Giovanni Battista Riccio (fl. 1609-21) was an organist and violinist who was active in Venice in the confraternity of San Giovanni Evangelista. Riccio adapted the style used by Giovanni Gabrieli in works for brass orchestras to suite the needs of small ensembles. Like Gabrieli, Riccio was primarily a composer of vocal music.
The canzona presented here first appeared among supplementary works in the 1612 reprint of Riccio’s Primo libro delle divine lodi. It is the earliest printed piece for recorder(s) in the Italian repertory, although the instrument had been in use in Italy for generations. Its style is also significant: pieces for two treble instruments and continuo, mirroring the new accompanied duets of the vocal repertory, were harbingers of the trio sonata.
(Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Sunnyvale, California, 1975)
