musical life of Florence during the period after the recapture of the city by the Medici from the followers of Girolamo Savonarola. A madrigal is a type of Secular vocal music composition written during the Renaissance and early Baroque eras Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Girolamo Savonarola ( September 21, 1452 &ndash May 23, 1498) was an Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence from
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Life
Verdelot was born Les Loges, Seine-et-Marne, France. Details of his early life are obscure. He probably came to Italy at an early age, spending the first decade or two of the 16th century at some cities in northern Italy, most likely including Venice. Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the A painting of 1511, described by Vasari but never positively identified, is believed by many musicologists to show Verdelot in Venice with an Italian singer. Giorgio Vasari ( 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian painter and Architect, who is today famous
Verdelot is known to have been maestro di cappella at the Baptisterium San Giovanni in Florence from 1523 to 1525; and he seems also to have been employed at the Cathedral there, from 1523 until 1527. In 1526 he collaborated with Niccolò Machiavelli on a production of Machiavelli's famous cynical comedy La Mandragola. For the 1965 film based on this play see La Mandragola (film. While the play was written in 1518, the 1526 performance in Florence was dedicated to the Medici pope, Clement VII. For the Antipope (1378&ndash1394 see Antipope Clement VII. Pope Clement VII ( May 26, 1478 &ndash September Both Machiavelli, expelled from Florence by the Medici, and Verdelot, generally sided with the Florentine Republic against the Medici, but attempted to play the delicate political game of pleasing both sides. The several pieces which Verdelot wrote for Machiavelli's play, while called canzone, are considered to be the earliest madrigals. [1]
In addition to siding with the Florentine Republic, Verdelot was most likely a supporter of martyred reformer Girolamo Savonarola. Girolamo Savonarola ( September 21, 1452 &ndash May 23, 1498) was an Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence from This is shown by several of his works: his setting of In te domine speravi, based on the psalm which was the subject of that man's last writing before he was burned at the stake; and the use of the tune most closely associated with the monk, Ecce quam bonum, the song which unified his followers during his final conflict, and which appears in the inner voices in Verdelot's motet Letamini in domino. [2]
Verdelot may have been killed in the siege of Florence (1529-1530) or in the simultaneous plague that ravaged the city, since there is no definite evidence that he was alive after 1530. [3] That he was there during the siege has been considered likely on the evidence of one of his motets, composed around that time, Congregati sunt inimici nostri. In this work, texts from Ecclesiasticus are woven together with the Antiphon for Peace, "Da pacem Domine", which is used as a cantus firmus. [4]
Some scholars infer that Verdelot was alive until about 1540, based on some ambiguous references to contemporary events in his works published during the 1530s. Several books of madrigals published in Venice in the late 1530s include his work; one of these books is devoted entirely to him. A madrigal is a type of Secular vocal music composition written during the Renaissance and early Baroque eras Possibly he moved to Venice after the siege to escape the notoriously vengeful, and victorious, Medici. He is known to have been dead by 1552, when writer Ortenzo Landi mentioned him as being deceased.
Music and influence
Verdelot, along with Costanzo Festa, is considered to be the father of the madrigal, an a cappella vocal form which emerged in the late 1520s from a convergence of several previous musical streams (including the frottola, the canzone, the laude, and also including some influence from the more serious style of the motet). Costanzo Festa (c 1485 to 1490 &ndash April 10, 1545) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance. A cappella (Italian or Latin "From the chapel/choir" Music is Vocal music or Singing without instrumental Accompaniment The frottola was the predominant type of Italian popular secular song of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century Literally "song" in Italian, a canzone (plural canzoni) (cognate with English to Chant) is an Italian or Provençal "Lauda" redirects here For the former F1 racing driver see Niki Lauda. In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions
Verdelot's style balances homophonic with imitative textures, rarely using word-painting, which was largely a later development (though a few interesting foreshadowings can be found). In Music, homophony (hoʊˈmɒfəni from Greek "homófonos" where ομοιο = the same and φωνή = a sound tone is a texture in which two or more Word painting (also known as tone painting or text painting) is the musical technique of having the music mimic the literal meaning of a song Most of his madrigals are for five or six voices.
Verdelot's madrigals were hugely popular, as can be inferred from their frequency of reprinting and their wide dissemination throughout Europe in the 16th century. He also composed motets and masses.
References and further reading
- Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. Gustave Reese ( November 29 1899, New York City – – September 7 1977, Berkeley California) was an American New York, W. W. Norton & Co. , 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
- The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books, 1993. ISBN 0-02-872416-X
- H. Colin Slim/Stefano La Via: "Philippe Verdelot", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed July 28, 2006), (subscription access)
- Susan McClary, Modal Subjectivities: Self-Fashioning in the Italian Madrigal, p. Susan McClary (born 2 October 1946) is a Musicologist considered to be a significant figure in the " New Musicology " 38-56. Berkeley, University of California Press. 2004. ISBN 0-520-23493-6
Notes
External links
- Philippe Verdelot free scores in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
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