Giovanni Picchi (1571/72 – 1643) was an Italian
composer, organist, lutenist, and harpsichordist of the
early Baroque era. He was a late follower of the
Venetian School, and was influential in the development
and differentiation of instrumental forms which were
just beginning to appear, such as the sonata and the
ensemble canzona; in addition he was the only Venetian
of his time to write dance music for harpsichord.
Little is known about Picchi's early life, but his
birthdate (1571 o...(+)
Giovanni Picchi (1571/72 – 1643) was an Italian
composer, organist, lutenist, and harpsichordist of the
early Baroque era. He was a late follower of the
Venetian School, and was influential in the development
and differentiation of instrumental forms which were
just beginning to appear, such as the sonata and the
ensemble canzona; in addition he was the only Venetian
of his time to write dance music for harpsichord.
Little is known about Picchi's early life, but his
birthdate (1571 or 1572) can be inferred from his death
record which states that he was 71 when he died on 17
May 1643. The earliest documentary evidence pertaining
to him, unusually enough, is a picture: he appears as a
lutenist on the title page of a 1600 dance manual by
Fabritio Caroso (Nobilità di dame). Sometime before
February 1607 he was hired as organist at the Venetian
church of the Frari, and from 1623 to his death he was
also organist at the confraternity Scuola di San Rocco,
the most prestigious and wealthy of all the Venetian
confraternities. In 1624 he applied for the position of
second organist at St. Mark's, but Giovanni Pietro
Berti was chosen instead. He was a close contemporary
of Monteverdi, being born four years later and dying
six months earlier than the more renowned composer.
Of Picchi's music, mostly instrumental music survives.
One harpsichord toccata is included in the Fitzwilliam
Virginal Book (how it got there is not known – very
little Italian music is included in that English
collection); three passamezzos survive in a manuscript
from Turin; and in 1619 he published a collection of
harpsichord dances, Intavolatura di balli d'arpicordo.
In addition, he published a collection of 19 ensemble
canzonas in 1625, Canzoni da sonar. A sole motet
survives in Ghirlanda sacra 1625.
His harpsichord dances are of three types: dances in
triple meter, dances in triple meter paired with
saltarellos, and pieces which use a ground bass. Most
of the works with ground bass use some type of
romanesca pattern, consisting of a line descending by
fourth, rising by step, then descending again by fourth
or fifth, rising by step, and so forth (the Pachelbel
Canon, probably written several decades after Picchi's
death, is probably the most famous example of
variations over a romanesca bass).
Within his ensemble canzonas, Picchi worked to
differentiate several types of instrumental writing
which were critically important to later forms such as
the concerto. In particular, he used well-defined
concertino, ritornello, and cadenzas in his ensemble
music, following and further developing a practice
initiated in the music of Giovanni Gabrieli and the
other composers of his generation. His writing for
concertino groups was probably the most innovative
aspect of his style, and foreshadowed the work of
composers in the middle Baroque such as Corelli. Picchi
used both sequential variation and echo effects, and
scored for a variety of instruments including violins,
bassoons, recorders and trombones, often in the same
piece.
Picchi seems to have used the terms canzona and sonata
interchangeably, sometimes calling a piece "canzona" in
the score and "sonata" in the part book; the
differentiation of these forms was only just beginning
in the early 17th century.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Picchi).
Although originally composed for Chorus (SSATTB), I
created this interpretation of the Sonata Sesta Decima
à 6 for Winds (Flute, Oboe & Bassoon) & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION