Giovanni Gabrieli (born circa. 1554 – 1557 – died August 12, 1612), was one of the most influential musicians of his time and represents the culmination of the style popularized by the Venetian School during the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque period.

Gabrieli was born in Venice as one of five children. His father came from the region of Carnia and went to Venice shortly before Giovanni’s birth. While not much is known about Giovanni’s early life, it is thought that his early musical studies were with his uncle, the composer Andrea Gabrieli, who was employed at Venice’s St Mark’s Basilica from the 1560s until his death in 1585. Giovanni may have been raised by his uncle, as is implied by the dedication to Giovanni’s 1587 book of concerti, in which he described himself as “little less than a son” to his uncle Andrea.

Giovanni also studied with the renowned Orlando de Lassus at the court of Duke Albert V to Munich; most likely until about 1579. Lassus became one of the principal influences on the development of Giovanni’s musical style.

Career in Venice

By 1584 Giovanni returned to Venice around 1584, where he became principal organist at St Mark’s Basilica in 1585, after Claudio Merulo vacated the post.  Following his uncle’s death in 1586  he also took the post of principal composer. During his time in that position, he began editing much of his Uncle Andrea’s music, which would otherwise have been lost. Andrea evidently had had little interest in publishing his own music during his lifetime, but Giovanni’s opinion of Andrea’s work was extremely high and he devoted much of his time to compiling and editing his uncle’s works for publication.

Gabrieli then took another post he retained for his entire life as organist at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice. San Rocco was the most wealthy and prestigious of all the Venetian confraternities; second only to San Marco itself in the splendor of its musical establishment. Some of the most renowned singers and instrumentalists in Italy performed there and a vivid description of its musical activity survives in the travel memoirs of the English writer Thomas Coryat. Much of his music was written specifically for that San Rocco, although he probably composed even more for San Marco.

San Marco had a long tradition of musical excellence and Gabrieli’s work there made him one of the most noted composers in Europe. The vogue that began with his influential volume Sacrae symphoniae (1597) was such that composers from all over Europe, especially from Germany, came to Venice to study. Evidently he also made his new pupils study the madrigals being written in Italy, so not only did they carry back the grand Venetian polychoral style to their home countries, but also the more intimate style of madrigals; Heinrich Schütz and others helped transport the transitional early Baroque music north to Germany, a trend that decisively affected subsequent music history. The productions of the German Baroque, culminating in the music of J.S. Bach, were founded on this strong tradition, which had its roots in Venice.

Gabrieli was increasingly ill after about 1606, at which time church authorities began to appoint deputies to take over duties he could no longer perform. He died in 1612 in Venice, of complications from a kidney stone.

Music and style

Though Gabrieli composed in many of the forms current at the time, he preferred sacred vocal and instrumental music. All of his secular vocal music is relatively early; he never wrote lighter forms, such as dances; and late in his career he concentrated on sacred vocal and instrumental music that exploited sonority for maximum effect.  

Among the innovations credited to him – and while he was not always the first, he was the most famous to do these things – were the use of dynamics; the use of specifically notated instrumentation (as in the famous Sonata pian’ e forte); and the use of massive forces arrayed in multiple, spatially separated groups, an idea which was to be the genesis of the Baroque concertato style, and which spread quickly to northern Europe, both by the report of visitors to Venice and by Gabrieli’s students, which included Hans Leo Hassler and Heinrich Schütz.

Like composers before and after him, he would use the unusual layout of the San Marco church, with its two choir lofts facing each other, to create striking spatial effects. Most of his pieces are written so that a choir or instrumental group will first be heard on one side, followed by a response from the musicians on the other side; often there was a third group situated on a stage near the main altar in the center of the church. 

While this polychoral style had been extant for decades (Adrian Willaert may have made use of it first, at least in Venice) Gabrieli pioneered the use of carefully specified groups of instruments and singers, with precise directions for instrumentation, and in more than two groups. The acoustics were and are such in the church that instruments, correctly positioned, could be heard with perfect clarity at distant points. Thus instrumentation which looks strange on paper, for instance a single string player set against a large group of brass instruments, can be made to sound, in San Marco, in perfect balance. A fine example of these techniques can be seen in the scoring of In Ecclesiis.

Gabrieli’s first motets were published alongside his uncle Andrea’s compositions in his 1587 volume of Concerti. These pieces show much influence of his uncle’s style in the use of dialogue and echo effects. There are low and high choirs and the difference between their pitches is marked by the use of instrumental accompaniment. The motets published in Giovanni’s 1597 Sacrae Symphoniae seem to move away from this technique of close antiphony towards a model in which musical material is not simply echoed, but developed by successive choral entries. Some motets, such as Omnes Gentes developed the model almost to its limits. In these motets, instruments are an integral part of the performance, and only the choirs marked “Capella” are to be performed by singers for each part.

There seems to be a distinct change in Gabrieli’s style after 1605, the year of publication of Monteverdi’s Quinto libro di madrigali, and Gabrieli’s compositions are in a much more homophonic style as a result. There are sections purely for instruments – called “Sinfonia” – and small sections for soloists singing florid lines, accompanied simply by a basso continuo. “Alleluia” refrains provide refrains within the structure, forming rondo patterns in the motets, with close dialogue between choirs and soloists. In particular, one of his best-known pieces, In Ecclesiis, is a showcase of such polychoral techniques, making use of four separate groups of instrumental and singing performers, underpinned by the omnipresent organ and continuo.

