Asola or Asula, Giammateo or Giovanni Matteo
Asola or Asula, Giammateo or Giovanni Matteo
Asola or Asula, Giammateo or Giovanni Matteo, Italian composer; b. Verona, c. 1532; d. Venice, Oct. 1, 1609. He entered the congregation of secular canons at S. Giorgio in Alga in 1546. From 1566 he held benefices at S. Stefano in Verona, and then was a secular priest in the parish of S. Maria in Organo there from 1571. In 1577 he became maestro di cappella at Treviso Cathedral, and then at Vicenza Cathedral in 1578. About 1582 he settled in Venice, where he became one of the chaplains at S. Severo. His extensive output included 12 vols, of masses and over 30 vols, of sacred music, as well as 2 vols, of madrigals (Venice, 1584, 2nd ed., 1587; 1605). Asola’s sacred music reveals the influence of Palestrina. His writing for multiple choirs demonstrates the influence of the Venetian school.
Bibliography
E Caffi, Della vita e delle opere di G. A. (Padua, 1862); D. Fouse, The Sacred Music of G. A. (diss., Univ. of N.C., 1960).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire