Giovanni Battista Fasolo

Giovanni Battista Fasolo, O.F.M.Conv (Asti, ca. 1598 – Palermo after 1664), was a Franciscan friar, organist and composer.

In his middle years Fasolo was primarily known for his 1645 organ annual, which, like L'organo suonarino of Adriano Banchieri, from the generation before him, was intended for use in small parish churches, and are much simpler than those used in Venice.[1][2] In 1659 Fasolo became maestro di cappella to the Archbishop of Monreale.

Until recently many of G.B. Fasolo's secular works were attributed to other composers, particularly the Venetian Francesco Manelli,[3] the composer of the first commercial operas in music history, or to a third unknown composer known as "Il Fasolo?".[4]

However following the work of Francesco Luisi,[5] Mariangela Donà,[6] and Claudio Bacciagaluppi[7] the attribution of the major works under the heading "Il Fasolo?" to G.B. Fasolo is now reasonably secure, and listed under his own entry, by Eleanor Selfridge-Field, in the current New Grove.[8]

  1. ^ Eleanor Selfridge-Field Venetian instrumental music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi 1994 p24
  2. ^ Alexander Silbiger Frescobaldi studies 1987 p352
  3. ^ Ferrari-Barassi, E. 'La Luciata di Francesco Manelli: considerazioni su una perduta stampa della Biblioteca municipale di Breslavia, l'esemplare di un manoscritto berlinese e un componimento del Fasolo', Quadrivium 9.1970, p.211–42
  4. ^ Chilesotti, O. 'Musica del passato: Fasolo – Asioli' 1886, p.349–54
  5. ^ Luisi, Francesco. '"Il carro di Madama Lucia et una serenata in lingua lombarda": notes on the definitive attribution to Giovanni Battista Fasolo, in Seicento inesplorato, Lenno 1989, p.481–96
  6. ^ Donà, Mariangela. Foreword to Giovan Battista Fasolo e la Barchetta Passaggiera Lucca, 1994
  7. ^ Bacciagaluppi, Claudio. 'G.B. Fasolo "Fenice de' musici ingegni"' in Rivista internazionale di musica sacra Archived 2010-06-09 at the Wayback Machine, 19/2 1998, p.5–66
  8. ^ Fasolo, G.B. In The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, Volume 5 2001 p.76