Andrea Angelini website

Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli

Andrea Angelini 20 September 2013

The story behind the composition of Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli is one of the most famous - and least proven - in music history. As the story goes, the liturgical politics…

English Language Technique

Transcription and Analysis of Willaert’s Ave Maria

Andrea Angelini 29 May 2013

The period 1550-1560 was a one of incomparable prosperity for Venice and her merchants. The economic boom benefited the publishing sector, bringing a rapid increase in the number of printing businesses.…

English Language Interviews

A Voice Mistaken: Domenico Mancini and the Echo of the Castrati

Andrea Angelini 26 July 2025

The figure of Domenico Mancini represents a valuable and particularly significant testimony for understanding the sometimes subtle boundary between the voice of a falsettist and that of a castrato singer. Mancini,…

English Language Opinions

From enthusiasm to enterprise: how associationism has changed with the reform of the Third Sector

Andrea Angelini 23 July 2025

When I was elected president of AERCO in 2015, associationism was still moving along simple lines, supported by enthusiasm, trust, and a sense of belonging. It didn't take much: a few…

English Language Tecnica

Singing, In Style, Renaissance Vocal Music

Andrea Angelini 12 January 2021

Renaissance vocal music does not seem to be an integral and faithful derivation of polymnia, but rather appears to have progressed logically out of the medieval trends. More evolutionary than revolutionary,…

Interviews

Colin Mawby and his World

Andrea Angelini 7 January 2021

One year ago the British composer and director Colin Mawby died at the age of 83...This is the interview that I did with him some years before the sad event. Colin…

English Language Opinioni

The Lady in Black

Andrea Angelini 30 May 2020

Bach's Chaconne! I had been going crazy for hours on the keys of my Estonia 225 to try to refine the 94-96 bars, those where Busoni, reversing the melodic passage, divides…

English Language Interviews

Romuald Twardowski: When the new and the old become original

Andrea Angelini 12 May 2020

Romuald Twardowski was born in Vilnius in 1930. During years of occupation he studied the violin, after the war piano and organ. Between 1946-1950 he was an organist in various Vilnius…

English Language Interviews

The True History of the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin by Alessandro Grandi

Andrea Angelini 4 May 2020

It was May 2nd, 1630, early morning, when the telephone rang in my country house on the first hills of Rimini. That annoying sound took me unprepared ... Who could have…

English Language Technique

The Tempo in the Choral Music of the XVI Century

Andrea Angelini 22 May 2019

I would like to consider how tempo was written about in the XVI century and attempts to estimate the speed of the standard tempo that musicians thought of as unexceptional. The…

English Language Interviews

Tõnu Kaljuste at the mirror

Andrea Angelini 26 December 2016

I met Tõnu Kaljuste in one of the best pizzerias in Rimini, where we had dinner together after spending a long, hard day at the Cesena Conservatory of Music, where, from…

English Language Interviews

Interview with Ēriks Esenvalds

Andrea Angelini 9 October 2016

AA: When did your career as a composer start? And later, in the course of your studies, did you realize that music was the path you would follow? EE: I was…

Without Category

Pescespada Mediterraneo

Andrea Angelini 24 January 2016

Il pescespada del Mediterraneo è un pesce azzurro dal sapore abbastanza forte, basta però trovare la ricetta giusta per cucinarlo e renderlo molto delicato. Quella che vi propongo di seguito, fidatevi…

English Language Technique

Medieval and Renaissance Polyphony

Andrea Angelini 12 December 2015

In Medieval and Renaissance Polyphony falsetto singing played an important part, probably long before the technique was specifically described. Jerome of Moravia's 13th-century treatise Discantus positio vulgaris mentions three voice registers:…

English Language Technique

Dossier on the Renaissance Choral Music

Andrea Angelini 22 March 2015

Dossier: The Renaissance in music occurred between 1450 and 1600. (Some historians place the beginning of the Renaissance as early as 1400.) As in the other arts, the horizons of music were greatly…

English Language Technique

The Twelve Old Modes

Andrea Angelini 11 August 2014

The first eight modes were designated in the medieval era, as a way to classify pre-existing Gregorian chants. The next four were added by Glareanus in 1547. This gave way to…

English Language Technique

Italian Latin for choirs

Andrea Angelini 24 July 2014

Italian Latin for Choirs. The Latin language developed as one of the dialects of the Italian Peninsula, in the area around Rome, in pre-Classical times. The other "Italic" dialects died out,…

English Language Opinions

Singing together is a medicine for our heart

Andrea Angelini 16 September 2013

Whoever is part of a choir will probably know this already: singing together can be a positive experience, not only from a psychological point of view, but also from a physical…

English Language Technique

Performance Practice of the Renaissance Music

Andrea Angelini 20 August 2013

Basic Assumptions Not only one way to perform music of this period; much freedom is allowed. Little or no distinction is found between instrumental and vocal styles; they are usually interchangeable.…

English Language Opinions

Falsettists, Castratos and Sopranos…

Andrea Angelini 4 June 2013

Falsettists, Castratos and Sopranos...The falsetto technique played a vital part in early polyphonic music, having appeared long before it was described in formal treatises or employed in Renaissance musical performances. As…

English Language Opinions Technique

G.P. Da Palestrina: Missa Brevis

Andrea Angelini 3 June 2013

The Missa Brevis first appeared in G.P. da Palestrina Third Book of Masses (1570) and in all probability was written about the year 1558. The thematic origin of this mass is…