This Week in Classical Music: July 29, 2024. Rott and Ingegneri. Hans Rott was born this week, on August 1st of 1858.This composer, who died at 25 and was mad for the last several years of his tragically short life, continues to fascinate us.Clearly, he was a major talent, and who knows how he would’ve developed, but even within the limited scope of his output, one can discern musical ideas Mahler would develop some years later.We’ve written about him several times, here, for example.We are also happy to report that his Symphony in E major is being performed and recorded more often, the latest time being in 2021 for Deutsche Grammophon with the excellent Jakub Hrůša leading the Bamberger Symphoniker.
There are many very talented composers of the Renaissance that we have never written about, for the only reason that their birthdays are unknown, so they fall outside of the framework of the “classical music this week.”One of these composers is Marc'Antonio Ingegneri.He’s mostly forgotten these days, unjustly so in our opinion.If he is remembered at all, it is as the teacher of the great Claudio Monteverdi, but in his days, he was the leading composer of Cremona, one of the musical centers of Italy.
Ingegneri was born in Verona in 1535 or 1536, which made him about 10 years younger than Palestrina, three years younger than Orlando di Lasso, and about the same age as Giaches de Wert.As is usually the case with the composers of that era, we know little about his early days.He was a choirboy at the Verona cathedral and probably took lessons from Vincenzo Ruffo, a noted composer, also a Veronese, who was active as a music reformer, implementing an edict of the Council of Trent which stated that words in church music should be legible, a requirement that almost killed the polyphonic mass.Ingegneri left Verona in his early 20s and for a while played the violin in the band of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice.It’s likely that in the 1560s he went to Parma to study with Cipriano de Rore, one of the noted composers of the mid-16th century.Sometime around 1566, Ingegneri moved to Cremona and soon after had his Primo libro de madrigali a quattro voci published.He was active in the music-making at the Cremona Cathedral, and in 1580 was made the maestro di cappella.Sometime soon after he became the teacher of the young Monteverdi, who was born in Cremona and was at the time 15 or 16 years old.It’s clear that Ingegneri was famous outside of Cremona, as he dedicated books of madrigals to his patrons in Milan, Parma, Verona, and even Vienna.His music was published in many cities, such as Venice, Milan, Brescia, Ferrara and Rome.For about a decade from the mid-1570s to the mid-1580s Ingegneri composed mostly secular madrigals, but then reverted to church music.He was a good friend of bishop Nicolò Sfondrato, later Pope Gregory XIV who ruled the Catholic church for just 11 months.Ingegneri died in Cremona on July 1st of 1592.
Here is Ingegneri’s motet for the feast of the Assumption of Mary, Vidi speciosam.The Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, and the Historic Brass of Guildhall School are led by Gareth Wilson.
Rott and Ingegneri, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: July 29, 2024. Rott and Ingegneri. Hans Rott was born this week, on August 1st of 1858. This composer, who died at 25 and was mad for the last several
years of his tragically short life, continues to fascinate us. Clearly, he was a major talent, and who knows how he would’ve developed, but even within the limited scope of his output, one can discern musical ideas Mahler would develop some years later. We’ve written about him several times, here, for example. We are also happy to report that his Symphony in E major is being performed and recorded more often, the latest time being in 2021 for Deutsche Grammophon with the excellent Jakub Hrůša leading the Bamberger Symphoniker.
There are many very talented composers of the Renaissance that we have never written about, for the only reason that their birthdays are unknown, so they fall outside of the framework of the “classical music this week.” One of these composers is Marc'Antonio Ingegneri. He’s mostly forgotten these days, unjustly so in our opinion. If he is remembered at all, it is as the teacher of the great Claudio Monteverdi, but in his days, he was the leading composer of Cremona, one of the musical centers of Italy.
Ingegneri was born in Verona in 1535 or 1536, which made him about 10 years younger than Palestrina, three years younger than Orlando di Lasso, and about the same age as Giaches de Wert. As is usually the case with the composers of that era, we know little about his early days. He was a choirboy at the Verona cathedral and probably took lessons from Vincenzo Ruffo, a noted composer, also a Veronese, who was active as a music reformer, implementing an edict of the Council of Trent which stated that words in church music should be legible, a requirement that almost killed the polyphonic mass. Ingegneri left Verona in his early 20s and for a while played the violin in the band of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice. It’s likely that in the 1560s he went to Parma to study with Cipriano de Rore, one of the noted composers of the mid-16th century. Sometime around 1566, Ingegneri moved to Cremona and soon after had his Primo libro de madrigali a quattro voci published. He was active in the music-making at the Cremona Cathedral, and in 1580 was made the maestro di cappella. Sometime soon after he became the teacher of the young Monteverdi, who was born in Cremona and was at the time 15 or 16 years old. It’s clear that Ingegneri was famous outside of Cremona, as he dedicated books of madrigals to his patrons in Milan, Parma, Verona, and even Vienna. His music was published in many cities, such as Venice, Milan, Brescia, Ferrara and Rome. For about a decade from the mid-1570s to the mid-1580s Ingegneri composed mostly secular madrigals, but then reverted to church music. He was a good friend of bishop Nicolò Sfondrato, later Pope Gregory XIV who ruled the Catholic church for just 11 months. Ingegneri died in Cremona on July 1st of 1592.
Here is Ingegneri’s motet for the feast of the Assumption of Mary, Vidi speciosam. The Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, and the Historic Brass of Guildhall School are led by Gareth Wilson.