Stefano Bernardi

Aliases: Steffano Bernardi

Life

Born: c. 1585, Verona, Italia

Died: 1636, ?Salzburg

Biography:

Italian composer and theorist. Although he was primarily a church composer, Bernardi wrote a good deal of secular music, and a few of his volumes of vocal music include at the back a number of instrumental works. He published his counterpoint treatise when he was hovering on the brink of the new concertato style while still adhering to a traditional polyphonic idiom. The dichotomy between old and new is typified in the exactly contemporary 1615 collection of masses, some of which are a cappella and some concertato. The former are in a kind of watered-down post-Palestrinian idiom, fluent and occasionally expressive; one is based on Arcadelt’s famous Il bianco e dolce cigno, then almost 80 years old – a testimony to that madrigal’s incredible popularity.

Bernardi had, however, already espoused the concertato principle in the motets and psalms of 1613. In some of the former there are contrasting solo and tutti sections (though otherwise they are pale and inexpressive works), and the psalms are among the earliest to include such contrasts of texture, which an organ continuo made possible. Other psalm and mass collections by him are in a conventional stile antico, whether double choirs are used or not. But in a late volume, the Salmi concertati of 1637, he returned to the concertato manner: most interestingly he singled out only one soloist, a soprano, in all the psalms, while punctuating the solos with a four-part ripieno singing excitingly rhythmic, contrapuntal music. It is as if the solo concerto had already arrived, even if thematic integration had yet to be worked out.

View the Wikipedia article on Stefano Bernardi.

List of choral works

Ad te Domine levavi Ah, non t'avessi mai Come oscurato Con la candida man Di baciar quei begl'occhi Di marmo siete voi Dilectus meus loquitur mihi Dolce Filli, mia cara Fiamme, e strali Filli, un tempo mia vita Lacrimosa pietà Magnificat Missa Il bianco e dolce cigno Non habemus vinum a 6

O dulcissima dilecta mea Occhi miei, non vedete Occhi, ch'a la mia vita Oh, bellissima bocca L'ombra del sol io veggio Piangete, occhi miei lassi Poiché dal ciel m'è tolto Quand'io miro le rose Ritrosa al voler mio Se con lingua di foco Son per morir, ahi lasso Tu parti, amato sole Voi non rubate, ah cruda

Other works not listed above (See Template:CheckMissing for possible reasons and solutions)

• Lacrimosa pietà
• Occhi, ch'a la mia vita
• Piangete, occhi miei lassi

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External links

• Works by Stefano Bernardi in the Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP)