for the tractor manufactorer, see Landini (tractor) Landini VL30 Landini was founded by Giovanni Landini and had just started making tractors in 1925 when Giovanni Landini died preventing the completion of the first prototype Landini trator. ...

Landini playing a miniature organ (illustration from the 15th century Squarcialupi Codex)

Francesco Landini or Landino (around 1325 – September 2, 1397) was an Italian composer, organist, singer, poet and instrument maker. He was one of the most famous and revered composers of the second half of the 14th century, and by far the most famous composer in Italy. francesco landini. ... francesco landini. ... Illustration from the Squarcialupi Codex, showing Francesco Landini playing a portative organ The Squarcialupi Codex (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Med. ... Events January 7:Alfonso IV becomes the King of Portugal. ... September 2 is the 245th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (246th in leap years). ... Events February 10 - John Beaufort becomes Earl of Somerset. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Modern style pipe organ at the concert hall of Aletheia University in Matou, Taiwan The organ is a keyboard instrument with one or more manuals, and usually a pedalboard. ... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ...

Life

Details of his life are sketchy, but a few facts can be established with certainty, and the general outline has begun to take shape as more research has been done, especially into Florentine records. Most of the original biographical data on Landini comes from a 1385 book on famous Florentine citizens by chronicler Filippo Villani, who was also born approximately 1325. Events August 14 - Battle of Aljubarrota between the Portuguese under John I of Portugal and the Castilians, under John I of Castile. ... Giovanni Villani (ca 1275-1348), the Florentine writer of the famous chronicles (the Cronica) is the greatest Italian chronicler of his own times and the cornerstone of the early medieval history of Florence. ...

Landini was most likely born in Florence, though his great-nephew, humanist Cristoforo Landino, gave his birthplace as Fiesole. His father, Jacopo del Casentino, was a noted painter in the school of Giotto. Blind from childhood (an effect of contracting smallpox), Landini became devoted to music early in life, and mastered many instruments, including the lute, as well as the art of singing, writing poetry, and composition. Villani, in his chronicle, also stated that Landini was an inventor of instruments, including a stringed instrument called the 'syrena syrenarum', that combined features of lute and psaltery, and it is believed to be the ancestor of bandura. Country Italy Region Tuscany Province Florence (FI) Mayor Leonardo Domenici Elevation 50 m Area 102 km² Population  - Total (as of 2006-06-02) 366,488  - Density 3,593/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Fiorentini Dialing code 055 Postal code 50100 Frazioni Galluzzo, Settignano Patron St. ... Cristoforo Landino (1424-24 September 1498) was a humanist and an important figure of the Florentine Renaissance. ... Florence as seen from Fiesole Fiesole is a town and comune (township) of Firenze province in the Italian region of Tuscany, 43°49N 11°18E, on a famously scenic height 346 m (1140 ft) above Florence, 8 km (5 mi) NE of that city. ... Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) was a highly contagious viral disease unique to humans. ... The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ... A Bandura and a Torban, at the Royal College of Music Julian Kytasty, plays a prima Chernihiv bandura The Experimental Bandura Тrio: Jurij Fedynsky, Julian Kytasty,and Michael Andrec Ken Bloom, plays a Kharkiv bandura Yuri Singalevych(Lviv) playing a diatonic bandura c. ...

According to Villani, Landini was given a crown of laurel by the King of Cyprus, who was in Venice for several periods during the 1360s. Probably Landini spent some time in northern Italy prior to 1370. Evidence in some of his music also points to this: he dedicated one motet to Andrea Contarini, who was Doge of Venice from 1368 to 1382; and in addition, his works are well-represented in northern Italian sources. Country Italy Region Veneto Province Venice (VE) Mayor Massimo Cacciari (since April 18, 2004) Elevation m Area 412 km² Population  - Total (as of December 31, 2004) 271,251  - Density 646/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Veneziani Dialing code 041 Postal code 30100 Frazioni Chirignago, Favaro Veneto, Mestre... Centuries: 13th century - 14th century - 15th century Decades: 1310s 1320s 1330s 1340s 1350s - 1360s - 1370s 1380s 1390s 1400s 1410s Years: 1360 1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 Events and Trends William Langland writes Piers Plowman Categories: 1360s ... Events Beginning of the rule of Poland by Capet-Anjou family. ... Grand Procession of the Doge, 16th century For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallel Duce and the English Duke. ... Events Timur ascends throne of Samarkand. ... Events End of the reign of Emperor Go-Enyu of Japan, fifth and last of the Northern Ashikaga Pretenders Emperor Go-Komatsu ascends to the throne of Japan John Wyclifs teachings are condemned by the Synod of London. ...

