Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
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Composer Biography: Paolo da Firenza (c1355-1436)
Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
Also Paulo Tenorista and Magister Dominus Paulas Abbas de Florentia (as he’s called in the Squarcialupi
Codex.)
Musically, Paolo da Firenza was both conservative and progressive at the same time. He borrowed and
combined musical practices from the past and his own times, both Italian (old school) and French (new
school). He had a distinctively rich and varied musical style. More music from ars nova period survives from
Paolo than any other composer except Francesco Landini (c1325-1397), whom he knew and socialized with.
It’s not known if Paulo was born in Florence, but he did live most of his life there, so it’s probable. His father’s
name is thought to have been Marco and his family was poor. Paolo is thought to have had three brothers
whose names and what became of them isn’t known.
Paolo became a Benedictine monk around 1380 and his portrait in the Squarcialupi Codex shows him in a
suitable black cassock. In 1401, he took the abbot position at Saint Martin al Pino and later became the rector
of Orbetello, where he stayed until 1427. In around 1410, he supervised the compilation of the Squarcialupi
Codex.
As abbot, he must have been a public figure, because in 1404, Paolo witnessed the signing of a document
written at the cardinal’s house in Rome. The only other known date from his life comes from his madrigal
Godi, Firenze, that celebrates the victory of Florence over Pisa in 1406.
Much of Paolo’s work is secular and all is vocal, although some of the attributions on Paolo’s ballate are
erased in the source. All of his known output is for two or three voices, and through sources or stylistic
elements, is all datable prior to 1410. Four of his vocal duets are credited to “Don Paolo,” and “P.A.” Is the
composer of another 13 pieces.
He wrote three types of songs: 13 madrigals, more than 40 ballate, and two liturgical pieces. The three types
of songs represent a sort of chronological journey. Paolo began with the traditional two-voice ballata but soon
picked up the French fashion of three voices.
His use of the madrigal form—a third of his 30 surviving secular pieces are madrigals—is unusual at this time,
when other forms had largely superseded it. His madrigals reveal a mixture of progressive and conservative
elements, some with French influence. (More on that in a minute.) His two liturgical pieces combine an upper
melodic line in the Italian manner with a cantus firmus. He also wrote at least one musical treatise.
His vocal duets use traditional forms and styles. One unusual feature is the provision of open and closed
endings for the ritornelli of six madrigals, in one of which, the text doesn’t require repetition of the music (a
ritornelli returns to both melody and text—the name means “return”). The same madrigal has open (doesn’t
resolve to a satisfying ending) and closed endings (does resolve) in the first musical section (there’s an A and a
B section). Earlier composers didn’t use these kinds of endings, although Lorenzo da Firenze and Jacopo da
Bologna (fl 1340-c1386) used them in one piece each. It’s the number of times Paolo used these endings
that’s unusual. The departure from common practice is less important, though, than the variety of rhythmic
and melodic figures.
Paolo went beyond the two-part madrigal only once, in the three-voice Godi, Firenze when Florence defeated
Pisa in a small war (remember, Italy was a collection of small city-states, much like Germany was at the time,
each with their own rulers and armies). Perhaps the celebration that inspired him also encouraged him to
leave his fuddy duddy ways behind.
Where his madrigals are conservative, his ballata are innovative, and he wrote more in the new style of three
voices than for two. He was the first composer to do that in the case of the ballata. Of the 26 pieces
concretely attributed to Paolo, only six are in two voices. Ten have the French disposition of solo cantus
(chant-based melody line) with instrumental tenor and contratenor (higher voices sung against the chant
melody), and ten have the hybrid form of vocal duet with instrumental contratenor. Three of these last also
exist as vocal duets without a contratenor, but the three voice versions are probably the original.
Of his sacred music, the Benedicamus Domino is for two voices, and Gaudeamus omnes in Domino is for three
voices.
With Landini and Andrea da Firenze (d. 1415), Paolo’s output marks the end of Florence’s dominance over
Italian musical styles as musicians and their patrons moved to Milan, Venice, and Padua, and eventually to
Rome. Even Paolo spent the end of his life away from Florence.
Paolo’s ballate are the most modern, being mostly for three voices, and all are lyrical, melodic and use some
of the more extreme rhythmic intricacies of the ars subtilior school. Landini’s influence, which would have
predominated Florence in the late 14
th
century, is evident in both the madrigals and the ballate.
Paolo was one of the supervisors who produced the musical anthology called the Squarcialupi Codex. Despite
this, the 32 pages reserved for his works, with his portrait (in the black cassock of the Benedictine monk) on
the first page and his name at the top of the rest, contain nothing but empty staves. Some think his music
wasn’t yet available, although other sources suggest that he was simply away from Florence, attending to the
needs of Cardinal Acciaiuoli (d. 1409) at the deadline.
Paolo’s unique style is evident in the sound of the music and in the notation that he used. He used Italian
notation and its varied note shapes, mixed with notation of the French principles of mannered notation that
introduced new (and needlessly) complex ways of expressing rhythmic patterns. His manuscripts combine
Italian and French notation and show the influence of the Avignon mannerist school of ars subtilior in their
rhythms, which are complex and intricate.
Using music notation was considered progressive in the 14
th
century, especially in Italy, and the proportional
survival of Paolo’s secular to sacred music may be representative of a trend to document all music, not just
sacred.
A resurgence of interest in the Renaissance during the 1970s translated Paolo’s work into modern notation, so
it’s a lot easier for us to perform now.
His date of birth is estimated based on information in his will, written within a day or so of his death. When he
resigned as abbot in 1433, he was approximately 78 years old. He died in Florence, at the age of 81.
Sources
“Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music,” edited by Tess Knighton and David Fallows. University of
California Press, Berkeley, 1997.
“A Dictionary of Early Music; From the Troubadours to Monteverdi,” by Jerome & Elizabeth Roche. Oxford
University Press, New York, 1981.
“Medieval Music,” by Richard H. Hippin. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1998.
“Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music,” by Don Michael Randel. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, 1978.
“The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music,” edited by Stanley Sadie. W.W. Norton & Company, New
York, 1994.
“A History of Western Music,” by J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. W.W. Norton &
Company, New York, 2010.