Andrea Da Firenze
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Andreas de Florentia (also known as Andrea da Firenze, Andrea de' Servi, Andrea degli Organi and Andrea di Giovanni; died 1415) was a Florentine composer and
organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...
of the late
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
era. Along with
Francesco Landini Francesco Landini ( or 1335 – 2 September 1397; also known by many names) was a Florentine composer, poet, organist, singer and instrument maker, and a central figure of the music of the Trecento in the Italian peninsula. Name Frances ...
and Paolo da Firenze, he was a leading representative of the Italian ''
ars nova ''Ars nova'' ()Fallows, David. (2001). "Ars nova". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. refers to a musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of ...
'' style of the ''
Trecento The Trecento (, also , ; short for , "1300") refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history. The Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Italian Renaissance or at least the Proto-Renaissance in art history. The Trecento was als ...
'', and was a prolific composer of secular songs, principally '' ballate''.


Life

Since Andreas was a member of the
Servite The Servite Order, officially known as the Order of Servants of Mary (; abbreviation: OSM), is one of the five original mendicant orders in the Roman Catholic Church. It includes several branches of friars (priests and brothers), contemplative nun ...
religious order, whose records have largely survived intact, more is known about his life than is usually the case for fourteenth-century composers. He entered the order in 1375, though at what age is not known. One of his first activities within the order was to carry out a commission to build an organ for the Servite house in
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
, for which he hired
Francesco Landini Francesco Landini ( or 1335 – 2 September 1397; also known by many names) was a Florentine composer, poet, organist, singer and instrument maker, and a central figure of the music of the Trecento in the Italian peninsula. Name Frances ...
as a consultant. Among the surviving records are the receipts for the wine that the two consumed during the three days it took to tune the instrument. Evidently he and Landini were successful, for in 1387 Andreas received a similar commission to build an organ for
Florence Cathedral Florence Cathedral (), formally the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower ( ), is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Florence in Florence, Italy. Commenced in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed b ...
. A commission recorded in 1382 for a "Maestro Andrea" to build an organ in
Rieti Rieti (; , Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina region. T ...
, between Florence and
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, may have been his as well, but has not been conclusively identified. The two men were evidently close friends, from the evidence of their time together, as well as the references found in their music. Andreas was also active within his order as an administrator. In 1380 he became prior of the Florentine Servite monastery, SS Annunziata; in 1393 he took on the additional role of
prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...
of the monastery in
Pistoia Pistoia (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about north-west of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typic ...
. From 1407 to 1410 he led the entire Servite order in
Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
.


Music

All of Andreas's surviving music with reliable attribution is in the genre of the ''
ballata The ''ballata'' (plural: ''ballate'') is an Italian poetic form, poetic and musical form in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. It has the musical form AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same texts. It is thus most similar ...
''. Thirty are known, with eighteen being for two voices and twelve for three; in addition, one ''ballade'' in French may be his work, based on stylistic similarities and a contemporary attribution of it to a name similar to his. The main source for his work is the ''
Squarcialupi Codex The Squarcialupi Codex (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Mediceo Palatino 87) is an illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence in the early fifteenth century. It is named for the noted fifteenth-century organist Antonio Squarcialup ...
'', which also includes, in the section containing Andreas's music, a colorful illustration of a man playing an organ, probably Andreas himself. The two-voice ''ballate'' are usually for two singing voices; two of them include an instrumental tenor. Not all of the three-voice ''ballate'' have text in all three voices, and the third voice sometimes may have been played on an instrument. Compared to Landini's music, in which refinement, elegance, and a memorable melodic line were the clear goals of the composer, Andreas's music is dramatic, restless, and sometimes disjunct, and includes sharp dissonances to highlight certain passages in the text. One of his ''ballate'' includes a melodic leap of an
augmented octave In Western tonal music theory, an augmented octave is the sum of a perfect octave and an augmented unison or chromatic semitone. It is the interval between two notes, with the same note letter on staff positions an octave apart, whose alterati ...
, highlighting the word ''maledetto'' (accursed), causing it to leap out from the rest of the music.


References

* Richard H. Hoppin, ''Medieval Music''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. *
Kurt von Fischer Kurt von Fischer (25 April 1913 – 27 November 2003) was a Swiss musicologist and classical pianist. Life Fischer was born on 25 April 1913 in Bern as the son of the mycologist Eduard Fischer. Fischer studied piano at the University of the Ar ...
/Gianluca d'Agostino: "Andreas de Florentia", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 5, 2005)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrea Da Firenze Italian male classical composers Trecento composers 15th-century Italian composers 14th-century births 1415 deaths Year of birth unknown