Dario Castello (?–c.1656) was an Italian composer and instrumentalist from the early Baroque period, who worked and published in Venice. He was a late member of the Venetian School, and played a part in the early transformation of the instrumental canzona into the sonata. Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 to 1750 (see Dates of classical music eras for a discussion of the problems inherent in defining the beginning and end points). ... View of Venice to San Giorgio Maggiore island from St Marks Campanile. ... In music history, the Venetian School is a term used to describe the composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes the music they produced. ... Canzona (also canzone) is a poetic form, and a type of musical composition. ... Sonata (From Latin and Italian sonare, to sound), in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to cantata (Latin cantare, to sing), a piece sung. ...

Biographical Details

We have no biographical information about Castello at all; even his birth and death dates are unknown, although it is thought he may have died during the great plague of 1630. Certainly he published no new music after this date. The title page of the 1629 edition of the first volume of Sonate Concertate records him as Capo di Compagnia de Musichi d'Instrumenti da fiato in Venetia, and the second volume (1644 edition) as Musico Della Serenissima Signoria di Venetia in S.Marco, & Capo di Compagnia de Instrumenti. Events February 22 - Native American Quadequine introduces Popcorn to English colonists. ...

He was probably associated with St. Mark's, where Claudio Monteverdi was maestro di capella. Castello's use of the stile concitato—quick repeated-note figures—further suggests association with Monteverdi. San Marco di Venezia, as seen from the Piazza San Marco St Marks Basilica (Italian: Basilica di San Marco) is the most famous of the churches of Venice and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. ... Portrait of Claudio Monteverdi in Venice, 1640, by Bernardo Strozzi. ... Portrait of Claudio Monteverdi in Venice, 1640, by Bernardo Strozzi. ...

In addition, there are records of other instrumentalists working at St Mark's named Castello, and it is possible they were relatives of Dario.

Style

Of his music, 29 separate compositions survive. Castello's music is inventive and technically challenging. Strictly worked polyphonic sections alternate with dramatic recitatives over basso continuo, in keeping with the title of the publications "in stil moderno"; however he also uses some of the older canzona technique, which uses short sections of highly contrasting texture, and active rather than lyrical melodic lines. Unusually for the time, Castello often specifies the instruments for each part, calling for cornetti, violins, sackbutts and dulcians. That these works were still being reprinted in the 1650s attests to Castello's influence. Recitative, a form of composition often used in operas, oratorios, cantatas and similar works, is described as a melodic speech set to music, or a descriptive narrative song in which the music follows the words. ... Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervallic content (the intervals which make up a sonority), later chords, in relation to a bass note. ... Canzona (also canzone) is a poetic form, and a type of musical composition. ... Cornett The cornett or cornetto is an early wind instrument, dating from the Renaissance period. ... A violin The violin is a bowed stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart. ... Never look at the trombones. ... The dulcian is a Renaissance bass woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded conical bore. ...

Works

• Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno, Libro I, Venice, 1621
• Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno, Libro II, Venice, 1629
• Exultate Deo, motet (1625 and 1636)

Modern editions of the complete sonatas are published by Ut Orpheus Edizione.

Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno, Libro II

Further reading

• Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Dario Castello: A Non-Existent Biography, Music and Letters, LIII/2 (1972)
• Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi, 3rd edn. Mineola NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1994. ISBN 0486281515

Recordings

• The Floating City, His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, Hyperion CDA67013.
• Viaggio Musicale, Il Giardino Armonico, Teldec 8573825362.

External links

• Free scores by Dario Castello in the Werner Icking Music Archive