Marc Antonio Ingegneri
(ca. 1547-1592)
O bone Jesu
Marc Antonio Ingegneri (also Ingegnieri,
Ingignieri, Ingignero, Inzegneri) (c1547 – July 1, 1592) was an Italian
composer of the late Renaissance. He was born in Verona and died in Cremona.
Even though he spent most of his life working in northern Italy, because of
his stylistic similarity to Palestrina he is often considered to be a member
of the Roman School of polyphonic church music. He is also famous as the
teacher of Claudio Monteverdi.
Not much is known about his early life, but he probably had family from
Venice, and he likely studied with Cipriano de Rore at Parma, and Vincenzo
Ruffo at Verona. Sometime around 1570 he moved to Cremona, and established a
reputation there as a composer and instrumentalist. He may have been an
organist, and is known to have been a string player. In 1581 he became maestro
di cappella of the cathedral there, and he apparently remained in this
position for the rest of his life.
Ingegneri was close friends with Bishop Nicolò Sfondrato, later Pope Gregory
XIV, who was intimately involved with the reforms of the Counter-Reformation
and the Council of Trent, and this influence is present in his music, which
usually shows the simplification and clarity of the Palestrina style. Indeed,
his book of 27 Responsoria was long misattributed to Palestrina. However, some
of his music quite ignores the reformist dicta of the Council; most notorious
is a four-voice motet Noe noe, which is a double canon by inversion, in which
it would require an exceedingly keen ear to hear the text: and intelligibility
of the text was the one demand made by the Council of Trent of any composer of
sacred polyphony.
His masses are simple, short, and relatively homophonic, often outdoing
Palestrina for clarity and simplicity. His madrigals tend to be conservative,
frankly ignoring the innovations of composers such as Luzzaschi and Marenzio
who were experimenting with vivid chromaticism and word-painting around the
same time.
He wrote two books of masses, in 1573 and 1587; at least three books of motets
(some may have been lost); and eight books of madrigals, for four to six
voices.
Sources
"Marc Antonio Ingegneri", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN
1561591742
Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954.
ISBN 0393095304
Denis Arnold, Monteverdi. London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1975. ISBN 0460031554
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