Giovanni Gabrielli
The Baroque Period
Carlo Grubacs, CC BY-SA 4.0
News of the victory at Lepanto spread quickly, especially to the Holy League states. The maritime city-state of Venice, whose shipyards had built most of the navy that defeated the Turks, was particularly jubilant. As organist of St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice’s most prominent church, it fell to Andrea Gabrieli to coordinate the music for the celebrations. To commemorate the battle, he composed an eight-part choral madrigal called “La Battaglia.”
Looking on and assisting him was his sixteen-year-old nephew, Giovanni Gabrieli. He worked as a musician in his uncle’s choir, performing antiphonal works that used the parallel choir lofts of St. Mark’s Cathedral to create a “surround-sound” effect.
Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In 1575, the younger Gabrieli travelled to Munich to study with the Renaissance composer Orlando di Lasso, returning to Venice in 1584. His uncle died the following year, and Giovanni took over his post as organist and composer for the basilica. Now at the head of the Italian musical world, Gabrieli’s compositions gained fame across Europe. Venice became a cultural center for music, and many people came to experience and study the scene. Most notably, the organist Heinrich Schütz travelled from Germany to study with Gabrieli, further serving to spread his compositional techniques abroad.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Compositions like "Omnes gentes" (1597) highlight the use of antiphonal choir, with two ensembles stationed on opposite sides of the cathedral's nave, calling back and forth to each other in responsorial harmony. The Venetian School of music that developed also saw the use of instruments gain more acceptance in liturgical music. Gabrieli worked to expand instrumental repertoire. Pieces such as "Canzona duodecimi toni" is scored for a twelve-part brass choir, and his famous "Sonata pian e forte" marks the first use of dynamic terms in a composition.
Gabrieli’s health began to deteriorate in 1606, and he passed away from a kidney stone in 1612 at the age of 58. He was succeeded at St. Mark's by Claudio Monteverdi.