Everything about Franchinus Gaffurius totally explained
Franchinus Gaffurius (
Franchino Gaffurio) (
January 14,
1451 –
June 25,
1522) was an
Italian music theorist and composer of the
Renaissance. He was an almost exact contemporary of
Josquin des Prez and
Leonardo da Vinci, both of whom were his personal friends. He was one of the most famous musicians in Italy in the late
15th and early
16th centuries.
Life
He was born in
Lodi to an aristocratic family. Early in life he entered a
Benedictine monastery, where he acquired his early musical training; later he became a
priest. Later he lived in
Mantua and
Verona before settling in
Milan as the
maestro di cappella at the cathedral there, a position which he accepted in January
1484.
During the previous decade the
Sforza family, using the composer
Gaspar van Weerbeke as a recruiter, had built the choir at their chapel in Milan into one of the largest and most distinguished musical ensembles in Europe: composer-singers such as
Alexander Agricola,
Loyset Compère and
Johannes Martini had all been employed there. While the membership of the choir at the Milan cathedral was mostly Italian, the cross-influence between his choir and the group at the Sforza chapel was significant. Gaffurius retained the post at the cathedral for the rest of his life, and it was in Milan that he knew both Josquin des Prez and Leonardo da Vinci.
Writings
Gaffurius was widely read, and showed a strong
humanist bent. In addition to having a thorough understanding of contemporary musical practice, he met composers from all over Europe, since he'd the good fortune to be living and working at one of the centers of activity for the incoming
Netherlanders. His books have a pedagogical intent, and provide a young composer with all the techniques necessary to learn his art.
The major treatises of his years in Milan are three:
Theorica musicae (
1492),
Practica musicae (
1496), and
De harmonia musicorum instrumentorum opus (
1518). The second of these, the
Practica musicae, is the most thorough, proceeding through subjects as diverse as ancient Greek notation,
plainchant,
mensuration,
counterpoint, and
tempo. One of his most famous comments is that the
tactus, the tempo of a
semibreve, is equal to the pulse of a man who is breathing quietly—presumably about 72 beats per minute.
Music
Gaffurius wrote
masses,
motets, settings of the
Magnificat, and
hymns, mainly during his Milan years. Some of the motets were written for ceremonial occasions for his ducal employer; many of the masses show the influence of Josquin, and all are in flowing Netherlandish
polyphony, though with an admixture of Italian lightness and melody. His music was collected in four codices under his own direction.
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