Ercole Pasquini (ca. 1560 – between 1608 and 1619) was an Italian composer and organist.
Pasquini was born at Ferrara, and studied with Alessandro Milleville (1521?-1589). He was described by Agostino Superbi (1620) as a most clever and excellent musician and organist. "He had a very nimble hand; and sometimes played so splendidly that he enraptured the people and truly amazed them." In the 1580s, Pasquini took over the musical instruction of the daughters of Giovan Battista Aleotti, court architect of Ferrara, from Milleville.
On 1 May 1592, Pasquini became the organist of the ridotti of Mario Bevilacqua and of the Olivetian church, Santa Maria in Organo, in Verona. While he held these positions, he wrote and published a favola boscareccia entitled I fidi amanti (Verona, 1593) in anticipation of the wedding of Don Carlo Gesualdo and Eleonora d'Este which took place in Ferrara the following year (1594). Upon the death of Bevilacqua, Pasquini apparently returned to Ferrara, where he succeeded Luzzasco Luzzaschi as organist of the Accademia della Morte. He was succeeded in this position by Girolamo Frescobaldi.
On 6 October 1597, Pasquini was elected organist to the Capella Giulia at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. During the summer and fall of 1604, he assumed the same position at the Santo Spirito in Sassia, continuing his duties at St. Peter's. Beginning in 1603, there appears some irregularity in his signing for his payment, from the Capella Giulia. Nicolo Pasquini, possibly a son, signed from time to time from September 1603 over the next two years. During the summer of 1605, his payments were signed by the maestro di capella, Francesco Soriano, and in November and December, the attendant of the hospital, where Pasquini was being treated, signed. On 19 May 1608, Pasquini was dismissed from his post for "just causes." In an account by Agostino Faustini in 1646, Pasquini died insane in Rome.
About thirty pieces for the keyboard have been preserved in manuscript copies. No autographs have survived and none were published during his lifetime. Among the items which have come down to us are 6 toccatas, 2 durezze, 9 or 10 canzonas, 5 sets of variations, 3 dances, and an intabulation of Cipriano de Rore's madrigal Ancor che co'l partire. These works show Pasquini to be a highly original composer, in many respects foreshadowing the keyboard works of his younger compatriot, Girolamo Frescobaldi. His Durezze are the earliest known of their type.
Of his vocal works, only five were published during his lifetime or shortly afterward. The madrigal Mentre che la bell'Isse of 1591, appears as a contrafact motet Sanctus Sebastianus in a Passau collection. Two motets, including the impressive ten-voice Quem viditis pastores?, were included in a publication by his student, Raffaella Aleotti in 1593. A spiritual madrigal M'empio gli occhi di pianto, to a text by Angelo Grillo, appeared in 1604, and the final work, published after his death, is Jesu decus angelicum for four voices and organ.
Bernardo Pasquini was an Italian composer of operas, oratorios, cantatas and keyboard music. A renowned virtuoso keyboard player, he was one of the most important Italian composers for harpsichord between Girolamo Frescobaldi and Domenico Scarlatti, having also made substantial contributions to opera and oratorio.
Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by many composers, including Ascanio Mayone, Giovanni Maria Trabaci, and Claudio Merulo. Girolamo Frescobaldi was appointed organist of St. Peter's Basilica, a focal point of power for the Cappella Giulia, from 21 July 1608 until 1628 and again from 1634 until his death.
Luzzasco Luzzaschi was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority of his life in his native city. He was a skilled representative of the late Italian madrigal style, along with Palestrina, Wert, Monte, Lassus, Marenzio, Gesualdo and others.
Girolamo Diruta was an Italian organist, music theorist, and composer. He was famous as a teacher, for his treatise Il Transilvano on counterpoint, and for his part in the development of keyboard technique, particularly on the organ. He was born in Deruta, near Perugia.
Claudio Merulo was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style. He was born in Correggio and died in Parma. Born Claudio Merlotti, he Latinised his surname when he became famous in Venetian cultural clubs.
Johann Caspar Kerll was a German Baroque composer and organist. He is also known as Kerl, Gherl, Giovanni Gasparo Cherll and Gaspard Kerle.
Giovanni de Macque was a Netherlandish composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, who spent almost his entire life in Italy. He was one of the most famous Neapolitan composers of the late 16th century; some of his experimentation with chromaticism was likely influenced by Carlo Gesualdo, who was an associate of his.
Giovanni Valentini was an Italian Baroque composer, poet and keyboard virtuoso. Overshadowed by his contemporaries, Claudio Monteverdi and Heinrich Schütz, Valentini is practically forgotten today, although he occupied one of the most prestigious musical posts of his time. He is best remembered for his innovative usage of asymmetric meters and the fact that he was Johann Kaspar Kerll's first teacher.
Vittoria Aleottis, believed to be the same as Raffaella Aleotta was an Italian Augustinian nun, a composer and organist.
Giovanni Maria Trabaci was an Italian composer and organist. He was a prolific composer, with some 300 surviving works preserved in more than 10 publications; he was especially important for his keyboard music.
Peter Philips was an eminent English composer, organist, and Catholic priest exiled to Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands. He was one of the greatest keyboard virtuosos of his time, and transcribed or arranged several Italian motets and madrigals by such composers as Lassus, Palestrina, and Giulio Caccini for his instruments. Some of his keyboard works are found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Philips also wrote many sacred choral works.
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger was an Austrian-Italian virtuoso performer and composer of the early Baroque period. A prolific and highly original composer, Kapsberger is chiefly remembered today for his lute and theorbo (chitarrone) music, which was seminal in the development of these as solo instruments.
1550 in music involved some significant events.
Michelangelo Rossi (Michel Angelo del Violino) (ca. 1601/1602 – 1656) was an important Italian composer, violinist and organist of the Baroque era.
Fiori musicali is a collection of liturgical organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, first published in 1635. It contains three organ masses and two secular capriccios. Generally acknowledged as one of Frescobaldi's greatest works, Fiori musicali influenced composers during at least two centuries. Johann Sebastian Bach was among its admirers, and parts of it were included in the celebrated Gradus ad parnassum, a highly influential 1725 treatise by Johann Joseph Fux which was in use even in the 19th century.
Il secondo libro di toccate is a collection of keyboard music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, first published in 1627. A work of immense historical importance, it includes the first known chaconne and passacaglia, as well as the earliest set of variations on an original theme. Il secondo libro di toccate is widely regarded as a high point in Frescobaldi's oeuvre.
Il Primo Libro delle Canzoni is a collection of instrumental Baroque canzonas by the Ferrarese organist and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi. It was published in two different editions in Rome in 1628, and re-issued with substantial revisions in Venice in 1634. The three editions of the Primo Libro contain a total of forty-eight canzonas for one, two, three or four instrumental voices in various combinations, all with basso continuo; as a result of revisions, sixteen of the canzonas exist in two substantially different versions.