Priuli, Giovanni (EN)

Priuli, Prioli, Giovanni, *ca. 1575 Venice, †July 1626 Schottwien am Semmering (Austria), Italian composer and organist. From 1587, he was a musician at San Marco and probably a pupil of G. Gabrieli, whom he often replaced as organist in the years 1600–07 at the Basilica of San Marco and in 1609 and 1612 at the Church of San Rocco in Venice. In 1604, he was probably in the service of Livia della Rovere, Duchess of Urbino, who resided in that city. Between June 1614 and February 1615, he was Kapellmeister at the court of Archduke Ferdinand in Graz, and after Ferdinand’s coronation as emperor in 1619, he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Habsburg court in Vienna, a position he held until the end of his life.

Priuli is a representative of the Venetian school. In his polychoral motets from both books of Sacrorum concentuum and in his 8-9-voice masses with instruments, he clearly refers, mainly in terms of texture and counterpoint, to the experiences of G. Gabrieli in his Sacrae symphoniae. Priuli’s best works include the small-scale motets published in anthologies, which are examples of his skillful and individual use of concertato and monodic techniques. The composer clearly avoids overly expressive interpretations of the text in these works; even in the monodies from the anthology Ghirlanda Sacra (1625), the solo voice part is sparingly ornamented, and chromaticism and dissonance are discreetly masked. The four-part a cappella masses from the 1624 collection dedicated to Pope Urban VIII are kept in the stile antico. In the 6-12-voice canzonas and sonatas published in both collections of Sacrorum concentuum, Priuli departs from the austerity of Gabrieli’s counterpoint, avoids metrical contrasts, and often uses changes in tempo (tardo-presto) and dynamics (forte-piano). In his madrigal works, published in five collections, Priuli followed the path paved by C. Monteverdi, also using similar texts – by G.B. Marina, G.B. Guarini, G. Chiabrera, and O. Rinuccini. The first two books contain only 5-part polyphonic a cappella madrigals, book 3 contains both a cappella and basso continuo pieces, and starting with Musiche concertate, the composer cultivated only madrigal concertato for 1–10 voices with instruments. Many madrigals are in the canzonetta style.

Literature: A. Biales Giovanni Priuli’s „Sacrorum Concentuum pars prima” (1618), “Analecta musicologica” XII, 1973; E. Selfridge-Field Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi, Oxford 1975, 31994; S. Saunders Giovanni Priuli’s „Missa sine nomine”and the Legacy of G. Gabrieli, “The Journal of Musicological Research” XIV, 1994; T. Jeż Kontrafaktury madrygałów w antologiach Ambrożego Profiusa, “Muzyka” 2002 no. 47; M. Kokole Echoes of Giovanni Gabrieli’s style in the territories between Koper and Graz in the first quarter of the seventeenth century in: Giovanni Gabrieli: Transmission and reception of a Venetian musical tradition, eds. R. Baroncini, D. Bryant, L. Collarile, Brepols 2016; H. Seifert Giovanni Gabrieli’s pupils at the Habsburg courts and the influence of his music in Austria, “Musica Iagellonica” V, 2017.