Alfonso Fontanelli
Encyclopedia
Alfonso Fontanelli was an Italian
composer, writer, diplomat, courtier, and nobleman of the late Renaissance
. He was one of the leading figures in the musically progressive Ferrara school in the late 16th century, and one of the earliest composers in the seconda pratica
style at the transition to the Baroque
era.
He married for the first time in 1580, and in 1584 began his career as a courtier, statesman, and musician to the Este
family in Ferrara
. It was in the employ of the Este family that he first went to Rome
in 1586; while there he probably met the renowned madrigalist Luca Marenzio
, as well as members of the Roman school
of composition, aspects of whose style appears in his music. His diplomatic activity while in Rome enhanced his reputation greatly, for in 1588 he received two honors: he was named "music counselor" to the Accademia de Parteni in Ferrara, and he was made a gentleman of the Ferrara court. He rose steadily in influence between then and its dissolution in 1597, when the ruling Este family was removed to Modena
and the region of Ferrara was absorbed into the Papal States.
Fontanelli probably wrote most of his surviving compositions during the 1590s, and immediately after 1600. Not only was he active as a musician at the Ferrara court during the earlier part of this period, but he was active as a diplomat and statesman, traveling to the Gonzaga
court in Mantua and the Medici in Florence, and mingling with local musicians in each place. In 1594 he traveled extensively with Carlo Gesualdo
, going to Venice
, Florence
, Naples
, and Venosa
with the notorious composer and murderer. A correspondence from himself to his patron Alfonso II d'Este survives, containing much information on musical practice of the period. In 1591 Fontanelli's first wife died, and he married again, to Maria Biancoli, a marriage which was to prove troublesome.
After the Este family moved to Modena, Fontanelli followed them there, maintaining his capacity as a diplomat: in 1600 and 1601 he went to Rome and Florence on their behalf. In November 1601, he discovered that his wife had been having an affair, and he murdered her lover (unlike Gesualdo, who in similar circumstances murdered them both, Fontanelli spared his wife); as a punishment he was stripped of his possessions and banished from the Este lands. He found refuge with the opulent Roman household of Cardinal Alessandro d’Este, the younger brother of Duke Cesare who had banished him from Modena, and continued his musical life in Rome. By 1605 he had repaired his ties with Duke Cesare, and became the official representative of the Este family in Rome. Whether he repented of the murder, or was retained because of his exceptional skill as a diplomat, is not known.
During the next ten years he traveled widely, including a stay in Florence to try to mediate conflicts among the Medici
court musicians, and a sojourn in Spain
in 1611 and 1612 as the Este representative. By 1615 he evidently had settled in Rome, becoming prominent in the musical life there; however no works of his from these years seem to have survived. Many surviving letters between members of the Roman aristocracy and church hierarchy however survive, giving many details of the musical life there, and Fontanelli's prominent position within it. Fontanelli became a priest in 1621, and died in early 1622 from an insect bite while in the Oratorio della Chiesa Nuova
.
and Carlo Gesualdo
, Fontanelli was one of the leaders of the Ferrara school of madrigal
composition in the last decade of the 1590s. His music was long neglected, coming again to light again towards the end of the 20th century. Gustave Reese
, in his encyclopedic Music of the Renaissance, never mentions him, yet Alfred Einstein, in his comprehensive The Italian Madrigal, praised him as being the finest of the nobleman-composers at the end of the 16th century, a category that would include Gesualdo as well as Alessandro Striggio
.
Fontanelli apparently wrote only madrigals; neither sacred music nor specifically instrumental music has survived, even though he seems to have written some sacred music for the Oratorio dei Filippini at the Chiesa Nuova towards the end of his life. He published two books of madrigals, both for five voices: the first in Ferrara
in 1595 printed by Vittorio Baldini
, and the second in Venice
in 1604 by Angelo Gardano. In addition, 16 other madrigals, some of which are of uncertain authorship, have been attributed to him.
