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San Marco in the evening. The spacious, resonant interior of this building was the inspiration for the development of this musical style.
San Marco in the evening. The spacious, resonant interior of this building was the inspiration for the development of this musical style.

The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation. Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600 Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. For the musical composition see Chorale. A choir, chorale, or chorus is a Musical ensemble of Singers It represented a major stylistic shift from the prevailing polyphonic writing of the middle Renaissance, and was one of the major stylistic developments which led directly to the formation of what we now know as the Baroque style. In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony A commonly encountered term for the separated choirs is cori spezzati—literally, separated choirs.

Contents

History of the style

The style arose from the architectural peculiarities of the imposing Basilica San Marco di Venezia, also known as St. Saint Mark's Basilica ( Italian: Basilica di San Marco a Venezia) the Cathedral of Venice, is the most famous of Mark's, in Venice. Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the Aware of the sound delay caused by the distance between opposing choir lofts, composers began to take advantage of that as a useful special effect. Since it was difficult to get widely separated choirs to sing the same music simultaneously (especially before modern techniques of conducting were developed), composers such as Adrian Willaert, the maestro di cappella of St. Adrian Willaert (c 1490 &ndash 7 December 1562 was a Flemish Composer of the Renaissance and founder of the Venetian School. Mark's in the 1540s, solved the problem by writing antiphonal music where opposing choirs would sing successive, often contrasting phrases of the music; the stereo effect proved to be popular, and soon other composers were imitating the idea, and not only in St. An Antiphonary, Antiphonal, or Antiphoner (Latin antiphonarium antiphonarius antiphonarius liber antiphonale; Greek ’antíphonon antiphon antiphone Mark's but in other large cathedrals in Italy. This was a rare but interesting case of the architectural peculiarities of a single building influencing the development of a style which not only became popular all over Europe, but defined, in part, the shift from the Renaissance to the Baroque era. The idea of different groups singing in alternation gradually evolved into the concertato style, which in its different instrumental and vocal manifestations eventually led to such diverse musical ideas as the chorale cantata, the concerto grosso, and the sonata. 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 Music, a chorale cantata is a sacred composition for voices and instruments principally from the German Baroque era in which the organizing principle The concerto grosso ( Italian for big concert(o, Plural concerti grossi) is a form of Baroque music in which the musical material Usage of sonata The Baroque applied the term sonata to a variety of works though most works in the Baroque Period were fugues and toccatas

The peak of development of the style was in the late 1580s and 1590s, while Giovanni Gabrieli was organist at San Marco and principal composer, and while Gioseffo Zarlino was still maestro di cappella. Giovanni Gabrieli (c 1554/1557 &ndash August 12 1612 was an Italian Composer and organist. Gioseffo Zarlino ( January 31 or March 22, 1517 &ndash February 4, 1590) was an Italian music theorist and Gabrieli was the first to specify instruments specifically, including large choirs of brass; he also began to specify dynamics, and to develop the "echo" effects for which he became famous. In Music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a Sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece either stylistic The fame of the spectacular, sonorous music of San Marco at this time spread across Europe, and numerous musicians came to Venice to hear, to study, to absorb and bring back what they learned to their countries of origin. Germany, in particular, was a region where composers began to work in a locally-modified form of the Venetian style, though polychoral works were also composed elsewhere, such as the many masses written in Spain by Tomás Luis de Victoria. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. This article is about the musical term See Antiphon (person the orator of ancient Greece Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes spelled 'da Vittoria' (1548 &ndash August 20, 1611) was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance.

After 1603, a basso continuo was added to the already considerable forces at San Marco—orchestra, soloists, choir—a further step towards the Baroque cantata. Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer Musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords and Nonchord tones in relation A cantata (derived from the Italian word 'cantare' meaning 'to sing' is a vocal composition with an instrumental Accompaniment and often Music at San Marco went through a period of decline, but the fame of the music had spread far, and transformed into the concertato style. 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 1612 Claudio Monteverdi was appointed maestro di cappella, and though he brought the musical standards back to a high level, the vogue of the polychoral style had passed; concertato music, much with solo voice, was now the norm; the productions of this late period are identifiably Baroque.

Representative composers

Examples of the style

References and further reading

See also

Venetian School

External links

In music history the Venetian School is a term used to describe the Composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes
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