Viaggio Musicale - Italian Music of the 17th Century

Il Giardino Armonico, Milano

l Giardino Armonico was founded in 1985 by Giovanni Antonini (recorder), Paolo Beschi (cello) and Lorenzo Ghielmi (harpsichord), joined after a short time by the lutist Luca Pianca and the violinist Enrico Onofri, and brings together musicians from some of Europe’s leading music institutions, all of them specialized in performing on period instruments. The ensemble’s repertory is mainly focused on the 17th and 18th centuries. Depending on the demands of each programme, the group will consist of anywhere from 3 to 35 musicians.

Giovanni Antonini, recorder; Enrico Onofri, violin; Luca Pianca, archlute

http://www.ilgiardinoarmonico.com/

Dario Castello

Dario Castello  (c. 1590 – c. 1658) was an Italian composer and instrumentalist from the early Baroque period who worked and published in Venice.
Of his music, 29 separate compositions survive. Castello’s music is inventive and technically challenging. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dario_Castello

Giovanni Battista Fontana

Giovanni Battista Fontana (ca.1580/89 - ca.1630) was an Italian [Baroque] composer and violinist.

Nearly all information preserved about him comes from the preface of his posthumously published 18 (sometimes incorrectly stated 12) sonatas. They are among the earliest sonatas of this form, consisting of 6 sonatas for solo violin/cornetto with continuo and 12 sonatas for one to three violins and continuo, the latter group often including a demanding concertante part for bassoon or cello.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Fontana_(composer)

Tarquinio Merula

Tarquinio Merula (1594 or 1595 – 10 December 1665) was an Italian composer, organist, and violinist of the early Baroque era. Although mainly active in Cremona, stylistically he was a member of the Venetian school. He was one of the most progressive Italian composers of the early 17th century, especially in applying newly developed techniques to sacred music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarquinio_Merula

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (15 May 1567 (baptized) – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, singer and Roman Catholic priest.

Monteverdi’s work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the heritage of Renaissance polyphony and the new basso continuo technique of the Baroque. Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas, L’Orfeo, an innovative work that is the earliest surviving opera that is still regularly performed. He was recognized as an innovative composer and enjoyed considerable fame in his lifetime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudio_Monteverdi

Alessandro Piccinini

Alessandro Piccinini (30 December 1566  – ca. 1638), was an Italian lutenist and composer. He is best known for his two volumes of lute music: Intavolatura di Liuto et di Chitarrone, libro primo (Bologna, 1623) and Intavolaturo di Liuto (Bologna, 1639), the latter published posthumously by his son Leonardo Maria Piccinini.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Piccinini

Giovanni Battista Riccio

Giovanni Battista Riccio (late 16th century – after 1621) was a musician and composer of the early Baroque era, resident in Venice, most notable for his development of instrumental forms, particularly utilizing the recorder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Riccio

Salomone Rossi

Salamone Rossi or Salomone Rossi (ca. 1570 – 1630) was an Italian Jewish violinist and composer. He was a transitional figure between the late Italian Renaissance period and early Baroque.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomone_Rossi

Marco Uccellini

Uccellini was one of a line of distinguished Italian violinist-composers in the first half of the 17th century. His sonatas for violin and continuo contributed to the development of an idiomatic style of writing for the violin (including virtuosic runs, leaps, and forays into high positions), expanding the instrument’s technical capabilities and expressive range.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Uccellini

Giovanni Paolo Cima (c. 1570 – 1622) was an Italian composer and organist in the early Baroque era. He was a contemporary of Claudio Monteverdi and Girolamo Frescobaldi, though not as well known (then or now) as either of those men.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Paolo_Cima

Giovanni Battista Spadi - 17th century Italian composer

Biagio Marini

Biagio Marini (5 February 1594 – 20 March 1663) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer of the first half of the seventeenth century.

His works were printed and influential throughout the European musical world. Although he wrote both instrumental and vocal music, he is better known for his innovative instrumental compositions. He contributed to the early development of the string idiom by expanding the performance range of the solo and accompanied violin and incorporating slur, double and even triple stopping, and the first explicitly notated tremolo effects into his music. He was also among the first composers, after Marco Uccellini, to call for scordatura tunings. At least some, and perhaps a great deal, of his output is lost, but that which survives exhibits his inventiveness, lyrical skill, harmonic boldness, and growing tendency toward common practicetonality. In addition to his violin works, he wrote music for the cornet, bassoon, and trombone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biagio_Marini

Francesco Rognoni

Francesco Rognoni [of] Taeggio (born in Milan second half of the 16th century – died after 1626) was an Italian composer. He was active in Milan, but had connections with royalty from as far abroad as Archduke Charles of Austria, and King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland. Rognoni was a Papal Knight and hereditary Palatine Count. He published both collections of his works and treatises. His most famous work was Selva de varii passaggi, on both vocal and violin technique, and on how to ornament.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Rognoni