Turini, Francesco (EN)

Turini, Torrini Francesco, *1590 Prague, †10 June 1656 Brescia, Italian composer and organist, son of Gregorio. He studied under his father. From 1600 to 1612, he served as organist for Emperor Rudolf II’s court in Prague, with a break to study composition and organ performance in Rome and Venice. From 1612, he remained in the service of G.F. Morosini in Venice; from 1617 until the end of his life, he was organist at the cathedral in Brescia, where he was a member of the Accademia degli Erranti.

There are two distinct periods in Turini’s oeuvre; prior to 1624, the composer was very active in the field of secular music, but thereafter, due to his duties as a church organist, he focused on sacred compositions. Among his most outstanding works are small-voice madrigals, monodies, cantatas, and sonatas published in three collections of madrigals. These works represent an early example of the Venetian stile moderno; they are characterized by a developed concertante technique, contrast in form through the introduction of sections with different textures, meter, rhythm, and tempo, as well as melodic inventiveness.

Turini was the first composer to use the term “cantata” as a genre designation, but his solo works bearing this title are elaborate compositions in the stile recitativo, rather than the strophic variations favoured by other composers of his time, and far removed from the later recitative and aria forms.

Turini’s only published instrumental works are four sonatas, a sinfonia, a galliard a due and galliard a tre for two and three voices included in the first book of madrigals. They belong to an innovative movement pioneered by B. Marini, D. Castello, and G.B. Fontana. Two of the sonatas a tre are written in a style similar to that of the madrigals, one a due draws on the canzone, and one a tre constitutes the first example of variations based on the melody of E’ tanto tempo hormai, which was later used as the theme for similar arrangements by S. Rossi, G.B. Buonamente, and M. Uccellini; in the violin parts, Turini makes use of the specific capabilities of this instrument. In the masses for 4–5 voices with organ, the composer employs canonical and fugal techniques.

Literature: E. Schmitz Zur Geschichte des italienischen Continuo-Madrigals im 17. Jahrhundert, “Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft” XI, 1909/10 and Geschichte der weltlichen Solokantate, Leipzig 1914; J. Whenham Duet and Dialogue in the Age of Monteverdi, Ann Arbor 1982; W. Apel Die italienische Violinmusik im 17. Jahrhundert, Wiesbaden 1983, the expanded English edition titled The Italian Violin Music in the 17th Century, ed. Th. Binkley, Bloomington (Indiana) 1990; P. Allsop The Trio Sonata from Its Origins until Corelli, Oxford 1992; M. Ossi A sample problem of seventeenth-century imitatio: Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Turini, and Battista Guarini’s Mentre vaga Angioletta w: Music in Renaissance cities and courts: Studies in honor of Lewis Lockwood, eds. A. Cummings, J.A. Owens, Warren 1997; T. Jeż Kontrafaktury madrygałów w antologiach Ambrożego Profiusa, “Muzyka” 2002 No.  47; Ch. Stadelmann Italienische Komponisten am Kaiserhof Rudolfs II. in Prag w: Mitteleuropäische Aspekte des Orgelbaus und der geistlichen Musik in Prag und den böhmischen Ländern, ed. J. Černý, K.-P. Koch, Sinzig 2002.