Tromboncino, Bartolomeo (EN)

Tromboncino Bartolomeo, *1470 Verona or vicinity, †after 1534 Venice or vicinity, Italian composer playing brass instruments, singer, and lutenist. He was the son of Bernardino Piffaro (playing woodwind instruments), working in Verona (not in Mantua). From at least 1489 onwards, he remained in Mantua in the service of Francesco II Gonzaga and, after 1490, of his wife Isabella d’Este. From there, he travelled to nearby cities, performing in Vicenza, Casale Monferrato and Milan in 1499, among others.  Although he was highly regarded by the royal couple and was pardoned for murdering his wife and her lover in 1499, Tromboncino left Verona twice without permission. In 1505, he moved to the court of Lucrezia Borgia, wife of Duke Alfonso I d’Este, in Ferrara. In 1511, he moved again, this time to the court of Cardinal Ippolito I d’Este, also in Ferrara. He probably accompanied the cardinal on a trip to Rome in 1513. In 1518, he rented a house in Venice, where he opened a school for female members of the nobility, probably for singing and lute playing, which operated successfully for many years. Documents confirm Tromboncino’s stay in the city in 1521 and 1530, and in a letter written in Vicenza in 1535 he expresses his intention to return.

Judging by the state of preservation of the frottola repertoire, Tromboncino was the most prolific composer in this field, with approximately 170 works to his name. He also made a breakthrough by turning to great literature, probably encouraged to do so by Princess Isabella. His arrangements of Petrarch’s poetry date back to 1507, and in later years he also drew on poems by Petrarch and Bembo, as well as the madrigals of Michelangelo, the ancient Latin of Horace and Ovid, and others. A. Einstein paid particular attention to the text of the latter, entitled Aspicias utinam, seeing an analogy with C. Monteverdi’s famous Lettera amorosa in terms of both subject matter and recomposed form. Above all, he noted the expressive shaping of the highest voice and bass line, which resembled basso continuo. However, the majority of Tromboncino’s frottole are popular barzelette, alongside which he composed strambotti, sonnets, odes, and others. As with the works of other frottola composers, the vast majority of these pieces are intended for four voices. However, there are many indications that they were also performed by a solo vocalist accompanied by various instruments, in accordance with 15th-century tradition. Traces of this tradition can be seen in the arrangements in F. Bossinensis’s collection and, perhaps more notably, in A. Antico’s collection from 1520. In contrast to the embellished organ intabulations from 1517, two voices are written for the lute without any changes. Tromboncino’s frottole and lauds are dominated by free polyphony, in which the outer voices play the main role, with the bass often providing a clear foundation for the chords, but the middle voices are conducted quite independently. Tromboncino’s frottole and lauds are dominated by free polyphony, in which the outer voices play a leading role, with the bass often providing a clear foundation for the chords. Whereas the middle voices are conducted quite independently. The chorale cantus firmus in Tromboncino’s lamentations is arranged in chords. In contrast, the cantus firmus in the odd verses of the canticle is counterpointed more independently, with a small amount of imitation (placed in the highest voice). Whereas in the cantus firmus – arranged only in the odd verses of the canticle – the counterpoint is treated more independently, with a small amount of imitation placed in the highest voice.

