• Born 1535 in Parma
• Died 1582 05 in Aquileira
• Period: Renaissance (1450-1599)
• Country: Italy
• Genres: Chamber

Biography

Though the best-documented musicians of the European "Renaissance" sang for, and composed music for, the great Catholic chapels and cathedrals, it was also eminently possible for a musician to make a living as an instrumentalist - or to do both. It seems that the north Italian musician Giorgio Mainerio may have known both musics. Mainerio is known to have been a priest of the Catholic church, and to have pursued a successful career as a Church musician. He was a capellano, or chaplain by 1560, and attained lucrative benefice income in the Cathedral of Udine (near Venice) in 1565. Already in 1560, the Cathedral authorities could praise his knowledge of the "art and science of singing." In 1570, Mainerio took a somewhat higher-paying job as a beneficed priest for the Cathedral of Aquileia; he taught singing to the boys there, and in 1576 he was promoted to lead the chapel choir. He died in that town in the Spring of 1582, having fulfilled a completely respectable trajectory in his church music career.

At the same time, Mainerio also wrote music for secular purposes. Whether or not he played any of the various wind instruments with which Italian courts took their leisure for dancing, he wrote music for them, and published a collection which remains central to historians' understanding of Italian dance music. His 1578 Primo libro di balli contains much simple and direct music for courtly entertainment, but also includes the earliest known examples of an instrumental suite, and the first known set of written-out instrumental variations. His instrumental music shows both the influence of local improvisatory traditions, and the learned counterpoint he learned for the Church.

~ Timothy Dickey, All Music Guide