Martini was an editor for the Este court, adapting other composers' music and driving the creation of manuscripts for masses, motets, liturgical, and secular music.
Compositional Technique
Martini often created new works by taking a pre-existing melody, either monophonic or a voice from a polyphonic composition, and composing new voices around it.
Composer Biography
Johannes Martini, born in the 1430s in Leuze, Belgium, served Duke Ercole I d'Este of Ferrara for nearly three decades as a composer, singer, and music tutor.
Compositional Technique
Martini was one of the first composers to create a significant body of instrumental music, showcasing its evolution from simple beginnings in the 1450s to a sophisticated genre by 1490.
Composition History
The Casanatense manuscript, a large collection of secular music, was copied in Ferrara as a betrothal or wedding present for Isabella d'Este and Francesco II Gonzaga of Mantua.
Compositional Technique
Martini's early instrumental piece, La Martinella, is notable for its open texture, often written for only two parts, and its varied phrase lengths, differing from contemporary chansons.
Compositional Technique
Martini's motet O beate Sebastiane, a plea for succor during plague, shows the influence of Josquin Desprez in its use of paired duets and greater variety of texture.
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