Sacrae Symphoniae, Book 1 (1597)

• Gabrieli’s Sacrae symphoniae Liber 1 was published in 1597. The collection includes both motets and instrumental works, many utilizing polychoral technique.¹
• Polychoral writing (in Italian, cori spezzati, or “broken choirs”) was popular among Renaissance Venetian composers,² exemplified notably in the works of Flemish composer Adrian Willaert, one of Gabrieli’s predecessors at San Marco.³ Gabrieli was a pioneer of using polychoral technique for instruments as well as voices.⁴
• The architecture of the Basilica San Marco was part of the reason for the antiphonal effect in this work (and compositions by many musicians who worked at San Marco). The Basilica has opposite facing choir lofts above the altar. For festive occasions, separate ensembles of accompanied or unaccompanied voices, or ensembles of instruments, were placed in each loft, to play antiphonally in the Basilica’s reverberant acoustic.⁵

Sonata No. 6, “Pian’ e forte”

• This sonata is No. 33 in Gabrieli’s Sacrae symphoniae Book 1.⁶
• This sonata is one of the first works in which a composer indicated dynamics in the score, rather than simply leaving them up to the performer’s discretion.⁷
• The piece makes use of terraced dynamics with piano passages alternating with forte passages, often with different sections of the ensemble answering back and forth to each other.⁸

1. “Sacrae symphoniae, Liber 1 (Gabrieli, Giovanni),” IMSLP, accessed https://imslp.org/wiki/Sacrae_symphoniae, xaLiber_1(Gabrieli,_Giovanni).
2. Giulio Ongaro, Eleanor Selfridge-Field, and Luca Zoppelli, “Venice,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 8, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000041311.
3. Denis Arnold, Anthony F. Carver, and Valerio Morucci, “Cori spezzati/polychoral,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 27, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000006486.
4. J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J. Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 7^th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006), 284.
5. Ibid., 283.
6. “Sacrae symphoniae, Liber 1 (Gabrieli, Giovanni),” IMSLP
7. Burkholder, Grout and Palisca, A History of Western Music, 7^th ed., 284.
8. “Sonata pian e forte, Ch. 175 (Gabrieli, Giovanni),” IMSLP, accessed October 8, 2019, https://imslp.org/wiki/Sonata_pian_e_forte%2C_Ch.175_(Gabrieli%2C_Giovanni).