Gioseffo Guami (27 January 1542 – 1611) (Gioseffo Giuseppe Guami orGioseffo da Lucca) was an Italian composer,organist, violinist and singer of the lateRenaissanceVenetian School. He was a prolific composer ofmadrigals and instrumental music, and was renowned as one of the finest organists in Italy in the late 16th century; he was also the principal teacher ofAdriano Banchieri.
He was born inLucca, and was the brother ofFrancesco Guami (born 1543). Little is known about his early life, but he must have received some early training for he came toSt. Mark's inVenice, one of the most prestigious musical institutions in Italy, in 1561; there he studied withAdrian Willaert andAnnibale Padovano, and served as a singer. In 1568 he left Venice and went toBavaria, serving as first organist at the court of Albrecht of Bavaria, the location of the famousFranco-Flemish composerOrlande de Lassus. In the early 1570s he returned to Italy, at least temporarily, and accompanied by Lassus at least once; and he was hired as organist in Lucca in 1579, where he stayed until 1582 or later. In 1585 he was working asmaestro di cappella inGenoa. Precise details of his movements are uncertain until his return to St. Mark's, but it is certain that he was composing and acquiring fame as an organist during these years.
In 1588 he was appointed to the post of first organist at St. Mark's (there were two organists, who usually also served as composers, under the direction of themaestro di cappella, who at that time wasGioseffo Zarlino). When Zarlino died Guami returned to Lucca, possibly because he was not appointed as Zarlino's successor; in Lucca he was employed as the organist at the cathedral, where he stayed until he died.
The major influences on Guami's sacred music style are from Willaert, his teacher at St. Mark's, andCipriano de Rore, and later from Lassus; indeed the two composers may have been friends since they served together inMunich and evidently traveled together. In his secular music he was most progressive, using an unusual amount ofchromaticism and modulation to distant keys, undoubtedly influenced byNicola Vicentino.
Guami also wrote numerous instrumentalcanzonas; most likely he wrote organ music which has been lost (only one piece survives, in a collection byGirolamo Diruta). The canzonas are in the up-to-date Venetian style,antiphonal, ornamented, and using starkly different thematic material in different sections; however they contain an unusual level of motivic development for pre-Baroque music.
Guami was also important as a teacher, providing instruction to composers such asAdriano Banchieri, one of the key figures in the transition to the Baroque style.Vincenzo Galilei, the progressive music theorist, lutenist, and father of the astronomer, also wrote about Guami's music, talent and fame.
