Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Franchini, Francesco [Franco]

(b Siena, late 17th century; d Siena, 1757). Italian composer. He studied first with his uncle Domenico (1658–1706); nothing more is known of his music education. He became maestro di cappella to Prince Violante of Bavaria, then at S Maria di Provenzano, Siena (as compositions dated 1728 and 1731 testify), and by 1736 also at the Collegio Tolomei there. According to Romagnoli his setting of the psalm In te Domino was specially praised. His oratorio La vergine sagge was performed in Radicondoli (in the province of Siena) in 1736. A cantata was performed in 1742 by students of the Collegio Tolomei to celebrate the birth of Joseph II, which might suggest, as would his friendship with Metastasio, that Franchini also had some connection with Vienna. His only known theatrical work, the comic intermezzo Don Chisciotte e Nerina (not Werina), was written for the Siena seminary in 1752; on the score Franchini is described as a priest.

Franchini's sacred music includes both simple four-part homophonic settings and elaborate works for solo voice; in the latter difficult and long fioriture, often in dotted rhythms, are demanded of all voice ranges. His Don Chisciotte calls for the typical characters of the post-Pergolesi intermezzo: bass (Don Quixote) and soprano (Nerina), with a non-singing part (Sancio); they are provided with da capo arias, duets and rapid buffo recitative. Franchini's simple, early Classical style is applied here with good effect, producing a bright, lively sound, with dynamic contrasts apt to the comic subject. (R. Morrocchi: La musica in Siena, Siena, 1886/R)

WORKS

all in D-Bsb

Don Chisciotte e Nerina (contrascena in musica), Siena, Seminario Archivescovale, 1752

Mass, 2 choirs each 4vv, org

Mass, with int ‘Sapientiam’, 4vv, org

Antiphons, solo v/2vv, bc

Responses for Holy Week, 4vv

24 sacred works (hymns, psalms, litanies, Mag etc.), all 4vv, org

La vergine sagge (orat, C. Pannocchieschi D'Elci), Radicondoli, nr Siena, 1736, lost

Cantata (S. Piccolomini), Siena, Collegio Tolomei, 1742, lost

CAROLYN GIANTURCO

Franchois de Gemblaco, Johannes

(fl c1415–30). Franco-Flemish composer. All his music first appears in sources copied in the years 1425 to 1435 and none of it suggests a style any earlier than 1415; so he must surely be the ‘Joh. Franciscus de Gemblaco’ documented as a succentor at the collegiate church of St Martin, Liège, by September 1417 and in 1419–20 (as carefully argued in Quitin, later fully supported by Igoe and Strohm). The widely held view that he was the Burgundian court singer Johannes Franchois, documented from 1378 to 1415 (see Wright) and born no later than 1355, must be considered thoroughly implausible; since that man was a canon of Evreux from 1394 he cannot be the humble succentor of 1417–20.

The name ‘de Gemblaco’ is extremely common in Liège, and the composer may therefore have been born there rather than at Gembloux (which is in the diocese of Liège, though nearer to Brussels). Many details in his music suggest the influence of other composers from Liège, particulary Hugo de Lantins and Johannes Ciconia. Given the wide distribution of his music in Italian sources, it is likely that he later moved south, as is implied, in fact, in the text of his Sans oublyer.

The name ‘Jo franchois de gemblaco’ appears only twice in the musical sources, in I-Bc Q15 for two Gloria settings; otherwise his works are ascribed ‘Jo Franchois’ or ‘Jo Gemblaco’, but their stylistic consistency makes it fairly certain that all the music is by a single composer. That style is moreover clear enough to make it easy to agree with Feininger that the anonymous Gloria–Credo pair is indeed by the same man. More than any other composer of his generation he explored systematic imitation, often using several different pitches for successive entries; in this he seems to have followed and expanded on the lead of Hugo de Lantins. He made considerable use of motivic and sequential treatment as well as of detailed expressivity in text setting, both perhaps expanding on the initiatives of Johannes Ciconia.

His five-voice motet Ave virgo lux Maria is notable for its famous textless introit with two canonic voices over a wide-range ‘trumpetta’, for having its cantus firmus (the antiphon Sancta Maria succurre miseris; see LU, 1255) not in the tenor but in the contratenor, and for its extensive unison imitation between the upper voices; in this last respect it seems again to expand techniques pioneered by Ciconia.

WORKS

mass pairs

Gloria and Credo, 3vv, ed. C. van den Borren, Polyphonia sacra (Burnham, Bucks., 1932, 2/1963), 93 (paired in I-Bc Q15 and by implication in AO; the jaunty ‘Amen’ section of the Credo presented there as an appendix appears in all full sources apart from GB-Ob 213)

Gloria and Credo, 3vv, ed. in Igoe, 21 (paired in I-AO and Bc Q15, though there is some dispute as to whether they really belong together: they have the same tonality and style, but the Gloria is considerably more condensed – called ‘brevior’ in the index to AO – and the Credo tenor carries the melody Alma redemptoris mater, though the Gloria tenor has a similar manner)

Gloria and Credo, 3vv (anon. but plausibly attrib. to Franchois de Gemblaco and ed. in Feininger, Bc Q15, ff. 103v–106)

motets

Ave virgo lux Maria/Sancta Maria, 5vv with alternative 4vv version, ed. in Igoe, 32, and DTÖ, lxxvi, Jg. xl/19

rondeaux

all edited in van den Borren, 1950

Mon seul voloir mon souverain retour, 3vv

Par ung regart des deux biaulx yeux riant, 3vv

Sans oublyer sans faire departye, 3vv (also in the Buxheim Keyboard Manuscript, ed. B. Wallner in EDM, 1st ser., xxxviii, 1958, 160)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

StrohmR

C. van den Borren: Études sur le quinzième siècle musical (Antwerp, 1941), 48–9, 107ff

C. van den Borren, ed.: Pièces polyphoniques profanes de provenance liégeoise (XVe siècle) (Brussels, 1950)

L. Feininger, ed.: Jo Franchoys (?): Gloria e Credo, Documenta Polyphoniae Liturgicae Sanctae Ecclesiae Romanae, 1st ser., xi (Rome, 1952)

J. Quitin: ‘A propos de Jean-François de Gembloux et Johannes de Limburgia’, RBM, xxi (1967), 118–24

J. Igoe: ‘Johannes Franchois de Gemblaco’, NRMI, iv (1970), 3–50

C. Wright: Music at the Court of Burgundy 1364–1419 (Henryville, PA, 1979), 169–71 [incl. detailed list of sources and ascriptions]

R. Strohm: ‘Einheit und Funktion früher Messzyklen’, Festschrift: Rudolf Bockholdt, ed. N. Dubowy and S. Meyer-Eller (Pfaffenhofen, 1990), 141–60

DAVID FALLOWS