Like Gesualdo and Luzzaschi
, Fontanelli wrote madrigals which were intended to be appreciated by a small audience of connoisseurs, particularly the musica secreta of Alfonso II d'Este. Stylistically his music uses the most progressive techniques of the time, including chromaticism
and cross-relations; unlike Gesualdo, however, the chromaticism is not a defining feature of his music. Most of Fontanelli's pieces are short, requiring less than three minutes to perform. None are obviously intended for arrangement for solo voice and accompaniment by a plucked chordal instrument (as are many of Luzzaschi's madrigals), being contrapuntal
and disjunct in texture, and avoiding a dominant soprano line. Many of his madrigals, particularly from his first book, are written for two or three soprano voices, suggesting that they were written for the concerto delle donne
.
The second book of madrigals (1604), some of which must have been written in Rome (but were published in Venice), contains some pieces in a simpler polyphonic
style, recalling the madrigalian style of decades before. This style was harmonious with the tastes of the Roman School composers, performers, and listeners, who were more conservative than the esoteric Ferrara school, and unaccustomed to its experimental music.
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, writer, diplomat, courtier, and nobleman 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...
. He was one of the leading figures in the musically progressive Ferrara school in the late 16th century, and one of the earliest composers in the seconda pratica
Seconda pratica
Seconda prattica, literally "second practice", is the counterpart to prima pratica and is more commonly referred to as Stile moderno. The term "Seconda prattica" was coined by Claudio Monteverdi to distance his music from that of e.g...
style at the transition to 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.
Life
Fontanelli was born in Reggio nell'Emilia, the son of Count Emilio Fontanelli. His early musical education was with composer Gasparo Pratoneri, and he evidently showed a talent for writing as well; a number of his lyric poems survive.He married for the first time in 1580, and in 1584 began his career as a courtier, statesman, and musician to the Este
Este
The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. It is split into two branches; the elder is known as the House of Welf-Este or House of Welf historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph...
family in 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...
. It was in the employ of the Este family that he first went to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1586; while there he probably met the renowned madrigalist Luca Marenzio
Luca Marenzio
Luca Marenzio was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the form in its late stage of development, prior to its early Baroque transformation by Monteverdi...
, as well as members of the Roman school
Roman School
In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers of predominantly church music, in Rome, during the 16th and 17th centuries, therefore spanning the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The term also refers to the music they produced...
of composition, aspects of whose style appears in his music. His diplomatic activity while in Rome enhanced his reputation greatly, for in 1588 he received two honors: he was named "music counselor" to the Accademia de Parteni in Ferrara, and he was made a gentleman of the Ferrara court. He rose steadily in influence between then and its dissolution in 1597, when the ruling Este family was removed to Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
and the region of Ferrara was absorbed into the Papal States.
Fontanelli probably wrote most of his surviving compositions during the 1590s, and immediately after 1600. Not only was he active as a musician at the Ferrara court during the earlier part of this period, but he was active as a diplomat and statesman, traveling to the Gonzaga
House of Gonzaga
The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708.-History:In 1433, Gianfrancesco I assumed the title of Marquis of Mantua, and in 1530 Federico II received the title of Duke of Mantua. In 1531, the family acquired the Duchy of Monferrato through marriage...
court in Mantua and the Medici in Florence, and mingling with local musicians in each place. In 1594 he traveled extensively with Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer....
, going to Venice
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...
, 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....
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, and Venosa
Venosa
Venosa is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata, in the Vulture area. It is bounded by the comuni of Barile, Ginestra, Lavello, Maschito, Montemilone, Palazzo San Gervasio, Rapolla and Spinazzola....
with the notorious composer and murderer. A correspondence from himself to his patron Alfonso II d'Este survives, containing much information on musical practice of the period. In 1591 Fontanelli's first wife died, and he married again, to Maria Biancoli, a marriage which was to prove troublesome.
After the Este family moved to Modena, Fontanelli followed them there, maintaining his capacity as a diplomat: in 1600 and 1601 he went to Rome and Florence on their behalf. In November 1601, he discovered that his wife had been having an affair, and he murdered her lover (unlike Gesualdo, who in similar circumstances murdered them both, Fontanelli spared his wife); as a punishment he was stripped of his possessions and banished from the Este lands. He found refuge with the opulent Roman household of Cardinal Alessandro d’Este, the younger brother of Duke Cesare who had banished him from Modena, and continued his musical life in Rome. By 1605 he had repaired his ties with Duke Cesare, and became the official representative of the Este family in Rome. Whether he repented of the murder, or was retained because of his exceptional skill as a diplomat, is not known.
