Orologio [Horologius], Alessandro [Alexander]
(b c1550; d Vienna, ?1633). Italian composer and instrumentalist, resident in German-speaking countries. He is first heard of as ‘trumpeter and musician’ at the court of the Emperor Rudolf II in Prague just before 1580. He continued his association with the court until 1613 – he was appointed vice-Kapellmeister in 1603 – but made numerous journeys, which included visits to the courts at Dresden and Wolfenbüttel. During one such visit in 1594 to the court of the Landgrave Moritz of Hesse at Kassel he met John Dowland, who probably brought him to the attention of the court of King Christian IV of Denmark, with which he also seems to have been connected for a time. Extant references to his extensive travels have resulted in some confusion. Eitner assumed that there must have been two Orologios, and his error was carried into many subsequent sources. Orologio was pensioned in Prague in 1613, after which he is known to have been active at Steyr and at the monastery at nearby Garsten.
Orologio was one of the first ensemble instrumentalists to achieve a wide reputation both as a performer and as a composer competent in diverse genres (a few instrumentalists before him, such as Tylman Susato and Jean d'Estrée, had also established themselves as composers but only of certain kinds of secular music). His vocal writing is skilful; he preferred tightly spaced imitation, and his lines unfold with charm and freshness. He was aware of contemporary experiments in chromaticism, but they do not have an important place in his style. His intradas of 1597, dedicated to Christian IV, are short and sonorous and among the best 16th-century ensemble pieces.
WORKS
Edition: Alessandro Orologio: Opera omnia, ed. F. Colussi (Udine, 1992–) [C]
-
Il primo libro de madrigali, 5vv (Venice, 1586); C
|
Il secondo libro de madrigali, 4–6vv (Dresden, 1589); C
|
Canzonette, libro I (Venice, 1593); C
|
Canzonette, libro II (Venice, 1594); C
|
Il secondo libro de madrigali, 4–6vv (Venice, 1595); C
|
Canzonette, 3vv (Venice, 1596); C
|
Intradae, 5, 6 insts (Helmstaedt, 1597); C
|
Madrigals, 158311, 158516, 159011, 159215, 159714, 159815
|
Miserere mei Deus, 5vv, 16111; ed. F. Commer, Musica sacra, xxiv (1885)
|
Further sacred and secular works in MSS
|
R. Eitner: ‘Alessandro Orologio’, MMg, xxx (1898), 36–40
R. Eitner: ‘Drei Briefe von Alessandro Orologio’, MMg, xxxi (1899), 42–5
K. Nef: ‘Die Intraden von Alexander Orologio’, Gedenkboek aangeboden aan Dr. D.F. Scheurleer (The Hague, 1925), 219–25
A. Einstein: ‘Italienische Musik und italienische Musiker am Kaiserhof und an den erzherzoglichen Höfen in Innsbruck und Graz’, SMw, xxi (1934), 3–52, esp. 39
A. Kellner: Musikgeschichte des Stiftes Kremsmünster (Kassel, 1956), 158
R. Flotzinger: ‘Alessandro Orologio und seine Intraden (1597)’, DAM, xvii (1986), 53–64
P. Merkù: ‘Alessandro Orologio in njegova oporoka/Alessandro Orologio und sein Testament’, Gallus Carniolus in Evropska renesansa/Gallus Carniolus und die europäische Renaissance: Ljubljana 1991, 171–84 [with Ger. summary]
KEITH POLK
Orologio, Giovanni Dondi dall'
(b Chioggia, c1330; d Abbiategrasso, 19 Oct 1388). Italian poet, physician and astrologer. He taught in Padua, Pavia and Florence. He was a friend and follower of Petrarch, and wrote sonnets, five madrigals and three ballatas, transmitted by the manuscript I-Vm lat.XIV 223, which may be an autograph. His ballata La sacrosanta carità d'amore, labelled in this source as ‘Balata Florentiae’ (c1368) was set to music by Bartolino da Padova and was also sent to the poet-minstrel Francesco di Vannozzo to add to his repertoire; another musical setting, for his ballata Omay çascun se doglia, survives.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
DBI (T. Pesenti)
Padua sidus preclarum: i Dondi dall'Orologio e la Padova dei Carraresi (Padua, 1989) [exhibition catalogue]
A. Daniele, ed.: Giovanni Dondi dall' Orologio: Rime (Vicenza, 1990)
GIANLUCA D'AGOSTINO
Ó Rónáin, Muiris.
See Fleischmann, Aloys.
O’Rourke, William Michael.
See Rooke, William Michael.
Orozbakov, Saghimbai
(b Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, 1867; d Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan 1930). Kyrgyz jomokchu (Manas bard). He was born to the family of a kerneeich musician (player of the kerney, a pipe) and belonged to the Saiak clan of the Kurman-Moinok tribe, who were nomads in the Tien Shan area. He heard the performances of many outstanding Manas bards, notably Belmurat Kulmanov, also known as Balyk (1793–1873). Unlike many other epic narrators, Orozbakov was literate. From his youth he was famous as an improviser, especially of ceremonial laments or koshok, in which the life and acts of the dead were narrated in song. In accordance with the tradition of Kyrgyz bards he did not name his masters but referred only to a dream in which Semetei, a son of the hero Manas, gave him his talent and imposed upon him the duty of glorifying the deeds of Manas. By the time of the Bolshevik revolution Orozbakov was recognized as a chon jomokchu (‘great creator and epic bard’). A recording of his version in 250,000 verses (the most complete version of the first part of Manas) was made during the period 1922–6. The texts were published in four volumes in Frunze (1978–82), and the music was written down by B. Vinogradov in 1947 with the help of the Manas researcher Ibraim Abdyrakhmanov, who received the performing tradition personally from Orozbakov.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Musayev: The Epoc ‘Manas’ (Frunze, 1984) [in Eng., Ger. and Russ.]
B. Vinogradov: ‘Napevï “Manasa”’ [Singing of Manas], Manas: kirgizskiy geroicheskiy ėpos [Manas: Kyrgyz heroic epic] (Moscow, 1984), 502–7
I. Laude-Cirtautas: ‘Kirgizskiy poėt-skatizel' Saghimbai Orozbakov (1867–1930) i ėpos “Manas”’ [Kyrgyz poet-narrator Orozbakov and the epic Manas], Sovetskaya tyorkologiya [Soviet Turkology], no.3 (1987), 74–82
ALMA KUNANBAYEVA
Share with your friends: |