Massimo Troiano

Massimo Troiano († after April 1570) was an Italian composer, poet and rapporteur of life at the court of the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V of the years around 1568th

Life

About Troianos early years we know nothing except that he comes from the area of Naples, as he calls himself in the collections of his canzoni itself " Massimo Troiano Corduba di da Napoli ". This Corduba does not indicate the Spanish town, but on a relationship with Gonzalo de Córdova, Duke of Sessa, a small duchy in the vicinity of the then Spanish Naples.

Only his work in the years 1567-1570 has been handed down, but for some very detailed. In 1567 he published a collection of Treviso canzoni, secular songs with his own texts. At the beginning of 1568 he was in the service of the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V in Munich, where he worked as a singer in the court chapel under Orlando di Lasso. At least twice he moved between Munich and Venice, with a longer stay in Venice in 1569, where he was waiting for money and a Neuanstellung by the Duke of Bavaria. Until Easter 1570 he was back in Munich detectable when he a colleague, the Genoese Johann Baptista Romano, killed along with another singer in the court chapel and then fled from Bavaria. Although the Duke had particular search to the Italian courts, according to him, is about his life nothing is known.

1571 plunged Troiano Giovanni in Rome, just a few months after Massimo's disappearance from Munich. However, there is no evidence of a relationship between Giovanni and Massimo, except that both composers were secular vocal music. Giovanni died in 1622.

Works

Massimo Troiano has published four books with secular songs in three collections, in 1567, 1568 and 1570th However, he is primarily known for his Dialogues, a lively and colorful description of life at the Bavarian court, and especially the famous Royal Wedding of Crown Prince Wilhelm with Renata of Lorraine. Troianos Dialoghi were still printed in 1568 in Munich, published in Venice in 1569, and shortly thereafter in a Spanish translation. The book provides the clearest description of the musical productions of Orlando di Lasso. " The singer [ serve ] every morning at the Holy Mass on the Saturday Vespers and Matins before the great church festivals. The instruments are played on Sundays, and on holidays to Mass and Vespers together with the singers. " Troiano also describes unusual exactly how the Mass was celebrated, and which parts were sung polyphonically. This is valuable information for the reconstruction of the music of the Renaissance. Also a description of the performance of the greatest polyphonic composition of the Renaissance, the 40 - and 60 -voice Missa sopra Ecco sì beata giorno by Alessandro Striggio, from 1567 we have of Troiano.

Troianos own music belongs to the light Neapolitan style of canzon Villanesca alla napolitana. These songs are often referred canzonettas, three-part vocal compositions similar to madrigals, but of a lighter nature. All of his books were published in Venice, which makes it understandable that his works include both Neapolitan and Venetian elements. Most of his lyrics, he probably wrote himself, and in some he says wistfully of his native Naples.