Works:

Concerti (1587) –

‘Concerti di Andrea, et di Giovanni Gabrieli, organisti della Serenissima Signori di Venetia’: A collection of 77 works, the majority of which are by the uncle, Andrea Gabrieli, but also containing some of the younger Gabrieli’s polychoral motets.

• Inclina Domine aurem a 6
• Ego dixi Domine a 7
• O magnum mysterium a 8
• Deus meus ad te de luce a 10
• Angelus ad pastores ait a 12
• Sacri di Giove augei a 12

Sacrae Symphoniae (1597) –

A collection of 45 motets for 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, and 16 voices, and 16 canzonas and sonatas for 8, 10, 12, and 15 instruments.

1. Cantate Domino, Ch.6
2. Exaudi Domine, justitiam meam, Ch.7
3. Beata es, virgo Maria, Ch.8
4. Miserere mei, Deus, Ch.9
5. quam suavis est, Domine, Ch.10
6. Benedixisti Domine terram tuam, Ch.11
7. Exaudi Domine, orationem meam, Ch.12
8. Sancta Maria succurre miseris, Ch.13
9. Domine Jesu Christe, Ch.14
10. Domine exaudi orationem meam, Ch.15
11. Jubilate Deo, omnis terr, Ch.16
12. Misericordias Domin, Ch.17
13. Beati immaculati, Ch.18
14. Laudate nomen Domini, Ch.19
15. Jam non dicam vos servos, Ch.20
16. Beati omnes, Ch.21
17. Domine, Dominus noster, Ch.22
18. Angelus Domini descendit, Ch.23
19. Jesu mi dulcissime, Ch.24
20. Sancta et immaculata virginitas, Ch.25
21. Diligam te, Domine, Ch.26
22. Exultate justi in Domino, Ch.27
23. Hoc tegitur, Ch.28
24. Ego sum qui sum, Ch.29
25. In te Domine speravi, Ch.30
26. Jubilemus singuli, Ch.31
27. Magnificat, Ch.32
28. Canzon per sonar primi toni a 8, Ch.170
29. Canzon per sonar septimi toni a 8, Ch.171
30. Canzon per sonar septimi toni a 8, Ch.172
31. Canzon per sonar noni toni a 8, Ch.173
32. Canzon per sonar duodecimi toni a 8, Ch.174
33. Sonata pian e forte, Ch.175
34. Benedicam Dominum, Ch.33
35. Domine exaudi orationem meam, Ch.34
36. Maria virgo, Ch.35
37. Deus, qui beatum Marcum, Ch.36
38. Surrexit Pastor bonus, Ch.37
39. Judica me, Domine, Ch.38
40. Quis est iste qui venit, Ch.39
41. Hodie Christus natus est, Ch.40
42. Canzon per sonar primi toni a 10, Ch.176
43. Canzon per sonar duodecimi toni a 10, Ch.177
44. Canzon per sonar duodecimi toni a 10, Ch.178
45. Canzon per sonar duodecimi toni a 10, Ch.179
46. Canzon in echo duodecimi toni à 10, Ch.180
47. Canzon sudetta accommodata per concertar con l’Organo a 10, Ch.181
48. Plaudite, psallite, jubilate Deo omnis terra, Ch.41
49. Virtute magna, Ch.42
50. Kyrie (primus), Ch.43
51. Christe, Ch.44
52. Kyrie (tertius), Ch.45 (Ch.43–45 are a single composition)
53. Gloria, Ch.46
54. Sanctus, Ch.47
55. Magnificat, Ch.48
56. Regina cœli, lætare, Ch.49
57. Canzon per sonar septimi & octavi toni a 12, Ch.182
58. Canzon per sonar noni toni a 12, Ch.183
59. Sonata octavi toni a 12, Ch.184
60. Nunc dimittis, Ch.50
61. Jubilate Deo, omnis terra, Ch.51
62. Canzon quarti toni a 15, Ch.185
63. Omnes gentes plaudite manibus, Ch.52

Canzoni per sonare (1608) –

A collection of 36 short works by Gabrieli, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and others. The first four are by Gabrieli.

• Gabrieli: Canzon prima a 4 ‘La Spiritata’, Ch.186
• Gabrieli: Canzon seconda a 4, Ch.187
• Gabrieli: Canzon terza a 4, Ch.188
• Gabrieli: Canzon quarta a 4, Ch.189

Canzone e Sonate (1615) –

A group of 17 canzoni and 4 sonati published posthumously in 1615. Intended “per sonar con ogni sorte de instrumenti con il basso per l’organo” (for playing on all sorts of instruments with the organ bass).

1. Canzon Prima à 5
2. Canzon 2 à 6
3. Canzon 3 à 6
4. Canzon 4 à 6
5. Canzon 5 à 7
6. Canzon 6 à 7
7. Canzon 7 à 7
8. Canzon 8 à 8
9. Canzon 9 à 8
10. Canzon 10 à 8
11. Canzon 11 à 8
12. Canzon 12 à 8
13. Canzon 13 à 8
14. Canzon 14 à 10
15. Canzon 15 à 10
16. Canzon 16 à 12
17. Canzon 17 à 12
18. Sonata 18 à 14
19. Sonata 19 à 15
20. Sonata 20 à 22
21. Sonata 21 con tre violini

Symphoniae Sacrae(1615)

(published posthumously)

Many of these are available for free perusal on imslp.org.