Il terzo libro delle messe ariose…. a tre, quattro, cinque e otto voci (1624), Opera omnia sv. 7 / vol. 7

Tomas Cecchini (Verona, about 1582 – Hvar, 1644) is the most important Italian composer to have been at work in the lands of the Croats in the first half of the 17th century. Probably in his native city, or somewhere else in Italy, he acquired a sound musical education. He first arrived in Dalmatia in 1603, at the invitation, it would seem, of the learned Archbishop of Split, Markantun de Dominis. In Split (up to 1614) and then in Hvar (from 1614 until his death) for more than thirty years he performed various musical duties: he was maestro de cappella of the cathedral choirs, singing teacher and organist. Tomas Cecchini the Veronese was just as important for Croatian culture as the German composer Handel was for English, the Italian maestro Jean-Baptiste Lully for French. The music of the Split and Hvar Kapellmeister is long overdue a well-deserved revival. Tomaso Cecchini dedicated the collection Il terzo libro delle messe ariose… (opera omnia – vol. no. 7). (Venetia: Alessandro Vincenti, 1624, op. 19) to the canons of the Split chapter “Di Venetia il 22 Ottobre 1624”. In the not very long dedication, Cecchini recalls the days of his youth when he was maestro di cappella of the Split Cathedral. The calm discourse of the dedication, the courteous recollections of the composer and the usual figure of rhetoric – all this gives no hint of these being anything but calm and settled times for the Church in Dalmatia. The collection Il terzo libro delle messe ariose is among the earliest Italian Baroque printed sheet music for masses that have the designation ariose. The composing techniques are familiar and recall earlier Cecchini collections, particularly the Otto messe of 1617. Four masses are printed at the beginning (a 3 voci. Detta la Vergine; a 4 voci in stile recitativo. Detta la Bella; a 5 voci. Detta la Regina; a 8 voci. Detta la Celeste) after which come five psalms and the concluding Magnificat (… a due chori). Polyphonic texture will often form a simple and recognisable motif in this collection. For example, in Messa a 8 voci. Detta la Celeste (Due chori a voci piene) the whole mass cycle is founded on the motif of an ascending tetrachord. The rhythmically determined tetrachord, a sequence of four notes, has not only a melodic and harmonic purpose; it is not placed only in the coordinate system of rectilinear planar movement: as supporting motif, the tetrachord is also the nucleus of a musical, and a higher, a different, celestial world. This concise motif has structural gravity, but also has a powerful symbolic charge. From today’s point of view, it is clear that the music of the Veronese Tomaso Cecchini, prolific composer of the early Baroque, active in Dalmatia in the early 17th century, and probably later, was known Europe-wide, from Portugal to Poland.