Ruggiero Giovannelli

It is possible that Giovanelli's teacher was Palestrina though it is doubted. The documentation of his career is not clear until 1583 when he arrived in Rome. By 1591 Giovanelli acceded to the master of the chapel of S Luigi dei Francesi and provided service at the Collegio Germanico. He was in service in this same position to Duke Giovanni Angelo of Altaemps and the chapel Cappella Giulia at St Peter's. Serving at the Sistine Chapel, Giovanelli was singer, secretary, treasurer, and eventually master of the chapel of the Sistine choir. The corpus of his literature included madrigals, masses, and motets. The lyric and easy going texts, clear textures, high "norms" for the musical range, short motifs and texts clarified by use of contrasting fast and slow rhythms, were characteristics of Giovanelli's madrigals. He used eight and twelve voice settings proceeding from slow movements to fast homophonic passages, combined with emphatic rhythms in his arrangements of masses and motets. ~ Keith Johnson