Four Canzoni by Floriano Canali (1600)
The ideal instruments for these pieces are either the violin family (2 violins, viola, cello) or 2 cornetti, alto and tenor sackbuts.
These pieces are taken from Canzoni da Sonare a Quattro et otto voci di D. Floriano Canale de Brescia Organista, Libro Primi … In Venetia, 1600 appresso Giacomo Vincenti, a copy of which is preserved in the Staats- und Stadts-bibliothek in Augsburg: I am grateful to that institution for providing me with a microfilm of the collection.
Little is known about Floriano Canali, other than that he was organist at San Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia from 1581 to 1603. One theory is that he was originally a Flemish musician by the name of Pijpe, of which “Canali” is a literal translation. This does make some sense, actually, as certain passages in his canzoni seem to owe rather more to the style of the French chanson (from which the canzon da sonar was derived) than do other similar pieces of the time. As well as the collection from which the present pieces are taken. Canali published five books of sacred works, the first of which appeared in Venice in 1579. A year later than the date of the present pieces two collections of secular music came out, a book of three-part canzonette, and a volume of four-part ricercars.
