Recercare XXIX-2017 View larger

Dario Castello e la formazione del musico a Venezia: nuovi documenti e nuove prospettive

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Author Rodolfo Baroncini
Series Recercare - Rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musica antica - Journal for the study and practice of early music
Nr. XXIX/1-2 2017
Size 17×24, pp. 284
Year 2017
ISBN 9788870968996

Price 7,00 €

Based on newly found archival sources, the article focuses on the figure of the Venetian composer and instrumentalist Dario Castello, hitherto shrouded in mystery, by reconstructing the salient events of his short life and the historical-musical context in which he was trained and worked. Born in 1602, Castello learned the most refined instrumental techniques from his father Giovanni Battista, a violin player — but also a strazzarolo (ragman) — who was well integrated in the milieu of Venetian instrumentalists. Such techniques represent an important part of the musical knowledge that Castello incorporated into his Sonate concertate in stil moderno. While he was studying music with his father, Castello, however, undertook an ecclesiastical career. This enabled him to further pursue his musical studies and establish connections with patrons who supported his activity and promoted his contact with the best Venetian musical tradition, of which Giovanni Gabrieli (who died in 1612) was the leading exponent. The peculiar feature of Castello’s  Sonate concertate in stil moderno is the way performance and compositional skills blend together. Such works on the one hand capture the listener for their pyrotechnic instrumental resources and their sharp sectional contrasts, on the other they amaze him through their solid musical substance and their well thought-out formal construction.

Rodolfo Baroncini is professor of History of music at the Conservatory of Adria. He is member of the editorial board of the series Venetian Music Studies and collaborates with Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice. A specialist of instrumental music of the sixteenth century, he have focused his interest on the Venetian musical and cultural milieu of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He published a comprehensive monograph on Giovanni Gabrieli (2012). He is currently working to a project on private patronage of music in early seventeenth-century Venice. rodolfo.baroncini@alice.it