Antonio Brunelli (20 December 1577 in

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

– 19 November 1630 in Pisa) was an Italian composer and theorist of the early

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

period. He was a student of

Giovanni Maria Nanino Giovanni Maria Nanino (also Nanini; 1543 or 1544 – 11 March 1607) was an Italian composer and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Roman School of composers, and was the most influential music teacher in Rome in the late 16t ...

and served as the organist at

San Miniato San Miniato is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. San Miniato sits at a historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno valley, between the valleys of the E ...

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 ...

from 1604 to 1607, then moved to

Prato Prato ( ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') in Tuscany, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Prato. The city lies in the northeast of Tuscany, at an elevation of , at the foot of Monte Retaia (the last peak in the Calvana ch ...

where he served as ''maestro di capella'' at the Cathedral there. On 12 April 1612 he was appointed as ''maestro di capella'' to the

Order of Saint Stephen The Order of Saint Stephen (officially ''Sacro Militare Ordine di Santo Stefano Papa e Martire'', 'Holy Military Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr') is a Roman Catholic Tuscan dynastic military order founded in 1561. The order was created ...

at the Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri Church in

in the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. His pupil, composer Giovanni Bettini, followed him to Pisa and was later appointed organist at the Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in 1618, most likely by Brunelli. Between 1605 and 1621 he published works including

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

canzonette In music, a canzonetta (; pl. canzonette, canzonetti or canzonettas) is a popular Italian secular vocal composition that originated around 1560. Earlier versions were somewhat like a madrigal but lighter in style—but by the 18th century, especia ...

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of H ...

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

Requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...

s, and other sacred works, some of which were included in Donfried's '' Promptuarium musicum'' (1623). Brunelli wrote and published several theoretical treatises, most notably the ''Regole utilissime per i scolari che desiderano imperare a cantare'' (Florence, 1606), one of the first published methods for voice. His other writings include ''Esercizi ad 1 e 2 voci'' (Florence, 1607) and ''Regole et dichiarazione de alcuni contrappunti doppii'' (Florence, 1610).

Works

* ''Esercizi a una e due voci p. 1' -

Firenze 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 ...

, Marescotti (1605) * ''Regole utilissime'' - Firenze, Volcmar Timan (1606) * ''Affettuoso et invaghito, Canzonette a tre voci p. 2' - Firenze, Marescotti (1608) * ''Mottetti a due voci Lib. 2 p. 3' - Firenze, Marescotti (1608) * ''Mottetti a due voci Lib. 2 p. 4' - Firenze, Marescotti (1608) * ''Fiori odoranti, Madrigali a tre voci Lib. 1 p. 5' -

Venezia Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

(1609) * ''Fiammette d'ingenio, Madrigali a tre voci Lib. 2 p. 6' - Venezia (1610) * ''Regole et dichiarazioni'' - Firenze, Marescotti (1610) * ''Prati di sacri fiori musicali p. 7' - Venezia, Vincenti (1612) * ''Canoni vari

p. 8 P. is an abbreviation or acronym that may refer to: * Page (paper), where the abbreviation comes from Latin ''pagina'' * Paris Herbarium, at the ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' * ''Pani'' (Polish), translating as Mrs. * The ''Pacific Rep ...

' - Venezia, Vincenti (1612) * ''Scherzi, arie, ... Lib.1 p. 9' - Venezia, Vincenti (1613) * ''Balletto della cortesia'' (1614) * ''Scherzi, arie,... Lib.2 p. 10' - Venezia, Vincenti (1614) * ''Varii esercitii p. 11' - Firenze, Zanobi Pignoni (1614) * ''Scherzi, arie, ... Lib.3 p. 12' - Venezia, Vincenti (1616) * In raccolte d'epoca, ristampa di ''Tibi Laus Tibi Gloria, Mottetto a tre voci con b.c.'' (1616) * ''Godi felice alfea, Aria a 2 voci'' - Venezia, Vincenti (1616) * ''Sacra Cantica p. 13' - Venezia, Vincenti (1617) * ''Missae Tres Pro Defunctis'' p. 14- Venezia, Vincenti (1619) * ''12 Salmi brevi concertati (senza cognome)'' -

(1629) * ''Musica per la festa del 31.1.1620'' - (1620) * ''Fioretti spirituali p. 15 ' - Venezia, Magni (1621) * From Ioannes Reinenger "Delicie Sacrae Musicae", ''Ecce Panis Angelorum'' e ''Crux Fidelis'' a quattro voci -

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

, Haenlin (1626)

Recordings

*''Fioretti Spirituali'', Auser Musici, Carlo Ipata, director, Agorà AG 187.1 (1999) *''Arie, scherzi, canzonette & madrigali per suonare & cantare'', Auser Musici, Carlo Ipata, director, Symphonia SY 04209 (2005)

References

Emiliano Ramacci: Relazione dal XVII Convegno della Società Italiana di Musicologia (Pisa 2010). Emiliano Ramacci: La famiglia di Antonio Brunelli a Bagnoregio in ''Musiche D'Ingegno'', Pisa, Pacini, 1999.

External links

*
A. Brunelli su 'Tesori Musicali Toscani'
1577 births 1630 deaths People from Santa Croce sull'Arno Pupils of Giovanni Maria Nanino Italian Renaissance composers Italian Baroque composers 17th-century Italian composers Italian male classical composers 17th-century Italian male musicians {{Italy-composer-stub