Viaggio musicale

A musical journey

-Stylus Phantasticus from the South Northwards-


Subject to change.

Play. Within every person the ability to play takes an essential place. Through play we experiment and learn; realise our limitations, and the possibilities of exceeding them. A world without play is simply unthinkable. The phenomenon of play is one that has always been with all creatures; but the "playground" itself can differ.

Today we would like to invite you to visit the playgrounds of Biagio Marini, Andra Falcioneri, Heinrich Ignaz Franz v. Biber… The playground: Stylus Phantasticus. Within these two words lies a world of borderless possibilities. When a composer in the early 17th century was restricted by a compositional style or form, here was the place to break the rules. Stylus Phantasticus combines elements of the sonata, the fugue, the fantasia, the concerto and dance music; a mixture of the extremes in colour, scent and emotions.

Accompany us in our journey into the past; visit the playgrounds, and let's play…

Many roads lead to Rome, and while Rome plays an important part in our journey, the places that we visit on our playground tour take us to other cities and places.

We begin our journey in Brescia, a city that in the first part of the 17th Century the making of violins founded a home.

Born here, Biagio Marini first comes to our attention in 1615 as a musician in the San Marco cathedral in Venice. In 1620 he returned to Brescia, although he was already in Parma by 1621. From 1623 to 1645 he worked at the Pfalzgräflichen court in Neuburg and Düsseldorf. In 1625 he worked for one year in the Bavarian court in Munich.
In 1652 he returned to Italy, and via Ferrara he became the music director of the "Santa Maria della Scala" church in Milan.
Marini was a highly productive composer, leaving Arien, Madrigalen, dances and religious music. He was also one of the first composers of chamber music, writing solo and trio sonatas. His first publication, "Affeti musicali" from 1617 contains one of the earlist compositions for solo violin.

As much a traveller was Tarquinio Merula. Beginning his career in Cremona, he travelled in 1624 to Warsaw to work as organist in the court of the King of Poland and Sweden. In 1628 he returned to Cremona, but then took up in 1632 the position of "Maestro di choro" in the curch of S. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, which he held until 1640. In 1646 he returned to Cremona again to take the same position, which he held until his death in 1655.

Andrea Falcioneri made his name in the Parma court as a composer and lutenist from 1604 until 1641. Subsequently he travelled to North Italy, Rome, and later in Naples. From 1621 to 1628 he travelled through Spain and France. From 1639 he worked first as lutenist, then from 1647 as Maestro di cappella in Naples.

The last Italian that we meet in our journey is Marco Uccellini. He began his musical training in Assisi and settled down before 1639 in Modena. From 1641 he directed the instrumental music in the court, and was Maestro di cappella from 1647 to 1665. He then held the same office in the Famese court in Parma until his death in 1680.
Seven of his exclusively instrumental works survive in printed copies today. He was, through his compositions, decisive in the creation of a violin technique in the 17th Century.

Of course Stylus Phantasticus can not only be found in Italy. Lets travel further: first to Austria and then to the North of Germany.

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer was born in 1620 in Scheibs in North Austria, and died on the 30th of June 1680 in Vienna. He was a violinist in the Chapel of King Ferdinand III in Vienna, and became in 1671 first Vice-, and then in 1679, "Hofkapellmeister".

Working with Schmelzer we bump into another, but completely different composer in the Austrian early Baroque: Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. The Bohemian violinist and composer was first educated in Vienna. In 1668 we find him in Kromjeriz (now in the Czech Republic), and from 1670 in the service of the Archbishop Max Gandolf in Salzburg where he was from 1679 "Vizekapellmeister", and from 1684 "Kapellmeister" and Chamberlain. For a time when the violin was still a very new instrument, Biber quickly became, through his virtuosic playing, the most famous German violinist of the 17th Century.

We end our journey in the North of Germany, but not without contact again with the southern land, Italy.

Johann Rosenmüller began his musical career as a music teacher and organist in Leipzig. In the middle of the 1650's, under the accusation of paedaphelia, he left Germany, and began a new career as trombonist in the San Marco cathedral and as composer in Venice, naming himself Giovanni Rosenmiller. During his 24 year stay in Venice he became a highly respected man; he was for many years the director of music at the "Ospedale della Pietà", where Antonio Vivaldi later worked. In 1628 he returned to Germany and was until his death "Kapellmeister" in Wolfenbüttel.