Claudio Merulo was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, publisher and organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 of the late Renaissance

Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...

 period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style

Venetian polychoral 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...

. He was born in Correggio

Correggio, Italy

Correggio is a small town and comune in the Province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the Po valley. As of 2007 Correggio had an estimated population of 23,108....

 and died in Parma

Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

. He was born Claudio Merlotti and he Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

ised his surname (meaning little blackbird) when he became famous in Venetian

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 cultural clubs.

Life

Little is known about his early life except that he studied in Correggio

Correggio, Italy

Correggio is a small town and comune in the Province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the Po valley. As of 2007 Correggio had an estimated population of 23,108....

 with Tuttovale Menon, a famous madrigal

Madrigal (music)

A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....

ist who also worked in the Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

 court; he also studied with Girolamo Donato, an organist. It is likely that he studied with Zarlino

Gioseffo Zarlino

Gioseffo Zarlino was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He was possibly the most famous music theorist between Aristoxenus and Rameau, and made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to musical tuning.-Life:Zarlino was born in Chioggia, near Venice...

 at St. Mark's in Venice. While in Venice he became close friends with Costanzo Porta

Costanzo Porta

Costanzo Porta was an Italian composer of the Renaissance, and a representative of what is known today as the Venetian School. He was highly praised throughout his life both as a composer and a teacher, and had a reputation especially as an expert contrapuntist.-Biography:Porta was born in Cremona...

, a friendship which was to endure for his entire life. On 21 October 1556, he was appointed organist at Brescia

Brescia

Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...

 Cathedral ("Duomo Vecchio"), and his skill as an organist must have been impressive, because he became organist at St. Mark's, one of the most prestigious positions for an organist in Italy, in 1557; he was selected over a list of candidates that included Andrea Gabrieli

Andrea Gabrieli

Andrea Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance. The uncle of the somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned member of the Venetian School of composers, and was extremely influential in spreading the Venetian style in Italy as...

. This was the first important event of his career, and he was considered to be the finest organist in Italy.

It is important to note that in St. Mark's there were two organs, and two separate organists were appointed to play them: in 1557 Merulo was appointed to the second, smaller organ, while Annibale Padovano

Annibale Padovano

Annibale Padovano was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance Venetian School. He was one of the earliest developers of the keyboard toccata.- Life :...

 remained at the post of first organist.

After Padovano's hurried departure from Venice in 1566, Merulo was appointed to the first organ, and Andrea Gabrieli

Andrea Gabrieli

Andrea Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance. The uncle of the somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned member of the Venetian School of composers, and was extremely influential in spreading the Venetian style in Italy as...

 became the second organist. He was appointed as ambassador of Venetian Republic at the marriage of Franceso de’ Medici

Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 to 1587.- Biography :...

 and Bianca Cappello

Bianca Cappello

Bianca Cappello was an Italian noblewoman who was the mistress, and afterward the second wife, of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.-Biography:...

 in 1579 and wrote music of celebration for Henry III of France

Henry III of France

Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...

, who visited Venice in 1574.

In 1584, he suddenly left this position in Venice. The reasons for this are unclear, and somewhat surprising; in Venice he was well-paid, and had a very good reputation; and St. Mark's was one of the most important places for an organist. However, in December 1584 his name appears in payment register of Farnesia Court of Parma

Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

.

In 1587 he was appointed as organist in Parma Cathedral

Cathedral of Parma

Parma Cathedral is a cathedral church in Parma, Emilia-Romagna . It is an important Italian Romanesque cathedral: the dome, in particular, is decorated by a highly influential illusionistic fresco by Renaissance painter Antonio da Correggio....

 and from 1591 also in Church of Santa Maria della Steccata. While here, he requested improvements to the organ, carried out by Costanzo Antegnati, the last heir of the great Brescian family of organ makers. We can deduce that Merulo used the Steccata's organ for his proofs of new composition, based on his Venetian experience, and continued to compose in this style.

He lived in Parma until his death. During this period, he made several trips in Venice and Rome, where he published his famous two volume Toccate per organo.

Merulo died in Parma on 4 May 1604 and was buried in Parma Cathedral near to the tomb of Cipriano de Rore

Cipriano de Rore

Cipriano de Rore was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy...

. He left a daughter and his wife Amabilia Banzola.

Music and influence

Merulo is famous for his keyboard music. His Toccata

Toccata

Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...

s, in particular, are innovative; he was the first to contrast sections of contrapuntal

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...

 writing with passageworks; often he inserts sections which could be called ricercar

Ricercar

A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...

s into pieces which otherwise are labelled toccatas or canzona

Canzona

In the 16th century an instrumental chanson; later, a piece for ensemble in several sections or tempos...

s. (In the late 16th century, these terms are only approximately descriptive; different composers clearly had different ideas of what they meant). Often his keyboard pieces begin as though they are to be a transcription of vocal polyphony

Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....

, but then gradually add embellishment and elaboration until they reach a climactic passage of considerable virtuosity. Sometimes, especially in his later music, he develops ornaments which acquire the status of a motif

Motif (music)

In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....

, which is then used developmentally; this anticipates a principal generative technique in the Baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 era. Often Merulo casually ignores the "rules" of voice-leading, giving the music an expressive intensity more associated with the late school of madrigalists

Madrigal (music)

A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....

 than with keyboard music of the time. His keyboard music was hugely influential, and his ideas can be seen in the music of Sweelinck

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard composers of Europe, and his work as a teacher helped establish the north German organ...

, Frescobaldi

Girolamo Frescobaldi

Girolamo Frescobaldi was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio...

 and others; because of the immense influence of Sweelinck as a teacher, much of the virtuoso keyboard technique of the north German organ school, culminating in Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, can claim to be descended from the innovations of Merulo.

Even though the fame of his instrumental music has overshadowed much of his a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 vocal output, Merulo was also a madrigalist. Since he was a member of what is known today as the Venetian School, he also wrote motets for double choir in the manner of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice...

. He published two books of Madrigali a 5 voices (1566 and 1604), one of Madrigali a 4 (1579) and a 3 (1580).

The famous essay of keyboard technique Il Transilvano (1593), by Girolamo Diruta

Girolamo Diruta

Girolamo Diruta was an Italian organist, music theorist, and composer. He was famous as a teacher, for his treatise on counterpoint, and for his part in the development of keyboard technique, particularly on the organ...

, was dedicated to Merulo, indicating his status as one of the most important keyboard players of Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

.

Works

• Ricercari d'intavolatura d'organo, Book 1:

Ricercar del primo tuono
Ricercar del secondo tuono
Ricercar del terzo tuono
Ricercar del quarto tuono
Ricercar del settimo tuono
Ricercar dell'ottavo tuono
Ricercar dell'undecimo tuno
Ricercar dell duodecimo tuono

• Toccata del terzo tuono from Il Transilvano
• Toccate d'intavolatura d'organo, Book 2:

Toccata prima
Toccata seconda
Toccata terza
Toccata quarta
Toccata quinta
Toccata sesta
Toccata settima
Toccata ottava
Toccata nona
Toccata decima

• Toccate d'intavolatura d'organo, Book 1:

Toccata prima
Toccata seconda
Toccata terza
Toccata quarta
Toccata quinta
Toccata sesta
Toccata settima
Toccata ottava
Toccata nona
Toccata decima

• Canzoni d'intavolatura d'organo fatte alla francese, Book 1

La Benvenuta
La Bovia
La Cortese
La Gratiosa
La Leonora
La Rolanda
La Zambeccara
L'Alberagata
Petit Jacquet

• Canzoni d'intavolatura d'organo fatte alla francese, Book 2:

La Ironica
La Jolette
La Pazza
La Palma
La Pargoletta
La Rosa
La Radivila
La Seula
La Scarampa
L'Arconadia
Petite Camusette

• Canzoni d'intavolatura d'organo fatte alla francese, Book 3:

Content
Languissans
Onques amour
Susanne un jour