- Giammateo Asola
Giammatteo Asola (also spelled Gian Matteo, Giovanni Matteo; Asula, Asulae) (1532 or earlier –
October 1 ,1609 ) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He was a prolific composer of sacred music, mostly in a conservative style, although he may have been one of the first composers to write a part forbasso continuo .Life
He was born in
Verona , and began studying atAlga in 1546 in the congregation of secular canons. While in Verona he most likely he studied withVincenzo Ruffo . In 1569 he became a secular parish priest, and in 1577 became "maestro di cappella" atTreviso Cathedral; however in 1578 he went toVicenza Cathedral to take the equivalent job there, where the pay and musical opportunities were greater. He only stayed there four years, going toVenice in 1582, which was the center of activity in northern Italy for sacred music. Except for a short return to Verona around 1590-1591, he lived in Venice until his death, working at the church of S Severo, as one of four chaplains; apparently he was never associated with St. Mark's.Music and influence
Asola was a rare case of a composer working in Venice who showed almost no stylistic influence from the
Venetian school ; indeed most of his works are in the Palestrina style, the idiom of theRoman School of composers. In his later works he began using abasso continuo , and he may have been one of the first composers to do so. The only musical feature he borrowed from the Venetian composers elsewhere in his adopted city was the idea of "cori spezzati ", spatially separated groups of singers; however this musical style was widespread in northern Italy by the time he was writing, and by no means unique to Venice. Cori spezzati techniques appear in particular in his 1588 publication of masses for eight voices.Among his copious works are many masses, including a
Requiem mass;psalm settings, lamentations,vespers ,antiphon s, "sacrae cantiones", and numerous other sacred works. In addition he composed secular music, including several books of madrigals, as well as one book of madrigali spirituali, which is lost.One of his books of madrigals is unusual in that it consists of canons for two voices only; most madrigals of the time were for at least four voices, and rarely used strict counterpoint. [Reese, p. 426]
References and further reading
*
* ____. "Asola, Giammateo", "Grove Music Online", ed. L. Macy (accessedJanuary 15 2005 ), [http://www.grovemusic.com/ grovemusic.com] (subscription access).
*Gustave Reese , "Music in the Renaissance". New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4External links
*WIMA|idx=Asola|name=Giammateo Asola
* Listen to [http://www.acc.umu.se/~akadkor/early/IVO_Asola_Matteo.html a free recordings of Benedictus - Missa Pro Defundus] from [http://www.acc.umu.se/~akadkor/indexENG.html Umeå Akademiska Kör] .Notes
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