Description
Born in Venice, the composer and organist Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1557-1612) became one of the most influential musicians of his time. He studied in Munich with Orlando de Lassus but by 1584 he had returned to Venice, becoming both principal organist and principal composer at the Basilica di San Marco (St Mark’s Basilica).
Gabrieli represented the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from the Renaissance to the Baroque eras. Amongst the many compositional innovations he introduced one technique he employed in much of his output was the use of multiple groups of spatially separated singers or instrumentalists to create striking antiphonal effects – for which the unusual layout of the San Marco church was aptly suited. This technique was used to great effect in the Canzoni e Sonate – a collection of instrumental pieces for ensembles (of no fixed instrumentation) varying in size from 3 to 22 players. They were written in 1612 but published posthumously in 1615.
The sixteenth piece in the collection is the 12-part Canzoni XVI, here arranged by Graham Sheen for nine clarinets and three bass clarinets (plus optional contrabass clarinet). The twelve parts are split into three groups of four, which individually call and respond, interspersed with glorious tuttis.
