Striggio, Alessandro (EN)

Striggio, Striggi, Striggia, Alessandro, *1536 or 1537 Mantua, †29 February 1592 Mantua, Italian composer and virtuoso of string instruments. He was the illegitimate son of a Mantuan nobleman, but in 1547 he was recognized by his father as his principal heir, gaining considerable financial independence. In the 1550s, he became known as an outstanding violist, performing at the court of the Gonzaga in Mantua, with which he later maintained regular contact. In 1559, he was engaged at the Florentine court of Cosimo I de’ Medici. Almost 50 of his works from 1560 have been preserved in two books, one of which was published three times that year (the literature mistakenly refers to the 1558 edition). In the 1560s and 1570s, he created musical settings for ceremonies at the Medici court. A performance of his 40-voice motet by an ensemble conducted by Orlando di Lasso enhanced the wedding celebrations of the Duke of Bavaria in Munich in 1568, while a 12-voice madrigal marked the coronation of the Medici as Grand Duke of Tuscany (Rome, 1570). He amazed audiences with his playing on bowed string instruments, including the 18-string lirone, on which he performed four-voice textures. In 1567, after traveling through Austria and Bavaria (which he visited again in 1574) and France, Striggio stayed at the English court. On 20 June 1571, he married Virginia Vagnoli, a renowned singer, lutenist, and violist. In 1584 and 1585, he traveled to Ferrara at the invitation of Alfonso II d’Este, from where, in letters to Florence, he enthusiastically described the distinctive style of the concerto delle donne ensemble. In April 1587 (not 1586), he moved with his family to Mantua, where he lived as a guest of the Gonzaga court for the rest of his life. He left only once, in 1589, to travel to Florence and take part as a performer in the wedding celebrations of Grand Duke Ferdinando.

The son of Striggio and V. Vagnola, Alessandro (II, Alessandrino, *1573? Mantua, †8 June 1630 Venice), performed on the viola, collected and published three books of his father’s madrigals, and wrote librettos (three preserved, with music by C. Monteverdi and M. da Gagliano, performed in Mantua in 1607 and 1608, published in: A. Solerti Gli albori del melodramma, Milan 1904, reprinted in Hildesheim 1969, vol. 3). At the same time, after studying law, he served as secretary to the Duke of Mantua from 1611 and as chancellor from 1628; he also held important diplomatic positions and was successively awarded the titles of count and marquis.

There are two trends in Striggio’s work. In the majority of the 133 completely preserved 4-6-voice works (including 2-7-voice works), Striggio continued the traditional madrigal style of A. Williart and C. de Rore, avoiding even the bolder solutions of Cipriano (e.g., chromaticism); they are characterized by excellent mastery of the compositional craft, a clear connection between the music and the content and form of the text, and lyrical or dramatic expressiveness. Thanks to these features, Striggio’s music gained enormous popularity among his contemporaries; one of the most frequently reprinted and copied madrigals was Nasce la pena mia, which, in the form of a contrafactum Diligam te, Domine, became, among other things, the basis for a piece by A. Jarzębski. Striggio’s multi-part musical genre scenes: Il cicalamento… (‘women chatting while doing the washing’) and La caccia (‘the hunt’), formerly considered to be among the earliest examples of madrigal comedy, are now regarded as the Italian equivalent of the French illustrative chanson. Musicologists are particularly interested in works from the second, innovative trend, i.e. the few surviving or reconstructable pieces (medium and large-scale works, especially vocal-instrumental ones) from intermedi, which were the preliminary stage of dramma per musica. Much attention has also been devoted to Striggio’s surviving letters, which are an interesting source of information about music and musical life in the second half of the 16th century.

