Dutch family of musicians, active in Italy and Germany. Apart from the five separately discussed below, a sixth member of the family, Gregorio, is known from a motet for seven voices (in RISM 160915).
(b ?Maastricht; d Munich, 1588). Music copyist and composer. He entered the Munich court chapel in 1556 and in April 1557 received a lifelong appointment there as a singer. From about 1565 he worked as a scribe alongside the court copyist Johannes Pollet, and he took over from him in 1570. Flori was the copyist of several choirbooks belonging to the Munich court chapel and to the Jesuit College in Munich. His compositions are indistinguishable from those of (2) Francesco Flori (ii).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M.van Daalen: ‘Der Utrechter Lasso-Codex aus der bayerischen Hofkapelle in München’, TVNM, xxx (1980), 85–112
Flori
(2) Francesco [Franz, Franciscus] Flori (ii)
(d Innsbruck, 1583). Singer and composer, ?son of (1) Francesco Flori (i). He was a bass at the Graz court chapel from 1567 to 1572 and at the Innsbruck court chapel from about 1573 to 1578. In 1578 he applied for a post at Stuttgart and in 1581 for one at Munich. He appears to have spent some time in Heidelberg, but by 1581 he had returned to the Innsbruck court, where he remained until his death. One chanson for three voices, Waer machse sijn die alderliefste (in RISM 155431), and a four-part mass based on it (in D-Mbs) may be by him or by (1) Francesco Flori (i).
Flori
(3) Giovanni [Johannes, Johann, Iohan] Flori
(fl 1555–98). Composer, son of (1) Francesco Flori (i). In 1555 he served at the Habsburg court. He may be identifiable with Johannes Flory, who left Maastricht in 1559 and entered the Capilla Flamenca in Madrid. In 1562 he returned and may have matriculated at Douai University. He travelled to Munich and Tübingen and may have lived in Venice during the 1560s. In 1572 he served at L’Aquila Cathedral and in 1573 at the Innsbruck court as an alto and as music teacher to the princesses; in 1580 he became maestro di cappella at Treviso Cathedral, where he remained for about a year. From 16 August 1586 to the end of 1598 he was maestro di cappellaat S Maria Maggiore, Bergamo; in 1589 he applied unsuccessfully for the post of maestro di cappella of Verona Cathedral. He composed three masses and five falsobordoni, as well as a book of madrigals for five voices. He also contributed to many important madrigal anthologies. In his madrigal Più trasparente velo (RISM 159211) he used word-painting skilfully, creating varied and interesting textural contrasts and setting the refrain in an extended homophonic style.
Missa ‘D’ogni gratia e d’amor’, 6vv, 1579, D-Mbs; Missa ‘Nisi Dominus aedificaverit’, 5vv, SI-Lng; Missa ‘Non ves me elegistis’, 5vv, 1564, D-Mbs
5 falsobordoni, I-Bc
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G.d’Alessi: La cappella musicale del duomo di Treviso (1300–1633) (Vedelago, 1954)
A.Geddo: Bergamo e la musica (Bergamo, 1958)
Flori
(4) Giorgio [Georg, Georgi] Flori
(bc1558; d after 1594). Composer and singer, son of (1) Francesco Flori (i). In 1564 he entered the Emperor Maximilian II’s chapel as a choirboy; he may have been taught there by Monte. He remained there until 1576, acting as music teacher to the emperor’s sons Maximilian and Matthias. In 1577 Archduke Ferdinand of the Tyrol summoned him to the Innsbruck court as a bass, and in 1578 he stayed briefly in Venice. He was employed by the Fugger family at Augsburg in 1580 and served as vice-Kapellmeister at Innsbruck from 1584 to 1587. Between 1588 and 1589 he was maestro di cappella at Treviso Cathedral and in 1592 returned to his former post at Innsbruck, where he remained until 1594. His music was well known and much admired. He published one book of madrigals for six voices, and several of his masses, motets and madrigals appeared in anthologies of the time. He may have learnt from Monte his talent for madrigal writing in a traditional style with suave melodic lines.
WORKS
Il primo libro de madrigali, 6vv (Venice, 1589); 1 ed. in MMg, ii/5 (1870)
Works in 15832, ed. S.W. Dehn, Sammlung älterer Musik (Berlin, 1837), vi; 158517, 15901, 16047, 160915 [?with Gregorio Flori], 160928
Missa ‘Sù, sù, sù, non più dormire’, 6vv, 1580, D-Mbs; Missa ‘Ung l’amant e l’amie’, 8vv, A-Wn, D-Mbs; Missa sexti toni, 4vv, 1580, As, lost, according to EitnerQ
2 motets, As; several intabulated motets, Mbs, I-TVd
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SennMT
A.Einstein: ‘Italienische Musik und italienische Musiker am Kaiserhof und an den erzherzoglichen Höfen in Innsbruck und Graz’, SMw, xxi (1934), 3–52, esp. 38
G.d’Alessi: La cappella musicale del duomo di Treviso (1300–1633) (Vedelago, 1954)
Flori
(5) Jacobus [Jacob, Jean] Flori [Florij, Flory]
(fl 1571–99). Composer, probably son of (1) Francesco Flori (i). Much of his biography has been confused with that of (3) Giovanni Flori. However, he is known to have applied for a post at Stuttgart in 1571. He visited L'Aquila in 1572 and Venice in 1573, shortly after which he became a member of the court chapel at Innsbruck. He applied unsuccessfully for a post at the Emperor Maximilian’s court at Vienna in 1574. With Lassus’s help he obtained a grant to travel to the Netherlands in 1575. He returned to Innsbruck in 1581 and then lived at Hechingen from 1581 to 1583. In 1596 he became Kapellmeister at Salzburg but returned to the Netherlands in 1599. A document in the Munich Kreisarchiv records a payment of 12 gulden to ‘Jacob Florj’ for a mass sent to the Duke of Bavaria in 1599; this may have been the Missa ‘Deus in nomine tuo’.
WORKS
Modulorum aliquot tam sacrorum quam prophanorum liber unus, 3vv (Leuven, 1573)
Cantiones sacrae, 5vv (Munich, 1599)
Missa ‘Deus in nomine tuo’, 4vv, D-Mbs; Missa ‘Lyram, lyram pulsent’, 4vv, H-Bn; Missa ‘Sù, sù, sù, non più dormir’, 6vv, 1592, A-Gu
Magnificat, 6vv, D-Mbs
1 motet, 7vv, 15905
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AudaM
SennMT
Vander StraetenMPB
H.Spies: ‘Die Tonkunst in Salzburg in der Regierungszeit des Fürsten und Erzbischofs Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (1587–1612)’, Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde, lxxi (1931), 1–64; lxxii (1932), 65–136
A.Einstein: ‘Italienische Musik und italienische Musiker am Kaiserhof und an den erzherzoglichen Höfen in Innsbruck und Graz’, SMw, xxi (1934), 3–52, esp. 38