Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612)
Music for Brass Volume 3

Any real understanding of Giovanni Gabrieli's music is impossible without some appreciation of its context within the Venice of the sixteenth Century. As the main trading post between East and West, Venice was a rich and prosperous city; guarded by a powerful naval fleet, it contained some of the finest art and architecture and successfully exported items of the most superb quality, including books, cloth and glass. Venetians enjoyed political stability and felt genuinely privileged, with a deep pride in the quality of their own standard of living and their ability to impress foreign dignitaries. This was reflected in the ceremonial aspects of public life in which all strata of society were involved and where the religious was always healthily mixed with the temporal: Venice was never a close friend of the Church of Rome. Processions were regularly held on important civil and religious occasions;