Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1557-1612), having spent part of his youth studying with the Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus at the court of the Duke of Bavaria in Munich, retured quite accustomed to the lavish festivities for which he would later be commissioned to compose. Both he and his uncle Andrea Gabrieli (ca. 1553-1585) were native Venetians, both became organists at St. Mark's Cathedral and would perform their music in the artistic treasure-house of the Western World, La Serenissima, the "most serene city" of Venice.

"Sonata pian' e forte", written in 1597 is an instrumental piece using soft and loud dynamics. A more technical definition of this is a Venetian polychoral style which arose from architectural peculiarities with regards to St Marks cathedral.

A Sonata (during the Renaissance) means a piece for instruments. It was probably written to be played as part of a Roman Catholic Church service at St Marks cathedral in Venice. It was written for 8 instruments divided into 2 groups of 4 and placed in opposing galleries in the cathedral.

The whole piece is in [transposed] Dorian mode onto G. This means that this uses all the notes of F Major, but the tonic note is G. The whole piece is designed for singers, even though it is played on instruments due to the conjunct melody moving in small steps.

Although originally written for Renaissance period instruments and chorus, I created this arrangement for Wind Ensemble.