Francesco de Layolle (March 4, 1492 – c. 1540) 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 and organist

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

 of the 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...

. He was one of the first native Italian composers to write sacred music in the Franco-Flemish

Franco-Flemish School

In music, the Franco-Flemish School or more precisely the Netherlandish School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, and to the composers who wrote it...

 polyphonic

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 ....

 style, combining it with the indigenous harmonic

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

 idioms of the Italian peninsula

Italian Peninsula

The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...

.

Life

He was born in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

. In 1505, around the time of his 13th birthday, he joined the choir of the church Ss. Annunziata in Florence, where his teacher was the distinguished composer to the Medici

Medici

The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...

 family, Bartolomeo degli Organi

Bartolomeo degli Organi

Bartolomeo degli Organi was an Italian composer, singer and organist of the Renaissance. Living in Florence, he was closely associated with Lorenzo de' Medici, and was music teacher both to the Florentine composer Francesco de Layolle and Guido Machiavelli, the son of the famous writer.-Life:He...

. Layolle eventually married his teacher's younger sister-in-law, Maddalena Arrighi. In 1518 he left Florence, settling in Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

 in 1521. While in Florence he also served as music teacher to sculptor Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, painter, soldier and musician, who also wrote a famous autobiography. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism.-Youth:...

, who referred to him as a superb organist, musician and composer.

Layolle remained in Lyon for the rest of his life, but retained a number of friends in Florence, including several men who conspired to overthrow the Medici in 1521. After the failure of the plot, and the uncovering by the Medici of the perpetrators, the conspirators fled Florence, finding refuge in Lyon with Layolle, who was able to shelter them without fear of prosecution. In the subsequent trial they were all condemned in absentia, but Layolle escaped censure; the reason for this is not known, but he never did return to Florence.

His duties in Lyon included playing the organ at the cathedral of Notre Dame de Confort; in addition he composed and edited music for some of the printing organizations there. One of his close associates was Jacques Moderne

Jacques Moderne

Jacques Moderne was an Italian-born music publisher active in France in the Renaissance Era....

, the second-best-known printer in France after Pierre Attaignant. Much of Layolle's music was published by Moderne, but much of it has since been lost.

The 1540 date of Layolle's death is probable, but no death or burial records remain. A lament on his death was published in 1540, and Layolle's last compositions were also published in that year.

Music

While much of Layolle's music is lost, that which remains is generally progressive in style, melodic, and finely crafted. Most of his sacred music was published by Moderne, however no copies remain of 61 motets and at least three masses.

He was one of the first composers to blend the Franco-Flemish and Italian styles. Prior to the early 16th century, most polyphonic sacred music was written by northerners, and Italians focused mainly on the lighter secular forms, and some uniquely Italian forms such as the laude spirituale

Laude

The lauda or lauda spirituale was the most important form of vernacular sacred song in Italy in the late medieval era and Renaissance. Laude remained popular into the nineteenth century....

; however in the early 16th century native Italian composers such as Layolle, and later Costanzo Festa

Costanzo Festa

Costanzo Festa was an Italian composer of the Renaissance. While he is best known for his madrigals, he also wrote sacred vocal music...

, began to blend the northern polyphonic style with the Italian harmonic and tonal idioms, a blending which eventually resulted in the musical style of Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition...

 and Lassus

Orlande de Lassus

Orlande de Lassus was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance...

.

Two books of 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....

s have survived, although he called them "canzoni". Some are in Italian and others in French, and more closely related to the contemporary chanson

Chanson

A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...

than the Italianate madrigal. At least one of the madrigals he wrote, Lasciar il velo, became hugely popular in Europe and appears in many geographically scattered sources, both as a vocal piece and in instrumental transcription.

External links