Philippe de Monte (1521 – 4 July 1603), sometimes known as Philippus de Monte, was a Flemish composer of the late Renaissance.[1] He was a member of the 3rd generation madrigalists[2] and wrote more madrigals than any other composer of the time.[3] Sources cite him as being "the best composer in the entire country, particularly in the new manner and musica reservata."[4] Others compare his collections of music with that of other influential composers, such as Lassus.[5]
Philippe de Monte was born in Mechelen. After boyhood musical training at St. Rumbolds Cathedral in Mechelen, where he was a choirboy, Monte went to Italy — a common destination for a young Flemish composer in the sixteenth century — where he made a name for himself as a composer, singer, and teacher.[6] He lived and worked in Naples for a while, and in Rome, in the employ of Cardinal Orsini, although he was inEngland for a brief period, 1554–1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, while she was married to King Philip II of Spain.[7] Monte reported that he disliked working in Philip's choir since all the other members were Spaniards.[8]
"Though Monte was not likely to have been a supporter of the Reformation, he took part in a variety of intellectual exchanges on sensitive topics, some of which involved Italian academics."[9]
In 1568 Monte was appointed as successor to Jacobus Vaet as Kapellmeister to the chapel of Maximilian II.[10] A majority of his music was published in Venice under the direction of Gardano, Monte's exclusive publisher in Italy. He wanted to utilize Italian publishers in order to stay close to the home of the madrigal.[11] He was successful at recruiting new musicians to the chapel, for Lassus himself noted the astonishing quality of music-making in Vienna just two years after Monte became leader there.[12] During his first ten years at the Imperial Court, Monte served as an active teacher.[13] Monte worked for the remainder of his long life in Habsburg courts both in Vienna and, since 1583, Prague.[14]Even though his accomplishments were many, he is not known to have held any positions as a church musician or in a noble household.[15]Philippe de Monte died in Prague in 1603.[
Although Monte wrote several dozen chansons, the overwhelming majority of his secular compositions are madrigals. Indeed, not only was he one of the last Netherlandish masters of the form, but he was the most prolific of his contemporaries, publishing more than 1,200 (including some spiritual madrigals) in nearly 40 books during his lifetime. Although Monte’s madrigals are typified by their solemnity, he gradually developed an individualistic style in which balance was provided by energetic rhythms. Many of his early works in the form are settings of Petrarch.

Baldassare Donato (also Donati) (1525-1530 – June 1603) was an Italian composer and singer of the Venetian school of the lateRenaissance. He was maestro di cappella of the prestigious St. Mark's Basilica at the end of the 16th century, and was an important figure in the development of Italian light secular music, especially the villanella.
Details of his early life are unavailable; it is not even known where he was born. The first record of Donato is as a singer at St. Mark's in Venice in 1550, and he was given charge of the musical training of the boys there in 1562. When Gioseffo Zarlino took over the post of maestro di cappella from Cipriano de Rore in 1565, Donato was demoted back to being a singer; conflict between the two men seems to have been a feature of life at St. Mark's, culminating in a climactic fight in 1569, publicly and scandalously, during the Feast of St. Mark. In 1577 Donato took a position at the Scuola Grande di S Rocco, another Venetian church with an impressive musical tradition and substantial performing ensemble; however he failed to get along with his employers there as well, resigning by 1580. In 1588 he became assistant maestro di cappella at St. Mark's, while Zarlino was still alive (whether because of reconcilement or politics is not clear), and in 1590 he took over the post of his former antagonist, holding it until his death in 1603
Donato represented a progressive trend in the Venetian school, which was already a progressive tradition compared to the other major contemporary Italian musical styles (especially as compared to the Roman School). The progressive trend in the Venetian school was represented by composers such as Donato, Giovanni Croce, and Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli; the conservative trend involved composers and theorists such as Zarlino, Cipriano de Rore, and Claudio Merulo, who tended to follow the Franco-Flemish style which was predominant almost everywhere else in Europe until after mid-century.
Donato's sacred music is the most conservative portion of his output, usually using polyphony in the Palestrina style, but also using some of the grand polychoral effects of the Gabrielis. In spite of his evident disdain for Zarlino's conservatism, he clearly absorbed some of his style and teaching, as can be seen in his smooth mastery of counterpoint and Zarlinoesque use of dissonance, at least when he was deliberately composing in the Franco-Flemish style.

