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• Quagliati, Paolo: 2 Canconi da sonar (1601)

Quagliati, Paolo: 2 Canconi da sonar (1601)

for 4 instruments.

Paolo Quagliati was born in Chioggia c. 1555 and died in Rome in 1628. Unlike most musicians of his day, he was born into a wealthy family; possibly for reasons connected with this, he did not devote his working life exclusively to music, but had a parallel career as a bureaucrat. Like many composers of his generation, he worked as an organist; in his capacity he was employed by the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
The present two pieces are taken from his Ricercate e canzoni per sonare et cantare... Libro Primo, published in Rome in 1601. The pieces are numbered but not titled, so it is not entirely clear which are ricercari, which canzoni: on one hand, here are several rather long pieces with slow initial themes which are obviously ricercars, on the other there are shorter pieces (such as the two printed here), with livelier themes, that are clearly canzoni; other pieces occupy a middle ground.
Quagliati shows himself to be rather an inventive composer in a number of ways, even though the basic style of these pieces is more conservative than that of some of his later publications. The opening theme of the second piece printed here, for instance, is unusually bold, with its repeated leaps, to which the passage of expressive suspensions from bar 25 provides a good foil.
The original note haves have been retained in this edition. A few editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave, applying to the one note only.