Little is known about Cesario Gussago, other than he was a church musician working in Brescia.
Printed after Gussago’s Sonate a 4. 6. 8. con alcuni Concerti a Otto, con le sue Sinfonie da suonare avant… (published in Venice in 1608). While the other pieces are scored for high and low choirs, or for two equal choirs, La Tonina opts for a somewhat different solution, in which one choir is slightly lower than the other, while often imitating material at the same pitch. The temptation is to wonder whether this unusual scoring was chosen with particular instruments in mind, presumably a string choir for choir I and a wind choir for the slightly lower choir II. Gussago worked in Brescia, the leading centre at that time for violin making, and in fact Gussago’s collection was dedicated jointly to the famous violin player and composer Giovanni Battista Fontana, and to the (less famous) cornetto player Ludovico Cornale.
(Bernard Thomas)