Costanzo Porta (1528 or 1529 – 19 May 1601) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance, and a representative of what is known today as the Venetian School. He was highly praised throughout his life both as a composer and a teacher, and had a reputation especially as an expertcontrapuntist.[1]
Porta was born in Cremona. Details of his early life are slim, but he probably was educated at the Convent Porta San Luca in Cremona. Around 1550 he is thought to have studied with Adrian Willaert, who was maestro di cappella at St. Mark's in Venice; while he was there he metClaudio Merulo, who was also a student; they remained close friends throughout their lives. In 1552 Porta became maestro di cappella atOsimo Cathedral; in 1565 he took a position in Padua briefly, but took a more important position in Ravenna the next year, where he was hired to build an entirely new music practice at the cathedral. By 1580 his services were much in demand, and there was competition for him; he declined an offer from Milan, moving instead between positions in several cities. In addition he had become a renowned teacher by this time, and numerous composers of the next generation learned their contrapuntal skills from Porta. His last years were spent in Padua, and they were clearly difficult. Musical standards there began to decline, and he faced in addition the burden of ill health and the jealousy of the man who was eventually to replace him. He died in Padua. He is buried in the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua.
Most of Porta's output is sacred music, especially motets. He published at least eight books of motets, one of which is lost, as well as books ofmasses, introits, and a huge cycle of hymns for Vespers.
Porta's music is even more polyphonic than that of Gombert, and he showed a liking for academic, even severe contrapuntal devices, although they are used so skillfully that the text can always be clearly understood. Often his music uses strict canons; one motet from his book of 52 motets from 1580, in seven voices, has no less than four of the voices entirely derived canonically. Another motet from this same book is amensuration canon, that most difficult of all contrapuntal forms to carry off. While many composers were reacting to the strictures of the Council of Trent against excessive polyphonic practice, Porta evidently felt unobliged to follow them; perhaps he had sufficient confidence in his skill in conveying the text. His music is as carefully controlled as that of Palestrina, with cautious use of dissonance and chromaticism, while displaying polyphonic virtuosity to a degree uncommon in other composers of sacred music at the end of the 16th century.
Some of the later motets use polychoral writing extensively. Although Porta was not in Venice in the late part of the century, where this style had become famous (see Venetian polychoral style), he had spent years there as a student studying with Willaert,

Porta also wrote madrigals. Many of these were clearly intended for specific occasions, such as weddings and large social events in the families of his employers; they are in a much simpler style than his sacred works, much in keeping with contemporary practice.

Giammatteo Asola (also spelled Gian Matteo, Giovanni Matteo; Asula, Asulae; 1532 or earlier – October 1, 1609) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He was a prolific composer of sacred music, mostly in a conservative style, although he may have been one of the first composers to write a part for basso continuo.
He was born in Verona, and began studying at Alga in 1546 in the congregation of secular canons. While in Verona he most likely studied withVincenzo Ruffo. In 1569 he became a secular parish priest, and in 1577 became maestro di cappella at Treviso Cathedral; however, in 1578 he went to Vicenza Cathedral to take the equivalent job there, where the pay and musical opportunities were greater. He only stayed there four years, going to Venice in 1582,[1] which was the center of activity in northern Italy for sacred music. Except for a short return to Verona c. 1590–1591, he lived in Venice until his death, working at the church of S Severo, as one of four chaplains; apparently he was never associated with St. Mark's.
Asola was a rare case of a composer working in Venice who showed almost no stylistic influence from the Venetian school; indeed most of his works are in the Palestrina style, the idiom of the Roman School of composers. In his later works he began using a basso continuo, and he may have been one of the first composers to do so. The only musical feature he borrowed from the Venetian composers elsewhere in his adopted city was the idea of cori spezzati, spatially separated groups of singers; however, this musical style was widespread in northern Italy by the time he was writing, and by no means unique to Venice. Cori spezzati techniques appear in particular in his 1588 publication of massesfor eight voices.
Among his copious works are many masses, including a Requiem mass; psalm settings, lamentations, vespers, antiphons, sacrae cantiones, and numerous other sacred works. He also composed secular music, including several books of madrigals, as well as one book of madrigali spirituali, which is lost.
One of his books of madrigals is unusual in that it consists of canons for two voices only; most madrigals of the time were for at least four voices, and rarely used strict counterpoint.[2]

