At the Foot of the Volcano - Organ and Counterpoint in Naples around 1600

Abstract

In 1575, Rocco Rodio published a “Fantasia” on the hymnus “Ave maris stella” in Naples in his Libro di ricercate. In the context of the progressive contributions to music for keyboard instruments of his contemporaries Antonio Valente (1575), Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli, Rodio’s setting of cantus firmus seems nothing short of anachronistic. But Rodio’s intention lies in the implementation of counterpoint. For him, the art of counterpoint was the decisive basis of the composer’s craft. Rodio’s intention is illuminated by the circumstances of his creative activity –the academies in Naples, always eager to dispute,– and by certain events in Rome and Palermo that culminated in the appearance of the Spaniard named Sebastián Raval. The original context regarding the history of music for Rodio’s “Ave maris stella” is in the liturgical organ music by Antonio de Cabezón, Manuel Rodriguez Coelho und Jean Titelouze und perhaps by António Carreira.