Claudio Merulo
|
|
Claudio Merulo (Merlotti, Merulus) (also Claudio da Correggio) (April 8, 1533 – May 5, 1604) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance, famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music in the Venetian polychoral style. He was born in Correggio and died in Parma.
Little is known about his early life except that he studied with Tottovale Menon and Girolamo Donato. Sometime after 1550 he is known to have studied with Zarlino at St. Mark's in Venice; while he was there he became close friends with Costanzo Porta, a friendship which was to endure for his entire life. In 1556 he was appointed organist at Brescia cathedral; and his skill as an organist must have been impressive, because he became organist at St. Mark's, one of the most prestigious positions for an organist in Italy, in 1557; apparently he beat Andrea Gabrieli for the job. He kept this position until 1584. Beginning in 1586, after two years during which little is known about his activities, he worked successively at Mantua, Parma, and for the company of the wealthy Steccata, where he remained until his death.
Merulo is most famous for his keyboard music. His toccatas, in particular, are innovative; he was the first to contrast sections of contrapuntal writing with passagework; often he inserts sections which could be called ricercars into pieces which otherwise are labeled toccatas or canzonas (in the late 16th century, these terms are only approximately descriptive; different composers clearly had different ideas of what they meant). Often his keyboard pieces begin as though they are to be a transcription of vocal polyphony, but then gradually add embellishment and elaboration until they reach a climactic passage of considerable virtuosity. Sometimes, especially in his later music, he develops ornaments which acquire the status of a motif, which is then used developmentally; this anticipates a principal generative technique in the Baroque era. Often Merulo casually ignores the "rules" of voice-leading, giving the music an expressive intensity more associated with the late school of madrigalists than with keyboard music of the time. His keyboard music was hugely influential, and his ideas can be seen in the music of Sweelinck, Frescobaldi and others; because of the immense influence of Sweelinck as a teacher, much of the virtuoso keyboard technique of the north German organ school, culminating in Bach, can claim to be descended from the innovations of Merulo.
Merulo also was a madrigalist, though the fame of his instrumental music has overshadowed his a cappella vocal works. Since he was a member of what is known today as the Venetian School, he also wrote motets for double choir in the manner of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli.
References and further reading
- Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi. New York, Dover Publications, 1994. ISBN 0486281515
- Article "Claudio Merulo," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
- Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304