Giovanni Battista Riccio (Giambattista Riccio) (late 16th century – after 1621) was a musician and composer of the early Baroque era, resident in Venice, most notable for his development of instrumental forms, particularly utilizing the recorder.
No details are available regarding the early part of his life, but he must have been born in the late sixteenth century.
Records show that he was appointed as organist at the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista, Venice, in 1609, when he was the preferred choice over Gabriel Sponga (a nephew of Francesco Usper).[1] He was probably also a violinist.[2]
Riccio is known to have published three books of vocal and instrumental music in Venice. These books include his instrumental works for recorder—unusual for Venetian music at the time, although Giovanni Picchi also wrote for the instrument.
The initial publication date of Riccio's Primo Libro is unknown, but the reprint dating from 1612 survives. The majority of the first book is allotted to vocal works, but in the revised edition two new instrumental canzonas are appended. One is his first known piece for recorder—a canzonefor two flautini.
His Secondo Libro, also published in Venice, appeared in 1614.
His Terzo libro delle Divine Lodi published in 1620 and 1621 is the most widely known today. It comprises thirty-six vocal works and a further twelve instrumental pieces mostly described as canzonas. Most feature two main instruments (such as recorder, cornetto, violin, trombone or sometimes contemporary bassoon or dulcian). One canzona entitled La Grimantea con il tremolo is one of the first pieces to make use of thetremolo technique for the 'Flautin e Fagoto' (recorder and bassoon).[3]
Dedications in his works suggest Riccio knew other composers such as Giovanni Picchi, Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Battista Grillo andGiacomo Finetti.[4] Some of his canzonas quote from larger-scale works by Giovanni Gabrieli.[2]

William Lawes (April 1602 – 24 September 1645) was an English composer and musician.
Lawes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and was baptised on 1 May 1602. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, and brother to Henry Lawes, a very successful composer in his own right.
His patron, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, apprenticed him to the composer John Coprario, which probably brought Lawes into contact withCharles, Prince of Wales at an early age. Both William and his elder brother Henry received court appointments after Charles succeeded to the British throne as Charles I. William was appointed as "musician in ordinary for lutes and voices" in 1635 but had been writing music for the court prior to this.
Lawes spent all his adult life in Charles's employ. He composed secular music and songs for court masques (and doubtless played in them), as well as sacred anthems and motets for Charles's private worship. He is most remembered today for his sublime viol consort suites for between three and six players and his lyra viol music. His use of counterpoint and fugue and his tendency to juxtapose bizarre, spine-tingling themes next to pastoral ones in these works made them disfavoured in the centuries after his death; they have only become widely available in recent years.
When Charles's dispute with Parliament led to the outbreak of the Civil War, Lawes joined the Royalist army and was given a post in the King's Life Guards, which was intended to keep him out of danger. Despite this, he was "casually shot" by a Parliamentarian in the rout of the Royalists at Rowton Heath, near Chester, on 24 September 1645. Although the King was in mourning for his kinsman Bernard Stuart (killed in the same defeat), he instituted a special mourning for Lawes, apparently honouring him with the title of "Father of Musick."[1] The author of his epitaph, Thomas Jordan, closed it with a lachrymose pun on the fact that Lawes had died at the hands of those who denied the divine right of kings:
Will. Lawes was slain by such whose wills were laws.[1]
Lawes' body was lost or destroyed and his burial site is unknown.[2]

