Rognoni, Riccardo (EN)

Rognoni, Rogniono, Rognone, Rongione, Rongioni, Rognoni Taeggio, Rognoni Taegio, Riccardo, Richardo, Richardus, *ca. 1550 Val Taleggio, †before 20 April 1620 Milan (?), composer and instrumentalist. He came from a family of Italian musicians originating from Val Taleggio (province of Bergamo), active in Milan at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. For political reasons, he was forced to move to Milan, where from at least 1592 he was a respected musician in the chapel of the Spanish governor. He was the teacher of his sons, the founder of the Milanese violin school, and one of the first composers of violin canzonas.

Rognoni’s method book plays an important role in the development of instrumental technique; Part 1, presented in the form of systematically arranged exercises, sets out the main principles of ornamentation in singing and playing wind and string instruments, whilst Part 2 comprises diminutions of well-known vocal compositions.

Literature: G. Barblan I “Rognoni” musicisti milanesi tra il 1500 e il 1600, in Festschrift for A. van Hoboken, ed. J. Schmidt-Görg, Mainz 1962; M. Toffetti Per una bibliografia della canzone strumentale milanese, in: R. Giovannelli “musico eccellentissimo e forse il primo del suo tempo”, ed. C. Bongiovanni and G. Rostirolla, Palestrina 1998.