Giovanni Gabrieli, (born 1556?, Venice [Italy]—died August 12?

, 1612,
Venice), 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 almost filial 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.
Orlando di Lasso, Latin Orlandus Lassus, also called Roland De Lassus,
(born 1530/32, Mons, Spanish Hainaut—died June 14, 1594, Munich),
Flemish composer whose music stands at the apex of the Franco-
Netherlandish style that dominated European music of the Renaissance.
As a child he was a choirboy at St. Nicholas in Mons and because of his
beautiful voice was kidnapped three times for other choirs. He was taken into
the service of Ferdinand of Gonzaga, general to Charles V, and travelled with
the imperial army in its French campaign in 1544. He accompanied Gonzaga
to Italy in 1544, where he remained for 10 years. From 1553 to 1554 he was
chapelmaster of the papal church of St. John Lateran at Rome, a post later
held by Palestrina. Following a sojourn in Antwerp (1555–56), he joined the
court chapel of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria in Munich, where, except for some
incidental journeys, he remained for the rest of his life. In 1570 the Emperor
Maximilian raised him to the nobility; and, when Lasso dedicated a collection
of his masses (1574) to Pope Gregory XIII, he received the knighthood of the
Golden Spur.
Of Lasso’s more than 2,000 compositions, many appeared in print between
1555, when his first book of Italian madrigals was published in Venice, and
1604, when a posthumous collection of 516 Latin motets (religious choral
works), Magnum Opus Musicum, was published by his sons. Certain volumes
stand out as landmarks in his career: his first collection of motets (1556)
established his mastery in a field to which he contributed all his life;
a comprehensive anthology of his chansons, or French part-songs (1570),
helped to consolidate his position as the leading composer in this genre. In
addition to his madrigals (Italian choral pieces) and chansons, he published
seven collections of lieder (German part-songs). Probably his best known
work is his sombre, impressive collection of penitential psalms, Psalmi Davidis
Poenitentiales (1584). Its rediscovery and edition in 1838 by S.W. Dehn
initiated a revival of interest in Lasso’s works. Lasso was a master in the field
of sacred music and was equally at home in secular composition. In the latter
field his internationalism is striking, encompassing Italian, French, and
German genres. His religious works have a particular emotional intensity. He
took great care to mirror the meaning of his texts in his music, a trait that
looked forward to the Baroque style of the early 17th century.