Baldassare Donato
Baldassare Donato (also
Donati) (
1525-
1530 – June
1603) was an
Italian composer and singer of the
Venetian school of the late
Renaissance. He was
maestro di cappella of the prestigious
St. Mark's Basilica at the end of the
16th century, and was an important figure in the development of Italian light secular music, especially the
villanella.
Details of his early life are unavailable; it is not even known where he was born. The first record of Donato is as a singer at St. Mark's in Venice in
1550, and he was given charge of the musical training of the boys there in
1562. When Gioseffo Zarlino took over the post of
maestro di cappella from
Cipriano de Rore in
1565, Donato was demoted back to being a singer; conflict between the two men seems to have been a feature of life at St. Mark's, culminating in a climactic fight in
1569, publicly and scandalously, during the Feast of St. Mark. In
1577 Donato took a position at the Scuola Grande di S Rocco, another Venetian church with an impressive musical tradition and substantial performing ensemble; however he failed to get along with his employers there as well, resigning by
1580. In
1588 he became assistant
maestro di cappella at St. Mark's, while Zarlino was still alive (whether because of reconcilement or politics is not clear), and in
1590 he took over the post of his former antagonist, holding it until his death in
1603.
Donato represented a progressive trend in the Venetian school, which was already a progressive tradition compared to the other major contemporary Italian musical styles (especially as compared to the
Roman School). The progressive trend in the Venetian school was represented by composers such as Donato,
Giovanni Croce, and
Andrea and
Giovanni Gabrieli; the conservative trend involved composers and theorists such as Zarlino,
Cipriano de Rore, and
Claudio Merulo, who tended to follow the
Franco-Flemish style which was predominant most everywhere else in Europe until after mid-century.
Donato's sacred music is the most conservative portion of his output, usually using
polyphony in the
Palestrina style, but also using some of the grand polychoral effects of the Gabrielis. In spite of his evident disdain for Zarlino's conservatism, he clearly absorbed some of his style and teaching, as can be seen in his smooth mastery of counterpoint and Zarlinoesque use of dissonance, at least when he was deliberately composing in the Franco-Flemish style.
Probably his greatest significance to music history is in the development of a light secular form known as the
villanella, a lighter form of
madrigal, of
Neapolitan origin. Some of these pieces may have been intended for dancing, and they were evidently popular. They are similar to the French
chanson, often have a memorable melody in the topmost part, contain vigorous cross-rhythms, and avoid the
polyphonic and
chromatic complexity of the mid-century madrigal.
Donato also wrote madrigals in a more serious style, as well as
psalm settings,
motets, and ceremonial music.
* Article "Baldassare Donato", in
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
*
Gustave Reese,
Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304
*
Eleanor Selfridge-Field,
Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi. New York, Dover Publications, 1994. ISBN 0486281515 (Note: while this book contains nothing on Donato, it has detailed and readable background on the Venetian school and associated activity at St. Mark's.)
*
Account of early history of St. Mark's
