Giovanni Maria Trabaci

(1575 - 1647)

Trabaci, Giovanni

Italian composer. On December 1, 1594 he was appointed a tenor at the Church of the Annunziata, Naples. Later he was appointed organist at the Oratorio dei Filippini, Naples. He became organist at the Spanish viceregal chapel in Naples on October 30, 1601, and was promoted to maestro di cappellathere on November 1, 1614, succeeding his teacher Jean (Giovanni) de Macque in the post; he served in this capacity for the rest of his life. Later he was again organist at the Oratorio dei Filippini (1625-30). During a popular rising in 1647 he took refuge in a local monastery where he died. He published church music, including settings of all four Passions, madrigals, villanellas and two volumes of organ music. These include examples of almost all contemporary types of keyboard music, including polyphonic ricercars on several themes, toccatas which anticipate Frescobaldi, and Venetian-style canzonas, some using variation forms. His extant compositions include over 200 sacred and secular vocal works and 165 works for keyboard.




IVO: Sacred Music in the Italian Cinquecento outside Venice and Rome | VF: Naples in the Seventeenth Century   |  VIIIB: The Neapolitan Group