Girolamo Cavazzoni

Biography

Girolamo (Hieronimo) Cavazzoni (c. 1525 – after 1577) was an Italian organist and composer, son of Marco Antonio Cavazzoni. Little is known about his life except that he worked at Venice and Mantua, and published two collections of organ music. These collections only contain music written before about 1549, but are of high quality, and established the traditional form of imitative ricercars and canzonas.

Life

Practically nothing is known about Cavazzoni's life. The approximate year of his birth can be surmised from his remarks in the preface to Intavolatura libro primo, the first collection of his music to be published. The volume was printed in Venice in 1543, and Cavazzoni informs the reader in the preface that he is "not much more than a boy" (anchor quasi fanciullo), which indicates Cavazzoni was around 17 at the time. Cavazzoni's reputation must have been considerably high already at that time, since he was able to secure a privilege from the Venetian council to publish this collection. The second collection of Cavazzoni's music, Intabulatura d'organo, carries no publication date (it appeared somewhere between 1543 and 1549) and contains no biographical details.
By 1552 Cavazzoni may have been working in Urbino, and from 1565 to 1566 he supervised the building of the organ in the court church of S Barbara in Mantua. The composer was apparently on good terms with Guglielmo X Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and worked as organist at S Barbara. The last known mention of Cavazzoni is from 1577, naming him as organist of that church.

List of works

Intavolatura cioe recercari, canzoni, himni, magnificat [...] libro primo (Venice, 1543)
Ricercar I
Ricercar II
Ricercar III
Ricercar IV
Canzon sopra Il est bel et bon
Canzon sopra Faultre d'argent
Christe redemptor omnium
Ad coenam agni providi
Lucis creator optime
Ave maris stella
Magnificat primi toni
Magnificat octavi toni
Intavolatura d'organo, cioe misse, himni, magnificat [...] libro secondo (Venice c.1543–1549)
Missa Apostolorum
Missa Dominicalis
Missa de Beata Virgine
Veni creator Spiritus
Pange lingua gloriosi
Exsultet coelum laudibus
Iste confessor
Jesu nostra redemptio
Jesu corona virginum
Deus tuorum militum
Hostis Herodis impie
Magnificat quarti toni
Magnificat sexti toni
2 ensemble ricercares à 4 (1540) and à 3 (1551)

Editions

Girolamo Cavazzoni: Orgelwerke, Oscar Mischiati (Mainz: Schott, 1959–1961)