- Girolamo Montesardo
Girolamo Montesardo ("fl." 1606–"c."1620) was an Italian
singer andcomposer . Although his surname was actually Melcarne, he was calledMontesardo for his home town, a small town in theProvince of Lecce . He worked as a singer at theSan Petronio Basilica inBologna , as a "maestro di capella " atFano and at Ancona. His earliest extant work was published inFlorence in 1606. [Carter and Walker]He is famous for his description in "Nuova inventione" of using alphabet notation of chords for
rasgueado playing a five-course guitar, which he claimed to invent, but which was probably being used in practice in Spain for a period before this. This style oftablature became very popular in Italy during the 17th century. "Nuova inventione" gave tablature for some of the most popular songs and harmonic patterns of the time, including the "Ruggiero,bergamasca ,folia ," and "Ballo del gran duca", and was the first Italian publication to include the "ciaccone" and "passacaglia s". [Carter and Walker]In terms of original music, Montesardo mainly composed
polyphonic sacred music and madrigals. Montesardo also experimented withmonody and published a collection of monody which included both his own experiments and works byJacopo Peri andGiulio Caccini . [Carter and Walker]References
* Thomas Walker and Tim Carter. "Girolamo Montesardo", "Grove Music Online", ed. L. Macy (accessed
January 27 ,2007 ), [http://www.grovemusic.com/ grovemusic.com] (subscription access).Notes
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