Matteo da Perugia

Little is well known for certain on the subject of the life from the composer Matteo da Perugia. Until recent years, with the finding of two fragments of manuscripts, his just surviving works had been found in an individual manuscript. Church information are the just other way to obtain information regarding a composer whose functions continue to curiosity scholars and performers of early music. While his name qualified prospects towards the assumption that Perugia was his birthplace, the city was actually annexed by Milan in 1399, and there is certainly more definite proof showing that he was energetic rather in the last mentioned town. From 1402 until 1407 he offered as the initial magister capellae (get good at from the chorus) and cantor on the Milan Cathedral, that was still getting built at that time. His responsibilities there are documented as like the canting of two Public on solemnities, the teaching of music on the cathedral college, and personal musical tutoring. This placement was probably owed towards the impact of a robust cleric who appears to have become Matteo’s patron. The archbishop of Milan, Pietro Filargo di Candia, who later become crowned antipope Alexander V, was informed in Paris and far affected by French design. In Matteo he discovered a composer with comparable tastes; Matteo’s functions display him to have already been adept in the French set forms that experienced arisen in the fourteenth hundred years, like the virelai, rondeau, and chanson. Certainly, the majority of Matteo’s extant compositions possess text messages in French, a few of which he might have made up himself, as the lyrical eccentricities correspond with a few of his unconventional musical methods. In 1406, Matteo remaining Milan for Pavia, where Filargo, right now a cardinal, was keeping his courtroom, lecturing at the neighborhood university. He continuing to draw income from Milan until July 1407, when it became obvious that he’d stay in the support from the cardinal as opposed to the cathedral. 2 yrs afterwards Filargo was elected antipope in Pisa and shifted to Bologna; Matteo may possess followed him, but Filargo passed away in 1410 after significantly less than a season as pontiff, as well as the composer didn’t serve his successor, John XXIII. It had been probably Filargo’s impact that allowed the assembling from the manuscript (alpha.M.5.24 in Modena) that preserves 30 works, the majority of that have conclusively been related to Matteo. As well as the French set forms, the manuscript includes other secular tune forms, Italian ballatas and a cannon, aswell as sacred functions, including isorhythmic motets and Mass actions. The existence also of many countertenor voices that Matteo constructed to existing parts by other modern composers implies that he was well alert to musical developments, even though the limited survival of his very own works shows that his very own impact was minimal. By 1414 Matteo got once again resumed his placement on the Milan Cathedral, but 2 yrs later (Oct 1416) he once again ceased to get an income. Intriguingly, the just mention of him from then on comes from the entire year 1418, where his successor complains that he had not been paid aswell as Matteo. Matteo’s idiosyncratic result includes a number of the rhythmic development from the Ars Subtilior; but his uncommon tone of voice leading and melodic design stand out even more in his functions, frequently punctuated with amazing cadences. The suavity and art of his lately discovered works possess made him maybe better-known today than he was to his contemporaries.