Andreas de Florentia, Magister Frater Andreas Horganista de Florentia, Frate Andrea dei Servi, Andrea Stefani (?), identified with Fra Andrea di Giovanni, †1415, Italian composer, organist and organ builder. From 1375, he belonged to the Order dei Servi di Maria (Servites); in the years 1380, 1387–88, 1390–92, and 1395–97, he was prior of the monastery of SS. Annunziata in Florence; in 1393, he served as prior in Pistoia; from 1402 to 1403, he was an advisor to the general of the order; in 1406, he was a vicar and in 1407–10, a provincial of the order in Tuscany. In 1378, he held the position of organist in the church of SS. Annunziata in Florence, where, together with F. Landini, he supervised the construction of organs. In 1387, he worked with Landini on the design of a new organ for the Cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence. Andreas de Florentia composed 30 ballate, including 18 two-voice and 12 three-voice. These works have been preserved in several manuscript sources, the most important of which is the so-called Codice Squarcialupi (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Codice Mediceo-Palatino 87), containing 29 ballate. In addition, ballate preserved in libraries in Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fonds ital. 568) and Modena (Biblioteca Estense, Ms. a.M.5.24, olim lat. 568) are attributed to him. In the ballate, the composer used Italian texts with amorous, polemical, moralising and satirical content. One of them was written by Matteo Griffoni from Bologna. Andreas de Florentio’s ballate are characterised by a smooth rhythmic progression. They feature imitations of short motifs, sometimes at the distance of a fifth, and also used as a hocket. Sometimes, they feature solo sections and in the final fragments, long melismas. In the 3-voice ballata Dal traditor, whose text is based on a theme from Le Roman de Fauvel, the composer used the canon technique in a manner typical of caccia, and in Astio non mori an exchange of voices over the ostinato repeated pes in the remaining voice. In the 3-voice pieces, French influences are quite strong, consisting in the use of instrumental accompaniment and differently cadenced sections (piedi). The work of Andreas de Florentio represents the late phase of the Italian trecento, in which the ballata gained predominance over the madrigal and the caccia.
Editions: 29 ballate in: Der Squarcialupi-Codex Pal. 87 der Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana zu Florenz, ed. J. Wolf, Lippstadt 1955; all ballate in: The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy, ed. N. Pirrotta, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae VIII, 5, Antwerp 1964.
Literature: R. Taucci Fra Andrea dei Servi, “Studi Storici sull’ Ordine dei Servi di Maria” II, 1934/35; E. Li Gotti La poesia musicale italiana del secolo XIV, Palermo 1944; A. Bonaccorsi Andrea Stefani, musicista dell’ “Ars Nova,” “La Rassegna Musicale Italiana” 1948; K. v. Fischer Studien zur italienischen Musik des Trecento und fruhen Quattrocento, Berno 1956; F.A. D’Accone A Documentary History of Music at the Florentine Cathedral and Baptistry in the Fifteenth Century, 2 volumes, Harvard University 1960; G. Reaney The Ms. Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds ital. 568, “Musica Disciplina” XIV, 1960. C. Williams Setting the Scene for Study of Andrea Firenze, “Miscellanea musicologica” XV, 1988.
