Ingegneri, Marc’ Antonio (EN)

Ingegneri, Ingegnieri, Ingignieri, Ingignero, Inzegneri, Inzigneri, Marc’ Antonio, *ca. 1547 Verona †1 July 1592 Cremona, Italian composer. The composer’s family probably came from Venice, but his kinship with the poet Angelo I. and with the family of renowned organ builders has not been proven. He sang in the boys’ choir at Verona Cathedral. His teacher was probably V. Ruffo, who held the post of maestro di cappella at that cathedral from 1551. Before 1565, Ingegneri met Cipriano de Rore in Parma (as mentioned in the dedication in the book of 6-voice madrigals). From around 1570 (according to some music historians, from 1568), he resided in Cremona. He held the position of “musicis Cathedralis Ecclesiae Cremonensis praefectus” (as he is described on the title page of Sacrarum cantionum liber primus from 1576; this title appears in the cathedral accounts from 1578). From around 1580 until the end of his life, he was maestro di cappella at that cathedral; between 1582 and 1584, he was also maestro di cappella at the Church of Sant’Ambrogio in Genoa. He was a friend of Bishop Nicolo Sfondrato, later Pope Gregory XIV (1590/91), to whom he dedicated four volumes of sacred compositions between 1576 and 1591. Ingegneri was associated with the Accademia Filarmonica in Verona and the Accademia degli Animosi in Cremona. In 1582, he taught the then 15-year-old C. Monteverdi.

Ingegneri’s name is most often associated with C. Monteverdi; yet it is often forgotten that he himself was one of the leading composers of the last three decades of the 16th century in northern Italy. He composed many madrigals which – judging by the lack of further editions – were not particularly popular, as they were rather conservative for their time. These works must, however, have occupied a significant place in the repertoire of the time, since as late as 1623 the Duke of Modena ordered them to be purchased alongside the madrigals of C. Monteverdi and Sigismondo d’India. In his madrigals, Ingegneri drew upon the fundamental principle of C. de Rore’s madrigal, which involved attaching great importance to the words whilst maintaining the primacy of musical structure. He wrote madrigals to poems of average literary merit; the poetry of great writers rarely featured in them. He chose, especially for his earlier works, texts with a schematic structure, which he always adhered to in his musical setting. He did, however, create very fine works, and some of his ideas can be found in Monteverdi’s first book of madrigals. Ingegneri’s religious works complied with the requirements of the Church following the Council of Trent, though in the motets, the elaborate polyphonic structures make the text difficult to understand. In many of his works, the composer employed chant melodies, occasionally in the form of strict cantus firmus. The Liber sacrarum cantionum of 1589 contains motets with a richer instrumentation, allowing for the use of instruments; these include, amongst others, works for two and three choirs, with the latter featuring one six-voice choir and one four-voice choir. Ingegneri’s masses are of modest scale; they are characterised by a syllabic treatment of the text and an avoidance of repetition; nota contra notam counterpoint predominates. According to P. Wagner, this approach to achieving conciseness is characteristic of masses in northern Italy at the end of the 16th century. One of the masses from 1573 is based on the well-known chanson Susanne un jour. The remaining masses from this collection and from the subsequent collection are based on chant or are entirely the composer’s own invention. Ingegneri’s best-known sacred compositions are the Responsoria (27 pieces) intended for Holy Week. For many years they were attributed to Palestrina, until 1898, when F.X. Haberl discovered their original edition from 1588. These are four-voice works, always with a three-voice versus (CCA), except for one responsory in which the versus is two-part (CC). The superb nota contra notam counterpoint, which produces chordal textures often combined in very interesting ways, perfectly captures the deep, poignant texts in the musical fabric. It is precisely thanks to these works that Ingegneri occupies a prominent place in the history of music as a composer, and not merely as C. Monteverdi’s teacher.

Literature: F.X. Haberl M. Ingegneri. Eine bio-bibliographische Studie, – “Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch” XIII, 1898: P. Wagner Geschichte der Messe, Leipzig 1913, reprint 1963; J. Tiersot Pour le centenaire de Palestrina. Les répons de la Semaine-Sainte, “Rivista Musicale Italiana” XXXII, 1925; R. Casimiri “XXVII Responsoria” di MA. Ingegnari attribuiti a Giov. Pierluigi da Palestrina, «Note d’Archivio per la storia» III, 1926; E. Dohrn M.A. Ingegneri als Madrigal Komponist, Hanower 1936 (contains a list of madrigals); A. Einstein The Italian Madrigal, Princeton 1949, reprint 1970; E. Santoro C. Monteverdi note biografiche con documenti, Cremona 1967; D. Arnold Monteverdi and His Teachers in: The Monteverdi Companion, ed. D.M. Arnold and N. Fortune, London 1968, revised edition titled The New Monteverdi Companion, London 1985; M.L. Duggan M.A. Ingegneri. Motets for Four and Five Voices, thesis University of Rochester 1968 (contains transcriptions of all motets from 1576 and 1586).