He was employed as organist at the Florentine monastery of Santa Trinità in 1361, and at the church of San Lorenzo from 1365 onward. He was heavily involved in the political and religious controversies of his day, according to Villani, but he seems to have remained in the good graces of the Florentine authorities. Landini knew many of the other Italian composers of the Trecento, including Lorenzo da Firenze, with whom he was associated at Santa Trinità, as well as Andreas da Florentia, who he knew in the 1370s. Around or shortly after 1375, Andreas hired him as a consultant to help build the organ at the Servite house in Florence. Among the surviving records are the receipts for the wine that the two consumed during the three days it took to tune the instrument. Landini also helped build the new organ at SS Annunziata in 1379, and in 1387 he was involved in yet another organ-building project, this time at Florence Cathedral. Events Founding of the University of Pavia, Italy. ... Events Foundation of the University of Vienna Births John de Ros, 6th Baron de Ros (died 1394) Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk (died 1399) Deaths May 17 - Louis VI the Roman, elector of Brandenburg (born 1328) July 27 - Duke Rudolf IV of Austria (born 1339) Categories: 1365 ... Lorenzo da Firenze (Magister Laurentius de Florentia, Masini) (d. ... Andrea da Firenze (Andreas da Florentia) (died 1415) was an Italian composer and organist of the late medieval era. ... Centuries: 13th century - 14th century - 15th century Decades: 1320s 1330s 1340s 1350s 1360s - 1370s - 1380s 1390s 1400s 1410s 1420s Years: 1370 1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 Events and Trends Mamai was a powerful military commander of Golden Horde, who resided in the western part of this... The Servite Friars or Servants of Mary are one of the five original mendicant orders. ... Country Italy Region Tuscany Province Florence (FI) Mayor Leonardo Domenici Elevation 50 m Area 102 km² Population  - Total (as of 2006-06-02) 366,488  - Density 3,593/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Fiorentini Dialing code 055 Postal code 50100 Frazioni Galluzzo, Settignano Patron St. ... Events Robert of Geneva, the butcher of Cesena was elected as Pope Clement VII. This led to a schism in the Catholic church with one pope in Rome (Pope Gregory XI and the antipope (Clement VII) in Avignon. ... Events June 2 - John Holland, a maternal half-brother of Richard II of England, is created Earl of Huntingdon. ...

Numerous contemporary writers attest to his fame, not only as a composer, but as a singer, poet, organist, and passionately devoted citizen of Florence. His reputation for moving an audience with his music was so powerful that writers noted "the sweetness of his melodies was such that hearts burst from their bosoms." ^[1]

He is buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. His tombstone, lost until the 19th century and now again displayed in the church, contains a depiction of him with a portative organ similar to the one shown. A portative organ (or portatif organ) was a small medieval organ carried by the performer, who manipulated the bellows with one hand and fingered the keys with the other. ...

Music and influence

Landini was the foremost exponent of the Italian trecento style, sometimes also called the "Italian ars nova". His output was almost exclusively secular. While there are records of his having composed sacred music, none of it has survived. What has survived are 89 ballate for two voices, 42 ballate for three voices, and another nine which exist in both a two and a three-voice version. In addition to the ballatas, a smaller number of madrigals have survived. Landini is assumed to have written his own texts for many of his works. His output represents almost a quarter of all surviving 14th century Italian music. From mille trecento, Italian for 1300. ... The ballata (plural: ballate) is an Italian poetic and musical form which was in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. ... The Trecento-Madrigal is an Italian musical form of the 14th century (ca. ... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ...

Landini is the eponym of the Landini cadence (or Landino sixth), a cadential formula whereby the sixth degree of the scale (the submediant) is inserted between the leading note and its resolution on the tonic. However this cadence neither originated with him, nor is unique to his music; it can be found in much polyphonic music of the period, and well into the 15th century (for example in the songs of Gilles Binchois). Gherardello da Firenze is the earliest composer to use the cadence whose works have survived. Yet Landini used the formula consistently throughout his music, so the eponym—which dates from after the medieval era—is appropriate. A Landini cadence is a technique in music composition, named after Francesco Landini in honor of his extensive use of the technique. ... In Western musical theory a cadence (Latin cadentia, a falling) is a particular series of intervals or chords that ends a phrase, section, or piece of music. ... In music, the submediant is the sixth degree of the scale. ... In music theory, a leading-tone (called the leading-note outside the US) is a note or pitch which is resolves or leads to a note one semitone higher or lower, being an lower and upper leading-tone, respectively. ... The tonic is the first note of a musical scale, and in the tonal method of music composition it is extremely important. ... Gherardello da Firenze (also Niccolò di Francesco) (c. ...

In one of his madrigals, he set a text he wrote himself: "I am Music, and weeping I regret seeing intelligent people forsaking my sweet and perfect sounds for street music." ^[2]

See also

• Music of the trecento

Landini, the most famous composer of the trecento, playing a portative organ (illustration from the 15th century Squarcialupi Codex) The trecento was a period of vigorous activity in Italy in the arts, including painting, architecture, literature, and music. ...

References and further reading

• Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. ISBN 0-393-09090-6
• Kurt von Fischer, Gianluca D'Agostino: "Francesco Landini", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed November 16, 2005), (subscription access)

Notes

1. ↑  Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music, p.455. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. ISBN 0-393-09090-6
2. ↑  Harold Gleason and Warren Becker, Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Music Literature Outlines Series I), p. 82. Bloomington, Indiana. Frangipani Press, 1986. ISBN 0-89917-034-X

External links

• Francesco Landini: Works List & Discography