Andrea Gabrieli’s music in Milan: dissemination, adaptation, assimilation

In spite of various clues pointing to the fact that Andrea Gabrieli’s fame had reached Milan during his lifetime, his name appears very rarely in studies on music in Milan between the end of the 16th century and the start of the 17th. This article follows up these clues and reflects on some aspects of the transmission and reception of Andrea Gabrieli’s music in Milan, taking into consideration firstly the reprinting in Milan of some of his collections and the presence of his compositions in local music publications (such as Orfeo Vecchi’s second book of 5-voice motets), and then examining how his madrigals are treated in the collections of contrafacta by Aquilino Coppini and Geronimo Cavaglieri published or assembled in Milan. Lastly, it addresses some aspects of the active and creative reception of his music, illustrating the characteristics of some compositions from the musical environment in Milan that reveal the assimilation of technical-stylistic features that can be traced to Gabrieli’s output.