Diogo Dias Melgás (often Melgaz) (Cuba (Portugal), 1638 - Évora, 1700) was a Portuguese composer of late-Renaissance sacred polyphony.
Diogo Dias Melgás was born in Cuba, Alentejo, on 14 April 1638. He was a choirboy at the Colégio da Claustra in Évora in 1646. He took holy orders at the Cathedral of Évora, where he stayed the rest of his life, being a student of Manuel Rebelo, and holding the position of mestre de capela for about 30 years. He died blind and extremely poor on 3 February 1700. He was the last of the great Portuguese polyphonic masters, who began to flourish in Évora in the second half of the sixteenth century.
A large part of Melgás's work is lost. The surviving works - masses, motets, graduals - are kept in the archives of the Cathedrals of Évora andLisbon, and were published in modern notation by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in 1978 (Opera Omnia, Portugaliae Musica XXXII).
RECORDINGS
* Music of the Portuguese Renaissance, Pro Cantione Antiqua, Hyperion CDA66715 * includes 14 works by Melgás * A Golden Age of Portuguese Music, The Sixteen, CORO COR16020 * includes 3 works by Melgás * , The Golden Age, The King's Singers, Signum Classics

Johann Adolph Hasse (baptised 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783) was an 18th-centuryGerman composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music. Married to soprano Faustina Bordoni and a great friend of librettist Pietro Metastasio, whose libretti he frequently set, Hasse was a pivotal figure in the development of opera seria and 18th-century music.
Hasse was born in Bergedorf, near Hamburg, and died in Venice.
Hasse's career began in singing, when he joined the Hamburg Opera (his family, who were traditionally church musicians, came from near Hamburg) in 1718 as a tenor. In 1719 he obtained a singing post at the court of Brunswick, where in 1721 his first opera, Antioco, was performed; Hasse himself sang in the production.
Memorial to Johann Adolph Hasse in front of his birth house in Hamburg-Bergedorf
He is thought to have left Germany during 1722. During the 1720s he lived mostly in Naples, dwelling there for six or seven years. In 1725 his serenata Antonio e Cleopatra, was performed at Naples; the principal roles were sung by Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, and Vittoria Tesi. The success of this work not only earned Hasse many commissions from Naples's opera houses, but also, according to Johann Joachim Quantz, brought him into contact with Alessandro Scarlatti, who became his teacher and friend; Hasse also altered his style in several respects to reflect that of Scarlatti.
Hasse's popularity in Naples increased dramatically and for several years his workload kept him extremely busy. In this period he composed his only full opera buffa, La sorella amante, in addition to several intermezzi and serenatas. He visited the Venetian Carnival of 1730, where his operaArtaserse was performed at S Giovanni Grisostomo. Metastasio's libretto was heavily reworked for the occasion, and Farinelli took a leading role. Two of his arias from this opera he later performed every night for a decade for Philip V of Spain.[1]
In 1764 Hasse travelled to Vienna, where the coronation of Joseph II was marked by a performance of his festa teatrale Egeria, again set to a libretto by Metastasio. For the most part, he remained at Vienna until 1773. Mozart was present at a performance of his Partenope in September 1767. Most of his operas composed during this period were also successfully produced at Naples. He was the favourite of Maria Theresa, and it can be argued that he took up the job of de facto court Kapellmeister. With the premiere of Piramo e Tisbe (September 1768) Hasse had intended to retire from opera but was compelled by Maria Theresa to compose a further work, Ruggiero (1771), again set to a Metastasian libretto.
At this time operatic style was undergoing significant change, and the model of opera seria that Hasse and Metastasio had settled found itself assailed by the threat of the reforms of Christoph Willibald Gluck and Ranieri de' Calzabigi, as laid down in the music and libretto for Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Charles Burney, visiting Vienna in 1773, reported on the debate.