"Philippe Verdelot" has been added to your list of bookmarked artists
close
Philippe Verdelot
1470 - 1551
born in Verdelot, Les Loges, Seine-et-Marne, France, composed during the Renaissance period
Biography
Philippe Verdelot was a crucial pioneer of the Italian madrigal, considered the most important composer in that genre before Jacques Arcadelt; in fact, he contributed work to the first-ever printed book of madrigals, in 1520. Although nothing is known of his early life, Verdelot probably spent the early part of it in Northern France, where he would have received his initial musical training. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, he had apparently begun to establish himself as a musician in Italy. The manuscript sources of his music provide further clues about his movements during his credibility building phase, although the details remain unclear. The madrigals Torela mo vial and O singular dolcezza, in a Venetian manuscript of the 1520s, show that he probably spent some time in both Venice, as stated, and Bologna; a manuscript of the motet Beati qui habitant places him in Rome between 1510 - 1513 and again in 1520. One of his contemporaries wrote that, in 1511, Verdelot had his portrait painted by the artist Sebastiano del Piombo in Venice, a service that would not have been done for just anyone.

When he arrives in Florence in 1521, however, things become much more certain. He must have already had a hefty reputation by this time, for he was granted, almost upon arrival, both of the most prestigious musical appointments in the city.
report abuse