Literatura: P. Canal Della musica in Mantova, Venice 1881; S. Davari La musica a Mantova, “Rivista storica mantovana” I, 1885; R. Schwartz Die Frottole im 15. Jahrhundert, “Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft” II, 1886; A. Pirro Les “frottole” et la musique instrumentale, “Revue de musicologie” III, 1922; A. Einstein La prima “lettera amorosa” in musica, “La Rassegna Musicale Italiana” X, 1937, published in German under the title Der erste vertonte “Liebesbrief”, in: A. Einstein Nationale und universale Musik, Zurich 1958 (includes transcription Aspicias utinam); K. Jeppesen Eine musiktheoretische Korrespondenz des früheren Cinquecento, “Acta Musicologica” XIII, 1941; A. Einstein Andrea Antico’s “Canzoni nove” of 1510, “The Musical Quarterly” XXXVII, 1951 (includes the frottola by Tromboncino); G. Croll Zu Tromboncinos “Lamentationes Jeremiae”, “Collectanea historiae musicae” II, 1956/7; C. Gallico Un libro di poesia per musica dell’epoca d’Isabella d’Este, Mantua 1961; E.E. Lowinsky Tonality and Atonality in Sixteenth-century Music, Berkeley 1961; K. Jeppesen Über italienische Kirchenmusik in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhundert, “Studi musicali” III, 1962; C. Gallico Civiltà musicale mantovana intorno al 1500, in: Arte pensiero e cultura a Mantova nel primo Rinascimento: Florence, Venice and Mantua, Florence 1965; J. Gallucci Festival Music in Florence, ca. 1480–ca. 1520: Canti carnascialeschi, trionfi, and Related Forms, dissertation, Harvard University, 1966; W. Osthoff Theatergesang und darstellende Musik in der italienische Renaissance, Tutzing 1969; K. Jeppesen La frottola, vol. 3, Århus-Copenhagen 1968–70; W.E Prizer Performance Practices in the Frottola, “Early Music” III, 1975; F. Luisi Il secondo libro di frottole di Andrea Antico, vol. 2, Rome 1975–76 (in vols. 2–10 Tromboncino’s pieces); F. Luisi Le frottole per canto e liuto di Bartolomeo Tromboncino e Marchetto Cara nella edizione adespota di Andrea Antico, “Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana” X, 1976 (contains 3 Tromboncino’s pieces in versions for solo vocal with lute and for 4 voices); F. Luisi La musica vocale nel Rinascimento, Turin 1977; W.F. Prizer Courtly Pastimes: The Frottole of Marchetto Cara, Ann Arbor 1980; W.F. Prizer Lutenists at the Court of Mantua, “Journal of the Lute Society of America” XIII, 1980; W.F. Prizer Isabella d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia. The Frottola at Mantua and Ferrara, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXXVIII, 1985 (contains one piece by Tromboncino); J. Haar Essays on Italian Poetry and Music in the Renaissance, 1350–1600, Berkeley 1986; W.F. Prizer The Frottola and the Unwritten Tradition, “Studi musicali” XV, 1986; F. Luisi Frottole di Bartolomeo Tromboncino e Marchetto Cara “per cantar et sonar col lauto”, Rome 1987 (includes fac. and transc. of 6 pieces); G. Cattin Nomi di rimatori per la polifonia profana italiana del secondo Quattrocento, “Rivista Italiana di Musicologia” XXV, 1990; F. Brancacci Il sonetto nei libri di frottole di O. Petrucci (1504–1514), “Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana” XXV, XXVI, 1991, 1992; W.F. Prizer Games of Venus: Secular Vocal Music in the Late Quattrocento and Early Cinquecento, “Journal of Musicology” IX, 1991; W.F. Prizer Laude di popolo, laude di corte: Some Thoughts on the Style and Function of the Renaisssance Lauda, in: La musica a Firenze al tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico, ed. P. Gargiulo, Florence 1993; W.F. Prizer Renaissance Women as Patrons of Music: The North-Italian Courts, w: Rediscovering the Muses. Women’s Musical Traditions, ed. K. Marshall, Boston 1993; S. Lorenzetti “Quel celeste cantar che mi disface”: immagine della donna ed educazione alla musica nell’ideale pedagogico del Rinascimento italiano, “Studi musicali” XXIII, 1994; W.F. Prizer “Facciamo pure noi carnevale”: Non-Florentine Carnival Songs of the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries, in: Musica Franca. Essays in Honor of Frank A. D’Accone, ed. I. Alm, A. McLamore i C. Reardon, Stuyvesant 1996; W.F. Prizer Secular Music at Milan during the Early Cinquecento: Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio, MS Basevi 2441, “Musica Disciplina” L, 1996; W.F. Prizer Local Repertories and the Printed Book: Antico’s Third Book of Frottole (1513), in: Music in Renaisance Cities and Courts. Studies in Honor of Lewis Lockwood, ed. J.A. Owens i A.M. Cummings, Warren 1997; H.C. Slim Music in Majolica, in: Painting music in the sixteenth century: Essays in iconography, Burlington 2002; L. Boscolo Folegana “La prima volta si fa tutt’e due le pause e poi il sospir solo”. Bartolomeo Tromboncino e la frottola con ritornello sfasato nelle stampe petrucciane, “Musica e storia” XV, 2007; M. Dorigatti Dalla frottola al madrigale al melodramma: La tradizione musicale ariostesca, “Schifanoia” XXXVIII–XXXIX, 2010; R. Rastall The Secular Latin Motet in the Renaissance, Lewiston 2010; D. Sanders Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua, Lanham 2012; W.F. Prizer Popular piety in Renaissance Mantua: The lauda and flagellant confraternities, w: Qui musicam in se habet: Studies in Honor of Alejandro Enrique Planchart, ed. A. Zayaruznaya, B. J. Blackburn and S. Boorman, Middleton 2015; K. Schiltz A Companion to Music in Sixteenth-Century Venice, Lejda 2018; A. MacNeil “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”: Issues of Authorship, Performance, and Transcription in the Italian Frottola. “Italianist” XL, 2020.