Paolo A. Rismondo
musics - performances, editions and CDs
Here you will find some materials from my musicological researches:
Francesco
Sponga-Usper: a Venetian composer (born in Rovigno, now Rovinij,
Republic of Croatia); he worked a lot in "minor" Venetian institutions
- but we must to recall that Venice was, at this time, one of the leading
cities of musical Europe, and then so-called "minor" institutions
were at least equivalent to leading institutions of other Italian cities.
Hs family name was Sponga (also spelled Sponza, a fairly common
name in Rovigno, at his time, and now): Usper was the name of his protector
- Lodovico Usper, a prominent legal in Venice, at the end of 16th century.
His music is especially interesting, since he indicates with precision
the instruments involved in the vocal and instrumental groupings. This
leads to a quite interesting and effective mix of instrumental and vocal
sounds.
Massimiliano Neri: a Veronese-German composer, he worked (from 1644 ca.) as organist at the most important churches in Venice: S. Mark's, S. Giovanni e Paolo, and at the Ospedaletto. Later (ca. 1666) he was head of the chapel at the Cologne Prince Elector's musical chapel, in Bonn (Germany). His compositions, of outstanding musical quality, are almost mainly of instrumental music.