Annibale Stabile (c.1535 – April 1595) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance. He was a member of the Roman School of composition, and probably was a pupil of Palestrina. He was active mainly at Rome but moved briefly to Kraków, Poland at the end of his life. Events January 18 - Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro April - Jacques Cartier discovers the Iroquois city of Stadacona, Canada (now Quebec) and in May, the even greater Huron city of Hochelaga June 24 - The Anabaptist state of Münster (see Münster Rebellion) is conquered and disbanded. ... Events January 30 - William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is performed for the first time. ... Renaissance music is European classical music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers active in Rome from the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries, most famous for their sacred music and polished polyphony; the most famous was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. ... Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (born in Palestrina (Praeneste) near Rome, 1525, latest February 1, 1526 – February 2, 1594 in Rome) was an Italian composer of Renaissance music. ... For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ... Tomb of Kazimierz the Great St. ...

Life

Records of his early life are inexact, but he was probably born in Naples, and was likely a boy singer at St. John Lateran in 1544 and 1545. An "Annibale contralto" is also listed at the same church in 1555 and 1556; since it is unlikely that a twenty-year-old would have been listed as a contralto, this may have been a different person; alternatively it has been proposed that Annibale was born in the mid 1540s. Stabile himself mentioned that he studied with Palestrina, who was maestro di cappella at St. John Lateran in 1555 and 1556. Naples panorama Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Nàpule, from Greek Νέα Πόλις - Néa Pólis - meaning New City; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region and the Province of Naples. ... Late Baroque façade of the Basilica, completed, after a competition for the design, by Alessandro Galilei in 1735 St. ... In music, an alto is a singer with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a soprano. ...

Stabile became maestro di cappella at St. John Lateran in 1575, and retained that position until 1578, at which time he moved on to a similar position at the Collegio Germanico. In 1582 he was ordained a priest; and in 1590 he changed jobs again, this time becoming maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore, where he was employed from 1591 to 1594. He went to Poland in early 1595, serving King Sigismund III, who frequently employed Italian musicians, but Stabile died after being in Kraków only two months. The cause of his death is not indicated, but the journey to Poland was not without risk; the renowned madrigal composer Luca Marenzio also died after a trip to Poland (1599), which he claimed ruined his health. Roman Catholic priests in traditional clerical clothing. ... Saint Mary Major, in Italian, Santa Maria Maggiore, is one of the five great ancient basilicas of Rome, Italy. ... Reign in Poland From September 18, 1587 until April 19, 1632 Reign in Sweden From November 17, 1592 until July 24, 1599 Elected in Poland On September 18, 1587 in Wola, today suburb of Warsaw, Poland Coronation in Poland On December 27, 1587 in the Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, Poland Coronation... Tomb of Kazimierz the Great St. ... A madrigal is a setting for 4–6 voices of a secular text, often in Italian. ... Luca Marenzio (1553? - August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. ...

Music

Stabile wrote masses, motets, litanies, hymns, and other sacred pieces, in nine separate publications. Two of his collections of masses were first published in Warsaw in 1979, as Msze królewskie (Royal Masses), which he wrote for his employer Sigismund III. One of his masses — the Missa cantantibus organis — is for the unusual combination of 12 independent voices, and was a collaboration with Palestrina and others. Only the Kyrie, Credo and Crucifixus survive from this work. Mass is a property of a physical object that quantifies the amount of matter it contains. ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... A litany, in Christian worship, is a form of prayer used in church services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions. ... A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a god or other religiously significant figure. ... Kyrie is the vocative case of the Greek word κύριος (kyrios - lord) and means O Lord. ... In Latin, the word credo means I believe. ...

Stabile's style was similar to that of Palestrina, especially in his vocal music; although he normally wrote music somewhat less contrapuntally complex than that of his teacher, he occasionally indulged in canon, especially in his motets. His secular music, mainly madrigals, were often light in character, an unusual feature for a member of the Roman School, whose music was most often noted for its reverence, if not severity. Counterpoint is a musical technique involving the simultaneous sounding of separate musical lines. ... This article is about the musical use of the word canon. For other uses, see canon (disambiguation). ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ...

He published three books of madrigals. The second of the three he wrote in collaboration with Giovanni Maria Nanino (1581). All three of these collections were published in Venice, a friendlier environment for publication of light secular music, and the most active center of music publishing in Italy in the late 16th century. Giovanni Maria Nanino (also Nanini) (1543 or 1544 – March 11, 1607) was an Italian composer and teacher of the late Renaissance. ... Location within Italy Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venexia) , the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice in Italy. ...

References and further reading

• Ruth I. DeFord: "Annibale Stabile", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 12, 2006), (subscription access)
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304