Literature: P. Canal Della musica in Mantova, Venice 1881; A. Bertolotti Musici alla corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal secolo XV al XVIII, Mediolan 1890; U. Angeli Notizie per la storia del teatro a Firenze nel secolo XVI, specialmente circa gli intermezzi, Modena 1891; A. Solerti Musica, ballo e drammatica alla corte medicea dal 1600 al 1637, Florence 1905; O. Sonneck A Description of Alesssandro Striggio and Francesco Corteccias intermedi “Psyche and Amor” 1565, “Musical Antiquary” III, 1911-12, reprint in: O. Sonneck Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Music, New York 1921, reprint New York 1968; R. Gandolfi Lettere inedite scritte da musicisti e letterati, appartenanti alla seconda metà del secolo XVI, “Rivista Musicale Italiana” XX, 1913; M. Schneider Die Anfänge des Basso continuo und seiner Bezifferung, Leipzig 1918; A. Einstein Firenze prima della monodia, “Rassegna Musicale” VII, 1934; F. Ghisi Feste musicali della Firenze medicea (1480-1589), Florence 1939; F. Ghisi Alle fonti della monodia, Milan 1940; A. Einstein The Italian Madrigal, Princeton 1949; N. Fortune A Florentine Manuscript and its Place in Italian Song, “Acta musicologica” XXIII, 1951; L. Schrade Les fêtes du mariage de Francesco dei Medici et de Bianca Cappello, in: Les fêtes de la Renaissance, vol. 1, Royaumont 1955; R.J. Tadlock Alessandro Striggio, Madrigalist, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XI, 1958; R.J. Tadlock The Early Madrigals of Alessandro Striggio, thesis, University of Rochester, 1958; A.M. Nagler Theatre Festivals of the Medici, 1539–1637, New Haven 1964; W. Elders The Lerma Codex: a Newly-Discovered Choirbook from Seventeenth-Century Spain, “Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis” XX, 1967; W. Osthoff Theatergesang und darstellende Musik in der italienischen Renaissance, 2 vol., Tutzing 1969 (in vol. 2 Striggio’s eight-voice madrigal from an intermedio, 1565); M. Perz Rękopiśmienne partesy olkuskie, “Muzyka” XIV, 1969; H.M. Brown Psyche’s Lament. Some Music for the Medici Wedding in 1565 (includes a reconstruction of the madrigal Fuggi speme mia for vocal solo and nine instruments), in: Words and Music: The Scholar’s View. A Medley of Problems and Solutions Compiled in Honor of A. Tillman Merritt, ed. L. Berman, Cambridge 1972; H.M. Brown Sixteenth-Century Instrumentation. The Music for the Florentine Intermedii, «Musicological Studies and Documents» XXX, 1973; J. Haar Madrigals from Three Generations: The MS Brussels, Bibil. du Conservatoire Royal, 27.751, “Rivista Italiana di Musicologia” X, 1975; D.S. Butchart The Madrigal in Florence, 1560–1630, thesis, University of Oxford, 1979; A. Chodkowski Adama Jarzębskiego transkrypcje instrumentalne dzieł włoskich mistrzów, “Pagine” III, Krakow 1979; E. Durante and A. Martellotti Cronistoria del Concerto delle dame, Florence 1979; I. Fenlon Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua, 2 vol., Cambridge 1980; I. Fenlon and H. Keyte Memorials of Great Skill. A Tale of Five Cities, “Early Music” VIII, 1980; D.S. Butchart The Festive Madrigals of Alessandro Striggio, “Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association” CVII, 1980/81; A. Newcomb The Madrigal at Ferrara, 1579-1597, Princeton 1980; D.S. Butchart A Musical Journey of 1567: Alessandro Striggio in Vienna, Munich, Paris and London, “Music & Letters” LXIII, 1982; D.S. Butchart The First Published Compositions of Alessandro Striggio, “Studi Musicali” XII, 1983; W.V. Porter A Central Source of Early Monody: Brussels, Conservatory 704, “Studi musicali” XII, XIII, 1983, 1984; D.S. Butchart The Letters of Alessandro Striggio. An Edition and Commentary, “Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle” XXIII, 1990; W. Kirkendale The Court Musicians in Florence during the Principate of the Medici, Florence 1993; F. Piperno Diplomacy and Musical Patronage. Virginia, Guidobaldo II, Massimiliano II, “lo Streggino” and others, “Early Music History” XVIII, 1999; D. Maroney Alessandro Striggio’s Mass in Forty and Sixty Parts, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” LX, 2007; I. Cavallini Nuove riflessioni sul canone teatrale del madrigale drammatico, “Recercare” XXIII, 2011; M. Bizzarini and M.Privitera Competition, Cultural Geography, and Tonal Space in the Book of Madrigals L’amorosa Ero (1588), “Journal of Musicology” XXIX, 2012; A.M. Cummings On the testimony of fragments (or, Alessandro Striggio the Elder and the genesis of the genere concitato), “Studi musicali” IV, 2013; J. Baťa Remarks on the festivities of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Prague (1585), “Musicologica Brunensia” LI, 2016; C. Deutsch Lost in transcription: the “basse continuée” of Striggio’s Mass in 40 and 60 parts as evidence for continuo practice in early 17th-century France, “Early Music” XLV, 2017; C. Reynolds Alessandro Striggio’s Analysis of Cipriano de Rore’s Ancor che col partire, “Journal of the Alamire Foundation” IX, 2017.