Historiated initial in theSquarcialupi Codex, believed to portray Andreas
Andreas de Florentia (also known asAndrea da Firenze,Andrea de' Servi,Andrea degli Organi andAndrea di Giovanni; died 1415) was aFlorentine composer andorganist of the latemedieval era. Along withFrancesco Landini andPaolo da Firenze, he was a leading representative of the Italianars nova style of theTrecento, and was a prolific composer of secular songs, principallyballate.
Since Andreas was a member of theServite religious order, whose records have largely survived intact, more is known about his life than is usually the case for fourteenth-century composers. He entered the order in 1375, though at what age is not known. One of his first activities within the order was to carry out a commission to build an organ for the Servite house inFlorence, for which he hiredFrancesco Landini as a consultant. Among the surviving records are the receipts for the wine that the two consumed during the three days it took to tune the instrument.
Evidently he and Landini were successful, for in 1387 Andreas received a similar commission to build an organ forFlorence Cathedral. A commission recorded in 1382 for a "Maestro Andrea" to build an organ inRieti, between Florence andRome, may have been his as well, but has not been conclusively identified. The two men were evidently close friends, from the evidence of their time together, as well as the references found in their music.
Andreas was also active within his order as an administrator. In 1380 he became prior of the Florentine Servite monastery, SS Annunziata; in 1393 he took on the additional role ofprior of the monastery inPistoia. From 1407 to 1410 he led the entire Servite order inTuscany.
All of Andreas's surviving music with reliable attribution is in the genre of theballata. Thirty are known, with eighteen being for two voices and twelve for three; in addition, oneballade in French may be his work, based on stylistic similarities and a contemporary attribution of it to a name similar to his. The main source for his work is theSquarcialupi Codex, which also includes, in the section containing Andreas's music, a colorful illustration of a man playing an organ, probably Andreas himself.
The two-voiceballate are usually for two singing voices; two of them include an instrumental tenor. Not all of the three-voiceballate have text in all three voices, and the third voice sometimes may have been played on an instrument.
Compared to Landini's music, in which refinement, elegance, and a memorable melodic line were the clear goals of the composer, Andreas's music is dramatic, restless, and sometimes disjunct, and includes sharpdissonances to highlight certain passages in the text. One of hisballate includes a melodic leap of anaugmented octave, highlighting the wordmaledetto (accursed), causing it to leap out from the rest of the music.
