Cortellini, Camillo (EN)

Cortellini Camillo, Camillo Violini, Il Violino, *24 January 1561 Bologna, †1630 Bologna, Italian composer, instrumentalist, and singer. He was the son of Gaspare Camillo, a musician in the Bolognese Signoria’s ensemble, the so-called Concerto Palatino. He received his musical training from A. Ganassi, the Kapellmeister of that ensemble. On 26 February 1577, he was hired by the Concerto Palatino as a cornetist and remained with the ensemble until the end of his life. In 1577, he was granted leave for a brief stay at the court of Mantua. Beginning in October 1593, Camillo was also engaged by the chapel of the Basilica of S. Petronia as a singer, and from 1600 as a cornetist; he held these positions (with a break from 1608 to May 1610) until his death. From 1601 to 1603, he was a singer in the church choir of S. Francesco. From 1585 to 1589, he is also said to have led the choir of the Cathedral of S. Pietro, though this information is not documented. As one of Bologna’s most distinguished musicians, he was a member of the Accademia dei Filomusi, founded in 1622 by G. Giacobbi. In 1627, the Bolognese Signoria commissioned him to compose the music for the traditional city festival “Festa della Porchetta.”

Cortellini’s sacred works, representing the early Bolognese polyphonic school, are of fundamental importance. Cortellini’s output in this area is not uniform; his early collections still exhibit Renaissance-style polyphonic characteristics (the publisher dedicated the second edition of the 1606 psalm collection to G.M. Artusi, a strict guardian of contrapuntal norms). Cortellini’s last two collections of concertante masses (from 1617 and 1626) are already written in the new style and include valuable guidelines regarding performance practice. This primarily involves the introduction of solo passages and passages featuring soloists with instruments alongside full-voice choruses and tutti sections. Giacobbi had already introduced such technical solutions in his psalms as early as 1609, while Cortellini was the first to introduce them into masses. This type of concertante writing allowed the composer to achieve a very strong differentiation of both timbre and dynamics throughout the piece, which was particularly characteristic of polyphonic technique in the first decades of the 17th century. All of Cortellini’s polyphonic compositions are intended for spatial performance; in the tutti passages, he carefully adheres to the principle of leading the bass voices in octave or unison harmonies. Cortellini’s madrigal works are conventional, stylistically adhering to the prima pratica. The composer does not yet introduce chromaticism here; dissonances are prepared and resolved in the correct manner. The imitative technique predominates, sometimes already simplified, generally syllabic, often declamatory with a narrow range, though Cortellini does not shy away from introducing small coloratura or ornamentation as well.

Literature: G. Gaspari De’ musicisti bolognesi nella seconda metà del secolo XVI, Modena 1877; F. Vatielli Il concerto palatino della signoria di Bologna, Bologna 1940; R. Dalmonte Cortellini Camillo madrigalista bolognese, Florence 1980; Z.M. Szweykowski Technika polichóralna, jej typy i przemiany, «Historia Muzyki XVII wieku. Muzyka we Włoszech», ed. Z.M. Szweykowski, vol. 2, Krakow 2000.