Giulio Cesare Martinengo (; – 10 July 1613) was an Italian composer and teacher of the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and 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 ...

Venetian School. He was the predecessor to

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 ...

San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestiere (Venice), sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Piazza San Marco, Saint Mar ...

. He probably came from

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

, and was the son of composer Gabriele Martinengo. Accounts giving his birthdate are conflicting: one from his mother claims he was born in 1564, but a document from the "house of the Accoliti" in Verona gives his age in 1583 as 15. He studied with his father in Verona, and in the 1590s he served at

Verona Cathedral file:Italy - Verona - Cathedral.jpg, 250px, Verona Cathedral (2022) Verona Cathedral () is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Verona, northern Italy, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the designation ''Santa Maria Matricolare''. It is the episc ...

as a singer as well as a priest. Martinengo is principally famous as the successor to

Giovanni Croce Giovanni Croce (; also Ioanne a Cruce Clodiensis, Zuanne Chiozotto; 1557 – 15 May 1609) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance music, Renaissance, of the Venetian School (music), Venetian School. He was particularly prominent as a madr ...

, and predecessor to Claudio Monteverdi, to the post of ''

maestro di cappella ( , , ), from German (chapel) and (master), literally "master of the chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in i ...

'' at San Marco in Venice, which was by far the most prestigious post in

northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...

. He was hired on 22 August 1609, at a pay of 200 ducats, after an audition, and on the recommendation of the

Veronese Veronese is the Italian word denoting someone or something from Verona, Italy and may refer to: * Veronese Riddle, a popular riddle in the Middle Ages * Veronese (moth), ''Veronese'' (moth), a moth genus in the family Crambidae * Monte Veronese, ...

. Martinengo's tenure was a failure; he was sick most of the time, and the standards of the choir and instrumentalists slipped badly, according to contemporary accounts. In addition, the establishment took on considerable debt and became disorganized and demoralized. Martinengo lacked the ability to manage the finances; according to the records of San Marco, he continually asked for advances on his salary, he was unable to pay the basilica's creditors, and on his death he still owed the treasurer his back salary for several months. He died only four years after his appointment, and the basilica authorities were much relieved to be able to hire Claudio Monteverdi, who restored the musical establishment at San Marco to the magnificence it had lost. Little of Martinengo's music has survived. One

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 ...

, ''Regnum mundi'', is in the progressive

concertato Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a ''genre'' or a ''style'' of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo. The term derives from It ...

style, similar to contemporary works by

Lodovico Grossi da Viadana Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (usually Lodovico Viadana, though his family name was Grossi; c. 1560 – 2 May 1627) was an Italian composer, teacher, and Franciscan friar of the Order of Friars Minor Observants. He was the first significant figu ...

. He also wrote three books of

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 ...

References and further reading

* Gustave Reese, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. * Denis Arnold, ''Monteverdi.'' London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1975. * Eleanor Selfridge-Field, ''Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi.'' New York, Dover Publications, 1994. * Denis Arnold/Tiziana Morsanuto: "Giulio Cesare Martinengo", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 13 November 2005)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinengo, Giulio Cesare 1560s births 1613 deaths 16th-century Italian musicians Italian Baroque composers Italian male classical composers Musicians from Verona Venetian School (music) composers Musicians from the Republic of Venice