Bartolomeo Tromboncino (c.1470 – 1535 or later) was an Italian composer of the early Renaissance. He is mainly famous as a composer of frottola; he is principally infamous for murdering his wife. He was born in Verona and died in or near Venice. Events May 15 - Charles VIII of Sweden who had served three terms as King of Sweden dies. ... 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. ... Renaissance music is European classical music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... The frottola is the predominant type of Italian popular, secular song of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. ... Verona is an ancient town, episcopal see, and province in Veneto, Northern Italy. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venezsia) is the capital of region Veneto, and has a population of 271,663 (census estimate January 1, 2004). ...

Life

Details of his early life are sketchy, as is common for most composers of the time, but most likely he grew up in Mantua, and he mentions in a letter that he was originally from Verona. Until around 1500 he lived and worked in Mantua, though he made occasional trips to adjacent cities such as Ferrara, Este, Vicenza, Milan and Pavia, especially when he was in trouble. He fled the city in 1495 for unknown reasons, returning later that same year; in 1499 he murdered his wife when he discovered her in flagrante delicto but, unlike Gesualdo a hundred years later, he may have spared the man (the sources are contradictory on this detail). Curiously, he seems to have been pardoned again and again for his misdeeds, but he left Mantua again "without permission, and for despicable reasons," as stated in a letter from one of the Gonzaga family, his employers. His skill as a composer probably endeared him to Isabella d'Este, one of the great patrons of the arts of the time; this connection may have assisted him in attaining pardons for his various murders and misdemeanors. Mantua (in Italian Mantova, in the local dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo language Mantua) is an important city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province with the same name. ... Verona is an ancient town, episcopal see, and province in Veneto, Northern Italy. ... 1500 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ferrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, capital city of the province of Ferrara. ... Ercole I dEste was one of the most important patrons of arts in the Italian Renaissance. ... Vicenza is a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. ... Milan (Italian: ; Lombard: Milán (listen)) is one of the biggest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. ... Church San Michele in Pavia The Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio) on the Ticino river is a symbol of Pavia Pavìa (the ancient Ticinum) (population 71,000) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its... 1495 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1499 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa. ... The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. ... // Isabella dEste first lady of the renaissance, inventor, political ruler, patron of the arts, mother of seven children and musician. ...

From 1502 Tromboncino was employed by the even more infamous Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara, where he wrote music for the famous intermedi of her opulent court, and most significantly for her wedding to Alfonso d'Este. Sometime before 1521 he moved to Venice, where he most likely spent the remainder of his life, seemingly in rather more placid circumstances. 1502 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Portrait of a Woman by Bartolomeo Veneziano, traditionally assumed to be Lucrezia Borgia. ... The intermedio, in Italian Renaissance music, is a kind of music which was performed between acts of a play. ... Portrait of Alfonso dEste by an unknown artist Alfonso dEste (1486–1534) was Duke of Ferrara during the War of the League of Cambrai. ... Events January 3 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venezsia) is the capital of region Veneto, and has a population of 271,663 (census estimate January 1, 2004). ...

Music and influence

In spite of his stormy, erratic, and possibly criminal life, much of his music is in the light current form of the frottola, a predecessor to the madrigal. He was a trombonist, as shown by his name, and sometimes employed in that capacity; however he apparently wrote no strictly instrumental music (or none survives). He also wrote some serious sacred music: 17 laude, a motet and a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Stylistically the sacred works are typical of the more conservative music of the early 16th century, using non-imitative polyphony over a cantus firmus, alternating sectionally with more homophonic textures or with unadorned plainsong. His frottolas, by far the largest and most historically significant part of his output (176 in all) are more varied than those of the other famous frottolist, Marchetto Cara, and they also tend to be more polyphonic than is typical for most frottolas of the time; in this way they anticipate the madrigal, the first collections of which began to be published near the very end of Tromboncino's life, and in the city where he lived (for example Verdelot's Primo libro di Madrigali of 1533, published in Venice). The major differences between the late frottolas of Tromboncino and the earliest madrigals were not so much musical as in the structure of the verse they set. The frottola is the predominant type of Italian popular, secular song of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. ... A madrigal is a setting for 3–6 voices of a secular text, often in Italian. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... Laude (singular: lauda, or lauda spirituale) is the most important form of vernacular sacred song in Italy in the late medieval era and Renaissance. ... The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet have been set by various composers. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... In music, a cantus firmus (fixed song) is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition, often set apart by being played in long notes. ... In music, the word texture is often used in a rather vague way in reference to the overall sound of a piece of music. ... Broadly speaking, plainsong is the name given to the body of traditional songs used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. ... Marchetto Cara (c. ... Philippe Verdelot was a French composer of the Renaissance, who spent most of his life in Italy. ... Events January 25 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne Boleyn, his second Queen consort. ...

The poetry that Tromboncino set tended to be by the most famous writers of the time; he set Petrarch, Galeotto, Sannazaro and others; he even set a poem by Michelangelo, Come haro dunque ardire, which was part of a collection Tromboncino published in 1518. Only very few times in European history have artists, poets and composers been so closely associated. From the c. ... Jacopo Sannazaro or Sannazzaro (1458 - April 27, 1530) was a Neapolitan poet, humanist and epigrammist. ... Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. ... Events A plague of tropical fire ants devastates crops on Hispaniola. ...

Sources

• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. (ISBN 0-393-09530-4)
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. (ISBN 1-56159-174-2)