Biagio Marini

Biagio Marini (1594-1663) has possibly studied with his uncle, the Domincan Giacinto Bondioli. Marini's works were printed and were influential in European musical life. He travelled his entire life, worked in Brussels and over thirty years in Neuburg an der Donau and in Düsseldorf, with Monteverdi in Venice at St Mark's Basilica, and in cities like Padua, Parma, Ferrara, Milan, Bergamo, and Brescia.There is evidence that he married three times and fathered five children. He died in Venice.
Although he wrote both instrumental and vocal music, he is better known for his innovative instrumental compositions. He contributed to the early development of the string idiom by expanding the performance range of the solo and accompanied violin and incorporating slur, double and even triple stopping, and the first explicitly notated tremolo effects into his music. He made contributions to most of the contemporary genres and investigated unusual compositional procedures, like constructing an entire sonata without a cadence (as in his Sonata senza cadenza). Many of his works have been lost, but those that have survived time demonstrate inventiveness, lyrical skill and harmonic boldness. In addition to his violin works, he wrote music for the cornett, dulcian, and sackbut.