During the next ten years he traveled widely, including a stay in Florence to try to mediate conflicts among 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,...
court musicians, and a sojourn in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 1611 and 1612 as the Este representative. By 1615 he evidently had settled in Rome, becoming prominent in the musical life there; however no works of his from these years seem to have survived. Many surviving letters between members of the Roman aristocracy and church hierarchy however survive, giving many details of the musical life there, and Fontanelli's prominent position within it. Fontanelli became a priest in 1621, and died in early 1622 from an insect bite while in the Oratorio della Chiesa Nuova
Santa Maria in Vallicella
Santa Maria in Vallicella, also called Chiesa Nuova, is a church in Rome, Italy, which today faces onto the main thoroughfare of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele...
.
Music and influence
Along with Luzzasco LuzzaschiLuzzasco Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority of his life in his native city.As a pupil of Cipriano de Rore, Luzzaschi developed...
and Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer....
, Fontanelli was one of the leaders of the Ferrara school 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....
composition in the last decade of the 1590s. His music was long neglected, coming again to light again towards the end of the 20th century. Gustave Reese
Gustave Reese
Gustave Reese was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications Music in the Middle Ages and Music in the Renaissance ; these two books remain the standard reference works for these two eras,...
, in his encyclopedic Music of the Renaissance, never mentions him, yet Alfred Einstein, in his comprehensive The Italian Madrigal, praised him as being the finest of the nobleman-composers at the end of the 16th century, a category that would include Gesualdo as well as Alessandro Striggio
Alessandro Striggio
Alessandro Striggio was an Italian composer, instrumentalist and diplomat of the Renaissance. He composed numerous madrigals as well as dramatic music, and by combining the two, became the inventor of madrigal comedy...
.
Fontanelli apparently wrote only madrigals; neither sacred music nor specifically instrumental music has survived, even though he seems to have written some sacred music for the Oratorio dei Filippini at the Chiesa Nuova towards the end of his life. He published two books of madrigals, both for five voices: the first in 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...
in 1595 printed by Vittorio Baldini
Vittorio Baldini
Vittorio Baldini was an Italian printer and engraver. He started publishing in Venice, where he was born, and later moved to Ferrara, joining the court of Duke Alfonso II d'Este in mid-to-late 1582, where he was the official ducal music printer...
, and the second in Venice
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...
in 1604 by Angelo Gardano. In addition, 16 other madrigals, some of which are of uncertain authorship, have been attributed to him.
Like Gesualdo and Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority of his life in his native city.As a pupil of Cipriano de Rore, Luzzaschi developed...
, Fontanelli wrote madrigals which were intended to be appreciated by a small audience of connoisseurs, particularly the musica secreta of Alfonso II d'Este. Stylistically his music uses the most progressive techniques of the time, including chromaticism
Chromaticism
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. Chromaticism is in contrast or addition to tonality or diatonicism...
and cross-relations; unlike Gesualdo, however, the chromaticism is not a defining feature of his music. Most of Fontanelli's pieces are short, requiring less than three minutes to perform. None are obviously intended for arrangement for solo voice and accompaniment by a plucked chordal instrument (as are many of Luzzaschi's madrigals), being 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,...
and disjunct in texture, and avoiding a dominant soprano line. Many of his madrigals, particularly from his first book, are written for two or three soprano voices, suggesting that they were written for the concerto delle donne
Concerto delle donne
The concerto delle donne was a group of professional female singers in the late Renaissance court of Ferrara, Italy, renowned for their technical and artistic virtuosity. The ensemble was founded by Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, in 1580 and was active until the court was dissolved in 1597...
.
The second book of madrigals (1604), some of which must have been written in Rome (but were published in Venice), contains some pieces in a simpler polyphonic
Texture (music)
In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...
style, recalling the madrigalian style of decades before. This style was harmonious with the tastes of the Roman School composers, performers, and listeners, who were more conservative than the esoteric Ferrara school, and unaccustomed to its experimental music.