Bartolomeo Tromboncino facts for kids
Bartolomeo Tromboncino (born around 1470, died in 1535 or later) was an Italian composer from the middle Renaissance period. He is mostly known for writing a type of song called frottole. He was born in Verona and likely died near Venice.
Life Story
We don't know much about Bartolomeo's early life, which is common for many composers from his time. He probably grew up in Mantua, and he once wrote that he was originally from Verona.
He worked in Mantua until about 1500, but he often traveled to nearby cities like Ferrara and Milan. Sometimes, these trips happened when he was in trouble. He left Mantua in 1495 for reasons we don't know, but he came back later that year. He was known for getting into trouble often, but he seemed to be pardoned many times for his misdeeds. His great musical talent probably helped him, especially with powerful people like Isabella d'Este, who supported many artists.
Around 1502, Tromboncino started working for Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara. There, he wrote music for special performances called intermedi, especially for her wedding. Sometime before 1521, he moved to Venice. He likely spent the rest of his life there, living in much calmer times.
His Music and Influence
Even though Bartolomeo Tromboncino had a life full of ups and downs, much of his music is light and fun. He wrote many frottole, which were popular songs before the more complex madrigals became famous.
His name, Tromboncino, means "little trombone," and he sometimes played the trombone. However, he didn't write any music just for instruments that we know of.
He also wrote some serious religious music, including seventeen laude (religious songs), a motet, and a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. These religious pieces were typical of the early 1500s, often using different musical lines playing together (polyphony) or simpler, more hymn-like styles (homophony).
His frottole are his most important works, with 176 of them surviving. They are more varied and often have more complex musical lines than other frottole from that time. In this way, his frottole were a bit like the early madrigals, which started to be published near the end of his life in Venice. The main difference between his late frottole and the first madrigals was mostly in the structure of the poems they used.
Tromboncino often set poems by famous writers of his time, such as Petrarch and Jacopo Sannazaro. He even set a poem by the famous artist Michelangelo, called Come haro dunque ardire, which was part of a collection he published in 1518.
See also
In Spanish: Bartolomeo Tromboncino para niños
