Rocco Rodio (c. 1535 – 1607) was an Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and theorist, best known for his sacred works and keyboard

ricercar A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb which means 'to search out; to seek'; many ricercars serve a preludial funct ...

es.

Biography

He was born in

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Ital ...

and apparently led a cosmopolitan life, at some point working at the Polish court, and then possibly settling in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

. Popular among his colleagues, Rodio was a member of

Carlo Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ( – 8 September 1613) was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century ...

's academy at Naples, organized a ''Camerata di Propaganda per l'Affinamento del Gusto Musicale'' together with other Neapolitan musicians, and also probably cultivated connections with Polish and Spanish composers. Rodio's work, both in music and in music theory, was progressive for its time and shows a competent composer. His treatise ''Regole di musica'' circulated widely both in Italy and outside its borders. Rodio's ''Libro primo di ricercate'' (1575) is the earliest surviving keyboard music notated in score. It contains five

s and four

fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcor ...

s, all marked with a highly individual harmonic language. This print, together with Antonio Valente's ''Intavolatura de cimbalo'', represents the earliest works of the so-called Neapolitan school, to which later important composers such as

Ascanio Mayone Ascanio Mayone (ca. 1565 – 1627) was a Neapolitan composer and harpist. He trained as a pupil of Giovanni de Macque in Naples, and worked at Santissima Annunziata Maggiore there as organist from 1593 and ''maestro di cappella'' from 1621; ...

and Giovanni Maria Trabaci belonged.

List of works

Music

* ''Missarum decem liber primus'', masses for 4–6 voices (Rome, 1562) * ''Libro primo di ricercate'', keyboard works (Naples, 1575) * ''Il secondo libro di madrigali'', madrigals for 4 voices (Venice, 1587) * ''Duetti'' (1589), lost * ''Il primo libro di madrigali'', lost * canzonas, motets, and other pieces in manuscript copies

Writings

* ''Regole di musica di Rocco Rodio sotto brevissime risposte ad alcuni dubij propostigli da un cavaliero, intorno alle varie opinioni de contrapontisti con la dimostratione de tutti i canoni sopra il canto fermo'' (Naples, 1600)

References

* Apel, Willi. 1972. ''The History of Keyboard Music to 1700''. Translated by Hans Tischler. Indiana University Press. . Originally published as ''Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700'' by Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodio, Rocco Composers for pipe organ Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Renaissance composers People from Bari Year of death unknown Year of birth uncertain