Dario Castello (Venice, bapt. 19 October 1602 - Venice 2 July 1631) was an Italian composer and violinist from 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 who worked and published in

Venice 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 ...

. As a composer, he was a late member of the Venetian School and had a role in the transformation of the instrumental

canzona The canzona, also known as the canzon or canzone, is an Italian musical form derived from the Franco-Flemish and Parisian '' chansons''. Background The canzona is an instrumental musical form that differs from the similar forms of ricercare ...

into the

sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...

Biographical details

Dario Domenico Castello was born in Venice, where he was baptised on 19 October 1602. The title page of the 1621 edition of the first volume of the ''Sonate Concertate in stil moderno'' records him as ''Capo di Compagnia de Musichi d'Instrumenti da fiato in Venetia,'' indicating that he led a Venetian company of '' piffari'', a band that could include sackbuts, cornetts, shawms, but also

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

s and viols.
On 19 November 1624 he was appointed «sonador di violin» (violin player) of the St. Mark's music chapel, at the time headed by

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

. The title page of the second volume (1629) of the "Sonate concertate in Stil moderno" lists him as ''Musico Della Serenissima Signoria di Venetia in S. Marco, & Capo di Compagnia de Instrumenti,'' indicating that he worked at the great Basilica of St. Mark's where

was ''maestro di capella''. Castello's use of the ''stile concitato'' (agitated style) —with quick repeated-note figures— is consistent with his association with Monteverdi. His brother Francesco (trombonist) and his father Giovanni Battista (violinist) also were working at St Mark's. Dario Castello died in Venice on 2 July 1631 during the great plague of 1630.Baroncini, "Dario Castello", p. 88.

Style

Of his music, 29 separate compositions survive. Castello's music is inventive and technically challenging. Strictly worked polyphonic sections alternate with dramatic

recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name recitativo () is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines ...

s over

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

, in keeping with the title of the publications "in stil moderno"; however he also uses some of the older

technique, which uses short sections of highly contrasting texture, and active rather than lyrical melodic lines. Unusually for the time, Castello often specifies the instruments for each part, calling for

cornett The cornett (, ) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. Although smaller and larger sizes were made in both straight and curved forms, surviving cornetts are most ...

sackbut A sackbut is an early form of the trombone used during the Renaissance music, Renaissance and Baroque music, Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of the tube to change Pitch (m ...

s and

dulcian The dulcian is a Renaissance woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded conical bore. Equivalent terms include , , , , , , and . The predecessor of the modern bassoon, it flourished between 1550 and 1700, but was probably invented ...

s. That these works were still being reprinted in the 1650s attests to Castello's influence. Modern editions of the complete sonatas are published by Ut Orpheus Edizione.

Works

*''Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno, Libro I'', Venice, 1621 *''Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno, Libro II'', Venice, 1629 *''Exultate Deo'', motet ( Ghirlanda sacra 1625 and 1636).

References

Recordings

*''The Floating City'', His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts
Hyperion CDA67013
*''Viaggio Musicale'', Il Giardino Armonico, Teldec 8573825362. *''Dario Castello Sonate'', Ensemble La Capriola, Mieroprint EM 6005. *''Dario Castello: Sonata Quarta a2'', Reversio, (6-2 studio/REVERSIO. Catalog number: 6-2STD-CD013) *''Falla con misuras - 15th-17th Century Italian Chamber Music'', Reversio,(6-2 studio/REVERSIO. Catalog number: 6-2STD-CD008) *''Sonata Concertate - Book I'' The Academy of Ancient Music dir Richard Egarr, Catalog number: AAM005 *''Sonata Concertate'', Europa Galante dir Fabio Biondi (Label Opus 111, 1992)) *''Sonate concertate in stil moderno'', Ensemble Musica Fiorita, Daniela Dolci (Label Tactus, 2006) *''Sonate concertate in stil moderno'', John Holloway, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Jane Gower (Label ECM, 2010)

External links