Giovanni Gabrieli

The Polychoir Genius

San Marco: The Golden Stage

The majority of music written by both Gabrieli composers would have been written to be performed in Venice’s incredible Cathedral San Marco.

San Marco’s interior consisted of numerous Choir Galleries - large balconies at a number of different heights, allowing instruments and singers to rain down on the audience from every angle and height. Gabrieli’s music reflects the physical features of the performance space in a number of ways:

The size and booming echo of San Marco created an issue that Cantare singers know well from singing in the Jack Singer Concert Hall: Playing together in time from many different distances is HARD. To fill the space with sound and articulation and keep individual groups of singers and instruments together, Gabrieli relied on the newly developed technique of Polychoral Writing

(More on this in the next Lesson)

Giovanni Gabrieli (born 1556, Venice [Italy]—died August 12, 1612, Venice) was an Italian Renaissance composer, organist, and teacher, celebrated for his sacred music, including massive choral and instrumental motets for the liturgy.

Giovanni Gabrieli studied with his uncle, Andrea Gabrieli, whom he regarded with affection. To the latter’s foreign travels and connections Giovanni owed his chance to become known abroad. Giovanni also served (1575–79) under Orlando di Lasso in Munich. In 1584 he returned to Venice and a year later succeeded his uncle as second organist of St. Mark’s Cathedral—the post he held for life.

After Andrea’s death in 1585, Giovanni quickly assumed the limelight in the field of ceremonial music, though he was never so active as a madrigalist. The publication of his uncle’s music in 1587 was a mark of respect but also included some of his own church music. Giovanni’s foreign connections included Hans Leo Hassler, the German composer and former pupil of Andrea, who avidly adopted the Venetian style, and patrons such as the Fugger family and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. In later years Giovanni became a famous teacher; his most notable student was the German Heinrich Schütz.

After 1587 Giovanni’s principal publications were the two immense Sacrae symphoniae of 1597 and 1615 (printed posthumously), both of which contained purely instrumental music for church use or massive choral and instrumental motets for the liturgy.

Like his uncle, he usually conceived the music for separated choirs but showed an increasing tendency to specify which instruments were to be used and which choirs were to consist of soloists and full choir, as well as to distinguish the musical style of each, thus initiating a completely new approach to the creation of musical colour and orchestration. In the well-known Sonata pian e forte, for eight instruments, directions to play loud and soft are given. Among the motets, his masterpiece is perhaps In ecclesiis, for four soloists, four-part choir, violin, three cornets, two trombones, and organ, these forces pitted against one another in an endless variety of combinations.

The Instruments of the Renaissance

The Venetian Trio

The Sackbutt - The Renaissance Trombone

The Cornetto

In early music performances today, you’ll often see three instruments commonly arranged together with a vocal ensemble: A Theorbo, A Cornetto, and a number of Sackbutts. This is a very common instrument combination in the music of Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. These three instruments compliment the voice in very different ways with the two brass instruments providing tonal backing to the singers while the theorbo works in a similar way to a harpsichord: Providing percussive movement underneath the voices to keep the lines moving. Today, you’ll often hear works by renaissance composers performed with these instruments in order to provide their unique, warm sound to the singers’ performance.

Many modern instruments we know and love today had their roots in The Renaissance as early versions known by different names. Notice the similarities and differences between the different instruments and their modern counterparts.

Renaissance Guitars - An Early Ukulele

The Theory - A Guitar that could do MUCH MORE