Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Negri [Negro], Giulio Santo Pietro de’ [Del Negro, Giulio Santo Pietro]

(b Milan; fl 1607–20). Italian composer. He seems to have spent most of his life in Milan, though he may briefly have lived at Lecce, at the opposite end of Italy, since his op.5 includes an occasional piece celebrating an event there. He was probably of independent means and, as a composer, an amateur. However, he may have had advice from Ghizzolo, who worked in Milan from 1610 to 1613: certainly the two men seem to have moved in similar circles, for they dedicated individual songs to the same men, for one of whom, a bass, Negri wrote two florid songs headed ‘basso alla bastarda’ (they are in op.5). His op.11 suggests that he belonged to an academy.

Negri is one of the most interesting minor composers of vocal chamber music in early 17th-century Italy. At least five volumes of his music are lost, but from what survives it is clear that by 1613 he had enthusiastically embraced the new monodic and concertato styles, and three of his publications proclaim in their titles the word ‘moderna’. In the madrigals of his opp.5 and 8, which form the bulk of their contents of 29 monodies, 25 duets and six trios, he displayed the dilettante’s typical disregard of convention and at the same time some uncertainty in handling the unconventional progressions he clearly sought. Yet a number of dissonances and surprising harmonic juxtapositions, prompted by the words, are very effective: there are good examples in Langue e spira and Tu vai? tu fuggi (in op.8). He also shows a strong sense of tonality, especially through the use of sequences, as in A voi, rosa vermiglia (in op.5), and there are several passages of fine declamation, e.g. the opening of Ove ne vai, cor mio in op.8. His light strophic songs are less rewarding, though Ama, pur, ninfa gradita (op.5) is notable for an early use of a refrain. His choice of texts is refreshingly original: possibly he wrote some himself, and others may have been by dedicatees (one of whom wrote two commendatory poems for op.8). He re-used for Non più star muta (op.8) the music of the scherzo Vago augel in op.5.

WORKS

all other works lost

Gli amorosi pensieri: canzonette, villanelle et arie napolitane, 3vv, libro 2 (Venice, 1607)

Il terzo libro dell’amorose canzonette, 3vv, op.4 (Venice, 1607)

Grazie ed affetti di musica moderna, 1–3vv, op.5 (Milan, 1613); facs. in ISS, iv; 1 ed. in Leopold

Secondo libro delle grazie ed affetti di musica moderna, 1–3vv, op.8 (Venice, 1614)

Musica ecclesiastica concertata alla moderna, 2–3vv, op.9 (Milan, 1616)

Canti accademici concertati, 2–6vv, op.11 (Venice, 1620)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FortuneISS

J. Whenham: Duet and Dialogue in the Age of Monteverdi (Ann Arbor, 1982)

G. Tomlinson, ed.: introduction to ISS, iv, pp.xiii–xiv

S. Leopold: Al modo d'Orfeo: Dichtung und Musik im italienischen Sologesang des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts, AnMc, no.29 (1995)

NIGEL FORTUNE

Negri, Ippolito Chamatterò di.

See Chamaterò, Ippolito.

Negri, Marc’Antonio

(b Verona; d Veglia [now Krk, Croatia], Oct 1624). Italian composer. He was appointed a singer and vicemaestro di cappella at S Marco, Venice, on 22 December 1612 with a salary of 80 ducats. In 1616 the doge appointed him abbot of a monastery at Veglia, off the Dalmatian coast, after which he was excused from attendance at S Marco on ferial days and lesser festivals; he resigned his position there on 30 April 1619. Before arriving in Venice he published two books of Affetti amorosi (Venice, 1608; 1611/R 1986 in ISS, v), the first for three voices, the second for one, two and five voices, both with continuo. Negri enthusiastically embraced the poetry of Giambattista Marino; all but two texts in his second publication can be ascribed to this author. Negri’s music for solo voice contains occasional affective chromaticism and extended cadential embellishments within an overall canzonetta-like style in which the bass and vocal lines tend to move together; the rhythmic motifs are similar to those found in polyphonic canzonettas of the era rather than in the declamatory monodies issuing from Florence. In his five-part madrigals Negri effectively exploited solo and duet textures made possible by the sustaining continuo. Included in the second book of Affetti are three sonatas for two violins and continuo and five sinfonias, with the same scoring, which punctuate a pastoral dialogue. These are contrapuntal and harmonically simple; the final sonata, employing ornamented triadic motifs and reiterated semiquavers over static harmony, is reminiscent of battaglia pieces of the previous century. Negri also published two books of sacred music, Il primo libro delli salmi a sette voci (Venice, 1613), and Cantica spiritualia in missis, et vesperis solennibus (Venice, 1618). In his treatment of cori spezzati in the former work Negri followed the example of Viadana’s Salmi (Venice, 1612), in which a choir of solo voices contrasted with a ripieno second choir with more than one voice to a part. This procedure coincided with standard performing practice at S Marco.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CaffiS

R. Miller: The Composers of San Marco and Santo Stefano and the Development of Venetian Monody (to 1630) (diss., U. of Michigan, 1993)

ROARK MILLER