Francesco Soriano

Francesco Soriano (* 1548 or 1549 in Soriano nel Cimino near Viterbo, † July 19, 1621 in Rome ) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He was an important member of the Roman School in the first generation after Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Life and work

Francesco Soriano already studied as a boy in the Lateran Basilica in Rome, among others, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, was ordained a priest in the 1570s, and by 1580 he was maestro di cappella at San Louis of the French, also in Rome. 1581 he moved to Mantua, where he accepted a position at the court of the Gonzaga; 1586 he returned to Rome, where he was the rest of his life working as a choirmaster in three different churches, including as head of the Cappella Giulia at St. Peter's Basilica. In 1620 he went into retirement.

Soriano worked with Felice Anerio as part of the Counter-Reformation in the revision of the Roman Gradual (Editio Medicaea ); this work was not - as is often assumed - or at least not primarily by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina performed.

Stylistically similar to Francesco Soriano's music to that of Palestrina, but has some influences of the prevailing around the turn of the century development. He acquired an antiphonal style, giving priority to retaining the soft polyphonic nature of Palestrina, and he had a preference for a homophonic compositional technique, which makes it the listener easier to understand a sung text.

He wrote masses, motets ( some for eight voices ), Psalms ( a collection that was published in 1616 in Venice, is written for twelve voices and basso continuo), versions of the Passion according to all four evangelists, Marian antiphons and several Madrigal books. The versions of his passions are important precursors of the more popular versions of the Baroque period, such as Johann Sebastian Bach; they are composed in a restrained but dramatic style and have a descriptive character. In a sense, they represent the precursor of Baroque oratorio is, are lined up in the solo singing, choral singing and instrumental pieces, are in the style of Palestrina, however, closer than the compositions of the Baroque.