Donato, Baldassare (EN)

Donato, Donati, Baldassare, Baldissera, *ca. 1530, †17 February 1603 Venice, Italian composer and vocalist. He worked at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, where, from at least 1546, he was a singer in the choir led by Adrian Willaert, and later by Ciprian de Rore and Gioseffo Zarlino. In 1547, he was entrusted with copying Willaert’s works and with the rather unusual task of ensuring that Willaert composed new pieces for the choir.  In 1588, he was appointed deputy maestro di cappella, and shortly thereafter, following Zarlino’s death in 1590, he became maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s Church, a position he held for the remainder of his life. In addition, from 1562 he also directed other Venetian ensembles: initially the so-called “small chapel,” which performed at St Mark’s on weekdays and supported the main chapel, an activity that lasted only three years, until 1565; from 1577 he briefly directed the ensemble at the Church of St Roch. Between 1588 and 1596, he was also a singing teacher at the Venetian seminary.

Donato’s oeuvre consists primarily of secular genres: madrigals and villanelles. His sacred music, on the other hand, includes fairly conservative motets and a few laude and psalm arrangements. The collection of motets published in Venice in 1599 shows the influence of both Adrian Willaert’s style and the later music of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. Four compositions are intended for two four-part choirs, usually singing alternately in chordal texture; one of them uses an echo effect. In the 11 six-part motets, the composer also often divides the ensemble into groups that engage in dialogue with one other. In the 20 five-part motets, there is greater independence in the melodic line and greater use of imitative technique. Donato’s madrigals likewise draw on the models of Willaert and Cipriano de Rore, under whose influence the composer worked in Venice. Le napollitane et alcuni madrigali published in Venice in 1550 and later reprinted as Il primo libro de canzon villanesche alla napolitana, are simple arrangements of often witty texts; they belonged to the favourite repertoire of popular music in the second half of the 16th century.

Literature:  F. Caffi Storia della musica nella già cappella ducale di San Marco in Venezia dal 1318 al 1797, Venice 1854–5, reprint 1931, Florence 1987; A. Einstein The Italian Madrigal, Princeton 1949, reprint 1970; E. Rosand Music in the Myth of Venice, “Renaissance Quarterly” XXX, 1977; R. Edwards An Expanded Musical and Social Context for Andrea Gabrieli. New Documents, New Perspectives and J.E. Glixon Music at the Scuole in the Age of Andrea Gabrieli, in: Andrea Gabrieli e il suo tempo, ed. F. Degrada, Florence 1987; M. Feldman City Culture and the Madrigal at Venice, Berkeley 1995; E. Quaranta Oltre San Marco: Organizzazione e prassi della musica nelle chiese di Venezia nel Rinascimento, Florence 1998; J.A. Owens A Collaboration Between Cipriano de Rore and Baldissera Donato?, in: Historical Musicology: Sources, Methods, Interpretations, ed. S.A. Crist and R. Montemorra Marvin, Rochester 2004.