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Francesco Landini (c. 1325 or 1335 – 2 September 1397; also known bymany names) was aFlorentinecomposer, poet,organist, singer and instrument maker, and a central figure of themusic of the Trecento in the Italian peninsula.
Francesco's name is recorded in many variants throughout medievalmanuscripts and documents, including,Francesco degli Organi,Francesco il Cieco,Francesco da Firenze, Magister Franciscus de Florentia, Magister Franciscus Coecus Horghanista de Florentia (in theSquarcialupi Codex), Francesco degli orghani and Cechus de Florentia.
Modern scholars no longer accept the idea that he was a member of the Landini family and prefer to use the names "Francesco degli Organi" or "Francesco degli orghani" (Francesco of the organs), "Francesco da Firenze'"(Francesco of Firenze), and "Francesco il Cieco" or "Franciscus cecus" (Francesco the blind) to refer to the composer. The surname "Landini" or "Landino" has not been linked to the composer in any sources of the 14th century nor in secondary references in the 15th century. The evidence linking him to the Landini family via his presumed father, who was identified by Filippo Villani as a painter who lived a simple life is no longer accepted by art historians. It can therefore also no longer be maintained that the painterJacopo del Casentino (formerly also referred to as "Jacopo Landino") was his father or thatCristoforo Landino was his great-nephew. It was Cristoforo's naming of Francesco as an ancestor when he connected himself to an ancestor "Lando di Nato," taking on the family name of "Landini" that has influenced centuries of scholars to call the composerFrancesco Landini orLandino.[1]
Details of Francesco's life are sketchy and few facts can be established with certainty, but the general outline has begun to take shape as more research has been done, especially into Florentine records. Most of the original biographical data on him comes from a 1385 book on famous Florentine citizens by the chroniclerFilippo Villani, who was also born approximately 1325.
Landini was most likely born inFlorence, thoughCristoforo Landino gave his birthplace asFiesole. Blind from childhood (an effect of contractingsmallpox), Landini became devoted to music early in life, and mastered many instruments, including thelute, as well as the art of singing, writing poetry, and composition. Villani, in his chronicle, also stated that Francesco was an inventor of instruments, including a stringed instrument called the 'syrena syrenarum', that combined features of the lute andpsaltery, and it is believed to be the ancestor of thebandura.
Despite his young age, Landini was already active in the early 1350s and it is likely that he was very close toPetrarch.[2] According to Villani, Francesco was given a crown of laurel by theKing of Cyprus, who was inVenice for several periods during the 1360s. Landini probably spent some time in northern Italy prior to 1370. Evidence in some of his music also points to this: amotet by a certain "Franciscus" is dedicated toAndrea Contarini, who wasDoge of Venice from 1368 to 1382; and in addition, his works are well represented in northern Italian sources.
He was employed as organist at the Florentine monastery of Santa Trinità in 1361, and at the church of San Lorenzo from 1365 onward. He was heavily involved in the political and religious controversies of his day, according to Villani, but he seems to have remained in the good graces of the Florentine authorities. Landini knew many of the other Italian composers of the Trecento, includingLorenzo da Firenze, with whom he was associated at Santa Trinità, as well asAndreas da Florentia, whom he knew in the 1370s. Around or shortly after 1375, Andreas hired him as a consultant to help build the organ at theServite house inFlorence. Among the surviving records are the receipts for the wine that the two consumed during the three days it had taken to tune the instrument. Landini also helped build the new organ at SS Annunziata in 1379, and in 1387 he was involved in yet another organ-building project, this time at Florence Cathedral.
He is buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. His tombstone, lost until the 19th century and now again displayed in the church, contains a depiction of him with aportative organ.
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Landini was the most prolific composer of the ItalianTrecento style, sometimes also called the "Italian ars nova". His output was almost exclusively secular. While there are records that he composed sacred music, none of it has survived. What have survived are eighty-nineballate for two voices, forty-twoballate for three voices, and another nine which exist in both two and three-voice versions. In addition to theballate, a smaller number ofmadrigals have survived. Landini is assumed to have written his own texts for many of his works. His output, preserved most completely in theSquarcialupi Codex, represents almost a quarter of all surviving 14th-century Italian music.
Numerous contemporary writers attest to his fame, not only as a composer, but as a singer, poet, organist, philosopher, and passionately devoted citizen of Florence, notablyGiovanni da Prato, in his bookParadiso degli Alberti. This book, written in 1389 contains short stories, one of which supposedly was related by Landini himself. His reputation for moving an audience with his music was so powerful that writers noted "the sweetness of his melodies was such that hearts burst from their bosoms."[3]
Landini is the eponym of theLandini cadence (orLandino sixth), acadential formula whereby the sixth degree of the scale (thesubmediant) is inserted between theleading note and its resolution on thetonic. However this cadence neither originated with him, nor is it unique to his music; it can be found in much polyphonic music of the period, and well into the 15th century (for example in the songs ofGilles Binchois).Gherardello da Firenze is the earliest composer to use the cadence whose works have survived. Yet Landini used the formula consistently throughout his music, so the eponym—which dates from after the medieval era—is appropriate.
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